Mother knows best. After Suming returned to his bedroom, he indeed tossed and turned in bed for ages without a hint of sleepiness. With no internet connection in the mountains, he couldn't go online to pass the ti either. Su ng also couldn't sleep, lying in bed staring at the ceiling with hollow eyes.
So he sat up, closed his eyes, and sent out a stream of spiritual power. Since entering the mountain, Haidong Qing had always been flying not far from Suming's ho in the surrounding hills. Sotis Suming would attach his spirit to it montarily to see what the creature was up to, and most of the ti, he found it hunting.
Despite it being the dead of winter, Haidong Qing managed to catch several hibernating snakes, including a highly venomous species known as the "iron triangle," which people often call "dead in five steps." Oddly enough, snakes usually hide in their burrows during hibernation and don't show themselves, so it was a mystery how Haidong Qing even found them.
No matter how good the conditions in the zoo, they wouldn't normally feed it venomous snakes. The sa animal, raised in captivity or in the wild, are entirely different concepts. Thus, leaving the zoo with Suming was a rare privilege for any animal; even if Suming did nothing, it would still be a treat for the animals. Haidong Qing, having been out for just one day, had already enjoyed a grand feast.
Responding to Suming's call, Haidong Qing let out an eagle cry in the sky, made a swanky sharp turn, abruptly stopping its nosedive and turned its head like an arrow, flying towards Suming's two-story house.
Suming saw a small black dot in the moonlight quickly approaching from afar, and knew it was Haidong Qing arriving. With a thought, he used his ability to attach his spirit, extending his spiritual power to it from afar.
"Holy shit! This is so thrilling!"
In an instant, Suming felt as though he was on a super Cloud Soaring Roller Coaster, hurtling down from the sky at high speed. The nightti scenery whisked past on both sides and the ground approached rapidly, and his own figure standing on the small balcony of the second floor beca more and more distinct.
He could even see a small pimple erging on his own chin from Haidong Qing's perspective.
Just when it seed they would crash, Haidong Qing fluttered its wings, creating an invisible current of air. Its form halted in mid-air, perford a smooth turn, and in the blink of an eye, with the montum of thunder, it gently landed on Suming's arm as light as a feather.
His arm sank slightly as one of Haidong Qing's talons rested on his arm, while the other clutched sothing sticky and handed it over to Suming.
A strong stench hit his nostrils; it was a small snake gall, dark green and slightly blackened.
"Hehe, thinking of even while you eat?" Suming chuckled. Snake gall is a treasure, good for vision and dispelling heat. He didn't stand on ceremony with Haidong Qing and washed it with water, found a bottle of white liquor at ho, soaked it briefly, and swallowed both the liquor and the gall together.
A bitter taste spread in his mouth, and the bitterer the gall, the better its effects. He rinsed his mouth with water. After a while, guessing that Mrs. Su must be asleep by now, he quietly opened the door, took Haidong Qing and Su ng with him, and silently left the house, following a narrow winding path toward the mountain behind.
After andering for about half a kiloter, they had left Sun Town and arrived at the hillside, where a vast array of graves appeared before them.
He passed nurous tomb mounds and stopped in front of a modestly sized one, where several yellow papers were held down by a brick at the head of the grave, surrounded by blooms that suggested frequent care.
Carelessly, Suming sat cross-legged in front of the grave, lit a cigarette, and stuck it upside down on the head of the grave.
A father is like a mountain, the pillar of a family and the greatest reliance in a child's heart. When a family loses the father, a son like Suming has to take on the father's role.
"Dad, don't worry, I'm now capable of taking care of mom and myself," Suming thought silently as he looked at his father's grave.
Under the moonlight, the barren hill with its withered graves, a young man, a wild man, and an eagle.
...
Early the next morning, New Year's Eve.
Village New Year's traditions are nurous. On New Year's Eve, the first thing to do upon opening the door is setting off firecrackers to ward off evil spirits. As the only male in the family and the pillar of the household, this task fell to Suming.
Before dawn, all of Sun Town was already in an uproar, filling the air with a thick scent of sulfur and saltpeter as soon as he stepped outside. The streets were enshrouded in blue smoke, and the not-so-wide streets were layered with thick red scraps of firecracker paper. The cracking sounds were deafening, just like a battlefield!
Suming and Su ng, each holding a roll of ten-thousand firecrackers, laid them out in two lines on the ground, took a lighter in hand, stood at one end, and shouted, "Happy New Year!"
"Crackle, crackle, crackle..."
It seed to be Su ng's first ti seeing firecrackers; he laughed heartily like a child, curious and a bit scared, jumping around the firecrackers like a large monkey.
After setting off the firecrackers, they imdiately moved on to pasting couplets.
Before the liberation, couplets served not just for festivity but also had a practical purpose. As long as red couplets were posted on the door, creditors seeing them could not co to collect debts, and all matters had to wait until the end of the New Year celebrations. Landlords and bullies like Huang Shiren, who even on New Year's Eve would lead people to demand debts and force families to sell their children, were utterly despised and rare even during the feudal society.
