```
"What's this all about?" Mr. Jiao asked as he watched Yuan Zhiyi playing around.
"Isn't this just paying respect? Our deal worth millions depends on your family's cat. Who knows, maybe this cat will bring us more good fortune in the future." as he spoke, Yuan Zhiyi straightened the chopsticks that had fallen over in the black rice porridge, "Come on, let's pay our respects again!"
"Do you actually believe in ghosts and deities? I don't recall the old man having such tendencies." Mr. Jiao said.
"The old man is a pure scientific researcher. Indeed, he doesn't believe in that stuff, but the old lady does."
When those old classmates chatted, they would mention Mr. Yuan as if he were still around, without deliberately avoiding the subject.
After setting the bowls and chopsticks back on the dining table, Yuan Zhiyi turned to sit down and asked Mr. Jiao, "By the way, you're going to the neighboring province for a conference the day after tomorrow, right?"
"Yes, there's an academic annual meeting over there. I'm attending it. This year, there'll be several big shots. It's a rare opportunity." Mr. Jiao replied.
"That's perfect. After you attend the academic annual meeting, join me to check out some equipment. Yesterday, I got in touch with the owner of a biological company over there. There was an accident at his company, and he's not planning to keep it running, so he's selling some equipment. I've contacted him to keep them for us until we can have a look. Some of the equipment is still under warranty. The owner said all the warranty cards and receipts are there. I'm thinking if they look good, we might as well buy them first for emergencies. After all, a new machine is way too expensive. The business our company is taking on right now doesn't really need those highly advanced and complicated functions either. Practicality is what matters."
"Alright, I'll get in touch with you then. When are you leaving?"
"I'm heading over tomorrow. I found an engineer to go with me. We're just looking for now. After all, those second-hand instruments would cost tens of thousands, and some couldn't be gotten for less than a hundred thousand. More expensive instruments won't be sold off cheap by the owner. To a giant like Changwei Group, this amount of money is insignificant, but we're tight on funds right now. We can't afford to waste money."
Mr. Jiao had a business trip to go on, and before leaving, there were many things he needed to arrange.
Jiao Ma's follow-up medical check-up went very well. She had almost completely recovered, so Mr. Jiao could leave for his trip with peace of mind, without worrying too much about home. As for the work at the institute, the most stressful period had passed. The project research was progressing smoothly, and Yi Xin had already taken a step ahead of his peers by submitting a paper with a decent impact factor to an international journal. Another paper was in preparation, and he was likely to be nominated for the institute's outstanding master's degree candidate and the national scholarship next year.
Mr. Jiao's business trip would likely take at least three or four days before he could return. Zheng Tan had not been going out much at night during this time. The temperature dropped in the evenings, and the current Zheng Tan, unlike when he was human and could wear leather jackets or down coats to keep warm, only had his short fur.
Jiao Ma had bought Zheng Tan a little cotton jacket for pet cats to wear, but Zheng Tan never wore it. It was too restrictive and troublesome. Even climbing a tree became difficult. So, now Zheng Tan, aside from his morning runs and tree climbing, would only go out for a walk during the day when it was sunny and nice. Otherwise, why go out? Masochism?
Zheng Tan spent half the day playing in the grove that morning. After having lunch at home, he sauntered over to the Life Science Institute, only to find that the window to Mr. Jiao's office was unlocked.
Jumping onto the windowsill from a tree branch, Zheng Tan first checked inside. If there were other people, he wouldn't go in.
Luckily, there was only Yi Xin, who was currently taking a nap on the desk.
To Yi Xin, "other people" didn't quite apply. One could say he was almost like a nanny for the Jiao family, having helped pick up the kids, looked after the cat, and even assisted Mr. Jiao with supervising undergraduate theses. Where could you even find such a good student?
Zheng Tan pushed the window open with his paw and jumped in.
The computer was on. Yi Xin was arranging his second paper, all in English, containing many specialized terms and Latin that Zheng Tan didn't understand and didn't feel like looking at, as he had no interest. However, what Zheng Tan was interested in was a small notebook next to Yi Xin. It wasn't Yi Xin's lab journal, which Zheng Tan had seen the people at the Life Science Institute using - those were much larger. But clearly, this notebook was frequently used.
Could it be... Some little secret?
Zheng Tan became intrigued. He was idle and needed something amusing to cheer himself up and pass the time.
