Chapter 439

Since he had already quit the "circle", affairs at the pet center no longer troubled Zheng Tan; online pictures about blackc were all old, and when he went online he found his own photos appearing less and less, replaced by the new generation of cat stars at the pet center.

Pointy chins, round chins, long-haired, short-haired, thin as sticks, fat as balls, cute‑acting, cool‑acting—all kinds of cats were there, quickly attracting the eyes of new and old customers and netizens, and people gradually stopped mentioning those retired old‑generation cats.

Zheng Tan was a bit annoyed at first, but soon he didn't care anymore, after all he hadn't planned to really make a living from this.

However, without tasks, Zheng Tan felt idle, which was psychological.

Going out to visit? But everyone seemed busy with their own affairs, and later Zheng Tan didn't want to disturb them either.

He goes out wandering, doesn't want to stay idle at home because when idle he wants to sleep, not like the light sleep he has with Jingzhang and Da Pang etc.; this sleep is very deep, can't be woken, lasting several hours to half a day; compared to the beginning, the time isn't very long, but this situation occurs too frequently; he also often dreams of familiar scenes from when he was human, same as his memory, very real; upon waking Zheng Tan has to sit and think seriously whether he is human or cat.

One day last week, when Zheng Tan woke up he didn't notice, walked straight out of the room standing, and came face‑to‑face with Jiao Ma walking out of the kitchen; his first reaction was not to immediately drop onto four paws, but dazedly he lifted his paw and scratched his head.

The bowl of soup Jiao Ma was holding almost shook loose.

Fortunately, over the years Jiao Ma had seen many of Zheng Tan's behaviors that are unusual for cats; otherwise that hot bowl in her hands would really have been startled enough to fall to the floor.

After that day, Zheng Tan didn't want to stay at home much, otherwise he'd sleep in a daze and not even know what he was.

Indeed, to replace a worry one must do something else; going out bored and wandering the campus is better than sleeping in a fog, not knowing where one is. But honestly, Zheng Tan really does have some worry in his heart.

As the calendar pages turned day by day, each day the same, when he came to his senses he realized time had flown by. Thinking back, actually he hadn't done anything, nor had there been any memorable events.

Without noticing, the wall calendar in the living room had flipped to September 2012; Xiao Youzi was in her third year of high school, her studies ever busier. Still she came home once a week, then did exercises and read at home; Jiao Yuan remained in the capital, returning only once or twice a year; Jiao Ba had landed another project, spending every day aside from sleeping at home busy in the courtyard; business trips are separate; Jiao Ma taught graduating students, preparing lessons and marking papers, and she had lost several pounds just like the students.

The only one who was fat was Zheng Tan.

Jumping off the scale at home, Zheng Tan stretched, having gained only a jin; on a person it wouldn't be noticeable, but on a cat it's different.

He gained weight because of continuous overcast rainy days outside, during which Zheng Tan stayed home, eating then sleeping then eating again; now the weather finally cleared, Zheng Tan decided to go out for a walk, since at home he could only sleep, and even sleeping and dreaming made him gain weight—going out for a stroll is clearly the better option.

After two weeks of continuous overcast rain, aside from the freshmen in military training, everyone else was hoping for the sun to come out; once it cleared, quite a few people were outside airing quilts and clothes, and A Huang, who had been cooped up at home just like Zheng Tan, came out to stretch his bones and bask in the sun, which does him good.

Emerging from Dongqu Dayuan, Zheng Tan walked aimlessly, not knowing what he was thinking, until he heard children's shouts and laughter and came to his senses, realizing he was almost at the kindergarten.

At the kindergarten, after Zhuo Xiao Mao left, two more kids called Hei Ge appeared—Wei Xiao Pang and Er Yuan.

When they first entered the kindergarten, upon seeing Zheng Tan the two would totter over to the fence railing and cry at him outside; Zheng Tan had just seen them playing nicely with the other kids, but in the blink of an eye they changed faces, crying and shouting to go home; once Zheng Tan left, they would wobble back to play.

So, after Zheng Tan learned their tactic, whenever he passed by the kindergarten he took a detour, making sure they never saw him; Er Mao also told him their class schedule, so Zheng Tan wouldn't be caught by those two kids when they had outdoor class.

When they first entered the kindergarten, Er Mao's first lesson for Er Yuan wasn't "thank you" or "sorry", but how to protect himself and how to flip an opponent to the ground; this became known after Er Yuan made a little boy who had taken his own crayon cry; for this, Er Mao, taking his child and wife home, was pulled by the ear and scolded by his own mother.

As for Wei Xiao Pang, at first it seemed no one in the class would willingly pick a fight with him, because he looked like someone not easy to deal with—too sturdy.

Now they're much better; when they see Zheng Tan they just shout a few times, no longer crying and begging to be taken home. At this age, children change a lot with each year and know more and more. However, Zheng Tan has grown accustomed to taking detours and rarely goes to the kindergarten side.

When detouring from the kindergarten side, there is a Y‑shaped intersection: one branch leads deeper into the school, the other toward the main gate. Zheng Tan turned toward the gate, pondering whether to go out and wander farther for fun, otherwise it was too boring—just waiting for time to pass; if he were truly a cat it would be fine, with no worries he could amuse himself by chasing his tail and gnawing his feet for half a day, but the problem is Zheng Tan isn't a genuine cat.

