Strange Life of a Cat

Regardless of being a student of the associate primary school or Chu Hua University itself, the school term had started consecutively after the lantern festival.

The beginning of the school term caused some to be cheerful and others to have polar opposite feelings.

In Zheng Tan’s perception, the university students had more smiles on their faces when they returned to the campus than the children from the associate primary school.

The children from year one and two were still desperately trying to find excuses to not go to school. The eyes of some children at the primary school gate were red, snuffing their noses now and then, as they shuffled towards the school gate under their parents’ coercion.

In contrast, the youngsters that rode past on their bike like a gust of wind were in a much better mood, rushing to find the girls that they missed dearly after a long time of not meeting.

The psychologies of the year six children were unique, carrying the complex emotions of “I am finally growing up” and “Sh*t, there is still so many homework and tests”, spending their final moments in primary school.

Zheng Tan didn’t know if every year six brat had that conflicting psychology, at least Jiao Yuan did. Little rascals always had mysterious excitements and worries. Just like what Papa Jiao had said, they were about to hit puberty.

Ah, children in puberty…

If that was true, then after entering middle school, Jiao Yuan could no longer be considered as a kid. He would belong to the category of “young man”. Yes, he could probably find some “adult” book in Jiao Yuan’s room in the future.

Zheng Tan huddled on the couch. The tip of his tail gently swayed as he watched Jiao Yuan and Youzi leave the house. Mama Jiao walked them to school, then went to do grocery shopping after dropping off the kids.

Zheng Tan didn’t go out for the past few days in daylight. The campus was filled with people; it was extremely lively. After the new students had reported to the university, the school that had remained silent for the winter break became rowdy again.

Zheng Tan didn’t want to saunter outside at a time like this, as it was inconvenient. Therefore, Zheng Tan had adjusted his lifestyle for the first week of school. He slept at home during the daytime and staked out in the night after eating supper.

The past few nights of staking out allowed Zheng Tan to gain an understanding of the tattooed man’s daily routine, but that was far from enough. He must make sure that the plan succeeded the first time by tailing him for several times more. Besides, the resources at hand were still lacking, there were still some things not found.

Zheng Tan napped on the couch for a while. When he woke up, he realized that it was only nine thirty in the morning. Mama Jiao hadn’t come back yet, probably chatting with someone again.

Stretching out, Zheng Tan looked out the window. The sun shined bright, but the temperature remained low as before. Those who walked past were still wearing dense puffer jackets.

Bored and unable to sleep, Zheng Tan decided that he might as well go for a walkabout.

Tiger had become a lot lazier after the new year, fatter too. Zheng Tan had often seen Tiger lying asleep on his balcony. His head peeped slightly through the railings of the balcony and his tail swung outside, occasionally swaying as if he was afraid that others didn’t know he was sleeping there. Luckily, the gaps between the railings were not wide, Tiger wouldn’t fall through from the opening.

As for Sheriff, its family had chained it at home because there were many cat dealers during the new year period that were catching cats illegally. After several cats from the surroundings had gone missing, Sheriff, who had always roamed outside, was compelled to not leave the house, even if it made the earth tremble with its calls.

Without them, Zheng Tan felt having more freedom and at ease alone.

After an exercise of climbing the tree, Zheng Tan trekked through the unpopulated forest. There weren’t many people walking along the campus boulevards. The two rows of Chinese parasol tree along the side of the lanes no longer appeared bleak, perhaps because the campus had gained some popularity.

Zheng Tan wandered aimlessly towards the places with sunlight. No wind, the sun gleamed on the furs on his body. It made it warm and fluffy, and very comfortable.

Zheng Tan’s eyes squinted as he enjoyed the pleasant sunlight. Suddenly, he heard someone calling his name.

Looking towards the source of the voice, Zheng Tan saw a figure wearing a long and loose fur parka standing on the other side of the flower bed and waving at him.

Zhuo?

Zheng Tan changed his direction and headed towards Zhuo.

Compared to the last time Zheng Tan had seen her, Zhuo’s stomach was now evidently protruding. Even wearing loose winter clothes couldn’t cover up the bulging curve.

Zhuo had a bag in her hands, and inside the bag was a book. It looked new, most likely freshly bought from the bookstore near the front gate of the university.

“What are you doing here?” Zhuo looked at Zheng Tan and said. She bent her back and extended her hand to gently touch Zheng Tan’s forehead.

Despite knowing that in front of her was a cat which can’t talk, Zhuo still asked as an involuntary habit.

Those people who spent a lot of time with animals would also be like that, talking when they see other animals instead of mimicking their cries.

Zheng Tan was somewhat afraid of approaching Zhuo. With the sight of that belly, what would you do if something happened? She bent her back with a little difficulty just by the looks of it. Besides, wasn’t it said that pregnant women avoided cats at any cost because of the problem of toxoplasmosis?

