Chapter 209: Is It Yours?

As expected, Xiao Youzi's class program won first place. First place had three programs: a song-and-dance, a skit, and Xiao Youzi's class's spoken drama.

The judges' comments were very high: "This program exercised the students' hands-on ability and teamwork, from prop making to background music all done by the students, and fully demonstrated the three bright spots of filial piety, bravery, and harmonious coexistence between humans and animals," etc., which directly boosted the score.

This "harmonious coexistence between humans and animals" obviously referred to Zheng Tan's cooperative performance in the program.

Zheng Tan, listening to those praises from below the stage, felt his face heat up; those people kept saying more and more exaggerated things.

Yue Lisha really knew how to cater to tastes, aware that the school wanted a program to serve as a model; in the end, their class's program truly became a model representative. The award certificate and the school's rewarded "Children's Day big gift package" food made these kids excited beyond measure, and with tomorrow being Children's Day, the primary school students would get a day off—how could their mood not be good?

After the afternoon performance ended and they returned to the compound, some parents who had sat farther from Jiao Ma in the auditorium saw Jiao Ma bringing Xiao Youzi and Zheng Tan, and asked Jiao Ma: "Hey, is the one playing the divine beast your family's Hei Tan?"

Such questions kept coming without cease.

From leaving the auditorium until now, Zheng Tan's ears had been pulled out like airplane wings "flying"; just looking at that you could tell his mood was extremely bad. Zheng Tan didn't know that in the future, when he went out for a stroll, people in the compound familiar with him might see him and say: "Look, a divine beast!"

Damn it, just thinking about it makes his mood even worse!

To avoid being constantly called a divine beast, Zheng Tan didn't leave the building the next day, which was Children's Day.

Children's Day was Wednesday; Jiao Yuan had to go to school, Jiao Ma to work, Yue Lisha rented a disc and invited Xie Xin and Xiao Youzi to watch some idol drama together, leaving only Zheng Tan at home. Xiao Youzi actually wanted to bring Zheng Tan along, but Zheng Tan didn't want to go out, and now being cooped up at home he felt bored.

Lying on the balcony listening to the cheap bird on the fourth floor sing opera, his ears twitched; Zheng Tan listened carefully. Then he went out and ran to the third floor, arriving at Er Mao's door. As usual, Er Mao's door was just ajar, and Zheng Tan pushed it open.

Inside, Er Mao and Qin Tao each held a bottle of beer, chatting nonsense.

Qin Tao was definitely just skipping work again to come play. As long as there wasn't anything important requiring signatures and procedures, he only puttered around at the company. When there was nothing to do, he'd come out to play.

Seeing Zheng Tan come in, Qin Tao asked Er Mao: "How come this guy didn't go out for a stroll today? He used to run around outside at this time, didn't he?"

"Probably because he's afraid of being called a divine beast," Er Mao laughed.

"Oh? Do tell," Qin Tao said, curious about that nickname.

Er Mao recounted what happened yesterday, and Qin Tao also laughed heartily: "Being called that isn't bad, what's there to be shy about?"

Shy my ass!

Zheng Tan should be glad; at this point the term "divine beast" is still relatively proper.

Qin Tao sat on a chair with one leg propped up, relaxed, and that leg had no shoe on it.

Zheng Tan looked at the shoe on the floor, then at the balcony two steps away, raised his paw and hooked the leather shoe, flinging it outward.

The leather shoe traced an arc in the air, then went over the balcony railer and fell down.

Er Mao: "……"

"Holy shit!" Qin Tao hopped on one leg to the balcony edge and looked down; his leather shoe was already lying on the ground below the building.

Wearing slippers, he ran down to pick up the shoe, Qin Tao muttering things like "cats are petty." Recently his finances were a bit tight; earlier his dad had scolded him, criticized him for not being serious about work, and docked his allowance, so normally it's best not to waste money; if this had happened two weeks ago, he wouldn't have bothered picking up the fallen shoe—he'd just buy a new one.

"Hey, I advise you not to say too many bad things about it," Er Mao said.

"Why?" Qin Tao shoved the hastily wiped shoe onto his foot to prevent it from being flung off again.

"I heard that over at Ye Lou there's a private room for this guy, an exclusive single! When I go over to play, even if I can't find my senior brother, I'll count on this one," Er Mao said. Actually, if he really wanted to make an exclusive single room for himself, Er Mao could just propose it; given Wei Leng's face and Er Mao's background, Ye Hao wouldn't object either. But Er Mao finds it troublesome and costly.

As for Qin Tao, he's recently short on money, and even when going out to play he wouldn't specially spend money on a single room, let alone an exclusive one.

"Just it?!" Qin Tao looked incredulous, "Has the Ye Lou boss's brain been gnawed by a cat?"

The two complained about how cats are treated better than people, then Qin Tao brought up Hei Mi.

"How come your Hei Mi seems much quieter lately? Is it not sick? You're doing a poor job as a dad," Qin Tao said.

Zheng Tan thought for a moment, went to the balcony and looked; on the balcony lay a winter-use cushion, and Hei Mi was stretched out sideways on it, eyes half-closed in sleep, not curled up into a ball as before, looking lazy.

Er Mao didn't mind much: "My Hei Mi is doing fine; I even took a few photos to show people, and said it's gotten fat, proving I feed the cat well. Although Hei Mi has been quiet lately, its appetite is good; besides cat food, I also have people steam little fish for it to change the flavor. When the weather's nice, Hei Mi will lie outside to sunbathe and sleep."

