Strange Life of a Cat

Two days after they arrived in the village, Zheng Tan finally understood what Jiao Yuan meant by holiday spirit.

To Jiao Yuan, holiday spirit meant firecrackers.

Bang!

Zheng Tan heard children cheering.

He was resting on the roof and watching Jiao Yuan light firecrackers with Youzi and some other kids.

These things were banned in the city, but all was allowed here in the countryside. Firecrackers were very cheap and could even be made at home.

The kids had got tired of rabbit catching and were now focused on firecrackers. Youzi always watched from the side. She was unfamiliar with these things. She had seen fireworks before, but this was different. Watching and lighting one herself was also different. Most people, including Zheng Tan, had watched fireworks during holidays before. Back in his human days, he had bought fireworks for a girl he liked. However, he had never played with firecrackers like these kids.

This was an old new years tradition. Unfortunately, it was a dangerous tradition that involved a lot of pollution. Most kids who grew up in cities never got the chance to play with firecrackers. Even if they did, they could only get their hands on what these village children call ‘kids stuff.’ These children had much more experience with firecrackers.

It was quite clear this wasn’t Jiao Yuan’s first time playing with these things. Though he was in middle school already, he was still in his early teens and loved to play. He and a few other kids his age were in charge of the younger ones.

“Try this.”

A kid of seven or eight took out an aluminum pot from a pile in the corner of the yard. He put a firecracker in the pot then laid it upside down on the ground. The kid raised the edge of the pot and lit the firecracker with incense, then ran away.

Everyone covered their ears.

Zheng Tan covered his ears with his paws. These firecrackers made such loud noises that his ears rang.

Bang!

The pot was sent flying in the air. Sadly, the kids weren’t satisfied. They thought the impact was still too weak.

Zheng Tan looked at the pot. It’s shaped had changed due to the explosion.

These kids were too bold.

“We don’t have many of the larger ones left. We need to be frugal, or else that’s it for today,” a kid about Jiao Yuan’s age said. He had a box of firecrackers in his arms.

The kids all had boxes of firecrackers, except his were the largest.

“The small ones are no fun!” a child yelled.

“No fun? Watch and learn!”

One kid looked around at the vegetable patch.

This area was a bit far from the farmland, so families turned vacant land into vegetable patches.

The kid went into a vegetable patch with cabbages. The weather was still not too cold. Winter wasn’t that harsh here. Some years, they didn’t even get any snow.

The child found a large cabbage and stuffed a firecracker inside. He lit the firecracker and ran off.

The kids didn’t cover their ears this time. They had used a small firecracker.

Zheng Tan heard a bang, and the cabbage was blown into pieces.

Damn these kids! If the owner of the vegetable patch saw the mess, he would explode with fury.

One of the older kids knew better and stopped the child from blowing up more cabbages.

It was fun blowing up other people’s vegetables. If this were their own families’ patch, a fight would have broken out already.

“If we can’t blow up vegetables what should we do? Should we blow up fish?”

“We can’t. We got a tongue lashing yesterday. You can only throw firecrackers into rivers and ponds without fish.”

“What’s the fun in that?!”

The kids were deep in discussion. Zheng Tan wanted to laugh. The kids had blown up a few fish yesterday and were caught by the owner of the fish pond. He was extremely angry. It happened every single year. Even a beating couldn’t keep these kids away from the fish pond.

It was to be expected when you gave explosives to these little rascals.

The kids had come up with an idea.

Their new target was a water tank in the corner of a vegetable patch.

The village now had running water, but most people still liked to use water from the well. Every family had earthenware like this to store water. This one had probably been here for a long time. The water inside was dirty and stinky. The owner used it to water the vegetables.

“I remember a story we learned in Chinese class,” a kid said.

“I know! I know!” Another kid raised his arm and said, “Sima Guang blew up the water tank!” [1]

Everyone was speechless.

What a kid!

The violence level had been upgraded to something Sima Guang wouldn’t even be able to imagine.

