Strange Life of a Cat

The two children waited for the bus in front of the hospital door. The first two buses that passed were too full. Jiao Yuan decided to wait a little longer for one with less people. Buses that went from the hospital to the East gate of the university came so frequently that there was no point in squishing onto a crowded one.

The commuters were mostly people leaving work. The population of Chuhua was very large, and the city didn’t have a subway system yet, so buses were always crowded during rush hour.

Today, Jiao Yuan was very quiet. If it was any other time, Jiao Yuan would be kicking a tree or peeling stickers off a pole or talking to people nearby. He wasn’t someone who could wait quietly for the bus.

Today he just held his sister’s hand and stood still. Besides telling Gu Youzi they should wait for the next bus, he didn’t say another word.

Zheng Tan stayed in Jiao Yuan’s backpack. The zipper was not completed zipped. They left a little gap so Zheng Tan could stick his head out and fresh air could get in. It was uncomfortable staying in there, but to avoid any unnecessary trouble, he kept his head down and remained safely hidden in the backpack.

Jiao Yuan’s backpack smelled of tea eggs [1]. He probably went to the cafeteria and bought some to snack on before lunch.

They waited for fifteen minutes before an uncrowded bus came. Jiao Yuan and Gu Youzi got on the bus. Someone was getting off and gave them his seat. Jiao Yuan thanked the person. The kids shared the seat and carefully placed the backpack carrying Zheng Tan on their legs.

It was only two stops to the university east gate, but two more stops to the eastern quarters. It was better to ride the bus than to walk.

Zheng Tan was feeling stuffy, so he poked his nose close to the gap to get some fresh air. The bus stopped and started again, sometimes because it reached a bus stop, sometimes because of the traffic lights. Zheng Tan was feeling sleepy.

However, not before long, Zheng Tan felt a sharp pain in his whiskers.

Looking out of the gap, a mother with a toddler was sitting in front of them. The child was facing backwards sitting on the mother’s lap. The child probably saw Zheng Tan’s nose and a few whiskers poking out of the bag and ripped a whisker.

Zheng Tan retreated back into the bag after feeling the pain. He dragged his whiskers with him.

“Cat … hair …” The child couldn’t yet speak fluently. He saw the cat, whose whisker he still held, disappear back into the backpack, so he pointed at Jiao Yuan’s backpack and cried out loud.

Jiao Yuan and Gu Youzi, both in a trance, were jerked back into reality. They didn’t know what just happened and only saw the child pointing and yelling. They thought people had found out about their cat and were very nervous. Even though there wasn’t a ‘no pets’ sign on the bus, most people were against bring animals onto public transportation.

The good thing was other people did not notice the whiskers poking out. The lighting was dim on the bus, plus people were exhausted from a day of work and paid little attention to others. Even the child’s mother thought her kid was only pointing to the cat decorations on the backpack. She smiled and patted her child.

When they got to their stop, the two children got off as quickly as they could for fear of being caught. After all, they were young. They hadn’t quite mastered public humiliation like adults.

Entering the quarters, Zheng Tan jumped out. He felt much better now that he could breathe fresh air.

The sky was already dark; the streetlights were lit, and they could vaguely hear the song that signaled the end of the school radio broadcast. A gust of wind swept by; leaves rustled around them, accompanied by the soft sound of leaves falling to the ground.

Zheng Tan shivered. He ran a few steps and climbed halfway up a tree. Then he slid back down. The exercise made his body feel warmer.

Seeing their cat perform his tricks, the kids, who were depressed all day, finally felt a bit better. They were surrounded by people taking strolls and cars driving home from work. They could hear dogs barking in the quarters. The street was full of life.

At the entrance of their building, Jiao Yuan swiped his access card. Zheng Tan led the way inside.

These building were relatively old. They didn’t have sound-controlled lights, but the people living here were used to the slightly out-dated system.

Lights on the third floor and below were on, but the fourth and fifth floor corridors were pitch black. The parrot’s owners on fourth floor were not home. They were probably on a business trip again. Even that otaku Qu Xiangyang seemed to be on one of his rare trips downstairs, so no one turned on the lights.

Zheng Tan wanted to switch on the lights first, so that the children won’t bump into anything on the stairs. For most people, it was impossible to see anything in corridors at night without the lights. It was, however, a piece of cake for Zheng Tan, or cats in general.

Zheng Tan jumped up and switched on the light on the fourth floor, then went up and did the same on the fifth floor. He went back down to greet the kids and ran into them on the second floor.

Two more flights of stairs later, the two children found out what their own cat was doing running up in advance. When they were outside, they saw that the corridor was dark on the fourth and fifth floor.

“Charcoal is really smart!” Jiao Yuan laughed.

This was the first time he laughed since he found out about Mama Jiao’s accident.

