Early in the morning, Yi Xin was awakened by the alarm clock. They had a presentation this morning, and he needed to go an hour early to organize the slides and prepare. Even if he stayed up late, he still had to get up.
Zheng Tan and Yi Xin left together.
Yi Xin ran to the East Garden cafeteria and bought two baskets of steamed buns. After thinking it over, he also bought two cups of soy milk. He took them to the small woods near the East Family Courtyard, where Zheng Tan was squatting on a stone table, waiting.
Yi Xin placed one of the bags of steamed buns and a cup of soy milk on the stone table. He didn't know if cats could drink soy milk, but when he had spoken on the phone with Boss Jiao, the boss had mentioned his cat had a rather robust stomach, unlike other cats. Yi Xin thought that just eating buns might make them choke, so he decided to buy an extra cup of soy milk.
It wasn't until he inserted a straw into the disposable cup of soy milk that Yi Xin suddenly realized cats probably didn't use straws.
As Yi Xin was worrying about this, Zheng Tan had already eaten one steamed bun. He pushed Yi Xin's hand aside and started sucking through the straw. Yi Xin stared blankly. If it weren't for the rush to attend the meeting, he would have definitely squatted there to figure out how Boss Jiao's cat managed to use a straw. Could a mouth that leaks on both sides actually use a straw?
Zheng Tan didn't care what Yi Xin was thinking; he was very hungry. He quickly ate so he could go for a run. Without eating, he wouldn't have the energy to run at all.
One bag contained eight steamed buns. By the time Zheng Tan was on his sixth, Ah Huang and the sheriff ran over, and he shared the remaining two with them. As for Da Pang, even if he had come, just like Zheng Tan, he generally wouldn't eat leftovers from someone else.
As usual, when Ah Huang arrived at the spot, he barked twice to announce his presence, signaling the others who hadn't arrived to hurry up. After his call, he started to scratch the trees to sharpen his claws.
Zheng Tan threw the plastic bag of steamed buns and the soy milk cup into the nearby trash can and walked around the stone table twice to digest the food and relax a bit.
By the time Da Pang lazily ambled over, Ah Huang had already started to scratch the third tree.
Zheng Tan felt it was about time, called out, and then walked out of the woods. Ah Huang stopped sharpening his claws and scurried after him, taking occasional bites of grass every few steps.
Originally, Zheng Tan thought that if he didn't run into Wei Leng, he would just run by himself. After all, it was just running. Plus, there were three cats here, he could call them to run together later.
However, Zheng Tan hadn't even left the East Garden area when he saw Wei Leng at the public exercise equipment near the big lawn, doing pull-ups.
Seeing Wei Leng, Ah Huang was the most startled. The creature arched its back and sprung up like a flea, its fur bristled, and ears pulled back like airplane wings. Da Pang, in comparison, was much calmer than last time, just a bit wary, but did not show the same direct hostility as before.
Wei Leng let go and landed. He glanced at the four cats, focusing mainly on Da Pang and Zheng Tan. Without saying much, he turned and walked towards the outer lawn, "Start running, jog. Doesn't your Chuhua University have a campus running track? Let's run a lap first and then see."
Zheng Tan, "..." A whole lap, huh—
Chuhua University was vast. Since arriving here, Zheng Tan had predominantly stayed around the East Garden area, beyond that, he went to pick up Jiao Yuan and Gu Youzi from school, was taken to the Life Science Institute, and to Old Man Lan's small flower bed, among other places. There were still many areas in the university that Zheng Tan had not visited.
A lap around the campus would be a good chance to familiarize himself with the place.
Zheng Tan ran about twenty meters, then looked back. Da Pang was squatting in the original spot, squinting and yawning. Ah Huang had run into the bushes, curled up as if pretending to poop. The sheriff was licking his lips, eyeing a sparrow on a branch.
Damn, none reliable. I might as well run by myself in the future!
Wei Leng didn't wait for Zheng Tan and maintained a steady pace, not too fast. Zheng Tan followed closely behind him.
In the morning, students either biked or walked from the cafeteria, dormitories, and plazas toward the teaching buildings. Near the Peach Forest, some students from opera and vocal music clubs were training.
At this time of year, the school's osmanthus flowers had been blooming for a while. The fragrance was not as strong as earlier and was probably going to fade soon.
As he passed the plaza, Zheng Tan saw Old Mrs. Zhai dancing with her old friends, swinging their bright red feathered fans. Judging by the time, they were about to finish since they usually wrapped up half an hour before classes started, so as not to disturb the students.
Old Mrs. Zhai was performing a fan-flinging motion when she caught sight of Zheng Tan gasping and running not far away, almost throwing her fan in surprise. She had been dancing the fan dance here for a long time but had never seen Zheng Tan at this time. She couldn't imagine why Zheng Tan would run so far since this area was close to the teaching zone, where cats were seldom seen at this time.
Zheng Tan no longer had the energy to notice Mrs. Zhai's expression. Although it was just a jog, he was really exhausted by now and had never run like this before. Suddenly running like this was understandably uncomfortable. He managed to notice the scenery around him during the first part of the run, but it grew progressively harder towards the latter half.
Wei Leng slowed down, but Zheng Tan didn't stop, just kept running.
