Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 253 - Chapter 253 Chapter 246 Being Watched

Chapter 253: Chapter 246 Being Watched Chapter 253: Chapter 246 Being Watched Mr. Jiao, after giving instructions, left and did not come back all night. It was said that he was pulled into discussions by some leaders and old predecessors. The red rat had not yet been fully identified, but it was already considered a treasure by the researchers in related fields. As the “first person to discover the red rat,” Mr. Jiao rightly had a say, and he was kept there by others and could not leave, having a sleepless night.

Although these people usually followed a regular schedule of going to bed early and waking up early, once they encountered something of interest, they got excited. It was common for them to pull all-nighters in the lab when they were young. Now that they were older and could not handle staying up, they made an exception this time. Thus, as long as they did not leave or rest, Mr. Jiao could not rest either.

Early in the morning Zheng Tan woke up with the three members of the Jiao family. Jiao Ma bought breakfast for the two children and Zheng Tan. They were just eating when a person in his twenties came in.

“Mr. Gu, hello!” the man said with a smile, quickly scanning the room and pausing on Zheng Tan before moving on, apparently searching for something.

“It’s Xiao Li, right? I already know, it’s in the bathroom.” Jiao Ma led the man towards the bathroom.

Zheng Tan was munching on an egg and saw the man, putting on gloves as he walked toward the bathroom, and knew what his target was. It was early in the morning and everyone was eating, yet this man came in to handle excrement. He was so eager! Scientists truly are a peculiar breed.

The person named Xiao Li, wearing gloves and holding a box, walked out and saw Jiao Yuan and Little Youzi staring at him, looking somewhat embarrassed. He knew he came at the wrong time, but there was no choice, he was just following orders. He had once said he would devote himself to science, so losing a bit of face was nothing.

“Mom, after breakfast let’s take Heitan to the veterinarian. I heard there are many parasites in the wild, and if he ate something bad…” Jiao Yuan said.

However, before Jiao Yuan could finish, Jiao Ma interrupted him: “Eat your breakfast. You don’t need to worry about this. Just do your homework after breakfast.” She paused, then added, “Heitan can’t go out. We need to wait for your dad to come back.”

Jiao Ma did want to take Zheng Tan to the veterinarian, but Mr. Jiao had already told her that several people were currently targeting Heitan, so he couldn’t be taken out.

Watching the cat that was chewing on an egg on a chair, Jiao Ma sighed internally. Having a cat was more worrisome than having children! Why did it have to cause so much trouble?! She had no interest in any red mutant species or genetic discoveries, rather hoping that the cat could be more well-behaved. But alas…sigh!

Around noon, Mr. Jiao finally came back, along with several men in their forties and fifties and two old men. Zheng Tan recognized a few of them; the one leading was the dean of the Chuhua University School of Life Sciences. This man had previously seen Zheng Tan around the institute without much reaction — not disdainful, but not particularly friendly either, not seeming like someone who liked cats. But now, he couldn’t hide the smile on his face, focusing on Zheng Tan as he entered, and nodded, saying, “What an a fine cat this is, truly a fine cat!”

Zheng Tan: “…” He really couldn’t be pleased with this compliment, unless the “cat” was replaced with “person.” Receiving a good person card would definitely be better than getting a good cat card.

It must be said, Mr. Jiao was very precise in his predictions.

These people had come to get Mr. Jiao to bring Zheng Tan out, to see if they could locate the red rat’s habitat through him and find more red rats. One was not enough to go around.

Some even wanted to put a leash on Zheng Tan or lock him in a cage to take him out but were refused by Mr. Jiao.

As Zheng Tan followed them out, many of the accompanying people were big shots in their respective research fields, but Zheng Tan felt no honor, nor did he have time to look at others. He was pondering how to play dumb later, how to naturally act the dumb part like a normal cat would.

The group walking attracted quite a few backward glances. Some young teachers and researchers working there rarely saw any of these big shots individually, yet now they were seeing a whole bunch together, making them too nervous to speak smoothly. Yet at the moment, these big shots weren’t in the mood to chat with the teachers and researchers; they were all focusing on the cat ahead.

When they reached the end of the road, Zheng Tan stopped; going further would lead into the woods and underbrush.

“Hey, why has it stopped?”

“Mr. Jiao, why has your cat stopped?”

A few impatient ones spoke up.

So, in front of everyone, Mr. Jiao started working to get Zheng Tan to continue leading the way.

Zheng Tan yawned, thought back to how Ah Huang dealt with mistakes in the courtyard, and then mimicked Ah Huang’s actions: tilting his head, slanting his body, collapsing to the ground, and then casually rolling around.

Mr. Jiao: “…”

Everyone: “…”

Mr. Jiao was reflecting on Zheng Tan’s skill at playing dumb, surely a feat he must practice often.

The others felt a wave of disappointment. Although they hadn’t had high expectations, they had at least harbored some hope. Now seeing this, their hope dwindled even more. What they didn’t know was that they were witnessing a performance from this man-and-cat duo, though of course, anyone in their position would hardly believe it.

Zheng Tan now understood that being a cat, he could blatantly play dumb boldly and without suspicion. This was the first time he rolled in public. With a dark face and thick skin, he wasn’t afraid of being laughed at. He certainly wouldn’t have done this before, but rolling now was better than being scrutinized later.

