Chapter 150

()「My company is currently in Nanhua City; whenever you guys come over to hang out, you can contact me; this is my private number. 」

In the car next to them, Zheng Xuan smiled warmly, formally introduced himself, and briefly mentioned his family's old residence and village matters.

Jiao Ba also introduced himself, so everyone got to know each other. However, Jiao Ba had no business cards, so they exchanged phone numbers. Jiao Ba will be going abroad in April, and it's unclear when they'll be able to get in touch after this exchange; everyone understands that, but exchanging phone numbers is still a step forward in their relationship—after all, they're fellow townspeople, and who knows when they might need to cooperate.

Zheng Tan listened to their conversation from the back seat; since the other person shared his surname, he paid a bit more attention, and he happened to see Zheng Xuan glancing over; from that gaze Zheng Tan knew the other had recognized him. Moreover, beside the half-open car window, the little brat waved the shiny, gold‑glittering tuhao chicken in his hand at Zheng Tan, who ignored him. Besides, after this everyone went their separate ways, but Nanhua City… and also Nan Cheng—will I ever be able to go back there in this lifetime?

Personally, Zheng Tan hopes to be able to go back and take a look, but given the circumstances, once Jiao Ba goes abroad, the three members of the Jiao family remaining in Dongqu Dayuan basically won't be traveling far; in short, at least for the coming year it's impossible to go back.

After the road opened, the two vehicles' routes still overlapped for a stretch, only separating on a certain section of the highway. This little incident wasn't taken to heart by the Jiao family or Zheng Tan—things change too quickly, nobody can say whether they'll meet again; all one can say is, if fate brings us together again, we'll meet; if not, we won't force it.

When returning to Dongqu Dayuan, the wax plum trees in the compound were still in bloom, and the kids there always liked to go pick the flowers.

Lan Tianzhu corrected Su An's mistaken notion there: "Wax plum is wax plum, plum blossom is plum blossom; they are different species, even their orders and families differ. Plum blossom belongs to the order Rosales, family Rosaceae, genus Prunus, while wax plum belongs to the order Laurales, family Chimonanthaceae, genus Chimonanthus..."

As they were speaking, they saw the Jiao family's car approach, so they stopped arguing about wax plum versus plum blossom, called Jiao Yuan over, and the three of them gathered to discuss tomorrow's school matters.

Zheng Tan had checked the weather forecast, which said the temperature would drop again and it would snow in two days; the kids hated that, nobody wants it to snow just as they start school—riding a bike in the cold is unpleasant, and this weather is actually perfect for staying under the covers rather than braving the wind, rain, and snow to sit in a freezing classroom. Too bad the weather doesn't obey what you say.

After the semester began, everyone got busy; Jiao Ba is now mainly preoccupied with his overseas trip, and before leaving he has to arrange a lot of work and matters, especially Yi Xin and Su Qu; as for this year's new graduate student recruitment, Jiao Ba didn't ask other teachers to help choose—he already has a decision in mind, intending to take only one student, because more would be too much for him to handle while abroad; he'll just wait for the postgraduate entrance exam scores to be announced, and accept anyone who passes the cutoff. The remaining slots will go to other teachers.

Speaking of this incoming graduate student, unlike Yi Xin and Su Qu, Jiao Ba originally planned to recruit a female, so that while he's away, Jiao Ma could find someone to help and have an extra pair of hands; men tend to come with more restrictions, so hiring a female student is more reliable.

Before the postgraduate entrance exam, Jiao Ba had already screened some candidates from his mailbox; once the exam scores come out, there will surely be more emails from applicants "self‑promoting," but Jiao Ba doesn't have that much free time anymore—fortunately, he has found a satisfactory candidate.

This third graduate‑student candidate is someone who crossed over from another major at our school, named Jing Zeng, originally from the Foreign Languages College. Many people don't understand why Jing Zeng would cross disciplines to apply for a graduate program in the Science College; such a leap is unusually large—although many Science College students also cross over to other colleges (like Medicine, Chemistry, Electronic Information, or Management), it is extremely rare for a pure liberal‑arts girl to make this jump, and the difficulty of doing so is not ordinary. Moreover, even if she were admitted, some professors would still be reluctant to accept her, because supervisors generally prefer to take on students who can get up to speed quickly and have strong theoretical knowledge.

Chu Hua Da Xue's own strength means the competition is fierce, so there's no risk of not filling the quota; with the cutoff set at 120%, the past two years' postgraduate interview rounds have eliminated a batch of applicants, some of whom still had decent scores. That's why many say that not exceeding the cutoff by several tens of points leaves them feeling uncertain. The Su Qu from that year was considered rather special among his peers—many of his fellow classmates said he had just been **lucky.

Zheng Tan had never met Jing Zeng; he only heard a bit about her when Jiao Ba and Jiao Ma were chatting, and since the scores and cutoff hadn't been released yet, it was still uncertain whether they could recruit Jing Zeng. Thus, regarding this person, Jiao Ba merely mentioned her in passing, without elaborating. However, Jiao Ba is not someone who settles, so the fact that he feels confident about Jing Zeng must mean there's a reason. Zheng Tan is looking forward to it.

After staying home for two days, Zheng Tan couldn't sit still; the cat‑car had no news, probably still not fixed—this boredom was unbearable, he couldn't just stay home sleeping all day and go numb. The forecast said it would snow, but even after two days it still hadn't. Zheng Tan glanced at the sky, thought "whatever," and decided to go out for a walk first.

