Strange Life of a Cat

The time of the Chinese New Year was a rather leisurely time for the children, spending the entire day pondering over what they should play. For the adults, on the other hand, it was all sorts of bustle.

The school had officially entered holiday; there was almost no one on the campus. Suddenly, there was a sense of desolation. Two days ago, Yi Xin too had left the campus and headed home. Papa Jiao and other teachers had a summary meeting. Afterward, there was basically no need for them to go to the university anymore. Papa Jiao took the test papers home for marking, lugging Jiao Yuan to do the manual work while little Youzi helped by the side.

Even though there was one major subject and one elective subject, it was still quite a lot, with several few classes within these departments.

Jiao Yuan lent a hand in marking the multiple-choice questions. He didn’t have any professional knowledge, but he was certainly capable of resolving the multiple choices with its ABCD. After tallying up, he would use a pen to record the marks in the blanks on the sides, making it easier for Papa Jiao to calculate the final mark after he had finished correcting other types of questions.

Papa Jiao asked little Youzi to assist by the sideline, double checking the papers that Jiao Yuan had marked. Despite being only in the second grade, Youzi was extremely familiar with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Papa Jiao had even placed a calculator on the side so that Youzi could use it to check if the numbers added up. As for Jiao Yuan, he was almost in junior high school; would he still need to use a calculator for basic calculations? Jiao Yuan himself couldn’t bear such an embarrassment.

The affiliating school had released the academic reports. This time, Jiao Yuan was fourth in the class. Papa Jiao had never explicitly demanded that he must get what placement or what mark, it was always Jiao Yuan himself who set the standard, sometimes he was up to that standard and sometimes he’d fail. But obviously this time, he had fulfilled his wish. The progression of things went just as Papa Jiao had predicted. When Mama Jiao took him to the mall and walked past where the toys were sold, Jiao Yuan stared at those toy guns and couldn’t take his eyes off them. In the end, he chose the guns and gave up on the option to choose his own clothes.

Whereas the main reason for Jiao Yuan to sit here obediently and to help mark the exams was to earn some pocket money. One cent for each paper, it looked like there was around two to three hundred, he could also buy some ‘junk food’ when they go out.

Zheng Tan couched on the small foldable square table drawn that had chess patterns drawn on it, watching them as they marked the exam papers.

Each paper had traces of childish red numbers. Sometimes, when he encountered people who drew on the reverse side of the paper in boredom during the exam time, Jiao Yuan would add a few strokes and stand there giggling by himself.

“Hey, I know this teacher. Dad, isn’t this the teacher who always likes to carry a portable speaker with him? Drawn with such likeness!”

Zheng Tan stretched his neck and took a peek. On the other reverse of that exam paper was a freehand portrait of the supervising teacher and Jiao Yuan had added a few strokes to it. Youzi wanted to see, but her sight was blocked by Jiao Yuan. He was heaving it under the pile of other papers, waiting till they had finished marking to show to Papa Jiao and certainly wouldn’t let her see, because he had doodled a small penis on the teacher’s crotch. He even used a similar colored ball-point pen and not the red pen for marking to avoid any suspicion.

Anyhow, the semester final-exam wouldn’t be handed out, unless any student had queries with their grades and had requested to see the paper, and only then would it be distributed. Under normal circumstances, these sketches would usually not be seen by anyone else, so Papa Jiao didn’t say anything to Jiao Yuan’s deeds.

Zheng Tan gently pulled his ears. That rascal had such vulgar tastes.

Shortly after, Zheng Tan heard another cry of “huh?” from Jiao Yuan.

“Dad, this person said he has never studied English before, asking you to go easy on him.”

Jiao Yuan said, pointing at the entirely English noun-explaining questions right above the multiple choice that was on the paper in his hand.

Zheng Tan could see that on the blank space beneath the first major question of the exam, below the completely English noun explaining the question, there was an annotation written with a fountain pen. “My dear Mr. Jiao, I am from the XX ethnic group. I have never studied English and did my university entrance exam in the language R. Please be lenient if my response was bad…”

According to the requirements of Chu Hua University, those that failed immediately retook this course. It had been re-examination before, but the school found out that some people had the minds to leave things to chance. If they couldn’t pass, they would do a re-examination since the reexamination was let slip easily, so they became more and more laid back. This resulted in the school implementing a new policy this year— those who fail would directly retake the course.

