The lanterns converged into a river of light on Vermilion Bird Street. It was then that the tiny beings carrying lanterns and wearing human clothes gradually revealed their original faces. They are cats!
This is a story about cats, and the protagonist of the story is called Autumn. She is a cat saved by a human boy, Chun'er, a cat who knows spells.
Because of her sympathy for the human scholar, Big Guy, she brings him into the kingdom of cats, and into the coveted palace. Thus begins a journey of merit and homecoming.
Big Guy also wrote a lot of poems and songs, and often, he organized everyone to go to the river edge to sing, loud and beautiful. So no matter how far away it was, Autumn could hear it and would rush there. Of course, she knew that Chun'er would definitely go too.
During that time, Chun'er and Qiu'er grew closer. In addition to accompanying the big man to tread the song together, they also often stood on one side, quietly watching the big man stand on the other side.
There were times when the big man stood, just to stand. No expression, no movement, looking off into the distance, the kind of standing that Autumn didn't understand, she only understood the other kind.
The other kind of standing when the big man is facing a person. This person likes to draw, especially like to draw the big man, often, he will be along the river, for the big man's portrait.
To Autumn, he didn't draw like it. Not all the time, every time the man was about to finish, Autumn would call out beside him, "Meow." Meaning, it's okay, this time is the most similar, don't draw anymore.
But that person would always add a few strokes, and then, it was completely unlike. It wasn't just Qiu'er who saw it this way, but Chun'er as well, so after Qiu'er called out a few times, he understood and said, "Uncle Wang, every time Qiu'er calls out, I think it's when you draw the most like you do."
Uncle Wang stopped his brush, looked back at Chun'er, and smiled, "Really?"
And then looked down at Qiu'er, "You think this is the time when you look the most alike?"
"Meow!" Autumn affirmed.
"Hahaha, I can't imagine that this beaver slave knows how to draw."
Uncle Wang's laughter drew Big Man Meng over to the painting and he walked over to it, looking at it while asking, "What?"
"Oh, Chun'er said that every time this beaver slave barks, it's the time when I draw the most like it, look ......." He pointed to the painting, "It's probably like this, feel like it?" Meng big man looked at the painting, smiled quite happily, but eventually shook his head.
"Doesn't look like it." He said.
"Why doesn't it look like it?" Chun Er was unconvinced.
"It's not like the look, but it's not like the state of mind."
"State of mind?" Chun Er did not understand. The word state of mind was still too deep for a nine year old human boy, but a three or four year old cat could more or less relate.
This was both because cats matured earlier than humans and because their world was richer than a human's. After all, cats can roam in corners where people can't go, and the world is made up of corners, and even each corner is a world with its own colony, a kingdom.
There are also kings in those kingdoms, and there are also civilizations. So, Autumn understands what Big Guy Meng expects. It was the pavilions that mesmerized her in the rain, in the pavilions, lined with smoke like a fairyland. On weekdays, however, they appeared slightly more graceful.
Autumn guessed right, Meng big man is trying to enter those pavilions, want to meet with the person called the emperor inside, let him know that he is talented.
Meng big man was born in Xiangyang, a scholarly family, since childhood and his younger brother together with the literary sword. At that time, it was fashionable for people in the Tang Dynasty to live in seclusion, and when he was young, Meng learned to live in seclusion at Lumen Mountain.
At that time, there was a man named Zhang Zirong with him, but after only one year of seclusion, Zhang Zirong left Lumen Mountain to go to Beijing to take the examination.
This touched Meng Da Zi, because in his view, in terms of talent, in terms of martial arts, they are higher than Zhang Zirong a chip. So, after another year of lonely hermitage life, Meng big man resolutely out of the mountain, quit his parents traveled to the Yangtze River Basin. He wanted to get to know some powerful officials there, in order to seek the opportunity to enter the world.
However, in ten years, his friends all left one after another to become officials, only he, or nothing.
Meng big man in indignation heard that the emperor in Luoyang directly chased to Luoyang, however, three years, but did not have the opportunity to see the emperor, and then to Chang'an City, will be thirty-nine years old.
