Chapter 92

Inside the tea area, the air conditioning was on; everyone had come in groups, so it looked like clusters sitting there, clearly separated. If the swimming pool were officially open, this situation wouldn't happen; probably even seats would need to be queued for.

Jiao Yuan and a few boys sat for a while then went to the entertainment area to play ball, with Ruan Ying and them bringing them along.

The reason Ruan Ying went out with those kids was that he didn't want to stay here listening to these parents talk about politics, education, and how to raise children; also, Sahala wouldn't behave staying here, so he took Sahala and brought a few kids over to play billiards.

Xiao Youzi and Shi Rui were also bored sitting here; after Jiao Yuan and the others left, the parents' attention turned to them, so Xiao Youzi took Zheng Tan and, together with Shi Rui, also headed toward the entertainment area.

Leaving the tea area, Zheng Tan jumped out of the bag; given his current weight, Xiao Youzi still found it a bit burdensome to carry him. Some people around also had dogs, though they were leashed, and upon seeing Zheng Tan, a few dogs barked toward him.

Zheng Tan ignored them, walking toward the entertainment area while observing the surroundings. Some people noticed someone had brought a cat here and were curious; generally cats aren't easy to discipline, and this black cat wasn't even leashed.

In the entertainment area's billiards room, Ruan Ying was teaching the kids to play billiards; Sahala was tethered nearby, lying on the ground boredly chewing his paws. Seeing Zheng Tan approach, he immediately stood up and barked at Zheng Tan, who didn't know what he wanted to express, so he let him bark.

Over there, Ruan Ying was really annoyed by the noise; his words were drowned out by the dog's barking. A few kids nearby also couldn't hear what he was saying.

Setting down the cue, Ruan Ying walked to a nearby corner and threw a children's plastic duck at it; Sahala sniffed twice, ignored it, and kept barking.

"You've eaten and peed, what else do you want? It's not time to poop yet! Bark again and I'll throw you out! You're not even as good as a cat!" Ruan Ying scolded, pointing at Sahala.

Zheng Tan: "……"

After being scolded, Sahala stopped barking; instead, he squatted there, humming like a whistle.

Seeing Sahala like that, Zheng Tan thought the guy was probably bored out of his mind and didn't want to play with the plastic duck. He looked around. Near the door there was an inflatable ball for water play; he lifted his hand and nudged the ball toward Sahala.

Sahala immediately wagged his big tail, full of spirit.

Sure enough, he was still bored.

After playing with Sahala for a while, at noon they casually ate something, took a nap. In the mid-afternoon, around four o'clock, several kids shouted and rushed toward the pool.

Because the kids were still young, they were ordered to play only in the shallow water area; originally, according to the parents' opinion, the children's area would be best, but Jiao Yuan and the boys felt swimming there would be embarrassing, so they compromised and went to the shallow water area.

Xiao Youzi and Shi Rui, however, obediently stayed in the children's area beside the shallow water zone; over there there were too many boys, too rowdy, while here there were mostly kids younger than Xiao Youzi and girls like Shi Rui.

Jiao Ma followed Xiao Youzi and them, while Jiao Ba stood nearby watching Jiao Yuan; when the boys got rowdy they had no sense of measure, so he needed to keep an eye on them.

Zheng Tan also stayed in this children's area; anyway, given his current size, the water depth there was already sufficient.

"Huh? A cat!"

Those kids over there noticed Zheng Tan, guessing they'd never seen a cat swim, and they all gathered around, annoying Zheng Tan to death.

Seeing this, Xiao Youzi took Zheng Tan ashore, found a shady spot to sit, and Jiao Ma also came over.

"The water temperature is still a bit high now; going later will be better." Saying that, Jiao Ma went to get some juice.

Zheng Tan scratched the sand on the ground; its feel differed from the beach, showing stronger artificial traces, but being able to build something of this scale and extent is already good enough—just as long as everyone has fun.

Ruan Ying walked Sahala around the perimeter, then came over carrying half a watermelon and placed it on the small square table.

"Ruan Ying, why aren't you going in to play?" Jiao Ma asked.

"I did, just got out of the water not long ago; now I'm taking Sahala out for a stroll. He's been barking nonstop—I thought he'd eaten too much and needed to poop, but so far he's just sniffing around and still wants to go in the water. I haven't let him; I'll check later."

As he was speaking, Zheng Tan saw Sahala sniff around here, turn twice in place, then squat and defecate.

Everyone: "……"

Xiao Youzi, who was about to bite into the watermelon, put it down, deciding to eat it later; at this moment he really felt a bit nauseous.

Ruan Ying now wanted to kick him, but the most important thing was to eliminate the evidence; as soon as Sahala finished his business, he immediately lifted his foot to push sand over there, covering the feces, then found a small shovel and a plastic bag, scooping up the feces and the surrounding sand into the bag.

After defecating, Sahala probably felt relieved all over, his bones feeling much lighter; his paws pushed sand backward, pushing while letting out two barks, apparently expressing his current sense of relief.

Feeling embarrassed to stay here, Ruan Ying led Sahala, his other hand holding the black plastic bag containing the dog feces, and walked toward the rest area away from the pool.

