Chapter 174: Chapter 174: Helpless to See the Flowers Fall, Feels Like the Swallows Returning Chapter 174: Chapter 174: Helpless to See the Flowers Fall, Feels Like the Swallows Returning When they arrived at the village, Zheng Tan had to lead the way, otherwise Ermao wouldn’t know where to go to find anyone.

They were repairing roads around here again, planning to build a flat passage in front of each house. The timing of their visit was not great; they had just started working, and some of the surface stones had been dug up, resulting in more mud. In some waterlogged places, they could only step on stones that had been deliberately placed there.

“Hey, Black Coal, when we get there, give me a shout, so I don’t walk past it,” Ermao said.

After they passed through that muddy stretch, the road improved slightly—there was at least a small path paved with stones and bricks. This time, Zheng Tan really had to come out of the backpack to lead the way.

A few steps later, his paws were all coated with mud. There was nothing he could do about it. Without shoes, this was how it was. Zheng Tan couldn’t wear rain boots like Ermao did.

It had just rained, and since it wasn’t a peak time to go out, there weren’t many people passing by. Originally, Zheng Tan was worried that some villagers who had seen him during the New Year would recognize him, but those few villagers just glanced over and didn’t pay any more attention. Perhaps, to those villagers, such a cat wasn’t anything special; it wasn’t a rare or precious breed. There were stray cats everywhere, and a sturdy black cat was nothing out of the ordinary.

Sometimes, you can’t take yourself too seriously. That was Zheng Tan’s realization.

When they passed by the Jiao family’s old house, Zheng Tan saw the gate closed. He guessed that the old couple had probably gone to town and would likely return only after the road around here was repaired. That made Zheng Tan feel more relieved.

After the rain, the scent of soil filled his nostrils, which, according to Mr. Jiao, was the smell of actinomycetes.

Perhaps influenced by Ermao, Zheng Tan felt somewhat nervous as they approached that old lady’s small tiled house. Although he knew that Ermao was looking for that old lady, she always gave Zheng Tan a strange feeling, not as easily fooled as the old couple from the Jiao family.

“Is this the place?”

Ermao looked at the small country courtyard, pushed open the hedge gate, and walked in.

The area was quiet, so Zheng Tan and Ermao could hear opera singing coming from inside the small tiled house.

Taking a deep breath, Ermao stood in front of the rustic wooden door, about to knock when the door opened from inside.

A girl around fifteen or sixteen years old, carrying a basket, was startled to see Ermao standing in front of her.

The first thought that crossed Ermao’s mind was: Hey, there really is a Lin!

The girl was quite pretty, though a bit dark-skinned and her clothes didn’t compare to those of kids in the city. But purely in terms of looks, she was definitely passable.

Zheng Tan looked at the girl and felt she looked familiar. She must have been seen during the New Year, but she definitely wasn’t a member of this household. The old lady lived here alone. In this place, it wasn’t unusual for girls to stop schooling after middle school.

Before Ermao could speak, the young girl called into the house, “Granny, someone’s here!” After that, she left with her basket. She had just come to deliver something. There were often people coming to see Granny, so she assumed the person in front of her was here for the same reason and didn’t pay much attention.

From this behavior, one could tell she was from another household; otherwise, she wouldn’t have run off immediately upon seeing a visitor. Ermao sighed internally. It was not as he had imagined. And the name “Granny”. With the illusion of “Lin” shattered, Ermao no longer felt much enthusiasm.

The tiled house was small, and the living room was plainly visible, with only one bedroom. Clearly, the owner of the house was inside the bedroom.

Zheng Tan hesitated for a moment before following Ermao inside.

There were no lights on inside, and the small window behind was closed too, making the light poor. The opera singing from the radio alleviated the gloominess brought on by the darkness considerably. The radio was quite old, and besides the opera singing, there were some sizzling sounds, giving it an old-fashioned feel.

It was the same wooden recliner, and the same person was lying on it, covered with a thin blanket, appearing to be either sleeping or resting with eyes closed, but because she was facing away from the window, Ermao couldn’t see the expression of the person on the recliner.

The three-legged cat glanced at Ermao, then focused on Zheng Tan. Clearly, it recognized Zheng Tan but didn’t plan to move; instead, it changed its position and continued to lie on the old lady’s legs, sleeping.

Zheng Tan shifted uncomfortably, the atmosphere a bit odd. Neither of them spoke, only the hissing sound from the radio and the indistinct opera singing filled the air.

Ermao was still thinking about what to say first. Small talk is the first sentence in social interactions, but under these circumstances, things were different. Normally, Ermao would have casually started a conversation, but this time he was looking for “Lin”. Without finding “Lin”, he’d have settled for someone of his own age or younger to talk to, he wasn’t here to seek ancestors. Having more elders meant more control, and Ermao was already fed up with the elders at home, constantly bombarding him with “what you should and shouldn’t do” or praising other children. Especially in comparison with Wang Bin, Ermao had become “hooligan material” and “good-for-nothing” in the eyes of the elders.

In someone else’s shoes, they’d have decided to get to the point and acknowledge their kin by now. After traveling this far, both driving and squeezing onto buses, and trudging through the muddy road, wasn’t it all to find relatives?但是二毛不是.

Ermao wasn’t exactly a good person, having encountered all sorts from all walks of life while drifting around. His ideology was vastly different from others in his home.

