The assistant professor finished teaching the class, he returned to the biology department and was about to take out his keys to open the office door, when suddenly his phone rang.
No longer attending to his keys, assistant professor Jiao quickly took his phone out and looked at the caller ID.
It was an unfamiliar number.
"Hello?"
"Meow--"
Hearing the ghost-howl like cat cry from the other end of the phone, assistant professor Jiao hesitated for a second, then the face that had held a plain expression for the past few weeks quickly became brilliant with a smile.
Some young female teachers that walked past saw assistant professor Jiao's dazzling smile that could blind the eyes, and thought assistant professor Jiao's appearance wouldn't fall short of professor Ren's, to be honest.
Assistant professor Jiao looked around. The teachers' offices were all around here, there were always people moving to and fro in the corridors, making it inconvenient to talk. Losing no time, he quickly took the keys out to open the office door, but due to his overexcitement, he had to try the keys a few times to get it into the key hole.
He closed the office door after entering, carelessly throwing the important meeting summary across the table.
"Charcoal?" Papa Jiao probed around and asked.
Assistant professor Jiao only fantasized for a second before about his cat calling him. Perhaps it was because he had came a science background, assistant professor Jiao saw things with an overly logical perspective, he analysed the possibility under every circumstance, the result that came out made him lose hope.
There were so many people helping in the city, so many ways as well as human resources that were searching, but they didn't have any news. Director He and other all said that he was definitely transported interstate. It would become extremely difficult to search for him after he left the state, even when they asked people to help search for him in the south and posted notices, there was still no news. Besides, if he had left the state, even if his cat was alright and had the opportunity to make a call, he probably doesn't know he needed to add the area code before the phone number.
However, now that he had really received his cat's call, assistant professor Jiao felt that this feeling was stronger than successfully applying for a program.
Insensibly, they have already considered Charcoal as a member of their family. After Charcoal went missing, it was like a piece was missing from their life. Every time they went home and saw the missing piece their heart ached. The two children were the same, they were constantly in a bad mood. The neighbors suggested that they could help and find another black cat to cheer them up, but the two children all turned them down. Their family knew Charcoal was irreplaceable.
Zheng Tan on the other end was also excited, he howled again, louder and clearer than the cry before. Taking no heed at all of the expression on Fang Shao Kang's face that looked as if he had saw an ET, as well as the three puppies that were stunned by the howling.
In spite of the howls being horrifying, assistant professor Jiao felt them very intimate and heart-warming.
The people who were currently discussing about assistant professor Jiao outside would never thought that the person who was the topic of their conversation was talking to his cat over the phone right now.
"Charcoal, is there any human next to you?" Assistant professor Jiao asked.
Zheng Tan's stirred emotions began to calm, he looked around then placed his sight on Fang Shao Kang. He responded to the phone and pushed the phone over to Fang Shao Kang.
As Zheng Tan pushed the phone over, on the other end of the receiver, someone was knocking professor Jiao's office door.
"Come in." Assistant professor didn't move the phone away from his ear and said right away.
The person that entered was Zhao Le. After she knew that the cat that had saved her was captured by someone, she kept searching and asked a lot of friends to help, but the cat kidnapper was too sneaky. He didn't leave any usable evidence, although professor Jiao and her both believed that Ren Chong was up to something, they just don't have the evidence to prove it. In the end, it was Wei Ling who lurked around in Ren Chong's house for some time to find some clues. Today she came to discuss with professor Jiao a way to deal with Ren Chong and get more evidence from his mouth.
Zhao Le didn't think that she would see the smile that was hanging on assistant professor's face when she entered the door. Her heart skipped a beat, was he found?!
Over on Zheng Tan's side, Fang Shao Kang was confused about the actions of the cat in front of him. He looked at the phone's interface, the call was still engaged, so he picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
Assistant professor Jiao after hearing a human voice didn't have time to talk with Zhao Le, he introduced himself and explained the identity of the black cat next to him, then asked a series of questions.
Fang Shao Kang knew the brief details of the situation during the process of answering the questions, he was wholeheartedly surprised that he would encounter such a thing, there's actually a cat who called home.
In the office, while Papa Jiao listened to Fang Shao Kang's self-introduction, he wrote his name down with a pen on a sheet of paper, "Fang like the neighboring area (Fang Yuan), Shao spelled with the Chinese character component of ear and Zhao, Kang like the word health (Jian Kang)…"
"Fang Shao Kang?! It is uncle Fang?!" Zhao Le asked.
Although Zhao Le's voice wasn't loud, due to the quietness in this area next to the tangerine orchard, they could hear the talking from the other side of the phone. Fang Shao Kang had obviously heard Zhao Le's words.
Fang Shao Kang was the third eldest in his family, he has two older brothers above him. Someone who can call him uncle Fang was definitely a close acquaintance.
"Who's on the other end?" Fang Shao Kang asked.
Professor Jiao looked at Zhao Le then handed the phone to her.
"Is it really uncle Fang? I am Le Le, Zhao Le!"
Zhao Le explained the situation with Zheng Tan, then clarified that the cat had a favor to her and said that she wanted Fang Shao Kang to help.
