Chapter 173: Sister Lin?

Er Mao didn't know too much about this pendant, but he had worn it since childhood. There was only one of this type of pendant. His mother had given it to him instead of Wang Bin. Er Mao remembered what his mother had said to him about the particular pendant: "Wear this and you will receive the blessings of your ancestors".

The issue laid with the fact that all of Er Mao's grandparents were well and healthy. In his parents' generation, even if they weren't too familiar with this topic, at least they understood the basics. Coming down to it, his own generation wasn't too familiar with it either. Especially people in this time and age aren't too strict about practices concerning one's ancestors. At least, it wasn't at all important to Er Mao, but it didn't not indicate that he was not intrigued by this particular topic.

When a person is dying of boredom or frustrated over the not knowing what to do. Having something divert their attention is the the best thing to bring excitement back into their life. This was the exact situation that Er Mao found himself in.

Er Mao had some knowledge about the Jiao family, but it seemed highly unlikely that he would have blood ties with them. However, what puzzled him the most was why such a precious item was wrapped around the neck of a cat? Based on what he knew, no one was at home at this time. The only possibility is that the cat hung the pendant around its own neck

"Hey, Charcoal, where did you get this?" Er Mao held the near identical pieces of jade, raised a finger, and poked Zheng Tan. "Tell me who gave this to you, maybe it was a relative of mine. Like that of stories, it could be a young and beautiful cousin who's suffering by herself. She's been cold and lonely endured all this time for me to rescue her!"

Zheng Tan: "...."

Zheng Tan thought back to when he met the old granny at the village. At the time, she was positioned on a recliner with a cat in her arms. She was quite elderly, with a face full of wrinkles, and gave off a vibe that indicated a lack of care towards her appearance. Looking back to Er Mao's look of anticipation, he wished that he could talk. It would devastate Er Mao. But realistically, even if he could speak, he wouldn't want to reveal the truth anyways. If this guy found out there wasn't a sister Lin waiting for him, but a poor old granny. He might lose all motivation to find this lost relative. That might mean Zheng Tan would have to care for the pendant for another two years. No matter what, they needed to get to the bottom of this issue now.

Er Mao asked another string of question. Some of them were directed towards Zheng Tan and others towards himself. It was the rare occasion to be involved in something so meaningful, but as of right now, he was reluctant to contact his family. Even after hesitating for a time, he was still at a loss for what to do.

Zheng Tan wasn't too sure of how to react either. Sweeping his gaze across the room, he locked onto a map that was partially covered under a large backpack. He leapt off the table and headed over to take a closer look. With his paws, he flipped through the parts of the map that wasn't hidden by the backpack. On one side was the provincial map, the other was Chu Hua's city map. This was perfect.

Er Mao kept talking to himself before finally looking toward Zheng Tan's position.

When Er Mao had first come to Chu Hua, while aimlessly wandering, he ended buying that map. The initial reason for the purchase was to help him navigate to the Chu Hua's tourist spots. The maps also had transport routes labeled making it much easier to catch a bus. All in all, this map had been neglected for quite some time, bringing it to its current location under the backpack.

Watching Zheng Tan, Er Mao gripped the two pieces of jade again. He walked to the backpack, lifted it up, took out the map from underneath it and spread it across the floor.

The provincial map was on the side faced up. Zheng Tan looked across for the county and city markers before finally bring his paw on top of Yi Yang City.

Er Mao was silent for a moment before finally asking: "Yi Yang?"

Seeing as the black cat had no reaction, Er Mao stated: "If 'yes', raise your tail upright, if 'no' leave it horizontal."

Zheng Tan raised his tail.

"So Yi Yang."

Er Mao crossed his legs as he positioned himself on the floor. He picked up the map to get a closer look at it. Then he reached for a pen and paper from the drawers of his bedside table and jot down a few notes.

Actually, Zheng Tan was still plenty confused. Why had Er Mao used such a method with his tail to derive an answer? And, why had he been so receptive to the answer he got? Directing his gaze towards the sleeping Barley on the bed, Zheng Tan reasoned that even Barley would not be able to understand such a method. But at the same time, this wasn't the first time that such a thing had happened.

