Chapter 448: Chapter 417 Is This Yours? Chapter 448: Chapter 417 Is This Yours? Since I’ve already retired from the “circle,” I no longer get bothered with the affairs of the Pet Center. The images of BlackC online are all from the past, and I’ve noticed that my own pictures are appearing less and less, replaced by the new generation of star cats from the Pet Center.

Sharp chins, round chins, long-haired, short-haired, skinny as rails, fat as balls, the cute and the cool, all kinds of cats are there, quickly attracting the attention of new and old customers and netizens, and gradually nobody mentions the old generation of cats who have retired.

At first, I was a bit displeased, but it didn’t take long for me to stop caring. After all, I never planned to really make a living off of this.

However, after I had no more tasks, I felt idle, psychologically speaking.

Go out and visit? But it seemed everyone was busy with their own things, and later on I didn’t feel like bothering them anymore.

Wandering outside all day, I didn’t want to stay idle at home, because as soon as I relaxed, I wanted to sleep. It wasn’t like the light dozing I’d have with the sheriff, Da Pang, and the others. Once I slept, it was deep and I couldn’t be woken up, lasting anywhere from a few hours to half a day. Although it wasn’t very long compared to the beginning, this frequent occurrence and the dreams of familiar scenes from when I was a human, as real as my memories, made it so when I woke up, I had to sit and think hard about whether I was a human or a cat.

Last week, when I woke up without paying attention, I just stood up and walked out of the room, coming face to face with Jiao Ma, who was coming out of the kitchen. My first reaction wasn’t to instantly bend down on all fours, but to absentmindedly raise my paw and scratch my head.

The bowl of soup Jiao Ma was holding almost shook out.

Thankfully, after seeing my unusual behaviors over the years, which differed from other cats, otherwise the hot soup Jiao Ma was holding might have startled her into dropping it on the floor.

After that day, I didn’t really want to stay at home. Sleep made things hazy, and I couldn’t even tell what I was anymore.

Indeed, when you worry about something, you have to replace it with something else. It’s better to wander around the campus out of boredom than to sleep in a daze with no sense of where you are. But honestly, I was somewhat worried on the inside.

The days on the calendar flipped by, living the same life every day, and when I came to my senses, I realized how quickly time had passed, and when I thought about it, I hadn’t really done anything memorable.

Without noticing, the calendar in the living room had already turned to September 2012. Little Youzi was in her senior year of high school, increasingly busy with her studies, but still came home once every week to do practice problems and read. Jiao Yuan was still in Beijing, able to come home only once or twice a year. Mr. Jiao had secured another project, and every day except when he slept at home, he spent all his time working at the Life Science Institute, with business trips as an additional task. Jiao Ma, overseeing graduating students, prepping lessons and grading papers, had slimmed down a few pounds along with the students.

The only one who got fatter was me, Zheng Tan.

Jumping off the scale at home, I stretched and yawned. It was just an extra pound, barely noticeable on a person, but on a cat, it was a different story.

The weight gain was because of the continuous rainy weather outside, which kept me cooped up at home, eating then sleeping and sleeping then eating. Now the weather had finally cleared up, and I decided it was better to go out for a walk. Staying at home only led to sleep, which brought on dreaming and weight gain; walking outside seemed like the better option.

After two weeks of continuous rainy days, probably apart from the freshmen undergoing military training, everyone else was longing for the sun to come out. As soon as the weather cleared, there were quite a few people outside sunning their beddings and clothes, like me and Ah Huang who, after being cooped up for so long, also came out to loosen up and benefit from some sunlight.

Leaving the East District courtyard, I walked aimlessly, not sure what I was thinking about, until I heard the voices and laughter of children and came back to reality, realizing I was almost at the kindergarten.

At the kindergarten, after Zhuo Xiaomao left, came two called Black–Little Wei and Er Yuan.

When they were new to the kindergarten, the two of them would run to the railing of the fence whenever they saw me, then cry to me from the other side. I had just seen them playing well with the other kids, and in the blink of an eye, they changed their faces, crying and wanting to go home. As soon as I left, they happily returned to their play.

So, after figuring out their strategy, every time I passed by the kindergarten, I made a detour, making absolutely sure they didn’t see me. Ermao even told me their schedule, so I wouldn’t be caught by the two kids during outdoor class while I was passing by.

When first starting kindergarten, the first thing Ermao taught Er Yuan wasn’t “Thank you” or “I’m sorry,” but how to protect himself, and, how to flip the other party to the ground. This became known to everyone after Er Yuan made a little boy who took his crayon cry. Because of this, when Ermao took his family home, his mother grabbed his ear and scolded him.

As for Little Wei, at first it seemed that no one in class would go looking for trouble, simply because he did not appear to be an easy target, too sturdy.

Things are much better now. When they see me, they just shout a few times; they don’t cry and beg to be taken home. Children at this age change a lot with each passing year, and they come to know more and more. However, I had grown accustomed to making a detour and rarely went towards the kindergarten.

Taking a detour past the kindergarten leads to a “Y”-shaped intersection, with one side heading deeper into the school premises, while the other leads towards the school’s main gate. I turned and walked towards the main gate, considering whether to leave the school and go further afield to play, as it was getting too boring, just waiting for time to pass. If I were truly a cat, that’d be fine, without all these worries, able to amuse myself for half a day by chasing my own tail or munching on my paws, but the problem is, I’m not a purebred cat.

