Chapter 278

Since you don't have to pay yourself, don't have to worry about service suspension, you can do anything without exposing yourself and not fear being investigated, and you can still have fun—what a good thing. No wonder there are many private detectives now; market demand is high and making money is easy, so businesses like catching mistresses and gathering evidence seem quite profitable.

However, Zheng Tan has no intention of getting involved in those things; he helps Bai Lao Shi only because she treats Zhuo Xiao Mao well, and at the same time Zheng Tan just wants to deal with Zhang Dong. Once this matter is over, Zheng Tan will have no interest in helping anyone with this kind of thing again.

After resolving the annoying issue of phone bills, Zheng Tan was in a great mood; that day, while playing mobile games, his paw speed increased significantly, he made fewer mistakes than before, and he scored a high score in one go.

Although he no longer has to pay phone bills himself, Zheng Tan remains eager to earn cash; every time Xiao Guo takes him to shoot promotional videos and advertisements, Zheng Tan takes his overtime pay from Xiao Guo without hesitation. Previously, he grew impatient with the cats at the pet shop that always made mistakes, but now he hopes those cats don't cooperate so he can earn even more cash.

Zheng Tan temporarily has no intention of using this cash to pay phone bills; he plans to save it for everyday emergencies. Sometimes, even if his card holds a huge deposit, having no cash on hand is pointless.

That day, because it was the weekend, both children were at home; Jiao Ma was dragged out shopping by a few colleagues, and Jiao Ba wasn't there either.

Jiao Ba has no absolute days off; after lunch he would run back to the institute. After being promoted to professor, Jiao Ba applied for another good project, and now he has several projects on hand, with many topics, keeping him very busy. Currently, a few senior undergraduates preparing to defend Jiao Ba's research have joined, along with a few juniors and sophomores. Some want to get more familiar with the lab, after all undergraduates and graduate students still have a big gap, and the experiments they can independently handle are limited; if they want to develop in this direction, they need to prepare in advance. Others are attracted by Professor Jiao's current reputation and his projects, after all following a teacher who has projects and topics and can produce results, not only can they usually earn 'wages,' but it will also greatly help them in the future; ideally they could produce an SCI paper before graduating to bolster their profile, compete for scholarships, and also aid in job hunting after graduation.

Jiao Ba's reputation in the institute has indeed increased a lot. Especially when someone above is backing him, there's no way around it—those few big shots above have taken over Professor Jiao's red-nest rat, so not giving him some support would be hard to justify.

Zheng Tan, when he usually walks over to the Life Science Institute, has also overheard students several times discussing the situation of the institute's teachers. Once, Zheng Tan even heard them talking about which of this generation of young teachers (junior faculty) would most likely succeed Dean Xie in the future. And among them, Jiao Ba had the loudest support.

As Jiao Ba's reputation grew, the status of his family members also rose considerably; Zheng Tan understands this best regarding Xiao Youzi's side. Now some teachers at the affiliated primary school are kinder to Xiao Youzi than before, whereas previously they showed no particular attitude.

At this moment, there are no adults at home; Jiao Yuan and Xiao Youzi are no longer seven- or eight-year-olds who need constant supervision. Xiao Youzi finishes her homework and watches TV in the living room, while Jiao Yuan does test papers in his room; the study load for middle school has increased. Although these children of university professors seem glamorous from the outside, they also face great pressure—if they do poorly on exams, they directly embarrass their own father. Even if Jiao Ba and Jiao Ma don't say anything, Jiao Yuan can't bear to hear people say things like, 'Your father isn't a professor at Chu Hua University, so why are your grades so bad?' Officials' children and wealthy children, even if their grades are poor, it's fine; other classmates will say they 'understand.' But for children of university teachers, if they do poorly, a single remark adding insult to injury could choke you.

Zheng Tan opened the drawer on the cat climbing frame and looked through the business cards; all those cards had phone numbers, the only exception being the one with the number '68' written on it, which had no phone number, only an email address. Zheng Tan had originally planned to ask that experienced fellow for some advice, but he didn't expect that person not to have left a telephone number.

