Chapter 23: Waking a Cat Takes Five Calls

At six o'clock in the morning, Wei Leng got up, boiled a kettle of hot water and left it there so the two kids could wash their faces with warm water after getting up.

Wei Leng didn't grow up in Chu Hua Shi, but because several friends were there, he came to Chu Hua Shi to develop his career after being discharged. After living there for a while, his deepest impression of Chu Hua Shi was its weather.

In Wei Leng's words, "This weather is sick, it needs treatment."

The temperature in Chu Hua Shi always feels damn crazy; yesterday it was nearly thirty degrees, and today it could suddenly drop to ten degrees. Perhaps because the temperature never stabilizes, the campus still has a lot of green—of course, dead leaves also fall—but among the greens and browns by the road, people always notice the green first, maybe because green lifts people's mood a bit.

Wei Leng pulled an all‑night study, researching until late, and was about to nap when Jiao Ba called him saying the temperature was dropping and asked him to help look after the two kids. After the call, Wei Leng lost any sleepiness, boredly played Spider Solitaire—from the intermediate two‑deck set to the advanced four‑deck set—then started Minesweeper, with a timer beside him, repeatedly grinding the record until dawn.

Although he hadn't slept all night, Wei Leng was still energetic in the morning; it was still early, so he planned to run a lap first and bring breakfast for the two kids on his way back.

He wrote a note and placed it in a conspicuous spot on the dining table; as Wei Leng was about to leave, he took two steps then stopped, looking at Zheng Tan sleeping on the sofa.

Ever since he scratched that thief that day, Zheng Tan always felt a bloody scent on his claws, fearing it might affect the kids negatively; hearing that the smell of blood can stimulate children and make them more prone to nightmares, Zheng Tan therefore stopped sleeping on Gu Youzi's bed.

However, Gu Youzi took out his little fur cape for Zheng Tan to use as a blanket; the cape had a hood, and the hood was sewn with two cat ears as decoration.

At this moment, Zheng Tan was curled up inside the cape, sleeping soundly in a "ball" shape. Zheng Tan had always not understood why cats often curl into a ball to sleep and can keep that posture without getting tired.

But after Zheng Tan turned into a cat himself, he finally understood that this sleeping posture is indeed quite comfortable for a cat; sometimes he would fall asleep and unconsciously curl into a ball, just like now.

"Hei Tan, go run!" Wei Leng, standing at the doorway, lowered his voice and called.

There was no movement beneath the cape.

"Hei Tan, get up and run!" Wei Leng said again. He didn't believe the cat on the sofa couldn't hear.

The ear tips peeking out from the cape's edge twitched, and then… there was nothing else.

Wei Leng: "…" That little bastard is still playing deaf!

"Hei Tan!" Wei Leng shouted a third time, with a hint of warning.

Zheng Tan still didn't move, but this time he snorted from his nostrils, showing he heard and that Wei Leng could leave.

"Hei Tan! Get up!" Wei Leng said for the fourth time.

This time Zheng Tan finally moved, stretched a lazy yawn, stuck his head out of the cape, squinted toward Wei Leng, yawned, waited five seconds, saw no further response from Wei Leng, then tucked his head back in and kept sleeping.

"Hei Tan, get up and run!!" Wei Leng said almost word by word, pausing after each syllable.

This time Zheng Tan's movement finally became big; he kicked off the cape, gave a huge stretch, and shook his fur.

Wei Leng: "…" Damn it, I didn't expect waking a cat would require five calls!

"Are you also going to knead on the sofa and then go to the bathroom to pee?" Wei Leng gritted his teeth.

Zheng Tan tugged at his ears; he would never knead, and if he were to knead, it would be on a big‑chested girl, not the sofa—kneading the sofa is pointless. Zheng Tan always thought that kneading, as one of the cat's signature moves, is quite lewd, especially since this lewd technique stems from a collective inherited mother‑complex, which is almost a universal trait among cats.

Kneading isn't necessary, but morning pee still has to be done.

Watching the black cat dash toward the bathroom, Wei Leng helplessly stared at the ceiling. With a cat like this, how could the Jiao Family still treat it as a treasure?!

Because of the sudden temperature drop, as soon as Zheng Tan stepped out of the building, he felt a chill hit him, making him shiver.

The sun hadn't risen yet, and the campus was relatively quiet; aside from the clatter of carts near the cafeteria, there were no other loud sounds.

However, while Zheng Tan was halfway through his run, the school broadcast sounded on schedule.

It starts playing at 6:30 each day and runs continuously until 7:30.

When passing the student dorms, the school broadcast had already finished the opening song and had begun the broadcast calisthenics.

"Now begin, the eighth set of broadcast calisthenics, march in place—go! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…"

"Fuck, it's freaking loud early in the morning!" a frantic voice shouted from the dorm facing the speaker.

Before the voice faded, a flip‑flop was hurled out of a dorm window, striking the speaker, yet it still couldn't stop the broadcast's sound.

"Jumping exercise, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, two, two, three, four…"

"Ah—sooner or later I'll smash you! Just wait, the day I leave this school will be the day you meet your end!"

Listening to the commotion over there, Zheng Tan suddenly felt a delightfully satisfying sensation.

Not everyone can get used to plugging in earplugs; pity those who thought that after entering university they could avoid early self‑study. Early self‑study isn't mandatory, but there are still all sorts of hassles, plus the school broadcast that rings punctually every weekday.