"Creak, creak, creak... hehe... hehehe..."
Hearing the sound next to him, Zheng Tan's paw, ready to turn the notebook, paused. He thought he'd been caught sneaking a look at the secret. Glancing over, Yi Xin was still asleep, showing no signs of waking up.
Damn, grinding your teeth during a nap! It's one thing to grind your teeth, but to do it while smiling! That's creepy!
After tugging at his ear, he refocused and flipped the notebook open with a flick of his paw.
Inside the notebook were many entries, with the first few pages being brief notes from large academic reports. Although Yi Xin's handwriting wasn't outstanding, he made up for it with a neat layout and orderly recordings.
But Zheng Tan was quite disappointed. After all, he found those things uninteresting. Just when he was about to close it, Zheng Tan's eyes fell on the edge of the notebook. The back pages too were clearly frequently flipped through. So, Zheng Tan decided to flip directly to the last few pages of the notebook.
And then, Zheng Tan saw Yi Xin's "accompanying records and excerpts."
The more Zheng Tan read, the more speechless he became.
Inside were collected many poems, of various types, clearly not the usual kind, but professional poetry. Why say so?
There were the tender types, such as: "...
I miss you like an antibody longs for an antigen"
```
"Your beauty is the acetylcholine that impels me,"
countless springs and autumns are but countless sleepless nights.
Each base pair represents our eternal vows,
longing for that day,
when we can meet again,
intertwining into the world's most wondrous double helix..."
There is the sorrow of parting, like: "...heart
divides like a cell's centromere during late mitosis,
We, too, like daughter chromosomes,
move to opposite sides,
Mist veils
the ancient thoroughfare with its long pavilion,
grass so green it joins the sky,
only our silhouettes grow fainter,
until, like chromosomes in their final phase,
they become invisible..."
There is confusion, as:
"...the afterglow of the sunset,
plants within the afterglow so translucent,
as if one could see
oxygen being liberated strand by strand in the chloroplasts,
[H] reducing carbon dioxide to sugar,
silently accumulating energy,
everything so hasty,
do they also fear the silence of the night,
the wandering in silence?
..."
And there is the cheesiness, like:
"...
You are the nucleus,
you control my genetics and metabolism,
You are the mitochondria,
without you, I would lose my energy,
You are the chloroplast,
You gave me new nourishment.
You are the lysosome
capable of dissolving everything I am at any moment.
Actually,
you are the ribosome
capturing me like an amino acid.
You are the endoplasmic reticulum
processing me like a protein.
You are the Golgi apparatus
enveloping me,
and then easily letting me go.
Why
do I still love you so much
...
"
Or even profound ones, like:
"...
The figures of great people gradually scatter
like individuals dissipating into clouds of smoke in the river of time.
Their thoughts precipitate in the vault of minds
like genes in a gene pool
passed down through generations,
recombining the thoughts of ancestors
making us more than simple beings,
just like gene recombination
creating widespread and common variations.
Quietly,
I ponder
whether this thought process of mine
is a recombination of genes or a mutation.
..."
The person who wrote these poems, Zheng Tan could only think, must have been possessed by deoxyribonucleotides, ribonucleotides, and amino acids at that moment.
Closing his little notebook, Zheng Tan shook his tail, jumped down from the desk, climbed out the window, and left, closing the window behind him.
After coming out of the Life Science Building, Zheng Tan walked towards the East Residential Area, passing through the bushes. As he rounded a corner, he heard people discussing something he had frequently heard about in the past couple of days.
It was said that a senior student from their school was found to have hanged himself in the dormitory, rumored to be due to too many failed classes and overwhelming pressure. When Zheng Tan first heard about it, he didn't think much of it; such incidents were not uncommon and weren't isolated to any particular university.
"I heard from my classmate who lives in that dormitory that the police later found some kinky handcuffs, tape, masks, and even anesthetics in his locker. The locked cabinet contained a small DVD player, and all the discs inside were of some perverted and hardcore tastes..."
Zheng Tan paused in his steps upon hearing this, and something suddenly came to mind.
Chairman Zhao and Zhao Le had indeed made their move, hadn't they?
And with impressive efficiency at that.
