Having finished one cigarette, he gave instructions to his subordinates for the subsequent work, and He Tao lit another one before sitting down next to Wei Leng. He felt much more relaxed now that the case was over; he had been controlling his smoking previously to avoid the convenience of action and prevent his body from carrying too much smell of tobacco. But now, he didn't care anymore.
"So, where are you planning to work as a security guard? In a residential area, a company, or a factory?" He Tao asked.
"A company or factory, I guess. I'll see how things go. After all, the factory hasn't started yet," Wei Leng replied.
"Whose factory?"
"Heitan and its dad's. He's partnered up with friends, and I've pitched in a bit too. My knowledge is limited, though, and I can't wrap my head around all that profound knowledge of theirs. I've invested some money, but as for work, a security job or something along those lines suits me better. I'll look up some of my demobilized comrades to come join me later."
He Tao was silent for a while, holding the lighter in his hand, then pointed with his thumb at the Black Cat squinting atop the warehouse, "Its dad?"
"Yeah," Wei Leng flicked his cigarette butt. "That's what they call him in the neighborhood. Dog dad, cat dad, stuff like that."
"Tsk, since when did pets have such a high status?"
"People have become disappointing, so pets have become more important. I heard someone say recently that the more people you know, the cuter you find pets. This perception is too one-sided and radical. At least, I don't think those pets are cute, like that one," Wei Leng nodded towards Zheng Tan's direction, "too moody and uncontrollable."
He Tao clicked his tongue a few times. He had been about to make a pointed remark, but then he remembered he'd just owed that cat a favor, so he swallowed what he was about to say and changed the topic, "Right, tell your friend to keep a low profile for a while. There's going to be a crackdown soon."
"Even if you didn't mention it, I would have told him. Things have indeed been pretty unsettled lately. It's time for some order."
By now, the policemen had finished packing up everything, and without saying more, He Tao patted Wei Leng on the shoulder, "If you need help, just let me know. If things go well with the factory, I'll come by to take a look."
Wei Leng waved his hand to acknowledge he understood, "Big Brother, don't just focus on climbing up the ranks, you're getting rusty. If it hadn't been for that cat, you'd have definitely been at a disadvantage this time."
He Tao smiled, "You guys, always a worry. In Chuhua City, how can I look after you all if I don't climb higher? So you don't have to keep smiling and owing favors to others."
Watching the departing He Tao, Wei Leng took a deep drag of his cigarette, threw the butt on the ground and stamped it out, then shouted towards Zheng Tan, "Heitan, let's head back!"
Zheng Tan got up and stretched lazily, gave the surroundings a glance, then looking at the real estate billboard not far away, shook its fur, went downstairs, and headed home.
On the way back to Chuhua City, Wei Leng didn't drive as fast as before. He slowed down, sometimes even taking the long way around, as if he was unwinding.
By the time he reached the East Family Courtyard at Chuhua University, it was already past three in the afternoon. After getting back to the courtyard, Zheng Tan first took a shower, fiddling with the specialized basin while Wei Leng helped heat the water.
Wei Leng also used the leftover water for a quick shower because he was planning to visit someone at the hospital later. He'd been out in the morning and gotten dirty; it wouldn't be appropriate to go to the hospital in that condition. His appearance was one thing, but he was afraid of bringing too many germs into the hospital. Even if it wasn't a sterile environment, it was still better to be clean when visiting a ward.
When Zheng Tan was brought to the hospital, laughter echoed from Jiao Ma's hospital room, light and joyful sounds of Jiao Ma and that intern from the medical school taking care of her, named Li Xiaoqian.
Hearing the laughter, Zheng Tan twitched its ears. At this time, Jiao Yuan and the others were in class. What could be making Jiao Ma laugh like this?
Zheng Tan's curiosity was resolved upon opening the door and seeing the situation on the hospital bed.
```
At this moment on the hospital bed, Jiao Ma was lying there, with a blue figure on the side of her uninjured hand, rolling around. After it finished rolling, it lay on its back, half-opening its wings to ask for a scratch.
Zheng Tan: "..." Fucking hell, how did this creature get back from its trip so quickly?!
In the room next to the ward, "General's" owner Professor Qin was talking with Mr. Jiao.
Professor Qin, who was about the same age as Mr. Jiao, said with a pleased expression, "On this trip to the national nature reserve in the Southern part, I encountered a blue-purple macaw like 'General'. It was raised by a professor who studies ecology. His blue-purple macaw is quite smart too, but its pronunciation isn't as clear as 'General's', and they even had a singing contest. Unfortunately, the other macaw's singing talent wasn't up to par; it couldn't hit the high notes, and the low notes weren't deep enough—sounding like a burp in the low register and like slaughtering a chicken in the high register."
