Chapter 2: There Are Mice, Borrow Your Cat for a Use

() Xiao Guo's customers are basically people from Chu Hua University, and doing business with university teachers and students is not that easy; food safety and quality issues are most easily exposed here.

Those who spend all day holed up in the lab facing dull experimental data and equipment sometimes also find ways to entertain themselves, for example, on a whim taking a bus to the snack alley to buy a bowl of red-oil hot dry noodles, then bringing it back to the lab to test whether the red oil contains Sudan red, whether the sesame paste contains aflatoxin, whether E. coli exceeds limits, and so on.

So, to do business with university teachers and students while also wanting a good reputation requires lasting, excellent quality assurance.

But precisely because of this, Xiao Guo's shop's hard-won signboard has been established, its popularity boomed, and funds became available; they took over several nearby storefronts, merged his brother's pet clinic and his own pet supplies store, and founded the 'Obviously So' Pet Center.

This is Zheng Tan's understanding of Xiao Guo; overall, Zheng Tan thinks Xiao Guo is not bad, has a head for business, can make money, and at the same time is not ill-intentioned, at least he's good to animals.

After Xiao Guo left, the Jiao family didn't mention anything about the cat food advertisement. After dinner, Jiao Yuan and Gu Youzi went to their respective rooms to do homework, while Jiao Ma went with a few friends to the gymnasium to learn dancing.

Zheng Tan entered the master bedroom, after entering he pushed the door shut, jumped up and flicked the lock, locking it. And in the bedroom, Jiao Ba was already sitting at the desk waiting.

Jiao Ba had long grown accustomed to Zheng Tan's series of movements after entering the door; he didn't even lift his eyes, waiting until Zheng Tan jumped onto the desk, then Jiao Ba closed the folder in his hands.

"Today Xiao Guo came over and mentioned the cat food advertisement; I didn't immediately agree, I wanted to hear your thoughts." Jiao Ba said, handing a document to Zheng Tan.

The document wrote about the cat food advertisement Xiao Guo had proposed today, as well as the subsequent situation and benefit analysis that Jiao Ba inferred from Xiao Guo's words.

Zheng Tan took a look; the cat food produced by Xiao Guo's own company is bought by many cat-keeping households on campus, the price is fairly cheap, it's convenient, and most importantly it passes quality inspections. Originally Xiao Guo had prepared to promote this cat food widely, but a "**" incident caused the original plan to fall through; now, after finally recovering, he is preparing to restart the plan, but setting up storefronts to establish the pet center has left Xiao Guo short on funds, making him even more eager to make a profit from this cat food.

Although television ads for pet food are extremely rare in mainland Huaxia, after coming here Zheng Tan learned that pet food also has demand, with many potential customers. As the economy develops, urban life pace grows faster; people can't even take care of themselves, so if they want to keep a cat they have to figure out how to sustain it.

Zheng Tan considers himself lacking in business acumen, both before and now, but he believes that if this matter is handled well, he can indeed make a profit,

Zheng Tan doesn't eat cat food; he eats the same things as the Jiao family. Since becoming a cat, what he's most grateful for is his strong stomach. Moreover, filming an advertisement doesn't necessarily mean he has to eat cat food.

Seriously speaking, filming a simple advertisement is nothing to Zheng Tan; after all, it's just a pet food ad, and according to the document, the initial distribution channel is only online; if the online effect is obvious, there will certainly be follow-ups.

This first advertisement will definitely be relatively simple, put out there to test the waters; Xiao Guo's reason for approaching Zheng Tan is clear to Zheng Tan himself. Funds are tight, so save where possible; foreigners filming a 'Cat and Dog War' consume tons of food, while Xiao Guo's test-water ad, although far smaller in scale, will still consume some. Of course, that's when using other cats; Zheng Tan's situation here is completely different.

Zheng Tan looked at the document, pondering its pros and cons, when Jiao Ba spoke: "You don't need to decide right away; I told Xiao Guo, just reply within three days."

Hearing he had three days to consider, Zheng Tan also relaxed; given his current identity, he indeed needs to think it over thoroughly.

Just as he set the document down, Zheng Tan heard someone knocking on the door—not the bedroom door, but the outer gate.

Jiao Ba rose to open the door; Zheng Tan didn't immediately go over, instead pricking up his ears to listen to the commotion in the living room.

From the voice it was the opposite neighbor, an otaku belonging to the staff family; his parents are both school teachers. That guy basically holes up at home all day, usually likes to wear T-shirts with patterns of StarCraft, Spider-Man, Star Wars, and…… SpongeBob SquarePants. He washes his clothes once a week, even in midsummer; I don't know if his clothes would grow mushrooms if piled up for a week in summer.

Hearing the voice, the other party seemed a bit embarrassed; Zheng Tan jumped down from the desk, walked to the bedroom door and poked his head out to look; the other person held a boxed meal in one hand and scratched his head with the other.

