Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 296 - Chapter 296 Chapter 289 Return to the South

Chapter 296: Chapter 289: Return to the South Chapter 296: Chapter 289: Return to the South People say that when you do similar things in the same routine every day, time passes especially fast.

Zheng Tan believed this as well.

Eating, sleeping, taking strolls, occasionally watching the excitement and eavesdropping on some gossip, and then upon looking at the calendar, discovering, oh, time had inadvertently passed by.

Zheng Tan lay on a tall plane tree in the main avenue of the campus, the dense leaves blocking the sunlight above. It wasn’t hot; a gentle breeze was blowing, making him feel drowsy.

From the New Year to school start, and now about to be summer vacation, half a year felt like it had blinked away.

Speaking of which, quite a few things had happened in this half year. Ermao and Gong Qin had gotten married because of a pregnancy, and although they bought another house in Chuhua City, they still spent a lot of time living in the courtyard. Heimi was always brought along, and even though many in Ermao’s family opposed it, Gong Qin and Ermao didn’t mind; wherever the couple lived, Heimi stayed with them. Luckily, Heimi didn’t go out much. Whether in the courtyard’s house or in the newly purchased one, he seemed to adapt well without causing trouble.

Little Youzi participated in the preliminaries of the Hope Cup in mid-March, then entered the finals in April, winning a first prize. His medal and certificate and such were stored in a drawer, not brought out for showing off. There were no few kids in the courtyard who had won similar awards; even if not the Hope Cup, there were other cups and competitions. Jiao Yuan and his friends had also won some non-math competition prizes back then.

Participants in such contests ranged from fourth to sixth grade. The fourth graders mainly participated as training for future exams, the fifth graders had slightly higher ambitions, and for students like Little Youzi in sixth grade, most of their participation was linked with the “Primary to Junior High” exams. In the admission process of some key junior high schools, medals from events like the Hope Cup were significant “stepping stones,” and possessing one could undoubtedly provide a great advantage in the “Primary to Junior High” exams. Because of this, there were many parents who started enrolling their children in various tutorial classes as early as second or third grade, regardless of whether the children were willing.

Mr. Jiao and Jiao Ma generally didn’t go out of their way to tutor their children, whether Jiao Yuan or Little Youzi, but both kids were impressive. After Jiao Yuan had won awards, schools had called to recruit him; Jiao Yuan felt those schools were too far and too much hassle with too little freedom, and like Su An and his friends, he chose the nearest school. Little Youzi did the same this time.

Speaking of Little Youzi going to junior high, it was time to talk about Jiao Yuan going to high school. In a blink of an eye, the two kids who were in elementary school when Zheng Tan arrived were now in secondary school. Undoubtedly, Jiao Yuan and his buddies headed together to Chuhua University Affiliated Middle School, but from now on he would need to board there, as the Affiliated Middle School was a bit far from here. Afterwards, Zheng Tan wouldn’t frequently hear Jiao Yuan and his friends’ voices cracking anymore.

For Little Youzi and Jiao Yuan, this was a summer of significant change, and for this summer vacation, Mr. Jiao had already made plans.

One evening, Zheng Tan overheard Mr. Jiao and Jiao Ma discussing summer arrangements, which would involve taking Jiao Yuan and Little Youzi to play in Southern Nanhua City and South City.

Yuan Zhiyi had been flying back and forth between Nanhua City and Chuhua City since the second half of last year. He had decided to open a branch office in Nanhua City, and now with a solid foundation and confidence, returning to utilize the network his father had left behind in Nanhua City was not too difficult, although it was exhausting. After the New Year, Yuan Zhiyi had visited; Zheng Tan noticed that Yuan Zhiyi had lost weight and was tanner, but he was very spirited and full of fighting spirit. After the New Year, every trip to Nanhua City involved going to various universities to hold recruitment talks and signing many promising newcomers during the graduation season.

This time, Mr. Jiao’s trip to Nanhua City, besides checking on the branch office and running a few collaborative projects with Yuan Zhiyi, also involved visiting some old teachers. Over the years, Mr. Jiao had only contacted them via email or phone calls and hadn’t visited them physically; this time, he also took the opportunity to visit those professors, who were good friends with Yuan Zhiyi’s father and had taken good care of Mr. Jiao and Yuan Zhiyi back in the day. Of course, there were also a few classmates he hadn’t seen in years, all of whom he needed to catch up with.

Zheng Tan felt complicated when he learned about the trip to Nanhua City and South City; he had thought he would never go there again, yet unexpectedly, there was another chance to visit.

Last time, going there was entirely passive; amidst continuous crises and wandering around, he almost got chopped up for soup; this time, however, was different, as going with the Jiao family was purely for fun, making him feel much more relaxed. Thinking about it, Zheng Tan was quite looking forward to it.

Jumping down from the tree and running towards the courtyard, Zheng Tan saw a group of children gathered around a middle-aged teacher, asking about something in the shady part filled with trees. Among the standing children were Little Youzi and her classmates Yue Lisha and Xie Xin, probably discussing questions encountered during the competition.

Zheng Tan knew the teacher–he taught mathematics and enjoyed giving lectures to the kids in the courtyard. Sometimes, while enjoying the cool in the courtyard, he would discuss various solutions to certain contest problems with some high school students, many of which were difficult for ordinary thinking to conceive, broadening the kids’ horizons. However, when many children of the courtyard were asked if they would choose a mathematics major in the future, they generally said “no,” reasoning that the Nobel Prize doesn’t have a category for mathematics.

Zheng Tan had heard the children discuss the reason why; while the Nobel Prize included fields like physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, it surprisingly didn’t acknowledge the important discipline of mathematics. There were several rumored explanations, but when these kids talked about it, they were more inclined towards the first one, in which Nobel’s love was thwarted by a mathematician who encroached upon his territory. Although this explanation was considered not very credible, it was always the one brought up first when discussed. Everyone has a bit of a gossip-loving heart.

Upon seeing Zheng Tan, Little Youzi greeted the few others and went home with Zheng Tan.

Many schools had already begun their summer vacation, but they hadn’t yet departed for Nanhua City, mainly because of Mr. Jiao’s situation. Leaving for a month, Mr. Jiao had to first arrange everything here. With an increasing number of graduate and doctoral students, he had to delegate the ongoing projects and various academic tasks.

Many graduate students in the departments didn’t have summer vacations. However, Mr. Jiao wasn’t very strict: as long as the efficiency was high, the scheduling reasonable, and the tasks completed on time, those wanting vacations could still have them. But in the peak of summer, most students preferred staying in air-conditioned study rooms, conducting experiments in the lab, and then spending their free time online in the air-conditioned rooms of their research groups, or waiting for a watermelon they had thrown into the ice maker to chill. Yi Xin and his friends did just this.

Before leaving with the Jiao family, Zheng Tan had also run into Zhuo Xiaomao. That little rascal had someone take him out to play every holiday; this summer break, he followed Buddha and others north to escape the heat. Buddha took a few students north for a project exchange at a research institute, and Zhuo Xiaomao was just tagging along for fun.

In mid-July, after Mr. Jiao had arranged everything, he drove with his family to Nanhua City.

Zheng Tan moved his neck, not very accustomed to wearing the “cat card” all day, but in places like Nanhua City, he had to be more cautious. They had already seen several dog and cat meat restaurants along the way. It wasn’t just Zheng Tan; the other members of the Jiao family also reminded Zheng Tan several times. Previously, they had told Zheng Tan not to cause trouble wherever he went; this time, they told him not to wander off.

Yuan Zhiyi had a duplex in Nanhua City, but after he moved to Chuhua City for business, he rented it out. Last year he came back, renovated it, and kept it for his own use, knowing he would frequent this place after opening a branch office here, thus having a place to stay.

“There are plenty of rooms; just see where you want to stay,” Yuan Zhiyi gave a set of keys to Mr. Jiao, whose wife and children hadn’t come along. Living alone, he felt quite empty and lonely; now, it was better with more people around.

While Yuan Zhiyi and Mr. Jiao went to discuss the affairs of the branch office, Jiao Ma, Jiao Yuan, and Little Youzi were organizing the rooms. Zheng Tan walked around the house and found a black cat statue where a God of Wealth statue should have been. Annoyingly, the cat wore a “cat card” around its neck, engraved with the name “Heitan.”

Every time Yuan Zhiyi visited the Jiao family and saw Zheng Tan, he would bow as a sign of respect. At first, Zheng Tan would give him a cold look and almost wanted to kick him. After many times, he became numb and simply ignored Yuan Zhiyi’s actions. Just thinking about Yuan Zhiyi burning incense and worshiping such a cat statue made Zheng Tan feel uncomfortable, and he could only lament, “How many idiots are there.”

After dinner, Yuan Zhiyi and Mr. Jiao drove to Nanhua University, where they had arranged to meet two old classmates who were now professors there.

After the sun set, by the river near Nanhua University, there was a path where many people came to activities in the evening.

Many universities gave off a feeling of being secluded within the city; Chuhua University did, and so did Nanhua University. The campus was quiet, yet stepping out showed a bustling city nighttime view.

Mr. Jiao and his old classmates got together to share their experiences as teachers over the years and let Yuan Zhiyi talk about what it felt like to be a boss.

“Nowadays, the pressure on school teachers is increasing; research funds and teaching duties are like a Damocles’ sword hanging over each teacher’s head. The survival pressure forces us regular grassroots teachers to constantly struggle for survival. Competing for class hours, fighting for projects, writing papers, and even guarding against backstabbing by others… No wonder people say that one could focus solely on experiments when being a student, but once becoming a teacher, such opportunities are rare…” one of Mr. Jiao’s classmates expressed.

Zheng Tan and Jiao Ma stayed nearby, enjoying the river breeze and the surrounding night scene, listening to the conversation among Mr. Jiao’s group. It seemed that Mr. Jiao’s two classmates were still associate professors despite having produced considerable academic outputs; unfortunately, their applications for full professorships had always ended in failure. One even lamented that if Mr. Yuan were still alive, they might have been promoted long ago.

Nobody had it easy; everyone had their untold hardships. Compared to them, Mr. Jiao and Yuan Zhiyi were doing relatively well; one had been promoted to professor with smoothly progressing projects and the other was making good money as the big boss of his company.

Just then, Zheng Tan suddenly felt something hit his head, not painful as it was just a soft, spherical toy. He looked around and his eyes stopped on a five- or six-year-old boy. The boy had a bag containing several ball-shaped toys about the size of eggs, printed with various cartoon characters, similar to the one that had just hit Zheng Tan.

The boy kept staring at Zheng Tan, and under Zheng Tan’s gaze, he took another ball from the bag and threw it at him.(To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (NovelFire.net) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.NovelFire.net to read.)