He had resolved to exercise, to get stronger, to travel farther, so he had to keep going.
This was also for his own survival!
When he finished the lap, Zheng Tan rolled on the grass to rest. He knew there was an outdoor faucet near the large lawn, so he planned to drink some water first.
Wei Leng didn't rest either. After finishing his pull-ups, he took Zheng Tan for another lap and still seemed unfazed, continuing his pull-ups near the public exercise equipment.
Zheng Tan rested by the faucet, drank some water, and as he turned his head, he saw Wei Leng had started running again, even speeding up.
Zheng Tan took a few deep breaths, set off to follow, but at a much slower pace, and soon lost sight of Wei Leng. He didn't plan to keep running, instead, he turned at a fork in the road and headed toward Old Man Lan's small flower bed.
As usual, Zheng Tan chose to directly climb over the wall, as there was still some distance to the flower bed's main gate and he didn't want to detour. His legs were a bit soft from the long run, and he almost couldn't make the jump.
Though it was called a small flower bed, the area was actually quite large. There were several clear greenhouses filled with plants, and there wasn't much open space elsewhere.
After jumping onto the wall, Zheng Tan didn't hurry to jump off; instead, he walked along the wall until he reached a greenhouse nearby and jumped directly onto it, making a "thump" sound.
Old Man Lan, who was inside busying himself with a small shovel, looked up and cursed, "Can't you jump from somewhere else? A few more jumps and my greenhouse is going to retire early!"
Zheng Tan ignored him, walked to one side of the greenhouse where there was a stack of wooden boxes forming a staircase, and jumped down step by step.
Zheng Tan looked sideways into the greenhouse, which was clear since it was transparent.
Lilies?
And they're yellow too!
Zheng Tan had never seen these yellow lilies before; he'd seen white ones, and these looked quite similar to the lilies he'd bought before to woo girls.
Why had Old Man Lan planted so many yellow lilies? White ones should sell better, right?
Zheng Tan walked in puzzled, at the entrance of the greenhouse was a wooden box filled with some brown stuff, but Zheng Tan didn't pay much attention to it as his focus was on the yellow flowers inside.
Old Man Lan, busy with his small shovel, turned around and said, "Be careful. Don't damage these daylilies!"
Daylilies?
Wait, weren't those lilies?
Zheng Tan tugged at his ear; he was a complete novice in this area, and even if he looked closely, he couldn't make heads or tails of it. He couldn't even remember what lilies exactly looked like, he just thought they seemed somewhat familiar.
Just as Zheng Tan was thinking, people came to the small flower bed.
It was several students, coming to collect samples.
Like everyone else, these students seemed very cautious in front of Old Man Lan.
"Professor Lan, we called ahead to book, for the research on the antioxidant properties of flavonoids. We're here to collect samples."
Old Man Lan didn't stand up but gestured towards a corner of the greenhouse, "Over there, I've marked it, you can collect from there but don't touch beyond the marks."
"Yes, yes, we'll remember and be careful," a student quickly nodded and said.
The students carefully went to the corner Old Man Lan had pointed to, one who seemed to be new to school whispered, "So this is Forget Sorrow Grass, huh? It looks a lot like lilies?"
The other students' hands trembled, and before they could even take a breath, they definitely heard Old Man Lan's voice.
"Angiosperms, monocots, Liliales, Liliaceae, Hemerocallidoideae, daylilies—haven't your teachers taught you all this? What's so strange about them looking alike?"
Old Man Lan's voice was still calm, but it was clear that he was getting angry.
The students went silent, nobody dared to speak out of turn, afraid that any slip might invite a rebuke. They quickly finished collecting the samples and respectfully said goodbye before leaving.
Zheng Tan crouched nearby, still contemplating the student's words. So the legendary Forget Sorrow Grass was actually daylilies? The former sounded so sophisticated and foreign, while the name "daylilies" seemed rather dull. Zheng Tan had never associated these two names before.
After the students left, Old Man Lan stood up, stretched his back, walked out of the greenhouse, and picked up the wooden box at the entrance as he left.
"The fat and vitamin C content in fresh daylilies is higher than in dried, but the protein and other trace elements content is lower than in dried. I still prefer the dried ones. Back in our hometown, this stuff is plentiful, but it's hard to find in this city. Heitan, let me tell you..."
Blah blah blah.
These retired professors just can't stop teaching, even if it's to a cat that doesn't understand anything. As soon as he heard "Let me tell you," Zheng Tan knew that Old Man Lan, just like Mr. Jiao, had slipped into teaching mode again.
Zheng Tan hung around Old Man Lan's flower bed for a while and left around noon.
The sun was shining brightly; when Zheng Tan returned to the East Family Courtyard, he saw Ah Huang lying in the grass, half in the shade and half in the sun. What stunned Zheng Tan was that next to Ah Huang was a creature grunting. When Ah Huang cuddled it and licked its fur, the creature stopped grunting.
Damn, what was this creature with a distressed face that Huang Erhuo was cuddling, and when did it come to East Garden? How come he had never seen it before?
Before Zheng Tan could finish being astonished, another came running over not far away.
Zheng Tan: "..."
Who the hell was this deformed one that looked like it had been punched?