Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 314 - Chapter 314 307

Chapter 314: 307 Chapter 314: 307 Zheng Tan arrived in Beijing in the middle of November, and by the time his part of the filming was finished, it was almost mid-December. His part was considered complete, with no need for reshoots. As for the subsequent shooting, Zheng Tan didn’t need to keep following the filming crew around anymore. If he really had to follow them, it would probably drag into next year, as the crew’s journey wasn’t over, but Zheng Tan planned to return to Chuhua City earlier to celebrate the New Year.

Charlie and the staff sent by him were called back by Xiao Guo, as it was very busy there at the year’s end. Meanwhile, Zheng Tan was strongly persuaded by Fang Mengmeng to stay in Beijing to have a bit more fun for a while. Over this month, except for when Zheng Tan had just arrived in Beijing, Fang Mengmeng hardly had much time to see Zheng Tan, and she wanted Zheng Tan to stay at her house for a few days. Fang Shaokang stepped in to discuss with Xiao Guo and Mr. Jiao, and it was settled that Zheng Tan would stay for a little while longer before returning.

Zheng Tan wouldn’t be able to catch up with the Pet Center’s Christmas special, but he had to rush back for the New Year’s special, according to Xiao Guo. As per Xiao Guo, Zheng Tan was crucial to anchor the event, as he was quite famous online within the “cat ring,” and many people watched the annual specials for him, the tricks Xiao Guo usually played to amuse the audience with Zheng Tan often left the viewers in stitches. Without Zheng Tan, there would definitely be dissatisfaction, plus, with his absence from some advertisement and video shoots recently, there were already people online starting to make wild guesses like “BC is lost,” “BC is seriously ill,” “BC has been sold,” and even someone said Xiao Guo was hiding Zheng Tan’s gender, “actually BC went to give birth,” and the like. The work crew was also looking forward to Zheng Tan’s return, deeply feeling the plight of their increased overtime work during his absence.

So Zheng Tan could not stay in Beijing for long, the Jiao family was also missing him; they would call two to three times a week, and now that Charlie had left, Mr. Jiao was directly contacting the person Fang Shaokang introduced, who truthfully informed the Jiao family of Zheng Tan’s situation here.

Zheng Tan stayed at Fang Mengmeng’s house without going to Da Mi’s cat tree; he occupied a guest room of the Fang family’s house, which was tacitly approved by Fang Shaokang.

Jumping onto the edge of the table, Zheng Tan wiped the blurred condensation from the window, looking outside through it. At this time, Beijing was a bit colder than Chuhua City, and it had even snowed a few days ago, although it was still quite warm inside.

Zheng Tan was somewhat bored at the Fang family’s residence, and although their house was large and nicely decorated, it was still someone else’s house, so Zheng Tan couldn’t surf the web secretly, couldn’t run around randomly, couldn’t act up, and couldn’t burrow under the covers… In just two days, Zheng Tan was already longing to return to the Jiao family.

During the weekend, a guest arrived at the Fang family’s home.

The visitor was Fang Mengmeng’s cousin Fang Wenjie, who was in his senior year of high school. He arrived while Fang Mengmeng was playing the “guess which cup holds the pistachio” game with Da Mi, and Zheng Tan was watching from the side.

“Meng Meng, you’re playing games with Da Mi again… Hey, whose cat is this? A new member of your family? It’s not particularly brought in to keep Da Mi company… Ouch, damn!”

While the visitor was blabbering, Zheng Tan threw a tennis ball lying at his feet over, hitting the visitor’s face. Zheng Tan didn’t use much strength; he just meant to give the person a small lesson without intending to hurt him.

Fang Wenjie had come over today for a brief vacation since his family wasn’t home. He did not expect to be hit shortly after entering, and although it didn’t hurt much, it still surprised him.

“Wow, this cat has quite the temper, huh? Meng Meng, whose cat is this?” Fang Wenjie did not approach Zheng Tan again but sat next to Fang Mengmeng, though he kept his eyes on Zheng Tan to avoid any more objects being thrown at him.

