In each exhibition area, there was a donations box where on each side were two female employees donning cat ears and sweet smiles.
As soon as Liu Yao arrived at the "Ming Ming Ru Ci" pet center exhibition area, he went up to greet Zheng Tan, who was perched on the highest platform on the climbing tree, with a wave. Zheng Tan also returned the greeting with a raise of his paws.
Liu Yao had come prepared today. After greeting Zheng Tan, he went to retrieve the car shaped storage container in Liu's hands.
"This is my allowance!"
Liu Yao handed the toy car shaped storage container to one of the female employees by the donations box. The problem was that the opening for the donation box was too small and the car shaped container wouldn't fit through the opening.
The female employees laughed with a look of gratitude and with both hands, took the container from Liu Yao. Their impression towards this kid was pretty good. One of the employees wanted to capture this moment in a picture. This was a perfect scene and could be put to exceptional use in an advertisement. It didn't matter how much the container held, as this was the child's goodwill.
However, Liu refused, and the employee couldn't say much more. They could only secretly give their boss a call, asking for them to come out and make a personal request.
After the donation was made, the employee who received the it took out a cat shaped sticky note. Everyone who made a donation here had the chance to write down all their wishes and thoughts on the sticky note and to pin it up on the nearby wooden sliding wall.
"Huh? Fang, weren't you busy today?" Liu laughed as he noticed the quickly approaching Fang Shaokang.
Zheng Tan looked over, Fang Shaokang definitely said that he was preoccupied today since he had to make a trip to Jing Cheng. No one thought that he would show up at this time, nor did they expect that he would also be bringing a little girl.
The girl had her hair tied into braids with a cute appearance and was brimming energy. She curiously stared at the surrounding people and objects with round and large eyes. She appeared to be a little smaller than Youzi, but was much more vibrant than the shy Youzi.
"There was a change of plans, so I didn't end up going. This is my daughter, Fang Huhu."
Fang Shaokang gave no further explanation and Liu did not pursue in his questioning.
At this time, some reporters had congregated around the main stage to interview the important individuals, such as Ye Hao.
Ye Hao's reason for donating wasn't due to a love of cats or kindness. Mostly, it was for the positive publicity he could gain from attending this event.
Due to that reason, this side of the event lacked reporters, and there weren't too many people who knew Fang and Liu.
Fang Shaokang lifted up Fang Huhu and sat her upon his shoulders. "Let's go and say hi to BC."
On the way here, Fang Shaokang had already talked to his daughter. Fang Huhu was familiar with the name "Charcoal", every time she was on the phone with Fang Shaokang, there would be mention of Zheng Tan. Fang Shaokang had also showed some of the pictures he had taken on his phone to her.
To avoid being disturbed by the event goers, Zheng Tan deliberately chose a higher location. It was a bit of a challenge for people who were shorter to get a chance to interact with Zheng Tan. Fang Shaokang was not at all short, but even with Fang Huhu riding on his shoulders, the platform was still a little out of reach. However, as long as she raised up her arms, she was able to easily touch the platform.
Fang Huhu, who was still riding on Fang Shaokang's shoulders looked up at Zheng Tan. She was unfamiliar with cats, as they didn't keep any at home. Most of her family members were dog owners. So, even after viewing Zheng Tan up close, Fang Huhu was still a little afraid. She had heard that cats liked to scratch people and had proof of it as she had seen the markings of her classmates that had come under attack.
"Say hi and give him an high five." Fang Shaokang put a hand on his daughter's leg in encouragement and looked towards Zheng Tan.
Fang Huhu glanced at Zheng Tan and hesitated for a moment. There was nothing that could be done. The calmer and more temperate cats were the attention grabbers. On the other hand, black cats like Zheng Tan always gave people a dangerous and distant feeling.
Seeing as how Fang Huhu was scared, Zheng Tan respectfully stretched out his paws, making sure to retract his claws.
Under Fang Shaokang's encouragement, Fang Huhu also stretched out her hand and bumped Zheng Tan's paws.
As Fang Shaokang prepared to let his daughter down, he was met with an unexpected tug of his hair and a flurry of kicks, "Lets go again!"
Probably out of the entire Fang family, the only one who was brave enough to sit on his shoulders and tug on his hair was his only daughter. And it just had to be that he'd end up laughing when he got his hair tugged. Nowadays, numerous families only had a single child and cared for them like treasure.
After the two had touched again, Fang Huhu had lost every ounce of fear. After the third time, she didn't retract her hand, and directly reached for Zheng Tan and ... pinched his beard.
Zheng Tan: "..."
Even though she didn't pinch with power and Zheng Tan felt no pain, it was depressing enough.
Why were all the kids in love with pinching cat tails and beards?
Liu Yao, who was close by, looked over with envy. Liu then smiled and lifted Liu Yao up on to his shoulders. Father and son were closer than ever before and Liu was brimming with joy.
Zheng Tan patiently with bumped fists with both Liu Yao and Fang Huhu a few times. Fang Huhu had heard that Liu Yao had donated his own allowance, but she didn't have any on hand. However, she brought her dad. Fang Shaokang reached into his pocket and brought out a few bills, summing up to about 6, 7 hundred dollars, everything else were cards. As they weren't the type to carry around spare change, all the spare change that was fished out of his pockets were put into the donations box by Fang Huhu.
Zheng Tan watched Liu Yao and Fang Huhu. It was another two of those extravagant 2nd gen rich kids. The employee who was wearing the cat ears had joy and excitement plastered all over her face.
Liu Yao and Fang Huhu were working on pinning their wishes onto the wooden sliding board. Liu and Fang Shaokang were immersed in their own children and paid no attention to anything else.
However, Zheng Tan who stood at such a height, noticed someone trying to leave the area in suspicious manner.
Er Mao had taken Barley to partake in the event and was prepared to poke fun at Zheng Tan, but he did not expect Fang Shaokang to make an appearance. Thus, Er Mao immediately turned to take his leave.
But, before Er Mao could relax, he froze in his tracks.
"Er Mao?! You're actually at Chu Hua!" Zhao Le shouted in surprise. To prevent Er Mao from escaping, Zhao Le had grabbed Er Mao's clothing in a tight grip.
"F***! What stupid luck!" Er Mao was buried in regret. His luck these days was beyond terrible. Being cornered by Zhao Le today, and as it was a front on confrontation, he couldn't even deny it if he wanted to.
While Er Mao contemplated his escape plan, Zhao Le had already dragged him over to the exhibition's rest area. Numerous owner that had brought their cats settled here to make conversation. Conveniently someone had just left and freed up a table.
Zhao Le stared at Er Mao as if she had just seen an alien.
"What, after two years, you don't even recognize big bro?!" Even though he was cornered, Er Mao's spoke with a hint of anger. It wasn't Fang Shaokang. Zhao Le was the same age as him so he had no reason to be timid.
"You changed so much...at least in appearance." Zhao Le still remembered how Er Mao had a delinquent appearance. His dad had despised it so much that he had gotten beaten a few times over that single fact.
"You look like a proper citizen now." Zhao Le nodded her head in confirmation.
Er Mao stayed silent. However, Barley who had been locked in the pet bag was no longer quiet and resorted to claw and howl from inside the bag. Er Mao quickly opened the bag and scooped out Barley. Good thing that she hadn't decided to run wild, and just sat on top the table, inquisitively looked about at the humans that were so similar to her master.
A Chinchila cat jumped up onto the table and immediately got kicked off the table by Barley. However, this type of situation amongst cats was quite normal, so the owner of the Chinchilla had no complaint and simply smiled at Er Mao and took her cat away.
"You did great!" Er Mao patted Barley on the head with pride and took out some cat nip out of his pocket. Er Mao emptied his hand in one of the disposable bowls under the table as a treat for Barley.
"When did you start to like cats?" Zhao Le couldn't help but ask.
Er Mao did not reply, but returned a question: "Why are you here?"
"The company had people come out to make donations, I only came to check it out."
As she spoke, Zhao Le looked towards Zheng Tan's exhibition area. Just a moment ago, she was about to go over to check it out, but didn't expect that she would bump into Er Mao.
Er Mao followed Zhao Le's line of sight, but there were too many people in the way. He couldn't see what was happening on that side of the exhibition nor could he see Fang Shaokang and the others, only the black cat that was perched at a height.
Zheng Tan had been paying close attention to them this entire time. He took in the situation, and understood that Er Mao and Zhao Le knew each other relatively well.
Er Mao looked again at the black cat that was perched up on the high point, then looked again at Zhao Le.
"You know that black cat?"
Er Mao was only randomly asking, planning to use this to turn around the conversation, and didn't expect Zhao Le to nod her head.
"Yea, I know him. I know him quite well...what, are you familiar with him too?" Zhao Le noticed Er Mao's sudden change in expression, though it quickly dissipated, but it was still caught under Zhao Le's attention. Now, she was more acutely aware of her observations.
"No." Er Mao removed all signs of emotion from his face, but inside, he cursed at that black cat thousands of times. Mother f*****. Luck was not on his side. Now thinking about it, it was the fault of that black cat! It was all his fault!
Er Mao was not willing to stay any longer. He disregarded Zhao Le's questioning and left. He wasn't going to risk being cornered by Fang Shaokang as well. Furthermore, he wasn't going to risk meeting someone else that he knew. How in the world was he meeting so many familiar faces at a normal charity event?
In the end, Zhao Le was unable to get Er Mao to spill his current address, however, getting his number was still a huge accomplishment.
Zheng Tan couldn't overhear the conversation between Zhao Le and Er Mao's and could only make guesses based on their attitudes. But this Er Mao, he seemed to have some pretty powerful connections.
Zhao Le didn't send someone to follow after Er Mao after he left, it would've been in vain, as that type of strategy never worked on him. Thinking about it again, Zhao Le wrote up text for Wang Bing. This Er Mao, he needed to be dealt with Wang Bin personally.
Since it was the weekend, Wang Bing finally managed to get some time off to return to Chu Hua to visit his parents. Only thing was that his father was still busy and had yet to return home.
Wang Bin's mother complained to him about some of the things that had been happening recently. Upon hearing his phone notification, she stopped her rant and motioned for her son to check his device.
Wang Bing had two phones, the sound had come from his personal device. At first, he didn't think it was anything too important, but after reading the text, his face paled, but quickly recovered and returned his phone back into his pocket.
"What happened?" Asked his mother.
"Nothing. Continue with what you were saying."
After his mother's rant had ended and she headed off to rest. Wang Bin returned to his room and shut the door. A face full of confusion, he dialed the number that Zhao Le had given him.
Listening to the consistent drumming of the connection sound, Wang Bin thought about what he should say to his younger twin brother once it went through.
After a few tones, it finally connected. Just as Wang Bin was about to speak, he heard from the other side a loud voice shouting: "Daughter! That's a phone, you can't throw that!"
Wang Bin: "...."
Daughter? Where'd this daughter come from?! An illegitimate child? Was this the indication of a storm brewing for their household?
Wang Bin, who's imagination had run wild, had suddenly fallen into a storm of confusion.