A Missing Bottle of Liquor

By the time Zheng Tan had gotten home, the other layer of his fur was already wet. Since he stayed too long in the snow, plus it had been snowing heavily when he went out, it would be a miracle if he didn't get wet.

Luckily, the fur on him was quite dense; it could still keep him warm. Nevertheless, every time the cold wind blew while outside, Zheng Tan couldn’t help but tremble.

Realizing that Zheng Tan came home wet, Youzi quickly grabbed the blow drier and dried Zheng Tan's fur.

"With that thick layer of snow, there is no other cat to be seen in the courtyard. Only our Charcoal went out," Jiao Yuan said.

"And Sahara."

Speak of the devil, a round of barks rang from downstairs. Zheng Tan could clearly identify that it was Sahara's howls, but this time, the barks were not so confident, nothing near the soaring spirit it had from before.

Jiao Tan giggled, immediately opening the living room window and looking towards the building diagonally opposite. Youzi carried a stool over, took her slippers off and stood on the stool to get a view outside the windows.

Zheng Tan was also curious, hopping onto the windowsill and looking toward the direction of the barking.

The dog that was howling downstairs in the building diagonally opposite was indeed Sahara. Meanwhile, academician Ruan's grandson Ruan Ying stood on the second floor’s balcony, leaning against the balcony railing and drinking from a bowl of kombu pork rib soup in his hands. He licked his lips and smacked his tongue as he drank the soup, yelling at the drooling dog downstairs, "You ran. Try to run again. There is no serving of bone soup for you tonight!"

"Woof woof… Woof woof woof…" The yelps were interweaved with whines. Clearly, it had weakened, craving a bite of the bones upstairs but couldn't enter the door.

Sahara knocked the great iron door at the gate with his paw, but he withdrew his paw after a single knock. He remembered that this iron door could not be messed with; one knock and he would be spanked when he gets home.

In the end, Sahara crouched before the gate. The final "woof" was replaced with level and oblique tones of whimpers from the nasal cavity. After a few whines, he yawned and scratched his mouth.

It wasn't until ten minutes later did its owner opened up the door and let him in. Afraid that letting it stay outside any longer would cause it to catch a cold.

Upon entry, the sluggish Sahara suddenly regained its spirit. Its bushy tails swung with great enthusiasm, proceeding to climb the stairs hastily and even leaping.

There were many other people who watched the scene of bustle like Jiao Yuan and them. Due to different directions that each household faced, some watched on from their own balcony, while some peeped from the side bedrooms or living room windows. Sometimes, people even jeered, like just then somebody had called Sahara over to their house to chew on bones. Turns out, Sahara did have some backbone. Shifting its butt, Sahara became firmly unswerving.

Just as Jiao Yuan was about to comment on the episode about the difference between having a cat and having a dog, he heard the sound of sneezing coming from beside him.

Zheng Tan snuffed his nose. A moment later, he couldn't help but to "achoo" again.

Jiao Yuan and Youzi stared at Zheng Tan. After two consecutive sneezes, Jiao Yuan screamed at Mama Jiao, who was inside the bedroom, "Mom, Charcoal might have caught a cold!!"

"What? Cold?!" Mama Jiao quickly put down her job at hand, dashing over with her slippers.

Zheng Tan also had a not-so-great feeling. Could he really have caught a cold?

"Do you need to measure the body temperature?" Youzi asked.

Taking the temperature?

Zheng Tan's thought wandered back to the sights he had seen in the pet center with pets having a thermometer stuck inserted inside them. His body trembled. Sh*t, the temperature better not be measured with a thermometer thrust up his anus.

Mama Jiao didn't have much understanding about this kind of situations. After thinking, she rang Mr. Guo up.

"Caught a cold? Did its conjunctiva bloodshot? Did the eyes tear up often or have a lot of eye discharge?" Mr. Guo asked from the other end of the receiver.

"Not really."

"How about dietary intake?"

