What Are You Looking At

After finishing the kitten food ad, Zheng Tan did not have any time to worry about its reception. He had a bigger thing to focus on; Mama Jiao was coming home.

Even though she had not completely recovered, there was no point in staying in the hospital anymore. Faculty benefits covered most of the costs, but she didn’t want to occupy a bed when others might need it more. She always felt uncomfortable in the hospital anyways. Also, she didn’t want the kids to eat cafeteria food any longer. Not that the cafeteria served poor food; it was just that home cooked meals always seemed better.

So, on a sunny Saturday morning, the entire Jiao family went to the hospital.

Jiao Yuan brought his backpack, hiding Zheng Tan within it. When unfamiliar doctors and unrelated strangers walked by, Zheng Tan would bury himself inside the bag. Otherwise, he would stick out his head to watch everyone pack.

Everyone was smiling. It was hard not to feel happy about leaving the hospital.

During Mama Jiao’s stay in the hospital, the family had brought quite a bit of stuff here. Though it didn’t seem like a lot normally, the stuff couldn’t even fit into a large cardboard box. It included bowls and cups for the kids, cat bowl for Zheng Tan and some blankets and throws.

Zheng Tan looked on as everyone worked busily, then he took a peek inside the neighboring wards. A man in his fifties came out holding one of those hospital portable toilet basins. He was headed to the washroom to wash the thing.

After he was done, he ran into Papa Jiao carrying a large box outside the ward. “Yo Jiao. Here to take Gu home?”

Papa Jiao sighed, “She’s not yet recovered, but she complains that she always feels uneasy here at the hospital. So we figured she might as well go home to rest.” Though he sighed, his tone was light and cheerful.

Papa Jiao and the man chatted for a while. Packing up was tiring, and Papa Jiao could use a rest.

From their conversation, Zheng Tan found out that the man’s wife was injured in the same car crash as Mama Jiao. However, she wasn’t quite as lucky. Beside flesh wounds, she had broken several bones. On top of that, she had high blood pressure and chronic heart disease. She had been in critical condition several times after the accident. She only left the ICU a few days ago.

Her husband never left her bedside during this whole time.

Mama Jiao had to stay in bed during her first few days here as well. Papa Jiao also stayed by her side catering to her every need. During that time, the most frequent thing Zheng Tan heard him say was ‘don’t worry, I’m here’.

Sometimes, Zheng Tan envied them. He envied Papa and Mama Jiao, and he envied the man and his wife. He felt that the relationship they shared was what family was supposed to be like.

“Ok! Let’s go home!”

Mama Jiao dragged a small suitcase out of the ward. Papa Jiao grabbed it from her right away. Yi Xin, who had just finished some experiments, arrived to lend a hand.

They hadn’t told Auntie Ling about their plans today, and Papa Jiao had only mentioned it to Yi Xin briefly when they were discussing their schedules. However, Yi Xin remembered and came.

Papa Jiao had borrowed an SUV from a colleague. They loaded everything and headed back towards the eastern quarters.

As they were loading the car, both Papa Jiao and Zheng Tan were thinking the exact same thing. It was time to buy a car.

Papa Jiao was a bit short on cash at the moment. Every penny he had was invested in the company, including the money made by his cat. He didn’t have enough to purchase a car just yet.

As he drove, he decided to wait a bit longer. He would buy the car before the end of next year and then take the whole family, including Charcoal, back to his parents’ for New Years.

This year, the Lunar new year was quite early. Because of Mama Jiao’s condition, Papa Jiao had decided to stay in Chuhua for the holidays. He had informed his parents of this decision and offered to have them come over. However, Grandpa Jiao refused. On the phone, he said: “Your place in tiny. I’ll stay in our town.”

Mama Jiao’s school was very accommodating and gave her paid leave so she could rest and recover. All the injured teachers got such treatment, so Mama Jiao was happy to accept it. She would have more time to spend at home taking care of the kids and the cat. She could make up for the time she spent in the hospital.

With Mama Jiao home, Zheng Tan felt that his life was glorious. He woke up at the same time as the kids; washed up with Gu Youzi and went to the bathroom with Jiao Yuan. Breakfast would be waiting for them on the table when they were finished.

There was now one more person joining Jiao Yuan on his trip to school. Shi Rui had moved into the quarters. After the theft incident, the vice principle’s relatives had moved out and their apartment was vacant. So Professor Shi’s family moved in. The apartment was completely renovated, so it saved his family quite a lot of work.

Though the kids had people walking to school with them, they still liked it when Zheng Tan walked with them. After dropping off the kids at the school gate, Zheng Tan went on to do his daily exercise.

He rarely saw Zhuo anymore when he went to the lake these days. Apparently, the weather was too cold so she stayed home. The Buddha had helped get her a dorm room.

It was time to do another photoshoot for Mr. Guo again. He came to pick up Zheng Tan and brought a magazine. It was the magazine that his friend had started. Most of the pet ads Zheng Tan did were published in that magazine. Apparently, it was selling well.

Mr. Guo didn’t leave right away, but called Mama Jiao over and showed her the page with Zheng Tan’s ad.

Like the earlier ads, this was a story told by pictures made up of shots from the video of Zheng Tan and the kittens. Many readers flipped to the page with the ad first, before reading the other content. This week’s ad got especially good reviews.

Beside the story series was a large picture of the large black cat touching paws with the kittens. On the corner of the picture was the line that said ‘Justly... So loving you justly, will you take me home?’

Mama Jiao cut the two pages out and added them to her photo album. Then she asked for a printed version of the picture.