"Jiao Ge, I want to borrow your cat for a use; the mice on my side are practically becoming spirits, the mousetraps I bought didn't catch a single one, I've been worried sick these days—tell me when it's convenient, uh, can you, uh, lend me the cat."

Zheng Tan looked down on him; he distinctly remembered that on some day last month this guy had bragged to Jiao Yuan that his home had not a single mouse, yet the next day Zheng Tan heard the opposite neighbor wailing over his network cables being chewed through, then buying mouse glue traps, then buying mousetraps—aside from mouse poison, he had tried almost every method. Zheng Tan wondered, could it be that the mice in the university generally have high intelligence?

However, Zheng Tan also thought, since turning into a cat he really hasn't caught any mice; the Jiao household has had no mice, Zheng Tan isn't sure if that's because of him, but letting him now go catch mice, he truly doesn't know where to start. It's not fear—Zheng Tan in middle school still caught mice to scare his female classmates, but after all, cats and people are different.

Zheng Tan lowered his head to look at his own cat paws, showing he was quite troubled.

Over there, Jiao Ba had already finished speaking with the other party, closed the door, walked back to the room and beckoned to Zheng Tan, "Can you catch mice?"

Zheng Tan remained silent, motionless.

After a while, Zheng Tan heard Jiao Ba say: "Let's go, let's give it a try."

Try? Where to try? How to try? Zheng Tan wondered.

Jiao Ba picked up his keys, brought a satchel, said something to Jiao Yuan, and then summoned Zheng Tan to go out.

Zheng Tan rode Jiao Ba's small electric vehicle out of the East Staff Compound; seeing the familiar route, he roughly understood where they were headed in his mind, but he had no idea how the test would be conducted. His strength is greater than that of an ordinary cat, and Zheng Tan feels his strength can still increase; perhaps after a year or so he could approach that of an average adult.

But great strength doesn't mean one can catch mice. Since Zheng Tan doesn't particularly like cats, he also doesn't know how normal cats go about catching mice; he's never paid attention.

Just as he was thinking, the small electric vehicle had already arrived at the destination—Chu Hua University College of Life Sciences.

As an associate professor of the College of Life Sciences at Chu Hua University, Jiao Ba, aside from going home to eat meals, spends most of his daytime here.

After parking the small electric vehicle, Jiao Ba shook the bag in his hand; Zheng Tan pursed his lips and jumped inside. The interior of the life sciences building is not a place where a cat can just wander around freely; being seen would be bad.

Then, Associate Professor Jiao, holding the bag containing the cat, walked in through the main gate of the life sciences building, still calm-faced as he greeted the people coming and going around him. By the time he reached the stairwell, there were few people, as many are accustomed to taking the elevator.

Zheng Tan poked his head out of the bag to look outside. At seven in the evening, there were still many people remaining in the life sciences institute; lights were on in all the laboratories, and Zheng Tan could see through the stairwell window the opposite biosafety room's ultraviolet sterilization lamps lit up.

Thinking back to the first time Jiao Yuan and the others brought him in, Zheng Tan had been quite nervous, but after a few times he became calm. Zheng Tan has often felt grateful that the household that took him in is not some kind of scientific weirdo.

Jiao Ba's office is on the second floor, a private office. Jiao Ba is one of the few associate professors in Chu Hua University's College of Life Sciences who have a private office. When Jiao Ma is busy, Jiao Yuan and the others come here to do homework or take a noon nap; sometimes Zheng Tan comes along, but each time they do so furtively, either hiding in a backpack or being wrapped in clothing and brought in.

Jiao Ba entered the office, took a bunch of keys, then lifted Zheng Tan and climbed the stairs to the fourth floor. The corner of the fourth floor has hardly anyone; Zheng Tan had never been here before.

In the quiet corridor, Jiao Ba's footsteps sounded especially clear; the voice-activated lights in the stairwell came on, and Zheng Tan saw the door numbers of the surrounding rooms.

No wonder there's hardly anyone; this area is basically for storing goods, equipment, medicines, etc. But……

Zheng Tan twitched his nose, he smelled a certain biological odor.

Jiao Ba stopped at the room farthest to the side, took out his key and opened the door.

As the door opened, a squeaking sound rang out.

Even though the lighting was rather dim, Zheng Tan could still clearly see the interior arrangement.

Beside it were several empty cages, while the cages for feeding the white mice were all placed in the inner room; this one near the door held a small experimental bench and a shelf, etc.

Jiao Ba turned on the light, placed the bag on the experimental bench, and said to Zheng Tan: "Wait here for a moment, don't run around; don't touch things in the lab randomly, there are many chemicals."

Having said that, Jiao Ba took off the lab coat from the hanging rack, put it on, then took out gloves from a drawer and put them on, walked into the inner room, and shortly thereafter came out holding a cage, inside which were five white mice.