"Don't know, it's not dinner time yet."

"You can measure the temperature, but if you measure it at home yourself, you can use the method of measuring temperature from the base of the thigh. That way is more convenient…"

Zheng Tan jumped onto the desktop, his ears straight as he listened in to the conversation between Mama Jiao and Mr. Guo on the phone. He was relieved when he heard that he didn't have to take the temperature from the rectum.

When Mama Jiao hung up, she found the thermometer and gave it a shake. When she turned around, she found Zheng Tan already there lying on his side, tails tucked in tightly and a back leg lifted up.

Mama Jiao can't help but laugh. Other people needed to conduct some "foreplay" before taking the temperature on their cat to appease them. Now that it was their cat's turn, words were spared; it had already posed for it.

Zheng Tan's thoughts on this were that anything would work if it was not the anal method of measuring temperature.

However, this seemed to be indecent exposure… Who cares, it was not like he had never flashed it before. Who could blame him now that he was a cat? There was no need to be unreasonable. There were plenty of cats on the streets, wandering around with their parts exposed.

Mama Jiao placed the thermometer that she prepared on the connecting point between Zheng Tan's back leg and abdomen. She waited as Zheng Tan maintained the same position for 5 minutes to take the temperature, only then did she take the thermometer out.

"Thirty-nine degrees." Mama Jiao's brows stitched together. This was a little high according to the explanation that Mr. Jiao had given.

This method of measuring body temperature would often cause the results to be lower than the actual temperature, so Mr. Guo gave many different standard ranges for this method of measuring. Since cats' normal temperature was naturally higher than humans’, the standards were also different.

Mama Jiao called Mr. Guo again and told him the results to the body temperature measurements.

"Then there isn't much problem, you can give it some children's granules. We will see what we can do tomorrow." Mr. Guo let out a breath from the other end. He had some new year's advertisement that needed this cat's appearance in the future. If otherwise, to only depend on those cats in the store would probably waste a lot of food.

After getting Mr. Guo's explanation, they were much more at ease. Mama Jiao diffused some children's granule. Zheng Tan could drink it himself without requiring an injecting syringe to feed him.

Cats were no rival to humans; Zheng Tan didn't want his current self to be half-dead.

Dinner time was spent with the members of Jiao family paying close attention to Zheng Tan eating. Seeing that his appetite was as big as usual, the four around the table became much more content.

His sickness was probably not very severe with that big of an appetite.

During night time, Mama Jiao advised Zheng Tan to sleep on the couch. Even though there were no known cases of cats infecting humans with cold, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The severe acute respiratory syndrome in 03' had made many people cautious.

It was not that she disliked Zheng Tan or anything. Mama Jiao was quite sympathetic of Zheng Tan. She had made a makeshift bed on every patch of the surface on the couch that could be slept on. Other than a furry poncho owned by Youzi, there was also a wooly jumper from Mama Jiao. There was no way on earth that Zheng Tan would feel cold.

Zheng Tan himself didn't want to infect anyone else, so he would have to make the best out of the couch. If the cold did become serious and contaminating, then it wouldn't be good to infect others.

Not long after lights went out and everyone went to rest, Youzi opened her room's door, gently calling Zheng Tan to go inside the room to sleep.

Zheng Tan didn’t move, only rolling around and making some noises in response. There was a possibility for everything. If he really passed the cold onto Youzi, Zheng Tan would feel grievously sinful.

Youzi called out a few times, only to see Zheng Tan turning but not prepared to leave the couch. Youzi quietly walked over, placing a hand on Zheng Tan. Ensuring that the cat under her hands was breathing strong and steadily, she went back to her room to sleep.

Not long after Youzi left, Jiao Yuan did the same thing.

On the other side of the bedroom, Mama Jiao pressed her ear against the door to listen to the noises in the living room.

"The two children went back to their room?" Papa Jiao asked softly.

