Chapter 34

After Zheng Tan had been squatting in the tree for a while, he grew impatient; several people below were staring at the four of them as if they were rare animals. If A Huang and Jingzhang hadn't seen the other two companions still squatting here, they would have already gotten up and run. As for Da Pang, he continued to completely ignore those unrelated people.

After Zheng Tan was flicked again by A Huang's tail, he glanced at it sideways; A Huang, feeling wronged, let out a soft "meow," meaning it really didn't want to stay here now.

Forget it; anyway, big-breasted girl has already seen it, let's go.

However, just as Zheng Tan was about to get up, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

Looking that way, Fo Ye was accompanying a foreigner toward the International Academic Lecture Hall, not going with the previous crowd; apparently because the foreigner had gone to the physics college, Fo Ye kept him company, so the two must be acquaintances.

Zheng Tan wasn't particularly interested in getting to know Fo Ye and that foreigner, but a name they frequently mentioned caught his attention—they kept talking about "Mary." When Zheng Tan had accompanied Xiao Zhuo by the artificial lake earlier, Xiao Zhuo's original document had written "To dear Mary," followed by some blessings.

Besides that original document, several other books also bore the name "Mary," and Xiao Zhuo usually annotated them directly on the pages, indicating those books belonged to him. Therefore, "Mary" must be Xiao Zhuo's English name.

Thinking this, Zheng Tan lowered the foot he had just lifted.

Beside him, A Huang's eyes brightened as Zheng Tan lifted his foot, ready to dash toward the tree, but when he turned around and saw Zheng Tan squatting again, his ears drooped and he let out another "meow," this one longer than before—too bad Zheng Tan was busy eavesdropping and ignored him.

Zheng Tan pricked up his ears to listen to Fo Ye and the foreigner's conversation; although he didn't understand many technical terms, he still grasped some points, such as the matter concerning Xiao Zhuo.

The foreigner obviously had some interest in Xiao Zhuo, but he didn't know Xiao Zhuo's current situation. Fo Ye's expression was not good; Xiao Zhuo's matter was a permanent pain in Fo Ye's heart, yet she couldn't say it outright.

This big-bearded foreigner clearly doesn't know how to read facial expressions—can't he see how forced Fo Ye's smile is?

Zheng Tan silently shook his head; dear Mary is resting at home pregnant, so big-bearded foreigner, you can give up!

Another thing that intrigued Zheng Tan was Fo Ye saying Xiao Zhuo was preparing to go abroad; he estimated she would leave next year and not return for at least three years.

The big-bearded foreigner asked more about Xiao Zhuo, but Fo Ye brushed him off, not specifying where she was going or whether she'd do a postdoctoral exchange, only saying she'd be away for a few years.

Precisely because Zheng Tan knew Xiao Zhuo's current situation, he found it all the more puzzling; after all, Fo Ye wasn't the type to speak carelessly, and when he had just said Xiao Zhuo would go abroad, his expression had been firm—otherwise the foreigner wouldn't have believed him.

Given Xiao Zhuo's present condition, could she still go abroad for an exchange? Join a collaborative project? What about her child?

Unfortunately, even after Fo Ye and the foreigner entered the lecture hall, Zheng Tan still hadn't heard the information he wanted.

On the electronic screen outside the lecture hall, the title of the upcoming talk was displayed; currently they were discussing topics related to quark particle theory, and people occasionally rushed over and hurried into the hall.

As the talk began, the area outside the lecture hall grew quiet; Zheng Tan rose, stretched, glanced sideways, and saw A Huang and Jingzhang squinting as if asleep. He flicked his tail at them, then jumped down from the tree and headed toward the residential compound, with three cats following behind.

Entering the gate of the East Staff Residential Compound, Zheng Tan saw an old man dragging some things toward Building B; he didn't know the man, but whenever there were people downstairs, Zheng Tan rarely jumped up himself to swipe the access card and open the door. So he leisurely followed a short distance behind the old man.

As the old man flicked away his cigarette butt, he caught sight of the black cat behind him, waved his hand, and said, "Scram, whose cat is this? Get lost, don't think about stealing my fish!"

Zheng Tan: "……" As if I'd care!

The things the old man was dragging consisted of two plastic buckets with several small holes poked in them, giving off a fishy smell, but Zheng Tan had no intention of doing anything with those fish—he never eats raw fish, and the things he can eat would give other cats diarrhea.

Zheng Tan ignored the old man, went on his own to the access control at the entrance of Building B, crouched down, and watched the old man shuffle over.

