They got to Yiyang soon after the road was cleared.
Papa Jiao headed to the village instead of the town.
The BMW followed behind them. The Jiao's were quite surprised. They knew the BMW was headed to Yiyang but Yiyang wasn't a small place. There were many different villages in the jurisdiction, but the car had followed them all the way. Were they really from the same place?
Papa Jiao had chatted with the BMW man earlier but he didn't say his name nor where he was going.
The Jiao's were just surprised. They weren't worried the car was following them on purpose. What could the BMW man want from them?
The man in the BMW was surprised too.
After half an hour, the two cars finally parted ways near Papa Jiao's old family house.
"They're probably from a neighboring village," Papa Jiao said.
They didn't think too much about it. Jiao Yuan hadn't been here in almost two years. Papa Jiao had come back here a few times, but he came on his own. To Jiao Yuan, coming to the village was a distant memory.
"There's a new convenience store there." Jiao Yuan pointed.
A store that size was nothing in Chuhua city, but it was considered larger here.
"It was built last year." Papa Jiao explained the changes in the village to them.
Youzi was nervous. She didn't know anyone here and had never been here before.
They were surrounded by farmland and when they almost reached the village, they saw a man waiting with a large yellow dog.
"Grandpa!" Jiao Yuan waved at him.
Grandpa Jiao grinned.
Papa Jiao parked the car to let Grandpa Jiao in. It wouldn't make sense to let his father walk behind the car.
Grandpa Jiao got on and said to the big yellow dog, "You follow outside."
The dog didn't understand why Grandpa Jiao was getting in the car and came over. Suddenly a cat head popped up at the window.
The dog started barking.
Zheng Tan leaned on the window and ignored the dog.
"Charcoal isn't afraid! I forgot to tell you and Lucky. I decided to do an experiment and see how Charcoal reacts to Lucky. He really isn't afraid of anything." Grandpa Jiao's big yellow dog was named Lucky. He was over a year old and was a normal mutt.
"Charcoal plays with a lot of dogs. There's a Saint Bernard that's much larger than Lucky. Even
it retreats when it sees Charcoal."
"You know the word retreat now? Good for you."
"Grandpa's vocabulary is impressive too."
The grandfather and son praised each other while Papa Jiao shook his head.
The big yellow dog ran behind the car.
The road was bumpy so Papa Jiao drove slowly. The dog didn't have a hard time running behind them. Jiao Yuan looked behind him at the dog and asked about him.
There were many dogs in the village. Some of them didn't even have names. Even if they did have names, it was almost always 'Lucky' or 'Richy'. People here raised dogs to guard their property. Dogs and cats in the village were allowed to run around freely.
"Won't dogs get mixed up if they all have the same names?" Jiao Yuan asked.
"They recognize their owner's voice and won't react to someone else calling them." Grandpa Jiao was very proud of his dog.
Jiao Yuan realized the village had changed quite a bit since he last came here. Many families had built new houses. The old brick houses had almost disappeared.
Many of the people who went down south to work came back during the new year, and you could tell the changes in their houses. Building a house in the village was much cheaper and was a common way for villagers to show off their wealth.
Most of the older folk in the village didn't farm anymore. They spent their days raising their grandchildren and playing mahjong. Their children sent them money every month.
Papa Jiao had wanted to rebuild his old family house. Everyone lived in new houses now and he was worried his parents might be uncomfortable if he didn't build them one too. However, Grandpa Jiao was against the idea. He liked his house. Even now that he had a house in town, he preferred staying in the village.
Many people here in the village knew Papa Jiao and respected him deeply. He was a professor after all. People here looked up to academics and government officials.
Jiao Wei came over to help with their luggage. He had been helping Grandpa Jiao clean out rooms for the Jiao family. Papa Jiao had been of great help to him in Chuhua so he would like to repay his kindness.
Zheng Tan came out of the car. The big yellow dog greeted him by barking like crazy.
Many dogs were like that. They chased when you ran away and you ran away when they chased. It was a bad cycle. Smart dogs didn't bite easily. Zheng Tan didn't run away because he felt this dog wouldn't bite him and Grandpa wouldn't let it bite him either.
Grandpa Jiao yelled at the dog to leave Zheng Tan alone. It did so, although unhappily, and ran into the kitchen. There were quite a few rooms in this house. Many were used to store things. Grandpa Jiao had cleared out three rooms for them. One for Papa and Mama Jiao, and one each for Jiao Yuan and Youzi.
Though Youzi wasn't a grandchild of theirs, Grandpa and Grandma Jiao treated her very well. They even placed some plants in her room to make it look livelier.
There was a cat tree in Youzi's room. Grandpa Jiao had made it himself. He had someone print him a picture from the internet and made a cat tree. It looked nice and the materials used were nice as well. Zheng Tan liked it.
Zheng Tan still slept on the bed with Youzi at night. The cat tree was where he would rest during the day.
Jiao Wei's grandma had rabbits, so he brought two over to play with Jiao Yuan and Youzi. His grandmother was worried about the cat, but relaxed after realizing Zheng Tan wasn't interested in rabbits.
The next day after breakfast, Grandpa Jiao left to purchase goods for the new year. Grandma Jiao and Mama Jiao stayed home making cured meat. The kids went to Jiao Yuan's grandmother's to look at the rabbits.
Jiao Wei put a can in front of a rabbit hole. A string was attached to the can and he held the other end. When the rabbits left their hole, he would pull the string and the can would block the hole. Jiao Yuan and Youzi could then catch the rabbits.
Zheng Tan watched them for a while, then decided to go back for a nap. When he jumped onto the fence, he saw Papa Jiao leaving the house with a bag in his hands.
He knew Papa Jiao well enough to tell he was acting strange and decided to follow him.
He passed by a few cats sleeping on haystacks. It was cold and the cats let Zheng Tan pass without any reaction.
A dog blew his cover, however. It saw him and started barking. Thankfully it was leashed.
Papa Jiao turned and saw him. His expression was somewhat twisted and he sighed. "Come if you must. Be careful, there are a lot of dogs around."
Zheng Tan was now very curious. Where was Papa Jiao going?
They walked for another five minutes and stopped in front of a very old brick house. The windows were all made from paper. The owner clearly didn't have a lot of money.
Papa Jiao looked at the house in silence for a few seconds before walking over to the door.
The door was open and the sun shone inside. Zheng Tan could see dust floating in the air. There was a wooden rocking chair near the door. An old lady sat on it and appeared to be sleeping. She wasn't wearing shabby old clothes like Zheng Tan would expect. Her clothes were made from fine material but she was looked like she couldn't be bothered with keeping up her appearance.
What a weird person.
A three-legged tri-colored cat laid on her lap. Compared to Li Yuanba, this cat was much smaller and skinnier. It detected someone was here and opened its eyes. It looked at them, then decided to ignore them.
Papa Jiao laid the bags he was carrying down on the floor. He had brought vitamins and daily products from Chuhua city. He had spent quite a bit of money on them as well.
The old lady opened her eyes. She looked even older than Grandpa Jiao but her eyes were still bright.
The old lady looked at Papa Jiao, then at Zheng Tan.
Zheng Tan felt a shiver run down his spine and hid behind Papa Jiao's leg.
"This isn't the same cat," the old lady said.
Her voice was flat and Zheng Tan couldn't detect any emotion in it.