Indeed, Zheng Tan had heard Jiao Ma and Yuan Zhiyi mention that Chairman Zhao had some connections. Even detailed information about himself, a cat, could be found, so finding a person should probably be no problem for Chairman Zhao, and he certainly didn't hesitate to act, effectively cutting off that person's retreat in one fell swoop.
After listening to the discussion of a few students with his ears perked up, Zheng Tan flicked his ears and continued walking towards the East Residential Area. However, after only a few steps, he heard a guy on a bike shouting to his classmates, "Hurry, a big group of international guests is heading towards the International Academic Report Hall. Let's rush to get seats, or we won't even have a place to stand!"
Zheng Tan's spirits lifted. A big group of international guests?!
The International Academic Report Hall? That's not far from here.
Zheng Tan turned toward the International Academic Report Hall with the intention to run quickly. Yet, before he could start sprinting, a figure darted out from the bushes, stopped abruptly in front of him, tilted its body side, and raised its paws, which looked like they were wearing white gloves, to gesture twice in the air at Zheng Tan.
Zheng Tan was in no mood for playful antics; he was still puzzled.
Why was the sheriff here? Shouldn't he be napping in the East District around this time?
The one who had run out was none other than the sheriff, and soon after his appearance, Zheng Tan also saw Ah Huang and Da Pang.
Zheng Tan turned his head and not far away, he saw a Chihuahua being led by its owner towards the school gate. The sheriff had surely come running over after toying with the Chihuahua, while Ah Huang was merely joining in the excitement, and Da Pang followed slowly behind, his eyelids half-closed, seemingly uninterested in anything.
Zheng Tan, still preoccupied with the "big group of international guests," continued to jog towards the International Academic Report Hall, and unsurprisingly, the other three cats followed behind.
There were quite a few people by the International Academic Report Hall now. Fortunately, there were large trees on both sides of the wide path in front of the hall. Zheng Tan climbed up a Chinese parasol tree near the entrance and perched on a branch, surveying the surroundings.
The "big group of international guests" didn't seem to have arrived yet.
Seeing Zheng Tan crouching on the branch, the other three cats also ran up and settled beside him in a line.
Zheng Tan turned his head to look at the three cats beside him and continued to search for the "big group."
Indeed, there were many people outside the report hall, and after it opened, those waiting entered one by one under the staff's direction. The international guests, however, arrived five minutes later, several university officials in attendance, with the president himself accompanying them—which indicated that these international guests had significant influence in the academic world.
But... where was the big group of international guests?
Where were they? Most were just guys in their thirties and up.
Zheng Tan didn't realize that "big group" didn't mean what he thought it did.
However, after a careful search, he finally found two attractive women among the group of international guests. Only those two blonde assistants caught Zheng Tan's attention, their ample bosoms stirring the imagination.
As Zheng Tan was ogling Da Bony, a group of people approached the report hall, passing by the Chinese parasol tree. Among the few leading the way, a middle-aged professor stopped and asked for an assistant to help take a photograph.
This professor was also a cat lover, with pets back at his home on the other side of the ocean. Here, he suddenly encountered four cats, whose mannerisms reminded him of his own, prompting him to want a photograph.
When the professor reached the base of the tree, his assistant snapped away, capturing not only the man but also the four cats perched in a row on the branches. The bifurcated branch where Zheng Tan and the others squatted was about four to five meters above the ground, so to get both the person and the cats in frame, the assistant had to change angles and distances several times.
The others stood by laughing, without interfering or joining in the photo. Some lacked interest in cats, while others couldn't let go of their pride; didn't they see everyone around smiling at the scene?
Yet no one could have predicted that this photo, containing both the person and four cats, would later be enlarged and placed on the wall of the corridor in the finely decorated International Academic Report Hall at Chuhua University, under the section for distinguished visitors.
Beneath the photo, text introduced the professor in the image, a Nobel Laureate in Physics. The backdrop was Chuhua University's International Academic Report Hall, but anyone who saw this enlarged photo would have their attention drawn to the four cats lined up on the branch and would stop for a long time in front of it, curiously discussing with companions what the scene might have been and what could have prompted the cats to sit there.
Some speculated that the cats had foreseen the future Nobel Prize winner and had come to see him. Others thought it was a deliberate setup by the school, knowing the guest's fondness for cats, training four cats to sit there in advance.
Yet, no one would have guessed that the origin of this photo was merely because the Black Cat in it wanted to see the "big group of international guests," and that was all.