Fu Lei didn’t go to school until the afternoon. His parents didn’t come home at noon so he always ate at the school cafeteria.

Now that he was at home, he made do with leftovers and two buns he bought from a nearby store.

He took a nap before finally leaving for school. The teacher accepted his absence note without saying anything. It wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last.

Fu Lei stared into space in the back of the classroom. The person sitting next to him exclaimed how lucky he was to be able to skip class. None of them could get absence notes from their parents.

Fu Lei didn’t want to talk to his classmates. His heart was heavy. He got off easy this morning because his father was busy. He wouldn’t be so lucky when he went home at night.

He sighed. The bell rang so he took out his books and stared at the text.

Halfway through the class, Fu Lei saw a shadow on the window. He peered out and saw it was the black cat.

Zheng Tan had left the house with Youzi and Jiao Wei. He walked with Youzi to her school then came directly here. He jumped onto the window sill, and sure enough, Fu Lei was zoning out.

He checked the rest of the classroom, at least Jiao Yuan and his friends seemed to be paying attention in class.

The back window was closed, but a window near the front of the classroom was open and Zheng Tan could hear the teacher clearly. To be fair, he could hear the teacher even if all the windows were closed.

It was Chinese class and the teacher was explaining the dos and don’ts of writing.

“Whether you are writing about a real event or a made-up one, be careful not to use single character names or write in any way that resembled Qiong Yao*.”

The teacher seemed very devoted, but sadly, many of the students were yawning. It was the first class in the afternoon and many people were tired. Lunchtime was cut short after the national day holidays and most students didn’t have the time to take a nap. It was no wonder they were tired.

When the bell rang, from those who were drifting off, some suddenly sat up and went outside for some fresh air, others planned to nap on their desks as soon as the teacher left.

Zheng Tan jumped off the window sill the moment he heard the bell. He debated whether to go find Mama Jiao and Jiao Yuan while lying on the fence.

Fu Lei saw that the black cat had left so he opened the window to search for it. Xiong Xiong came over.

He was asking everyone if they wanted to sign up for long-distance running. So far, he got nothing. They did laps in gym class so everyone knew what 800 meters and 1500 meters meant. No one wanted to sign up for the misery.

The class was full of people who were academics but lacked jockeys. Xiong Xiong was setting his hopes on the people sitting in the back of the class.

People sometimes hesitated when they heard 800 meters, but all shook their heads at the 1500 meters race.

“Hey, you, do you want to sign up for running?” Xiong Xiong asked Fu Lei.

Before he finished his sentence, Fu Lei jumped up and ran out of the classroom.

“Who is he? How dare he!” Xiong Xiong was upset. This was his first time being ignored like that.

“That’s Fu Lei. He’s very good at fighting. He can skip class and the teachers won’t say anything,” the person sitting next to Fu Lei answered. He was somewhat gleeful. Everyone knew Xiong Xiong’s background. Their homeroom teacher acted completely differently around him.

Xiong Xiong tutted and turned to leave. He accidentally glanced out of the window and caught sight of a black cat sitting on the fence.

Xiong Xiong didn’t think much about it and returned to his seat. He said to Jiao Yuan, “I just saw a cat outside the window, it looks kinda like your cat.”

Jiao Yuan, however, sat up when he heard this. He knew what his cat was capable of. When he entered middle school, he had wondered if Charcoal would come visit. So far the cat hadn’t come yet. He quickly asked, “Where?”

Xiong Xiong pointed at the window in the back of the classroom.

Jiao Yuan didn’t go to the back of the classroom, there were too many people there. He opened the window at the front of the room and looked out.

Zheng Tan was thinking on top of the fence when Fu Lei came running out.

The fence was a bit too high, Fu Lei couldn’t climb up it nor could he touch the top. So he stood there and talked to Zheng Tan. He took out a bag of peanuts to share with the cat but Zheng Tan wasn’t interested in peanuts. He just stayed there listening to Fu Lei complain about the beating that was sure to happen that night.

“Charcoal!”

Zheng Tan suddenly heard someone call his name. He looked over and saw Jiao Yuan waving to him from a window.

Zheng Tan walked along the fence till he faced Jiao Yuan’s window directly.

“F*ck! It really is you!”

To Xiong Xiong, all black cats look the same, but Jiao Yuan recognized the cat the moment it turned to him. He was sure when the cat walked toward him.

Jiao Yuan ran out of the classroom and quickly came to the fence. He was curious to see Fu Lei standing nearby but didn’t ask. He needed to know why his cat was here.

“Charcoal, why are you here? Does Papa know? Where’s your cat tag?”

Jiao Yuan fired out a string of questions that amazed Fu Lei. He looked at Jiao Yuan then at the cat. He would never have guessed it was Jiao Yuan’s cat. No wonder it always came to their classroom.

The bell indicating the start of the next class rang.

“Don’t go away. Wait until the end of class.”

Jiao Yuan ran back to the classroom. Fu Lei tucked the rest of the peanuts back into his pocket and followed Jiao Yuan back.

All through class, Jiao Yuan kept peering out of the window. The teacher glared at him.

As for Fu Lei, he was still zoning out. He did some drawing on his textbook and looked out of the window again. The cat was still on the fence. He didn’t understand, didn’t Jiao Yuan and his friends all live inside Chuhua University? Why would his cat come all the way here? How did it travel so far?

Zheng Tan bathed in the afternoon sunlight and took a nap until the bell rang again.

He was used to the musical bell at the elementary school, this bell sounded too harsh.

Jiao Yuan came outside directly after class. He wanted to take Zheng Tan to find Mama Jiao but Zheng Tan didn’t move. Mama Jiao’s classroom was on the second floor, who took a cat to the teacher’s office?

Jiao Yuan realized his mistake, so he didn’t insist. He told Zheng Tan to be careful of a giant dog on campus. It was the security guard’s dog and it was quite hostile to other animals.

Jiao Yuan kept talking for the entire ten minutes between classes.

Zheng Tan, however, didn’t stay. He was bored and left to go home after Jiao Yuan went back inside.

Fu Lei sat next to the window and watched Jiao Yuan with his cat. He was envious that Jiao Yuan’s cat came to visit him at school. His parent had a difficult time raising him. They could never get a pet.

When classes ended again, Jiao Yuan looked outside and didn’t see his cat. He made sure the cat had left, before asking to talk to Fu Lei outside.

He was shocked to learn from Fu Lei that his cat had been here yesterday and had gone to Fu Lei’s home this morning.