The few people inside the ward laughed again upon hearing Professor Qin's words.
"General," who was lying next to Jiao Ma, hearing Professor Qin boast about its glorious deeds, flipped over and said with its head raised, "General is mighty, General is mighty!"
"'General,' sing us another song," said Li Xiaoqian, who was nearby.
General tilted its head as if considering which song to sing. Five seconds later.
"Sweet as Honey,~ your smile is sweet as honey,~ like flowers blooming in the Spring breeze,~ Blooming~ in the Spring breeze.~"
As it sang, it shook its head and rocked its body, which Zheng Tan watched with disdainful contempt, What a show-off!
Ignoring "General's" showing off, Zheng Tan hopped onto Jiao Ma's hospital bed and squeezed the parrot beside Jiao Ma's hand aside.
Seeing Zheng Tan jump up, Jiao Ma even tucked him in, adjusting the bedding to make it more comfortable for Zheng Tan to squat.
Standing on the soft, still-warm bedding, Zheng Tan felt much better inside.
"General" continued to sing and moved closer to Zheng Tan. When it reached the last note, its mouth didn't close but instead turned towards Zheng Tan, aiming at his upright cat ears, preparing to bite down.
Zheng Tan's paws on the bedding moved slightly, his ears turned into airplane-like shapes, and he gave the parrot a sidelong glance filled with threat.
Dare to bite my ears, and see if I don't beat the crap out of you!
Probably because it hadn't seen a cat during the trip, the damn parrot was itching to bite something, eagerly wanting to nibble on a pair of cat ears.
Frozen by Zheng Tan's threatening gaze, "General" paused, then twisted its neck away, deciding to ignore Zheng Tan.
The people in the ward couldn't help but laugh at the antics of the cat and the bird.
Li Xiaoqian glanced at the time and left to tend to other matters, planning to return later to help Jiao Ma change her bandages.
Wei Leng stayed for a while longer but left as well, Zheng Tan semi-reclined next to Jiao Ma, being careful not to bump into Jiao Ma's injured arm or the other wounded parts of her body.
Professor Qin and Mr. Jiao discussed some of the bigger engineering projects that the university had recently applied for. In the meantime, "General" played with a plastic medicine bottle from the nightstand, practicing opening and closing the cap in boredom. Occasionally, when "General" wasn't careful and nearly touched Jiao Ma's wounds, Zheng Tan would flick it away with his tail or simply swat with his paw.
```
The room was indeed much warmer than outside, and Zheng Tan felt drowsy. He was startled awake by a knocking sound. The person recently in charge of Jiao Ma's care was Li Xiaoqian, and occasionally a few doctors would come to check on her. Aside from those few doctors, Li Xiaoqian and the others were aware of Zheng Tan's presence and knew that the Jiao family often brought their cat here, so they didn't say anything. However, if outsiders were present, it was better for Zheng Tan to stay hidden.
"General" had already flown over with a medicine bottle in its beak and landed on Professor Qin's shoulder, while Zheng Tan jumped off the bed and burrowed into the bag next to Mr. Jiao.
The person who entered was a woman nearing 30, dressed quite conventionally, neither stern nor overly friendly, but her demeanor was kind with a touch of authority—though not nearly as much as "Buddha".
Upon seeing the visitor, Mr. Jiao quickly got up.
"Teacher Yang, what brings you here?!"
She was Jiao Yuan's homeroom teacher and taught them Chinese. Zheng Tan had seen her a few times, but had never paid much attention.
"I only heard today that Mr. Gu was sick, so I came to visit." Teacher Yang set down the fruits she had brought.
Teacher Yang didn't live in the Chuhua University family courtyard; she had her own house elsewhere. She had left early today because of some matters and heard in the morning that Jiao Yuan's mother was hospitalized. She was taking her own elderly relative for a medical check-up and took the opportunity to stop by and visit.
"By the way, there was a power outage at school due to some malfunction today. With this weather, the classroom got quite dark by four o'clock, and the students couldn't see the blackboard, so the whole school was dismissed one period early. I saw Jiao Yuan and some of his classmates at the fruit stand below the hospital; they came to visit Mr. Gu together. Oh dear, I even promised them I'd keep it a secret. Mr. Gu, Professor Jiao, you both better not tell anyone it was me who spilled the beans," Teacher Yang said with a laugh.
Zheng Tan: "…" Poor kids, they were betrayed as soon as they turned around, and by their respected homeroom teacher, no less.
Teacher Yang had other matters to attend to, so after chatting for a bit, she left. Within five minutes, as expected, Zheng Tan heard the footsteps of children outside.
The door opened a crack, and Jiao Yuan poked his head in, looked around the room, and said, "My classmates heard my mom was in the hospital, so they came to visit."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let your classmates in." Mr. Jiao pretended like he was just finding out and got up to welcome them.
The hospital room was small to begin with, so Mr. Jiao and Professor Qin stepped out to make room for the kids.
Zheng Tan peeked through the gap in the bag and saw Lan Tianzhu, Xiong Xiong, and Su An, whom he often met, along with a girl.
"Oh, who is this young friend?" Jiao Ma turned to the only girl in the group.
Jiao Ma might not know every child in Jiao Yuan's class, but she had some recollection of those she had met, and right now, she was sure she had never seen this girl before.
"She's new to our class; her name is Shi Rui!" Jiao Yuan introduced her, emphasizing the name "Shi Rui" in particular.
"Ah, no wonder she doesn't look familiar; she must be a new student who has just transferred here," Jiao Ma said.
"Her name is Shi Rui!" Jiao Yuan emphasized again.
"I know her name is Shi Rui."
Jiao Ma was somewhat puzzled by Jiao Yuan's repeated insistence on mentioning the girl's name, but Mr. Jiao and Professor Qin, standing at the door, shared a knowing smile, clearly understanding Jiao Yuan's intent.
Jiao Yuan felt somewhat helpless that Jiao Ma had not yet grasped what was going on. He pointed at Su An, whose face was beet red and ears were almost engorged with blood, and then at Shi Rui, who was glaring at him, "Got it now?"
"Jiao Yuan!" Shi Rui exclaimed.
"What's there to be afraid of? Everyone is going to find out sooner or later. Didn't you say your family is moving to the East Family Courtyard in a couple of days?" Jiao Yuan didn't care at all about Shi Rui's glaring.
With Jiao Yuan's prompt, Jiao Ma finally understood the situation. She looked at Su An, whose face was flushed red without knowing how to react, and then at Shi Rui, who was glaring and watching Xiong Xiong and the others trying to hold back their laughter, and shook her head with a smile. It really was a coincidence.
The only ones who didn't understand were "General" perched on Professor Qin's shoulder and Zheng Tan, utterly confused inside the bag.
It wasn't until Jiao Yuan spoke about the recent events regarding Shi Rui that Zheng Tan finally understood what these mischievous kids meant.
As an organic acid in chemistry, Shi Rui serves as a pH indicator: it turns red in acid and blue in alkali. It's often mentioned in high school textbooks.
On the day the girl named Shi Rui transferred, Su An hadn't gone to school in the morning because of diarrhea and only arrived in the afternoon. During the break, Lan Tianzhu, Jiao Yuan, and the others asked Su An, who was slumped over the desk, looking completely exhausted, "Do you know Shi Rui?"
Su An looked up, "Sure, it's an indicator!"
At that time, student Shi Rui was standing right behind Su An with a displeased expression. She hated being called "the indicator"!
Since then, every time Su An saw Shi Rui, his face would turn red, and he frequently became the butt of jokes among Jiao Yuan and the others.
The combination of the pinyin in Su An's name sounds like the word for acid.
It really is quite a coincidence.
While the kids were jesting, Mr. Jiao's phone rang. Professor Qin, carrying "General," took his leave. When leaving, "General" flew out from the window, waiting for Professor Qin downstairs, as it wouldn't be good for it to walk inside the hospital.
Before going out to answer the call, Mr. Jiao thought for a moment and then decided to go back and twist the bag that held Zheng Tan. The mouths of those little brats weren't tight, and with a newcomer like Shi Rui present, it was better to twist the bag and avoid any unnecessary trouble.
Mr. Jiao quickly stepped outside the ward and went to the end of the corridor to answer the phone.
Zheng Tan, staying inside the bag, listened to Mr. Jiao's phone conversation. The caller was a college classmate Mr. Jiao referred to as "Yuanzi," whom Zheng Tan had seen before; they were discussing starting a company.
After the call, Mr. Jiao said to Zheng Tan inside the bag, "Heitan, the 30000 yuan from the advertisement you shot has also been invested by me. Consider it an investment, and I'll give you a share of the profit later."
Zheng Tan had been earning more each time he shot an advertisement with Xiao Guo. Initially, he went once a month, but seeing good results, Xiao Guo changed it to once every two weeks, and the payment also kept increasing. Zheng Tan didn't know exactly what Xiao Guo meant by good results, but every time he went, Xiao Guo looked at him as if seeing the God of Wealth.
Let the money be invested. After all, Zheng Tan felt he didn't need it at the moment. He had heard Xiao Guo mentioning trying other advertisements; the pay would definitely be good, and if the money Mr. Jiao invested was lost, they could always earn it back later.
Zheng Tan could never have imagined that, one day in the future, the figures in that bank account would reach a staggering amount.