Before coming, he had decided to meet the person first before choosing whether to acknowledge kinship. Frankly speaking, in Ermao’s mind, following this pendant to find someone was just an excuse to divert his troubles and find something to change his mood.

Zheng Tan observed Ermao and the old lady on the recliner. Both were not simple-minded people, especially the old lady. It was hard to believe that her hearing was bad, unable to hear the young girl’s shouts and Ermao’s footsteps.

In the end, Ermao chose to stick to his original approach—unchanging in the face of everything. Whether to acknowledge the relationship or not, the choice was in his own hands; there was no rush. Without “Lin”, things became boring and simpler. The old lady wasn’t appealing! Ermao dragged a chair from the corner, sat down, crossed his legs in a laid-back fashion, and looked around with utter boredom.

The radio cycled through one opera song after another, and Zheng Tan yawned. There was a roll of cakes wrapped in paper on the table, which Zheng Tan had seen during the New Year as some local specialty. He jumped onto the table and sniffed the cakes but didn’t detect any strange smell. Zheng Tan lifted his paw and pulled away the paper wrapping. Let those two keep confronting each other; I might as well fill my stomach first.

Half an hour later, the old granny lying on the lounge chair stirred.

Ermao was secretly pleased. “Heh, old lady, trying to outlast me in patience? You couldn’t take it anymore, huh?!”

Drowsy, Zheng Tan also looked that way.

The old granny sighed softly, then, propping herself up on the lounge chair, she slowly, and seemingly with difficulty, sat up. Her hand reached into her pocket, searched around, and pulled out a porcelain bottle. Advanced in years, her hands were not very steady; they trembled as she attempted several times to remove the bottle stopper before succeeding.

Zheng Tan watched with trepidation, fearing that the old granny might accidentally throw the porcelain bottle out of her hand. Moreover, as a bystander, Zheng Tan was anxious for her just watching her struggle with the stopper; someone less patient would have gone up to help by now.

Ermao, more capable of holding back, did not go to help. He probably knew that the elderly lady before him was no simple character, so he remained observant. Seeing every move she made seemed difficult, and her hands trembled, Ermao frowned slightly yet still didn’t move or make a sound.

The old granny rubbed her eyes, and then carefully poured out one by one, some small round pills that looked like some type of medicine—perhaps nitroglycerin or Compound Danshen Pills, which Zheng Tan had seen many people take, and they looked similar.

With age came more ailments. During the New Year, Zheng Tan had seen her play the erhu quite fluently, but now, she seemed to be in the twilight years of her life. However, it’s dangerous for an elderly person to have even a slight sickness, so such a significant change in her mental state was understandable, especially in this situation and setting, which overall gave off a vibe of desolation and bleakness.

Her trembling hands made everything more difficult. Zheng Tan watched as she swallowed about ten of those little pills, half stood up, took a glass of water from a nearby stool, took a sip, and then sighed deeply again.

The radio was playing a segment of opera, easier to understand than the previous ones.

“Helplessly, the flowers have fallen; as if familiar, the swallows return…”

The murmured lyrics conveyed a deep sense of helplessness and sorrow, the unstoppable passage of time, and the insurmountable challenges of life. Such circumstances, coupled with the potential familial ties, could bring anyone sensitive to tears.

Even Ermao felt that he might have been overreacting. Was it just because he didn’t meet “Lin”? What was he doing contesting patience with an old woman?

Thump! Gurgle gurgle gurgle—
As the old granny was capping the porcelain bottle to put it back in her pocket, her hand trembled and the bottle dropped to the ground. Fortunately, it fell on the uneven earthy ground, not concrete, and the bottle was sturdy enough not to break.

Zheng Tan tugged at his ear and looked towards Ermao.

Ermao pursed his lips, but finally got up and went to pick up the bottle that had rolled under the table. He wiped off the dust on the bottle, didn’t see any text that might indicate its contents, thought for a moment, and then uncorked the bottle to sniff it.

Then, a weird expression, almost twisted, crossed Ermao’s face as he nearly gritted his teeth and asked, “Granny, what kind of elixir is in this bottle?”

The old granny, resettling herself on the lounge chair, responded in an even tone, “Huahua Pill.”

Zheng Tan: “…”

If he wasn’t mistaken, this so-called “Huahua Pill” was that kind of snack food!

People from the generation of the 80s are a little more familiar with this snack, also called “Chen Pidan,” “Rat Shit,” and the like. In Chuhua City, this snack had already become quite rare.

Zheng Tan’s feelings at the moment were something even Alpaca couldn’t soothe—making him almost flip the table.

Fucking hell, storing a lousy snack in such a high-end porcelain bottle! Eating a snack and making it seem so desolate and sorrowful!

With a belly full of frustration, Ermao handed the bottle back to the old granny.

After taking back the bottle, the old granny even asked Ermao, “Want some? It tastes quite good.”

Eat… eat my ass!

Zheng Tan tugged at his ear again, facing such an old lady, one “helpless” was not enough to describe it.

As if oblivious to Ermao’s expression, the old granny continued, “I can’t taste much anymore; at my age, living another day is a win. Eating medicine is not as good as eating snacks.” Suddenly remembering something, she raised her finger, a generous gesture, “Oh, there’s a box of pure milk under the bed. If you’re thirsty, just help yourselves with it. It’s a good brand, often advertised on TV, not some knock-off. I drink it every day.”

Zheng Tan, Ermao: “…”

No amount of idioms could describe the complex feelings of Zheng Tan and Ermao at this moment. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep