Chapter 12

Shaking off the water from his body, Zheng Tan picked up a stone and chased away the noisy parrot. He then climbed up the tree where he had hidden the key and the access card, put them back around his neck, slid down the tree, and ran towards the building where the Jiao family lived.

Jumping up, he swiped the access card and ran all the way to the fifth floor.

Since it was an old building, many residents still kept their metal grilles as security doors, and the Jiao family was no exception. However, the lock on their metal grille door was broken, and because the building was quite secure and they lived on the fifth floor where few people came, they hadn't fixed it. A wooden door was enough.

The metal grille door was propped open against the wall to avoid blocking people from entering and exiting. Due to its age, the door had many rust marks.

Zheng Tan jumped onto the metal grille door, hooked the grille near the lock with his paws, clung tightly to it, and then lifted his leg to push against the wall. The grille door, with Zheng Tan on it, moved toward the entrance, and the rusty hinges creaked.

Just as he was about to insert the key, the door opened from the inside.

Yi Xin had stayed up writing a thesis on Professor Jiao's computer until almost dawn and had fallen asleep on the sofa. He woke up to the urge to urinate, went to the bathroom, and was just about to lie down on the sofa again when he heard the noise at the door. He sprang up, not even bothering to put on his shoes, and ran to open the door. Professor Jiao had mentioned that the grille door would make noise when his cat returned.

Yi Xin had never understood the connection between the cat's return and the grille door making noise, but now he did, and he was stunned. In front of him, a black cat was using its paws to hook the metal bars of the grille, holding a key in its mouth, and moving toward the lock as the hinges creaked.

Zheng Tan clearly hadn't expected anyone to be home and looked somewhat familiar.

Zheng Tan was trying to recall who this person was, while Yi Xin was in a daze. For a moment, they just stared at each other.

Finally, Zheng Tan remembered who this person was. When he had been secretly taken to Professor Jiao's office by Jiao Yuan and others, Professor Jiao had introduced Yi Xin to him. At that time, Yi Xin was leading undergraduate students in an experiment and was carrying samples to the public lab with a few other graduate students. Professor Jiao had pointed him out from the window.

Since he had confirmed the person's identity, Zheng Tan didn't worry anymore. If someone could enter, they must have Professor Jiao's approval, and anyone with his approval was trustworthy.

Zheng Tan jumped down from the grille door and headed straight for the sofa.

To make it easier to sleep, Yi Xin had moved all the snacks from the sofa to a nearby chair.

Zheng Tan looked at the moved snacks, counted them, and found none were missing, which made him feel more satisfied.

Yi Xin was still standing there in a daze. Although he had recovered from the initial shock at the door, he was stunned again by the situation with the snacks. When he had called Professor Jiao the previous day, Professor Jiao had told him not to eat the snacks on the sofa and to eat the ones in the second shelf of the fridge instead. But now, he understood. The cat had been staring at the snacks on the chair, counting them, right?

Zheng Tan ignored the dazed Yi Xin. He was very hungry and started eating a pudding after tearing off the plastic wrapper.

Yi Xin, watching the black cat lying on the sofa and eating the pudding, twitched his face and then moved to the bedroom to call Professor Jiao.

Zheng Tan perked up his ears to listen to the phone call in the bedroom.

Yi Xin said "Oh, oh" a couple of times, then put the call on speaker. Professor Jiao's voice came through: "Black Coal, respond."

Zheng Tan looked up: "Meow—"

Yi Xin: "..." The meow was a bit special.

"You sound pretty good," Professor Jiao said, then asked Yi Xin to turn off the speaker as he had more to instruct.

Yi Xin held the phone respectfully and responded, but his face showed frustration. After hanging up, he went to the kitchen to boil water, pulled out a white plastic basin from the shelf, and washed it.

Before, when Yi Xin was a graduate student, he had heard that it was best to choose a mentor who had enough children and no pets, to avoid having to help take care of them. At the time, he thought it was just a joke, but now he found himself in this situation. He didn't have to take care of children, but the pets...

While adjusting the water temperature, Yi Xin thought, "I won't be sent to take care of the pet often, right? I'll ask for a raise when Professor Jiao comes back!"

When Zheng Tan entered the bathroom, he looked at the water in the basin, touched the outside of the plastic basin to test the temperature, and found it just right. Truly, a researcher's grasp of temperature was accurate. Zheng Tan then looked at the special shampoo next to the basin, the towel folded on the low stool, and the hairdryer placed there, and jumped into the basin, washing his fur and then resting his chin on the edge, closing his eyes to enjoy the bath.

