15. The Little Sunflower in The Sun 

In rural families, many keep dogs. It's not because they love dogs to the point of necessity, but because "keeping dogs is a powerful supplement to rural security."

 

As the end of the year approaches, thefts tend to increase. Now and then, some families were intruded, and some others had the locks broken. Some extreme theft cases ended up in murders.

My mother's neighbor, who lived just a wall away, had her home broken into three times in half a year. In such an atmosphere of fear, can one afford not to keep a dog?

 

At one point, my mother's family was keeping three dogs.

 

The first one was given by a friend after we renovated the house, for guarding the house and preventing theft. It was said to be a modified breed of the Belgian shepherd. When it was first brought from the farm, it looked like a little meatball. The friend said, ‘wait till it grows up, it won't be much smaller than a donkey’. The puppy grew quite fast. A few months later, it had a robust physique and a pure black coat, without a single piece of off-color hair. We named it "Black Tiger."

 

Black Tiger proved to be brave indeed. During the Spring Festival, when we set off firecrackers in the yard, it actually jumped up and attacked the lit firecrackers, extinguishing them. It's the only dog I have seen dare to attack firecrackers. In the first half of the month after moving into the new house, Black Tiger caught thirteen mice, almost one per night. After killing the mice, it did not eat them but displayed them on the steps, as if boasting about its achievement. Having mice in the countryside is very common, but thanks to Black Tiger's hunting in that half a month, our home remains rodent-free to this day, which could be considered a miracle. Black Tiger quickly became famous, and our house became known as the "house with the big black dog."

 

The second dog was a Border Collie from a relative. Since dogs weren't allowed in the city, they gave it to us. It was a female named "Gege," possibly named after the hit TV series "My Fair Princess" at the time. This dog was very good at observing human expressions. If you sat there with your head bowed and eyes closed, it would come over and look at you with concern, seemingly afraid that something might happen to you. Once you pat its head to let it know you are okay, it would jump happily. In its gaze, you could feel its delicacy, gentleness, and kindness.

 

The third dog came in a somewhat peculiar way.

 

Before winter in the countryside, people usually buy a few tons of coal to get through the winter. When the coal delivery truck unloaded coal by the road, my mother said to the driver, "You guys are delivering coal, why did you bring a puppy along?" The driver replied, "Isn't this your dog?"

 

There was a small dog wandering around the truck, and no one knew where it had come from. My mother decided to take it in. "How come it has no snout or tail?" It was the first time I had seen this kind of dog. It turned out to be a Pug, with a flat snout, and a small, tightly curled tail. The distinguishing feature of a purebred Pug is not its body size or the wrinkles on its forehead, but its ears, which feel like velvet. If a Pug has this trait, its other physical characteristics will not be far off.

 

As for the Pug's origin, everyone guessed that it might have gotten off a car when it temporarily stopped by. Since it was the smallest, its name followed Black Tiger's, and so it was named Little Tiger. This little guy caught my attention because of something my mother said, "I wonder if what we're raising is a dog or a rabbit." It turned out that this Pug loved to eat cabbage, cucumber, carrots, and even apples after meals.

  

Despite Little Tiger's small size, it was every bit as responsible when it came to guarding the house. Whenever there were strangers or strange noises, it would bark alongside Black Tiger. Moreover, Little Tiger was even tougher. I had never heard it whimper. Once, when it went to eat an apple in front of Black Tiger, Black Tiger bit its ear, causing it to bleed, but it did not make a sound. Another time, when a piece of red-hot coal had just been poured out of the stove, Little Tiger sniffed it and burned a patch on its nose, but again, it did not make a sound.

 

Little Tiger also had a hobby of basking in the sun. It really loved sunbathing, spending most of its day sitting on the sun deck, with its hind legs spread out and its front paws in between. When basking, it would squint its eyes, slightly raise its head, and adjust its direction according to the sun. It was like a little sunflower, sometimes even dozing off, shaking its head. This little guy snored at night, and dozed off while sunbathing during the day, as if it had endless sleep to catch up on.

 

One afternoon, when I was leaving my parents' home, I glanced down from the steps of the sun deck and saw Little Tiger sunbathing, sitting upright, squinting, and raising its head. It looked both interesting and funny, spending all day basking in the sun, it had truly become a little sunflower. I asked him casually, "Hey! How do you see this world?"

 

Little Tiger realized I was talking to it. It suddenly opened its eyes wide, full of spirit. It first looked at my left hand, then my right hand, and when it saw that both my hands were empty, it shifted its paws a little, adjusted its sitting posture, licked its tongue, then squinted its eyes and raised its head again. I stood still for a while, then carefully stepped back onto the sun deck and slowly sat down at a distance that was as close as possible to the little sunflower without disturbing it. I spread my legs straight, leaned my back against the wall, squinted my eyes, and raised my head slightly.

 

If there is such a thing as enlightenment in this world, I encountered it at that moment: When has the world ever cared about your opinion? The key is whether you have your own way of living.

 

So, this is what sunshine smells like. It is wonderful.

 

Yi refers to the information from high frequency civilization that this book transmits.

Yiology is a means of practice of the information of Yi on the Earth.

Yi is not to make you believe, but to teach you how to question! 

Close-up of Little Tiger