Strange Life of a Cat

Zheng Tan looked at this student who had the IQ of a cat. Judging by his expression, what had just happened was a common occurrence. He seemed completely untouched by her words.

He pulled a piece of dried gra.s.s from a flowerbed to tease Zheng Tan. Zheng Tan, however, ignored him and kept walking.

He made a few turns when he heard construction. He could see a crane between two buildings. There were too many buildings and too many people around to find a good spot up high to survey the whole area.

The place looked familiar though.

Zheng Tan had no idea what that place was. He was in an unfamiliar place and lost his sense of direction. He didn"t think too much about it.

On his way back, he pa.s.sed by the residential neighborhood again. He saw a student wearing a high school uniform talking to someone else.

Their voices were drowned in traffic. When he got close, he heard that person say, "A swallow can never understand a swan"s ambition [1]."

The boy in the uniform smiled and answered, "A swan can never know the pleasure of being a swallow."

Zheng Tan sat on the fence and listened to the two debate swallows and swans. One was like "what do you know about the world," the other was like "I don"t care what you say."

Zheng Tan learned from their conversation that the person not wearing the uniform was the brother the middle-aged woman had mentioned earlier. They were both 12th-grade students at a nearby high school.

Zheng Tan didn"t quite care who was more correct or who was more annoying. The first thought he had was that 12th-graders talked in confusing rhetoric. Their use of ancient Chinese language and idioms made it hard for Zheng Tan to understand what they were saying.

The "brother" left after a few minutes. The boy in his school uniform turned and saw Zheng Tan.

"You"re back!"

He immediately smiled, then came over to tease Zheng Tan again. Zheng Tan didn"t want to play with him. He got up and headed home.

Everything was the same on campus. However, on Zheng Tan"s way home, he heard the owners of a convenience store near the school talk about the construction of a commercial plaza.

Compared to the large plazas downtown, this one would be much smaller. There were plenty of schools around, and it was easy to make money off students. Many of the shop owners in the area were discussing the matter. They heard that some residential buildings were going to be built as well. Zheng Tan only learned so much from their conversation since they didn"t know the exact details either.

No wonder the location of the construction he saw earlier seemed familiar. It was the abandoned factory where he had taken Nougat. It seemed Ye Hao had managed to acquire it after all.

Zheng Tan supported the project. It gave him a new place to play. He hoped Ye Hao"s construction team worked quickly.

The next day, Zheng Tan went on a walk and pa.s.sed by the same residential neighborhood. He ran into yesterday"s uniform boy. The boy seemed in a rush and didn"t try to play with Zheng Tan.

He was wearing a cheap track suit today. When he was walking out of the neighborhood, the middle-aged woman was yelling at him from the same window. She saw Zheng Tan, then said something about cats and IQ again.

The uniform boy ran into someone he knew outside the neighborhood.

"Zhong Yan, no school today? How did you do on your recent test?" the person asked.

"So so." Zhong Yan shrugged.

"You really should be more like your brother. I heard he studied until 11 again yesterday. He probably did well on this test."

The person said a lot. Zhong Yan listened without any expression, then took his leave.

Zheng Tan saw the person shake his head behind Zhong Yan"s back.

Zheng Tan decided to follow this Zhong Yan and see where he was going.

Zhong Yan bought a six pack when he pa.s.sed a convenience store. He walked into an alleyway. Zheng Tan had pa.s.sed by the alley yesterday. Now he saw that the buildings at the end of the alley had all been knocked down. It was a different area than the abandoned construction site Zheng Tan and Nougat visited. It seemed Ye Hao"s project involved a large area. No wonder he had to do so much work earlier.

Zhong Yan walked to the end of the alley, then looked both ways before heading in one direction.

This area wasn"t fenced in yet. Zhong Yan was headed to a temporary duty room. Inside there were a group of people smoking. Smoking was banned on the construction site, so the duty room had become one of the few smoking rooms on the site.

Many of the people there knew Zhong Yan. They smiled when they saw the six pack in his hand. They couldn"t drink now but they could during dinner time.

Not long after Zhong Yan got there, he left with a middle-aged man wearing a hard hat.

Zheng Tan watched at the end of the alleyway. The man with the hard hat saw him, then walked over to Zhong Yan.

Zheng Tan jumped onto the top of a house.

"This cat came with you didn"t it?" The person took off his hard hat and pointed at Zheng Tan.

"I wouldn"t have noticed if you didn"t point it out, brother Ning. I met the cat yesterday. I don"t know who it belongs to. It isn"t afraid of people," Zhong Yan said.

Brother Ning smiled and shook his head. He asked, "How did you do on your last test?"

"It was ok," Zhong Yan answered. His answer seemed more sincere this time.

"What are you here for?" Brother Ning asked.

"I knew I couldn"t hide it from you." Zhong Yan scratched his head. "Winter break is just a month away. I was thinking I wanted to do something to earn some extra cash and was wondering if you guys need more people here on the construction site."

Brother Ning frowned. "Why are you looking for a part-time job? Is your mother not giving you money? What kind of a mother is she? She treats someone else"s child better than her own."

Zhong Yan rubbed his hands together without saying anything.

"Focus on studying now and get into a good university next year. Don"t be like us. As for work, there are definitely people going home for New Year"s day, and we"ll need people then. If you aren"t afraid of tiresome work, then you can come. That"s all I can find you at such short notice."

"Thank you!" Zhong Yan looked very happy.

"No problem. Don"t worry about work. Focus on studying. People like me envy you guys who get to go to school. I only finished middle school."

"What"s wrong with being like you guys. You guys can earn money and provide for your families."

Brother Ning didn"t have much schooling, but he had skills and had been in the industry for a while. He had earned quite a bit of money.

"You don"t understand. Even if we have money now, people still think of us as vulgar upstarts. You can tell yourself people say what they say out of jealousy. However, after a while, it"s hard to kid yourself."

Brother Ning saw Zhong Yan"s head droop. He didn"t want to put too much pressure on the boy and said, "On the other hand, my boss once said some people are book smart while others are street smart. It"s unsure which kind of people will do better in the future. Everyone has their standards. You just need to live your own life. Zhong, you might not be doing so well at school, but you are smart. You"ll do better than me in the future."

Zhong Yan didn"t explain or argue. He asked, "Brother Ning, is there anything I should know about your boss?"

"Well, I don"t think so. You know our background and people like us don"t usually fear much. Oh, yes, I remember. The boss hates cats, especially black ones. He doesn"t come to the site a lot, but still, don"t bring the cat. That"s probably all."

Brother Ning stood up and patted dust off his pants. He went back to the site.

Zhong Yan watched him leave and sighed. He looked at Zheng Tan. "I really envy you guys. You cats eat and sleep and don"t have to worry about anything."

Zhen Tan didn"t agree. He had been a cat for a little more than a year now and was bored most of the time. He didn"t have to worry about food or shelter but he did have to worry about how to pa.s.s the time.