Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 264 - Chapter 264 Chapter 257 A Huge Gecko

Chapter 264: Chapter 257: A Huge Gecko Chapter 264: Chapter 257: A Huge Gecko The man didn’t go through the main entrance but left through a side door that led to the old street.

At this time, the number of people on the streets began to increase gradually; some stall owners were busy securing their spots. Students from Chuhua University, who only had two classes in the afternoon, were also out of class by now. They took the opportunity to stroll around and grab some snacks.

Zheng Tan didn’t follow too closely; the area was crowded, and many people didn’t pay attention to where they were stepping. If he got any closer, he reckoned his limbs and tail would get stepped on. Besides, Zheng Tan could see the situation on the other side from the edge of the sidewalk; there was no need to take the risk and suffer.

As he followed, Zheng Tan noticed that the man quickened his pace.

There was a stall nearby selling accessories and trinkets that girls liked, with quite a crowd gathered around it. After the man walked past, Zheng Tan noticed that the man now had a women’s phone in his hand. After acquiring the phone, the man skillfully turned it off, removed the back cover, took out the SIM card to throw into a nearby trash bin, and pocketed the phone.

That technique… only those who are ‘battle-hardened’ possess it; it was done so swiftly, so naturally, that the student who owned the phone didn’t even realize it was gone, nor did the surrounding people notice anything unusual. If Zheng Tan hadn’t witnessed the man steal the phone with his own eyes!

After stealing the phone, the man, who had been frowning and had a sullen face, now relaxed his eyebrows and smiled, looking pleased as if the theft had lifted his spirits and dispersed his previous gloom.

Zheng Tan didn’t know if this person liked to vent his inner frustration in this manner or if it was because he had another “profession” that made him commit theft. Regardless, he obviously wasn’t a good person, even worse than Zhuo Xiaomao had described.

Indeed, if someone would even steal from a child, stealing a phone is nothing.

Zheng Tan glanced back at the accessory stall, which had a few people around it. He couldn’t tell if the person who lost the phone was among them; likely, the unfortunate owner hadn’t even realized their phone was missing yet.

The person ahead had gone some distance, so Zheng Tan quickly followed. There wasn’t much he could do right now.

He was familiar with the route the man took. Walking along the old street and turning a corner after a short distance would bring him to an old community.

To call this community old wasn’t entirely due to its long history; it was built around the nineties, consisting mainly of six or seven-story buildings, each floor housing five or six units. From the outside, the area did seem to bear some age. The city developed too fast; the buildings’ old style and nearby newly built commercial streets and towering skyscrapers made it more evident standing at the intersection. The old community buildings, dwarfed by the towering modern edifices behind them, made the area seem even more outdated, sometimes giving off a sense of anachronism.

The majority of the residents in this old community were seniors, with some younger people who worked in the vicinity.

Zheng Tan watched as the man entered the community, quickly scaled a closed side gate, and after searching for a bit, continued to follow the man. He had visited several communities while strolling around the old streets, and this one was among them; he wasn’t familiar with it, but it was not unfamiliar, either.

In Zheng Tan’s memory, the buildings here were easy to climb.

Entering the building, the sound of mahjong tiles clinking could be heard from many of the ground-floor rooms. The old men and women would gather to play mahjong when they had nothing else to do, making most of the ground floor resemble a “tea house,” serving as an “entertainment venue.”

A scruffy little Pekingese spotted Zheng Tan and barked at him a few times. A bicolor puppy lying by the road lifted its ears, glanced over, and then lazily lay back down, completely uninterested in Zheng Tan. There were many dogs and cats in this community, and when those cats roamed about, their presence was ubiquitous.

Perhaps because cats were so common, neither humans nor animals made much of Zheng Tan’s appearance, with many not even bothering to give him a glance.

The man ahead seemed familiar with the barks of the community dogs as well; hearing them, he didn’t look back and continued walking while answering a phone call.

Zheng Tan heard him complaining about his bad luck that day to the person on the other end, his tone full of disdain for the children at the kindergarten, and he even cursed them viciously. This seriously annoyed Zheng Tan; after all, the man was cursing Zhuo Xiaomao. People are inherently biased, and Zheng Tan’s bias was justified, especially considering the man’s character flaws.

“Those little bastards need a beating every day to keep them from raising hell, damn it, they just deserve it!” the man up ahead kept complaining. However, after he walked into the building’s stairwell, he calmed down considerably. The building was very quiet; if he cursed loudly, he’d lose any favor from his neighbors.

Zheng Tan followed him into the building.

There was an iron gate at the stairwell, but it seemed like it hadn’t been shut for a long time. The residents probably found it too troublesome to close, so the gate at the entrance of the building was as good as non-existent.

The man lived on the third floor. Zheng Tan watched as he took out his keys to open the door, and before closing it, Zheng Tan heard him talking about where to go out on Friday night.

Zheng Tan didn’t linger here. After confirming where the man lived, he left the building and circled around the residential structure before departing.

