Strange Life of a Cat

Bian Tou flipped his hand and caught the plastic membrane before it fell to the floor. He rubbed it between his middle and ring fingers. After wiping off the cat saliva, he could feel the membrane even better. It was exactly what he thought it was. He looked at the cat who was ignoring the cat food. If he still didn’t understand what was going on, he could kiss his spying life goodbye.

Though he was completely shellshocked, he managed to keep a straight face. He knew what he had to do the moment he got the membrane. The cat was trained, it would probably be fine if he left it alone for a while.

When he stood up, the plastic membrane had already disappeared. Bian Tou turned to face the woman and said, “Give me a second. I need to find some gloves and a torchlight. I’ll pull the cat out later. We can’t let it stay down there forever.”

The woman nodded. After Bian Tou left, she gathered up her bathrobe and bent down, looking under the cupboards.

Zheng Tan was not well hidden at the moment. The woman could see his figure even though he was still masked in darkness.

It was then that she happened to see the cat show all its sharp teeth. When it closed its mouth, it looked her directly in the eye, its eyes gleaming.

She backed up hurriedly and stood up. She almost fell from getting up too quickly.

She suddenly remembered the stray she had gotten rid of when Bian Tou wasn’t home was just like this one.

This was why she hated stray cats. They were ugly and stupid and mean.

If Zheng Tan knew what she thought of him, he would argue it wasn’t his intention to scare her. He was only yawning. After holding something in his mouth the whole time coming here, he could finally move his mouth now that it was out.

The woman didn’t want to stay here anymore. She went into the storage room. Bian Tou was looking for something but there were indeed gloves in his hands. She felt relieved.

When Bian Tou came out with a torchlight, the woman stood away from the kitchen. Bian Tou was capable, but she was still scared the cat might slip out of his grip and hurt her.

Bian Tou laid the torchlight aside. He reached a gloved hand under the cupboard. Zheng Tan saw the plastic membrane on his finger, now with the addition of a small rectangular block inside. This was what Wei Ling and Ye Hao wanted.

It was just…

He seriously didn’t want to put something like that in his mouth.

However, he wanted this over with, so he forced himself to put the membrane in his mouth and lodged it between his teeth to avoid swallowing it.

Though he had tried to prepare himself, Bian Tou was hit by shock again after seeing the cat perform its task. He had read the message on the membrane and performed his part. He hadn’t expected the cat to be able to ‘store the memory chip by itself’ like the membrane said.

Was this really a cat?

Bian Tou really wanted to test if this was some super lifelike robot or cat-bot.

With everything done, Bian Tou took hold of one of Zheng Tan’s legs and pulled him out. He thought about it, then reached out his other hand and carried the cat out so it didn’t suffer.

Zheng Tan followed Bian Tou’s guide. Just as he was about to be freed from under the cupboard, he remembered what Wei Ling had said. He started to struggle and scratched Bian Tou on the arm. Without the protection of gloves, he was able to draw blood.

Zheng Tan took no pleasure in doing this. Wei Ling had reminded him that strays attacked people, period. To avoid suspicion, Zheng Tan went all the way.

Bian Tou didn’t care. This was nothing to him.

The woman was less forgiving. She saw the scratches and immediately retreated again. She quickly ran to the front door and opened it, motioning to Bian Tou to throw the cat out before it struck him again.

Bian Tou dropped Zheng Tan after they were in the open. Zheng Tan ran as fast as he could and soon disappeared from sight.

Bian Tou looked at the empty yard and sighed a sigh of relief. At last, he had managed to get the memory card out. He recalled his encounter with the cat. There was definitely something off about that cat. He had to give it to those guys, where on earth did they find a cat like that?

“Quick, clean your wounds. Who knows what germs that cat carried!” The woman said.

Bian Tou nodded nonchalantly and followed her into the house.

Zheng Tan, on the other hand, kept running until he reached a hidden location where he was supposed to meet Wei Ling. He waited for a while before Wei Ling showed up.

