Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 383 - Chapter 383 Chapter 372 Stupefied_2

Chapter 383: Chapter 372: Stupefied_2 Chapter 383: Chapter 372: Stupefied_2 The only thing that improved Old Man Lan’s mood was that the people who had seen the orchid bud all praised it endlessly. After all, the experts’ perspective differed from Zheng Tan’s.

Therefore, in the following period, whenever Zheng Tan passed by the small flower bed and hopped onto the wall to look inside, he would find several old men gathered around the spot where the orchid was placed, sometimes even arguing for a long time over a few points of view.

They, like Mr. Lan, believed that this orchid was likely a natural mutant of the Iron Bone variety, deserving of research. The only issue was its continuous failure to bloom, for which everyone had their own reasons and explanations.

Some orchids need more time to bloom, ranging from a couple of months to even half a year. But now, the bud of this flower had grown to such a state that anyone who saw it would think it was on the verge of blooming, yet it remained steadfastly closed.

“In any case, as long as the bud is healthy and normal, it’s a good sign,” one of the old men said.

They could not find a solution, but the orchid was still healthy; it was just the flower bud that wouldn’t open, which was better than if it had shown signs of disease. That would have been truly unsolvable. It’s rare for everyone to anticipate something with such enthusiasm.

As everyone eagerly awaited, September passed quietly, and the new students’ military training also ended. The weather was no longer as hot as before and began to carry a hint of autumn, but the climate in Chuhua City was always unpredictable. One could wear a T-shirt and vest one day and a layered jacket the next, hard to pin down. Many new students who couldn’t adapt even caught colds.

The changing weather didn’t ripple in the hearts of those several old men; Old Man Lan was no longer as anxious as he had been at the beginning. He felt that perhaps this was the will of Nature. Watching the date of the flower exhibition approach, the orchid’s bud remained in the same state as a month before. Mr. Lan thought it was probably fated to miss the exhibition.

Over the month, Mr. Lan had invited many friends from the orchid community to help, but all were clueless. However, precisely because of this, everyone in the orchid community knew that the big shot Professor Lan was cultivating a very peculiar Iron Bone orchid. The leaves of this flower looked similar to a typical Iron Bone, but the buds were as exquisite as jade, certainly not ordinary. Yet the bud had remained unchanged for a month, with no sign of blooming.

No one was mocking Old Man Lan anymore for dedicating three years of effort to tending to what was rumoured to be a rather inexpensive orchid; instead, they were all looking forward to when it would bloom and bear witness to it.

One day, as Zheng Tan was leaving and going downstairs, he noticed that the door to Old Man Lan’s third-floor house was ajar. Inside, Old Mrs. Zhai was cleaning, and Zheng Tan squeezed through the door to enter.

Upon seeing Zheng Tan, Old Mrs. Zhai found herself someone to talk to, and she chattered away with him. It was all about the orchid, the only thing that could make Mr. Lan stubborn and Old Mrs. Zhai nag.

“The orchid has bloomed; they are all squatting in the small flower bed, not even caring about eating,” said Old Mrs. Zhai. She was quite helpless about Mr. Lan forgetting to eat whenever it came to orchids, but this time, it wasn’t just Mr. Lan who forgot to eat.

When Zheng Tan climbed into the small flower bed, he found the spot where the orchid was placed. There, seven old men with either graying hair or completely silver hair were squatting, seemingly transfixed in front of the orchid.

Was this an attempt to play Seven Dwarfs? Zheng Tan thought snidely.

Besides the seven old men, there was also a cat squatting nearby.

The sheriff didn’t know when it had arrived. Because the seven old men were there, the wire gate was left open, and the flower-gnawing sheriff snuck in while the old men weren’t paying attention. The old men, preoccupied with looking at the flower, didn’t notice the dangerous intruder by their side.

And what was even stranger was that the sheriff, despite its inexplicable obsession with chewing on flowers, was content to squat beside them and watch without biting.

The seven old men and one cat squatted there, and who knows how long it had been; even Zheng Tan began to feel pain in his legs for them, worrying that these elderly gentlemen might fall over when they tried to stand up after squatting for too long.

With that thought, Zheng Tan walked over.

From the scent alone, Zheng Tan knew this was the same flower that he had seen in the mountains years before.

All five buds had now bloomed. They were the same as the flowers Zheng Tan remembered, with a jade-like translucence. If one didn’t know they were real, they might be mistaken for sculptures made of jade.

Back then, Zheng Tan could be so fascinated by flowers that he got stupefied, now these seven old men and the sheriff were probably in a similar daze.

Zheng Tan felt that although the flower was pretty good, compared to those he had seen in the mountains, there was still a slight gap — the fact that he wasn’t completely stupefied now was the best proof of this. Of course, it might also be that Zheng Tan had become immune to it.

Just standing there stupefied wasn’t getting anyone anywhere, so Zheng Tan squatted down next to the seven men and one cat who were staring at the flower and yawned loudly, even producing a long “Ah–“.

Finally, someone snapped out of it, and the sheriff as well.

“Hey, quick, it’s the sheriff!” one of the old men shouted.

The old men couldn’t care less about continuing to admire the flower at this point; they guarded against the sheriff as if he were a thief, only breathing a sigh of relief after they had managed to drive him out.

That the sheriff was obsessed with flowers was known to all.

The old men slowly got to their feet, pounding their legs. Fortunately, they didn’t collapse; they were just suffering from sore legs after squatting for so long.

Looking at the time, they all realized they had been observing the flower for such a long while without noticing.

Old Man Lan also began to shoo people away; he treasured this pot of flower too much.

Three years, three years weren’t in vain!

Old Man Lan was so moved that his eyes turned red.

“Mr. Lan, are you selling this flower? Name a price, and I’ll buy it,” one old man said.

“Don’t, Mr. Lan. Enjoy the flower yourself a bit longer, no need to rush to sell,” another old man advised.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s better to keep good flowers for yourself for a while,” the others chimed in.

Though they said this, they were all thinking about when to find Mr. Lan privately to talk.

They coveted it, the flower was truly covetable.

As they left, the old men kept looking back every three steps, their eyes not wanting to move away from that pot of orchids.

“Hey, Mr. Lan, your flower must be a mutant of Nature, I haven’t seen any like this before. Have you named it yet?” one of the men asked as Old Man Lan was ushering him out.

Old Man Lan paused in his shooing and hummed in response, glancing over at Zheng Tan when the others weren’t looking.

Zheng Tan: “…”

What a strange old man, why look at me when naming an orchid?(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, I invite you to come to Qidian (NovelFire.net) to cast your recommendation votes, monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.NovelFire.net.)