Initially, a lot of people protested. When Zheng Tan went out for a morning walk, he even saw sheets of paper stuck on the walls and branches of trees. Those were the protests lodged anonymously. Owing to the fact that other schools in Chu Hua City were not as strict, the students condemned the school for being too inhumane, but in the end, they gave up. Some felt ashamed that they had to take the class with the juniors in lower grade when they failed the course, while other were rather optimistic because they now got to know many pretty girls from the junior year.

After hearing Jiao Yuan’s words, Papa Jiao looked at the name on the paper and said, “I know this person’s conditions, so do the other teachers. We will loosen the criteria for him when the time comes.”

“Ah, who would have thought that there is such a good thing. Next time when I get examined on literature and language, I will write at the end of my composition, ‘Sir I have injured my hand, and my handwriting wouldn’t be decent with my injuries. Please go easy on me.’”

Writing was always a pain for Jiao Yuan, dragging his literature and language marks down because of his poor fountain pen handwriting. Sometimes, only a mark or two would make a difference in the rankings. If he had fallen behind in the ranks, then his parents wouldn’t fulfill his wishes. That’s why Jiao Yuan had great resentments against it.

However, even though Jiao Yao’s fountain pen writings were not exceptional, his Chinese brush calligraphy was the polar opposite.

When Jiao Yuan entered the primary school Chinese calligraphy competition, his calligraphy shocked his head teacher. How could someone, whose fountain pen calligraphy looked as if it experiences aplasia, have such brush calligraphy?! Even most middle school students couldn’t compete with such handwritings. Using the words of his head teacher, his calligraphy was already ‘reflecting some strength in character’.

His head teacher also later exclaimed, “Jiao Yuan, when will your fountain pen calligraphy have some style too? Don’t always be ‘underdeveloped’.”

Zheng Tan had seen Jiao Yuan’s fountain pen handwritings. There was a framed Chinese calligraphy that hung on the wall of Jiao Yuan’s room. There were also some sticky notes around the room that were written with fountain pens. The contrast was so f*cking intense that if he hadn’t known the truth, he would have never believed that it was written by the same person.

Jiao Yuan looked at the exam paper in his hands. His mind began to race as he spun his pen.

The semester final exam was cross examined. His own teachers would be marking the papers from the other class, the teacher that marks his paper wouldn’t be able to identify his handwriting… Jiao Yuan nodded, yes, this plan is workable!

“Wipe it out of your head, if you do this in the middle school entrance exam, it would definitely have the opposite result. You think that those teachers are stupid? ” Papa Jiao didn’t even take a look at him, but he knew as soon as Jiao Yuan started spinning his pen that the boy was planning some trickery.

“Oh.” Jiao Yuan sighed and went back to the rest of the markings.

Beep beep beep —

The phone in the bedroom rang.

Papa Jiao looked at the caller ID. His facial expression grew faint.

“Hello…”

Zheng Tan’s hearing was much better than the two kids. The bedroom was only so big and wasn’t a distant away, so he could hear the conversation on the phone.

It was a woman’s voice. Most of the time, it was that woman who spoke, her words intermingled with an occasional phrase in English. Papa Jiao stood there with the receiver, merely responding once or twice and didn’t say much.

Papa Jiao was a man of few words, but to Zheng Tan’s knowledge, Papa Jiao wasn’t usually this indifferent when he was on the phone.

The person on the phone mentioned “she” several times, though Zheng Tan didn’t know who “she” was referring to. The woman said with a great frequency that she would wire the money and hoped that Papa Jiao would take care of “her”.

Sometime later, Papa Jiao finally stopped saying words that ran in the line of “yeah”, “oh” and “okay”. Instead, he asked, “Do you want to speak to her?”

The woman fell silent, then said, “Okay, I have some business I need to attend to. I’m afraid I won’t be able to speak for long.”

Papa Jiao stopped listening to the murmurs that she said on the other side of the telephone and turned to Youzi, who was stilled typing on the calculator. “Youzi, your mum wants to talk to you.”

Zheng Tan’s ears quickly shot up.

Youzi’s mother? That woman who stayed overseas and didn’t want to come back, but had sent her daughter who was only seven back to the country while she lived her merry life out there alone?

Zheng Tan didn’t have any thoughts of associating the woman to Youzi’s mum for a second, mainly because her tone of speech was so distant as if detached, afraid those from Papa Jiao’s side would adhere to her.

