Strange Life of a Cat

Baozi was reporting his recent findings to Ye Hao.

He hadn’t made any substantial progress. He looked worn out and had clearly been working hard.

After Lai Er died, his underlings were busy fighting among themselves. They knew he was looking for something, and although they didn’t know what it was or what it did, they were dead set on getting the material.

“If we can find this thing, we can get to the bottom of the mystery. This thing is of great importance to Lai Er, so it must be valuable,” Baozi said.

“It’s not that easy to find.” Ye Hao had basically given up. After Lai Er’s death, his interest in the material was gone. Lai Er was gone after all.

He had managed to take over two of Lai Er’s old factories. He was slightly tight on money and manpower and didn’t want to waste resources on looking for something that might not even exist. Rumor had it that Chen Zhe had evidence against Lai Er. However, if this was true, Lai Er wouldn’t have dared to kill the Chens ten years ago.

Baozi opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. He believed it was his fault that they didn’t find anything.

There was a knock on the door. Someone entered and handed Ye Hao a folder. The man was sent by Tang Qiye.

Ye Hao opened the folder. Inside was a photo of a gold pocket watch.

“This is what Lai Er was looking for?” Ye Hao asked. Tang Qiye was Tang Qiye, he knew what they were looking for even before Ye Hao had a clue.

“Yes. Qiye calls it the golden compass.”

“Golden?” Ye Hao’s eyes squinted. Tang Qiye might not have come up with the name, but he at least agreed it was a suitable one. The name betrayed the value of the good. Ye Hao forgot all about giving up his search.

Long Qi was back.

“What? Didn’t you say you found something?” Baozi asked. He really hoped Long Qi could come up with something.

Long Qi shook his head. He told them how he had followed the three men to the empty apartment.

Ye Hao sighed and said to Long Qi, “Work on this with Baozi for now. Let someone else deal with the construction projects.”

“Sure. Oh, I ran into the cat today.” Long Qi’s face was twisted.

“Which one?” Ye Hao asked.

“The black one.”

“Oh.” Ye Hao and Baozi now knew why Long Qi was in such a sour mood when he came back. They had thought it was because he came up empty, but they now knew it was because of the cat.

“I called Wei Ling and he talked the cat into leaving. However, it left me this before it went home.” Long Qi took out the gold pocket watch and placed it on the table.

The man who came here on Tang Qiye’s orders gasped when he saw the watch. Ye Hao and Baozi stared at the pocket watch in Long Qi’s hand.

“The Golden Compass?!” Ye Hao was speechless. He took out the photo in the folder.

Baozi wanted to bang his head on a wall. He had been working without sleep for days, yet a cat had found the watch before him.

Zheng Tan didn’t know what Ye Hao and his people were thinking. At the moment, he was being annoyed to death by the cats meowing outside.

He had entered campus through the west gate and passed through the western quarters. There were more and more cats in the western quarters, cats from the nearby neighborhoods often came here as well.

Many people disliked cats because of their noise. Cats meowed from night to day when they were in heat. The cats around here were meowing like they were being tortured.

Spring was coming and cats were coming out of hiding.

Zheng Tan was human, yet he couldn’t completely pretend the meowing had no effect on him. It was like being forced to go vegetarian yet having someone eat a steak in front of you.

Spring was a lovely season.

Zheng Tan was not going to admit the meowing had an effect on him. However, he was not about to let the cats around him enjoy their ‘happy time’. If he had to go vegetarian, they weren’t allowed to eat meat either.

The woods on campus were full of cats at night. However, a shriek rang through the woods. The shrieking sounded like a howl but was much creepier.

The meowing stopped instantly. Some cats started to run the moment they heard the shrieking, especially the cats from the western quarter.

They knew that the only thing that couldn’t make a noise like that was the black cat from the eastern quarters. Even if they didn’t know, the shriek alone would have frightened them.

Zheng Tan twitched his ears. He didn’t hear meowing anymore. His tail swayed and he happily went home. He took a bath then went to bed.

Because of his shrieking, there were fewer cats in the woods these days. Sadly, the cats in the eastern quarters still meowed every night.

Zheng Tan sat on the balcony and twitched his ears.

Sheriff was meowing like mad, though it was pointless. The area was full of male cats and neutered cats. The only female cat was a kitten. If he wanted to find female cats, he should have gone to the warehouse where Jiao Wei raced toy cars. That area was full of female cats.

Tong Qing had brought Zheng Tan to visit Cheng Zhong. He tried his car again. Cheng Zhong had never seen cats drive before. Following Fang Shaokang’s suggestion, he made changes to the steering wheel. He understood why after seeing Zheng Tan drive.

No one could see Zheng Tan’s paws after he lowered the steering wheel. People would think it was controlled by a remote. There were large toy cars like this one nowadays and in a year or two, Zheng Tan could probably drive this car in public.

He had signed a confidentiality agreement.

Cheng Zhong still needed to make some changes to the car now that he had seen Zheng Tan drive the car.

Zheng Tan didn’t need the car in a hurry. Even if it was ready now, he couldn’t drive it out in public.

He yawned. He wondered how things were going with Ye Hao. What would his reaction be when Long Qi showed them the pocket watch?

A-choo.

Zheng Tan rubbed his nose. This was his tenth time sneezing today. Did he catch a cold? He didn’t feel sick and his spirit was good. His temperature was normal. He just had a bad feeling. Zheng Tan wasn’t happy.

After dinner, Mama Jiao and Papa Jiao were chatting in the living room. Papa Jiao had been busy these few days and finally got some free time today.

“A fellow English teacher at my school owns a very pretty cat,” Mama Jiao said.

Zheng Tan twitched his ears. A pretty cat was still a cat. It wouldn’t have boobs or anything.

“She said she wants to visit Charcoal tomorrow. She wants to find Toffee a boyfriend. Toffee’s over one year old and can have kittens.” Mama Jiao chuckled.

Zheng Tan stared at Mama Jiao in horror.

Little boyfriend?!

This must not be true!

This was why he had the bad feeling in the afternoon.

Mama Jiao! You can’t do this to me. I might be a cat on the outside but I’m a human inside.

Mama Jiao looked at Zheng Tan, then said to Papa Jiao, ” Charcoal looks excited.”

Zheng Tan was speechless. He wasn’t excited!

Zheng Tan wanted to kill himself, but nothing was going to change Mama Jiao’s mind. She was discussing Toffee with Papa Jiao. Zheng Tan wondered if he should run away from home tomorrow. Maybe stay away for a few days.

There were plenty of cats at Mr. Guo’s. Those cats were pretty and healthy. They ate the best cat food and looked majestic even when they were just sitting in a corner. Though they weren’t smart, nor could they fight, but they were still way superior compared normal house cats. Toffee’s owner should have gone to Mr. Guo’s shop if she wanted kittens.

Didn’t Nougat and Li Yuanba live at the pet center? He was planning to introduce Nougat to Toffee.

They could have series of candy cats!