Chapter 132

Even this car matter can't be rushed.

Life should go on as it always has. Zheng Tan, feeling bored, would play with a few cats from Dongqu Dayuan, or go out for a walk, and occasionally follow Wei Leng out to de-stress.

During this period, Fang Shaokang came over twice, both times brought by Tong Qing in his car, without staying long; he just stopped by on his way, coming and going quickly.

Although Fang Shaokang's stay was brief, Zheng Tan also learned a few things from him, such as Yuan Zhiyi and the others having successfully landed Lao Liu as a big client, and how Lao Liu's son Liu Yaoping likes to tease the dog by remote‑controlling a toy car at home; Zheng Tan wasn't there, but Mantou seemed to have taken an interest in the toy car, and whenever Liu Yaoping was playing with it outside, Mantou would follow it, only occasionally getting distracted—after all, there was no cat on the toy car to tease it now and then.

Lao Liu had even suggested to Fang Shaokang when to bring Zheng Tan over to play, but Fang Shaokang has been busy lately and never had the chance; he only mentioned it briefly to Jiao Ba, which could be seen as a precaution, so maybe one day he'll really come over to take the cat out to play.

In Chu Hua Shi, this November's temperature isn't particularly low, and the weather has been clear lately; Zheng Tan likes to go out for a leisurely stroll, or find a spot to lie down and bask in the sun.

This afternoon, Zheng Tan left the gate of Dongqu Dayuan, feeling the temperature brought by the sunlight, and walked along a small path. The direction the path led to was not the teaching area or the dormitory area; over there there were more old houses, and the school seemed not to have planned to move that area in the past two years—at least Zheng Tan, from the time he came here until now, had not noticed any major commotion there. It was not like the noisy scene when houses were torn down to build dormitories near the woods by the side gate.

Several birds of unknown species were walking on the grass, pecking at it, apparently searching for food. Upon seeing Zheng Tan, the timid and cautious ones had already flown away or hopped aside, while the bolder ones remained where they were, though they stayed alert; as soon as Zheng Tan approached, they would surely fly away.

Zheng Tan also had no inclination to catch those birds; if it were A Huang or Jingzhang, they might be interested, but Zheng Tan simply had no mind to catch birds. As for Da Pang, that fellow had recently started to fatten up again.

Da Pang's elderly grandmother probably worried seeing him like that. Every time she went out, she brought Da Pang along, supposedly to get him to move more, but the so-called moving more was just a few slow steps; the grandmother was old, and she didn't walk fast either. Da Pang following her wasn't tiring. I heard that at the place where the grandmother learns Kunqu opera, someone would tease Da Pang with something, but Da Pang never gave face, making it even less likely he'd move. When annoyed, he would jump to a high spot, lie down and sleep. He looked extremely lazy.

While thinking and walking, Zheng Tan found a good spot to bask in the sun, jumped onto the roof of a one-story old tile house, found a comfortable place, and lay on his side there to sunbathe.

After jumping up, Zheng Tan noticed that on several similar old blue-tile houses nearby there were other cats, all lying lazily basking in the sun. Upon seeing Zheng Tan, two of them curiously observed him for a while, then apparently decided he posed no threat, felt sleepy, and continued to doze with half-closed eyes.

Don't be fooled by how these cats seem lethargic to the point of being immovable; but as soon as there is any unusual movement or sound, they will immediately react.

When they heard the sound of a person running, several cats that were relatively close immediately widened their eyes and looked in that direction; presumably few people come this way, so their reaction was a bit stronger.

The cats farther away merely twitched their ears, or narrowed their eyes into a slit and lazily glanced that way; if they found nothing amiss, they yawned, shifted position, and continued sleeping.

The old blue-tile house where Zheng Tan was staying was relatively close to that small path; hearing the footsteps, he had not intended to look further, but he felt the steps were somewhat familiar, so he opened his eyes and glanced downward.

Upon looking, Zheng Tan was indeed surprised.

Jiao Wei?

Today is Monday; if I remember correctly, this kid has class on Monday afternoon.

Zheng Tan remembers this so clearly mainly because once, while eating at a small restaurant, he happened to run into Jiao Wei and his roommates; he heard Jiao Wei's classmates talking about Monday syndrome and saying that they have classes all day on Monday, most of which are required courses.

Given Jiao Wei's character, skipping required courses and attending electives would not be something he'd do; yet now, with this kid having class in the afternoon, why is he running over here?

Remember when school first started and classes hadn't begun yet, this kid Jiao Wei would spend all day auditing sophomore and junior classes, and when he had no class he would go to the library; how could he possibly skip class when he actually has one?

Could the course have been canceled?

But even if the course were canceled, according to Jiao Wei's usual habit, he would either be helping out at the small restaurant or hanging out in the library or self-study room; why would he come to this remote place? Moreover, he looks rather hurried.

Zheng Tan's curiosity flared up again; anyway, he was idle, so he jumped down from the blue-tile house and followed Jiao Wei, this time not taking the small path and making sure Jiao Wei didn't notice him.

