Chapter 290: Chapter 283: Demonic Barrier Chapter 290: Chapter 283: Demonic Barrier After Zheng Tan returned, he quickly forgot about the orchid on the balcony. At first, he wasn’t sure how to give the orchid to Old Man Lan. As it sat there, eventually, it slipped from his mind. It was only Jiao Ma who watered that small pot of orchid regularly. That is, until one day Old Man Lan came knocking, inquiring about it.

Old Man Lan had bumped into Gong Qin during his post-dinner walk, and in the midst of their enjoyable chat, Gong Qin mentioned an incident she encountered on a trip some time ago. To her, a cat taking an orchid only to return it was quite an amusing story. She had not mentioned it while outside, refraining due to Ermao’s advice, but it came up when she and Old Man Lan were discussing plants. Accidentally, she let it slip, which sparked Old Man Lan’s curiosity, and he went straight up to the fifth floor.

At that moment, only Jiao Ma was at home. Little Youzi had been called over by a classmate to help with competition questions, Jiao Yuan was out playing basketball with his buddies, and Mr. Jiao was still busy as usual.

Seeing Professor Lan panting heavily, Jiao Ma quickly poured him a glass of water, worried that something serious might happen to him.

“What’s wrong, Professor Lan?” After becoming familiar with him, Jiao Ma wasn’t as afraid of Professor Lan as before. Her manner of speaking was much more relaxed, but seeing Professor Lan in this state, she couldn’t help but be concerned. The first thought that came to mind was: Did her cat cause trouble? Did it nibble on someone’s valuable plant?

If Zheng Tan knew what Jiao Ma was thinking, he would probably be super frustrated. It’s all that sheriff’s fault.

Climbing up to the fifth floor in a rush had left Old Man Lan gasping for breath and with a sore throat. After drinking water, he felt much better and without resting, he asked directly, “Did Heitan bring back a pot of orchid a few days ago?”

Jiao Ma hadn’t expected it to be about this and immediately felt reassured. She led Old Man Lan to the balcony to look at the orchid.

“This is the one,” said Jiao Ma, pointing it out to Old Man Lan.

Zheng Tan had taken Little Youzi out and was just returning from a walk around the block when he entered the door and heard Old Man Lan’s outburst. Suddenly, he remembered the miserable state of the orchid on the balcony. From his understanding of Old Man Lan, he knew the grumpy old man would definitely explode in anger. So, Zheng Tan hesitated, contemplating whether to step back out and take another walk around. But thinking of Jiao Ma being the only one at home, he doubted whether she could withstand Old Man Lan’s foul temper.

Well, it had to be faced eventually.

Zheng Tan braced himself and stepped in, peeking through the doorway, only to be caught by Old Man Lan as he turned around.

“Heitan! Come here!!” Old Man Lan bellowed.

Jiao Ma’s heart hung in suspense again, unable to suppress her worry.

Zheng Tan dragged his feet and walked over to the balcony.

“Did you bite these leaves?! No, there aren’t any bite marks… Did you break these leaves?! Oh my, how could you grow it like this! This won’t do going forward…” By the end of his rant, it wasn’t clear if he was scolding Zheng Tan or the person who planted the flower.

Standing next to them with an embarrassed face, Jiao Ma really wanted to say, “It’s just a common orchid, is it worth making such a fuss?” But knowing Old Man Lan’s temperament, she held back.

Zheng Tan felt like Old Man Lan was suddenly possessed by irritability, talking nonsensically while circling the pitiful orchid, his words and actions betraying his distress over the plant, as if someone had gouged a piece of flesh from him.

Zheng Tan snorted internally. Old Man Lan was distressed about the orchid previously nibbled by the sheriff, but he didn’t seem to be as upset as he was now, which showed the significance of the Iron Bone species in Old Man Lan’s heart.

When Old Man Lan’s “irritable symptoms” subsided, the old man seemed to have made a decision.

“I’ll take care of this orchid for a while and then bring it back,” Old Man Lan told Jiao Ma, then threw a glance at Zheng Tan.

Jiao Ma also looked at Zheng Tan, then told Old Man Lan, “No problem, you take it… Let me carry it down for you.”

“No need, I can still handle moving such a small pot of orchid.” Waving off Jiao Ma’s offer to help, Old Man Lan picked up the pot himself and when he left, he even “harrumphed” at Zheng Tan.

When Mr. Jiao came home that night and learned about what had happened, he had no objections to Old Man Lan taking the plant away. After all, he wasn’t knowledgeable about nurturing plants; it was a science he wasn’t too proficient in as a professor.

“I’m just worried Heitan will get emotional; didn’t Ermao say downstairs that the flower was found and brought back by Heitan?” Jiao Ma said.

“Don’t worry, Heitan won’t get emotional, you know, when cats really want to guard their food, others can’t easily take it from them. Similarly, if it really cared about keeping the orchid at home, Heitan would have kept it watertight, just like its secret stash.” Clearly, Mr. Jiao knew Zheng Tan better.

After Old Man Lan moved the flower downstairs, Zheng Tan saw very little of him over the next few days. Old Man Lan didn’t come downstairs for his usual post-dinner walk with his old buddies. Zheng Tan once overheard a few old professors saying that Old Man Lan recently became obsessed over a plant worth only tens or even cheaper at market price.

Coming back from his walk, Zheng Tan saw that the door to Old Man Lan’s place on the third floor was open, so he went inside.