That explained Papa Jiao’s reactions.

If it was Zheng Tan, he would curse at her straight away. But unfortunately, Zheng Tan couldn’t talk, he could only cat howl.

Jiao Yuan had stopped marking the papers too. He looked to towards Youzi, eyes filled with sympathy.

Youzi said even less than Papa Jiao did when she answered the call, a single “yeah” and another “oh” and that was it. The woman had hung up on the other end.

Zheng Tan couldn’t resist scratchingbut to scratch his underfoot with his claws. Youzi’s mum only said two sentences: one asking Youzi, “Everything okay?”, and another exhorting her to “be good at Aunty’s house”.

Youzi puckered her lips as she hung up, walked back to continue her calculations, and finished collating the papers she had left a moment ago to ensure no miscalculation. Those papers were torn, bearing the claw marks that Zheng Tan had just made.

“Alright, that’s it for today.” Papa Jiao clapped his hands together, collected the papers that Jiao Yuan and Youzi had in front of them and organized them by categories. “By the way, Youzi, your mum transferred some money for your new year’s gift, what do you have in mind?”

Youzi pondered then said, “Bicycle.”

“I want one as well!” Jiao Yuan said with excitement. How could he forget the bike? He needed to ride a bike when he goes to middle school. He should practice beforehand, then he could go joyriding with Xiong Xiong and others! Since there weren’t many motor vehicles on the campus anyway, this made it even more suitable for bike racing.

Papa Jiao took a look at Jiao Yuan, expression unchanged. “Overruled.”

“Why?”

“Your mum said that it has to wait until the summer break. This applies to Xiong Xiong, Su An and co., they are all not allowed to buy the bicycle before then.”

Regarding the issue of purchasing a bicycle, the mums had already discussed and came to a unanimous decision to not buy them yet. There was still six months left. If they buy it now, those rascals would go crazy on it. They would buy it during the summer break. By then, they could all go together. They even picked the store already. It was owned by a friend of Mama Xiong, they could all get a discount, and if the bikes had any issue, it could be easily resolved.

Hearing that the others were receiving the same treatment, Jiao Yuan no longer felt unequal.

To children at Youzi’s age obviously wouldn’t have the same bike as Jiao Yuan and them. Instead, they would purchase children’s bikes with training wheels. The bike shop was close to the nearby shopping center; the trio strolled there in the afternoon. Zheng Tan didn’t follow them. It was almost the new year, there was a lot of people there which made it inconvenient. He might as well take a nap at home. Or he could huddle in the kitchen, watching Mama Jiao prepare some food for the new year, such as fried meatballs, fried lotus sandwich or some pot stew.

When Zheng Tan huddled there, Mama Jiao would feed him a warm meatball that she had just fried from time to time. Chewing at the meatball in his mouth, Zheng Tan felt that life was so freaking great. This was the so-called living off the labors of others. Opening the mouth only when being fed, sleep when he was full; a carefree life.

The three went in a swift manner and came back even faster. When they returned, Papa Jiao carried a pinkish-purple, already assembled children’s bicycle.

Picking a bike wasn’t an easy job. Don’t think that by installing two training wheels at the back, it would be safe and sound. There was also a need to check whether the handbrakes on the handles were suitable for children. If the size was too big, the child wouldn’t be able to clench the handbrakes when they decelerate. They also needed to check if the brakeage was too strong, whether the bicycle chain cover does cover the entire thing and other details. This way, they could minimize the possibility of injury on the child.

And that was why Papa Jiao asked Youzi to pick and try the bikes herself.

After they had finished trying it out, Youzi asked for a bigger basket, as the original basket that came with it was too small. Even though the bigger one didn’t look as pretty as the original one, Youzi still liked it. Papa Jiao and Jiao Yuan could guess why she wanted such as big basket installed, so they didn’t object.

“Yo, nice bike!” Mama Jiao walked out of the kitchen with the apron around her waist. She smiled at the sight of the basket. “Is this specially made for Charcoal?”

“Yes!” Youzi nodded and looked at Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan shook his tail, walked over and hopped into the basket. Being a children’s bike, it wasn’t as high as Papa Jiao’s electric motor bike. Zheng Tan felt close to the ground. Luckily, the room inside the basket was spacious. Sitting there was not uncomfortable, but something like a furry mat would be better…

Youzi took a fluffy hat out as Zheng Tan was thinking about it. “Cushioning it with this would be better.”