Fang Shao Kang looked at the cat that was squatting next to him with it's tail curled up, it was even in the mood to play with the dogs. He was astonished, he would have never thought that a cat that he encountered in a remote village knew his old friends. This cat raises a few brows! Just like the elderlies from the village said, black cats are always a little abnormal.
Zheng Tan was in a good mood, he hadn't felt that for a long long time. After being kidnapped, he had always feared for his life, he would become suspicious at any person he sees and calculate every step he makes to ensure it was workable. He endured the hardships of an arduous journey as well as foraging under the risk of being captured again since he can't stand raw food. Overall, it was a pretty miserable experience.
However! This misery was about to end!
He was about to return to the land he was familiar with, see those familiar faces. He would have a warm bed at night, and someone to brush and blow dry his furs after bath, every morning there would be breakfast prepared for him. Now that he thinks of it, it was so nostalgic.
While Zhao Le discussed the details on how to bring this cat back to Chuhua city with Fang Shao Kang, Papa Jiao made a hand gesture to her, then whispered: "Ren Chong!"
Zhao Le immediately got her head around it. Even if she brought the cat back, if Ren Chong wasn't disposed of, incidents like cat kidnapping will probably occur again.
"You mean…"
"I can set my heart at rest knowing that it's safe and sound. Besides Mr Fang is a close acquaintance with Miss Zhao, he can be trusted so there's no hurry to let Charcoal come back yet. Please request Mr Fang to take care of Charcoal for this period of time until we finished the matter at hand here."
Zhao Le nodded and explained the circumstances to Fang Shao Kang, Fang Shao Kang also expressed his understanding.
"Okay, I will take the cat and head there slowly, it would take ten days to half a month at fastest to reach there…"
Take the cat? Ten days to half a month?
Does that mean the earliest that he will arrive at Chuhua city would be ten days to half a month later?! Zheng Tan's emotions that boiled with excitement was suddenly extinguished by a tub of ice sludge.
Why!
Even if they can't take the train, it wouldn't take too long to go back on a car, why would it take ten days to half a month?
Papa Jiao instructed Zheng Tan to follow Fang Shao Kang obediently, uncle Fang will take him to Chuhua city. Currently he can't ask anyone to come and get him from Chuhua city, there was still something to take care of.
Although Papa Jiao didn't explain too much in detail, Zheng Tan was able to analyse the reason through these brief words. To this, Zheng Tan expressed his understanding, it was for his own good, he doesn't want to face some people who had evil intentions again when he goes back.
Fang Shao Kang looked at the cat in front of him that was listening attentively to the phone, despite uncle Fang claiming that he had seen the glimpses of the world and had seen a lot of strange people, he couldn't help but to express his surprise. This cat papa was also quite special, he even bothered to explain this much to a cat. If it had been someone from this village, under this circumstance they would probably thinking about how to perform an exorcism to ward off evil spirits.
Hanging up the call, Zheng Tan felt less cautious to Fang Shao Kang since he was somebody that Zhao Le and others knew, he even got Zhao Le's guarantee. Zheng Tan didn't need to spend so much energy on defending himself again.
At that moment, the young man that went home to make a call came running back, he said he will drive out tomorrow and take the three puppies to that friend on the way.
Knowing that the three puppies had somewhere to go , Zheng Tan was completely at ease. From what he gathered from Fang Shao Kang and that young man's conversation, the person that planned to adopt the three puppies was not too bad.
That night, Zheng Tan followed Fang Shao Kang back to that young man's house, of course, Zheng Tan hid inside the backpack. The people in this village didn't like black cats, they were afraid that the owner would have something to say when he knew. As to the three puppies, the young man place them inside the cage and carried them back.
Zheng Tan ate and drank to his satisfaction, had a comfortable sleep. He woke up in the early morning and followed Fang Shao Kang to board the pedicab owned by that young man.
The puppies were in the cage, they had a decent meal last night and this morning and continued to sleep now.
The mountainous roads were hard to travel on, a long distance of the road was uneven, this bumpy road condition made Zheng Tan feel dizzy.
Three hours drive, to be accurate, if the road was even, it would take less than one hour.
The young man's friend wanted to breed sheep and cows and other animals, he even established a special place to nurture poultry. The scale of the farm was quite big, guess that's why they wanted to keep dogs.
That friend was quite pleased with the three puppies. He had already cleaned out the kennels yesterday, after seeing the three puppies he carried them over.
Zheng Tan ate lunch with Fang Shao Kang here, the young man would take them to the nearby town in the afternoon.
The path to the town was much better, not that bumpy. Although it was twice the distance, the time needed was around the same.
Zheng Tan didn't take Katy's cat tag with him. To make his actions swifter in the village he took the cat tag off and hid it. When he left with Fang Shao Kang he didn't take it along, now he's really an undocumented and unlicensed stray cat. Nevertheless, with Fang Shao Kang next to him taking care of these things, Zheng Tan no longer felt that every bush and tree looked like an enemy.
However, the good mood didn't last for too long. After Fang Shao Kang bought a bicycle, Zheng Tan wasn't so calm anymore.
He felt that this Fang Shao Kang person must have been kicked by a donkey in the head!