Chapter 37: and translation of chapter title, then ===GLOSSARY=== with list of named entities appearing in these lines

Early in the morning, Zheng Tan was curled up in Xiao Youzi's blanket sleeping soundly, Jiao Yuan came running and knocked on the door, waking the person and cat who were lazing in bed.

The final exams at the affiliated elementary school were over; they just needed to wait for the results. After finishing the exam, Jiao Yuan felt good about himself, so his mood stayed excited, and he often discussed with his little friends what kind of clothes to buy for the New Year.

In the two days after the final exams, both children slept until they woke naturally. Last night, to watch the movie channel's 'Space Jam', they didn't sleep until midnight, but now it's only seven o'clock; previously they got up at seven, but after the exam and vacation they didn't get up until after nine, especially Jiao Yuan, who slept until noon and then got up directly to eat lunch.

You little brat! What's gotten into you today!

After hearing Jiao Yuan's knocking and shouting, Zheng Tan lifted his paw to cover his ears, then continued to curl up into a ball.

It's too cold in winter, Zheng Tan doesn't want to get up either. Since the two children went on vacation, Zheng Tan has postponed his running and tree-climbing to the afternoon, and in the morning he stays in bed sleeping in.

"Get up, get up quick, it's snowing outside! It's all white! Hurry up and go out to play in the snow!"

Jiao Yuan was still shouting outside, Xiao Youzi threw off the blanket and got up, and while getting up she didn't forget to cover Zheng Tan again.

Zheng Tan yawned; sleeping alone was no fun.

Oh well, get up!

Zheng Tan grew up in a southern coastal city where it basically never snows in winter, but in middle school, to see snow, he and a few unscrupulous friends drove without a license to other provinces to view snow scenery. No matter what, Zheng Tan has experienced snow only a few days, and since coming here he still hasn't seen snow.

This is the first snowfall of the year.

Crawling out from under the blanket, Zheng Tan shook out his fur, stretched, and got out of bed.

Jiao Yuan was already dressed and was washing up in the washroom, his face still showing excitement.

When the phone rang, Jiao Yuan tossed the towel he hadn't had time to wring dry onto the rack, then hurried to answer the call, already sensing who would be calling at this time.

From the bedroom came the sound of Jiao Yuan laughing loudly; Zheng Tan guessed it was his friends calling him out to play.

After Zheng Tan finished urinating, he had Xiao Youzi help wipe his face, combed his fur, ate the breakfast prepared by Jiao Ma, then the two children went downstairs, with Zheng Tan following behind them.

Outside it was indeed cold; when Zheng Tan went downstairs to the corner, he jumped up and down a few times in place.

Qu Xiangyang, holding a camera and preparing to go downstairs to photograph the snow scene, saw the black cat jumping around like a madman at the stairwell corner, paused, greeted it, then hurried downstairs, lest the outdoor snow scenery be ruined.

When Zheng Tan walked out of the building, on the basketball court beside the family quarters' lawn, Jiao Yuan was building a snowman with Xiao Youzi and other children from the compound who had come out to play; Jiao Yuan still had snow stuck to him, presumably from having thrown snowballs with Xiong Xiong and the others earlier.

The Saint Bernard puppy Little Flower was being led to play with the little children; its thick fur meant it wouldn't get cold rolling in the snow, and it followed several compound kids running back and forth, leaving paw prints. As for Niu Zhuangzhuang, it was being walked by its owner in the snow, not as free, occasionally stopping to lick the snow with its tongue, then whining enviously toward the basketball court, but its owner lured it away with two meat buns, and it waddled off to continue the walk.

Over there a group of kids were playing in the snow; Zheng Tan definitely wouldn't join them. He looked around and saw Da Pang squatting on the balcony railing watching outside, with no intention of coming out. A Huang came out, strolled around, then shrank back to the corner.

I've heard that animals' habits are related to the month they were born, like dogs born in hot weather like to play in water, while dogs born in cold weather always avoid water holes. But now it seems this saying isn't entirely accurate.

A Huang and Jingzhang were born in similar months, but their habits are vastly different; aside from occasionally both acting silly and neurotic, they are worlds apart. For example, now A Huang hides in a building corner to get out of the wind, while Jingzhang runs all over the snow; a child from the compound takes off his furry hat from his clothing to tease it, and Jingzhang plays enthusiastically, the only cat footprints in that snow being its own.

After a while, A Huang emerged from the building corner, shivering as he walked toward the basketball court, where Little Flower was lying there panting, tongue out, exhaling puffs of white air. A Huang then went over and simply squatted beside Little Flower on the leeward side, both sheltering from the wind and keeping warm.

After Zheng Tan climbed a few trees, his body warmed up considerably, so he didn't feel too cold either; he was still a bit sleepy, and there was no sleeping atmosphere at home. After thinking, Zheng Tan decided to go to Jiao Ba's office to continue napping. Jiao Ba's office had air conditioning, the electricity costs were reimbursed, and in summer and winter the school's offices and labs would turn on the AC, some leaving it on day and night; saving electricity is something they only mention to freshmen.

