Early in the morning, Zheng Tan was snugly sleeping in Little Youzi's bed when Jiao Yuan came running to knock on the door, waking up both the lazy human and cat.
The end-of-term exams at the Affiliated Primary School had passed, and they just needed to wait for the results. Jiao Yuan had a good feeling about his performance, so he was in a consistently excited mood, often discussing with his friends what kind of clothes they would buy for the New Year.
Over the past two days since the exams ended, both kids had been sleeping until they naturally woke up. Last night, they stayed up until midnight to watch 'Space Jam' on the movie channel, but now it was only seven o'clock. They used to get up at seven, but since the exams ended and the holidays began, they hadn't been getting up until after nine, especially Jiao Yuan, who slept until noon and then got up just in time for lunch.
Lousy kids! What has gotten into them today!
After hearing Jiao Yuan's knocks and shouts, Zheng Tan lifted a paw to cover his ears and then continued to curl up into a ball.
It was too cold in winter, and Zheng Tan didn't want to get up. Since the kids had been on holiday, Zheng Tan had postponed his running and tree climbing to the afternoon, choosing to lazily snuggle in bed in the morning.
"Get up, get up quickly, it's snowing outside! Everything's white! Come out and play in the snow!"
Jiao Yuan was still shouting outside, while Little Youzi got out of bed, uncovering himself but making sure Zheng Tan was still covered.
Zheng Tan yawned; sleeping alone was no fun.
Oh well, time to get up!
Zheng Tan had grown up in a southern coastal city where it barely snowed in winter. However, during high school, he did take several unlicensed trips to other provinces with a few mischievous friends to see the snow. Regardless, Zheng Tan had not experienced many snowy days, and he hadn't seen any snow since arriving here.
This was the first snowfall of the year.
Crawling out of the bed, Zheng Tan shook his fur and stretched before getting down from the bed.
Jiao Yuan was already dressed and washing up in the bathroom, his face displaying an excited expression.
When the phone rang, Jiao Yuan threw the still damp towel on the rack and hurried to answer it, anticipating who was likely calling at this time.
Laughter from Jiao Yuan echoed from the bedroom, and it sounded like his friends were calling him out to play.
After Zheng Tan finished urinating and Little Youzi helped him wipe his face and comb his fur, they ate the breakfast prepared by Jiao Ma and then the two kids went downstairs, followed by Zheng Tan.
It was indeed very cold outside, and Zheng Tan jumped around on the spot for a bit when he reached the corner of the stairwell.
Qu Xiangyang, who had grabbed his camera to go downstairs and take pictures of the snowy landscape, paused when he saw a black cat jumping around at the stairwell corner looking like it had lost its mind. After a brief greeting, he hurried downstairs, worried the outdoor scenery would be ruined if he was late.
When Zheng Tan came out of the building, Jiao Yuan was with Little Youzi and other kids from the courtyard at the grass next to the basketball court, building a snowman. Jiao Yuan already had snow sticking to him, probably from a snowball fight with Xiong Xiong and the others.
The Saint Bernard named Xiao Hua was being dragged along to play with the children. Its thick fur kept it warm as it rolled in the snow, running around with several other children from the courtyard, marking the ground with paw prints. As for Zhuangzhuang, it was being led by its owner for a walk in the snow, not as free, occasionally stopping to lick the snow off the ground and then barking enviously towards the basketball court, but its owner lured it away with two steamed buns, happily continuing their walk.
While a group of children played in the snow, Zheng Tan certainly wouldn't join in. He looked around; Da Pang was squatting on the balcony railing watching outside without any intention to come out. Ah Huang had come out for a stroll, but then shivered and moved to a corner.
They say an animal's habits can be related to the month they were born. Like some dogs born in the summer love to play in the water, while others born in cold weather always avoid puddles. However, it seems like that theory doesn't always hold up.