Forget it, we'll talk later.

Zheng Tan was looking at those business cards when the home phone rang; Xiao Youzi ran to answer it, then quickly came back and knocked on Jiao Yuan's door.

"Brother, someone's looking for you—it's Xiong Xiong."

"If it's just to round up people for a ball game, tell him I'm free! Damn, next week there's a stage test—I'm waiting to place in the top three and slap those guys' faces!" Jiao Yuan shouted from inside.

Xiao Youzi conveyed Jiao Yuan's words to Xiong Xiong, and not long after she ran back to Jiao Yuan's door and said, "Xiong Xiong says it's not about playing ball; he said it's about buying a gift."

Inside, Jiao Yuan let out an anguished cry: "Damn, I forgot!"

Jiao Yuan quickly flung open his door, slipped on his slippers and pattered to answer the phone; seeing Xiao Youzi and Zheng Tan standing at the doorway, the Jiao Yuan who was about to pick up immediately turned back and shut the master bedroom door.

Zheng Tan and Xiao Youzi exchanged a glance, thinking, "What other secrets does this kid have?!"

After closing the door, Xiao Youzi couldn't hear the conversation inside, but Zheng Tan could hear clearly; it seemed that a female classmate in Jiao Yuan's class has a birthday tomorrow and invited them, but Jiao Yuan forgot to buy a gift after doing his test paper, and now Xiong Xiong is looking for him to go together to look for a gift.

From Jiao Yuan's tone, that female classmate probably looks decent, maybe even the class belle. Tsk, what's there to be embarrassed about when chasing a girl? Yet he still closes the door when speaking, afraid someone might hear. That said, nowadays parents seem to forbid puppy love. Back then, Zheng Tan had no such scruples or restrictions.

Five minutes later, Jiao Yuan came out, a little embarrassed, and asked Xiao Youzi, "Youzi, do you have any cash on hand? Lend it to me for urgent use; I'll pay you back in a couple of days, brother."

Xiao Youzi didn't hesitate; she rummaged around and came up with twenty yuan. She doesn't keep much cash on hand either—although her irresponsible mother deposits a sum into her card each year, she never checks it. Usually she saves the pocket money given by Jiao Ma and Jiao Ba, and once a certain amount accumulates she hands it to Jiao Ba to deposit into her card. She also buys books and other supplies; a few days ago the school organized a donation drive for a primary school in a mountainous area, and she contributed fifty yuan. For the primary school students, such charitable donations are normally five or ten yuan, with anything over ten considered a large donation. The Jiao family only heard about this from others; Xiao Youzi never mentioned it at home—the donation money is her own saved pocket money, and she decides how to use it; Jiao Ba and Jiao Ma do not interfere.

However, precisely because of the donation, Xiao Youzi has little change left; she counted and found it was less than twenty yuan.

From Jiao Yuan's expression it's clear the money isn't enough. He bought a new basketball and sports outfit a couple of days ago, basically using up all his pocket money; the bank card he and Xiao Youzi use for savings is in Jiao Ba's hands, and Jiao Yuan certainly understands his own father—if he really called to ask for the card, a couple of sentences would surely give it away, and he doesn't want his father to know about this.

"There are still coins in the piggy bank."

Xiao Youzi said as she went to hug the black cat piggy bank. Inside there are one-mao and five-mao coins. Added together, that should be about ten or so yuan, right?

But just as Xiao Youzi was about to take the piggy bank, a cat paw pressed down on her hand, stopping her from opening it.

Then, under the doubtful gazes of the two children, Zheng Tan ran to the cat climbing frame, opened a drawer that wasn't locked, pulled out fifty yuan from inside, and handed it to Jiao Yuan.

Jiao Yuan, Xiao Youzi: "!!"

Jiao Yuan's mouth hung open as he took the fifty-yuan bill and checked its authenticity; then he wore an expression of utter disbelief: "Where did this come from?!"