Yi Xin, standing at the door, felt a thousand camels galloping in his heart. He had seen relatives get scratched when giving their cats a bath, but this was the first time he saw a cat enjoying a bath with its eyes closed.

Truly, a cat from Professor Jiao's house.

When Zheng Tan felt the water was getting cold, he was about to get up to dry himself but noticed a tiny bug floating on the surface, still moving.

The bug was quite noticeable against the white plastic basin.

Yi Xin, standing at the door, calculated the time and estimated the water temperature without a thermometer. He was puzzled as to why the cat hadn't come out yet, so he peeked inside and saw the black cat staring intently at the plastic basin.

What's going on? Yi Xin recalled Professor Jiao's words but still felt uneasy, so he cautiously approached. Soon, his eyes fell on the bug in the water. As someone skilled at picking bacterial colonies, Yi Xin naturally noticed the bug.

Damn, a flea!

What to do with a flea?

Kill it!

Then what?

He didn't know.

Uncertain, Yi Xin ran to the bedroom and called Professor Jiao. Five minutes later, Yi Xin came to a cabinet, opened it, and found some household chemicals, including two bottles of insecticide. One was a well-known pyrethroid insecticide, and the other was unnamed. Yi Xin was looking for the unnamed one, which was likely a result of a recent collaboration between the biology and chemical engineering departments, currently available only to insiders.

Yi Xin sprayed the insecticide in several places in the room as instructed by Professor Jiao. As for Zheng Tan, he changed the water and bathed again.

The most annoying thing was fleas. There were fleas in the grass around the residential area, but Zheng Tan hadn't been bothered by them recently, even though he often played there. He must have picked them up during his trip to the suburbs, where the grass was thick.

Zheng Tan found and killed every flea in the water, even those that seemed to be drowned. He bathed for two hours before coming out and rolling on the towel.

Yi Xin helped dry his fur with a hairdryer, "Black Coal, Professor Jiao said the insecticide is running out, and you should... go get more and get some medicine to apply."

Yi Xin didn't know why Professor Jiao said that, but he was told to follow the cat.

Yi Xin felt like crying. Taking care of a pet was more exhausting than writing a thesis.

After his fur was mostly dry, Zheng Tan shook it off, walked to the door, and looked back at Yi Xin.

Remembering Professor Jiao's words, Yi Xin quickly put down the hairdryer and followed, taking the key and opening the door.

Zheng Tan led the way, and Yi Xin followed.

Yi Xin was full of doubt but knew asking a cat would be pointless, and keeping it in his mind was equally frustrating.

Zheng Tan went down two floors and stopped in front of a door on the third floor.

"Here? I'll ask..."

Before Yi Xin could finish, Zheng Tan jumped up and slammed his paw on the grille door of the apartment.

"Bang!"

Yi Xin's hair almost stood on end. Although he didn't know who lived there, he knew most of the residents in the eastern residential area were senior faculty, and he couldn't afford to offend them. Yi Xin's mind raced through a list of names, hoping it wasn't any of them!

Zheng Tan didn't care about Yi Xin's anxiety and slammed his paw twice more, each time louder.

After the third slam, someone finally responded.

"Coming, coming! Three knocks, do you think I'm deaf?"

The voice was that of an old man, and it sounded familiar. Yi Xin was nervous.

The door opened, and the grille door's lock was pushed aside, revealing an old, stern face.

Seeing this person, Yi Xin felt a chill down his spine.

"Professor... Professor Lan!"

Looking at the stern old man, Yi Xin had an urge to run away.

Unfortunately, Zheng Tan didn't care about Yi Xin's feelings and walked in without hesitation. He wasn't afraid of the old man, who owed him a favor.

The room was simply furnished, and the floor was still wet.

Although Zheng Tan had just taken a bath and dried his fur, his paws weren't completely dry and had picked up some dirt on the way down. Now, he left muddy paw prints on the floor.

"Little brat! I just mopped the floor!" Professor Lan scolded.

Zheng Tan twitched his ears and ignored him, walking straight in.

Professor Lan glared at the cat's back as it strutted in, then looked at the paw prints on the floor and turned to Yi Xin, "You clean this up later!"

Yi Xin: "..."

Damn, he hated taking care of pets, especially cats!

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Thank you, Chen Mo and Lazyorange, for your support! Thanks to all the readers who vote for me every day.

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