Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 409 - Chapter 409 Chapter 393 Good Affinity with Animals

Chapter 409: Chapter 393 Good Affinity with Animals Chapter 409: Chapter 393 Good Affinity with Animals There are always some monkeys that don’t like to come down from the mountain, and in the days Zheng Tan stayed at Pei Liang’s house, the few monkeys he always encountered on the mountain had never descended. However, when Zheng Tan went up the mountain, those monkeys would bring him gifts.

It all started with a little monkey that handed Zheng Tan a fruit he had never eaten before. At that time, Zheng Tan was with Pei Liang, Ermao, and the others. The little monkey was still quite cautious of strangers and seemed to be more wary and fearful of humans than animals. So after placing the item in front of Zheng Tan, the little monkey ran away.

“This fruit is edible, I’ve eaten it once,” said Pei Liang, who had come over to take a look. He had also received it from Qi once, tried it, and found it non-toxic. He just didn’t like the taste very much, or perhaps it was only delicious in the monkeys’ eyes.

“Black Coal, I’ll keep this for you for now and give it to you when we get back,” Ermao came over, picked up the fruit, looked at it, and put it into the bag he had brought. Then he said to Pei Liang, “How come that little monkey likes to hang an empty drink bottle around its neck? Do the monkeys on your mountain have this kind of habit?”

Pei Liang shook his head, “I don’t know.”

Pei Liang had indeed never seen such a thing on the mountain before. Monkeys, whether up the mountain or down, were very curious and quick to learn, but he had never seen a monkey hanging an empty plastic bottle around its neck.

Ermao and Pei Liang had seen this little monkey hanging a plastic bottle the last time they went in search of Zheng Tan. Pei Liang had assumed some tourist had whimsically hung a bottle on the monkey and that the animal would discard it once its curiosity waned. However, over the past few days when they went up the mountain, they would see the little monkey, the empty plastic bottle still hanging around its neck, which just meant that the little monkey thoroughly enjoyed doing so and had not grown tired of it yet.

“However, I think Black Coal must have helped that little monkey. Monkeys are emotional creatures too. I remember talking with some students at the university’s base, and they told me that if monkey A helps monkey B, the latter will give delicious food as a repayment, thus establishing an accommodating cooperative society. Furthermore, if there are two humans, let’s say person A and B, and a monkey can take food from both of them, the chances are nearly equal, with no apparent preference for anyone. But if B refuses to cooperate with A and acts selfishly, many monkeys who watch this will choose to avoid the food offered by B. Some say this is because they develop an aversion to B, evaluating others’ character and ability from an emotional perspective, thinking B might not be easy to get along with. Our Qi is just like that, very emotional and cunning.”

While saying this, Pei Liang pointed at Zheng Tan and continued, “Since the little monkey chose to offer Black Coal food, one possibility is that Black Coal helped it, and another might be, based on that little monkey’s behavior I surmise, it probably thinks Black Coal is easy to get along with and is trying to curry favor.”

Ermao looked at Zheng Tan, who appeared rather clueless beside them, and said, “Black Coal seems to get along well with lots of animals.”

Meanwhile, Zheng Tan was wondering what exactly he had done to help those monkeys. Aside from unscrewing a bottle cap, he couldn’t think of anything else–let alone providing the monkeys with food, as Zheng Tan never brought food with him when he went up the mountain. Isn’t food the first priority for many wild animals?

Without dwelling further on this question, the group continued up the mountain. Ermao and Wei Leng had come up the mountain that day to help Pei Liang with some matters, so without their wives and children with them, they moved faster, hoping to finish early, descend the mountain, and get a good night’s sleep. They planned to leave the next day.

On their way down the mountain, they encountered the little monkey again, along with a few other adult monkeys. When they saw Zheng Tan, they called out to him, and several came over to offer gifts, all fruits of various kinds, including the same kind that the little monkey had initially brought, as well as others that grew wild on the mountain at that season.

“What are they chitchatting about?” Ermao asked Pei Liang.

“Say hello. Specifically, they’re greeting Black Coal,” Pei Liang explained.

“Black Coal really has a way with animals.” After a pause, Ermao laughed and called out to Zheng Tan, “Black Coal, seeing how friendly these monkeys are to you, why don’t you just stay here and be the boss?”

Zheng Tan ignored Ermao and gathered the fruits together, waiting for Ermao to come and collect them. There were a few types of fruit he hadn’t tasted before, and he was going to try them when he got back.

Ermao also took several group photos of Zheng Tan with the monkeys. One monkey was probably used to taking pictures with tourists and was familiar with the camera. When it saw Ermao taking photos, it drew close to Zheng Tan, posed, primped, and then hugged Zheng Tan’s neck as if they were good brothers.

Zheng Tan pushed the monkey away.

“By the way, Senior Brother Pei, what did you bring last time you went to the Master’s place?” Ermao asked.

“Nothing much, just some homemade liquor, a few local snacks, and some photos. I couldn’t carry much, and besides, the Master doesn’t lack anything. He’d even look down on most things if I brought them,” Pei Liang said.

“What should I do then? Continue with the tables?” Ermao asked.

