Chapter 18 Buying a House, Black Cat
Qingqu Town was originally named Qingshi Town. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the town was re-divided, and the county took up the two characters "Qingshi", so it was renamed Qingqu Town.
Qingqu Town is a small ancient water town built along the river. In this small town, most of the houses are built with gray-white rectangular blocks of mountain stone, and the windows and doors are made of wood. Especially the houses and shops facing the street, each shop door is made of wooden planks less than 10 centimeters wide and about 1.7 meters long, pieced together to form the shop door, which looks particularly simple and old.
Cheng Ying walked along the crisscrossing paths of Qingqu Town with the branch director's wife and a women's director from the commune.
The path beneath their feet was paved with large bluestone blocks. Low grass and moss grew in the gaps between the stones, giving people a special cool and refreshing feeling when walking on such a bluestone path in the hot summer.
The alleyway is about two meters wide, and the sides are mostly old houses built before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Many of the houses are dilapidated, and you can see some ruins every now and then. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Qingqu Town was bombed by Japanese planes, which turned many old-fashioned ancient houses and courtyards similar to Hui-style buildings into ruins. Most of the houses inhabited in the town today were renovated and relocated by the government later.
The town's permanent residents are mostly elderly people and children. Young people either work in factories in the county, or in mines or brickyards far away, or they have to go to the fields to do farm work as soon as it gets light, just like the members of the various production teams, and don't return until it's almost dark in the evening. There aren't many young people who live in the town all the time.
The town was very quiet. Apart from the sound of ferries coming from the distant dock, the only sounds nearby were the whispers of three or five elderly people chatting and eating melons while fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans, and the laughter of children chasing and playing in the blue stone alleys.
Cheng Ying and Director Li looked at several houses but were not satisfied. The three of them walked around the town for a long time and were really tired. They stopped in front of a house with two stone stools in front of the door. Except for Cheng Ying, Director Li and Aunt Fang sat on the stone stools to rest for a while.
Across from them sat four elderly men and women, aged between 70 and 90. One of them, a kind-looking old woman with a face full of wrinkles and white hair, squinted her cloudy eyes and looked at Cheng Ying for a while. Then, she opened her toothless gums and asked with a pursed mouth, "Are you Cheng Jiantong's eldest daughter?"
Cheng Ying walked over and asked, "Yes, Grandma, do you recognize me?"
“I recognize you, who doesn’t recognize you?” The old lady laughed. “Your father was the commune postman. He delivered my mail for over twenty years. He often talked about you to me, always proudly telling me that his eldest daughter was very capable. She was a female officer in the army and had a bright future ahead of her.”
Cheng Ying was stunned for a moment. She hadn't expected Cheng Jiantong to mention her in front of others. She felt a mix of emotions. Her father was proud of her, but would he mention her existence in front of others?
He still has her in his heart, like a daughter.
An old man next to her chimed in, "Girl, I know you too. You are one of only two women from Qingqu Town to become military officers after the founding of the People's Republic of China. When you joined the army, your commune sent you and other new recruits off with gongs and drums. I even went to see you then."
Every year, the commune recruits soldiers from the fifteen large villages under its jurisdiction. The number of recruits is small, only a few each year, and the number of female soldiers is even more scarce. It can be said that it is possible to recruit no female soldiers in a year.
Cheng Ying was born into a family with three generations of military service. Her father was a postman. When she was a new recruit, wearing a big red flower, she was taken to the county armed forces department by a car from the commune. She attracted the attention of the entire Qingqu Town. It was a rare sight for a female soldier to enlist in their town.
Cheng Ying laughed sheepishly, "That's all in the past. My dad was injured and couldn't work as a postman anymore. I've retired from the army and returned to my hometown to take over his job. From now on, I'll be delivering his letters and packages."
The four old men and women nodded in agreement without any surprise. Qingqu Town was not a big town, and if something happened in someone's home, it would spread throughout the whole town by the next day.
The news that Cheng Jiantong, a postman, was pushed down the mountain by his nephew, and that his daughter brought back a group of county officials to demand justice and arrest Cheng Jiantong and his nephew, spread throughout Qingqu Town that very afternoon. These elderly people had nothing to do anyway and often gathered together to chat, so it was hard for them not to know.
The old lady, fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan, asked Cheng Ying, "Girl, what are you doing here? Delivering a letter for me? It's not time to deliver letters yet."
Cheng Ying said, "Grandma, I want to buy a house in town. That's why I'm looking for a suitable house with Director Li and the others."
The old lady said "Oh," and looked at Director Li and the other person sitting opposite her. She obviously knew them too. She glanced at them, then looked back at Cheng Ying and asked, "What kind of house do you want to buy?"
