Chapter 347

Seeing Wei Xiao Pangzi grab the cat's tail, Er Mao laughed: "If it were another cat, it would have already swiped, Wei senior brother, you need to pay more attention—my wife's relative's child is just like that: three years old, they won't listen no matter what you say, and the parents aren't always watching. Once that child ran over to grab their cat's tail again and got scratched by the cat. You know, kids don't know their own strength; that reflexive swipe of the cat drew blood right then. If it weren't for the child's many clothes, not just the hand but even the arm would have scratches."

Er Mao saying this is already the good outcome; such incidents happen often, scratching hands or arms is still lucky—if scratched in the face or eyes, it would be troublesome.

Wei Leng nodded, this really does need attention; I've heard of such things before, but the cats I'm familiar with are fine, never had this problem, so I overlooked some. Now imagining it, I really need to put more thought in—I can't let my son develop this habit; I need to know what can be done and what cannot, after all, not every cat is Hei Ge, they won't tolerate it.

Thinking of something, Er Mao gave a hehehe smug smile: "But my two girls get along just fine."

Er Mao's "two girls" refer to his cat Hei Mi and his daughter Er Yuan; he also took out his phone to show Wei Leng a photo of the two together. Looking at it, they really are quite harmonious.

Regarding Wei Xiao Pangzi's brat behavior of grabbing the cat's tail, Zheng Tan decided to stay away from him until he turns eight; he won't even get close at the first birthday banquet.

After dinner at Wei Leng's house that evening, Er Mao first sent Zheng Tan back to the big courtyard, and on the way he said he'd wait until Wei Xiao Pangzi's first birthday grabbing ceremony to put out a fake cat tail. Just imagining the scene made Er Mao chuckle. But he was just talking; nowadays many kids don't do that at their first birthday, but since Wei Leng wants to hold it, Er Mao won't cause trouble—if he really were to sabotage Wei Xiao Pangzi, he'd still fear that Wei Leng might retaliate at his daughter's first birthday.

Zheng Tan listened to Er Mao's complaints, glanced inside the car, and compared to when they left, Er Mao's car had a few fewer gifts and an extra box. The box wasn't sealed tightly. Zheng Tan pried it open and saw inside were two woven pieces similar to the red cords sent to Wei Leng.

Is Er Mao making these to give to people?

"Hei Ge, don't ruin that red cord—it costs fifty bucks a piece. I took the last few today. I'll give them out later." Er Mao said.

Fifty bucks?!

That old lady is ruthless!

Zheng Tan stared hard at those few woven red cords. No stones even strung on them—what justifies such a high price?

Hearing Er Mao say that, are there still quite a few buyers?

Really a piece of work, that old lady who can fool people. No wonder before Er Mao found her, she lived alone in a small village without farming and still got by fine.

Fifty bucks isn't much—just pocket change for many—but thinking of how that red rope looks like a few bucks' worth of bulk twine from a stall, then seeing the finished product priced dozens of times higher, Zheng Tan couldn't help but mutter that the old lady was ripping people off.

However, while grumbling, Zheng Tan also wondered whether he should buy one too.

Xiao Youzi is twelve this year; many of her peers are a year or two older, and kids don't really care about the zodiac year of birth concept, and no one in the courtyard has mentioned it—usually only adults talk about it. So besides Jiao Ma buying Xiao Youzi some red clothing, Zheng Tan hasn't seen anything deliberately aimed at the zodiac year of birth idea. After all, though some young people pay attention to it, it's not many. Initially Jiao Yuan hadn't paid attention to this either, and Zheng Tan had only heard Jiao Ma mention it; Jiao Yuan simply didn't care, so he didn't do things like wear red underwear.

Zheng Tan got home and rummaged through the drawer where he kept his money; most of the savings from before the year had been put into red envelopes and given out, after the year he'd worked a few overtime shifts and scraped together a bit more, and Xiao Guo is also generous now—he rarely gives fifty, usually a hundred.

After counting the money and confirming he had enough, Zheng Tan decided to stake out near the old lady's place to see if it really was as Er Mao said—lots of people buying. People are just like that: they go for the excitement, everyone buys, so we follow suit.

He picked a fine morning, ran to the lakeside villa area, and lay prone on a tree near where the old lady lived.

Although the old lady is always in her wheelchair and doesn't run around much, quite a few people go to talk to her—mostly middle-aged women or elderly folks—and with Zheng Tan's hearing he can hear her coaxing voices from over there.

Besides, when the old lady is coaxing people she really does have a bit of an expert's air, leaving those people dazed—at least in Zheng Tan's view she's just pulling a fast one.

While coaxing people, the old lady's hands aren't idle either—she's weaving something with the red cord. Although she's older and her hands tremble a bit, she still works fairly quickly. Zheng Tan, far away, can't see clearly, but once the old lady finishes chatting with someone, the piece is done, she sets it aside, and starts another. Most of the people who come to chat end up buying one or two.

Zheng Tan decided to continue staking out in the afternoon to see how many people the old lady could coax; as for lunch, he thought it over and decided not to go home—running back and forth is a hassle—so if it's nearby he could mooch a meal at Feng Bai Jin's place; Aunt Li's dishes are still good.