Zheng Tan felt fortunate to live in the East Garden area; the family compound around it is relatively clean, and you only hear the broadcast after stepping out of the compound, so sleeping in is still possible.

After completing a lap, the school broadcast still hadn't aired the Central People's Broadcasting Station news, confirming it wasn't yet seven o'clock.

Jiao Yuan and the others all get up at seven.

Wei Leng first went to the cafeteria to buy breakfast, and Zheng Tan waited for him to finish before heading toward the family compound.

On the way back to the compound, he ran into Old Yan, who was out walking his dog.

Niu Zhuangzhuang, that big‑headed, small‑eyed fellow, was wagging his tail vigorously—a reaction to seeing Zheng Tan. Although Niu Zhuangzhuang can be quite fierce when fighting, he's fine with the other pets in the compound. A Huang often licks his fur, and a few days ago Zheng Tan saw that the hairball A Huang spat out contained white and brown hair, which must have been from Niu Zhuangzhuang and Hua JiongJiong.

In the mornings, Wei Leng sometimes practices tai chi with some old men; he's become quite familiar with a few elders in the compound, so Old Yan also knows Wei Leng and greeted him upon seeing him.

"This dog is pretty feisty," Wei Leng said, glancing at the Niu Zhuangzhuang that Old Yan was holding.

Old Yan's smile deepened into more wrinkles upon hearing that. Lately, Old Yan has especially liked telling people about his "Zhuangzhuang's" glorious deeds.

However, Niu Zhuangzhuang doesn't have a particularly good attitude toward Wei Leng; probably it's an animal's innate instinct—he constantly avoids Wei Leng, and if Wei Leng stares at him a bit longer, the dog will bare its teeth at him.

Old Yan glanced at Wei Leng's breakfast and said disapprovingly, "You bought eggs and soy milk? I heard a few days ago that eating eggs and soy milk together not only doesn't double protein intake, but actually hinders proper protein absorption. I forgot the exact mechanism; I'm not researching that field. You could ask Xiao Jiao later; they should know."

After thanking Old Yan, Wei Leng said goodbye; Old Yan still needed to take Niu Zhuangzhuang for a walk, and the two kids at the Jiao Family were probably already up. The school broadcast was about to start airing the central news.

As Zheng Tan walked home, he mulled over Old Yan's words, recalling that at the Jiao Family he really hadn't seen eggs and soy milk together; even if they were, the eggs were for Jiao Yuan to keep on hand for hunger, not to be eaten immediately.

In the end, Wei Leng still prepared milk for the two kids.

Lan Tianzhu, Su An and the others called Jiao Yuan to go to school together, so Zheng Tan didn't have to follow to the affiliated elementary school. That's fine, Zheng Tan thought; since Wei Leng is around these two days, he should quickly find a way to tell him about that matter. Whether it works or not, at least it would verify his own thoughts.

While Wei Leng was in the bathroom, Zheng Tan went to the bedroom and jumped onto Jiao Ba's desk. On the desk lay some books Jiao Ba often used, and Zheng Tan's first target was the textbook "Genetics".

Jiao Ba teaches genetics courses for others, and Zheng Tan has already seen all of Jiao Ba's teaching PPTs this semester; after each PPT is completed, Jiao Ba always rehearses it himself, noticing some details only while lecturing—this is Jiao Ba's habit.

Zheng Tan opened the "Genetics" book; what he now needs to do is find the information he wants within the course material that Jiao Ba hasn't taught yet.

Zheng Tan also wasn't sure whether what Jiao Ba said at the hospital that day was from this book; he's just taking a chance—if he can't find it in this one, he can just switch to another.

For a cat, turning pages isn't easy, but Zheng Tan has gotten used to it; the more he flips, the more proficient he becomes. While turning pages, his ears also monitor the surroundings, and if he hears Wei Leng coming, Zheng Tan wouldn't flip the book like that, since a cat browsing such a professional text would truly startle people. Even if Zheng Tan doesn't understand any of it, it still looks unusual to others.

Fortunately, Zheng Tan quickly found the information he wanted. No wonder Jiao Ba mentioned the prenatal development process at the hospital; looking at the schedule, Jiao Ba will cover it in class next week, and he simply reviewed extra material while preparing his lesson.

When Wei Leng went into the bedroom to fetch documents, he saw a black cat squatting beside the computer, playing with a bookmark.

"Don't scratch it out—that's the record your Jiao Ba made!"

Because the bookmark had been scratched out a long section by Zheng Tan, Wei Leng took the Genetics book, opened to the page where the bookmark was, and put the bookmark back in place, clamping it; just as he was about to close the book, his peripheral vision caught some words on the page, and the motion to close the book stopped instantly. After looking, he turned another page.

After seeing the content on that page, Wei Leng frowned, repeatedly reading that passage several times.

Actually this passage is just some of the content that Jiao Ba spoke about at the hospital that day, and the ink notes in the margin concerning the human gender controversy are notes Jiao Ba made while preparing lessons earlier.

Zheng Tan did not directly place the bookmark on the page containing that passage, but instead put it on the preceding page, which also served as a concealment.

After finishing reading that passage, Wei Leng closed the book, took out his phone, and made a call.

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Thanks to 18825317312, Right Grass Clothes Person, Oufi Moxi, pu Ning Que Wu Lan, Chan Mo‑ng van, lazyorange, for giving this emperor kneeling rewards! Thanks everyone for recommendation support~

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