Chapter 163

() Zheng Tan had the plan to run away to avoid this "misfortune", but Jiao Ma repeatedly warned Zheng Tan, even pinching his ears before bed to tell him not to run away tomorrow, and even if he went out for a stroll he must return home on time.

Shaking his ears, Zheng Tan felt annoyed; indeed, avoidance wasn't a good idea—escaping this time would still leave the next, and he'd still have to face Jiao Ma's nagging.

What should we do?

After thinking for a long time without finding any clue, Zheng Tan decided not to dwell on it anymore; when the time came, he just needed to ignore that cat. Could it be that the female cat still wanted to force herself on him? Not every cat is "Li Yuanba", and even if it were, Zheng Tan's strength is far greater than hers.

The next day, Zheng Tan lay listless on his own balcony all day, mourning his unlucky cat life. And in Jiao Ma's eyes, this was all an "eager" expression.

Eager my ass!

Thud!

Zheng Tan didn't know how many times he had bumped his head against the flowerpot beside him today.

After dinner at night, Jiao Ma kept staring at Zheng Tan, afraid he would run away, while Jiao Ba also stayed in tonight, holding a newspaper and reading beside him.

Zheng Tan lay listless on the sofa, occasionally twitching the tip of his tail; he had spent the whole day thinking of several countermeasures, and was pondering which plan would be more suitable to use later when Jiao Ma's phone rang.

Jiao Ma quickly picked up the phone, said a couple of sentences, then walked out with a smile to go downstairs to meet the person. That teacher was coming for the first time; Jiao Ma had told her to call after entering the compound.

Not long after, Zheng Tan heard the sound of footsteps upstairs, as well as Jiao Ma chatting and laughing with someone else.

The visitor was in her early forties, a colleague of Jiao Ma's and a teacher in the same research group, and they got along fairly well. Although she didn't live at Chu Hua Da Xue, it wasn't far from here.

When the teacher entered the door, she was holding a pet carrier; Zheng Tan could sense the aura of an unfamiliar cat inside. However, there was little aggression, no malice shown—just wariness toward the unfamiliar environment.

Zheng Tan curiously stared at the pet carrier, while the two children who had been doing homework in the room also poked their heads out to look at this new visitor cat girl.

The teacher opened the pet carrier, and from Zheng Tan's angle he could just see the cat hiding inside.

Yes, that cat was indeed "hiding" inside. Anxiety outweighed curiosity; it didn't step out of the carrier at all.

It was a silver-gradient folded-ear cat. It looked healthy; its owner must have fed it carefully.

Folded-ear cats seem innately more lovable than other cats in appearance; it could instantly outclass Zheng Tan, this country bumpkin, by several blocks.

It wasn't the phony type, nor the police chief type who wants to jump into everything, nor the domineering overflowing-with-aura type like "Li Yuanba"; the folded-ear cat before them, milk candy, had a quieter temperament, that kind of seemingly unworldly tranquility.

Jiao Yuan was very curious about the folded-ear cat, wanting to get closer to look; after sensing this, milk candy shrank back into the carrier. Jiao Ma glared at Jiao Yuan as he walked over; Jiao Yuan pursed his lips, retreated to the room, and stood at the doorway continuing to watch.

The teacher picked up milk candy and held it in her arms to soothe it, dispelling some of its anxious unease about the unfamiliar environment. Milk candy also gradually calmed down; although calm, it still looked around vigilantly.

Jiao Ma was seeing milk candy for the first time; she had only heard about it before, but upon seeing it just now she liked it very much—the appeal of folded-ear cats to females is indeed strong.

"Teacher Mo, your milk candy is really pretty!" Jiao Ma sighed.

Teacher Mo just smiled, but Zheng Tan could see that the teacher's smile was a bit unnatural; however, regarding milk candy, Teacher Mo truly doted on it, as you could tell from the way she looked at it.

"Hei Tan, come over and meet the new friend." Jiao Ma, sitting beside Teacher Mo, waved at Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan flicked his ears, continued lying on the sofa, pretending not to understand.

Jiao Ba glanced at Zheng Tan, shook his head, let out a barely audible sigh. Pretending, keep pretending!

Teacher Mo didn't say anything; people like Jiao Ma usually just say such things—cats can't understand these words anyway.

Teacher Mo didn't know, but Zheng Tan whether he understood or not, Jiao Ma naturally knew; she couldn't scold Zheng Tan in front of Teacher Mo, so she glared at him twice, that look seeming to say: "Really useless!"

Zheng Tan didn't care about all that; he had simply made up his mind to play dumb. Still, he curiously glanced at milk candy a few times—the folded-ear cat's ears really looked tiny.

Teacher Mo placed milk candy on the ground; milk candy rubbed against Teacher Mo's leg, took a step, sniffed around, then retreated and jumped back into Teacher Mo's arms to lie down.

"Oh, your milk candy is too reserved!" Jiao Ma laughed.

Indeed, not everyone has the thick-skinned, bold nature of Zheng Tan and his East District Four Scoundrels.

Jiao Yuan and Xiao Youzi were sent by Jiao Ba to go home and do homework; in the living room, the three adults continued chatting. Jiao Ba had early on noticed that Teacher Mo had something to say, but with the kids present she couldn't say too much. After Jiao Ba steered the topic, she began to vent her grievances.

