Chapter 248

On Saturday, Zheng Tan familiarized himself with the event's main items and the venue layout; many people came that day, especially those who liked cats but couldn't keep them for various reasons, getting their fill of cat sightings, and when leaving they even discussed meeting up again tomorrow to come together.

When returning to the hotel, Zheng Tan heard Cha Li and them discussing the day's events; Xiao Guo went out to expand his network, and the first day's harvest left Xiao Guo fairly satisfied—he had won three medals, not a great result but not bad either, enough for show. Xiao Guo's main focus was on cat food and peripheral products; today the cat food sales were good, and there were several people contacting Xiao Guo for supply.

I heard that the cat of the woman who had been shouting on the bus midway with Xiao Guo's convoy did not achieve a result satisfying her this time, and that cat almost got into a fight with another cat that had competed then; however, for that woman, although not winning a prize was somewhat regrettable, she still doted on her own cat. This improved Zheng Tan's impression of her considerably.

Actually, many cat owners participating in this event, even if their cats didn't win a prize, were just here to make a cameo and play a bit part, not overly concerned about gains or losses, unlike those mainly commercial people who breed cats for advertising. At the venue, Zheng Tan saw several cat owners comforting each other, some even comforting their own cats, regardless of whether they thought their cats were feeling low due to not winning; perhaps they were also telling themselves that participation is what matters, and in their hearts, their own cats are always the best.

Zheng Tan didn't pay close attention to others' talk; he only knew that the first day's harvest for Xiao Guo and them was not bad, and that he needed to prepare more for tomorrow's items. In the evening, Zheng Tan and Jin Ling practiced together again.

Actually, it was mainly Zheng Tan running around; Jin Ling just needed to sit there as a qualified vase.

When Xiao Guo returned in the evening, he was still worried that Zheng Tan might have psychological pressure, but he didn't expect that upon entering the door he would find Zheng Tan already lying on the bed asleep.

Compared to Zheng Tan's calmness, Xiao Guo still felt some worry, even though his team's cat usually performed well in their daily ad shoots; but tomorrow there would be too many people at the venue, the onlookers, especially the children. Shouting and such greatly affect a cat's mood. Today several competing cats' conditions deteriorated. Sometimes a cat's sluggishness also has its benefits, like the few competing cats in Xiao Guo's own shop; if one were to talk about psychological quality, there's not much to say. Put bluntly, it's just a slower reaction by a beat. Being a bit sluggish, the temperament is too gentle.

Zheng Tan is different from other cats, Xiao Guo knows. Moreover, because the first day's harvest was so good, he hopes even more that tomorrow more people will know about Green Wing, know the Obviously So Pet Center, and know the products of this industry chain that he himself created.

Probably, there will be good results, right?

In the evening, Xiao Guo, who should have fallen asleep as soon as he lay down after drinking too much, unexpectedly suffered insomnia and only fell asleep late at night.

The next day, the second day of the event, Zheng Tan got up in the morning, feeling refreshed after breakfast, picked up the towel that Cha Li had just wetted and was still warm, wiped his face with it, and then followed Xiao Guo's group toward the venue.

Before getting out of the car, Zheng Tan looked out the window and saw many people gathered outside the venue, where many stalls with canopies were selling pet daily-use items, and nearby there were also various cat climbing frames on display.

At another entrance of the venue, a long line had formed; many people had brought their cats today because the venue offered a series of free activities for pet cats, including grooming, disease prevention, and physical checkups. Of course, the free items are limited; for more detailed services one would definitely need to contact and reserve ahead to go directly to the physical store, and today's free items were merely meant to show those cat owners.

The layout inside the venue had also been slightly adjusted, with an open space cleared in the center for the cat performances and interaction segment.

As soon as Xiao Guo arrived at the venue, someone pulled him aside to discuss matters; when leaving, he instructed Cha Li and Jin Ling to take Zheng Tan to familiarize himself with the environment.

Zheng Tan watched the staff there checking the cats participating in this event segment and the persons in charge, and incidentally confirmed again whether anyone had any objections to the performance order, after all this order was also decided by lot, so no one could blame anyone else, and only those who couldn't arrive on time due to sudden circumstances would have their order changed.

This segment had ten cats participating, and Zheng Tan was the seventh; if it started at nine o'clock, calculating fifteen minutes per cat would give eleven o'clock, but of course each cat's time is not absolute—some might finish in five minutes, some could last longer; the determining factors are one, the cat's performance, and two, its popularity, which can draw more audience attention, request photos, etc.; the higher the popularity, the longer the duration.

Zheng Tan glanced at the list in Cha Li's hand, then lost interest and shifted his gaze elsewhere.

At this time, some of the cat owners and cats participating in this segment had arrived one after another; Zheng Tan took a rough look—those cats appeared very clever, and their interaction with their owners or trainers revealed how familiar they were; moreover, these cats had no leashes, though a few were wearing small outfits that still looked appropriate. Zheng Tan also noticed that most of these cats were not purebred expensive breeds, and indeed many prestigious breeds themselves have many defects.

