Chapter 136 (2/2)

Zheng Tan followed Papa Jiao into a fruit garden Papa Jiao stood and surveyed their surroundings, then he sat down next to a tree and lit a cigarette He sone ”Charcoal, I'll let you in on a secret” Papa Jiao smiled, ”It's really isn't a secret actually I've told many people, they just don't believe me”

This hat he had been waiting for

Zheng Tan's ears perked up

”When I was a young child, even younger than Youzi, I was quite naughty There was a rust the children that there was hidden treasure in this e ca Most people gave up, but I didn't One day, I caone I searched and searched but didn't find anything I was tired and hungry I ate the bread I had brought and took a nap on the grass I didn't have any sense of danger and it was great luck that I didn't die

When I woke up, the sky was dark It was past dinner tiet home On my way hoot back up, I fell into a hole in the ground

”The hole was very deep I couldn't cliot to fill it back up I was a child too, so I wasn't strong I yelled and yelled but no one ca fro the rocks in the soil That hen I heard a catafter, a rope was thron and I cli onto the rope on the other end The person didn't use that ot out of the hole, I realized it was the cat holding the rope The other end was tucked into a crack in a giant rock The cat was very sot out of the hole and that old lady back there appeared not long after She toldher rope and followed it”

It was during the cultural revolution and the people all avoided her Papa Jiao remembered him and the other kids had thrown rocks and mud at her house The lady had to move into a tent on the mountain until the cultural revolution ended

Papa Jiao still re trapped in the hole He was hungry, cold and scared

”She found a cat tooth on the rope The cat probably broke its tooth when it was biting the rope” Papa Jiao flicked the ash off his cigarette and stared into space

The rope was very tough, but just biting it wouldn't result in a broken tooth The cat was pulling on it too The catthe rope over here or itto pull hirateful However, he never saw the cat again

”The lady melted some rosin and preserved the cat tooth for me I still have it I'll show you so Tan

Over thirty years had passed and Papa Jiao knew that cat was probably no longer alive However, when Maht of the one that saved his life

The cat had appeared in the dark and even when it looked up at people froround there was no fear in its eyes It almost looked like a panther

Because of this, Papa Jiao, who opposed raising pets in cities, agreed to keep Zheng Tan The SARS epidemic had just passed and there were two kids at horeed to keep the cat No one else in the Jiao family knew this story

”That lady told me not to tell other people about my experience She said some stories are best left untold People wouldn't believe anyway and I et into trouble”

Back then Papa Jiao didn't understand why she had said so When he was older, he understood that back then things that had the tint of superstition could get people into a lot of people After the cultural revolution, people wereand were less prone to take extre weird happened Even so, Papa Jiao still didn't tellit once but no one believed him If he didn't still have the cat tooth he would have believed it was all just a dream

Papa Jiao took Zheng Tan to where the hole was Papa Jiao cae The hole had been filled and the mountain had been turned into patches of fruit trees

When they returned to the house, Papa Jiao went to help with New Year preparations Zheng Tan didn't have anything to do, but he didn't want to catch rabbits with the kids He went to the old lady's house and tried to gather information about her Many people had come home from the city and every day she had visitors No one cared about superstitions these days Coreat deal, the old lady was quite ethical

She wasn't fae She was in her nineties and wasn't froers held her in awe and veneration, others were fearful of her However, e to work in the south cas

A lot of people didn't believe in superstition anymore thanks to school and science class However, people still went to her for peace of mind, just in case

People ht say they didn't believe in superstitions but the lady still didn't lack visitors Many went to her with , it exists [1]

Zheng Tan didn't know much about the old lady However, no matter if she was a fraud or not, she never caused any harood reputation Even if she was a fraudster, she had once saved Papa Jiao and that was enough for Zheng Tan She ht have been the reason why Papa Jiao accepted his odd behavior so quickly too

He reain before they left He didn't knohy she wanted to see hi by Papa Jiao's story, she didn't seem like a bad person and didn't mean him any harm She had adopted her cat after it was hit by a car She seemed kind

[1] (Old Chinese saying)