Chapter 315

The tree hollow where Zheng Tan stayed was still somewhat above the ground; when that person fell, he landed on the older person beneath the tree; the grass in the woods was fairly thick, with many leaves, etc.; that person only let out a miserable scream when he fell, probably breaking or spraining something somewhere, but his life was not in danger.

After the older person below got up, he was cursing and swearing; Zheng Tan couldn't understand what he was saying, but could infer from his tone that it wasn't anything nice.

The older person, pressed to the ground, also felt uncomfortable; after getting up he rubbed his shoulders and neck, saw the younger one still groaning on the ground, kicked him, and hissed a few words low, probably telling him to keep quiet, since he didn't want to be discovered.

The younger person's voice indeed became much quieter; he slowly got up, rubbing his lower back and a few other spots, then felt his hand, discovering that the stinging spot on the back of his hand was sticky and wet—obviously bleeding.

From a human's visual perspective, that young man just now would hardly notice that what frightened him into falling from the tree was actually a cat, p3's bag.

The other person tied the bag's thin cord to several branches of the shrubbery, tying it fairly securely, probably fearing it would fall and cause other mishaps. Zheng Tan took about half an hour to undo it—no wonder those two had been busy crouching in front of the shrubbery for so long.

After taking out the bag, Zheng Tan fiddled with the shrubbery a couple of times, straightening the squeezed-askew weeds, then held the bag and ran off.

Coming to a tree, Zheng Tan felt the bag; it was quite ordinary, the material not looking particularly expensive—such small bags made of this material sell for a dollar or two at the stalls set up by students outside.

Opening the bag, Zheng Tan peered inside; it contained some small hard objects, the smallest about a millimeter or even less, the larger ones roughly three millimeters; after looking more carefully, he found these things resembled diamonds.

Diamonds? Probably fake?

Zheng Tan stared at those tiny granules in the bag; as an illiterate who couldn't even tell diamonds from crystal, he felt immense pressure.

But if they were fake, why would those two be so careful? Sneaking around like thieves in the middle of the night to hide things?

But if they were real, these diamonds would be worth a lot of money—why would those two just toss them here?

Put the bag back?

After considering those two's behavior, Zheng Tan still decided to screw them over. He had no intention of bringing this bag back to the Jiao family, as that would likely bring trouble to them, so he decided to hide the bag elsewhere. Anyway, it's so late now that no one would see.

Huh?

It seems I forgot something…

He looked up at the night sky, Zheng Tan cursed silently, then retightened the bag's opening with a simple knot, then climbed up to the tree hollow where he hid his phone; since those two had come here to hide things and had even discovered this hollow, to be safe Zheng Tan decided to temporarily move his phone.

For the hiding place, Zheng Tan thought it over and decided to first hide his phone and this bag of unidentified real-or-fake diamonds there.

After Zheng Tan finished hiding the things, he glanced at his phone: 11:40.

He turned off the phone and immediately sprinted toward Dongqu Dayuan.

Before even entering the compound, Zheng Tan could see the building where the Jiao family lived; on the fifth floor, the Jiao family's apartment, the living-room light was still on.

Zheng Tan took a deep breath and kept running back; a scolding was unavoidable.

Fifth floor, Jiao family living room.

Jiao Ba and Jiao Ma sat in the living room, the TV on but with no sound at all, turned down to near mute; one had a blank expression, the other's eyes held worry, occasionally glancing at the wall clock. Xiao Youzi sat at a desk in the room, a practice workbook open before him, but he had no mind to write, just spacing out.

Jiao Ba grabbed the remote and switched channels, landing on one broadcasting a horror movie where a cat bared its teeth at a monster; Jiao Ba's face twitched—not because he wanted to watch that movie, but because the time was displayed in the corner of that channel.

Good, only ten minutes left until twelve.

The wooden board door at the Jiao family's entrance wasn't closed; the anti-theft door was merely ajar.

From downstairs came a soft 'click' sound; Jiao Ba and Jiao Ma jolted, then looked toward the doorway.

After a moment, a furry paw pushed the ajar door open, revealing a cat's head, which peered cautiously into the living room.

As soon as she saw that black cat's paw, Jiao Ma's heart, which had been suspended, finally settled.

"Alright, alright, you're finally back!" Jiao Ma walked over, picked up Zheng Tan, checked him, found no injury, set him down, yawned, and went into the bedroom to prepare for sleep; usually by this time they'd already be asleep.

