Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 269 - Chapter 269 Chapter 262 Great Potential in Such Businesses

Chapter 269: Chapter 262: Great Potential in Such Businesses Chapter 269: Chapter 262: Great Potential in Such Businesses After returning home, Teacher Xiao Bai, feeling emotionally unstable, called in sick to the kindergarten and then stayed at home until her excitement calmed down. Only then did she remember the number with four sixes; it was also this number that had sent the pictures which revealed to her that she had been deceived all along. She definitely needed to thank them. Having sent several messages without a reply, she directly dialed the number, but unexpectedly, she received a message that the phone had been disconnected.

Disconnected?

Teacher Xiao Bai thought for a moment and then realized that she had been so focused on Zhang Dong’s matter that she hadn’t noticed the expense of sending the pictures during these days. Considering the many pictures sent, it was possible that the other party’s phone was disconnected due to lack of payment. So, she went down to a nearby top-up shop and added 100 yuan to the number with the four sixes.

Chuhua University.

Zheng Tan looked at the incoming call display, hesitated for a moment, and then pressed the answer button.

“Hello?”

“Hello?”

“Can you hear me?”

Teacher Xiao Bai, listening through the phone, began to doubt whether the person was in front of their phone when she heard the sound of something being moved, accompanied by some strange noise.

On the other side, Zheng Tan dug at his ear. A gust of wind had just blown by, tickling his ear and causing a few leaves to fall from the tree, rustling against the trunk. The wind blowing into the tree hollow also caused some static in the phone’s microphone, mixing various sounds together, resulting in the peculiar noise that Teacher Xiao Bai was currently unable to recognize.

After waiting a while, and still not hearing the other person speak, Teacher Xiao Bai thought for a moment and said, “Although I don’t know what kind of grudge you have against Zhang Dong to tell me all this, from my point of view, I still want to thank you. Even if it’s inconvenient to meet, I hope you can accept my gratitude.”

Zheng Tan listened to Teacher Xiao Bai’s words over the phone. She probably had in mind to offer some kind of thank-you fee. Thus, Zheng Tan pressed the end call button and then sent a text message in response.

“No need to thank me. Just take good care of the children in the kindergarten.”

After waiting for a while, Teacher Xiao Bai replied: “Okay.”

Although it was only one word, Zheng Tan believed that Teacher Xiao Bai was a good teacher. Zhuo Xiaomao liked this teacher very much because she wasn’t biased like some of the other kindergarten teachers. Some teachers would favor the children of school leaders or well-known professors, while they would be colder towards the children of junior lecturers. Zhuo Xiaomao had been treated indifferently, and Zheng Tan had learned about it from his conversations. Although it seemed like a small matter to many people, it could have an impact on a child. Teacher Xiao Bai treated every child well, was patient, and had a friendly appearance, which was why Zhuo Xiaomao liked her.

In terms of backstage support, Zhuo Xiaomao was not lacking. After all, he had “Buddha” behind him. It’s just that “Buddha” didn’t speak up directly when Zhuo Xiaomao entered the kindergarten. Some teachers in the kindergarten were also unaware of Zhuo Xiaomao’s relationship with “Buddha.” But if anything unfair happened to Zhuo Xiaomao and he spoke up, “Buddha” would definitely play her role and a word from her could make those teachers pack up and leave. However, Zhuo Xiaomao hadn’t told anyone but Zheng Tan, and one day, he simply put a squashed cockroach in that teacher’s pocket. As a result, the teacher screamed upon reaching into her pocket and pulling out a cockroach while putting on her coat, causing a group of crying children, and the teacher was reprimanded for it.

In Zhuo Xiaomao’s own words, under certain conditions, one should handle their own matters. It meant if he could deal with his grievances himself, he would, otherwise he would seek help only when necessary.

Zheng Tan didn’t know what Teacher Xiao Bai had said to Zhang Dong, but he hadn’t seen Zhang Dong around the campus since then. After being out of sorts for the first few days, Teacher Xiao Bai gradually recovered.

“Brother Black, Brother Black!” Zhuo Xiaomao, holding his little notebook, ran to the window to show Zheng Tan his good grades, stamped with both red flowers and red flags, his eyes gleaming as he looked up at Zheng Tan for praise.

Teacher Xiao Bai walked into the classroom with a box of props, planning to teach the children a nursery rhyme after their free time was over. Her gaze swept around the room and then settled on the window at the back of the classroom. She had seen the Black Cat several times before; Zhuo Xiaomao called it “Brother Black.” It was older than some of the children here and would not harm the kids. Some of the children also started calling it “Brother Black,” following Zhuo Xiaomao. Many Chuhua University teachers were familiar with this cat. After learning more about it, she felt reassured and allowed the cat to watch from the sidelines.

The sunshine slanted in, casting golden light on the wall by the window. She watched the Black Cat gently pat Zhuo Xiaomao’s head with its paw. Seeing Zhuo Xiaomao smiling radiantly, she smiled too. But as she was smiling, she noticed the Black Cat, sitting on the windowsill, looking towards her, and the expression in its eyes made her heart tremble, and she involuntarily paused while playing with the props.

