Most people were fine with the cat eating with them. They knew the Jiaos' cat well as it often picked up the kids from school. They heard that the Buddha was fond of this cat too. She took walks with it. If she didn't mind the cat, neither did they.
Xiong Xiong's mother saw the Jiaos enter with the bag holding the cat and frowned again. She was about to say something when Xiong Xiong's father stopped her.
Everyone here was from the quarters. No one said anything when the Jiaos brought the cat. He had realized at the pool that the Jiaos were quite popular in the Quarters.
Papa Jiao was only an assistant professor and Mama Jiao was a middle school teacher. Most of the people here were higher up than them, but everyone liked them nonetheless. People didn't mind their cat, so they had best pretend like they didn't either.
Causing a scene now would be unwise.
It was hard to make a reservation at the hotel restaurant. It was an expensive place too. Xiong Xiong's mother had put quite some effort in arranging this dinner.
For the kids, however, the things grown-ups chatted about were too complicated. They were hungry so they ate. Conversations were just nuisances to them.
Zheng Tan sat between Youzi and Mama Jiao. Papa Jiao had put a small chair there. Zheng Tan's bowl was on the chair as well. After all, he wasn't going to eat on the table. Zheng Tan couldn't see when they ordered, but he never lacked food in his bowl. Mama Jiao got him food as well as picking out stuff for Youzi. She even cut out a paper cup to hold some soup for him.
The Jiaos were sitting away from the door so people passing by couldn't see the cat, as long as they didn't come in.
Xiong Xiong's mother disliked seeing the cat at the table. She wanted to say something but controlled herself. Her phone rang and she left the room.
"Sorry. Need to take this call."
Jiao Yuan had downed several cups of juice since the time they got here. He had been to the washroom once already, but he soon got up to go again. This made Zheng Tan want to pee as well.
Zheng Tan scratched Jiao Yuan's pants when he got up. His nails hooked onto the pants.
Jiao Yuan almost had his pants pulled down by the cat.
"Charcoal! What are you doing? You're sexually harassing me!"
Zheng Tan rolled his eyes.
"I need to go to the bathroom. Let go!"
Zheng Tan didn't let go. He wanted to use the washroom too.
"Charcoal probably wants to go too," Youzi said.
Zheng Tan was moved by her. She was a sweetheart.
"Your cat's a good boy," someone said.
"Much better than Sahara."
Ruan Ying joined in the topic. He was young and didn't think before he spoke. He only realized after a reminder from Lan Tianzhu's father that the dinner table wasn't the place to talk about pets going to the washroom.
Ruan Ying cursed himself, then blamed it all on his dog.
Sahara, who was outside, felt he was wronged.
Papa Jiao heard the conversation and smiled. He put down his chopsticks and said, "You go. I'll take Charcoal to the washroom later."
Zheng Tan let go of Jiao Yuan's pants.
"This boy can't be counted on. I'll take Charcoal to the washroom," Papa Jiao said quietly to Mama Jiao.
"I'll go. You'll look too weird with a large bag going to the washroom." Mama Jiao grabbed the bag and motioned for Zheng Tan to jump inside.
It was a hotel after all. Not knowing the pet policies, they decided to be safe. Mama Jiao carried the cat to the washroom.
They were in front of the washroom when Zheng Tan realized they had a problem.
Mama Jiao had brought him to the women's room.
The f*cking women's room.
He was not a good man but he never went into the women's room before.
He was dumbstruck but Mama Jiao was too busy trying to avoid people to notice her cat was behaving weirdly.
No one was inside, so Mama Jiao hurriedly entered a stall and opened the bag.
"Come on out."
"..." He really didn't want to.
This was too embarrassing.
He hesitated before finally coming out of the bag.
The toilet was the same inside the stall in both the men's and the women's room.
He sat on the ring of the toilet. It was too weird. Mama Jiao was watching. He couldn't pee like this.
He squirmed on the toilet and looked at Mama Jiao who shrugged nonchalantly. "It's fine. You can do a number 2 with you want."
Zheng Tan didn't want to.
He made an attempt. Nothing happened.
Mama Jiao was perplexed, "Are you not used to this?"
Their washroom at home wasn't like this, but Mama Jiao had heard that the cat knew how to use toilets. Could it be because this was a new place? Mama Jiao wondered.
Zheng Tan was embarrassed but tried to psych himself into doing it.