Upstairs, some people were already standing there, eagerly looking down at the open space on the first floor.

"bc, let's go!" Cha Li greeted Zheng Tan, they were going over there to do the press signing; the inspectors needed to look at the registration photos of the person and cat.

Because they needed to appear publicly, Xiao Guo had them all call Zheng Tan 'bc'; the registration form listed the participant's name as 'blackc', and the breed was domestic cat.

With only ten participants, the on-site verification and signing didn't take long; Jin Ling took Zheng Tan over there, they loitered a bit, and then rested at the side.

"It's started, it's started!" someone in the surrounding crowd called out to a companion.

Zheng Tan glanced at the rapidly gathering crowd; many people were holding cameras and DVs, a few dads had their kids sit on their shoulders, and the children were holding DVs to film this side.

Seeing so many people paying attention, Zheng Tan, who had originally held a casual attitude, felt that his performance later absolutely could not be poor; since he had decided to come out and participate in the event, he needed to show some skill, so that those holding cameras and DVs wouldn't be too disappointed.

The first cat to appear, its owner had put in extra thought; the clothes on the cat wouldn't hinder its movements, and when it came out it was standing on a ball and rolling the ball out.

Rolling the ball looks simple, but it's actually not; when Zheng Tan first tried it at the pet center, he failed several times before getting used to it.

"Good!" someone over there clapped and cheered.

I don't know if it's a shill.

After that person cheered and clapped, the surrounding crowd also started clapping.

After that cat rolled the ball, it also did jumps through hoops, weaving through obstacles, and similar moves; although people have seen these acts in televised circus performances, the live feeling is different.

At the end of the performance, that cat stood on the person's shoulder, bowed to the audience, and drew another round of applause; it didn't react much to those taking photos with flash, just squinting its eyes. Overall it was fairly composed. After the performance ended, several audience members who had drawn admission ticket numbers went up to take a photo with that cat and its owner.

Zheng Tan watched carefully; several staff members around had already started telling the crowd to try not to use flash, after all not every cat can be as unresponsive to flash as the opening cat.

The performances of the next few cats were largely similar; some male spectators' attention was instead on those cat owners wearing cat ears.

A cat band's instrument performance attracted a lot of attention; those instruments differed from professional ones, some leaning toward children's toys yet still able to produce sound, and they had also been modified specifically to make them easier for cats to operate. Although the cat band played only something like 'Happy Birthday', a very simple tune, and even hit a few wrong notes during the performance, people still applauded enthusiastically.

The cat in front of Zheng Tan performed on the single and double bars, moving from one end to the other using only its two front paws; when doing the single bar, it added a few more moves, which for a cat is already quite good.

Earlier I thought the performance was too simple and people would be dissatisfied, but the fact shows that Zheng Tan overthought it; people's expectations for animals aren't that high, and even if those cats just jumped two hoops and flipped two somersaults, they would feel the trip was worthwhile.

"Seventh place, from Chu Hua Shi Green Wing Association's blackc!" The announcer, when calling out the name, actually hesitated a bit in his heart; it's rare for a cat to have such a name, even if it were an English name, this name is too weird—black is fine, but what's the "c"? What does the "c" mean? Could there be black "a", "b", etc.?

After hearing the announcer call out the name, some spectators around got excited.

"Holy shit, is that the bc? A real, live bc! I never expected that coming here once would actually let me see a real, live bc performance!"

"I've seen their cat food ad videos before and they weren't bad, but this is live—you can't shout 'cut', and I don't know how the performance will be."

"What is bc? Is it famous?"

"At a glance you don't seem to frequent the xx pet forum, but this cat is quite famous on the xx forum; the cat food my family uses is the brand that this cat endorsed in ads."

……

Over here people were discussing who 'blackc' was, while the venue had already begun setting up props; watching the props being brought out one by one, the spectators' attention gradually shifted.

"Holy shit! What is that prop? A wall?"

"Those stools marked with letters…… are arranged somewhat strangely; could it be that we're supposed to walk in a zigzag?"

"Wow! A great beauty!"

"Is this going to be a Beauty and the Beast performance?"

"……Where is the beast?"

Amidst the people's discussion, Zheng Tan and Jin Ling walked into the venue.

Jin Ling today dressed in a slightly fresh and clean style, looking more like a girl next door; when she smiled, there was a sweet, warm feeling, which made some male spectators at the site stare straight.

Zheng Tan wore no decorations, nor those little outfits; he could be said to have gone on stage bare.

When entering, the one sure to catch the eye was Jin Ling, but there were also people who paid attention to Zheng Tan and knew cats fairly well who could tell that this cat now entering was different from the previous ones.

The cat's steps naturally showed a sense of composure and elegance, its tail sloping downward, the tip hooked up, and combined with Zheng Tan's expressionless "solemn" black face, someone sighed: "Hey, he really does look like a little black Baizi!" (To be continued...)

ps: (5.6)