Near the school gate, there was an open space where the school buses started, including the electric ones with seats for about a dozen to twenty people, and the larger coaches with fifty seats or so. The former mainly ran within the school, while the latter sometimes ran both inside and outside the school, picking up new students and guests, among other duties. One of the large coach types ran towards the affiliated high school, which Jiao Ma and Little Youzi often took.

At that moment, at the parking spot, there were three small electric school buses, but I didn’t see any large coaches. The drivers of the small buses parked there, ready to leave if they reached about eighty percent capacity; if not, they would continue to wait, and if no one showed up, they would leave. However, it was rare that they had to wait indefinitely for passengers.

In one of the small buses parked nearby, the driver was sitting inside, playing games on a tablet.

Don’t think that these people in their forties and fifties just drive school buses every day, their family conditions aren’t necessarily as poor as the students imagine, quite a few of them use smartphones worth a couple thousand, or tablets.

The bus driver was tapping the screen, sweating profusely, making his bald head gleam even more. Just as Zheng Tan had intended to walk directly off-campus, he paused, turned around and hopped onto a rather small sycamore tree nearby. Sitting on the branches was impossible, the tree was too small, its limbs couldn’t support Zheng Tan’s weight, so Zheng Tan could only cling to the trunk and look over from there.

The game the driver was playing, Zheng Tan had seen before, it was a casual game called “Cat and Mouse” developed by Feng Baikin and his team. The driver swiped and tapped at the screen to catch the white, grey, black, and spotted mice scurrying across it. They varied in size, some were fast, and some slow; some looked cute, and others not so much. Each mouse had different attributes and scored differently. Some of the mice were so quick that even young people might not catch them in time, missing out on the higher-scoring ones. Let alone those in their forties and fifties who didn’t grow up playing games. Otherwise, the driver wouldn’t be sweating bullets just from tapping the screen; he was anxious.

“Ah, so close!” the driver sighed.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t beat your grandson again?” another bus driver, parked a bit further out, asked with a laugh.

“Yeah, just short by two hundred points. Just needed to catch about twenty more black mice. Sigh, I’m too old to match the reflexes of the young. My grandson in elementary school plays so much smoother than me.” The bald driver intended to look up at a forty-five-degree angle in sorrow, but instead, he spotted a black cat sitting on the nearby tree, staring back at him.

“Hey, that black one over there, come here, come here!” the bald driver invited with a chuckle, waving his hand, “Come on, let’s play together.”

Zheng Tan: “…”

The neighboring driver: “…”

Actually, the bald driver was only joking, but to his surprise, the black cat really did come over.

Zheng Tan was bored anyway, and since the other party invited him to play the game, why wouldn’t he go?

Hopping onto the passenger seat, Zheng Tan looked at the bald driver, waiting for him to get the tablet ready.

The bald driver gaped, then laughed out loud, swiftly pulled out the tablet, and started the game.

The driver next door snorted inwardly upon seeing this: You stupid baldy, aren’t you afraid that cat will scratch up the tablet that cost you several thousand, bought by your son?

Clearly, the bald driver hadn’t considered this at all. All he was thinking about was teasing his grandson after beating his score, especially since the kid had been showing off in front of him just yesterday.

The bald driver had been playing the game for a week, and although Zheng Tan had never played before, he had watched Feng Baikin play, so he got the hang of it quickly. The driver and the cat, one with rapid finger taps, the other slapping with its paw.

When the time was up, the bald driver laughed triumphantly at the score, slapping his leg, “I finally beat him!”

There was wifi here, and the score automatically uploaded to the internet. Zoom, the leaderboard updated, and the uncle’s name shot up three spots.

“Old Zhao, looks like when it comes to catching mice, cats really have the edge. Look, as soon as this cat joined in, the score went up, right?” the bald driver said with a tone of someone passing on their wisdom. Following that, he waved his hand grandly at Zheng Tan on the passenger seat, “Come on, let’s go again! Let’s beat my son while we’re at it, show him what happens when a tiger shows its stripes!!”

The driver surnamed Zhao next door: “…”

Shaking his head, Master Zhao decided not to bother with the bald old man anymore. He had just had nearly ten students on his bus, and it should have been enough to depart by now, right?

But when he turned his head to check, what had been nearly ten students was now only three. Glancing over at the bald driver’s side, wow! They had all damn well run over there!!

Some students were taking photos with their phones to upload online, while others were asking about the game. Once they learned about it, they downloaded it too. Whether boys or girls, they all craned their necks to watch. Since the new boy concert incident with the Sheriff Cat at school, there hadn’t been any interesting news. Now that they had stumbled upon something, the students were excited.

Post, repost, and repost again. In today’s era of flourishing online entertainment, in a short time, many people saw the scene of Zheng Tan playing a game with the bald driver.

Life Science Institute, in a laboratory.

The person who was caught scrolling through Weibo by Professor Jiao didn’t panic; he smiled in an ingratiating manner, pulled up the Weibo post he had been looking at, then holding up his large-screen phone towards Professor Jiao, he said, “Boss, look! Isn’t this your family’s cat?”

Mr. Jiao: “…”(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at Qidian (wuxiaworld.site), subscribe, or cast a monthly pass. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.wuxiaworld.site to read.)