On the way there, acquaintances of Ruan Ying greeted him: "Ruan Ying, what tasty thing are you carrying? Bring it over for us to quell our cravings."

Ruan Ying put on a mysterious expression: "Good stuff!"

"Hey, let me see!" the person said, reaching to flip the plastic bag.

Ruan Ying's face shifted from mysterious to constipated; he whispered something to that person, who jumped back, rubbed the hand that had touched the bag on his body, felt something off, and immediately rushed to the pool to wash his hands.

Because it was too hot, Sahala panted with his tongue out, but his big tail kept wagging from his good mood.

Ruan Ying looked at his dog and growled low: "If you keep pooping everywhere, I'll beat you to death!"

Sahala didn't know if he understood, but he kept wagging his big tail.

"Mom, look, a big gray wolf!"

A little girl who looked like she was still in kindergarten pointed at Sahala and said.

Because it was summer, Ruan Ying directly gave Sahala a haircut; except for the head, which was hard to cut and left with a bit of half-length hair, the rest of his body was trimmed into a 'buzz cut', with a somewhat grayish look, the color not as dark as a purebred husky's, making him look even more ridiculous.

Watching the distant person and dog, Jiao Ma took Xiao Youzi and shifted their spot; as long as she thought about the pile of dog feces nearby, she couldn't sit still, so moving was better.

"Hei Tan, you won't go around pooping everywhere, will you?" After moving, Jiao Ma asked.

Zheng Tan flicked his ears, "Impossible!" That's just Sahala and A Huang's style.

Lying on the mat, Zheng Tan looked around; someone had passed through the spot where they'd been, and a little kid was playing in the sand there, his hand digging exactly where Sahala had defecated earlier. Although Ruan Ying had already shoveled away some of the surrounding sand, Zheng Tan still felt uneasy.

He turned his head to shift his attention, looking at the scenery elsewhere.

Xiong Xiong's mother wore that professional outfit, sunglasses on, standing not far away at the pavilion talking to someone; from her posture you could tell she wasn't planning to go in the water.

After finally getting everyone together to play, they still ended up so out of place; Zheng Tan didn't have a particularly good impression of Xiong Xiong's mother, nor could he say she was bad—it really was a tough situation for Xiong Xiong.

Around seven o'clock, Jiao Ma took Xiao Youzi into the water again; the water temperature had cooled considerably, making it very comfortable to soak in. Zheng Tan followed and swam two laps, bumping into a little brat holding a swim ring who kept slapping the water surface and even chased Zheng Tan, slapping him. Xiao Youzi stopped him, and the brat then used the swim ring to slap Xiao Youzi.

To adults, this was just kids messing around, but Zheng Tan wouldn't have it; taking advantage of when no one was looking, he extended his claws and poked the little brat's swim ring. The swim ring burst, and the brat screamed 'wah' and burst into tears.

No one else knew, but Xiao Youzi had seen the whole scene; the gloom from being slapped with the swim ring instantly vanished, and she took Zheng Tan to swim to the side.

As dusk fell, Jiao Yuan and the boys, when called ashore, were still a bit reluctant; however, after playing half a day they were hungry, so they went ashore, rinsed off in the shower area, changed into clean clothes, and followed their parents away.

Xiong Xiong's parents were already waiting there; after greeting everyone, they drove off with the group.

The car had no air conditioning, the windows were open, and the cool night breeze blew in, very pleasant.

In summer fur dries quickly; Zheng Tan also had taken a shower in the shower area, and now his fur was mostly dry. Looking out the car window, the large bridge spanning the river, illuminated by the lights, had a special beauty, but that beauty was shattered by Sahala's howling.

To prevent Sahala from sticking his head out the window, Ruan Ying only lowered the window a crack; Sahala peered out through that gap, scratched twice with his paws to no avail, then began to howl, stopping only after Ruan Ying shouted at him twice.

"Our cat is still the best," Jiao Ma sighed.

Xiao Youzi recalled the scene today when Zheng Tan poked that child's swim ring, grinned and laughed out loud, and only after Jiao Yuan kept questioning did she finally say it.

"Well done!" Jiao Yuan patted Zheng Tan and said.

Jiao Ma merely glared at Jiao Yuan, without saying another word.

A line of several vehicles followed, the one at the very front was Xiong Xiong's family car.

After crossing the bridge and driving out of an intersection, Zheng Tan always felt the surrounding buildings were quite familiar.

When the car slowed down preparing to enter the parking lot, Zheng Tan looked out the window and exclaimed, "Holy crap, isn't this Uncle Fang's Shaoguang Jiudian?"

Jiao Ba also had a strange look on his face, "That card in my wallet hasn't been used yet."

Knowing that Jiao Ba was referring to the platinum membership card left by Uncle Fang, Jiao Ma hummed and calmly said, "It's not like you're treating, why the rush?"

"Not in a hurry, just sighing a bit; we normally don't get to use this anyway."

"... There will be a time to use it."

Ruan Ying didn't bring Sahala into the hotel; the hotel has a dedicated place to help look after it.

Sahala stayed there, whining nonstop, but after Ruan Ying put down a bowl of dog food, it stopped whining.

Zheng Tan felt extreme contempt for it.

"Backbone, Sahala, backbone! (To be continued...)"