Zheng Tan jumped onto the flowerbed and walked along its edge toward the science building.

The road had already been swept, and the passing cars had packed down the snow on the roadway until there was hardly any left.

The school's greening is well done; even though the plane trees on both sides have shed all their leaves, there are still camphor trees, pines, and other evergreen plants, so the color scheme doesn't look barren.

The snow was still drifting, not as heavy as at the start, but it would still wet clothing quickly when it landed.

Not far away, a few students holding umbrellas walked over, also out to take photos; perhaps, like Zheng Tan, their hometowns rarely see snow, so they're especially curious.

A girl pushed aside the umbrella a boy was handing her, saying, "I don't want an umbrella; I want to stand in the snow~"

"Don't mind her, she's embarrassing!" another girl laughed and scolded.

"It's her first time seeing snow in person; let her be."

"Hey, quick look, there's a black cat in the flowerbed! Quick, take a picture!" someone shouted.

Zheng Tan tugged his ears, withdrew his gaze, and ignored them.

"I want to take a photo with that black cat!" the girl who had been shouting about wanting to stand in the snow jogged over to Zheng Tan; Zheng Tan didn't dodge, and to give her face he deliberately paused a moment so she could strike a silly scissor pose. This girl was pretty good-looking.

"I want to take a picture with a cat too!" a boy came over this way.

Hearing the boy's words, Zheng Tan left without looking back, leaving only a series of cat paw prints along the flowerbed's edge.

After turning a corner, Zheng Tan could already see the science building; as he was about to speed up and run over, his steps suddenly stopped when he heard someone mention Jiao Ba's name.

He turned his head and saw two people also walking toward the science building on the sidewalk, still smelling of mala tang; they must have just come from a nearby campus snack stall.

"I'm not trying to discourage you, but if your score isn't high when the time comes, you're likely to be eliminated. In our institute, advisors prefer to take students from our own school, or those who score high. Besides that, at any time our own students get priority; for example, if I and you have similar scores, both just barely over the cutoff, my chance of admission is much greater than yours. Of course, different advisors treat students differently; for instance, Jiao Mingsheng has very high standards—many people applied to him for this year's graduate entrance exam, yet he didn't accept a single one from the previous recommended admissions. I hear his requirements are very strict; if you just scrape by with a borderline score, you definitely have no chance."

That student kept talking on and on, and Zheng Tan then remembered that tomorrow is the weekend, also the time of the national graduate entrance exam. Jiao Ba has been staying in his office these days, needing to grade students' final exam papers, hold meetings about graduate studies, guide research projects, and also keep an eye on the company's situation. A few days ago Zheng Tan even heard Jiao Ba say they wanted to admit a satisfactory graduate student to share the workload, but Yi Xin alone couldn't handle it all.

"Jiao Mingsheng?" the other person said, somewhat confused; he's from another school, so he's not familiar with the teachers of Chu Hua Da Xue's School of Life Sciences at all, only knowing those few pillars of the institute.

"I knew you wouldn't know him; speaking of which, Jiao Mingsheng isn't well known at other schools, but this year he's become quite famous—several students who missed out on recommended admission and didn't seek him now regret it; he's basically a rising star."

Zheng Tan pricked up his ears to listen to the gossip; he usually hadn't heard anything like this, but it turned out that in the students' eyes, Jiao Ba is a rising young advisor.

However, Jiao Ba's fame comes from two factors: one is project funding, the other is Yi Xin. Among graduate students of the same cohort, Yi Xin has far outpaced the others.

Within the institute, the most direct way to judge whether a student is excellent is to look at his SCI papers; although some criticize this evaluation method and attitude, it is indeed the recognized way, and Yi Xin has already published two papers in half a year with decent impact factors, which others mostly see as the achievement of Associate Professor Jiao—how could one produce results without good projects, topics, or funding?

"Other well-known teachers either have their slots already filled or have internal candidates, so you don't need to waste effort competing; you can consider those marginal teachers—although they have few projects, at least your chance of admission is higher. All right, I'm going back to review; take a good look at the printed course materials."

After talking for a while, the two parted; the one from our school walked farther toward the dorms, while the external examinee went to the science building for a trip, then came out and headed toward a nearby carport.

Zheng Tan followed behind that external examinee; just now he had seen clearly at the flowerbed by the door that this person only stood for a moment in the first-floor lobby of the science building, glanced at some honor displays hanging in the lobby—such as the institute's teachers' awarded projects, etc. —and there was also a list of winners from the university's academic annual meeting; Zheng Tan remembered Jiao Ba saying that Yi Xin had won a first prize there, along with a 3,000 yuan award.

When that person came out of the building, Zheng Tan heard him muttering something, mentioning the names of Jiao Ba and Yi Xin.

So Zheng Tan became curious; after turning into a cat, his curiosity grew quite a bit, though he himself didn't notice, merely attributing it to finding amusement out of pure boredom.

On the carport roof there is. reading.