"Yeah. They all went back… I am going to check on him again," Mama Jiao said as she walked out the room, carefully fumbling to the other end of the couch.

This time, Zheng Tan didn't even bother to lift his eyelids. It was just sleeping; no need for three people to come by within half an hour.

Early morning while Zheng Tan was still asleep, Mama Jiao had come over to measure his temperatures. Zheng Tan was in a round shape, curled up when he was sleeping. This posture made taking temperature not easy.

Noticing that Zheng Tan had opened his eyes, Mama Jiao placed the thermometer while caressing Zheng Tan's head, "Good boy, keep on sleeping, just taking some temperature."

Zheng Tan: "…" I am not a kid!

A few minutes later, Mama Jiao looked at the degrees indicated on the thermometer. A smile finally cracked on her face.

"It looks like you will be fine."

Technically, Zheng Tan himself was aware whether his cold had become better or not. He slept after taking some medicine and was now much more comfortable. His nose wasn't as stuffy as yesterday.

After a stretch, Zheng Tan hopped off the couch to take a morning pee in the bathroom.

Looking at Zheng Tan's silhouette as he entered the toilet, Mama Jiao said to Papa Jiao, "Why does Charcoal's tail never rise up?"

When other cats were in a good mood, they would always stick their tails up, but Zheng Tan never did.

Zheng Tan would usually let the tail tilt downwards. When it almost touches the ground, the tip of the tail would inch higher.

There were many black cats in this world, but the Jiaos had felt that there was a great difference between their black cat and other black cats. Even when placed together, they could spot him very easily, because their black cat had some special little gestures and could be easily separated by those who were familiar with him.

"Who cares? There are no regulations saying that cat's tail must point upwards. Besides, our Charcoal is really sensible… Just a little bad tempered once in a while," Papa Jiao said.

Zheng Tan no longer felt like sleeping after taking a pee. He jumped onto the living room's windowsill and looked outside.

The sun had come out. Yesterday while watching the television, the weather forecast stated that there would be no snow for the next number of days, as the New Year’s celebration had almost ended. It was unlikely that it would be snowing that heavily in the future, or maybe there would be no snow at all.

The residence courtyard was a stretch of white yesterday, but today, Zheng Tan saw that there were already pathways cleared out. It was not definite whether this was the work of the old gatekeeper or the cleaners, as there were a lot of people in the courtyard who get too bored and had come out to sweep the snow.

For the next two days, the Jiao household didn’t receive many guests. Just in case of any emergency, Zheng Tan stayed in the house for that two days and didn't go out. It was not until the third day when there were visitors going did Zheng Tan amble out the door.

Two days after not leaving the house, Zheng Tan was stifled. After walking out, Zheng Tan felt that his entire body was soothed.

He went to the woods and climbed a tree. After his joints had loosened, Zheng Tan walked out. He didn't see Tiger, Sheriff and the others, so he headed straight out the campus gate.

Zheng Tan still headed towards the place where the kittens were buried. When he went there to check, there were human footprints and a cat's, it was likely to be the old man and the white female cat.

That female cat was still alive and with the old man. Even if his conditions were not as privileged as the family that had moved away, at least someone cared about it, that was sufficient.

The weather lightened. Gradually, there were more pedestrian and vehicles on the roads; it gave off an atmosphere of liveliness.

Zheng Tan trekked along the familiar path to the alleyway of the old residential block. He arrived just in time to see the tattooed man wearing a bulky puffer jacket roaming casually out the alleyway. He cursed at any person that bumped into him despite the reason was due to himself was walking in an "S" curve.

Zheng Tan hid around the corner and watched him leave.

The tattooed man did have an occupation, helping people trash up places and being a hooligan. Every week, there were a few changes of posts. Today was his only time this week. He probably went over there, found a corner to lie down and continued to sleep as before. By the sight of it, he had stayed up late to watch some "romantic action movie" for sure, draining his energy too much.