For his walk, Zheng Tan chose the road near Jiao Yuan's school. He had wanted to see what Jiao Yuan's classes were like, but the classroom windows were fogged up with condensation, so he couldn't make out what was inside—he could only hear bits of the teacher's lecture.

Not lingering at the school gate, Zheng Tan then went to Zhong Yan's home; at that time Zhong Yan was surely in class, nobody was at home, and few people were moving about in the neighborhood, so there was no chance to catch any gossip.

Leaving Zhong Yan's residential area, Zheng Tan went to look at the construction site developed by Ye Hao; compared with the end of last year, there hasn't been much noticeable change—probably the New Year holidays delayed things a bit, and progress will pick up after the year starts.

By this point, it was still early, and Zheng Tan wasn't in a hurry to head back; he glanced at the fork in the road, then set off in one direction. That was a place he'd never been before—he went to scout the terrain and expand his familiar range.

Chu Hua Shi is an old city; although its development has sped up lately, old residential districts are still plentiful, but as development proceeds, those old areas will gradually be demolished.

After walking through a stretch of old‑residential‑area streets, Zheng Tan arrived at an apartment‑building community; this place had been developed only a few years ago, and amidst the old neighborhoods it felt like a crane among chickens.

The community's greenery is decent; Zheng Tan saw a few wax‑plum trees inside, and the wax plum was in bloom—if it weren't flowering, he wouldn't recognize it even standing right in front of a wax‑plum tree.

There aren't many people walking about in the community—either they're at work or too lazy to go out. Even if it isn't snowing, the weather is still cold enough; though it's not as frigid as the northern regions where temperatures drop dozens of degrees below zero, many people still find it hard to bear. Winters in Chu Hua Shi are often damp and chilly, and many students from the north and the southern coast who come here to attend university develop chilblains in their first year, struggling to adapt to the local climate.

With few people around, there aren't many animals active outdoors either—one only occasionally hears a dog bark, and as for cats, Zheng Tan hasn't spotted a single one yet.

As he was strolling, the sky began to spit light rain; Zheng Tan cursed the damned weather in his mind, wondering whether to head back or first find shelter—after all, getting from here back to Dongqu Dayuan would take a while on cat‑paws, unless he ran the whole way.

Before Zheng Tan could decide, the surroundings erupted in a crackling sound—those were the falling snow pellets making noise.

Watching the rain and snow pellets intensify, Zheng Tan estimated that it would soon be snowing outright.

Forget it—first find a place to take cover. Going out now would leave him wet and cold, and getting pelted by those snow pellets isn't very comfortable either.

Looking around, he saw that the lowest level of these apartment buildings is parking space, so the first floor is counted from the layer above the parking lot; many residents have installed security nets on their balconies and windows, and some of those nets are too fine for Zheng Tan to slip through.

After scouting the area, Zheng Tan chose the first‑floor balcony of one building; around there, only that household's balcony allowed him to squeeze in, and it was also a decent spot to block wind and rain.

The height of the parking‑level floor posed no problem for Zheng Tan; after jumping up, he used a protruding piece of exposed surface as a stepping stone, walked toward that balcony, and slipped inside.

On that household's balcony lay a few cardboard boxes stacked at random, each covered with a layer of dust—apparently no one had touched them in ages. After listening for any movement inside and confirming the place was empty, Zheng Tan pulled two of the boxes aside, using them as a makeshift windbreak "wall," and crouched on the other side, so the boxes could shield him from the wind while he kept an eye on the weather.

Today was really unlucky—the past two days had seen neither rain nor snow, but the moment he stepped outside today, wind, rain, and snow pellets all arrived at once.

While he was crouched there waiting for the rain to stop, Zheng Tan heard the door inside open; after a moment, footsteps drew nearer, and he adjusted his posture, ready to bolt if the homeowner turned out to be hostile toward cats.

The balcony door swung open, and a middle‑aged man in a black coat stepped onto the balcony; as soon as he took his first step, he noticed the black cat crouched beside the cardboard boxes.

The man froze, met the cat's gaze, showed no sign of aversion, then suddenly recalled something, turned, and went back inside.

The door wasn't shut; Zheng Tan twitched his ears, heard the sound of someone pacing back and forth inside, then the hum of the microwave running.

After a "ding" sound, the man produced a disposable paper cup filled with a cup of milk and set it in front of Zheng Tan.

Indeed, there are still plenty of kind‑hearted people! Zheng Tan reflected.

However, many people don't realize that cats shouldn't be given milk casually; many cats are lactose intolerant, and drinking it will cause diarrhea, with fairly serious consequences.

As for Zheng Tan's unusually sturdy stomach, he has drunk plenty of milk at the Jiao Family without ever getting diarrhea, so for him milk is definitely drinkable; besides, he really did feel a bit cold and wanted something warm, and he sensed no ill will from the person in front of him.

Nevertheless, one can't be too careless. Zheng Tan first took a tiny lick, then pretended to gaze at the scenery, twitched his ears, lowered his head for another lick, glanced sideways at the person, looked back out, acting as if he'd spotted something interesting or threatening; he repeated this a few times, bought himself some time, felt that drinking the milk was fine, and then finished the rest.

The man occasionally glanced at the black cat in front of him, then looked outward, assuming it was merely being vigilant of the people walking by outside, and gave a soft chuckle, saying, "Still pretty alert."

"Alert my ass—he's just putting on a show for you!" Zheng Tan muttered to himself. (To be continued.)