They were ready to blow up a water tank after ruining cabbages. These kids were troublemakers.

A child took out a firecracker about the size of a grown-up’s pinky. It was wrapped in plastic and had a pointy end. It was apparently called a torpedo and was water-proof. It came in different sizes and was used by the children to blow up fish.

The kid threw it into the water tank at just the right time. If it was thrown in too early, the fire might extinguish. It was dangerous to throw it in too late. However, this kid was very experienced.

The rest of the group stood far away. They didn’t want to get water on them.

The water tank was too old, and the torpedo managed to blow a hole in it. Dirty water flowed out.

The child who lit the firecracker got water on him and went home to clean up.

By lunchtime, the children had used up most of their stock and went home to eat and would gather together again after they had replenished their supplies.

Jiao Yuan had traded snacks for some firecrackers. He still had pocket money, but the local stores didn’t have any of the good stuff. You needed to go to the county fair to find more varieties of firecrackers.

He picked ones that had long fuses to give to Youzi. Ones with short fuses were too dangerous. He knew himself well. He might be older than the child who blew up the tank, but he was nowhere near as experienced.

Mama Jiao was cooking.

The house had an old-fashioned stove, the kind that used firewood. The cookware she used was a large iron wok. Grandpa Jiao liked this kind of stuff. They had a gas-lit stove too, but that was used to boil and fry stuff. This old stove was only used during the holidays.

Jiao Yuan was looking for incense. He lit it.

“What are you doing?” Mama Jiao frowned.

“I need it to light firecrackers.”

“Be careful and don’t scare Charcoal.” Mama Jiao was slightly worried.

“It’s not a problem. Charcoal was watching us play all morning. He even knew to cover his ears.” Jiao Yuan grinned then went into the backyard with Youzi.

There was always plenty of space in the countryside.

There was a pile of firewood in the backyard. There were a few cedar trees, and Grandpa Jiao had swept the yard in the morning.

There was a water tank here too. Jiao Yuan didn’t dare blow up this tank. Grandpa Jiao had bought live fish. Yesterday, they had marinated the fish and kept them in the bottom of the tank. There was still a little bit of water left inside.

Grandma Jiao was frying lotus root meatballs in the kitchen. She kept an eye on the kids. They lived in the city, and she didn’t trust them with firecrackers.

Zheng Tan watched on top of the pile of firewood.

Jiao Yuan poked a hole in the ground then buried the firecracker inside.

He lit it.

It let out a bang.

It was a small firecracker. Jiao Yuan didn’t dare play with the large ones in his grandparent’s yard. They would give his grandparents a heart attack. He just wanted to try them out.

The two kids each had incense in hand and were lighting firecrackers.

After a while, Youzi looked at Zheng Tan. “Charcoal, do you want to give it a try?”

Zheng Tan shook his tail. He did.

“Come Charcoal.” Jiao Yuan stood on tiptoe and handed Zheng Tan his incense.

Zhen Tan looked at it then jumped off the haystack.

Youzi took out a napkin and wrapped up one end of her incense and handed it to Zheng Tan.

What a good girl.

Zheng Tan held the incense in his mouth and walked to the firecracker Jiao Yuan placed in the ground.

Jiao Yuan’s mouth twitched. His cat was a germaphobe.

The fuse lit and Zheng Tan got a bit nervous. He knew this wasn’t a very powerful explosive but he had never done anything like this before. He was excited. He turned and ran as soon as he saw a spark on the fuse.

Bang!

The firecracker went off.

Grandma Jiao took all the fried lotus root meatballs out of a pot and glanced at the kids in the yard. She saw her son’s precious black cat light a firecracker and dropped her meatballs.

The big yellow dog who had been waiting on the side came running over and hurriedly ate the meatballs. He didn’t even care that they were burning hot.

[1] (Sima Guang and the water tank is a story about Sima Guang, who was a well-respected historian and politician during the Song dynasty. When he was very young, he broke a water tank with a rock to save a child who was trapped.)