This time Jiao Ba, together with the previous incident in Nan Cheng, had a good talk with Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan obediently squatted on the sofa, being lectured by Jiao Ba with a finger pointed at his forehead.

Head bowed, ears drooping, Zheng Tan knew. His apology attitude had to be sincere; he had to act pitiful, otherwise the scolding would be harsher. Moreover, regarding his late return, Zheng Tan indeed felt guilty—coming home this late, the family had been waiting, and tomorrow all three would have to get up early for school or work, who knows if they'd be mentally drained.

The result of this late return was that Zheng Tan tried several times to squeeze into Xiao Youzi's blanket but failed each time; Xiao Youzi then suggested throwing him into Jiao Yuan's room. At the same time, Jiao Ba confiscated Zheng Tan's cat tag; without the cat tag Zheng Tan couldn't open the downstairs access control, making coming and going less convenient—this meant being grounded. The grounding lasts three days; as for after three days, we'll decide based on the watch whether to return the cat tag. Therefore, during these three days, even if Zheng Tan could slip out by following people entering and exiting the building, he'd better stay home obediently if he wants to get his cat tag back soon.

Thinking about this, Zheng Tan felt no resentment upon recalling that the three of them had stayed up all night waiting for him. As for the cat tag, three days is three days; staying home sleeping in a daze is fine, watching TV and sneaking some computer play, or rummaging through the cardboard box under Jiao Yuan's bed to find something to pass the time.

Zheng Tan slept a night on Jiao Yuan's bed; the next day he stayed home obediently, rummaging through the cardboard box under Jiao Yuan's bed for comics and novels; those magazines with pretty girls had somehow been disposed of by Jiao Yuan sometime ago; the newly bought magazines Zheng Tan had seen only once, and thereafter he couldn't find them no matter how he searched—Jiao Yuan, this little brat, had grown more cunning, even his hiding techniques had become more sophisticated.

While flipping through the comics, Zheng Tan thought of the bag he'd scooped up the previous night; he really wanted to see what reaction those two would have when they discovered the stuff was missing.

But, are those things real or fake?

Zheng Tan was thinking about it when he suddenly recalled that earlier Jiao Ma had mentioned something about diamonds; at the time Zheng Tan hadn't paid attention, but upon reflection, it seemed Jiao Ma had brought it up after seeing it mentioned in some newspaper.

Recalling the approximate date of that day, it should be the 《Chu Hua Da Xue Bao》; different periodicals are issued at different times, and even though Zheng Tan doesn't read newspapers much, after living in the Jiao family for these years he's become familiar with it.

Since it's recent, it's either placed on Jiao Yuan's desk or beside Jiao Ba's computer.

He jumped onto Jiao Yuan's desk and flipped through—only a few other periodicals, no 《Chu Hua Da Xue Bao》 in sight; Zheng Tan then ran to the master bedroom, where he found the wanted issue in the stack of newspapers beside the computer.

He pulled out the newspaper; no need to search—once unfolded, the large picture was visible, showing three diamonds.

Those were artificial diamonds produced by a materials-research lab at the Chemistry College of Chu Hua Da Xue; according to the article, they had reached gemstone quality.

The tremendous commercial value has kept the synthesis technology for gem-quality single-crystal diamond under tight blockade for a long time; domestically, some research institutes and certain commercial entities have continued exploring and studying it. The campus lab, having mastered the core technology for synthesizing high-quality gem-grade diamond single crystals, displayed three excellent synthesis results: three artificial gem-grade diamonds of different colors, ranging in size from six to seven millimeters.

Zheng Tan lacked the patience to read the lengthy academic jargon explanations; he skimmed through and only understood that this stuff is made of carbon, that graphite and diamond are siblings—too bad he had no idea how many grades apart their values are.

Long ago, Su An joked to Jiao Yuan, 'Your family's cat is called Hei Tan; you might as well call it Mo Tan.' At the time Zheng Tan didn't get it, but now, upon reflection, he suddenly felt his name had turned into silk—he just didn't know when he could become 'diamond'.

The article in the newspaper said that nowadays many artificial diamonds have reached the point of being indistinguishable from real ones, and it also explained that their lab has specialized identification equipment—meaning, as the voice-over puts it, they can help with identification, though the fee is another matter.

Zheng Tan couldn't just walk up to that lab's door holding those suspected diamonds.

The article also mentioned some identification methods; Zheng Tan thought that once the grounding is lifted, he'll go over and try them out. (To be continued…)