The old man, dragging his things, glanced at the black cat crouched by the door, hesitated a moment, then approached and pressed a sequence on the electronic lock; soon Jiao Ma's voice came from inside.

"Ronghan, it's me," the old man said.

"Hey, Dad, why did you come?! I'll go down to meet you……"

"Don't come down; stay home and just open this door!" the old man said.

With a click, the door opened; the old man dragged his things inside, and Zheng Tan followed him in.

There was too much for the old man to move all at once, but now that he was inside the staff building, he didn't worry about theft—he still trusted the people here.

After thinking, and noticing the black cat that had darted ahead, the old man lifted a box off the top of the plastic bucket holding the fish, then picked up the two lower buckets and walked upstairs step by step; despite his age, his stride carrying the loaded buckets remained steady.

As the old man went upstairs, he noticed the black cat also kept climbing, wondering whose cat it was, when Jiao Ma's voice called out.

"Oh, Dad, how come you're coming up with Hei Tan?" Jiao Ma leaned over the fifth-floor railing, looking down, able to catch a glimpse of the old man's silhouette.

"What Hei Tan?"

"Our cat, the black one walking ahead of you."

"Hey, so this cat is yours—I was wondering whose it was. This cat is well kept, not skinny, no excess fat—does it catch mice?" the old man said while walking up.

The hallway was empty and quiet at that moment, so the old man didn't need to raise his voice; Jiao Ma standing on the fifth floor could hear him.

"Of course it does—our Hei Tan is excellent at catching mice."

"Good, because I've heard lately that many city cats don't catch mice—if they don't catch mice, what's the point of keeping them? Isn't that wasting food?"

The old man couldn't comprehend such people, and Jiao Ma, knowing his temperament, didn't argue further—according to the older generation's thinking, a cat that doesn't catch mice isn't a good cat, and a dog that can't guard the house isn't a good dog; many of them had lived through dark times and couldn't grasp the point of raising a pet that just eats rice.

Jiao Ma was just relieved that their Hei Tan truly catches mice; otherwise the old man would fly into a rage again.

"What are you moving?"

"It's fish, two old turtles, and some eels; downstairs there's also a box of pomelos, a new variety we're trial‑planting here—I heard this year's pomelos go straight to the municipal government, not for sale, and I managed to snag a few. What's the use of a bank card these days? You still have to scan your face to buy things; nowadays just having a card isn't enough without face."

"Yes, yes, you really have a lot of face."

"Of course—if I didn't have face, how could I hear from others that you had an accident and ended up in the hospital?" the old man said angrily.

Jiao Ma chuckled twice without explaining; in front of Old Master Gu, the more she defended herself, the more he thought she felt guilty.

Standing at the stairwell, Jiao Ma several times wanted to go down to meet him, but she knew the old man's temper—if she really went downstairs, he would surely lose his temper.

Even if the old man walked to the doorway, he didn't let Jiao Ma come out to meet him. After the old man set down the plastic buckets, Zheng Tan crept over to have a look; peering through the holes, he saw the two old turtles were indeed quite large, while he merely glanced at the eels in the other bucket before looking away, because the old man stared at him like a guard against thieves.

After resting and drinking a cup of water, the old man went downstairs again to bring up the pomelos, leaving the small luggage cart down below—since he wasn't worried about theft.

Zheng Tan looked at the pomelos the old man produced; they were fairly large, though he couldn't tell how they tasted.

"How did your family end up with so many apples and oranges?" the old man asked, looking at the four crates sitting in the living room.

Zheng Tan was puzzled too—he hadn't seen them this morning, but now there were four crates: two of apples, two of oranges, both the expensive kinds sold at the supermarket.

"A student sent them; last time we helped her with a favor, this time her company bought fruit to give employees as benefits and happened to send four crates to us."

Upon hearing that, Zheng Tan knew who had sent them.

What Zheng Tan didn't know was that Zhao Le sometimes went back to the Life Sciences Institute to visit Associate Professor Jiao, asking about Zheng Tan's situation; knowing this guy doesn't eat cat food but shares meals, they hadn't sent cat food this time, opting for fruit instead. Associate Professor Jiao and his wife thought the Zhao family was doing this for fear of being accused of abusing the black cat.

Old Man Gu sat on the sofa chatting with Jiao Ma for a while, the topic mainly being Gu Youzi; Zheng Tan lay on the sofa listening to their chatter, and even if the old man glared at him, he didn't budge.

