Strange Life of a Cat

Jiao Wei didn"t know who the guy drinking with Wei Ling was, nor did he know what that Fang San Ye did, but he could guess they were important men. The Fang San Ye he had met seemed to be the more powerful of the two.

Ye Hao couldn"t stay for long, so he soon left with Duke. Zheng Tan didn"t mind since he wasn"t friends with the large cat anyway.

When the performance started, Zheng Tan sat next to the window to watch. Wei Ling, however, started trying to get Jiao Wei to talk. He was trying to get information on Fang San Ye again. Wei Ling couldn"t understand what the man was thinking. He came to Chuhua, yet somehow managed to find time in his busy schedule to deliver a cat tree.

Sadly, he was disappointed. Jiao Wei knew little about Fang Shaokang. They only met briefly that time when he came to deliver the cat tree.

Wei Ling looked at the cat and sighed. Not just Ye Hao, many of their partners at Tian Yuan Biology had been asking about Fang San Ye. Wei Ling had wanted to help but couldn"t find anything on the man. He decided it was a bad idea asking Professor Jiao for information. That would be unseemly since Professor Jiao wasn"t keen on using his relations.h.i.+p with Fang for any personal benefits. They were lucky to get to know that man, but he was determined to achieve success through hard work.

Wei Ling thought of the lucky cat in Yuan Zhiyi"s office. The little statue was specially made. It was black unlike the usual gold ones at the store. It didn"t matter that he was a scientist before, as a businessman Yuan Zhiyi was superst.i.tious.

Wei Ling took a sip of wine and thought to himself, Charcoal was a lucky cat indeed.

They left the Night Tower around nine. Wei Ling asked a driver to take them home.

The guy had driven for Zheng Tan several times and knew the roads. He drove into campus through the East gate and parked in front of the quarters. Jiao Wei got out too. He watched the cat jump out of the window and walk into his building. This was a funny world indeed. A cat lived better than people! Who would believe it?

Yet, if his family"s restaurant was now free of hara.s.sment, he would have to believe it.

The moon was s.h.i.+ning brightly in the sky. The mid-autumn festival was two days away.

He looked up at the sky then headed to the restaurant. He needed to let his parents know he was back.

Zheng Tan saw Jiao Yuan unwrapping a package when he got home.

Mooncakes?

He checked the calendar. He almost forgot the mid-autumn festival was soon approaching. In 2003, the dragon boat festival wasn"t a national holiday yet and the kids still had to go to school on that day.

Zheng Tan checked out the box of nicely packaged mooncakes. Mama Jiao would never buy something like this, she regarded it as a waste of money. She would only buy the kind sold separately in bakeries. It probably was a gift.

Holidays were always a time for gift giving. Though the mid-autumn festival was not a national holiday, it was still an opportunity for gift giving. Fang San Ye and Mr. Zhao were all popular receivers of gifts. These two boxes were from Zhao Le.

She had brought three boxes, one of which Papa Jiao gave to Su Qu and Yi Xin.

They had had dinner already, so Mama Jiao only let Jiao Yuan have one mooncake. He was allowed to take one to school tomorrow.

"Mom, Charcoal wants to eat mooncakes too. How many can he have?"

"You each can have one. Charcoal can only have one too. He"s getting chubby," answered Mama Jiao, who was on the phone, before closing her room door.

Youzi gave Zheng Tan an egg yolk mooncake to eat on the sofa. His ears were perked up, listening to Mama Jiao"s phone call. Why was she being so mysterious? What didn"t she want the kids to hear?

Jiao Yuan and Youzi couldn"t hear her talk but Zheng Tan could, though not clearly. He caught the key words, something about the national day break and...buying a car?

Zheng Tan twitched his ears and stopped eating. He listened intently to the phone call. Unfortunately Jiao Yuan was being chatty. Zheng Tan jumped off the sofa and ran to the door.

The two kids saw the cat and followed him. All three of them huddled at the door.

Mama Jiao had not expected to be eavesdropped on like this, she was still talking merrily on the phone.

This was what Papa Jiao came home to, two kids on either side of the door with the cat in the middle.

The kids felt no shame in being caught eavesdropping. Jiao Yuan asked his father excitedly, "Are we buying a car?"

Papa Jiao wanted to laugh. So this was why they were listening.