“Who allowed you to talk nonsense?” Fang Mengmeng said gleefully, “This is Heitan, a friend of my dad’s cat. He came here last month to film a documentary, and I convinced him to stay a few extra days.”

“Also filming a movie? That’s pretty fancy, huh?” exclaimed Fang Wenjie.

“Not a movie, a documentary,” Fang Mengmeng corrected.

“Same thing.”

Fang Wenjie no longer feared being hit by Zheng Tan, got up and walked closer, circling Zheng Tan. “Based on my experience, this cat is known as ‘Little Black Leopard,’ a Bombay Cat!”

“Wrong, this cat is just an ordinary domestic cat,” Fang Mengmeng said dismissively, “The faces of ‘Little Black Leopard’ are all different.”

“Where are they different? I think this is it, otherwise who would find an ordinary cat that you can buy anywhere for ten bucks?”

“It’s just a domestic cat; you can ask my dad if you don’t believe me!”

Hearing Fang Mengmeng’s words, Fang Wenjie thought of his third uncle, wrestled with his emotions a bit, and then said, “Alright, let’s assume you’re right.”

After that, Fang Wenjie went off to raid the snacks. He hadn’t eaten much all afternoon, and since dinner wasn’t ready yet, he couldn’t wait.

“By the way, Meng Meng, tomorrow both our moms are going to attend a banquet, let’s not join them, how about I take you out to eat instead?” Fang Wenjie crunched potato chips while speaking. He hated accompanying those uncles and aunts; it always ended up comparing kids’ grades, and afterward, Fang Wenjie would unavoidably face a lecture from his parents, which he really hated. Thus, he wanted nothing to do with that damn banquet–it was always uncomfortable.

“Sure.” Fang Mengmeng was also not interested. Although she was young, she was aware, like knowing those who actually didn’t have good relations with her family because of her dad–the ones who would come up and act all friendly at banquets, with some even being sneaky, making Fang Mengmeng utterly annoyed.

While Fang Wenjie and Fang Mengmeng were talking, Zheng Tan listened by their side. Fang Wenjie seemed to still be in his rebellious phase, and his academic performance was poor. His family had hired several tutors to help him, all to no avail, and each high-paying tutor was infuriated by Fang Wenjie and left. It was said that many were from the top universities in Beijing, including even graduate and Ph.D. students, none of which were effective; he was still at the bottom of his class.

Although the Fang family had both money and clout, even though they could perhaps manipulate his university admissions, his grades couldn’t be too awful, right? They couldn’t afford that kind of embarrassment.

From the tone Fang Wenjie had just used, it seemed he was mutually repulsed by those tutors. He thought they were too arrogant and self-righteous, while in their eyes, Fang Wenjie was nothing but a spoiled brat; explaining topics to him felt like casting pearls before swine–when even pigs would understand, this person still appeared clueless.

The winter vacation was almost upon them again, and with the last half year of high school approaching, Fang Wenjie’s parents had started to look for tutors to prep him for the upcoming break. Fang Wenjie could already foresee his bleak winter holiday life. Moreover, his family had begun restricting him from now on, forbidding frequent outings with friends, cutting off his allowance, and even limiting his internet access! Thinking about enduring this life for another half-year, Fang Wenjie felt as if everything was shrouded in darkness.

“It’s just the last half-year; it’ll be relaxing after that,” Fang Mengmeng said.

“Easy for you to say, you’re not feeling the pain. Wait till you’re in my shoes, then you’ll understand how awful it is. The pressure is huge!” Fang Wenjie sighed.

Zheng Tan and Fang Mengmeng both looked at Fang Wenjie, but they couldn’t see any sign of “huge pressure” on his face.

The next day, after lunch, Fang Wenjie came over to Fang Mengmeng’s house. He wasn’t even eighteen yet and didn’t have a driver’s license. With strict home rules, driving the car himself was out of the question, but they had a driver.

