Strange Life of a Cat

Zheng Tan found a little note on the stairs leading to the fourth floor. It was stuck right at his eye level.

“When leaving the house, turn off all unnecessary electronics to avoid a safety risk. Draw the curtains after closing the windows to avoid dust storms. Remember to bring food… For specifics please see the detailed description on the desk.”

It was in Papa Jiao’s handwriting.

Zheng Tan sighed. With some difficulty, he opened the front door using the keys on his neck, then went into the master bedroom. Sure enough, spread out on the desk was a notebook with instructions on things he must do before leaving the house.

Zheng Tan obediently followed the steps while going around the house, switching off electronics and drawing curtains.

He snatched up a pack of crackers before finally leaving the house again.

He let himself out the building door after swiping his security access card.

He climbed up a parasol tree on the side of the main road. There, beside a branch was a hole the size of a fist. Zheng Tan hid the key and access card inside, before covering it up with leaves.

There were very few birds near the residential quarters. As for the other cats, they preferred to play in the grove and generally left the trees near the road alone. So Zheng Tan knew his stuff would be safe here.

After all, it would be highly inconvenient for him to take his pet identity card and home key on a long road trip. If he was caught for any misdeeds, there would be a lot of trouble.

After settling that business, Zheng Tan went to Dongyuan supermarket to wait for an opportunity to get on the truck.

The driver was busy unloading. When he was done, he was leaning on the truck door for a cigarette when he saw Zheng Tan sitting in a bush nearby with a pack of finger crackers beside him.

“Yo, Charcoal. Going out to play today?”

The delivery driver knew Zheng Tan and was familiar with his antics. He had done this before, except this time he had a bag of biscuits. Maybe it was a long trip?

He had already taken the truck twice. At first, the driver was not happy at all with his passenger. However, after receiving a bottle of alcohol and two cartons of cigarettes from Papa Jiao, he was mighty pleased to see Zheng Tan.

As long as the cat still rode his truck, he would continue to receive gifts. The cigarettes and wine were good stuff. They would cost over 100 yuan at the department store downtown.

Zheng Tan stretched lazily. He picked up the biscuits and went into the back of the truck to wait for the driver to settle his accounts with the supermarket manager.

The truck compartment was empty today.

“Hey Charcoal, I’m done with all my deliveries today so I’m not going to the department store. We’ll leave through the gate on the North, instead of the East gate. I’m going home directly this time.”

The last two times, Zheng Tan went to check out the department store. It was about a 20-minute walk from the residential quarters. From there, he could clearly see all the tall buildings belonging to Chuhua University. The school campus was huge. One end was several bus stops away from the other.

The truck driver did not expect a cat to understand what he just said. His job was just to give the black cat a ride. Where the cat was riding to was none of his business.

It was almost six when his work here at Dongyuan Supermarket was completed, and off they went toward the North gate.

The sun was setting on the horizon. It was spectacular sight of orange and red. Students were coming in and out of the North end cafeteria. The last period just ended. They were chatting excitedly about their days.

Squatting in the shadow of the truck, Zheng Tan looked at the students passing by. They reminded him of himself. He was suddenly sad. Before coming here, he was a junior in college.

When the trucked reached a fork in the road near the cafeteria, Zheng Tan saw a young man wearing a white uniform riding an old bicycle that creaked everywhere but the bell. If you didn’t see ‘Chuhua University North end Canteen’ printed on his chest, you would think he just came out of a laboratory.

Surrounded by the future elites, this young man on the old bike did not show any envy nor any self-consciousness. He rode his bike into the sunset, humming, with a grin on his face. The wind was blowing gently on his face. His canteen uniform suddenly seemed like high end fashion.

From the north gate of Chuhua University, Zheng Tan could see the lights from the central department store even though it was nowhere close. These were familiar sights. The huge LED screens were lit; neon lights were blazing everywhere. This was a metropolitan city.

Zheng Tan looked at the scenery back away from the car window. He felt like an outsider looking in; not knowing where he fit. He saw a lot, but his mind was oddly blank. It was as if he entered a trance.

The truck left city center and took the Third Ring Road to the suburbs. The night was growing dark and the wind was growing cold.

The small truck suddenly came to a halt. Still in a daze, Zheng Tan slid and banged into the side of the compartment.

He combed the fur on the top of his head with his paw.

From the conversation outside, he could tell that the driver was home. So, he got up and shook the dust off himself. He snatched up his crackers and jumped off the truck. He decided to look around for a place to sleep first. He could do the sightseeing in the morning.

He was a cat now. But, he was still a morning person.

As Zheng Tan was looking for accommodations, the phone rang in a certain room in the graduate student dormitory in Chuhua University.

The guy closest to the phone picked it up. He exchanged a few words of pleasantries before respectfully replying: “I’ll go get him. He should be done showering by now. Please hold.”

He put the phone down on the table before walking towards the bunk bed across from him.

The person on the bed was fast asleep. He was somehow grinding his teeth while laughing at the same time. After the initial scare, the other three people living in the dorm learned to ignore this creepy behavior.

The man who had just answered the phone whispered to the guy asleep: “Yi Xin, your boss is on the phone! I told him you were taking a shower.”

The words ‘your boss’ worked like a charm. The guy sobered up immediately. He jumped up and ran into the washroom to clear his throat.

He didn’t want his voice to be hoarse, betraying the fact he just woke up. Yi Xin did not want his academic mentor to know he was sleeping at this golden hour for memorization.

“Professor Jiao, you were looking for me? Sorry I was showering earlier.” Yi Xin pick up the phone. He felt he was doing a good job pretending.

His gaming roommates were even in on the act and stopped using the keyboard. They even started a fake conversation on nutrition, specifically why it was necessary to consume meat with garlic.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. “Sorry to wake you up,” said Papa Jiao.

‘Damn it,’ thought Yi Xin, ‘what were Professor Jiao’s ears made of?’

Luckily for Yi Xin, Papa Jiao decided to let it go.

“Are you free right now?”

“Yes!” Yi Xin replied hurriedly. Even if that was not true, he would find time.

So twenty minutes later, there he was, with the key he got from his professor’s office drawer, standing in the professor’s living room.

This was Yi Xin’s second time in his mentor’s home. The first time was when he first got accepted into the program early this year. He was professor Jiao’s first graduate student, plus he was quite capable. Professor Jiao valued him greatly, therefore he was invited to dinner.

Yi Xin had never met Zheng Tan. No one other than the family knew about Zheng Tan’s occasional visits to the Bio Building. So the boy had yet to find out his mentor’s cat was a bit special.

He didn’t see the cat after searching the apartment. He looked inside the bedroom and called Papa Jiao back from the landline.

“Hey Boss, did your cat run away from home? I don’t see him.” Yi Xin wanted to bite his tongue after he said those words. What was that familiarity? Who did he think he was talking to?

“Is the air conditioner unplugged?”

“Yes. So is the stove,” Yi Xin answered eagerly. He quickly described the situation inside the place.

“Professor, should I go get a bag of cat food?”

“No, that’s unnecessary, as long as the fridge is full and the snacks on the sofa are still there.”

Yi Xin was at a loss for words. Could you raise a cat like that?

“Come and check every day. Call me from my landline. Don’t worry about your work report this week.”

Hearing that he didn’t have to report his experiment progress this week was a huge relief for Yi Xin. The experiment had not been going well these past few days. He really didn’t have anything to report.

“Rest assured. I will come here to check on him every day at this time.”

On a train somewhere, Papa Jiao pocketed his cell phone after his call and looked out into the night.

Darn it! That rascal ran out again!