Chapter 101: An Amazing Tabby Cat
When Grandma Shen and the others returned, the neighbors’ place was always quite lively.
Yun Jiao heard the heartbreaking screams coming from over there, and also the basins of bloody water being carried out.
“What a disaster. She was supposed to give birth in another half a month, and now it’s premature.”
“Why didn’t they go to the hospital in advance?”
Grandma Shen clearly disliked the old woman next door.
“The old woman next door doesn’t like her eldest daughter-in-law. If she needs to go to the hospital for childbirth, it costs money. She’s reluctant to pay that money.
Besides, it’s the busy farming season now. If her eldest daughter-in-law leaves for the hospital, there will be no one to work and serve in the house. Even if her eldest son were willing to pay for her to go to the hospital, she wouldn’t agree.”
Childbirth is very risky. In the past, there weren’t the conditions, so people had to give birth at home. Now that conditions have improved, for safety, families that care about it stay at the hospital close to the delivery date.
However, similarly, there are many women like the one next door who don’t go to the hospital for various reasons.
It can take up to a day for a woman to give birth.
After they finished eating, the baby next door still hadn’t been born.
Yun Jiao took a small bowl filled with dried shrimp, crab shells, and fish bones and went outside.
“Meow meow, Big Mi.”
She had previously discovered a rather fierce-looking tabby cat standing on the courtyard wall.
The tabby cat was chubby, with strong, thick limbs, and big striped arms. The fur on its paws was white, like it was wearing white gloves. Its sleek, glossy fur had distinct black tiger stripes, and its pair of emerald eyes looked very good.
Hearing Yun Jiao’s call, the tabby cat, which had been lazily sunbathing on the roof, jumped onto the wall, stepping on roof tiles, and then lightly landed in front of Yun Jiao.
“Here you go.”
The tabby cat sniffed it and graciously ate the dried shrimp, but it didn’t eat the crab shells or fish bones, which had little meat.
After finishing, it squatted on a nearby stone and licked its paws.
Yun Jiao’s eyes sparkled as she watched.
She liked the feeling of petting fluffy small animals, something you wouldn’t get from marine animals.
“Do you want to eat dried fish?”
Yun Jiao took a dried fish from her small cross-body bag and handed it to it.
The tabby cat sniffed and ate it.
It was a bit picky.
While eating, its fluffy tail wrapped around her ankle.
“Whose cat are you?”
Shen Xiuyuan walked over and happened to hear her ask this. He glanced at the particularly robust-looking tabby cat and said,
“That’s Grandma Hu’s tabby cat. But Grandma Hu passed away last year, so it became an unowned cat, wandering around the village.”
“Ah? It looks so good and so big, I thought someone owned it.”
Yun Jiao petted the tabby cat’s fur; it felt so good.
“You can actually touch it.”
Shen Xiuyuan leaned closer in surprise. Had he misidentified it?
No, it couldn’t be. It has a notch on its ear and such a fierce appearance. Besides this cat, no other cat in the village looked like this.
He was trying to get closer to pet it too, but he didn’t expect the tabby cat to hiss at him directly; it was so fierce.
“Hiss… As expected, it’s still it.”
“Even the dogs in the village can’t fight as well as it does!”
“It looks so good because it fends for itself. It catches the most mice in the village. As for birds in the mountains, wild chickens, and wild rabbits, as long as it finds them, it never fails to catch them.”
That’s quite amazing then.
“Actually, Grandma didn’t raise it; this cat is very capable. Grandma Hu lived alone; she had no close relatives. As she got older, her mobility was limited, and she couldn’t farm well. It was this cat that went into the mountains, caught wild rabbits and wild chickens, and brought them to Grandma Hu. Grandma Hu exchanged that meat for eggs and some vegetables to eat, so she wouldn’t starve.”
Yun Jiao exclaimed, “That cat is Grandma Hu’s cat-son.”
The tabby cat had two fluffy balls hanging behind its rear. They were clearly visible when its tail was raised; this was a male cat.
This cat was more useful than some prodigal sons.
“Why is it so friendly with you? No one in our village can touch it. Some people in the village also admire its ability to catch wild chickens and rabbits and want to raise it, but unfortunately, this cat ignores everyone.”
Yun Jiao petted the cat’s head, fully agreeing with the tabby cat’s behavior.
“It can feed itself! Those people want to raise it because they’re coveting its prey!”
It’s still debatable who is raising whom.
After Yun Jiao fed the tabby cat a few dried fish, she successfully touched its white-gloved paws.
Soft and bouncy paws, hehe…
Shen Xiuyuan, unwilling to believe it, also tried to tempt the tabby cat with dried fish.
However, the cat lord didn’t even spare him a glance.
Shen Xiuyuan: …Completely convinced.
Yun Jiao’s eyes curved into smiles, making her even more delicate and lively.
“Cats really like me, you know.”
Cats like fish, that’s normal.
And I’m not just any ordinary fish.
Cats eat fish, but the big fish in the ocean aren’t afraid of cats.
Grandma Shen went to the neighbor’s to check the situation. The baby wasn’t going to be born right away, but thankfully the position was correct.
“Let’s go, we’re heading up the mountain.”
After all, it was the neighbors’ affair, and as outsiders, they couldn’t interfere too much.
The neighbors were having a baby, and that old woman was already urging everyone except the eldest son to go to work.
When the baby is born, they would send over some eggs.
They just hoped those eggs would actually go into the stomach of the baby’s mother.
Everyone was going to the mountain, and Yun Jiao was naturally going too.
It was hot, and the cornfield was unbearable. The corn leaves pricked the skin, and dried corn silk stuck to the skin, making it uncomfortable and itchy.
So, even if it was hot, they had to wear long-sleeved clothes.
Yun Jiao didn’t have a backpack. She wanted to ask if she could borrow a small backpack from someone else.
Grandma Shen directly handed her a small basket.
“Jiaojiao, take this basket and see if you can find anything to eat in the mountains. We’ll harvest the corn, so you don’t need to go there.”
Yun Jiao was a bit defiant: “I can also pick corn.”
She wasn’t weak at all.
Grandma Shen chuckled: “I know, I know. The corn stalks are tall, and you can’t reach them.”
Yun Jiao stomped her foot: “I can break the corn stalks.”
She was just short now. In her previous life, she was nearly four meters long, including the tip of her tail.
If she grew to four meters in this life, well… that might be a bit too much, it would make her seem like an outlier among humans.
Then she certainly wouldn’t be very short.
Although Yun Jiao tried her best to prove her abilities were not lacking, she ultimately didn’t get to go to the cornfield.
Ninth Brother also didn’t go.
The two younger ones took their baskets and went into the nearby woods.
Uncle Shen said there were chestnuts in those woods, and if she picked chestnuts, they would make candied chestnuts when they got back.
The proud Yun Jiao finally compromised for the sake of food.
“Little sister, come here quickly, the chestnut trees are this way.”
Yun Xiao Jiu’s voice called out.
Yun Jiao was currently craving the bright red, round hawthorns on a hawthorn tree. She had tried several times but couldn’t climb it.
She was a climbing-tree failure QAQ.
Hearing Ninth Brother’s call, she temporarily gave up on the hawthorns, grabbed her basket, and ran with her short legs very swiftly.
“I’m coming, I’m coming…”
