Strange Life of a Cat

Yi Xin was awakened by the alarm clock early in the morning. He had a report to make, for which he needed to prepare some slides in advance.

Zheng Tan and Yi Xin left the house together.

Yi Xin went to the east cafeteria to buy two bags of buns and after some consideration, two cups of soy milk. He brought it to the grove in the woods, where Zheng Tan was waiting for him on the stone table.

Yi Xin laid down a bag of buns and a cup of soy milk. He wasn’t sure if cats could have soy milk, but Papa Jiao had mentioned on the phone that this cat had a strong stomach. Yi Xin thought buns were too dry, so he got the cat a drink as well.

He threw a straw into the disposable cup before realizing that cats probably couldn’t use straws.

By this time, Zheng Tan had finished a bun. He brushed away Yi Xin’s hand and started drinking from the straw.

If he wasn’t in a rush to go prepare for the report, Yi Xin would definitely stay here to study how Professor Jiao’s cat managed to defy the structure of a cat’s mouth and suck on a straw.

Zheng Tan paid no attention to what Yi Xin was thinking. He was famished. He wanted to finish the food as quickly as possible, then rest for a while before going for a run. He wouldn’t have the strength to run if he didn’t eat.

When he was about to start the sixth bun, Tiger and Sheriff appeared. They got the remaining food. They didn’t bother saving anything for Fatty. He was like Zheng Tan. The guy didn’t eat other people’s leftovers.

As always, Tiger howled first to signal the location so the others should come quickly, then went straight to scratching trees.

Zheng Tan threw the plastic bags and soy milk cup into the trash then calmly walked around the stone table to help digestion.

When Fatty showed up, Tiger was starting on his third tree.

Zheng Tan felt he was ready. So he called out to his buddies before leading the way towards campus. Tiger quickly followed, though he stopped occasionally to chew grass.

Zheng Tan thought he would run on his own if he didn’t see Wei Ling. After all, if was just running, and he had three other cats to accompany him.

However, he ran into Wei Ling before he even left the quarters. The man was doing pull-ups on the lawn.

Tiger had the strongest reaction to seeing Wei Ling again. He crouched up immediately, and all the fur on his body stood on end. In contrast, Fatty was vigilant, but calm.

Wei Ling stood up straight and looked at the four cats, focusing again on Fatty and Zheng Tan. He followed them without saying much.

“How about we jog first? Doesn’t the school have a running track that circles the whole campus? Let’s start with a lap.”

Zheng Tan: “…” ‘A full lap?!’

Chuhua University had a huge campus. During his limited time here, Zheng Tan mostly stayed near the eastern quarter, only coming on campus to pick up the kids from school or visit the department of health sciences. He had also been to Professor Lan’s garden a few times, but that was about it. He had never seen the majority of the university before.

A lap around the school might not be too bad. It would give him a chance to grow familiar with the campus.

Twenty meters into his run, Zheng Tan looked back. Fatty was yawning without moving a step, Tiger was playing dead in the grass, and Sheriff was licking his lip while looking up at a sparrow on the tree.

Well, they couldn’t be counted on.

He was better off running on his own.

Wei Ling began running right away without waiting for him. He wasn’t fast but his speed was steady. Zheng Tan followed along behind him.

In the morning, students were walking or riding their bikes to class from the cafeteria, dormitories and public squares. Students in the opera club or glee club were practicing their vocals under the patch of peach trees.

The may flowers had been blooming for some time. Their scent was growing faint. The flowers were about to wither. The season was almost over.

Zheng Tan saw Madam Di and her friends waving bright red fans, dancing some sort of fan dance. Their dance class was about to end. They typically stopped half an hour before first period classes so as to not disturb the students.

Madam Di was doing a swirl when she saw Zheng Tan panting and jogging. She almost dropped her fan. She had been dancing here for a long time, but this was the first time she had seen him. She didn’t think he would stray so far away from the residential area. After all, this place was close to the classroom buildings. In general, cats rarely came to this area at this time.

Zheng Tan did not see the old lady’s expression. They were only jogging, that was true. But he was so tired he could faint. He had never exercised like this, so no wonder it was so painful.

The first half of the lap was not too bad; he still had enough energy to look around at the scenery. This second half, however, was just pure torture.

Wei Ling slowed down slightly, but Zheng Tan didn’t stop.

He wanted to exercise; he wanted to become stronger; he wanted to go further. He had to keep going.

He was doing this for his life, after all.

After he finished the lap, Zheng Tan dropped to the ground and rolled around in the grass. He knew there was a water fountain on the other side of the lawn, so he got up to go have a drink of water.

Wei Ling did not idle around. He had run a lap like Zheng Tan but was acting like it was just a simple warm up. He immediately started doing pull ups after they reached the lawn.

Zheng Tan stood next to the fountain to rest. He tilted his head to take a drink of water. When he looked back up, Wei Ling was running again. He was running faster this time.