He jumped into a backpack and was carried out by Wei Ling. They got on a taxi but quickly got off when they reached a large supermarket five minutes away.

Wei Ling’s car was parked in the parking lot.

It was only then that Zheng Tan was allowed out of the bag.

Sometimes Zheng Tan felt Wei Ling was over cautious and overthinking things.

Wei Ling steered the car onto a busy road, then looked at the backseat through the rearview mirror. He saw the cat get out of the bag impatiently as if it couldn’t wait any longer. He joked, “You know, a lot of things are like you know what. You could get right at it, but some foreplay makes things more fun and paves the road for what is to come. To get a better result, there are some things you just can’t skip. What am I saying, you wouldn’t understand.”

Zheng Tan rolled his eyes. He understood alright, but it was a lousy analogy and didn’t fit their situation at all.

“How did it go? Did everything go according to plan?” Wei Ling was in a good mood and was uncharacteristically chatty. He didn’t expect an answer from a cat, so he started to answer his own questions.

“Bian Tou loved cats but he never raised any of his own. He doesn’t actually know that much about cats. Oh, I lied. He did have a cat once, but something happened to it and no one ever heard of him having a pet again. He often buys food for strays though. It’s hard having a pet when you live the life he lives.”

After praising Bian Tou’s kindness, Wei Ling called Ye Hao.

Zheng Tan shook his head. He hoped Wei Ling wouldn’t drive the car onto the pavement. He eyed his surroundings and dragged a bottle of water out of Wei Ling’s bag. He managed to open the cap and took a large sip. He wasn’t thirsty but rather needed to rinse his mouth.

He got wet from trying to drink from a bottle. Dirty water was dripping on the backseat.

All of a sudden, he began to feel itchy. He hoped he didn’t have fleas again.

His head pounding at the thought of having fleas, he started pouring water on himself. It wasn’t cold, a shower wouldn’t harm him.

When Wei Ling called, Ye Hao was discussing options with Long Qi and Baozi. They still needed a contact for Bian Tou. He needed to carry out the next step of the plan. Before that could happen, however, they needed that list.

If he was honest, Ye Hao would admit he greatly doubted the cat would succeed. However, as long as the plastic membrane in the cat’s mouth was not found, they would be fine. In the worst-case scenario, the other side would get a hold of the membrane, but they wouldn’t know what it said.

The call from Wei Ling informing him of their success was surely an unexpected surprise.

He ended the call and looked up at Long Qi and Baozi. “We got it. Now we can move onto the next phase.”

“We got it?!”

Long Qi felt goosebumps. The fact that a cat could execute such a complex task scared him.

In the car, Wei Ling had finished the call. He heard sounds in the back and looked through the rearview mirror. He saw the cat showering with a bottle of water and almost drove the car off the road.

“You’re taking a shower in the car?!”

He would need to clean the car inside out after this.

Wei Ling didn’t take Zheng Tan to the Night Tower this time. Instead, they arrived at a quiet villa, where Ye Hao and his men were. They saw Wei Ling come in and stared at his backpack when they didn’t see a black cat behind him.

Wei Ling put down the bag and Zheng Tan jumped out. He ignored the expressions of the people awaiting their arrival. He needed to find the bathroom. The thought of fleas made him want to pull his fur off. He must have caught fleas in the bushes at Bian Tou’s place. What bad luck!

Wei Ling guessed what Zheng Tan wanted. He handed the memory chip to Ye Hao, then led the way to the bathroom. He drew a bath then waited for the cat to finish, before drying its fur with a hairdryer.

Zheng Tan finally felt like himself again after he was cleaned and dried. Wei Ling didn’t stay for long. He politely refused Ye Hao’s offer of dinner. He drove Zheng Tan back to Chuhua University in a different car. If he didn’t get the cat back before curfew, the Jiao family would blame him again.

That night Zheng Tan took another bath and used the anti-flea spray he got from Professor Lan. He got in bed with Youzi.

It didn’t matter if history was being made outside, Zheng Tan just wanted to enjoy the peace he had here. The rest was none of his business.