“Yes!” Gu Youzi didn’t talk much, as usual.

Zheng Tan was flabbergasted. This wasn’t something worthy of praise.

“My dad said that cats that are too clever will alarm some people, so some things are best kept to ourselves. There’s no point of telling other people what just happened.” Jiao Yuan remarked.

“I know.” Gu Youzi nodded. She never talked about the cat. She had seen a child in her class bring her Barbie doll to school every day to show off. Soon, the doll was gone. When the girl found it again, the Barbie was trampled and thrown into the trash. It was apparently because some other girls got jealous.

The fact that the cat came to pick her up from school every day was eye-catching enough. There was no need pile on other stories.

Jiao Yuan called Papa Jiao to inform him they had gotten home safely. Before the phone call ended, Tiger’s owner, the lady known as Auntie Ling to the Jiao kids, came by. She brought some cakes and a case of milk in fear the children would get hungry. They could also have it for breakfast the next day.

She couldn’t stay long because her relatives were visiting. She heated up some bath water for the kids after they insisted on staying home. She stayed with them until they finished their baths and went to bed.

Zheng Tan stayed by Gu Youzi’s side, waiting for her to fall asleep. Then he went to check on Jiao Yuan in his room. The kid was still awake. Zheng Tan stayed for a while, making sure he fell asleep. When that was done, he went out to the balcony.

Zheng Tan liked to come out onto the balcony when he couldn’t sleep. The ambiance was particularly suitable for thinking about human existence. No, suitable for thinking about his f*cking cat-existence.

As the night went on, lights gradually went out one-by-one in the courtyard; The sound of TVs and chatting slowly died out as well.

Only Qu Xiangyang next door still had his light on. He wouldn’t be going to bed until one or two in the morning.

Tonight, Zheng Tan was not at all sleepy. He just sat quietly on the balcony, his ears twitching from time to time to listen for movements in the children’s bedrooms. To his relief, they slept well, at least free of nightmares.

Looking down from the fifth floor, the orange light from street lamps seemed extra bright. Looking into the distance, orange light spots flickered between tree branches. There was a special sense of peace and serenity when the wind stopped blowing and everything— the branches, the leaves and the lights— stood still.

Most street lamps on campus used orange lights wherever there was a road for vehicles. He heard that orange lights were the safest, because the color had the longest wavelength. It was visible from far away. At the same time, it wasn’t blinding. Drivers were able to see cars far ahead without tiring their eyes, even after being on the road for a long time. This measure greatly increased road safety.

Zheng Tan yawned, it was getting late. In a few hours, morning-joggers would be up. Even Qu had gone to bed.

Zheng Tan turned back to go into the living room to sleep on the sofa. It was possible to watch over both children there. Just when Zheng Tan lifted his paw, he heard the soft sound of wooden planks clanking together. He paused.

The sound came from the wind chime on the balcony of Fatty’s home on the first floor. At first glance, the wind chime was no different from any ordinary ornament. To outsiders, the only thing special about it was that it had wooden planks instead of metal or shells, yet still managed to make bright crisp sounds.

Zheng Tan never noticed it before, until one day when Fatty was being inspected by Wei Ling’s old platoon leader. He found out the wood wind chime was meant to be a warning.

It couldn’t chime due to wind alone, unless there was a wind storm. Normally, the wind chime only made sounds when it was struck by human force, and each plank made a different sound.

Zheng Tan looked down when he heard it ring. That was when he saw the ‘rats’.

Although the two people were hidden in the shadows, Zheng Tan still saw them. Even if he couldn’t see their faces clearly, he caught their silhouette.

After the robberies in September, the quarters had welcomed two dogs, which managed to warn off thieves so far.

From the look of the two, this was not their first offense. They seemed extremely familiar with the layout of the quarters and knew a bit about the residents as well. They could be the ones responsible for the first two thefts.

‘So, after a month in hideout, these two thieves finally couldn’t stay away anymore?’

Who knew they were going to pick his building this time? Were they targeting his house? Certainly, they weren’t planning to rob the fourth floor.

General’s house was special. There were barbed wires around the balcony and the front door was specially made as well. It was extremely well protected due to the family owning an expensive rare parrot. The other family was not here for most of the year. Their place probably didn’t have anything valuable.

Which house was these ‘rats’ thinking about this time? If it was this house, well …

Zheng Tans squinted; he flexed his paw, and sharp claws appeared.

‘I can’t speak, I can’t heat water, I have to hide in a backpack to take the bus. But you are so wrong if you think I can’t take care of you two.’

At this moment, the two people, hiding in the shadow at the foot of building B in the east quarter, had no idea there was a cat squatting behind a window on the first floor, watching them intently. Nor did they know that, at the same time, another cat on the fifth floor was also watching their every move.