Ah Huang and the sheriff were born around the same month, but their habits vastly differed, except for occasionally both exhibiting a bit of neuroticism. For instance, right now, Ah Huang was hiding in a corner of a building to shelter from the wind, whereas the sheriff was running around in the snow. A child from the courtyard had taken a fluffy hat off their jacket to play with him, and the sheriff was vigorously enjoying the game, the only cat paw prints in the snow belonged to him.
After a while, Ah Huang emerged from the corner of the building, shivering as he walked over to the basketball court where Xiao Hua was lying down, gasping for air, with her large tongue sticking out, huffing out puffs of white breath. Once there, Ah Huang directly squatted next to Xiao Hua, on the leeward side, where he could both shelter from the wind and warm up.
After climbing several trees, Zheng Tan felt a lot warmer and didn't feel very cold anymore. He was still a bit sleepy. The atmosphere at home was no longer conducive to sleep. He thought about it for a while and decided to continue his nap in Mr. Jiao's office. Mr. Jiao's office still had an air conditioner, the electricity for which was reimbursable. In the summer and winter, the school's various offices and laboratories would turn on the air conditioning, some operating day and night. The concept of saving electricity was only mentioned to freshmen.
Zheng Tan jumped onto the flower bed, following along its edge toward the Life Science Building.
The roads had already been cleared of snow. The coming and going cars had packed down the snow on the roadway, leaving little behind.
The school's landscaping was well done. Even though the sycamore trees nearby had already shed their leaves, there were still evergreens like camphor trees and pines, preventing the scenery from looking too drab.
The snow was still falling, though not as heavily as before, but it was quick to wet one's clothes.
Not far away, a few umbrella-bearing students walked by; they too were out to take photos, perhaps like Zheng Tan, their hometowns seldom saw snow, hence their curiosity.
A girl pushed away the umbrella offered by a boy next to her, "I don't want the umbrella, I want to enjoy the snow."
"Ignore her, it's embarrassing!" another girl laughed and scolded.
"It's her first time seeing snow with her own eyes, let her be."
"Hey, look! Over by the flower bed, there's a black cat! Quick, take a picture!" someone yelled.
Zheng Tan tugged at his ear, pulled his gaze back, and ignored them.
"I want a photo with this black cat!" the girl who had been eager to be drenched in the snow jogged towards Zheng Tan. Zheng Tan didn't avoid her, quite generously pausing briefly to allow the girl to make a silly peace sign with her hand. This girl was pretty good-looking.
"I want a photo with the cat too!" a boy came over to their side.
Hearing the boy's words, Zheng Tan walked away without looking back, leaving only his paw prints along the edge of the flower bed.
Turning a corner, he could already see the Life Science Building. Just as he prepared to speed up, Zheng Tan suddenly paused; he heard someone mention Mr. Jiao's name.
Turning his head to look, two people also walking toward the Life Science Building on the sidewalk were carrying the scent of spicy hot pot; they'd probably just came from a snack shop inside the campus nearby.
"Not to discourage you, but if you don't score high when the time comes, you might very well be eliminated. In our institute, the professors prefer students from our own university or those who score highly. Other than that, at any given time, our own students are given priority. For instance, if you and I scored similarly, just barely passing, my chances of acceptance would be much higher than yours. Of course, different professors have different approaches, like Jiao Mingsheng who has very high demands. A lot of people applied to him for this exam, but he didn't accept any of the recommended candidates from before. I heard he's very strict; if you only score around the threshold, you definitely won't stand a chance."
The student kept prattling on, and Zheng Tan just remembered, tomorrow was the weekend, and also the time for the nationwide postgraduate exam. Mr. Jiao had been staying frequently in the office these past few days, grading term exams, attending meetings about the postgraduate exam, advising on research projects, and even keeping an eye on his company's activities on the side. Just a few days ago, Zheng Tan heard Mr. Jiao talking about wanting to recruit a postgraduate student that satisfied his criteria to share the workload, as Yi Xin couldn't manage it all alone.
"Jiao Mingsheng?" the other person was somewhat clueless; he was from another school and wasn't familiar with the professors at Chuhua University School of Life Sciences, only aware of some big shots who anchored the institute.
"I knew you wouldn't know him. Speaking of which, Jiao Mingsheng isn't famous outside our school, but he has become quite popular this year. Several students who didn't choose him for their recommendation regretted it, he's considered a rising star..."
Zheng Tan pricked up his ears to listen to the gossip, not having heard about this before. Apparently, Mr. Jiao was seen as a rising young professor in the eyes of the students.
However, Mr. Jiao's fame was due not only to project funding but another factor was Yi Xin. Among the graduate students of his cohort, Yi Xin had far surpassed everyone else.
In the institute, the most direct way to evaluate a student's excellence was to look at their SCI papers. Although some criticized this evaluation method and attitude, it was indeed the recognized standard. Within just half a year, Yi Xin had already published two papers with decent impact factors. To others, it mostly seemed like the credit went to Professor Jiao. No good project, no topics, no funding, how could one produce results?
"The famous professors either had no spots left, or they already had designated people, so there was no need to bother competing for those. You could consider those marginalized professors. They might not have many topics, but at least your chances of being accepted are higher. Okay, I need to go back and review now. Take a good look at the printed handouts I gave you."
After talking for a while, the two parted ways, the one from this school walked toward the dorms, the external candidate went to the Life Science Building for a visit and then headed toward a nearby bike shed.
Zheng Tan followed the external student. He had a clear view from the flowerbed at the entrance: the person just stood in the lobby of the Life Science Building for a while, looked at some of the honor introductions hung up in the lobby, such as the projects awarded to the institute's teachers and other introductions, including a list of winners at the school's academic annual meeting. Zheng Tan remembered Mr. Jiao mentioning that Yi Xin had won the first prize and received 3000 yuan in prize money.
As this person exited the building, Zheng Tan heard him mumbling something, and the names Mr. Jiao and Yi Xin were mentioned.
So Zheng Tan became curious. Ever since turning into a cat, Zheng Tan's curiosity had significantly increased, though he didn't think much of it, attributing it purely to seeking entertainment out of boredom.
There was a roof over the bike shed, no snow would fall through. The undergraduate students were almost on holiday, recently busy preparing for the last of their exams, and some who had finished all their subjects had already bought train tickets home. So there were fewer bicycles in the shed, making it much more spacious.
There was a wooden rack nearby, with a wooden cable drum on the ground.
Zheng Tan saw the person drag the drum to the side of the rack, pat off the dust, place his backpack on the rack, and take something out of it before sitting on the wooden cable drum.
Behind him, in the flowerbed, hidden by some green plants, Zheng Tan was obscured so well that even if the man turned around, he wouldn't find him.
The seated man spread out a thick stack of printed documents on his lap. Zheng Tan thought it must be the printed handouts mentioned earlier—it was damn thick. Could he finish it in one night?
Zheng Tan wasn't clear about some aspects of the postgraduate entrance examination. From what he observed, it seemed it wasn't just about taking exams; were there tricks involved too?
Whatever!
Zheng Tan didn't dwell on the supposed tricks; he was just curiously passing by, and besides, he had nothing better to do. Although it seemed rather uninteresting. Just as he was about to leave, Zheng Tan saw the seated man pull out a bag, inside which were pieces of something that looked like jerky.
Beef jerky? Quite large pieces!
Curiously, Zheng Tan, not paying attention to his step, stepped on a tree branch, making a cracking sound.
Looking up, Zheng Tan saw the external candidate, who turned sideways, biting a piece of beef jerky and looking at him.
Zheng Tan didn't feel any malice from the man, who then offered Zheng Tan a piece of beef jerky.