Zheng Tan was just about to head to Feng Bai Jin's place to mooch a meal when he saw two kids about ten years old sneaking like thieves toward the old lady's house, as if afraid of being seen.

They're probably primary school kids heading home after lunch; there's a primary school nearby, and many children from this villa area and surrounding communities go there, heard the teaching quality is decent, so naturally some associated fees are higher—although it's compulsory education, other expenses still add up.

Both kids were holding bags with bowls—those are the bowls they bring to school for breakfast, then take back at noon to wash.

The little girl's attire resembles that of a villa‑area kid, while the little boy looks a bit shabbier, likely from a nearby community.

Seeing the two kids' behavior, Zheng Tan no longer rushed down from the tree to mooch a meal; he stayed put to see what the two children would do.

Usually people go to that old lady either to chat about physiognomy, eight characters, five elements, feng shui, etc., or they've come specifically to buy the red cord. These two kids probably aren't the former. As for the latter… are they really going to walk into a trap? Fifty bucks a piece!

At that moment no one was there chatting with the old lady; each household was heading home to prepare lunch. The old lady had someone looking after her, so she didn't need to cook herself, and she continued weaving red cords in the courtyard. The three‑legged cat lay nearby, guarding the finished products.

"Grandma Yang!" the little girl called out politely at the gate.

Zheng Tan had heard Er Mao say that the old lady's ancestors probably bore the surname Ouyang, though he didn't know when it became just "Yang"; Er Mao also mentioned that the Ouyang, Ou, and Yang surnames share a common origin, but Zheng Tan wasn't interested and didn't pay much attention. Still, recalling back, the Jade Pendant originally bore the two characters "Ouyang", and at that time Zheng Tan had only recognized the "Yang" character.

"Yo, little Nini!" the old lady said, looking at the little girl standing at the gate. She smiled, her face creasing, her eyes narrowing.

"Grandma Yang, I brought my classmate over to buy a bracelet—no, to buy…" the girl said, not quite sure what it was, she pulled the boy who was a step behind forward and said, "You say it."

The boy felt a bit embarrassed and nervous, but as the old lady asked her seemingly casual questions one after another, he relaxed and answered them all.

Zheng Tan listened to their conversation and realized the boy wasn't buying this for a person but for a cat. Nobody in his family is currently in their zodiac year of birth, but their old cat is already twelve—older than the boy.

The old lady showed no particular surprise, still wearing her usual smile‑creased, kindly face toward children as she listened to the boy talk about his family's cat, and her hands didn't stop—an item was being woven to completion.

"Grandma Yang, do you think you could buy one for it?" the boy asked, his face flushed after speaking.

In many people's eyes, his behavior is that of a wastrel, doing pointless nonsense, stupidly looking for a pitfall. Can a cat be treated like a person?

According to cat‑to‑human age conversion, many say a seven‑ or eight‑year‑old cat equals a fifty‑year‑old human; his family's twelve‑year‑old cat would thus be equivalent to a sixty‑ or seventy‑year‑old human—truly an old cat.

"Of course." The old lady handed over the woven item she had just finished.

The girl leaned in to take a look, "Huh, this isn't the same as the one I saw last time." To make sure, she glanced at the other finished bracelets in the nearby box—this one really was different.

The old lady just smiled‑creased and didn't answer.

The boy carefully put the red woven item into his pocket, then took out of the bowl‑carrying bag a plastic box that had once held candy, containing some small change—no two of the five‑ or ten‑yuan notes, but plenty of one‑yuan five‑jiao coins, and a few one‑jiao coins.

After counting the money with a flushed face, the boy said rather embarrassedly, "Grandma Yang, you… don't mind these, do you?"

"No problem, just leave it here." The old lady said indifferently.

As they were leaving, the boy turned back to look at the old lady, "Grandma Yang, I've heard the zodiac year of birth is a hurdle—will it get over it?"

"Do you want it to get over that hurdle?" the old lady asked.

"Of course! I've heard there's a cat in the northern part of the city that's lived into its twenties and is still fine!" the boy exclaimed excitedly.

"Then that's settled."

The boy was a bit puzzled, but soon he smiled again, waved at the old lady, and said, "We're off, thank you, Grandma Yang!"

The two children left the old lady's courtyard, whispering as they walked; Zheng Tan, curious, decided to follow them to see what the old cat looked like.

"I'll pay you back the twenty bucks as soon as I have the money," the boy said. He'd rushed this, having saved only thirty yuan of pocket money after a long time, not enough for fifty.

"No need to rush, you don't have much pocket money anyway. Besides, I'm not short on it." Kids living in this villa area mostly come from well‑off families; generous parents give more, and many primary‑school gamers are big spenders.

"I should be able to pay you back next week… or the week after," the boy said confidently. He'd thought of a way.

"Never mind that for now—how's your cat doing?" the girl asked.

"Pretty good, I've heard old cats lose their teeth, but I pried open my cat's mouth yesterday and none of its teeth were missing, and its appetite is fine."

"But when I saw it last week, it seemed listless—when I teased it with a yarn ball it didn't jump, just looked lazy."

"... It's not lazy, it just can't jump." (To be continued...)