Xiao Guo's customers were mostly from Chuhua University, and doing business with the university's teachers and students was not easy; issues of food safety and quality were most likely to emerge from here.
Those who spent all day in the laboratory facing tedious experimental data and equipment would sometimes seek some fun, such as impulsively taking a bus to the snack alley to buy a bowl of hot and dry noodles with chili oil, then bring it back to the lab to test whether the chili oil contained Sudan Red, whether the sesame paste contained aflatoxins, and whether the E. coli levels exceeded standards.
Therefore, doing business with teachers and students at the university while maintaining a good reputation required sustained quality assurance.
But precisely because of this, Xiao Guo and his shop had established a strong reputation, which brought in popularity and funds, allowing them to take over several neighboring shopfronts to merge his brother's pet clinic and his own pet products shop, establishing "Mingming Pet Center."
This is what Zheng Tan knew about Xiao Guo: overall, Zheng Tan thought Xiao Guo was a capable person, smart, able to make money, and not bad-hearted, at least kind towards animals.
After Xiao Guo left, the Jiao family did not bring up anything about the cat food commercial. After dinner, Jiao Yuan and Gu Youzi went to their respective rooms to do homework, while Jiao Ma went dancing with a few friends at the gym.
Zheng Tan entered the master bedroom, and after entering, he pushed the door shut, jumped up, and bolted the lock. Inside the bedroom, Mr. Jiao was already sitting at the desk waiting.
Mr. Jiao was used to Zheng Tan's series of actions after entering the room and didn't even look up until Zheng Tan jumped onto the table, at which point Mr. Jiao closed the folder he was holding.
"Today, Xiao Guo came over to talk about filming a cat food commercial, and I didn't immediately agree. It depends on what you think," Mr. Jiao said, handing a document to Zheng Tan.
The document detailed the cat food commercial proposal Xiao Guo mentioned today and Mr. Jiao's assumptions about the subsequent situation and benefit analysis based on what Xiao Guo had said.
Zheng Tan looked at it briefly. It was about a type of cat food that Xiao Guo's family produced, which many cat owners on campus bought because it was affordable, convenient, and importantly, it passed quality inspections. Xiao Guo had planned to promote this cat food long ago, but a SARS outbreak derailed the original plan. Now, having barely recovered, he was eager to restart the plan. However, setting up the pet center had strained his finances, making him more anxious to profit from this cat food.
Although it was rare to see pet food commercials on TV in Huaxia Mainland, Zheng Tan had learned after arriving here that there was a demand for pet food, with many potential customers. As the economy developed and the pace of urban life accelerated, people barely had time to take care of themselves, let alone figure out how to sustain a pet.
Zheng Tan admitted he was no business genius, not before nor now, but he believed that if handled well, this could indeed be a profitable venture. Zheng Tan did not eat cat food; he ate the same food as the Jiao family. Since becoming a cat, Zheng Tan was most grateful that he had a strong stomach. Besides, filming a commercial didn't necessarily mean he had to eat cat food.
Seriously speaking, filming a simple commercial was no big deal for Zheng Tan; after all, it was just a pet food commercial. According to the document, the initial distribution channel was only online, but surely there would be more to come if the online impact was significant.
This first commercial was bound to be simple, just to test the waters. The reason Xiao Guo approached Zheng Tan was clear. With tight finances, every penny saved mattered. While people abroad had spent tons of food filming "Cat and Dog War," Xiao Guo shooting a test commercial, though much smaller in scale, would still consume some resources. Of course, that was if other cats were involved; Zheng Tan's case was entirely different.
Zheng Tan pondered the pros and cons listed in the document while Mr. Jiao said, "You don't have to decide right away, I told Xiao Guo a reply within three days would be fine."
Knowing he had three days to think it over, Zheng Tan was not in a rush. Given his current identity, he indeed needed to consider it more deeply.
Just as he put down the document, Zheng Tan heard someone knocking, not on the room door, but on the front door.
Mr. Jiao got up to answer the door. Zheng Tan did not immediately go over but pricked his ears to listen to the sounds from the living room.
The voice sounded like the homebody living across from them, whose parents were both school teachers. This guy almost always cooped up at home and usually wore T-shirts with prints of StarCraft, Spiderman, Star Wars, and... SpongeBob. He washed his clothes once a week, even in the scorching summer, and Zheng Tan wondered if his clothes would grow mushrooms if left piled up for a week in the summer.
Listening to the voice, the other party seemed somewhat embarrassed. Zheng Tan jumped down from the desk, walked to the doorway, and peeked out to see the person twisting a takeout box in one hand and scratching his head with the other.
"Jiao, I was wondering if I could borrow your cat. The mice on my side are nearly becoming demonically clever. None of the mousetraps I bought caught even one, and these past few days have been killing me. Let me know when it would be convenient, uh, could I, well, borrow the cat?"
Zheng Tan looked down disdainfully; he vividly remembered last month when this guy bragged to Jiao Yuan that there wasn't a single mouse in his place, and then the next day, Zheng Tan heard him howling about his internet cable being gnawed through. It was then more mousetrap stickers and more purchases of mousetraps, trying nearly every method but rat poison. Zheng Tan wondered if the mice at the university generally had higher IQs.
But then, Zheng Tan also recalled that since becoming a cat, he had never actually caught a mouse; the Jiao's place had always been mouse-free, and Zheng Tan wasn't sure if it was because of him, but having him catch mice now was really a challenge. It wasn't that he was afraid; Zheng Tan had once caught mice in high school to scare his female classmates, but, after all, cats and humans are not the same.
Zheng Tan looked down at his cat paws and felt quite troubled.
Mr. Jiao had finished speaking to the person on the other side, closed the door, walked back to the room, and waved at Zheng Tan, "Can you catch mice?"
Zheng Tan remained silent, unmoving.
After a while, Zheng Tan heard Mr. Jiao say, "Come on, let's give it a try."
Give it a try? Try where? What kind of trial? Zheng Tan wondered.
Mr. Jiao picked up the keys, carried a twisting bag, told Jiao Yuan they would be leaving, and then called Zheng Tan out of the house.
Zheng Tan sat in Mr. Jiao's electric minicar as they left the East Family Courtyard. Seeing the familiar paths, Zheng Tan roughly understood where they were headed, but exactly how the trial would be conducted, Zheng Tan had no idea. His strength was greater than that of an average cat, and Zheng Tan felt his strength could increase even more, perhaps approaching that of an average adult in a year or so.
However, being strong did not mean he could catch mice. Since he didn't like cats much, Zheng Tan didn't know how normal cats went about catching mice; he had never paid attention to it.
While thinking this, the electric minicar already arrived at its destination—Chuhua University School of Life Sciences.
As an associate professor at the School of Life Sciences, besides coming home to eat, Mr. Jiao spent most of his daytime hours here.
After parking the electric minicar, Mr. Jiao shook the bag in his hand, and Zheng Tan pouted and jumped inside it. It wasn't good to be seen wandering around inside the School of Life Sciences Building as it wasn't a place where a cat could just stroll around.
Then, Professor Jiao, with the bag that housed the cat, walked through the main entrance of the Life Sciences Building, casually greeting people as they entered and left. When they reached the staircase, there were fewer people around, as many preferred to take the elevator.
Zheng Tan peeked out of the bag to look outside. At seven in the evening, there were still many people in the School of Life Sciences, with lights on in various laboratories. Through the window near the staircase, Zheng Tan could see the ultraviolet sterilization lights illuminating the sterile room opposite.
Zheng Tan had been very nervous the first time Jiao Yuan and the others brought him here, but after a few times, he became calm. Zheng Tan was endlessly grateful that the family that had adopted him was not composed of some scientific oddities.
Mr. Jiao's office was on the second floor, a private office. He was one of the few associate professors in the School of Life Sciences at Chuhua University who had a private office. When Jiao Ma was too busy, Jiao Yuan and the others would come here to do their homework or take naps. Sometimes Zheng Tan would come along too, but every time, he was sneaked in, either hidden in a backpack or wrapped in clothes.
Mr. Jiao entered the office to grab a bunch of keys, then carried Zheng Tan up the stairs to the fourth floor. There weren't many people around the corner of the fourth floor, a place Zheng Tan had never been before.
In the quiet hallway, Mr. Jiao's footsteps sounded particularly clear, activating the voice-controlled lights. Zheng Tan saw the room numbers on the doors around him.
No wonder there were hardly any people around; this area was basically used for storing goods, equipment, and medicines. However...
Zheng Tan sniffed, detecting the scent of some kind of lifeform.
Mr. Jiao stopped at a room at the end of the corridor and used the keys to open the door.
As the door opened, a squeaking sound filled the air.
Even though it was quite dark, Zheng Tan could clearly see the room's layout.
There were a few empty cages on the side, while the cages feeding white mice were in the inner room; those near the door held a small experiment table and shelves, and so on.
Mr. Jiao turned on the light, placed the bag on the experiment table, and told Zheng Tan, "Wait here for a while, don't run around, and don't touch anything in the lab, there are many medicines."
After speaking, Mr. Jiao took a lab coat from a rack, put it on, took out gloves from a drawer, put them on, and walked into the inner room. Shortly, he emerged with a cage containing five white mice.