Inside, Old Mrs. Zhai was sweeping the floor. Seeing Zheng Tan, she immediately smiled, waving at him to come in and play.

With Old Mrs. Zhai present, Old Man Lan wouldn’t become irate, so Zheng Tan didn’t have to worry about setting off Old Man Lan’s irritable side and having the old man lash out at him.

Old Man Lan was in the study with his reading glasses on, flipping through books and jotting something down in a notebook; he was murmuring to himself, but Zheng Tan couldn’t make out what he was saying, and the few words he did catch, he didn’t understand their meaning.

After Old Mrs. Zhai had finished sweeping the floor, she sat on the sofa to rest. Seeing Zheng Tan peeking into the study from the doorway, she called to him softly, signaling him not to disturb Old Man Lan, then patted the spot next to her on the sofa.

Zheng Tan jumped onto the sofa and sat down next to Old Mrs. Zhai, listening to her low murmuring.

“Oh, Heitan, what kind of orchid did you bring back? The old man has been researching it for days; he’s been dreaming about it as well, spending all day in the study looking through materials. He even forgets to eat; every time, we have to call him and practically drag him to eat, and it’s the same with getting him to sleep.”

Old Mrs. Zhai wasn’t blaming Zheng Tan for anything; she was simply expressing her feelings, as this type of situation had occurred many times before. As a couple for decades, Old Mrs. Zhai knew Old Man Lan extremely well.

A thought struck Zheng Tan upon hearing Old Mrs. Zhai’s words—that orchid must indeed be unusual. Zheng Tan noticed its uniqueness because he saw the flower and smelled its scent; recognizing fragrance from leaves was another method, but could humans discern and determine differences between leaves by smell alone? Based on Zheng Tan’s understanding of these science and engineering professors, they would seek more direct evidence, so the most likely scenario was that Old Man Lan saw something different in those few leaves or spotted a difference in the roots during repotting?

Anyway, Zheng Tan didn’t have that ability, and even the elderly folks at Pei Liang’s place hadn’t noticed it. This was the mark of a true expert.

As Zheng Tan was listening to Old Mrs. Zhai, he saw three old men enter. They lived in the same courtyard and often bantered with Old Man Lan.

“Old Lan, have you figured anything out yet?” one of the loud-voiced old men shouted toward the study.

“What’s all this racket?!” Old Man Lan took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and stood up to walk toward the living room. After spotting Zheng Tan lying on the sofa, he raised an eyebrow but said nothing, directly addressing the old men who had just entered, “If you have something to say, say it. If not, then get going. Don’t disturb me.”

The three old men were used to Old Man Lan’s manner of speaking and weren’t offended. They even teasingly said to Zheng Tan, “Heitan, hurry over and nibble on Old Lan’s pot of orchids. I’ll give you a bowl of yellow croaker fish for a nibbled leaf.”

The other two old men wouldn’t be outdone.

“I’ll give you two bowls.”

“Add two from me too; that makes five bowls if you nibble a leaf. Heitan, go for it!”

Zheng Tan: “…” Up yours!

One of the old men strolled around, took a look at the orchid, then at a few pots of Iron Bone, came back shaking his head, “I really don’t know what you’re fussing about, don’t they all look the same?”

“Anyway, they all look the same to me,” said another old man.

“Hey, will it flower next year? That way we could really tell the difference,” the third old man asked.

Old Man Lan glanced at them, “Next year? Hmph, keep dreaming; even this pot will take at least three or four years to bloom, maybe even longer.”

Upon hearing this, Zheng Tan instantly wilted. All that anticipation for nothing—had he known it would be this way, he would have dug up the blooming one instead. Just to save some momentary effort, now there was a long wait without a certain end, possibly ten or eight years without flowers. By then, the devil may care about this pot of orchids.

However, Zheng Tan’s deflation was as fleeting as it came. In any case, he wasn’t particularly interested, just really curious about that flower, which seemed out of the ordinary. But let Old Man Lan continue to worry about it.

Regardless of how the old professors, adept in their own specialties but nearly illiterate regarding orchids, teased Old Man Lan, he just scowled and didn’t truly bother with these “illiterates”; it would be a self-inflicted bore.

It’s not like Old Man Lan could question Zheng Tan about anything; he knew better than to expect answers from a cat, so he had visited Ermao across the door a few times to ask about the environment in which the orchid grew, but alas, Ermao knew nothing. After days of searching through data at home without much luck, Old Man Lan now just hoped to keep the two saplings healthy; if they bloomed, he could get closer to the truth.

After discovering the doubts on the orchid leaves, Old Man Lan decided to cultivate the two saplings for a few more years until they flowered. Yesterday, he even specifically discussed it with Professor Jiao, who waved his hand generously, telling him to continue cultivating without any psychological burden—they were just wasting away at his home.

Zheng Tan no longer stayed to listen to the old men’s nonsense. He left to take a walk downstairs. He hadn’t gone far when he heard a “click” at the first-floor entrance, followed by two people coming up. One was Ermao, and the other had a voice that was also very familiar.

Soon, Zheng Tan faced the person coming upstairs.

Well, isn’t that the “Beast”? What’s he doing running from Mingzhu City to Chuhua City?

But the “Beast” didn’t look in good shape.

As Zheng Tan looked at Qin Tao, Qin Tao spotted Zheng Tan as well.

“Cat bro, long time no see, I’ve missed you!”

(To be continued. If you like this book, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep