Chapter 178 A Pillow

It can also be called tangyuan.

Unfortunately, the Lantern Festival dumplings back then were skinny and dirty, making it hard to imagine them as round and plump glutinous rice balls.

Cats are rarely seen in Nancun, but dogs are more common. There are guard dogs, and occasionally there are stray dogs with their tails drooping. However, the latter will be chased out of the village once they are discovered.

Although there are few cats, their agility makes them less difficult to chase than stray dogs.

Since no one in the village keeps cats, the cats in Nancun must be from outside the village.

In this respect, the people of Nancun rejected the cats just as they would outsiders, regarding them as invaders of the village and despicable thieves.

Therefore, when people in Nancun mention cats, they are used to adding the word "thief" before it to express their dislike for this animal.

Pipa had seen the cat twice from afar.

Once on the edge of a field, and once at the base of a fence.

After being discovered, they all quickly slipped away.

So this was the first time Pipa had ever been so close to a cat.

The cat isn't very big; it must still be a kitten.

But it has big, round eyes, a long beard, soft fur, and sharp claws and teeth.

The cat was also observing him, its black vertical pupils in its green eyes subtly expanding and contracting, as if they were breathing.

As their eyes met, a soft gurgling sound suddenly broke the silence.

For a moment, Pipa was confused. After confirming that the sound was not coming from his own stomach, he looked at the other person's small belly that rose and fell with each breath, and it looked rather shriveled.

Then it dawned on me: "So cats also make noises when they're hungry."

This sentiment comes from the heart.

This was Pipa's first time getting up close to a cat, and she found it all fascinating and adorable, especially its eyes.

Of all the animals that Pipa had ever seen, only Yuanxiao had a pair of special green eyes.

Therefore, it seems extremely rare no matter how you look at it.

Pipa thought that only cats would have eyes of this color.

It's hard to imagine a living person having such green eyes, but it's certainly very strange.

That day, Pipa tentatively asked Yuanxiao to wait for him, and then added some water to the bowl of glutinous rice balls and cooked them on the coal stove.

Because the dried glutinous rice balls from the previous day were hard and inedible.

While preparing the glutinous rice balls, Pipa was also secretly observing the white cat's every move. He was worried that the cat would slip away like the others he had seen from afar before.

Fortunately, Yuanxiao did not leave. Instead, she secretly watched him from the corner with a similar eye, her clear, jade-like eyes flashing with doubt and wariness, and perhaps a little bit of curiosity.

Pipa didn't know how she could see so many emotions in those eyes.

He also heard some villagers talk about cats and dogs.

It is said that dogs are intelligent, loyal, and protective animals.

When it comes to cats, people pinch their noses and say all sorts of weird and wicked things, like "a born thief," and never say anything nice about them.

But loquat just found this green-eyed, long-tailed thing incredibly cute.

Afraid of startling the other person, he transferred the glutinous rice balls from the bowl to a small dish and gently fed them over by pushing the edge with the back of his finger.

The cat looked at the contents of the dish, then at the expectant child, but made no move.

"Aren't you hungry?" Pipa squatted on the ground, feeling a sharp pain in her ankle, but she still refrained from standing up immediately.

“You can eat it.” Pipa said, demonstrating by picking up a glutinous rice ball and putting it in her mouth. She immediately scalded herself and her face contorted as she gasped for breath and fanned herself in the mouth.

He couldn't swallow it, but he also didn't want to spit it out. Wouldn't that be blatantly telling the other person that this thing couldn't be eaten?

Finally, when it wasn't so hot anymore, Pipa swallowed the remaining glutinous rice balls in her mouth. By then, her tongue was completely numb from the heat, and she even had tears in her eyes.

Suddenly, a hissing sound was heard.

It was as if he was trying to hold back his laughter but couldn't.

Pipa subconsciously looked around, but within her field of vision, she didn't see a single living person, and the courtyard gate leading outside was still locked.

Even so, Pipa still tentatively called out "Father" and "Mother" a few times.

But there was no response.

"How strange, could it be haunted?"

Pipa muttered to himself when he suddenly heard another hissing sound. This time he heard it clearly; the sound was indeed coming from inside the room, not far from him.

Pipa felt a little uneasy. Could a thief have really broken into the house?

After scanning the area and finding nothing, he pretended to casually search around the door, behind the stove, and next to the woodpile, but still found no one.

Finally, his gaze met those emerald green cat eyes again, and his eyes widened involuntarily.

"Could it be... that you were laughing just now?" Pipa blurted out.

The green cat's eyes blinked, as if in agreement, or as if it meant nothing at all.

But a hint of disdain flickered deep within his pupils.

Pipa naturally wouldn't notice, but he was only slightly surprised for a moment before quickly understanding: "So, cats can laugh just like people."

This time, it was the white cat on the other side that began to show a slightly puzzled expression.

Then they heard a child mutter softly, "No wonder everyone says it looks strange."

In his simple view of life, humans are human, and birds and beasts each have their own living habits.

If an animal behaves too closely like a human in certain aspects, especially in its behavior, it is a sign that it has become a monster.

If a creature begins to resemble a human not only in its behavior but also in its appearance, then it is a complete monster.

Two years ago, a traveling monkey performer passed by the village entrance.

Originally, they wanted to enter the village to beg for food and water, and earn some travel expenses.

As a result, the village chief and his men stopped them outside.

It caused quite a stir back then.

Pipa also hid behind a tree to watch the excitement. She saw that the monkey trainer had brought two monkeys, one big and one small, with the big monkey carrying the small monkey.

At first glance, they looked like two hunched-over, disheveled people, but both had chains around their necks.

Even though she knew it wasn't a real person, Pipa still felt uneasy and thought she might as well go home.

At this moment, another commotion broke out. It turned out that the village chief and his group had reached an agreement with the monkey trainer: he still couldn't enter the village, but he was allowed to perform in an open space outside the village.

Monkey shows are a rare sight in this small village, so everyone takes advantage of lunchtime to go outside and join in the fun.

Pipa stood far away from the crowd with her parents, too short to see anything.

Too embarrassed to ask for help, he secretly went to the side, where there happened to be a rather sturdy camphor tree. He then slowly climbed up it using both his hands and feet.

The saying goes, "Climb high and look far." Climbing onto the first tree branch, one can see right into the area surrounded by people. Drums and gongs are beating loudly. A small figure in a flowery dress and hat is walking in circles around the edge of the area, dragging a copper plate for asking for rewards.

Pipa was thinking to herself, "Where did this little baby come from?"

As if sensing the gaze, the little child suddenly raised his face from under the flower hat. His face was narrow and thin, with features that were cramped and disproportionately small for a child, yet he looked like an old man, wrinkled and shriveled, like a dried-up peach.

Suddenly, the dried peach split open and gave a strange smile to the child in the tree.

What kind of smile was that? It looked like a smile, but something just didn't seem right.

The loquat was startled and its mind went blank. It completely forgot that it was still perched on the tree and lost its footing, falling straight down. Fortunately, the tree wasn't very tall, and there was grass underneath to cushion its fall.

That's why she didn't get seriously hurt.

However, because she didn't notice that she had torn a hole in her sleeve, she received a gentle scolding from her mother.

[You're such a fool, climbing that tall tree in no time; yet you're also a clever one, falling from the tree and ruining your clothes like this.]

Despite the talk, it didn't stop the women from mending clothes at all.

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, the patch was applied.

My mother was skilled; her stitches were tight and beautiful. Pipa even felt that the clothes seemed to have more patterns than before.

He was still thinking about the monkey's face he had seen during the day, and he was somewhat dazed. He blurted out whatever came to mind.

Upon hearing this, his mother gently tapped his forehead in reproach: "Listen to this, talking nonsense again."

Judging from his tone, there was clearly a hint of joy in his voice.

Perhaps it was because she had been thinking about it all day that she dreamed about it at night; that night, Pipa had a dream.

I dreamt that a group of children were playing a game, and I was one of them. It seemed to be a game similar to "drop the handkerchief."

[Drop, drop, drop the handkerchief...]

[You are only allowed to hear this, not to see it...]

[Quick, quick, it's here! Where is it?]

【--Where? 】

【Where? 】

【Where? 】

【Where……】

The laughter and chanting of children, accompanied by a familiar sound of gongs and drums, continued noisily all the way before suddenly stopping behind him.

Then, from the unsettling, eerie silence, a halting and strange child's voice broke the stillness, repeating the question stiffly, word by word, like a parrot's echo: "Where is it?"

Pipa sensed that the other person was asking her a question, but instinctively dared not respond.

Seeing that Pipa remained silent, the man wasn't in a hurry. He leaned closer to Pipa's neck, exhaling a series of foul breaths that smelled like rotting food, and said, slowly and deliberately, "It's here."

Pipa finally couldn't help but turn around and try to push the other person away, but what she saw was a face as disgusting as a shriveled peach that had been opened. A messy, thick, dark hair protruded from the flowery clothes and hat, and the person was dragging a copper tray used for soliciting rewards. When the tray was shaken, the odds and ends inside jingled and clanged.

Please be kind and give me a tip.

The strange monkey spoke again, but its voice had become that of the monkey trainer, its shouts carrying a deliberate attempt to please, even beg.

Then it transformed into the old village chief's slurred laughter: "Loquat, your name is Loquat, right? You're the stubborn, speechless idiot born of a stubborn fool. Are you that idiot? Are you?"

As the eerie monkey face drew closer and closer, and she felt as if she were frozen in place with no way to escape, Pipa felt a surge of anxiety and struggled to wake up from the bed.

My chest feels heavy and suffocating.

Pipa struggled to breathe, and just as she caught her breath, she looked up and saw two bluish will-o'-the-wisps in the darkness. Her heart skipped a beat again, and without thinking, she grabbed a pillow and threw it at them.

The pillow missed its target and fell to the ground.

A hazy white shape gradually emerged in the darkness; it was none other than the cat from the daytime.

"It's you..." Pipa breathed a slight sigh of relief. The scene from earlier flashed through his mind, and he suddenly realized why he had been having a nightmare.

It's likely that the cat was sitting on him the whole time, pressing down on him so much that he couldn't breathe, which is why he had that nightmare.

I still feel lingering fear.

"It's all your fault for climbing up here without saying a word. I've been having nightmares ever since," Pipa muttered under her breath.

At the same time, I was somewhat glad that I had separated from my parents and lived in separate rooms long ago. Otherwise, if my father had seen the cat, given how much the people in this village disliked cats, he might have caught it and hanged it.

It was nighttime, and all around was quiet, so Pipa dared not speak loudly, also afraid that the other person would make a sound.

However, on the other hand, he didn't think he had heard the cat meow at all since the afternoon.

"Could it be that you're a mute cat?" Pipa couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her.

The white cat was already unhappy with the child's previous false accusations, and now, upon hearing this, it narrowed its eyes and flicked its tail behind it, sending a clear signal of displeasure.

Unfortunately, the loquat couldn't understand it.

If he understood the habits of a cat, he would know that cats don't laugh.

—At least, they wouldn't show a contemptuous smile like someone else.

Before the white cat could express its contempt for the foolish human cub again, it was scooped up and pulled into the other's arms.

"Okay, I know you probably think the bed is too soft. But I don't want to have any more nightmares, so let's just sleep here. Tomorrow... when I have time tomorrow, I'll... I'll make you... a little nest..."

A child's voice, thick with nasal tone, rang out over the cat's head. The white cat, which had originally wanted to give the other party a good slap, suddenly felt sleepy.

Oh well, let him sleep. After all, this little brat's body is quite soft to sleep on, and it smells... pretty good too.