Teacher Mo liked keeping cats; before, she always kept native cats, but those few cats all liked to run outside; after keeping cats for a few years they'd disappear, possibly taken by cat traffickers or for other reasons. Last year a friend gave her a folded-ear cat, which is now milk candy; Teacher Mo loved it dearly, and this cat didn't tend to run outside, saving her a lot of trouble.

Some neighboring relatives and friends also looked on enviously, telling Teacher Mo, 'When your milk candy has kittens, we'll order one.'

Although Teacher Mo liked cats, she actually didn't know much about them; regarding folded-ear cats, she only knew that the probability of defective offspring from two folded-ear cats was high, so she thought about finding a sufficiently healthy non-folded-ear male cat, so that the offspring would be fine? For example, a native cat?

But Teacher Mo's plan met strong opposition from some friends; indeed, hardly anyone crosses folded-ear cats with native cats, while British Shorthairs and American Shorthairs are more common, after all they look stronger in appearance. In commercial value, they leave native cats far behind.

Hearing this, Jiao Ma's gaze turned. Yes, folded-ear cats look far more attractive than her own Hei Tan, but no matter how other cats are. In Jiao Ma's eyes, her own cat is the best—no one saying otherwise is acceptable! How great her own cat is, obedient and sensible, saving trouble and even helping with the kids—where could you find such a cat? And yet you still despise it!

Jiao Ma, about to speak out in rebuttal, was stopped by a glance from Jiao Ba, signaling her to continue listening to Teacher Mo.

Zheng Tan also pricked up his ears to listen; regarding folded-ear cats he really didn't know much, only aware that this kind of cat has folded ears and is expensive, and in many people's eyes it's also a famous breed.

Teacher Mo took in Jiao Ma's earlier reaction. She continued speaking. She didn't have high demands on appearance; as long as the offspring were healthy enough, that was fine. What changed her mind was what she experienced today at noon when she brought the cat to the pet center.

"When I raised milk candy, many people envied me and went out to buy folded-ear cats. My older sister was one of them. But she kept hers for only two months before giving up, so I took it in and raised it together with milk candy; it was also a female cat, just three months younger than milk candy. However, my sister's folded-ear cat wasn't as lucky as milk candy—its tail was stiff and couldn't bend like a normal cat's. I took it to Xiao Guo's place this noon for a check-up, and the results weren't good……"

A veterinarian at the pet center who was fairly acquainted with Teacher Mo told her. Many folded-ear cats come with diseases—some have short or inflexible tails, some have large bone growths on their legs, plus other hereditary bone diseases; their joints are much more fragile than those of ordinary cats, and even without joint disease, the wear on their joint cartilage is greater than that of other cats, making them prone to joint pain, lameness, and similar ailments.

"Milk candy is relatively fortunate—at least nothing wrong has shown up yet—but I'm not sure how long it will stay lucky. Before I didn't know or understand these things, but now that I do, and since I'm raising them, I must take responsibility, needing to expend more energy to care for them, bringing them in regularly for check-ups; for now, until I figure things out, I don't want to let it have kittens."

The veterinarian at the pet center told me, this breed is very special; even for breeding, the breeder needs professional knowledge and certain experience, and in the country there are very few legitimate breeders; cats as fortunate as milk candy are few, he advised me not to privately breed this kind of cat, and he also said, my sister's cat, with every step it takes, has to endure the pain brought by skeletal deformity.

We're all cat owners, and we all know that although cats have expressions, not everyone can read them. Their tolerance for pain is very strong; ordinary pain won't make them cry out, and they're used to hiding injuries—this is self-protection nature. So it's hard for me to know how they feel; I just think, if I were ignorant and let milk candy have kittens, and those kittens ended up with severe skeletal disease, just thinking about it makes my heart ache.

Jiao Ma really fell silent this time. Her cat-raising experience isn't extensive; over the years it's just been Zheng Tan, this sort of unconventional cat that doesn't need much attention.

You, not being a cat, how can you know the cat's suffering?

Even Zheng Tan cannot possibly understand those cats' feelings, after all, Zheng Tan himself is still different from other cats.

"I came here just to let Teacher Gu not overthink." Teacher Mo explained.

Jiao Ma quickly waved her hand, indicating she understood, and also asked about the other cat's situation.

Teacher Mo chatted with Jiao Ma for a while, then took Milk Candy and left; there was still another cat at home that he had just taken in to raise, and Teacher Mo was worried, wanting to go back and check as soon as possible.

Zheng Tan's first forced blind date ended without him even getting to carry out his sabotage plan; however, Teacher Mo let Jiao Ma bring Zheng Tan over to play when she had time, but her two cats don't like going out, and Zheng Tan's past offenses are too many—all the English department teachers know he can slip out to wander around the school.

In the evening, Jiao Ba specially looked up some domestic and foreign literature magazines about folded-ear cats online, browsed a pet forum, and Zheng Tan squatted on the desk watching.

As for this breed, the debates from all sides are indeed quite fierce.

Perhaps this issue isn't simply black and white, and the reason folded-ear cats have been demonized is probably because people who know nothing but see only commercial value are breeding them recklessly.

To breed a famous cat, too many sacrifices are made; Zheng Tan doesn't know what will happen to those failed specimens—maybe they'll be sold cheaply, maybe disposed of in other ways. Profit-driven motives are an obvious reason, and Zheng Tan can't change anything; he suddenly feels fortunate to be a very healthy cat right now, and he hopes Milk Candy stays healthy as well.