No sooner had Jiao Yuan finished speaking than Zheng Tan pulled out another fifty and passed it over.

After Jiao Yuan checked the bill's authenticity, he curiously glanced at Zheng Tan's small drawer and saw a stack of bills ranging from ten to one hundred yuan; he said, "Youzi, is our Hei Tan actually a little rich cat?! But where did Hei Tan get all this money?"

Xiao Youzi then remembered, she had heard Jiao Ba mention something like, "It seems to be Hei Tan's overtime pay from filming advertisements."

When Zheng Tan came back from overtime, Jiao Yuan and Xiao Youzi weren't there, so they never actually saw him stash the money; Xiao Youzi had only overheard a sentence or two when Jiao Ba chatted with Xiao Guo, and she hadn't expected there to really be that much cash.

Xiao Youzi and Jiao Yuan never imagined that the amount of money in Zheng Tan's card was far, far greater.

Jiao Yuan merely made a few remarks, then slipped one of the fifty-yuan bills back into Zheng Tan's drawer, keeping only the other fifty for himself, and helped Zheng Tan close the drawer, saying, "Fifty is enough, Hei Tan—save it yourself for marrying a wife someday!"

Zheng Tan: "……"

Jiao Yuan still uneasy, he instructed Xiao Youzi to keep watch and not let any outsiders approach the cat climbing frame; Xiao Youzi nodded solemnly.

Zheng Tan again: "……"

Zheng Tan originally saved money just to handle emergencies; he isn't stingy about giving money to family members either, and he also plans to give red packets when someone has a birthday or during the New Year—oh, and Zhuo Xiao Mao will also need a red packet from him later. In Zheng Tan's mind, he has always regarded himself as an elder rather than a peer of Jiao Yuan's age group; now he again selectively forgets that the still-human 'Zheng Tan' in this world is actually about the same age as Jiao Yuan.

After Jiao Yuan went out to hang out with Xiong Xiong and the others, he didn't come back for dinner; Yue Lisha and Xie Xin from Xiqu Dayuan came over to find Xiao Youzi to discuss next week's bulletin board, and Zheng Tan, after dinner with nothing to do, went out for a stroll.

There are many side streets off the old street; one of them used to have a bustling area at night.

Zheng Tan came out tonight mainly hoping to run into the scene of Peanut Candy versus a Pekingese dog; that fellow has recently fixed his gaze on a mixed-breed Pekingese there, and every time he goes over they end up fighting.

After walking down a long lane, stepping out he immediately found bustling activity everywhere, with street food stalls all around.

Every day as evening approaches, this place becomes quite lively, filled with the market atmosphere of firewood, rice, oil, and salt; most of the people active here are those of relatively low social status, after all the social elites rarely come to these street food stalls—they think it would lower their tone, and once inside they inevitably get their expensive suits stained with cheap beer and the mixed fumes of greasy dishes.

People who come here don't maintain an aloof, pretentious petite-bourgeois affectation; they order two large plates of roadside-bought kebabs, a tableful of dishes they like, several bottles of beer, chat and laugh freely, and express their genuine character.

Zheng Tan had no interest in the wafting aromas; what annoyed him was that, just now while dodging a drunkard, he stepped on some unknown bastard's spit-out bubble gum on the ground. To make matters worse for a cat, this bubble gum is extremely sticky—you can't shake it off, you can't rub it off.

What the hell brand is this!

Damn disgusting shit!

Starting today, bubble gum is listed among the things Zheng Tan utterly despises, and he steers clear of it!

While Zheng Tan was struggling with the bubble gum on his front paw, two people at a nearby table were also watching this scene.

The somewhat older one said to the other, "Hey, Xiao Luo, look, is that cat having a spasm?" (To be continued..)

ps: (6.5) I came back at night and slept; I overslept, and I had planned to continue with two more chapters, but I didn't expect the first one to already be at 1:30 AM. I'll keep typing; I don't know if I'll be able to post more.