Zheng Tan waited for the tattooed man to walk off into the distance, then jumped over the fence into the old backyard of the old residential area when there was no one around.

The tattooed man lived on the first floor. The first floor had a large perimeter. The tattooed man had even circled an area out using a fence. That area was originally intended for public use to hang blankets but had now been forcibly occupied by him too. The people around him commented on this, yet it had no effect. Instead, they were harassed by him.

The small window above the room's door was firmly closed, but it was not the same for the kitchen. There was a broken window by the kitchen. It appeared to be broken for quite a while but never fixed.

Zheng Tan entered from the broken window, cautious to not be scraped by the shattered glass.

When Zheng Tan set foot into this small kitchen, he observed that the kitchen was not big in the first place but still filled with trash, giving off an even smaller impression. There were a lot of disposable bowls and chopsticks, and some ramen box that was not thrown away.

There was a layer of grease on the stove. The floor was covered with a blackish substance. Solidified, it definitely couldn't be cleaned if no force was applied into it.

No gas cylinders to be found. The iron pots tingled with rust. Zheng Tan looked around. The microwave was the appliance used most often in the entire kitchen.

No wonder the window of the kitchen remained unfixed for so long. The kitchen was not in use, so it didn’t matter whether to fix it or not.

The kitchen door was closed. Zheng Tan flattened against the door and listened for any noises outside. He confirmed again that there was no one in the room, then jumped up to pull the door knob.

Every household in this old residential area didn't have a big dwelling, approximately sixty to seventy square meters. The living room was piled with random objects and a motorbike. The brightest thing inside this room was probably this motorcycle. It was evident that the owner wiped it very often. Other than that, the rest of the space was filled with all sorts of odds and ends and garbage.

The unfinished takeout on the table was not cleaned up. The grains of rice on the floor had dried, stuck onto the floor.

As for the bedroom, magazines were scattered across the floor. The covers each had a scantily clad girl with big breasts. The calendars that hung on the wall above the bed also had the same style.

There was a lot of stuff on the bedside table. The ashtray was filled to the brim, and the floor had cigarette butts strewn across. Contrasting to this environment, there was a gift box of tea leaves and a Yixing clay teapot on the table.

A card lay on the luxurious gift box scrawled with words of wishful greeting, but it was not addressed to the tattooed man's name. Judging by the looks of it, it was gifted to an elderly person. As to why it had ended up here with the tattooed man, that was unknown but most likely through some shady means.

Taking a look about, Zheng Tan didn't touch anything in here. He backtracked through the same path, closed the kitchen door and walked out from the broken window. He waited for the coast to clear, then jumped over the walls and left.

Not far outside the alleyway of the old residential area was a small restaurant. Knowing that the surrounding was possibly going to be demolished, the boss planned to move the storefront to somewhere else. There were not many things left inside. Nevertheless, the business had flourished during the new year period. People would now call to order from the restaurant when they had guests over, or book a private room. The owner had earned quite a lot on the day of the New Year’s Eve.

The kitchen was beside the main building of the restaurant, filled with people who were either cooking or washing vegetables.

"One box of beer for the sixteenth room!"

"Okay, right away!"

The waiter wearing the uniform of the restaurant walked into the liquor storeroom, but while he was carrying the liquor, he realized that one of the boxes of beer was missing a bottle. Originally it had twelve bottles, but now it only had eleven bottles.

Could it be that someone had been sneakily drinking it? Forget it, who cares? Even if someone had been drinking, he wouldn't be the one to get involved and offend somebody.

Hence, this waiter picked another complete box with twelve packs of beer and carried it out.

After they knew that they will move stores, the management here was not as strict as before. Besides, the new year celebration was not over yet. The business was quite good. Occasionally, everyone would turn a blind eye when someone reaped some profit from the confusion.

So from thereon, those who entered the storeroom and saw the box with a missing bottle of beer had the same thoughts as the previous person. No one would spill this matter out.