At six in the morning, Wei Leng was up. He boiled a kettle of hot water and left it there so the kids could wash their faces with warm water when they got up.
Wei Leng didn't grow up in Chuhua City, but he moved here after his military service because some of his friends were in the city. After living here for a while, what struck Wei Leng most about Chuhua City was the weather.
In Wei Leng's words, "The weather here is sick and needs treatment."
The temperature in Chuhua City always seemed to mess with people, with nearly 30 degrees one day and suddenly dropping to 10 the next. Perhaps because the temperature never stabilized, the campus still had a lot of greenery. Of course, leaves were falling, but among the green and brown by the roadside, people always noticed the green first, perhaps because it made them feel better.
Wei Leng hadn't slept all night, researching until late, and was just about to catch a nap when Mr. Jiao called him to say the temperature was dropping and asked him to look after the kids. After the call, Wei Leng lost any urge to sleep, idly playing Spider Solitaire, advancing from medium difficulty with two decks, to expert level with four decks, and after finishing, he started playing Minesweeper, repeatedly breaking his record until dawn.
Despite not having slept all night, Wei Leng still felt energetic in the morning. It was still early, so he planned to go for a run and pick up breakfast for the kids on his way back.
To avoid the kids getting suspicious when they got up, Wei Leng wrote a note and placed it prominently on the dining table before preparing to leave. He had just taken a few steps when he stopped and looked at Zheng Tan sleeping on the sofa.
Ever since he had scratched that thief, Zheng Tan always felt there was a lingering blood smell on his claws that might negatively affect the children as he'd heard that the smell of blood could make kids more prone to nightmares, so he stopped sleeping on Gu Youzi's bed.
However, Gu Youzi had taken out her little furry cape for Zheng Tan to use as a blanket, which even had a hood with two cat ears sewn on for decoration.
At the moment, Zheng Tan was curled up in the furry cape, balled up and sleeping soundly. Zheng Tan had never understood why cats often curled up into a ball to sleep—wasn't it tiring to maintain that position?
But after Zheng Tan himself became a cat, he realized this posture was quite comfortable for a cat; sometimes he unconsciously curled up like that while sleeping, just like now.
"Heitan, let's go running!" Wei Leng called out softly, standing by the door.
There was no movement under the furry cape.
"Heitan, get up and run!" Wei Leng called again. He didn't believe the cat on the sofa couldn't hear him.
The tip of an ear peeked out from the side of the furry cape, then moved... and then nothing else happened.
Wei Leng: "..." This little bastard is definitely faking deafness again!
"Heitan!" Wei Leng called out a third time, with a hint of warning.
Zheng Tan still made no move, but better than before, he hummed through his nose, indicating he heard and meant, "I heard you, now you can buzz off."
"Heitan! Get up!" Wei Leng called out a fourth time.
This time, Zheng Tan finally moved. He stretched lazily, poking his head out from under the cape, squinting at Wei Leng, yawned, waited five seconds, saw that Wei Leng had nothing more to say, then drew his head back in and continued sleeping.
"Heitan, get up and run!" Wei Leng spoke almost word by word.
This time, Zheng Tan made a bigger movement, kicking off the furry cape, stretching lazily again, and shaking his fur.
Wei Leng: "..." Damn it, who knew waking a cat would take five calls!
"Are you planning to knead on the sofa, and perhaps pee in the toilet too?" Wei Leng gritted his teeth.
Zheng Tan tugged at his ear. Kneading was something he wouldn't do; if he was to knead, it would be on curvy ladies, not on a sofa—what's the point. Zheng Tan always thought kneading, one of the typical cat behaviors, was quite sleazy, especially since this sleazy skill appeared to be a hereditary Oedipal complex, nearly a universal trait among cats.
Kneading wasn't necessary, but a morning pee was inevitable.
Watching the black cat head to the bathroom, Wei Leng helplessly gazed at the ceiling. With such a cat, how could the Jiao family still treat it like a treasure?!
Due to the sudden drop in temperature, Zheng Tan felt a chill as soon as he stepped outside the building, making him shiver.
The sun hadn't risen yet, and the campus was relatively quiet, except for the noise from the cafeteria staff moving things around.
However, halfway through his run, Zheng Tan was punctually interrupted by the school broadcast system.
It started playing every day at 6:30 am and continued until 7:30 am.
As he passed the student dormitories, the opening songs had already finished and the broadcast had started on morning exercises.
"Now begin the eighth set of radio exercises, march in place! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight..."
"Damn, who the hell makes noise this early in the morning?!" A furious voice came from a dorm facing the speakers.
The sound had barely faded when a slipper flew out of the dorm window and landed right on the loudspeaker, but it still couldn't stop the sound playing from the school's broadcast.
"Jumping exercise, one two three four five six seven eight, two two three four..."
"Ah—sooner or later I'll smash you! Just wait, the day I leave school will be the day you die!"
Listening to the commotion from over there, Zheng Tan suddenly felt a sense of schadenfreude.
Not everyone can get used to using earplugs, and these poor souls who thought they could escape morning self-study by going to university. There's no morning self-study, but there are still various annoyances, including the school broadcast that goes off on time every weekday.
