Chapter 24 My Cat

Feng Yiping's family has always kept cats.

In the fourth grade of elementary school, Feng Yiping's composition "My Cat" won the first prize for the composition of elementary school students in the county that year, which was their best grade in years of elementary school. The language teachers in the school were full of praise for the composition, and they were eager to read it, but Feng Yiping couldn't remember what it wrote. He only remembered that the head teacher at that time, who was also the language teacher of his class, made a comment that seemed to be, "Written his true feelings."

Cats at home are also out of practical needs.

Although my family was poor when I was a child, there were still a lot of things on the beams in the cabinets in the warehouse. Not to mention the two staple foods of rice and wheat, as well as peanuts, soybeans, sorghum, sesame seeds, orchid melons, sweet potatoes, etc., all attract mice. When sleeping at night, I often hear mice rustling everywhere.

Mouse traps cost money to buy, and they don't work very well. Be careful when using rat medicine, and they don't work. The most practical ones are cats.

It is said that a cat is a noble animal, and it is. Its nobility is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

One is to love cleanliness. The cat is very hygienic, I didn't see it bathing, but it was always clean. Every time I finish eating, I always lick my paws and the places on my body that stick to the oily rice grains. And when it is convenient, it avoids people, and after the end, it will bury the excrement.

The second is manners. Although it grew up in the homes of ordinary people, when it walks, it is always unhurried, neither humble nor arrogant, not paying attention, ignoring and paying no attention, just like those officials in Peking Opera who walk with square steps. No matter how eager you are to call it, at most it will look up at you lazily, and then keep the original rhythm.

The cat never lays on the ground, it either squatted on the ground in a standard position, or also took up a chair, or squatted on it. Sometimes they jump on the stove, on the tall cupboard, and crouch on it like a crouching tiger. Only in the cold winter, it will relax, laying lazily on the chair by the fire pit to bake the fire.

Third, cats are very independent. With a cat, it is difficult for you to feel that you are his owner. It will never be flattering to you, it will not buy you cuteness and wag its tail just because you throw it a piece of fish. Of course, in the countryside, only during the Chinese New Year can Feng Yiping have the opportunity to throw a piece of fish to the cat behind his parents' backs. At this time, it will make a cry, and then jump over quickly. After eating, it will not ask you "meow meow" again. It will just squat there silently for a while, and it will eat when it is full. Those fish bones and meat bones, it doesn't pay any attention.

More often, the family can only feed it with leftovers, and it will take a few bites to save face. Many times, when everyone has finished eating, it will bark a few times, and when you put the rice in its bowl, it will go to see it. A few glances, then jumped back to the chair and sat. Then it disappeared at some point. When the next meal came, I poured what it didn't eat to the pig, and then served it with hot rice. It still glanced at it, but didn't move a single bite.

When thirsty, it will not just look for water to drink, jump on the water tank, easily grab the edge of the water tank, bend its head down, and lick the water with its tongue.

Also, cats never flatter their owners. You tease it, when it's in a good mood, it doesn't take it to heart, if it's in a bad mood, it will definitely scratch you.

Of course, it's also measured, as long as you don't overdo it, its claws don't push too hard.

Finally, cats are very atmospheric. At night, the mouse came out again, swooshing, squeaking suddenly, and then calmed down, it was the cat hunting. Then the mice came out less and less at night, more and more careful, and the cat never took credit for you.

Also, Feng Yiping watched the cat playing with the mouse at least twice. Tsk, at that time, Maomao's demeanor and bearing would convince people. To make an inappropriate analogy, it is similar to Kong Ming's seven captures and seven verticals of Meng Huo.

From the time Feng Yiping can remember, the first cat raised in the family was a little yellow cat sent by my grandfather. The cat grew up and went out one day and never came back. At that time, his parents and Feng Yiping It was said that someone was holding a net cat, and the cat might have been caught.

The second cat is quite a story. It wasn't caught from someone else's house, it could be said that it was delivered to the door by itself.

It was a winter night. In another family in the village, the child was full moon. They entertained guests during the day and played an open-air movie at night. In the era when TV was not popular, it was a rare modern entertainment in rural areas. Of course, Feng Yiping watched it with his mother and sister on a stool. I saw a cat jumping straight into my sister's arms and slept soundlessly. My sister put it on the ground several times, and it came back several times. Later, my mother said, take it with you, and the cat has been followed to the house.

It was a good-looking cat, with jet-black fur, as smooth as satin, but on the chest, there was a pure white, black and white contrasting, very beautiful. The eyes are slightly blue, very spirited, and there are three beards on the left and right sides of the cheeks, which is very tolerant.

This cat is amazing.

