It was a sunny day.
Famous was lying lazily on the glazed roof tiles of the ancestral hall, basking in the sun. It yawned and raised its front paw to drive away a bee that was flying around its nose.
Everything was coming back to life. The grass was growing and the birds were flying.
"Hey!"
The young version of Old Time Tea quickly jumped and moved in the open space in front of the ancestral hall. It rushed forward like lightning, then unexpectedly stopped and changed directions at a very small angle. Its two front paws attacked alternately, and the sharp back claws broke the soil like an iron plow. The new grass was cut into pieces, and the broken leaves flew in the air. The old mandarin jacket fluttered with its movements, looking quite cool.
"Old Time Tea, take a break."
Famous admired Old Time Tea's hard work, but it was too lazy to practice. After all, this was its Imagined Landscape. The muscles it trained here couldn't be brought to the real world, so why torture itself? But sometimes, it couldn't tell the difference between the real world and the Imagined Landscape.
Old Time Tea finished a round of practice, stopped, and let out a breath of turbid air.
"Brother Famous, come down and have some tea?" it responded, looking up.
Under the eaves of the ancestral hall, there was a small copper stove. Firewood was burning in the copper stove, and from time to time, there was a muffled sound, and smoke rose up. On the copper stove was a pottery teapot. The orange flame licked the bottom of the teapot, and bursts of tea fragrance wafted from the mouth of the teapot.
"No, it's too troublesome. Drink it yourself. Be careful not to burn your tongue." Famous didn't move.
They didn't have dexterous hands like humans, and this world didn't have convenient thermos like the real world. Drinking tea was too troublesome, and it was easy to burn one's mouth.
The stove was brought by Wu Ning for them to use in the winter, and the teapot was brought by her servant. She forgot to take it with her when she left, so Old Time Tea used it. As for the tea leaves, they found them in the mountains. They didn't know which traveling merchant had left them there.
Old Time Tea wrapped a rag around its paw, pulled the door of the stove to cover the air inlet, and gradually reduced the flame in the stove.
After a while, it opened the door of the stove, threw in a few raw potatoes, and used the remaining heat from the ashes and the wall of the stove to roast them. The potatoes were not for Famous to eat, but for Famous.
After that, it sat quietly at the side, waiting for the tea in the teapot to be cold enough to be tasted. However, it couldn't be too cold, or it wouldn't taste good.
"Meow ~"
The grass not far away suddenly shook violently, and a black and white kitten jumped out of the grass chasing a butterfly. The butterfly fluttered and repeatedly escaped from the black and white kitten's claws. However, its good luck did not last long. In the end, it was still caught by the black and white kitten.
The black and white kitten did not hurt it, nor did it eat it. It put its big silver-gray eyes close to the gap between its claws and observed the way it flapped its wings, watching the scales on its wings rustle and fall. After a while, it released its claws. The butterfly hesitated between its claws, shook its wings, and flew lightly into the sky again, until it disappeared from its eyes.
It tilted its head and was attracted by a green grasshopper. It meowed and chased after it.
"Don't ask me, I don't know either," Famous murmured to itself.
Just when it recovered its memory and returned to the Imagined Landscape, it was about to tell Old Time Tea a western version of the story of "a leopard cat replacing a prince" when it heard a meow behind it.
At that time, it was so scared that it thought the ancestral hall in the wilderness was haunted, because it was very sure that there were no other creatures in the ancestral hall, except perhaps bacteria. Old Time Tea was also very surprised. It quickly put on a defensive posture and turned around with Famous while retreating. As a result, they saw that it was Xinghai standing behind them.
How did Xinghai come to this world?
Obviously, this was Xinghai in the Imagined Landscape, not Xinghai in reality.
It was reasonable to say that this was the Imagined Landscape that Famous copied from Old Time Tea's memory. It was infinitely close to reality, and it was completely different from the strange black box world of Xinghai.
Famous witnessed the process of it escaping from the black box in Xinghai's Imagined Landscape, but where it escaped to, Famous was not very clear, because Famous did not follow it to escape from the black box.
Because of this, Famous asked Xinghai about it, but it also looked confused and could not explain anything. It only knew how to meow and play hide-and-seek.
Famous was not in the mood to play hide-and-seek at all.
Although the younger version of Old Time Tea had never seen Xinghai, it had listened to the conversation between Old Time Tea and Xinghai, so Old Time Tea quickly let down its guard.
Since then, the three of them temporarily lived together in the Temple of the Righteous Cat and the Chivalrous Dog.
There was no sun or moon in the mountains, and they did not know the years of winter and summer.
Time in the Imagined Landscape was different from the real world. The flow of time seemed to be fast and slow. Famous did not know how long it had been, but it was probably a few months after it came to Old Time Tea's Imagined Landscape. They survived the harsh winter and welcomed the spring.
This was their daily routine. Old Time Tea drank tea and cooked in between practicing boxing, Xinghai played hide-and-seek with birds and beasts all over the mountains, and Famous was lying on the roof to bask in the sun. At the same time, it was also responsible for being on guard. This was just an excuse for basking in the sun. In fact, there was nothing to be on guard for. The wolves and bears in the mountains had been scared shitless by it and Old Time Tea and hid deep in the mountains. The robbers who used to appear in the area had also heard rumors about the Demon Cat and the Evil Dog. They hadn't come to cause trouble for a long time.
There were no beasts attacking people, and no robbers cutting the path. Although the mountain road was remote, it was very safe. The cold wave had left, and the flowers were blooming in the spring. This rugged mountain road gradually became the main way into the mountains. When people passed by the Temple of the Chivalrous Cat and the Chivalrous Dog, they would always stop to burn incense and then continue on their way.
Recently, Wu Ning had come less frequently, probably because of the cold weather. However, the food supply was still very adequate, especially the cheap and good quality potatoes. Every time her servants went into the mountains, they would carry a bag full of potatoes. Famous liked to eat potatoes after filming the movie. Unfortunately, there were no bison in the mountains, so it could not eat potato stew with beef. It could only eat potatoes roasted in a copper stove.
Old Time Tea was good at everything, but its roasting skills were too modern. The fire was either big or small. However, as a food that came to Famous, it seemed that it had no right to complain.
As for meat … well, the mountains were full of meat. It just had to be careful not to completely extinguish the fire in the stove.
"Old Time Tea, is it not done yet?" it asked under the eaves.
Looking back, it saw that Xinghai had appeared on the roof, staring at it with its silver-gray eyes.
"I am hungry now. I don't have time to play hide-and-seek," Famous said perfunctorily.
"Meow. You should go back."
Famous was stunned and then suddenly woke up.
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