Because of the communication barrier, it wasn't like Zheng Tan could write an answer out on paper or type something out on a computer. That would be too bizarre. He wasn't ready to be labeled as the devil's spawn just yet.

When Zheng Tan prepared to leave, Er Mao re-wrapped the pendant around Zheng Tan's neck. Seeing the state that Er Mao was in, it was likely that he's put some time into investigating. All Zheng Tan needed to do was to wait for results. Even though Er Mao would sometimes be a jackass, he wasn't stupid. With this in mind, Zheng Tan was reaffirmed his confidence in Er Mao to make the proper connections.

Around dinner time, Er Mao made a trip to the Jiao family's apartment. He made sure to wear the pendant on the outside of his shirt when he struck up a conversation with Mama Jiao. He asked to borrow some toilet paper then headed back downstairs.

Er Mao sat motionless in front of his computer, staring aimlessly at the home screen. His mouse left untouched. Yi Yang. From the previous conversation with Mama Jiao, he now knew that the it was the hometown of assistant professor Jiao. He also found out the specifics of the location from her. However, during their conversation, Mama Jiao didn't have much of a reaction to his jade pendent. It was the same reaction from the two children. He then concluded, that the pedant must belonged to the assistant professor.

The following day, Er Mao got Zheng Tan to the third floor and continued the 'yes or no' tail conversation.

"Is this assistant professors Jiao's?"

Zheng Tan left his tail horizontal.

"Assistant professor Jiao left this with you?"

He lifted his tail upright.

...

Zheng Tan was annoyed with the amount of times he'd been waving his tail around. But Er Mao finally decided to ask the important questions.

"If we go to the assistant professor's hometown. Can you lead the search?"

The tail went upright once more.

Er Mao had prepared to send an email to assistant professor Jiao if this plan fell through, but there had been progress. He decided to personally conduct this search.

"Suspenseful matters are always the best! Digging up answer bring out the greatest satisfaction!" Er Mao reveled in his excitement and jumped for joy. Immersed in all this enthusiasm, he forgot about controlling his voice and sang out lout: "The sky granted me a sister Lin~Like a light cloud that just passed the mountain peak ~~"

After these two lines, Er Mao was stumped. He forgot the rest of the lyrics.

But two seconds later, a sound came from outside the window.

"Only for him~wild grass is frivolous in the abdominal~But the truth is~The bones are strange~Very unusual~~"

Both the window and balcony door had been left open. And since the area was very quiet, the voice traveled over very clearly.

Er Mao scrambled towards the balcony and searched for the owner of the voice.

By the metal fence, General was fully immersed in the song, seeing as how Er Mao didn't continue, she continued it by herself.

Er Mao: "...F***! This damned girl can even follow along with Yue Opera!"

Zheng Tan secretly moved his head with the tune. The pairing between these two were just right. But as he pictured Er Mao meeting up with the old granny, he hoped that Er Mao didn't think the world was attacking him with malicious intent.

In the next couple of days, Er Mao drafted up a plan of getting Zheng Tan to show him the way. First of all, he needed to convince Mama Jiao to let Zheng Tan accompany him on the trip. To and forth from the location would take about a full day's time. But Er Mao was worried. To find a person, wouldn't it take at least two days?

Thus, Er Mao sought out the help of Wei Ling. Wei Ling made a personal visit to request Zheng Tan for the reason of taking him out to have some fun. Going out for a day or two had already occurred multiple times, so Mama Jiao gave it no extra thought. Also, after Papa Jiao had made a trip outside the country, Wei Ling had been extremely helpful in taking care of the rest of the Jiao family. Mama Jiao had only given a few words of caution.

How to take a cat out travelling, this was something Er Mao had to get some pointers from Wei Ling. Furthermore, this was Zheng Tan he was dealing with. For a regular cat, there was the pet bag, but Zheng Tan was not about those items.

They day of departure happened to be a Sunday. Er Mao reluctantly brought Barley to the pet center. He could only ask the staff at the center to watch over her while he was gone.

