Chapter 13

Yi Xin nervously explained the purpose, and when Professor Lan heard that Zheng Tan had fleas, she snorted, "Serves him right!"

However, having said that, Professor Lan still went to get medicine for Zheng Tan, and Zheng Tan followed her into the room.

As for Yi Xin, he was mopping the living room floor with a mop.

Professor Lan is a retired staff member of the Life Sciences College at Chu Hua Da Xue; although she has retired and no longer teaches, she still wields considerable influence in the college, and moreover, even though she no longer teaches, several companies hire Old Man Lan at high pay to serve as a consultant, and Old Man Lan has cooperative relationships with many companies. So, don't let Old Man Lan's simple, modest home décor fool you—her net worth is not small.

Professor Lan always wears a stern face, giving the impression of a bad temper, overly strict. Professor Lan from time to time goes to the Life Sciences College to stroll around; when the botany course's practical guidance is underway, the old man stands by supervising, and some young teachers speak with a lack of confidence, let alone the students—they dare not even breathe.

It's no wonder Yi Xin stammered when he saw Old Man Lan—he had come up from the same school, and his memories of the botany course back then were still vivid. So Yi Xin was quite curious: Old Man Lan is not the type to judge people by their looks; even if the current head of the Life Sciences College were here, Old Man Lan might not give him face. In other words, it definitely isn't because of the boss, but why is Old Man Lan so tolerant of the boss's cat?

It's only because of this that Old Man Lan treats him this way—in fact, it's just something Zheng Tan happened to do. Over a month ago, when Zheng Tan went downstairs for a stroll, he ran into Old Man Lan's wife, Madam Zhailaotaitai. The lady had a heart condition; at that time she had helped another elderly lady from another building move some heavy items, and on her way back up the stairs she suddenly showed signs of an attack. It was during work/class hours, and Old Man Lan was away on a trip. The lady pulled out a bottle containing ** pills, her hand shook, and the bottle rolled down the stairs. Her condition made even moving a step difficult. In the end, Zheng Tan ran downstairs, snatched the bottle in his mouth, and brought it back to the lady.

The lady took the medicine in time and soon felt better. Since then, Madam Zhailaotaitai smiles whenever she sees Zheng Tan; if she were home today, Old Man Lan definitely wouldn't dare scold Zheng Tan a word. To outsiders, Old Man Lan has a big temper, but at home he only gets scolded by his wife—of course, when outsiders are present, the lady still gives Old Man Lan face.

So Zheng Tan leans on the lady's backing and isn't the least bit afraid of Old Man Lan's tense old face.

Old Man Lan took out two bottles, one containing liquid, the other powdered medicine.

The liquid medicine is for Zheng Tan to soak in, to prevent picking up fleas when he goes out to play; Zheng Tan had used it before, but after finishing it he found it troublesome and never came back to ask Old Man Lan for more. As for the powdered medicine, it is to be sprinkled on the body. These items aren't sold outside; they are all concocted by Old Man Lan himself, pure, natural, and safe—even if a cat licks some into its mouth, it's fine, and since Zheng Tan never licks his own fur, there's even less to worry about.

Old Man Lan poured some powder into his palm, then smeared it onto Zheng Tan's fur.

Zheng Tan turned his head to look at the messy, sticking-up fur on his back, half-lidded eyes gazing at the old man. The old man said nothing; after applying the powder, he slowly screwed the cap back on, slowly put the bottle away, then slowly smoothed Zheng Tan's ruffled fur back into place, and after it was neat he gave it two hearty pats—almost knocking Zheng Tan over.

"If this medicine were sold, you could buy a house full of cats with the profit—you're getting such a great deal; when are you going to help me out in the little flower garden?"

Old Man Lan didn't really expect the cat to understand; he was just messing around, and besides, he gave Zheng Tan a few extra pats as revenge.

Zheng Tan flicked his ears, shook his fur, ignored the old man muttering to himself, walked out of the room, and prepared to go back.

Outside, Yi Xin had already finished mopping, sitting stiffly on the edge of the sofa; even a fool could see his nervousness.

Old Man Lan handed the two bottles to Yi Xin, then went back to the room and fetched a small brown glass bottle, saying, "Those two bottles are for the cat; you don't need me to explain how to use them—just ask your advisor. This brown bottle contains insecticide, 10× concentrate; dilute it yourself when you use it."

Having said that, Old Man Lan flung open the front door, gesturing for the person and the cat to go out.