Thirty-nine years old down and out in poverty, Meng big man in the city every night are tossing and turning, difficult to sleep, even if sleep is also a dream.
Tonight is the same, but this night Meng Da Zi is a little fuzzy, fuzzy himself is still awake or has been dreaming, but no matter how, his ears do have a burst of fine sound.
The voice came from outside the window, or perhaps from outside the dream, and it drew the big man, or his dream, to the window.
"Autumn?" Opening the window, the big man saw Autumn, who was pouting and pounding the window with both paws.
"Hey!" The big man sighed and hurriedly carried the little one he thought was naughty into the house.
"Come to catch a mouse or come to see me?" The big man remembered telling Autumn that, and pouring her some water on a small plate and preparing a few pieces of his own leftover beef in sauce from last night.
Then, sleepiness struck him again, hitting him head over heels, as if he'd fallen asleep, and as if he'd passed out. After a long time, in fact, I don't know how long, the big man's consciousness gradually cleared up again, and vaguely, he felt a voice outside his eyelids calling out to him, "Meng big man, Meng big man!"
The voice was familiar and unfamiliar, making the big man curious, and he used all his strength to open his eyes strongly. There was no one there, his simple little house was lit up and in full view, no one but Autumn. Just wondering where something was a little off.
At this moment, the call disappeared, and the big man thought he was dreaming, as if this night was destined to be indistinguishable from reality and dreams.
"Meng big man?" However, just as he was about to fall asleep again, the voice rose again, right by his ear. Big Guy Meng had a jolt.
"Who?" He asked.
"Me!" The voice replied, as if the big man should rightfully know who it was. Indeed, the voice was recognizable to Big Guy Meng, but he just couldn't remember who it was, and cruising around, he didn't see anyone there.
"Here!" Until she spoke again. It was Autumn, it was actually Autumn who spoke!
From the cosmic flood, to the beginning of the heavens and the earth, from the rites of the ancient sages, to the number of the changing generations, the big man in this instant will be his own worldview and life view of a complete and clear review; and then, after he subverted the three thousand years of human history and his own thirty-nine years of experience in life, relatively blandly asked:
"You ...... can speak human?!"
"No, I don't speak human, you're the one who understands cat talk."
"Understand cat talk?" Meng big man puzzled, he looked at Autumn again, then he realized that Autumn is bigger than usual, and then look at the other places, the bed, the window, even the moonlight seems to be bigger than usual.
"It's, ah! Meow!" Meng finally realized why, as he looked down and saw his hands, or to be precise, claws.
"How, how did I become ......"
"A cat, huh!" Autumn smiled, "I helped you change, but I didn't realize that you were this big even when you turned into a cat. I've never seen such a big cat!"
"Why? Why did you turn me into a cat?"
"To help you!" Autumn was quick: "Haven't you always wanted to go in there? I'll take you there today!" Speaking of that inside, Qiu'er's head looked towards the Taiji Palace in the northeast.
This time, Meng big man pondered, he was a little yearning, a little dismayed, but also a little delighted. It made him feel that he was indeed in a dream, a beautiful dream. But he still didn't move, just muttered, "What's the use of going there when I've become like this?"
Autumn didn't pay any more attention to the big man as she jumped from the bed to the windowsill. On the windowsill, in the moonlight, Autumn was more like an elf, and the elf looked at the big man as if to say, "Come on!" And leapt fully into the night.
Now the big man panicked, and he hurried to follow, only to look back as he jumped to the window. The house, the window, the table and chairs, the bench, the clothes on the bench, his own big shoes, all so real, while the Chang'an in the night behind him is so unreal.
The big man of Meng thought about it, turned his back on the real, and jumped into the unreal.
Author｜Skidding Dad, a violinist, a computer engineer, and a Beijing man who was picked up by a Shandong girl. His greatest ambition is to write stories with his wife and children.
Full List｜ "Those Cat Things in Tang Dynasty"
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