Zheng Tan took a few deep breathes and set off again. He was, however, no match for Wei Ling’s speed. The man was out of sight in an instant, so Zheng Tan decided to called it a day. He turned around at a fork road to head over to Professor Lan’s flower garden.

As usual, Zheng Tan chose to jump over the wall. The actual entrance was still some distance away, and he was lazy. Except, he forgot he had just finished a run. He almost didn’t make the leap up.

It was said to be a small flower garden, but in reality it was not small at all. A few greenhouses filled the space, inside of which grew all kinds of plants.

Zheng Tan did not jump in right away, but walked along the wall until he came to a specific greenhouse. He hopped and landed on top of it with a ‘bang’.

Inside, Professor Lan looked up from his work and waved his shovel emphatically. “Can’t you jump somewhere else! You are going to break my shed.”

Zheng Tan ignored him. He went to the other side of the greenhouse, where several wooden boxes were stacked to form a staircase. He walked down with ease and elegance. The greenhouse was transparent, so he could see inside quite clearly.

Lilies, eh?

Yellow ones too!

Zheng Tan had never seen yellow lilies before. Other than the color, the flowers inside look exactly like the lilies he used to buy to woo girls.

What was that old geezer doing, planting yellow lilies? Wouldn’t the white ones sell better?

Zheng Tan walked in. There was a wooden box filled with brown stuff in front of the greenhouse, but Zheng Tan did not pay it any attention. He was fixated on the yellow flowers.

Professor Lan was holding a small shovel and busily at work. He did, though, find time to yell at the cat: “Careful! Don’t harm my day lilies.”

Day lilies?

So these were not actual lilies?

Zheng Tan twitched his ears in confusion. He was an idiot in this area. He couldn’t figure out anything even if it was put right under his eyes. He barely remembered what lilies looked like but remotely recalled that they looked something like these flowers in front of him.

While Zheng Tan was contemplating his lack of knowledge in botany, people started to walk in.

It was a few students, who came to get a sample.

Like most people, the students were very timid when approaching Professor Lan.

“Professor Lan, we made an appointment earlier to come get some samples for the antioxidant research.”

Lan did not stand up. He raised his hand and pointed to a corner in the greenhouse: “You can take anything from the area I have marked. Don’t touch anything else.”

“We’ll be careful.” A student hastily agreed.

The students went to the appointed space. Clearly new to this school, one of them asked in hushed tones: “So this is Nepenthe[1]? Why do they look like lilies？”

Another student was prepared to answer, but Professor Lan beat him to it.

“Day lilies belong to the Angiosperms[2] clade; Asparagales[3] order; Asphodelaceae[4] family; Hemerocallidoideae[5] subfamily. Did your teachers not teach you this? Why is it strange that they look similar to lilies? They belong to the same family.”

Professor Lan’s voice was gentle, but it was clear he was far from pleased.

The students worked without another word. They were terrified to say something else that the old professor found offensive. They left as soon as they were done.

Zheng Tan squatted beside the old man. He was rethinking what the students just said. So Nepenthe was just day lilies? The first name sounded much better. In comparison, ‘day lily’ was too plain. Zheng Tan had never linked the two together.

Professor Lan stood up straight after the students left. He messaged his back while walking out of the greenhouse. He didn’t forget to take his wooden box with him.

“Fresh day lilies have higher fat and vitamin C content compared to dried ones. But the latter contains more proteins and trace elements. I prefer it to fresh ones. There are lots of it back where I grew up, but here in the city it’s hard to find. Charcoal, let me tell you… ”

Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla.

These retired profs still liked to lecture. They managed to go on and on and on even if the only listener was a cat that barely understood anything.

From the moment he heard ‘let me tell you’, Zheng Tan knew that like Papa Jiao, Professor Lan was entering teaching mode.

Zheng Tan spent the rest of the morning in the garden before leaving at noon.

It was sunny when Zheng Tan reached the Eastern quarters. Tiger was lying in the grass, half hidden in the shade, half basking in the sun light. What surprised Zheng Tan was the fact that there was an animal lying next to Tiger. It whined until Tiger started to lick its fur.

What the f*ck! When did this thing with the odd face came to the eastern quarters? Why hadn’t he seen it before?

Before Zheng Tan could recover from the surprise, out came another one.

What the hell was this deformed thing that looked it was once punched in face?!

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FOOTNOTES:

[1]: Nepenthe: a plant of a genus that comprises the Old World pitcher plants

[2]: Angiosperms: a plant that has flowers and produces seeds enclosed within a carpel. The angiosperms are a large group and include herbaceous plants, shrubs, grasses, and most trees.

[3]: Asparagales: an order of plants in modern classification systems

[4]: Asphodelaceae: a family of flowering plants in the order Asparagales

[5]: Hemerocallidoideae: botanical name of a subfamily of flowering plants, part of the family Asphodelaceae