Taking a look at his surroundings, Zheng Tan realized that he had unconsciously approached the roundabouts of the western resident courtyard. So Zhuo had spent this period of time living in the western courtyard?

“Come on, let’s go to my place?” Zhuo took two steps then stepped a foot and turned to look at Zheng Tan, a little anticipated.

Zheng Tan stood unmoved and thought, it had been a while since his cold was healed, as for the problem of toxoplasmosis… He probably didn’t have it? He appeared to be quite healthy and bathed often. He had slept daily in the same bed as Youzi. Judging from the sight of Youzi looking fine, there was probably nothing that could contaminate Zhuo.

After a slight hesitation, Zheng Tan looked at the hopeful eyes of Zhuo and strode.

Noticing that Zheng Tan had followed her, Zhuo’s face immediately showed signs of happiness. She walked ahead while talking to Zheng Tan about the things that occurred in the previous months.

Zhuo didn’t usually talk to people. There was only a handful whom she could speak with. However, Zhuo wouldn’t tell them that thing at heart straight away. She was still reserved towards people, but to cats, it was different.

People could talk to some animals, or objects with psychological sentiments, about their innermost thoughts more easily. This was a way of catharsis. Many people owned pets for this reason.

It became inconvenient for Zhuo to move around afterward because her belly became bigger and bigger. She needed to recuperate. “Buddha” was worried about Zhuo running around every day. Just as it happened that the allocation of ownership for the new building in the western courtyard had begun, “Buddha” gave Zhuo the household that belonged to her.

People like “Buddha” were already famous and wealthy. They didn’t care about a single house. If it was usual, “Buddha” wouldn’t even fight with other teachers over it, but for Zhuo, “Buddha” did.

Just a single sentence from “Buddha”, and others would have to move aside.

This time around, there were not many people moving around outdoors in the western courtyard. During working hours, there were only some scattered few in the courtyard that could be seen.

The houses on this side of the western courtyard were very new. Some buildings had a similar layout to the buildings in the eastern area, but looked much more luxurious in the exterior and looked fashionable in appearance. The greenery was alright, but definitely not as good as the eastern side. Although the architectural design was very brilliant, Zheng Tan was still not quite used to it.

Perhaps he had gotten used to the old houses in the eastern courtyard. Facing these spectacular new buildings, Zheng Tan felt something was missing.

Zheng Tan recalled the time when he first came to this place. Many residential buildings by the eastern yard had Japanese creepers that climbed all over. The nearby trees had flourished, and somebody even built a grape trellis at the corner of the courtyard. At dusk, some elderly people would sit there, fluttering the brown spotted bamboo-shell fan in their hands, speaking freely.

Some said that old was a sentiment, that was true. Time had corroded them for over ten years, experiencing many generations of compiling emotions that sedimented. This was probably the reason why those old professors would still live happily in that old house that was not big.

After living in the eastern yard for a while, Zheng Tan had finally felt the serenity in such simplicity.

Zhuo didn’t live in those houses that Zheng Tan saw when entering the residential quarters; it was deeper in.

The western resident courtyard was much bigger than the eastern courtyard, so other than the front door, there were also some side doors.

The front area opposite the central gate in the courtyard was composed of six level buildings. Walking further inside, there were a few newly-built buildings with elevators. It was very close to one of the side doors, Zhuo would sometimes enter and leave through this side door, as it was easier to go outside the campus from here. Today, she had just finished buying the book when she suddenly decided to take a stroll on campus. She hadn’t expected to meet Zheng Tan.

Getting the quota of these elevator houses wasn’t an easy thing.

Zheng Tan followed Zhuo into the lift. There was no one else in the elevator and if there were, they would definitely be surprised as to why there was a cat in this elevator. The cats take the lift too?

Zhuo pressed the button for level six, the central area of the building.

“Here is where I live now.”

Zhuo pointed towards the house with the door number of “606” after exiting the elevator. It still had spring festival couplets stuck on the door.

Zheng Tan waited for Zhuo to open the door then entered. He discovered that there were scents of strangers inside there, so he stayed at the doorway and sniffed.

Observing Zheng Tan’s reaction, Zhuo smiled and said, “Mrs. Ye hired someone to take care of me, but she is not here today. She left on some business.”

How considerate of “Buddha”. Anyhow, no one could ease up with her carrying that big of a belly around, Zheng Tan thought.

Zheng Tan took a look at the decoration in this room. Approximately a hundred square meters in size, with excellent lighting, the decorations were filled with a sense of modernization and the tones of color were warm as well.

There were some fruit baskets on the table, each filled with all sorts of fruits while the other basket had other snacks in it.

Zheng Tan hopped onto the table and moved towards the side of the baskets to get a better look. Inside, it had some things like candied fruits and sour plums.