Wheels began to gather dust. Papa Jiao and Jiao Yuan, one on each side, guarded the amateur rider Youzi home. With training wheels, the balance was maintained; she had become accustomed to it after a while.

Jiao Yuan was envious of Youzi, wishing that he could drag a bicycle from the nearby row of bikes and practice with it. However, despite how much he wanted, he never thought of riding Youzi’s little bicycle. A masculine man like him riding such a bike would be a laughingstock!

From that day onwards, Youzi would take a spin downstairs every day with Zheng Tan huddled inside the basket, warm with the furry hat as a cushion. Once, Tiger saw Zheng Tan inside the basket and leaped in. He was driven out by Zheng Tan with a slap. Private cat property, no outside cat allowed.

There weren’t many kids in the courtyard who owned their own bicycle. Every one of them was green with envy as they watched her ride. They kicked up a fuss and demanded their parents to buy one, and when they were turned down, they would ask to borrow Youzi’s bike for a ride. In the end, they were all scared away by Zheng Tan. Thereupon, in a couple days all the kids in the yard knew that there was a fierce black cat in Yu Youzi’s rear basket, and apparently, it scratches children. As a result, gradually even if Jiao Yuan didn’t step in, there was no one that dared to touch Youzi’s bicycle.

At the beginning, Youzi only rode in the yard, then she began to ride outside the yard. She didn’t want to ride in there and always be the target of enmity. There were too many people that were jealous.

Papa Jiao had attended to her. The snow had almost melted with the warm temperatures in the past few days. There was no need to worry about skidding on the frosted road. After a while, Papa Jiao became more assured about her riding outside.

Despite being young, Youzi was a very sensible child. As such, being overly-sensible caused the adults to become fond of them, and be more forgiving to them on everything. The whole family knew that Youzi wasn’t in a good mood lately, probably due to her mother’s phone call, so when Youzi wanted to ride out every day, nobody said a thing.

On this day, Youzi left the courtyard after lunch to ride as usual. Her little bicycle was locked next to Papa Jiao’s electric motorcycle, saving the tiring need to carry it up and down the stairs every day. There wasn’t much room at home anyway, so leaving it there would be inconvenient.

Papa Jiao didn’t ride his motorcycle but chose to stroll behind her. Since Youzi wasn’t riding very fast, Papa Jiao could catch up if he quickened his pace.

Not long after Papa Jiao’s mobile phone rang, Yuan Zi asked him to go to the company as there were matters he needed to take care of. Papa Jiao instructed Youzi not to wander far and ride for a while then head home. After getting the promise he was after, Papa Jiao left.

Without Papa Jiao supervising her, Youzi rode slightly faster, bearing forward along the boulevard.

Zheng Tan surveyed his surroundings. This was the road that he usually jogged on. If you moved ahead, you would reach the woods on the border of the campus.

The destination which Youzi had in mind was indeed this sector of the woods. She had gone there once, following Jiao Yuan and his friends. That was why she remembered it.

The woods was not quiet. All sorts of noises carried far from the nearby construction site. They were working day and night recently, wanting to finish the expected workload because the workers were all in a hurry to head home for the new year.

Youzi rode towards the forest for a while, and was not prepared to venture further. This area wasn’t safe as mentioned many times by the adults. Even though it was broad daylight, Youzi didn’t plan to advance so she started to turn back home.

Just as she was making the turn, children’s laughter transmitted from within the forest, along with the barking of a dog.

Zheng Tan could identify who the dog was. It was the dog owned by the side gate janitor, a black-backed German shepherd. It was adopted not long ago at the age of four months. It sometimes came to the woods frolicking, and had fought with Zheng Tan. Though afterward when they became familiar, it was less rowdy when it saw Zheng Tan. Sometimes, it would run behind Zheng Tan around the woods, but on the whistle of its master, it would swiftly race back.

But what was the situation now? Did it scare the kids?

Youzi hesitated for a second, then parked the bike and locked it on the side. She took a rolling pin from her little backpack; it had retired from Jiao Yuan when he got the toy gun. Jiao Yuan stuffed it in her bag when she came out for a ride.

Seeing that Youzi had entered the woods wielding a rolling pin in her hands, Zheng Tan hurried ahead and scouted at a distance ahead of her.