For the next two days, Zheng Tan visited the kindergarten daily but didn’t see the man. There were only a few female teachers leading classes, with children wearing paper rooster hats singing “The big rooster crows cock-a-doodle-doo.” Zheng Tan turned and left. He couldn’t appreciate these nursery rhymes and felt that if he stayed too long, he would be assimilated by these little brats and become childish.

On Friday night, after dinner, Zheng Tan went out toward that residential community. Since the man had mentioned going out that Friday night, he would probably not be home. Zheng Tan decided to create some trouble at his place. Offending a cat could have serious consequences.

Arriving at the base of the residential building, there were fewer people walking around at night. Most elderly residents slept early and lacked the energy for nighttime mahjong, opting to stay home and watch TV. By around nine o’clock, they would mostly be asleep.

There were no streetlights around, just some light spilling out from residents’ homes; it wasn’t very dark, but there were many “blind spots” where anything done in the shadows was unlikely to be discovered.

Zheng Tan looked around and picked a spot to start climbing up along a corner of the wall. Below the man’s room, the two households had built protective canopies outside–a rain cover for the air conditioning unit and another to prevent water from dripping down when the upper floors hung their laundry. Many residents had installed such canopies outside their windows, and they proved to be convenient for Zheng Tan.

As he climbed, Zheng Tan used these canopies for assistance. Whenever someone passed by, Zheng Tan would hide on top of one. Although the area wasn’t very bright, someone close by might still notice him. It was not late at night, and many young people were out and about.

When climbing past the second floor, Zheng Tan heard someone approaching and quickly climbed up.

“Whoa! What a huge gecko! Heh heh… And it’s black with cat ears!” a voice called from below.

Zheng Tan: “…”

Obviously, the person had spotted Zheng Tan, and luckily, they were not very sober.

“…Nonsense, I’m not drunk! I’m perfectly clear-headed… gah–”

Zheng Tan hid on the second floor’s canopy, listening to the sounds of vomiting from below. Thankfully, the person was drunk; otherwise, it might have been a bit troublesome. But not too much trouble, after all, Zheng Tan was just a cat, and a cat climbing walls… that wasn’t exactly a supernatural event.

After the drunk had leaned against the wall to vomit, he staggered away, and his cellphone fell into the pile of refuse. He didn’t realize at all that he had dropped his phone.

With no one else passing by, Zheng Tan climbed swiftly upward, sneaking into a window on the third floor that was fitted with iron bars. Thankfully, the bars were not closely spaced, and the gap between two bars was just wide enough to allow Zheng Tan to squeeze through.

Perhaps because of the iron bars, although there was no one inside, the third-floor window wasn’t locked. They probably didn’t think anyone would enter through there.

Zheng Tan looked around; it seemed like many people had gone out for a walk. The occupied houses in the building opposite were not paying attention to this side, and even if they looked this way, they would not have noticed Zheng Tan. It was dark around the windowsill and beyond the sight of human vision, one couldn’t spot Zheng Tan in the darkness.

After opening the window, Zheng Tan took a look inside.

By the smell of it, the room was definitely inhabited by that man. The room wasn’t as messy as Zheng Tan had imagined. It contained a familiar scent, left by Teacher Xiao Bai from the kindergarten. The pair were a couple, but Teacher Xiao Bai did not live here; she must have come over in the afternoon and tidied up the room for the man.

With too many obstacles obstructing the view, Zheng Tan decided to look down from a higher point first before deciding where to start causing trouble.

Jumping from the bookshelf onto the adjacent wood wardrobe, Zheng Tan was about to look down when he noticed a key lying on top of it. The key looked like it was frequently used, with no rust and no dust, while the surrounding area was covered in dust. The cleaner had not managed to reach the top of the wardrobe, so the contrast was clear.

The scent on the key proved that the man had used it not long ago, while Teacher Xiao Bai hadn’t touched it.

A commonly used key, yet it was placed on top of a high wardrobe. Why?

Clearly, there was something abnormal.

Zheng Tan glanced at the other items in the room, jumping down to try the locked drawers and cabinets. He could open all the others directly except for two that were locked–one underneath the bookshelf and the other beside the bed.

Looking at the keyholes, they seemed quite similar. Zheng Tan decided to take the key and try it; the one at the bookshelf opened.

Inside the cabinet, there were cell phones, among them the pink cell phone Zheng Tan had seen stolen a couple of days ago.

Looking at the six phones inside, there were two feminine ones, three masculine, and one that was more neutral, used by both men and women. The phones varied in age and price, with one so outdated that it would be considered worthless, and two that looked high-end, which could sell for about 3000 yuan these days.

These phones were probably all stolen by that man.

Besides the phones, there was also a box containing SIM cards in the cabinet.

It was common around Chuhua University for street vendors and retail agents to sell SIM cards without requiring any identification, so these were likely similar.

If these phones disappeared, would the man come back furious enough to stomp his feet?

Zheng Tan looked at the six cell phones in the cabinet and suddenly remembered that it had been a long time since he had sent a text message.

(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it at Qidian (NovelFire.net) with recommendation tickets or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.NovelFire.net to read.)