Zheng Tan did not actually like the picture that everyone else seemed to love. He felt like it made him look sappy.

However, it didn’t matter how he viewed the ad, the sales were the only thing that Mr. Guo cared about.

Apparently, he had received several orders for kitten food after the ad. Though most of the people contacting him only wanted to ask for advice. They wanted to know how to get the same effects and whether the pictures were Photoshopped. More than anything, they wanted to know how he got a cat to act out those moves.

Mr. Guo beat around the bushes and avoided answering anything real.

When Zheng Tan arrived at the studio, he immediately noticed something different.

Li Yan was there and was surrounded by some unrecognizable yet oddly familiar scents. He walked over to her and saw her staring at her computer. On it were pictures. They were poorly taken, but you could still see the subject.

All the pictures featured two cats— one larger, which was Li Yuanba, and the other was tiny. The kitten was white with yellow markings. It was even smaller than the five kittens Zheng Tan had worked with before.

So this was Li Yuanba’s kitten?

Zheng Tan looked at the name of the folder, Li Yuanba and Nougat.

Now that he found out the tri-colored cat had kittens, he lost interest. He just wanted to finish his work and go home. Except two of the employees who were supposed to work on the job had other business at the moment. The photoshoot wouldn’t start until one to two hours later.

Zheng Tan waited in his usual spot on top the cat tree. He closed to his eyes to rest.

Not far from him, Li Yan was discussing things with Mr. Guo while pointing to her laptop. Apparently, both Li Yan and her cat had been staying at the pet center these past days.

The pet center had dorms for employees, and since Li Yan was worried about her cat, she moved into the dorms. She even paid two months’ rent in advance. Her cat became a resident too, so Mr. Guo would watch over Li Yuanba.

She never took care of pregnant humans, let alone pregnant cats. As for her, she wasn’t picky on living standards as long as it came with internet.

Li Yuanba went into labor a couple days after they moved in. It only had one kitten, which was larger than most kittens that were just born.

Li Yan wanted to take as many pictures as possible to save for the future. However, Li Yuanba acted defensively whenever she saw a camera, and she was not the sweetest looking cat to start off with. Mr. Guo couldn’t help either. The cat was on defense mode whenever someone unfamiliar tried to approach.

Li Yan never turned on the flash light when taking her cat pictures, and she had to hide and do pap shots. This cat had incredible reflexes, so most of her attempts failed. Most of the time, she only got a picture of a tail or a shadow.

Eventually, she set up a surveillance camera and spied on her cat everyday on her laptop.

After going through the picture, she began spying again.

“I heard tri-color cats were obedient and more well-behaved than other cats. They are good at looking after their young. Is that true? I think Li Yuanba fits the profile,” Li Yan remarked with contentment.

Mr. Guo thought about it: “My grandma used to say that these cats were either angels or devils. Clearly yours is the latter.”

“Guo Xiaoming!” Li Yan slapped him with a cat toy.

They joked around for a while before Li Yan began to get worried about her cat again.

“Aren’t you being a bit paranoid?”

Mr. Guo rubbed his arm where it was slapped. “Many cats won’t even let people see their kittens. Your cat is pretty nice about it. You don’t have to be so cautious when raising your cat. All you have to do is make sure it gets enough nutrients. Cat are not like dogs; they prefer to live alone. You see those dirty strays around all the time, resting on fences. They are completely calm and content. However, stray dogs are way shabbier. They have their tail between their legs, always on edge and scared. Stray dogs die way easier than cats. Cats hunt for food and are kings of their own kingdom. Dogs like being with their owners and need to be taken care of.”

Zheng Tan looked over to Mr. Guo’s golden retriever. It was a bitch. Most people thought that if the American shorthair was named ‘Prince’, the dog would be named ‘Princess’.

However, its name was Master. Apparently, it was an award winning dog. Mr. Guo hung the award in his shop as advertising. Because of its looks, this dog was put on most of the pet center’s dog food packaging.

Golden retrievers were eye-catching because of the color of their fur. They were also playful, smart and sweet. They were a widely accepted breed of dogs.

Because Mr. Guo mentioned strays, Li Yan looked over to the Golden Retriever as well. Mr. Guo followed her gaze. Master was looking over at them and wagging her tail furiously.

“What are you looking at. We’re talking about you.” Mr. Guo shouted out at her.

It was hard to tell if Master understood his words. She stopped wagging her tail for a moment, but resumed grinning and wagging immediately.

“All you do is eat! You’re useless.” Mr. Guo rolled his eyes.

Zheng Tan started considering what Mr. Guo had just said.

How should he define himself now? Was he a social animal or not? Humans formed societies, but cats preferred to be alone. He had the soul of a human male but the blood of a cat.

If one day he was out in the world on his own, what would happen? Would he be able to enjoy the sunlight or would his tail be between his legs?

He really didn’t know.

When the two employees got back, Zheng Tan started working.

This photoshoot was not difficult. It was not for kitten food, so it didn’t take long. After it was done, Mr. Guo took Zheng Tan back to the quarters.

Well-fed and well-rested, Zheng Tan laid on the sofa and watched a sappy soap opera with Mama Jiao. He took another nap and then went outside to play. Mama Jiao was home; he didn’t have to watch the kids anymore. Sometimes, he stayed out late.

It was the end of the year, and Papa Jiao was busy most of the time. His experiments were reaching a critical point. He often stayed in the lab until eleven or twelve at night. Sometimes, Zheng Tan would stay out until eleven before visiting Papa Jiao at the Bio building, and the two would return on Papa Jiao’s scooter together.