Zheng Tan was grateful he lived on the East Garden side, where it was relatively quiet around the courtyard. He could only hear the broadcast once he stepped out of the courtyard, so sleeping in was still possible.
By the time he finished his run, the Central People's Radio news hadn't played yet on the school broadcast, indicating it was not yet seven o'clock.
Jiao Yuan and the others always got up at seven.
Wei Leng went to the cafeteria to buy breakfast first, and Zheng Tan waited for him to finish before heading towards the courtyard.
On his way back to the courtyard, he ran into Old Yan who was out walking his dog.
That big-headed, small-eyed guy, Niu Zhuangzhuang, was vigorously wagging his tail, a behavior he exhibited after seeing Zheng Tan. Although Niu Zhuangzhuang was quite fierce in fights, he was good with other pets in the courtyard. Ah Huang often licked him, and Zheng Tan had noticed that the hairball Ah Huang spit out recently contained white and brown hairs, which had to be from Niu Zhuangzhuang and Hua Jiongjiong.
Wei Leng sometimes practiced Tai Chi with some old men in the morning, so he was quite familiar with several elders in the courtyard, which is why Old Yan recognized him and greeted him.
"This dog is quite spirited," Wei Leng remarked as he looked at Niu Zhuangzhuang, who Old Yan was holding.
Upon hearing this, Old Yan's face crinkled into a deeper smile. Lately, Old Yan particularly enjoyed narrating the glorious deeds of his "Zhuangzhuang."
However, Niu Zhuangzhuang didn't have a good attitude towards Wei Leng, probably a natural animal instinct, as he constantly avoided Wei Leng. If Wei Leng's gaze lingered on him too long, he would even bare his teeth at Wei Leng.
Old Yan looked at the breakfast Wei Leng had bought and disapprovingly said, "You bought eggs and soy milk? I heard a few days ago that eating eggs and soy milk together doesn't just fail to double the protein intake; it actually affects the normal absorption of protein. I forget the exact rationale, and it's not my field of study, but you can ask Xiao Jiao later, they should know."
After thanking Old Yan, they said goodbye; Old Yan had to continue walking Niu Zhuangzhuang, while the Jiao family's kids were likely up by now. The school broadcast had already begun playing the central radio's news.
Walking home, Zheng Tan pondered over Old Yan's words, recalling that at the Jiao family's home, he had indeed never seen eggs and soy milk served at the same time. If they were, the eggs were only brought to stave off hunger for Jiao Yuan and were not immediately eaten.
In the end, Wei Leng still made milk for the two children.
Lan Tianzhu and Su An came to call on Jiao Yuan to go to school, so Zheng Tan didn't need to follow them to Affiliated Primary School. That was fine, Zheng Tan thought, taking advantage of Wei Leng being around these days to promptly tell him about that matter, regardless of whether it could be resolved or not, was at least a verification of his own ideas.
While Wei Leng was in the bathroom, Zheng Tan entered the bedroom and jumped onto Mr. Jiao's desk. The desk held some books Mr. Jiao frequently used, and Zheng Tan's first target was the book "Genetics."
Mr. Jiao taught genetics courses, and so far this semester, Zheng Tan had seen all the teaching PowerPoints he had made. Mr. Jiao always practiced lecturing once after making a PowerPoint, noticing some details only while discussing them, a habit of Mr. Jiao's.
Zheng Tan pulled out "Genetics," as he now needed to find the information he wanted from the contents of the courses Mr. Jiao hadn't taught yet.
Zheng Tan wasn't sure if what Mr. Jiao spoke about in the hospital was from this book, he was just taking a chance. If it wasn't found in this book, he'd simply switch to another.
For a cat, turning pages was not an easy task, but Zheng Tan had gotten used to it, and turning many pages had made him adept. While flipping the pages, Zheng Tan also paid attention to the surrounding sounds—if he heard Wei Leng coming out, he wouldn't flip the pages this way, after all, a cat reading such specialized books would genuinely shock people. Even if Zheng Tan couldn't understand it, it was quite unusual in others' eyes.
Fortunately, Zheng Tan soon saw the information he wanted. No wonder Mr. Jiao talked about human prenatal development that day in the hospital. Looking at the timing, Mr. Jiao would discuss it in class next week; he had just gone through the content more while preparing his lesson.
When Wei Leng came into the bedroom to fetch a document, he saw a Black Cat squatting next to the computer, fiddling with a bookmark.
"Don't scratch that out, that's a record made by your Mr. Jiao!"
Since the bookmark had already been torn out quite a length by Zheng Tan, Wei Leng took the "Genetics" book, opened the page with the bookmark, repositioned the bookmark inside, and was about to close the book when the words on the page caught his eye, making him pause his action. After looking, he flipped another page back.
After reading the content on that page, Wei Leng frowned slightly, repeatedly reading the passage.
In fact, this content was some of what Mr. Jiao had discussed in the hospital, and the pen-written notes in the margins about the human gender debates were notes Mr. Jiao had made while preparing his lesson.
Zheng Tan had not directly placed the bookmark on the page with the required content, but on the page before it, which also served as a form of camouflage.
After reading the passage, Wei Leng closed the book and pulled out his phone to make a call.