“Those were given by the family members of Mrs. Ye. I can’t finish them. Do you want some?” Zhuo took a handful of skinned peanuts and walnuts from a bag. She hesitated after she took it out. She didn’t know if cats could eat these or not.

Who cares if other cats could or could not? Zheng Tan ate it anyway.

“Stay here for lunch at noon.” Zhuo stroked Zheng Tan’s head and said.

Zheng Tan scratched his ears.

Lonely pregnant woman…

Never mind, I will bite the bullet and stay with you for a little longer.

Zheng Tan looked at the peeled nuts inside the bag. Eating some snacks and taking it a nap, and it will be afternoon soon. It’s not that unbearable.

Zhuo didn’t know if the cat before her understood what she had said, so she rang Papa Jiao during break time and explained the things just in case the Jiao family became anxious waiting at home.

Zhuo knew that this cat sitting opposite her meant a lot to the Jiao family. During the time when Mama Jiao was hospitalized, Zhuo heard some things about this black cat when she visited. They really valued this cat. Besides, Zhuo didn’t know what to treat this black cat like other cats in the courtyard.

This black cat is special.

At noon, the housemaid which “Buddha” hired came back to cook lunch.

When that housemaid saw Zheng Tan, her facial expression could be described as horrified. She believed that it was best for pregnant women to not be too close to cats. This kind of animal liked to run around, liked to eat insects and rats. The organisms that it provoked were a list long. Who knew if it carried any diseases!

The housemaid said some words about cats possibly carrying germs or parasites, and how these germs and parasites would affect the fetus. But Zhuo only answered with a few “yeah” to show that she was still hearing her, then continued letting Zheng Tan lie beside her quite close together.

Seeing that her warnings were useless, the housemaid called “Buddha” in the kitchen while cooking and reported the situation.

“Cat?!” Buddha’s voice on the other end of the phone increased in volume, sounding dissatisfied.

“Yes, yes.” the housemaid detected the unsatisfactory mood of “Buddha” and continued to say, “It’s even black!”

Some people from where the housemaid came from believed that black cats were ominous, so she never had any good impressions on this kind of cat with pure black fur.

“Black?” The tone of “Buddha” lowered, becoming more moderate.

“Yes.”

“Charcoal?”

“Ummm… Probably, that was what Zhuo called it.”

“Then let it be.”

“What?”

“That cat is different.” Since “Buddha” knew that Zhuo was quite familiar to this cat, she intentionally investigated into the daily regimen, other living conditions as well as habits and temper of this cat. The result made “Buddha” quite satisfied. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have given a different attitude to only a minor assistant professor.

“Oh.” After hanging up, the housemaid was still filled with confusion. What difference did this black cat have?

The housemaid extended her head and looked at the black cat that was crouching on the other side of the bedroom on a moon chair. She shook her head. She couldn’t see anything special. It looked just like other black cats that she had seen, not an ear more or an eye less.

In the end, the housemaid summarized the attitudes of “Buddha” and Zhuo as “the rationality of scientific researcher”.

Zheng Tan squatted on a softly padded moon chair in Zhuo’s room and held his arms up.

This pose was learned by Zheng Tan from Fatty and others. The first time he saw Fatty with this pose, Zheng Tan was puzzled. What was with the egg hatching pose? Afterward, Zheng Tan stuffed a quail-egg-sized round pebble between the two claws held by Fatty.

Yes, now it looked even more like egg hatching.

Zheng Tan remembered the speechless eyes of Fatty. Fatty then moved its front claws and pushed the pebble out.

Later, Zheng Tan also saw Tiger squatting with the same pose, and did the same thing to him. In the end, Tiger only winked his eyes, meowed, then remained unmoved. From then on, every time Zheng Tan saw Tiger crouched like that, he would have the thought of stuffing a pebbled inside. Or when it was time, an egg maybe?

Zheng Tan found out later on that many cats liked that. It would seem that the cats were more content when they made that pose and temporarily wouldn’t use their claws.

From thereon, Zheng Tan learned to crouch like that and held two hands up. He heard that this was called the peasant tuck (“meatloaf”). After getting used to the tuck, Zheng Tan felt that the feeling wasn’t too bad.

The perfume of food and dishes wafted from the kitchen. Lying on the lounge, Zhuo moved the book away and rubbed her eyes. She looked towards the black cat on the moon chair, squint-eyed and crouched with claws tucked in, and silently laughed. Maybe she should have a cat in the household in the future. Not an exotic species, a domestic breed would be enough. It didn’t have to be too hard working. A bit lazy was fine. Having a preference to eat snacks sneakily was okay as well…

At the same time, in that little restaurant not far from the old residential area alleyway, the waiter who came to carry the liquor looked at the half-empty beer box and jabbered. He felt the person who was drinking without permission had become more and more unacceptable, was he going to finish the entire box?