Though he was indeed planning to buy a car, he didn"t want to make any promises in case of any changes.

Jiao Yuan and Youzi were still kids, so they took Papa Jiao"s word at face value. They were satisfied with the possibility of a car purchase and returned to the sofa happily.

"Eat, shower, then go to bed. Don"t stay up." Papa Jiao said to the two kids. When he pa.s.sed Zheng Tan, he poked the cat on the forehead. "You too. Don"t stay up late and exercise more. Look at you, you"re gaining weight."

Zheng Tan twitched his ears, then ran into Youzi"s room. He checked his reflection in her mirror. He didn"t gain weight...at least not that much.

He recalled his recent activities, he walked Youzi to school everyday. Besides that he ate, slept, and watched military training. He had every meal with the Jiaos but also snacked in between. Though he was picky about food, he still ate a lot. It was starting to show.

He wouldn"t turn into Fatty, would he?

The next day, Zheng Tan decided to start jogging daily again.

Madam Di was returning from her dancing session. She still had her red fan when she saw Zhang Tan jogging. "Hey, Charcoal. It"s been a while since I last saw you jogging in the morning."

The old lady with her nodded and said, "This cat looks better now."

By better, she meant fatter. People here believed pets needed to be fat to show they were raised with care. Boney pets were seen as mistreated pets. For example, Fatty"s owner was widely accepted as the best cat owner in the eastern quarters.

The lady had worried about Fatty"s obesity but after a check-up, it was shown that Fatty was just fat. He was fine otherwise. This came as a surprise to many.

No matter what, Zheng Tan decided to start jogging again. As they entered October, the weather was cooler.

The campus was bustling with activities these days. Club week was upon them and clubs were competing for members.

The roller skating club was skating all around campus with banners publicizing their club. They looked very cool skating in a row, attracting many to their stand.

The bicycle club was biking around campus yelling their club motto. They had pictures of their group trips in the past. Seeing as the national holidays were around the corner, many were lined up to join as well.

There were students dressed like anime characters too. They belonged, obviously, to the anime club. There were anime conventions in the city every year with cosplay events. The cosplayers of Chuhua University were quite eye catching.

Zheng Tan saw many other clubs advertising themselves around campus. There were students dressed in Chinese opera costumes and other dressed in ballet costumes. There were those dressed in Taekwondo uniforms and others dressed for traditional martial arts.

Zheng Tan never partic.i.p.ated in these activities in University. He spent most of his time off campus so he didn"t even know much of the events going on at his school.

Zheng Tan saw Jiao Wei. He took a glance at some of the less popular clubs and happened to catch sight of the boy. He was the only one at the stand, but Zheng Tan couldn"t see what club it was. He wasn"t that interested though.

He kept jogging. When he pa.s.sed the bio building, he jumped on the tree outside Papa Jiao"s office and took a peek inside. The office was empty. Yi Xin and Su Qu weren"t there. They were probably in the lab instead.

He didn"t linger. After his jog, he returned to the eastern quarters to nap. However, Fang Shaokang"s car was parked downstairs and the man was leaning on his car whilst taking out his phone. He seemed very happy to see Zheng Tan.

"I was about to call your owner. There"s no one home. Open the door for me." Fang Shaokang put his phone back into his pocket.

Zheng Tan glanced at him suspiciously. He had heard this guy was busy. Why was he here again?

He jumped up to open the front door and retrieved the apartment keys from Fatty"s house. After returning to Chuhua, he started hiding his key in Fatty"s balcony. Fatty was home guarding the balcony most days anyway. When Fatty was away, he could hide the key back on the tree.

Fang Shaokang didn"t seem to be surprised when Zheng Tan opened the door by himself. Papa Jiao had told him this before and he had seen the cat turn on the hot water and operate a blowdryer before.

Fang San Ye was here with more boxes of mooncakes. He was planning to return to the capital for the mid autumn festival. He had gotten too many gifts and had to disperse them among his employees. He saved some for the Jiaos and was planning to drive back to the capital after dropping off the mooncakes.

Fang San Ye put down the mooncakes and called Papa Jiao.

After the phone call, he said to Zheng Tan, "Your dad is buying a car. He didn"t say anything to me but I heard talk of it."

He then checked the cat tree. It showed signs of use, so he knew it was a good gift. Satisfied, he left.