During this period, when Er Mao went to Jiao Wei's small restaurant, he would also have Jiao Wei's mother help steam some finger-length little fish and such; at first it was when Jiao Wei's mother was selling vegetables and saw them, noticed these little fish were fresh, bought some and fried them up to make dishes. Later Er Mao liked eating them, intending to let his family's "daughter" enjoy them too, so he spent extra money to have Jiao Wei's mother, upon seeing fresh little fish, help prepare something the cat could also eat; thus now when Er Mao goes to get rice, sometimes there's another small lunch box containing the steamed little fish, which he brings back to adjust Hei Mi's appetite.

"Indeed it's gotten a bit fat." Qin Tao stood at the doorway, glanced at the Hei Mi lying there, thought a moment, then said in a teasing tone: "Could there be no kittens?"

"Bullshit!!" Er Mao flared, kicked off his shoe and flung it over: "How could that be!"

After saying that, Er Mao thought again about how his Hei Mi hadn't mingled with the few other cats in the compound recently; when he strolled around the compound he kept an eye on it. So he firmly said: "I've been watching it all along—how could there be kittens?"

Zheng Tan stood at the doorway, glanced at that Hei Mi, then turned back to see Qin Tao and Er Mao looking at him with suspicious eyes, like they were eyeing a strange uncle.

Zheng Tan: "……" Damn! I haven't sunk so low as to be a beast that mounts cats!

Although he's now a cat, he has a human heart; he can't get past the psychological barrier with cats, but fantasizing about big-breasted girls is fine.

Originally he'd planned to listen to these two gossip, but now he has no mood to stay; Zheng Tan decided it's better to come here less often in the future, otherwise any future trouble would fall on him and he couldn't explain it clearly.

When going out, Zheng Tan saw the automatic feeder placed in the living room. Er Mao this guy is lazy; basically Hei Mi eats whenever it wants, so getting fat is no surprise.

However, Zheng Tan always felt something was off.

Two days later. After dinner. Zheng Tan was lying on the sofa keeping Jiao Ma company while watching a melodramatic soap opera. Er Mao came over, chatted briefly with Jiao Ma for two sentences, then found an excuse to drag Zheng Tan away.

Zheng Tan still felt somewhat baffled; as he went downstairs he always sensed that Er Mao walking ahead exuded a heavy, oppressive gloom.

Arriving at the third floor. After entering the room, Er Mao crouched facing Zheng Tan, gritted his teeth and said: "Tell the truth, you really don't have……" Er Mao scratched his head, "Hei Mi has kittens, isn't it yours?!"

Zheng Tan: "!!" Holy shit! There really are!

"If yes, wag your tail vertically; if no, wag it horizontally!"

Zheng Tan decisively wagged horizontally, and did so several times in a row. Damn, this water must not splash on himself!

"Not you?" Er Mao frowned, fixed his gaze on Zheng Tan, seeming to judge the sincerity of his denial. "Not you, then who is it?"

Er Mao sat directly on the floor, scratched his head, painfully thinking which bastard cat it was.

As it turned out, today Er Mao was idle, recalling Qin Tao's comment that Hei Mi had gotten a bit fat lately, feeling uneasy in his heart, decided to take it to the pet center for a checkup, and meanwhile give it a bath; this period Er Mao himself had been lazy, so Hei Mi hadn't been bathed for weeks, at most Er Mao washed its paws for it.

The result: after taking it to the pet center for a checkup, the vet told Er Mao that this cat was already about four weeks pregnant.

To Er Mao, this was a bolt from the blue.

Afterwards the vet also advised Er Mao on some points to watch out for, telling him that in another month the kitten would be born, so prepare in advance.

Another bolt from the blue.

One month? That fast?!

"They say cats three, dogs four, right? How can it give birth in two months?" Er Mao asked.

The vet calmly shoved a small booklet about caring for pregnant cats into Er Mao's hand: "You got it wrong—cats and dogs both give birth after about two months. As for 'cats three, dogs four,' some say cats give birth three times a year, dogs four times a year; others say the timing for cats and dogs is different. But none of that matters. What matters is that you know your cat will have kittens in about a month, so you need to pay more attention."

At the time, Er Mao only listened to the vet's advice there, while his mind was still thinking about how to cause trouble for the cats in the big courtyard when he got back—his mood was a real mess.

After buying several kinds of cat food for pregnant cats recommended by the vet, Er Mao brought the cat back, then sat on the sofa holding the book the vet gave him and agonized over it for an afternoon; finally unable to resist, he went upstairs to call Zheng Tan down.

In Er Mao's view, Zheng Tan was the biggest suspect; as a cat father, he thought his own cat was the best, and a lower-quality cat would certainly be looked down upon by his own Hei Mi, but among the cats in the big courtyard, that black one was the finest.

Now this cat denies it, and Er Mao believes the cat in front of him wouldn't lie to him—but if it isn't this cat, which other bastard cat could it be? Er Mao went through the cats around him, wondering which one his own "daughter" would take a liking to. First he ruled out A Huang the eunuch, then the police chief? Or the fat cat on the first floor? But even when he usually took Hei Mi out, he hadn't seen it being that close with either of them. No matter how he said it, despite all his precautions, he still couldn't prevent it.

Zheng Tan looked at Er Mao's troubled face, then observed the surroundings. Hei Mi was lying in its cat nest, still stretched out on its side. A book about caring for pregnant cats and newborn kittens lay on the sofa, suggesting Er Mao would have plenty to keep him busy from now on.

Leaving Er Mao there to stew, Zheng Tan hurriedly slipped away; he didn't want to invite bad luck, and anyway this wasn't his doing—no one should try to pin it on him.

Thus, shortly after Er Mao joyfully became a "father," he joyfully became a "grandfather," to be precise, a "maternal grandfather." (To be continued…)

ps: (3.30)