Someone couldn’t hold back anymore and had Mr. Jiao continue to order Zheng Tan to search for rats. Even if they couldn’t find any now, just pointing out a direction would do. They just wanted to know if this cat remembered where to catch that red rat.

Since these people wanted to follow, Zheng Tan decided to oblige them.

After rolling around and shaking off his fur, he continued nonchalantly walking forward, teasing birds and playing with insects along the way. Taking the chance to have more fun outside before being confined again later. He was fine, but the people following behind had a tough time keeping up. After walking a whole loop, they were all gasping for air, and a few of the older ones were already being supported by others. They knew their physical strength was definitely not up to the task, but they still wanted to see exactly which direction to explore further, insisting until they couldn’t persist anymore and then they’d let their subordinates continue. Even if they couldn’t find it this time, when there are field researchers out later, they could have someone search in that direction. Otherwise, with such a huge range of mountainous woodlands, consuming so much manpower, material, and financial resources annually, there aren’t many new discoveries. It was like blind flies buzzing about; who knows what could be found, or one might even end up losing their life in there.

Mr. Jiao was still persuading them on the side, telling them to stop expecting anything from Zheng Tan and to just return home, but these people were more stubborn than one another. Until…

“This road seems to be the one I took students on before when we came out to collect specimens,” said Mr. Jiao. He hadn’t known where Zheng Tan was leading them earlier, but now he finally understood. This cat just wanted to give these people a little torment; just a little further and they would realize they needed to loop back.

“…It really is!” someone familiar with the area said. They had felt something was off earlier but hadn’t spoken up.

Some still held on to a sliver of hope until Zheng Tan led them back near the road. That’s when they finally let their hopes deflate.

After all, what can you expect a cat to do at your bidding? If cats were that capable, they would have been used for training in certain industries long ago instead of dogs. Maybe that cat had just stumbled upon everything by chance.

“Such is fate!” an old man gasping for air on a rock slapped his leg and sighed. He didn’t have much regret or resentment. Having lived for so long, he had seen plenty, including an albino bear and an albino mole causing a sensation here years ago, and had even gone deep into the mountains with an international field research team, bringing back several “living fossil” specimens. Now being able to see a potentially red-morphed rat was enough for him.

Many who went in for money never came out. Oftentimes, those who discovered new species or animals close to extinction did so under accidental circumstances. Just as the old man had sighed, such is fate.

A group of people exhausted to death, even if taking the highway to go up the mountain back to the base was tiresome, they ended up calling a car to pick them up.

After returning, Mr. Jiao talked with a few of the leaders, then took Zheng Tan to see a veterinarian, given that he had been missing for a few days. It was always better to check to be sure.

The veterinary clinic wasn’t far from the infirmary, and Zheng Tan even saw that young man who had helped catch the red rat. He heard that yesterday had been treacherous, but fortunately, the treatment was timely, and he had pulled through. Surprisingly, he was now energetically chatting up girls.

That young man was in the infirmary telling a few girls about catching the rat yesterday, terrifying the female students. Now he knew the rat he caught yesterday was a rarity, and bragged about it to everyone, claiming the rat was caught by him, even the lunchbox was his. What, you don’t believe it? Don’t believe me? Look at my wound! Could a normal rat bite swell up like this?!

It seemed some forget the pain once the wound heals, Zheng Tan thought with contempt.

After the check-up, the veterinarian confirmed that Zheng Tan’s physical conditions were all good and prescribed some deworming medicine for him to take.

After leaving the vet, Zheng Tan, realizing he was close to where he had climbed the wall last time, decided to head in that direction, remembering the amber. Losing it would be too regrettable.

Mr. Jiao didn’t say much and followed him out.

There was a bush nearby; Zheng Tan had taken a shortcut through there yesterday.

Zheng Tan crawled into the bush following the route he took yesterday when he suddenly heard a rustling noise inside the bush. Looking over there, he discovered another cat, a house cat, not knowing whose it was.

At that moment, that house cat was bending its claws playing with something. On a closer look, wasn’t it the very amber he had lost?!

Zheng Tan rushed over and slapped the cat twice. The cat arched its back and yowled twice but feeling outmatched, it quickly fled as Zheng Tan was about to deliver a third slap.

On examining the amber, Zheng Tan was relieved it was still wrapped in vines, otherwise, it would have definitely been scratched and bitten a lot.

Pushing the vine-wrapped amber out, Zheng Tan decided it was better to hand it over to Mr. Jiao first since he couldn’t hold onto it himself.

“Mr. Jiao, what is your cat up to?” a security guard asked, looking over.

Mr. Jiao casually took the object Zheng Tan pushed out and stood up, then replied to the security guard, “It was just fighting. This fellow here loves bullying other cats.”

The security guard had obviously seen the cat that ran out of the bushes earlier and didn’t doubt Mr. Jiao’s words. He had been asked to keep an eye on this Mr. Jiao and the black cat since early morning, but he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. It was just a cat, after all. Why were these people so concerned?

Mr. Jiao casually switched the bag he was carrying, putting the vine-wrapped amber into the bag carrying the deworming medicine.

Zheng Tan thought to himself: Jiao Fox indeed! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to recommend it at Qidian (NovelFire.net), vote monthly, and support. Mobile users, please read at m.NovelFire.net.)