Jiao Wei ran toward a more interior direction; there were few voices or people around, much quieter than the sports field area, and in this environment his running footsteps sounded particularly abrupt.

However, soon Zheng Tan heard other sounds, coming from the air, and they were getting closer.

While Zheng Tan was paying attention above, he also noticed that Jiao Wei's steps paused; to avoid being discovered, Zheng Tan immediately leapt into the nearby bushes.

There were several birds there rummaging through a pile of leaves and bushes for food; seeing Zheng Tan suddenly run over, they were frightened and hastily took flight.

But just as those startled birds panicked and flew upward, an airborne object happened to come this way; for the birds suddenly flying up from below, the object made an evasive maneuver.

Zheng Tan clearly saw the airborne object—it was a remote-controlled plane, though its appearance was not very appealing.

Probably because it happened suddenly, the remote-controlled plane's operator made a mistake, and the plane crashed directly into a tall sycamore tree. Although it is now autumn, due to the temperature these sycamore trees still have some green leaves; even if the leaves turned yellow, few have fallen, and they remain lush and leafy.

After the remote-controlled plane got stuck in the tree, its propeller turned a few times but to no avail.

Another remote-controlled plane then swooped through the air and flew away.

Soon, in the direction the remote-controlled plane had flown, a person holding a remote controller came running this way; he appeared to be acquainted with Jiao Wei, and after they exchanged a few words, Jiao Wei was no longer in a hurry to leave. They needed to help that person get the remote-controlled plane down.

Hearing the two's words, although they were few, Zheng Tan still learned from them that Jiao Wei's reason for skipping class was related to this person, or rather these people, and their gathering place was nearby.

Zheng Tan did not stay to watch how they retrieved the plane from the tree; he ran toward the direction from which that person had come.

After running a short distance, Zheng Tan heard voices; there was no need to search aimlessly. This area should have been deserted, but now hearing voices, and multiple ones at that, Jiao Wei's destination was likely over there.

Following the sound, Zheng Tan saw a building whose former use—whether cafeteria or storeroom—was unknown; it was of the same old tile-house style, but taller, with two stories and a larger footprint.

From the outside it looked aged, and just from its appearance, many would certainly label it a dangerous building.

Within Chu Hua Da Xue, many old buildings like this, after renovation and reuse, have some historical significance for the school.

Zheng Tan had once seen a group of middle-aged and elderly people walking around the campus; presumably it was some activity organized by the school. Those people were alumni or teachers who had graduated from Chu Hua Da Xue, and among them were many elderly with white hair. Seeing the familiar buildings on campus, they would take photos as souvenirs and reminisce about their past school days or teaching years. Among these people there were not a few who were wealthy and influential; even for their sake, the school would spend effort renovating those old buildings, while other old houses of little significance would simply be torn down and rebuilt.

As for the building before him now, Zheng Tan had not heard of any historical significance attached to it; besides, he was not familiar with the old buildings on campus, so even if it had historical importance he would not fully understand it. Zheng Tan had previously strolled around the campus and passed by this place; the old tile house was surrounded by some shielding objects, making it look like it was under renovation, and when he passed by he had occasionally heard some sounds from inside, but he had not paid much attention nor gone in to look. Now it seemed that this old building might still conceal some 'secret' inside.

After climbing over those 'fences,' Zheng Tan found that some of the lower windows were open; although from his current angle he could not see the movements of those inside, from the sounds he could tell the interior was still lively. There was also a 'sizzling' sound, somewhat like the noise made by Liu Yao's toy car when it runs.

Could it be that Jiao Wei came here just to play with this kind of remote-control toy together with others?

If this had been before, Zheng Tan would surely have thought these people were childish, with hearts still young; but now, since Zheng Tan is interested in remote-control cars, he didn't hesitate and went to a window near the corner, where the sound indicated nobody was present.

He jumped onto the windowsill and cautiously peered inside.

Nearest to the window where Zheng Tan stood was a young man in his early twenties, who had his legs propped up, sitting on a wooden stool with its paint badly peeled, his back against the wall, and in his hand he was rapidly twisting a Rubik's cube; what surprised Zheng Tan most was that the man's gaze was not fixed on the cube in his hand—he seemed to be looking somewhere else, and if Zheng Tan had not first noticed the cube in his hand, he would have thought the man was thinking about something else.

Zheng Tan watched as this person, in a short time, restored the scrambled colored blocks, then scrambled them again, restored again, scrambled again. Throughout the whole process, this person never even glanced at the Rubik's cube in his hand.

"Cheng Shixiong, the wheel on his plane has a problem—it's stuck in a tree; let's wait another ten minutes," a person came over and said to the one playing with the Rubik's cube.

Seeing the Rubik's-cube player nod, that person left.

Although some people were holding airplane models, here car models were predominant. Zheng Tan suddenly recalled hearing that Jiao Wei had joined some club—could this be the group of college students here who play with toy airplanes and toy cars like kids? (To be continued…)

ps: Lately I've been busy with many things, so updates are irregular and also late; sorry.

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