Looking at the unbit, quite clean beef jerky handed over, and then at the man in front of him, Zheng Tan shamelessly opened his mouth to accept it and then lay down beside him to focus on chewing the beef jerky. Zheng Tan didn't like his food dropping to the ground, so he squatted down, resting the piece of beef jerky on his forearm, and slowly chewed it.
"Hey, you can actually chew the Inner Mongolian beef jerky..."
The external candidate didn't finish his sentence when he saw a familiar figure walking toward the bike shed. The man he had just seen introduced in the lobby of the Life Science Building.
"Mr. Jiao... Mr. Jiao?" The external candidate quickly stood up, and though a big guy by build, now seemed to have no presence at all, somewhat restrained.
Professor Jiao was initially planning to head over to the administrative building to get some things done, but as soon as he stepped outside and casually glanced at the surrounding snow scene, he noticed a familiar cat—his cat was squatting there, enthusiastically chewing on beef jerky. The person next to him, however, was unfamiliar, and his appearance was quite noticeable in the courtyard; if Professor Jiao had seen him before, he was certain he would have remembered.
"Who are you?"
"Oh, my name is Su Qu, 'Su' as in Threonine, 'Qu' as in fun. I'm coming over here tomorrow for an exam."
Having heard this, Professor Jiao realized that this individual must be a student from another university in the city, not from their own institution.
Professor Jiao didn't leave right away nor did he take the beef jerky offered by Su Qu. Instead, he stayed and chatted with Su Qu for a while, discussing topics related to their field.
Zheng Tan gnawed while listening to their conversation.
At first, Zheng Tan was somewhat familiar with the content of their conversation; after all, having followed Mr. Jiao for so long and listened to so many lecture PPTs, he was familiar with the sound even if he didn't understand it. However, as the conversation progressed, Zheng Tan became increasingly lost. The dialogue between the two also gradually changed to a simple and direct question-and-answer format.
"If every letter in the phrase 'yesIcan' represents an amino acid, what would they be?"
"Tyrosine, glutamic, serine, isoleucine, cysteine, alanine, asparagine."
"What is the principle of converting B-type blood in vitro to O-type blood?"
"The surface antigens B on the cell membrane of blood cells…"
"The reason for early aging of cloned sheep Dolly?"
"I think this way, first, the length of telomeres in chromosomes in the cells…"
"Photosynthesis and chlorophyll synthesis are essential for chloroplast development, and many plants exhibit chlorosis without light. However, the heart of a lotus also doesn't see sunlight, why is it still green?"
The pair exchanged questions and answers briskly; meanwhile, Zheng Tan, who lay beside them, listened in bewilderment while also vigorously chewing his beef jerky. Having finally finished the piece of beef jerky, Mr. Jiao's conversation also came to an end.
Yi Xin had arrived at the bike shed five minutes earlier. He was initially planning to ride his bike back to the dormitory to sleep, but upon finding his boss in the shed, chatting intensely with a stranger, he decided to listen in. The more he listened, the more something felt off. Weren't some of these questions similar to the content discussed by a professor in the courtyard during the last class session before the postgraduate entrance examination a few days ago?
Considerably, the content of this last class before exams often appeared on the test papers—it was the students' final guide and an open secret in the courtyard, although many people from other schools were unaware of it. However, now Boss Jiao was reciting some of that content—was he leaking the exam?
After Su Qu left, Yi Xin said to Professor Jiao, "Boss, aren't you leaking the exam questions?"
"This isn't leaking questions, it's answering questions."
Zheng Tan: "..." Mr. Jiao, you've lost your integrity.
Meanwhile, Su Qu, having received guidance, cheerfully headed back to his rental. A few unanswered questions lingered in his mind, which he planned to look up later in his materials. Being able to talk with Professor Jiao for so long, could it mean that just passing the exam might give him a chance to be admitted by Professor Jiao?
Unknown to Su Qu, just like Yi Xin, who was soon to be his direct senior brother, a future of juggling part-time jobs caring for cats and children awaited him.