“Of all the brothers, you’ve given the most tables. You’re the one who spoiled his habit of hitting the tables,” Wei Leng complained from the side.

“That stopped now, since he’s getting on in years. He can’t be expected to split tables every time, and he’d lose face if he couldn’t. So he hardly hits them anymore. Ermao, you better bring something else. If you insist on bringing another table, you’ll get scolded again. This time it’s different from the past, when it was just you; messing up and losing face didn’t matter. But now that you’re bringing your wife and kids, do you want to get a scolding in front of them?” Pei Liang said.

Unlike Wei Leng and Ermao, Pei Liang had taken Qi Da to the Master’s place several times because he used to bring Qi Da with him on his travels, even when Qi Da was filming a TV show nearby. This time, he was just accompanying them because he happened to have no other engagements.

Qi Da needed to stay home to recover from an injury, Pei Liang’s wife was staying to look after the elderly, children, and monkeys, and wouldn’t be leaving with him. Pei Liang’s eldest son and daughter had heavy schoolwork, and since they had been to the Master’s place a few times already with Pei Liang, he decided not to bring them along this time, only intending to take his youngest son.

Pei Liang’s youngest son, Pei Jie, was about ten years old and at his most mischievous age. He ran around all day mixing with the kids and monkeys in the village. When Pei Liang wasn’t home, Pei Jie acted like a little devil, not listening to anyone but his father.

Knowing that his dad was taking him out for a trip, Pei Jie immediately started packing his bags with great excitement. He had traveled with his father less than his older siblings due to his young age, so when Pei Liang said he would bring him along this time, Pei Jie was thrilled. He excitedly howled at the monkeys on the roof for nearly half an hour until Pei Liang pulled him down and made him behave.

But what made Pei Jie happiest was the fact that traveling far meant no school–what good news!

On the day of departure, Qi Da stood teary-eyed at the door, looking abandoned. If not held back, he would have rushed into the car without hesitation.

Pei Jie, carrying a bag, tossed it into the car when he passed the door. He even reached out to gently tap Qi Da’s uninjured head, “You just stay home and heal up!”

“Er Yuan, say goodbye to Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle, Auntie, brother, sister, and to Qi Da too,” Ermao told Er Yuan.

Upon hearing this, Er Yuan popped his head out of the back car window, calling out to each one and waving goodbye. Little Wei also stuck his head out from the front car to say farewell.

Meanwhile, Zheng Tan, who was busy nibbling on fruit, leaned out of the passenger seat window, hooked his hand, and tossed the fruit pit he was eating toward Qi Da, then ignored Qi Da’s indignant screeching.

Once the car started, Zheng Tan looked at the receding mountains and wondered when he would come here again. The last visit was four years ago. Would the next one be in another four years? Or longer? Or perhaps, never again? As for the poor orchids on the mountain, he could only pin his hopes on that little monkey.

When the car left the village and got on the nearly deserted highway, Ermao, wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, made a call to his master.

“Master, your beloved disciple is on his way to see you!” Ermao cheerfully shouted.

The voice on the other end paused before slowly responding, “Who’s with you?”

“Me, Senior Brother Pei, and Wei.”

“Did you bring the kid?”

“Brought him, brought him!”

“And your wife?”

“Brought her too, she’s sitting in the back! Wei and I are both out with our families of three, and Senior Brother Pei brought the Pei Jie kid.”

“The cat?”

“Brought Black Coal, left Heimi with my mom for now.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

After these few words, all Ermao could hear was the beep of the phone hanging up.

Removing his earpiece, Ermao said to Wei Leng and Pei Liang through the walkie-talkie, “We’ve managed to annoy him again.”

“It’s not the first time,” Wei Leng responded from the walkie-talkie, “By the way, how old is Dashan now? Seventeen? Eighteen? I remember it’s been quite a few years.”

“Almost twenty. Back when I was just a snot-nosed kid, it was already there. But I guess it wasn’t of age yet, it looked just like an average cat, and I really treated it as such. Who knew it would grow so big, even a blind man could tell it wasn’t normal,” Ermao reflected and explained.

“I saw it catch a rabbit when I went earlier this year; not at all what you’d expect from a twenty-year-old Old Cat,” Pei Liang shared his recent observations.

“As long as it’s healthy, that’s good. Otherwise, Master would be lonely,” Wei Leng clucked sympathetically.

“Weren’t they looking for a companion for it?” Ermao was quite interested in this topic.

“They tried, yeah. Master had people help look for quite a few, but each time, it ended up chasing them away after a while.”

As the three brothers continued chatting, Zheng Tan perked up his ears to listen.

A long time ago, Zheng Tan was very curious about the “cat at Master’s house” mentioned by Wei Leng and Ermao, but they didn’t like talking much about it before.

Hearing Ermao say the cat was almost twenty, Zheng Tan was truly surprised. He had seen many Old Cats in Chuhua City, some of which could barely jump after hitting ten. For Dashan to still be catching rabbits at twenty years old, it really was extraordinary. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (NovelFire.net) to vote for recommended tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.NovelFire.net to read.)