If they were going out to eat, Zheng Tan was definitely going along–who would stay behind and eat cat food like Da Mi? Zheng Tan would never agree to that.

So, Zheng Tan decisively decided to join them for the meal out.

As soon as Zheng Tan stepped outside, he shivered and quickly dived into the car. It was really cold outside; no wonder Fang Mengmeng was dressed so thickly.

Zheng Tan’s fur was short, unlike Da Mi’s. Da Mi seemed to dislike going out with Fang Wenjie, as it just jumped on the couch to sleep whenever it saw Fang Wenjie. Fang Mengmeng didn’t call it anymore, already used to this behavior.

When Fang Mengmeng got into the car, she was holding a big backpack and a white pet outfit.

This had been bought when Da Mi was younger, but after buying it, Da Mi hardly ever wore it because it didn’t like wearing clothes. Fang Mengmeng hadn’t thrown it away; she really liked the polar bear design so she kept it, never expecting it would come in handy today.

Zheng Tan also disliked the confines of those clothes, but considering the temperature outside and not knowing how long they’d be outdoors in the afternoon, Zheng Tan decided not to be too hard on himself. He let Fang Mengmeng put on the warm-looking white outfit, complete with a hood on his head. After getting dressed, Zheng Tan looked in the car’s rearview mirror and thought the outfit made him look a bit silly.

Fang Mengmeng even took a few photos specially, while Fang Wenjie sat in the front passenger seat and laughed.

It was still early now; not long after they had lunch, they were not going directly to eat. Before that, they planned to visit a bookstore first.

Fang Wenjie needed to buy a few reference books that his mom had listed for him–these were must-haves. Fang Mengmeng didn’t mind browsing bookstores; in fact, she was looking forward to it. It was always nice not having to buy reference books and practice papers.

Fang Wenjie dismissed the driver, as their dining place that afternoon was very close by, and there was no need to keep the driver waiting there. After they finished dining in the afternoon, Fang Wenjie would call the driver to come pick them up.

Fang Wenjie and Fang Mengmeng entered the bookstore to look around, and Zheng Tan definitely went in with them. There were a lot of people moving around inside, and Zheng Tan wasn’t sure if there were any pet restrictions, so he had to stay inside the backpack.

“Heitan, just stay in the backpack inside, don’t run around or make noise, or you’ll get smacked out with a mop,” Fang Wenjie said as he shouldered the backpack.

The bookstore was warm, being heated. There was an area dedicated to college entrance exams, filled with practice materials and mock tests. It was quite crowded, but most people were just focused on flipping through reference books or searching for books on the shelves, not noticing the cat’s head poking out of Fang Wenjie’s backpack. A few people did see it, but they only gave it a curious glance and didn’t pay further attention.

Fang Wenjie quickly found two books, and while searching for a third one, he had to push a bit deeper. He wasn’t shy about it; seeing the book on the shelf, he forcefully squeezed past a person in front. The movement was too brusque and caused the books in the other person’s hands to fall onto the floor.

After muttering a barely sincere “Sorry,” Fang Wenjie didn’t even glance at the other person and went straight for the reference book.

Meanwhile, the person who had their books knocked down frowned as they bent down to pick them up with the intention of putting them back–only to look up and see a cat’s head poking out of the backpack.

The white polar bear pet outfit’s hood was pulled over Zheng Tan’s head. A white hood, a black cat face.

The person paused with the book in hand, their gaze filled with puzzled uncertainty.

Zheng Tan, who had been curiously observing the surroundings until now, had visited a few small bookstores during his time at Chuhua University, but he was inexperienced with such large bookstores and was quite intrigued, especially by a few pretty girls nearby. Zheng Tan took a few extra glances at them, only to refocus when Fang Wenjie made the push. Zheng Tan quickly turned to look at the unlucky person.

At that moment, Zheng Tan was dumbfounded.

Oh boy, it turned out to be an old acquaintance. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (NovelFire.net) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.NovelFire.net).