He was a cat, not a human right now. Little boys went to the washroom with their mothers all the time. It was completely normal. He still felt weird though. He wondered if Mama Jiao could see his thing.
F*ck, he was being a wimp.
Even if she saw it, so what! Mama Jiao had seen Jiao Yuan's before when he was younger.
Zheng Tan swayed his tail, then adjusted his position. He looked down at the floor, then finally managed to pee.
Someone went into the next stall. Thank God he was already done, or he would be more nervous.
Mama Jiao took out some wipes and cleaned his paws. She opened the bag and he jumped in. Someone came into the washroom as Mama Jiao was washing her hand at the sink. She wasn't looking, neither was Zheng Tan. This was his first time in the women's room. He was too nervous to notice people entering.
"Ms. Gu?!"
Mama Jiao looked at the mirror and saw it was Zhao Le who just walked in.
"Ah, it's you, Miss Zhao."
"Call me Lele, please. Did you bring Charcoal here to pee?" Zhao Le poked Zheng Tan's head.
Zheng Tan wanted to bury himself in a hole.
Accompanying two ladies in a place like this was an experience he did not want to repeat.
"Yes. I had to bring him here in a bag so people didn't see him."
"Oh, Ms. Gu, are Professor Jiao and the kids here too?"
"Of course. A few families from the quarters went to the pool together. One of the parents wanted to buy everyone dinner. It's my first time here." Mama Jiao smiled.
"I heard Fang Shaokang gave you guys a VIP card. You guys should come more often. You get a discount. Oh, Fang said he would be in town sometime soon. There's some new project or something. He wanted to visit you guys when he gets here. He had a cat tree made for Charcoal. It's great and doesn't take up much space."
They chatted a bit more before Mama Jiao left with Zheng Tan. Zhao Le was having dinner with some friends and needed to go upstairs later. Her father was having a business dinner here today.
After both Mama Jiao and Zhao Le left, the door to the stall next to the one Zheng Tan had previously occupied opened and out came Xiong Xiong's mother. Her expression was a mixture of many emotions.
She knew the name Zhao Le. The person who had just called her was having dinner here tonight with Mr. Zhao from Changwei Group. It would be easy to find out if this Zhao Le was the Zhao Le. As for Fang...could it be?
No one drank since they had to drive home. The dinner ended shortly after.
Sahara was having the time of his life playing frisbee with the young waitress looking after the pets. He showed no sign of being sad because he was left outside. Ruan Ying had to drag him away. He barked longingly at the waitress as he left.
The cars left one by one and headed towards Chuhua University.
Inside the car, the kids were falling asleep. Mama Jiao was thinking about something.
She opened her mouth several times before finally saying, "I think Xiong Xiong's mother was acting weird today?"
"Oh." Papa Jiao replied to show his acknowledgment.
"She went outside to take the call and was acting all funny when she came back inside. She even smiled at Charcoal when we left."
"Oh."
"What do you think she meant?"
"Don't over think it. No matter what she thinks of the cat, she's not a bad person. She helped when you wanted to transfer to the middle school."
"I'm not saying she's a bad person. I'm just saying her attitude was weird. Oh well, I can't guess what she was thinking."
Mama Jiao pulled out a coat to cover the kids. She looked at Zheng Tan who was sleeping soundly on the car seat. "I still think Charcoal is the best. Look at Ruan Ying's dog, it forgot all about its owner after a frisbee session."
Papa Jiao laughed, "Our cat is a lucky cat."
"Since when were lucky cats black?"
"Who said they can't be black?"
Back at home, the phone rang just as they entered the door.
Papa Jiao hurried inside to answer.
"Hello. Dad? Why are you calling at this hour? Huh? No. No, I didn't turn off my phone and I have service."
Papa Jiao took out his cell and rechecked.
"Are you sure you remembered the number correctly?"
He listened to his father recite his number.
"You left out a 0. No, you don't have Alzheimer's. No one can remember cell phone numbers. They're too long. Everyone has Alzheimer's if that's the symptom. Anyways, why are you calling?"
Mama Jiao had just finished drawing a bath for the kids when Papa Jiao got off the phone.
"What is it?"
"A family friend is coming to town. his child got into Chuhua University."
"Not bad. To get into Chuhua University, he had to be top of his class. Top of his year even."
Papa Jiao shook his head. "He went to a really average middle school."
This surprised Mama Jiao. "The village is probably so excited. This would be the talk of the village for so long. To do so well in a school like that, he must be a good kid."