The couplet pasting also followed a tradition of "leaving marks everywhere." It wasn't just the front and back doors that needed couplets, but every corner that could be pasted shouldn't be overlooked. The grain storeroom would have "bumper harvest," the bicycle "travel thousands of miles by day, eight thousand by night," and even for the Buick business car that Suming drove back, they prepared "safe travels."
On New Year's Eve, people typically didn't visit relatives. Although doors were kept open, everybody was busy with their own families. By noon, they just had a casual al. Downstairs, Suming and Su ng enjoyed large pieces of at with their bread, while Mrs. Su made so rice soup to feed the pregnant cat, Xiaobai.
After the white cat arrived ho, it stayed in a small room at the back, to avoid being frightened by the loud firecrackers. A little nest was made, and with its belly swollen, the white cat lay there lazily and refused to move. Mrs. Su placed half a bowl of rice soup beside Xiaobai's nest, and it would tilt its head to lick a few sips whenever it felt like eating; if not, it just continued sleeping.
It seed that the birth of the kittens would happen in the next few days; perhaps by the ti Suming returned to Yangchuan City again, he could bring a few little cat cubs with him.
At noon after lunch, according to tradition, they went up the hill behind their house to visit the graves of their relatives and at the sa ti invite the ancestors to co ho for the New Year.
By the ti Suming and his mother arrived, several families had already gathered there. Suming was the first person from Sun Town to be admitted to a university, which had created quite a stir in the whole town. Seeing Suming return, the villagers couldn't help but ask him a few more questions.
"Hey, isn't that Suming? When did you co back? Co over to our place for New Year's," said an older man with a beaming smile.
"Suming, how long are you planning to stay this ti?"
"You're making a na for yourself out there, don't forget to take care of your mom; she had a hard ti raising you all by herself."
"Mrs. Su, your son has made sothing of himself. I saw him driving back in such a big car; you must be living the good life now," said an older lady with a laugh.
After a few words of small talk, with questions about where Suming was working now, whether he had a girlfriend, and how much money he was making per month, the discussion was nothing more than casual chitchat. Suming didn't ntion that he owned a company, as it wasn't sothing he could easily explain in just a sentence or two, so he simply said he was running errands for the zoo director.
"That's like being the leader's secretary, eh? Very promising! No wonder you can drive such a nice car!"
Mrs. Su was pulled aside by Auntie Three from next door. The two won were whispering quietly to each other, occasionally looking over at Suming with laughter.
Seeing their expressions, Suming could guess what they were talking about, but he didn't want to burst their bubble. He took his mother by the arm and greeted everyone cheerfully before they made their way to his father's grave.
"Su, another year has gone by. Today, your son has co back to visit you with ," Mrs. Su said as she knelt in front of the grave to burn paper offerings. Su was long deceased, and his wife had grown accustod to living alone. She did not wail or cry, but instead talked to the deceased as if she were chatting about family matters.
"Rest assured, your son is doing fine outside, with a stable job and earning money..."
"It's just that I worry about his marriage. In our town, boys his age all have partners; so are even married..."
"Our son is very filial. Don't worry down there. I'm doing just fine—healthy and in good spirits..."
"You need to watch over your son, ensure everything goes smoothly and peacefully for him. I don't ask for him to be wealthy, as long as he lives a healthy and happy life."
These words, rather than being spoken for the deceased to hear, were more for Suming to listen to.
After visiting the graves, they returned ho and brought all the outdoor items inside—even the broom and dustpan couldn't be left out—then they closed the front door. This signified that the year had co to an end as of now, and if there had been any misfortune, it would end today as well.
Tomorrow, on the first day of the New Year, when they opened the door again, they would welco a brand-new year!
It was barely past three in the afternoon, and there were few people in Suming's family, so they didn't need to prepare an extravagant New Year's Eve dinner. Having shut the door and finding themselves with nothing much to do, Suming casually brought out a deck of playing cards and suggested, "Since we're free anyway, why don't we play so cards?"
While they were talking, they suddenly heard a "ow, ow, ow..." from the back room—not the usual lazy or coquettish sounds, but outright screams!
"Could it be ti for her to give birth?" Mrs. Su put down her cards and, while speaking, walked toward the back, with Suming and Su ng following.
Upon entering the room, they saw Xiaobai leaning pitifully in the nest, her belly heaving, panting heavily. With each breath, she would look down at her swollen belly with an almost human expression of bewildernt.
Seeing Suming and the others co in, Xiaobai seed to have found her saviors, and she lifted her head energetically, owing at them for help.
*********
PS: Outbursts always co when you least expect it.
The average subscription has finally reached its target, thanks to everyone's support, and I've kept my promise: ten chapters in a go!
But as I have been writing 3,000 words per chapter, I won't be dividing them—previously, ten chapters were 2,000 words each, totaling 20,000 words. This ti, seven chapters averaging 3,000 words each will surely exceed 20,000 words.
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