Strange Life of a Cat

Running into Sheriff didn’t change Zheng Tan’s plans. He was determined to go to Jiao Wei’s club’s meeting place tonight.

Sheriff watched Zheng Tan go, then debated for a moment and followed behind him. The cats Sheriff were playing with followed him. These cats had no plans for the night. They were here just to play.

Sheriff and the other cats played as they followed Zheng Tan. The sounds they made attracted more and more cats to the group.

This wasn’t because they were a pack. Out of all felines, only lions moved in packs. Cats were independent and unpredictable animals. It was hard to guess what they were thinking. Cats living in the human world sometimes looked for playmates as well.

The area hadn’t been taken by a certain group of cats yet. Zheng Tan assumed it was because none of the cats lived particularly close to this area. All of them only came here to play. Cats like Sheriff were probably considered newcomers here.

Zheng Tan ignored the growing pack of cats behind him. He kept an eye out for people. He heard talk that the school periodically asked janitorial workers to clear the area of strays.

Once a worker found a litter of kitties in a building but couldn’t find their mother anywhere. The worker had to take the kitties home. The mother was probably caught and sent to the pound.

Also, Zheng Tan realized that this area wasn’t completely devoid of people. Besides the model car club; other people had also applied to use these abandoned buildings. These buildings were home to many clubs. The school encouraged students to form interesting clubs and would make sure these buildings were safe before assigning them. The safe ones had special marks on the wall.

This was another reason why stray cats didn’t live here.

Most of the cats following him were cats from the nearby residential areas. The one fighting with Sheriff came from the western quarters. This was why Zheng Tan could move among them without fear of being attacked. Even if he were stronger than most cats, he wouldn’t fare well if a group of cats attacked him together.

Zheng Tan jumped over a construction fence and came to the clubhouse. The door was tightly shut. It was made from a thick wooden board. The students hadn’t installed a metal door because they felt it would give off the feeling that the things inside were worth stealing.

Zheng Tan didn’t enter through the door. The glass was broken on one of the windows. He jumped onto the windowsill and slipped in through the hole. Sheriff followed him. Cats probably entered rooms through windows as often as they walked through doors. This was a very easy task for them. The other cats had followed them to this building, but only two jumped into the building.

Sheriff and the two other cats started sniffing around the moment the entered the building. Zheng Tan let them do whatever they wanted. He jumped onto a shelf and started looking for a newly built model car. It didn’t have an outer shell yet, and the parts were all showing. He found the car and its remote control.

Sheriff had no idea what Zheng Tan was doing. He watched Zheng Tan place the car on the flat tracks. Sheriff went to sniff the car, then patted it with his paw. He didn’t find it very interesting. However, the thing suddenly made a loud noise that startled him. Sheriff jumped up with his back arched. However, Sheriff quickly got used to the sound. When the car started moving on the tracks, Sheriff sat on the side and watched.

Zheng Tan fiddled with the remote control. It was hard pressing buttons with his paw. He laid the controller on the floor to make it easier. At first, he couldn’t make turns so the car would hit the side of the tracks every single time. He would go over and flip the car back up only to have it hit the side again after a few seconds. The track was oval shaped, so it was difficult to navigate with paws. He hadn’t expected playing with toys would be this hard though.

He kept trying.

After a few laps, he could manage to hit the side of the track only five times per lap.

He had been so focused that he hadn’t realized he gained an audience. A group of cats was sitting by the tracks and watching him.

They were still slightly wary of the model car, so most of the cats stayed a distance away. Sheriff had tried to run after the car. However, it moved too fast and moved only within a small area, so he sat down.

After a short rest, Zheng Tan was ready to try again when suddenly, he heard a sound. He ran to the window and stood on his hind legs on a chair to look outside.

He could see a figure sneaking up to the building. Even humans could see the figure in the moonlight. Unfortunately, there weren’t many people around here at night. Even couples avoided this place because there were no streetlamps.

Was this figure a thief? It was unlikely to be anything else.

Who the hell picked this shitty place to rob?

The person came close to the building and looked around. He didn’t see anyone, so he waved his accomplice over.

The thieves were a man and a woman. Both of them looked very young and appeared to be students. There were a lot of thieving couples around here. It was better to work in pairs. Zheng Tan felt these two were much less experienced compared to the eastern quarter thieves. He should be able to deal with them quite easily.

When these two were trying to climb over the fence, they scared away all the cats waiting outside. Therefore, they didn’t realize they were still surrounded by cats.

The fence was falling apart, so they made it through without much trouble.

Zheng Tan saw them heading towards the window and quickly jumped off his chair. He looked around and found a wrench lying in a corner. It was covered in dust. Someone must have forgotten it there.

Zheng Tan went over and picked up the wrench. He felt its weight, then hid four or five meters away from the door.

The other cats in the room heard the noise outside as well. One cat who was close to the door quickly backed up to join the other cats.

Zheng Tan was walking on his hind legs now. It wasn’t like any of the cats here could tell his secret to other people. They were clueless about what he was doing.

He held the wrench and listened to the young couple talk. Even though they were sure the room was empty, they didn’t dare to talk loudly. After all, someone might pass by.

“Are there things in there worth a lot of money? How much money?” the woman whispered.

“Of course there’s stuff in there worth a lot of money. The things those people play with, if we sell them, we could get hundreds, maybe even thousands. We can afford new clothes for you. Didn’t you see a bag you liked last time you went shopping? We can afford to buy brand name perfume too.” the man said.

“Can you open the door without a key?” The woman was doubtful.

Zheng Tan heard the man try to break the lock.

After the incident at the eastern quarters, Zheng Tan greatly disliked thieves. Usually, he minded his own business. This time, however, these thieves had the misfortune of running into him. He couldn’t let them go without teaching them a lesson. He could use Mighty as his disguise in the eastern quarters, but this time, he was on his own.

The cats in the storage house stayed silent. They were alert and ready to run away.

The door opened with a creak. The moonlight flowed inside.

“I told you locks couldn’t stop me.” the man bragged.

“Be careful.” The woman still seemed afraid, yet the allure of new clothes and designer perfume was too great. She followed the man inside.

“Don’t worry about it; there’s no one…”

He didn’t finish his sentence because he saw pairs of glowing eyes in the dark.

In the silence of the night, inside an old building, glowing eyes were very frightening, especially since they knew they were doing something wrong.

“Ah…”

The man placed his hand over the woman’s mouth to stifle her scream.

“Don’t worry. It’s a pack of cats. Not human…” Though the eyes startled him too, he was more experience than the woman and managed to regain his cool. Before he could finish his sentence, something slammed into his face, and all he could feel was pain.

Bang!

His nose started bleeding, and a tooth fell off.

Someone once said cats were useless against thieves. Dogs could alert humans and bite the intruder. Cats would probably run away.

That might be the case normally. Sadly, these thieves were out of luck today.

The wrench made a loud sound when it hit the floor.

The other cats jumped and started scattering about.