"Um... thank you for the trouble!"

Yi Xin forced himself to say thanks, held the bottles in his hands, and followed Zheng Tan out the door.

Only after returning to the fifth floor, Jiao Family residence, did Yi Xin finally let out a long breath.

And Zheng Tan now feels much more at ease; having solved the flea problem, he feels completely comfortable, and idly tore open a bag of grilled fish strips and began to eat.

However, before the person and cat could relax too much, the door sounded.

From the frequency of the knocking and the movement outside, Zheng Tan had already guessed who the visitor was, and he looked up at the ceiling, thinking, "Will I ever get any peace?!"

Yi Xin didn't know who was outside until he opened the door.

At the door were three boys, about the same age as Jiao Yuan, all sixth-graders at the Chu Hua Da Xue-affiliated elementary school, all living in the staff compound, and they often played together. Zheng Tan knew them, but Yi Xin did not.

Before Yi Xin could ask, a child spoke up: "Who are you?!"

The question was posed with righteous indignation; one of the sturdier boys even pulled a small rolling pin with mouse-tooth marks from his backpack, fully on guard.

Seeing the three kids clearly on guard and suspicious, Yi Xin's attempt at a friendly smile froze; he spent five minutes explaining his identity, even producing his graduate student ID to prove himself.

The three little brats huddled together, looked at the photo on the graduate student ID, then glanced at Yi Xin.

"The person in the photo must be your brother—he looks far more world-worn than you." said the boy holding the rolling pin; he paused, then suddenly delighted, "I actually got to use the word 'world-worn'!"

"Hope you remember to use it in your next essay—you might even score over ninety." another kid said, handing back Yi Xin's graduate student ID.

The three entered the living room, glanced at Zheng Tan lying calmly on the sofa, and only then truly relaxed—the cat showed no abnormality, proving that the one named Yi Xin really was an acquaintance, so they each sat down on the sofa.

Yi Xin saw that the sofa had no free seats, so he fetched a stool from the dining table.

The three boys on the sofa all turned to look at Yi Xin as he prepared to sit down, leaving Yi Xin bewildered, as if he had done something that provoked heaven and resentment.

Watching this scene, Zheng Tan let out a long sigh, jumped off the sofa, went to the fridge, jumped up and pulled it open.

"Oh~~"

"Still, Hei Tan is the sensible one!"

"What a way to treat guests—this Mr. Yi, even a cat knows this principle."

The criticized Yi Xin: "..." Damn, if this were my house I'd get it too, but the problem is this is Boss Jiao's home—I even have to be careful eating a bag of snacks! I'm a guest as well!

The stoutest boy moved the fastest, darting to the fridge and rummaging around familiarly.

"Xiong Xiong, I want mango flavor—I saw Jiao Yuan hide it in the very back last time; dig it out for me!"

"I want apple flavor!"

Yi Xin's face twitched—Is this some kind of devil's invasion?

Xiong Xiong used his chubby little hand to flip around twice, pulling out three popsicles.

Seeing the three kids sitting on the sofa gnawing on popsicles, Yi Xin asked, "What brings you three little ones here?"

"My grandfather said someone's here; we noticed Jiao Yuan hasn't been to school for days, so we came to ask." said the child who had been scolding Yi Xin for not knowing how to treat guests.

"Um, your grandfather is?"

"My grandfather is Lan Tiesu."

Yi Xin: "..." His smile began to falter.

Lan Tiesu is Old Man Lan's name.

These three kids: one is Old Man Lan's grandson Lan Tianzhu, another is the child of a teacher from the Chemistry College named Su An, and the last, the stout one, is called Xiong Xiong; Zheng Tan doesn't know their exact identities, only hearing that their family has some background and they're quite close to the school principal.

Yi Xin knew his boss had some business out of province, though he didn't know the details, so when explaining he only said the Jiao Family had some matters and would be away for a week.

"Oh, I see." Xiong Xiong wasn't entirely satisfied with Yi Xin's explanation, but having come all this way, and with his mom recently forbidding him from eating too cold stuff, if he went out like this he'd likely get caught and scolded again—finishing the popsicles before leaving wasn't bad.

After thinking, Xiong Xiong asked Yi Xin, "You're from the Life Sciences College, right? I have a question."

Yi Xin sat up straight and said, "Please go ahead."

"I've heard that if you don't eat breakfast, your body will start eating feces—is that true?"

Zheng Tan, lying on the sofa with eyes closed pretending to nap but ears perked up: "..."

Su An and Lan Tianzhu also looked curiously at Yi Xin, waiting for an answer.

Yi Xin's smile on his face faltered a bit, but he still academicized the question a little, thought for a moment, and said: "Strictly speaking, it's not correct. After food enters the small intestine, nutrients are digested and absorbed; the remaining residue enters the large intestine and is gradually expelled from the body in the form of feces and urine. However, the large intestine is not like the small intestine; it has no absorptive function, only able to absorb a small amount of water and inorganic salts, etc. So even if you haven't eaten breakfast, those "residual evils" in the large intestine will not be absorbed by you again, thus proving that your viewpoint is not correct."

"I told you my mom was bluffing me again!" Xiong Xiong said angrily.

"You can argue with your mom." Lan Tianzhu spoke up.

"No way, I'll be punished to kneel on the washboard." Xiong Xiong said dejectedly.

"What's the big deal about kneeling on a washboard? I knelt on my keyboard the other day—I won't get up unless I kneel off that space bar." Su An, who was gnawing on a popsicle beside them, said.

"Why?"

"To verify whether aqua regia really can dissolve gold, I threw my mom's gold leaf earring into it to dissolve."

Zheng Tan, Yi Xin: "..." This prodigal child!

"Because of this, my dad won't let me enter his lab again, and my mom withheld my pocket money for a month." Su An snorted.

"Actually..." Lan Tianzhu wiped her mouth, "Corporal punishment of children is illegal, right? You can call 110."

"No use, I've tried." Xiong Xiong said angrily, "After I called, my mom brought out an even larger washboard for me to kneel on."

Zheng Tan, Yi Xin: "..."

"His grandma's, kids have no human rights!" Xiong Xiong exclaimed.

Lan Tianzhu glanced at it: "Mind your manners."

"His grandma's, kids have no human rights!" Xiong Xiong said again.

Zheng Tan, Yi Xin: "..."

Saying this, Xiong Xiong rolled up his pant legs to let everyone see the red marks he had pinched on his legs.

Zheng Tan, Yi Xin: "!!"

"Your mom is so harsh!" Lan Tianzhu and Su An gulped.

"No," Xiong Xiong said with a smug look, "this is me pinching myself to make my crying seem genuine! My mom actually softened, changing the original hour to fifteen minutes of kneeling~"

Zheng Tan, Yi Xin: "..." What smug nonsense! What's there to be smug about!

Listening to the conversation between the three brats, Zheng Tan felt that he himself had indeed been damn naive back then.

And Yi Xin at this moment was roaring in his heart: "What the hell, how are kids these days growing up like that?"

The three Xiao Pihai finished gnawing their popsicles, then reluctantly shouldered their backpacks and left. Before leaving, they also reminded Yi Xin and Zheng Tan: "Recently there have been thieves in the compound; be careful—several households have already been robbed. Don't lend out your access cards, and don't let strangers into the building."

After the three kids left, Zheng Tan and Yi Xin finally felt the world quiet down.

Boiling water for the cat, blow-drying its fur, applying medicine, and also having to entertain the little friends... After a day of this, they were utterly exhausted. Yi Xin decided that once Boss Jiao returns, he must definitely apply for a raise! Definitely!

Zheng Tan didn't bother to ask what Yi Xin was thinking; he himself was also tired, these two days have been enough of an ordeal. Recalling Wei Leng's words, Zheng Tan decided to go for a run tomorrow. It's rare, but Zheng Tan didn't even make it to eight o'clock before falling asleep at night.

Yi Xin used Boss Jiao's computer to finish revising his paper, checked the time—it was already past 2 a. m., stretched, turned off the computer, and went to the living room to sleep on the sofa. As he passed Gu Youzi's room, he peered inside, using the light from the living room, and saw on the children's bed a huge Husky doll lying in the middle, while the black cat was sprawled on top of it, one leg curled up, the other leg pressed flat against the doll's smug, big bun face, sleeping soundly.

Yi Xin pursed his lips—what a terrible sleeping pose!

In his dream, Zheng Tan dreamed that his strength had increased and he had caught that thief.

————————————————————————

Thanks to Wu Lanfeng, Qi Huang Liu Xuan, Shu Mutou Ren, fishcat, AtmanX, Ai Qian, lazyorange for the tips! Thanks to nego118 for the rating vote! Thanks to everyone supporting this book! Wishing everyone a smooth new week~

;