Near the school gate there is an open space where the school buses start; there are electric minibuses with a dozen or twenty seats, and also large‑coach types with about fifty seats. The former mostly run only inside the campus, while the latter sometimes run inside the campus and sometimes outside to other places, used for picking up new students and guests, etc.; one kind of large coach goes to the affiliated middle school, and now Jiao Ma and Xiao Youzi often take that one.

At that moment, at the parking spot there were three electric mini‑school buses, no large coaches in sight. The drivers of the mini buses park there, depart when the bus is about 80% full; if not full they keep waiting, and if nobody comes they still drive off, though it's rare to see anyone waiting a long time for passengers.

Inside the bus near the edge, the driver sat there playing a game on a tablet computer.

Don't think these forty‑ or fifty‑year‑olds who drive the buses every day are necessarily poor as the students imagine; many have smartphones worth a few thousand yuan and also own tablet computers.

The driver kept tapping the screen, sweat beading on his forehead; his bald head shone even brighter. Zheng Tan, who had originally intended to walk straight out of the campus, paused his steps, turned toward the bus, jumped onto a nearby not‑very‑large wutong tree—he couldn't perch on the branches because the tree was too small, its limbs couldn't bear his weight—so he merely clung to the trunk and looked over.

Zheng Tan had seen the game the driver was playing—a casual little game developed by Feng Bai Jin and company called "Cat Catches Mouse". The driver tapped the screen rapidly, catching the white, gray, black, and patterned mice scurrying across the screen, big and small, fast and slow; some mice look cute, some look clumsy; different mouse attributes give different points, and for young people some high‑value mice are hard to react to quickly, so they often miss them, let alone people over forty‑fifty who rarely play games; otherwise, in weather of about ten degrees Celsius, the driver wouldn't be sweating profusely just from tapping the screen—that's because he's anxious.

"Ah! Just a little short!" the driver sighed.

"What's up? Didn't beat your grandson again?" the driver of the bus parked farther out asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, just a couple hundred points short—twenty‑plus black mice would do it. Sigh, I'm old, I can't match the youngsters' moves; my grandson who just started elementary school plays it more smoothly than I do." The bald driver, sighing, intended to tilt his head up forty‑five degrees in a melancholy pose, but then noticed a black cat on the neighboring tree, staring at him.

"Hey, that black one, come over here!" the bald driver waved cheerfully, "Come on, let's play together."

Zheng Tan: "……"

The driver next door: "……"

Actually the bald driver was just saying that offhand; he didn't expect the black cat to really come over.

Zheng Tan was bored anyway; since the other party invited him over to play the game, why not go?

Jumping onto the passenger seat, Zheng Tan glanced at the bald driver, waiting for him to produce the tablet.

The bald driver glared, then burst out laughing, smoothly took out the tablet, opened the game and started.

The driver next door, seeing this, thought scornfully: "You bald fool, aren't you afraid the cat will scratch the several‑thousand‑yuan tablet your son bought you?"

Obviously the bald driver hadn't considered that at all; his mind was just on beating his grandson's score, then going back to tease the kid—who had been showing off in front of him just yesterday.

The bald driver had been playing this game for a week, while Zheng Tan, though he'd never played it, had watched Feng Bai Jin play and picked it up quickly—one person, one cat, the person using fingers to tap rapidly, the cat using its paws to slap.

When time was up, the bald driver looked at the score and burst out laughing, slapping his thigh as he laughed, "Finally surpassed it!"

Here there's Wi‑Fi, the score automatically uploads online—whoosh—and the friends' score ranking on the leaderboard has changed, this uncle's ranking leapt forward three places.

"Old Zhao, it looks like catching mice is still something the cat excels at—see, once the cat joined, the score just went up!" the bald driver said in the tone of an experienced elder passing on advice. After speaking he waved a big hand at Zheng Tan in the passenger seat: "Come on, let's go again! Let's also beat my son, so he knows what happens when a tiger shows its might!!"

The driver next door, surnamed Zhao: "……"

Shaking his head, Driver Zhao decided not to bother with that old bald head; he'd just had nearly ten students on board, now it's about full, can we depart?

But when he turned back he saw that just a moment ago there had been nearly ten students, now only three remained; looking over at the bald driver next door, wow—every damn one of them had run over there!!

Some students took photos with their phones and uploaded them online; others asked what the game was, then downloaded it themselves after asking. Whether male or female, they all craned their necks to watch. Since the Jingzhang cat incident at the Newboy concert, there had been no interesting news at the school; finally catching onto something, the students got excited.

Posted, reposted, reposted again—in this era when online entertainment is already thriving, in a short time many people saw the scene of Zheng Tan playing the game together with the bald driver.

School of Life Sciences, a certain laboratory.

After the person who had been lowering his head to scroll Weibo was caught by Professor Jiao, the kid didn't panic, gave a appeasing smile, pulled up the Weibo post he'd just been looking at, then faced Professor Jiao and raised his large‑screen phone: "Boss, look! This is yours, right?"

Jiao Ba: "……" (to be continued…)

PS: It will be wrapped up within three chapters; also, rest assured, Chen Ci does not write tragedies.

By the way, the story "Return to the Past and Become a Dog" written by Bai Ying Mei—those interested in this kind of thing can go check it out.