That year, the new house after the school was not built, and he lived in the old house in the school. Because of treating my mother's illness, I owe a lot of debts, so less than one-fifth of the New Year pigs that were killed were left in the family, and the rest were sold to pay off the debt. In addition, I only bought some cabbage vermicelli, and I was careful with my budget, barely enough to eat for a few days during the Chinese New Year, and then entertain guests in the first month.

That day was the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, and the next day would be the thirty-year-old year. Starting in the afternoon, heavy snow began to fall in succession. At that time, there was no electricity, and the oil lamps were lit, but the white snow outside the window was reflected, which was brighter than ordinary nights.

In the evening, just after entertaining a group of debt collectors, Feng Yiping and his mother and sister were about to eat leftovers when the door creaked and the cat squeezed in. With sharp eyes, my sister looked back, saw that it seemed to be dragging something, put down the tableware and looked over, and then called out, "Dad, Mom, come and see, the cat caught a rabbit!"

Everyone was amazed. When they went to see it, sure enough, it was dragging a fluffy gray rabbit. It looked bigger than the cat itself, and they didn't know how it caught it. This fat rabbit, of course, became the delicacy on the table during the New Year's Eve, which was also a rare thing that brought joy to the family during the Spring Festival, which was not well-off.

This has happened more than once. There were few varieties of vegetables at that time. In June of the next year, the vegetables of the previous season in the vegetable garden were all old and out of season, and the seasonal vegetables had not yet grown. It is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice. The housewives tried their best. During that time, most people could only use various pickles or dried vegetables for their meals.

Dried vegetables are better vegetables, usually dried radishes, dried day lily, dried orchid melons, or some wild vegetables left from drying in the previous year.

In those days when the green and yellow were not connected, Feng Yiping ate a lot of dishes that he could never eat again.

What he dislikes the most is peanut sprouts. When pulling peanuts, there are always some fish that slip through the net. After a few days, when it rains, the peanuts will sprout and emerge from the ground. When people are working on the mountain, they will pick them up, wash them, fry them, add water and boil them, and then serve them. On the table, it was a rare green dish on the table at that time. Peanut sprouts are not as delicious as bean sprouts. They are very green, and the older ones are slightly bitter. Feng Yiping can eat the bitter taste. Amoy a little soup, or eat pickles.

Autumn is not a good day when the green and yellow are not picked up. When cleaning the vegetable garden, the peppers are going to be torn apart. Some of the ungrown peppers on the top are not seeded. Take a knife and slap it with oil and stir fry.

There are also green onions. I pulled back a bunch of green onions, washed them, and fried them with oil. It was very fragrant and very good.

When the weather cools down in autumn, several families come together to make a tofu, which will not be sour after a few days. Tofu can be fried and fried, there are many patterns, it is a good dish. Several families get a share, each family is not much, and they can't eat several meals. No one has the luxury to make tofu every few days. In the countryside, life is not like that.

So Mei Qiuping thought of a way to take back the bean dregs left over from making tofu, cook it with oil, add chili powder, and sprinkle with chopped green onion. Although the smell of beans is still very strong, it is not a pickle.

In such a green and yellow day, another night, when the cat came back, it came back with a salted fish! It was an unexpected surprise again, so the family didn't care where it came from, anyway, they opened the meat.

Who knew that it would come back with another one in a few days! This time, Mei Qiuping was a little uneasy. In the countryside at that time, throwing a fish or two was not a trivial matter. There are many people who don’t see a small gourd in their vegetable garden. They will scolded Quan Yuan on the hill with their arms crossed for a while. At least two salted fish like this disappeared at once. That’s a real housewife worthy of being a housewife on the hill. scolded for half a day.

But in those days, I never heard from the people in Yuanli that they lost the fish, so that's fine! So everyone praised the cat, he was really sensible, and he really cared about his family.

Of course, once, the cat also frightened Feng Yiping. It was a summer afternoon. Feng Yiping was sleeping in bed in the morning, and when he was half asleep, he suddenly saw a black claw spread out the mosquito net and stretched out to him, and he broke out in a cold sweat. After taking a look, it turned out that the cat also came to sleep on the bed. Because of the angle, the black cat's claws looked very large at the time, very much like the claws in Feng Yiping's imagination.

As Feng Yiping grew up, the cat also grew old. It is such a kind cat who is considerate and considerate of the family, and is destined to be a good cat in Feng Yiping's family. When Feng Yiping was in the fourth grade, he went out on an early winter morning and never came back.

A few days later, on Sunday morning, Si Bo came to his house and said that he saw the cat sitting on a tung tree on the hill and had already left.

Feng Yiping didn't follow him at the time. Feng Zhenchang and Sibo took the cat down from the tung tree and buried it on the mountain.

This magical cat is like a gift from God to their family. Even the way it left this world is so unique and noble.

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