Cheng Ying thought that since the old lady was from the town and lived in a residential area with many houses, she might be able to help her find a suitable house. So she said, "Grandma, I want to buy a house facing the street. The house should be spacious, with at least four rooms, and preferably with a large yard. The price is negotiable."
The old lady nodded, then turned to look at an old man sitting next to her. "Old Yu, don't you have a house on East Street that you want to sell? You've been trying to sell it for years without success. Why don't you take this girl to take a look?"
Old Yu was an elderly man nearing eighty years old. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was a tailor. After the country underwent various reforms, he worked as a tailor in the state-run tailor shop in town, earning a small salary to help support his family.
Unfortunately, his son, daughter, and grandson were all teachers in the town. During the Cultural Revolution, because of their status as teachers, his children, grandson, and daughter-in-law suffered humiliation and torment at the hands of the Red Guards. His son and daughter-in-law could not bear the humiliation, one hanged himself at home, and the other drowned himself in the river. His grandson witnessed the tragic state of his parents and fought desperately with the Red Guards, but was beaten to death by a group of them, leaving Old Yu and his great-granddaughter to depend on each other for survival.
Old Yu is getting old and his health is failing; he could pass away at any time. His great-granddaughter is only thirteen years old. He owns two houses, and he and his great-granddaughter live in a small two-bedroom apartment nearby. He wants to sell the larger house that his family used to live in and deposit some money in the bank for his great-granddaughter. That way, even if he passes away, his great-granddaughter can raise herself with that money.
However, because his daughter-in-law hanged herself in that house, people who wanted to buy the house avoided the topic, feeling it was unlucky, and very few people were willing to buy it. Those who wanted to buy it offered very low prices, and the house remained vacant for seven or eight years without being sold.
Houses on East Street?
Cheng Ying had a sudden thought. According to the current layout of the town, East Street is far from the river wharf and is somewhat remote. If you want to do business on East Street, there will be basically no customers.
However, after the millennium, East Street will be re-planned and rebuilt by the government, becoming the center of Qingqu Town Government. It will be very lively and prosperous, and the value of East Street will rise accordingly. Whether it is doing business or running a guesthouse in a tourist attraction, business will be very good.
If we can buy it, it would be a great investment opportunity.
Cheng Ying immediately said, "Grandpa Yu, may I go and see your house?"
“Okay, but my house…” Old Yu was an honest man. When he saw that Cheng Ying wanted to see his house, he told her about the situation of his house, emphasizing that his daughter-in-law had hanged herself at home, indicating that if she liked his house, the price was negotiable.
Cheng Ying didn't care about the supernatural beliefs surrounding those who hanged themselves. During those crazy ten years, many kind people were forced to commit suicide. They wouldn't harm anyone in life, and they certainly wouldn't harm anyone after death. As long as the house suited her taste, nothing else mattered.
Upon hearing this, Director Li also said that Old Yu's house was the kind of house Cheng Ying wanted to choose. Director Li hadn't told her before because he was afraid she would be bothered by the fact that someone had hanged himself in the house. Now that she was taking the initiative to go see the house, the three of them followed Old Yu toward East Street.
Old Yu led them not along the main street, but along the quiet, winding bluestone alleyways of the town, until they arrived near East Street.
At the corner of an alley, a black cat with entirely black fur sat there, as if it were waiting specifically for Old Yu.
When it saw Old Yu coming over, it trotted over to him, gently rubbed its furry head against Old Yu's ankle, and curled its tail to tug at Old Yu's trouser leg.
Old Yu bent down with difficulty, reached out and touched the black cat's head, and said, "Little Black, let's go home."
Little Black meowed, turned and ran into another alley. After running a few steps, it turned back to look at Old Yu, to see if he was following. Once he caught up, it ran on ahead again.
"Grandpa Yu, do you own this cat?" Cheng Ying asked, following behind Old Yu.
In those days, most people were still struggling to make ends meet, and very few people kept cats and dogs. Most of the cats and dogs in the town were either wild or kept by wealthier families.
The cat in front of me had smooth, shiny fur. In the sunlight filtering through the alley, its jet-black fur shone with a hint of red. It was somewhat rounded, clearly indicating that it had been carefully fed.
“This cat isn’t mine, it’s my great-granddaughter’s,” Old Yu said with a dim look in his eyes. “My grandson loved cats. Before he died, he kept a black cat at home. Five years after he died, his black cat brought home a black cat to guard our yard. Less than three days later, the black cat died. My great-granddaughter saw the little black cat in our backyard and wanted to take it home to raise, but it didn’t want to go. It stayed in the backyard of the old house. My great-granddaughter was worried that it would starve to death, so she would go to the old house to feed it every day. It would also wait for us at the corner of this alley for three years now.”
Cheng Ying suddenly realized that this black cat was guarding Old Yu's house in place of the black cat that had taken it home.
What a loyal and affectionate cat!
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