Previously Zheng Tan didn't know Gu Youzi's background; he only knew she was the daughter of Jiao Ma's younger sister, her parents had divorced, and her mother had stayed abroad. From the conversation between Old Man Gu and Jiao Ma, Zheng Tan learned why Gu Youzi had always been so silent.

Gu Youzi, the "Little Pomelo" the old man referred to, had previously lived abroad with her mother; Gu Youzi's parents were both capable people, but they constantly argued, only finalizing their divorce this year, after which Little Pomelo followed her mother back to China and even changed her surname. Her mother entrusted her to Jiao Ma, depositing living expenses every month or every six months onto the remaining bank card, to be used as Gu Youzi's living allowance as a student.

When she first arrived, Xiao Youzi had a slight communication barrier—having lived abroad for a long time, she was not yet used to being back, and since she was naturally quiet, she became even more silent. However, after a few months of adjustment, Xiao Youzi the student is no longer so gloomy.

Regarding "Xiao Youzi", Zheng Tan felt a sense of mutual sympathy. Both have irresponsible parents—one values power and wealth above all, the other is self-centered; they are young and promising yet have the hearts of wolves and lungs of dogs. Zheng Tan has seen many such people; in the next ten years of Huaxia's future, such people will grow in a "j"-shaped curve with economic development.

Because he changed his surname, Old Gu directly had "Xiao Youzi" call him grandpa. In this life, Old Gu only had two daughters, and no one had ever called him grandpa; now that he has Gu Youzi, Old Gu treasures this "granddaughter".

In the afternoon, when the two kids returned home, Old Gu had already peeled a pomelo and handed it to them, then casually put the pomelo peel on Zheng Tan's head.

Zheng Tan: "……" Damn it!

Old Gu hugged "Xiao Youzi", saying, "She's gotten heavier, our Xiao Youzi has grown!"

"Xiao Youzi" classmate rarely showed a smile, calling out "Grandpa!"

After eating the pomelo, dinner wasn't ready yet, so the two kids went to do their homework first.

"Go on, later Grandpa will make you a dish of eel!"

Zheng Tan didn't want to stay on the sofa glaring at Old Gu, so he followed Xiao Youzi into the room.

Xiao Youzi was in a good mood today thanks to Old Gu's arrival, and she talked more than usual.

She quietly complained to Zheng Tan about today's art class. Usually she also talks to Zheng Tan when no one else is around; for animals, many people let their guard down. Some think talking to animals is no different from talking to oneself, but it's actually not—the speaker feels different.

"The teacher said to draw food we're familiar with or scenes we often see in life; I drew it, but..."

"Xiao Youzi" spread out her drawing book and placed it in front of Zheng Tan, feeling somewhat disheartened.

Zheng Tan looked at the drawing book Xiao Youzi had taken out, which showed today's artwork. Xiao Youzi drew well; the teacher gave her a score of ninety-two on the spot, which Zheng Tan considered already high. Back when he himself drew, his skills were practically hopeless, usually hovering in the seventies to eighties, and that was only thanks to the teacher's leniency.

However, the focus of Xiao Youzi's drawing book wasn't those earlier parts, but the teacher's comments. Although second-grade elementary students don't know many characters, teachers still write simple remarks when recording grades; however, the handwriting isn't as casual as middle school teachers', being much neater, and they also add pinyin annotations above complex characters, which is also a process for students to learn to recognize characters.

On the left-side blank area of the page where Xiao Youzi drew today, there is the score and comment written in red watercolor pen, and beneath the score "92" it says:

""The soybeans and edamame are drawn well; keep up the effort!" followed by a childish smiley-face stamp."

Soybeans and edamame, my ass!

Zheng Tan sympathetically glanced at the frowning "Xiao Youzi" classmate; this teacher's self-satisfied comment was really discouraging!

The reason is simple: Xiao Youzi's drawing actually comes from the cover of a biology magazine that Jiao Ba ordered, which has been sitting on the living room coffee table lately; the two organisms on the cover are actually Staphylococcus aureus and a paramecium…

After Zheng Tan finished his sigh, his gaze fell on the teacher's pinyin annotation; there was an "a" in the pinyin, and this "a" reminded Zheng Tan of the "Project A" mentioned by the Buddha Master. He wondered whether the excuses the Buddha Master gave that foreigner during the day were related to Xiao Zhuo's participation in Project A.

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I forgot to write the Three Rivers thanks; oh well, I'll do it tomorrow. Those who work overtime on weekends can't afford to lose. When I have time this week, I'll try to release an extra chapter—I can't guarantee it, but I'll do my best.

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