The skies looked rather gloomy and the weather report predicted rain for the next couple of days. Er Mao drove the car that he borrowed from Wei Ling for their excursion to Yi Yang. Zheng Tan settled himself in the back seat for a nap. On the seat next to him was a travel bag. It was for Zheng Tan to stay in when they were out in public.

Right after Er Mao had left on his little trip, Wang Bin arrived at Chu Hua University, prepared to talk to his brother, only to find out that Er Mao wasn't at his apartment. The neighboring professor Lan, seeing as how the young man looked a lot like Er Mao, told him out of the sincerity of her own heart that Er Mao had left, probably for a lengthy excursion. The specifics of where he went was unknown to her as well.

The originally semi-conscious Zheng Tan was suddenly awoken by the sudden ringing of Er Mao's phone. Er Mao who was still driving, took one hand off the wheel and put him phone on silent.

Now that he was awake, he it was impossible to go back to sleep. Zheng Tan resorted to looking out the window. The rain had gotten worse.

After arriving in Yi Yang, Er Mao booked a room in a hotel. He parked the car in the hotel lot, packed his bags, and found the nearest stop to catch a bus.

The reason for not directly driving to the village was because of Er Mao's unfamiliarity with the roads. He only knew which county and village, but not the road there. Furthermore, if he was going to drive, not only would he be putting Wei Ling's car through hell, it would make the search all the more difficult. After weighing his options, he decided that taking a bus would be the best bet.

Zheng Tan wasn't too familiar with the road to the village either. That time they were here for the new years celebrations, Papa Jiao had driven his car. Zheng Tan's only duty on that ride was to admire the scenery and nap.

The bus station had direct buses from the city into the village. And though it was prohibited to bring abroad pets, the station wasn't strict with enforcing such rules. They didn't check the bags either. Looked like the two tactics that Er Mao had prepared weren't going to be of any use this time.

By the time they arrived in Yi Yang, the sky had started to clear up. The bus that Er Mao had gotten on was a pretty tight squeeze. As the system required people to board before paying, there was no way to purchase tickets in advance. Around the station, there were numerous private car owners who were trying to reel in clients, bringing up the noise level in the vicinity. It was immensely stuffy being secured in the bag, but Zheng Tan guessed it wasn't any better outside. Pulling open the zipper to take a look, a scene of people yelling and running about unfolded in front of him. This was giving him a headache.

Whether in the past or in the present, Zheng Tan had never been exposed to such an experience. On the other hand, this was all too familiar to Er Mao. He struck up a bunch of conversations outside the station with the private car owners.

This particular bus was fully seated, but more people were being herded on. These people were all used to this practice. Examining these buses that were smaller than Chu Hua's, yet fuller, Zheng Tan felt perturbed. Was this not an issue? Wasn't this serious over-capacity?

Er Mao opted to wait for the next bus. It wasn't that he didn't want to squeeze onto the bus, but Zheng Tan would be crushed into a cat pancake if he did make the attempt.

Only after two hours, did the next bus finally arrive. Er Mao quickly grabbed a seat, allowing Zheng Tan to take a breather. Having a seat made everything so much better.

The ride was just as bad as Zheng Tan expected. A collision of different scents and sounds. Moreover, a child had been crying the entire way, piercing Zheng Tan's eardrum with every scream. Zheng Tan started to harbor more regret towards this entire trip.

Throughout the ride, many people got on and off the bus, but in general, the further they traveled, the less people were left on the bus. Once they finally arrived at their stop, Zheng Tan clawed open the zipper and welcomed a fresh breath of air.

Er Mao had no particular complaints. Seems like he'd been through a lot of similar situations.

When they had come here in the new year, the weather was pretty good, nothing too uncomfortable. After that bought of rain, everything was enveloped by the humidity, and it seems much less lively. Only occasional did they catch a glimpse of someone on the road.

After taking a few steps onto the road, Er Mao could already feel the added weight to his feet. Layers of mud had attached itself to the bottoms of his shoes. Getting himself to a small convenience store, he purchased a pair of rain boots and changed into those. Or else, he would've completely ruined his shoes.

After fully preparing, Er Mao stood outside the village entrance. "All right, Sister Lin is right in front of us!"

Zheng Tan let out a sigh.