She felt that the emotion coming from those cat eyes was… very special. Just as she decided to observe more closely, the Black Cat had already shifted its gaze, high-fived Zhuo Xiaomao with its paw, and then jumped off the windowsill. It agilely leapt over the fence outside and disappeared from view.

Zheng Tan planned to visit “Tiger” at the lakeside villa; lately, the little guy had grown a lot stronger and spent his days full of energy causing havoc, even chewing up Feng Baikin’s 1,000 yuan sports shoes into a frayed mess.

Just as he reached the school infirmary, it started to drizzle. Zheng Tan had to turn back, finding a place to shelter from the rain. Just when he found shelter, the weather that had been sprinkling turned clear again.

Was this damn weather playing tricks on him?!

Zheng Tan crouched under a bicycle parking shed, cursing the lousy weather internally. He looked around; nearby, a concrete pillar was covered in various small ads–ancestral secret recipes for treating all kinds of intractable diseases, services for forging documents, and even ones offering to fish out phones, mainly targeting those who accidentally dropped their phones into the toilet while playing on it or making calls. Amidst these common advertisements, Zheng Tan saw a new, clearly printed, color poster for a lost dog–the urgency of the owner was evident in the wording, and there promised rewards for clues and significant gratitude for finding the dog. The phone number was also highlighted in bold. Zheng Tan took a glance and memorized the number, thinking he would lend a hand if he happened to see it. The phone number was easy to remember; Zheng Tan looked at it twice, muttered it to himself once, and had it memorized.

He checked the sky–sunshine was abundant, showing no sign of the recent rain. However, Zheng Tan was no longer in the mood to head over to the villa area. He changed direction, scaled a wall near a side entrance, and entered Chuhua University before making his way back to the East District, passing by the Old Tile House on a straight path.

When Zheng Tan arrived at the Old Tile House, there were several cats on the roof, but they weren’t basking in the sun; instead, they huddled together, staring at something below.

The tile house was a bit dilapidated, only two stories tall, and each level was shorter than the floors in modern buildings, making it seem not that high. The roof had a hole, and the cats were gathered around the edge of it, looking into the house.

Zheng Tan listened and heard some sounds coming from within the bedroom. Out of curiosity, he too jumped onto the roof, squeezed himself inward, pushing aside the two cats in front of him, and then peered down below. Though there was a hole in the roof, the rest of it seemed sturdy enough that there was no worry of collapse.

Gazing through the hole, he saw a low table inside the second-floor room, with a large plastic bowl and a dish on it. The dish held water, and the plastic bowl contained pet dry food.

Zheng Tan had heard that some association at Chuhua University had conducted a loving hearts campaign, which included feeding cats here–it was probably this house, and that plastic bowl likely had the cat food in it, judging by the smell.

Just those? That couldn’t be what was keeping those cats around here, could it?

He twitched his ears; noises from downstairs suggested something climbing up.

Soon, Zheng Tan saw the culprit behind the commotion.

A cat, and a dog.

These two seemed to be happily playing, running up and down stairs, showing no sign of fatigue. Once they appeared, the cats crowding around the hole stretched their necks and squeezed in to get a better look. Two of them seemed to want to join in on the fun but didn’t dare, while the others appeared to just be there to watch the show, motionless. Not all of these cats were strays; they were here, not out of hunger, but out of curiosity.

And that silly dog inside, Zheng Tan had just seen the lost dog poster on the concrete column–turns out this dope was here playing with cats?!

They say Corgis are smart, and there are some kept in the West District that aren’t as silly as this one. It seems that one must have had slightly above-average intelligence, and this Corgi must be pulling down the average.

Probably worn out from running around, the Corgi with little short legs hopped onto the low table, drank some water from the dish, nibbled a few bits of cat food, then lay there panting with its mouth open, completely oblivious to how anxious its owner must be since it disappeared. It was in no rush itself; from what the poster said, it had been lost since yesterday, and yet today, it was utterly carefree. As for why it ended up locked in here, whether someone deliberately did it or just didn’t notice it and locked the door after putting down the cat food is unknown.

All in all, this animal was certainly thick-skinned.

People often say that dogs don’t mind a poor home, and many times, owners don’t mind a dumb dog. Some dogs are unbearably stupid, and their owners still treat them like treasures.

After leaving the Old Tile House, Zheng Tan ran to use his phone to send a text message to the owner of the Corgi briefly explaining the situation.

The owner immediately called, but Zheng Tan declined and then made an excuse about being too busy to take the call. The owner sent two quick messages in response and then went off to find the dog. An hour later, as Zheng Tan was busy playing games to rack up his score, he suddenly received a text message, “Found it! Dude, seriously, thank you. When you have time, let’s go out for a meal, and I’ll give you a proper thank you!”

Zheng Tan wouldn’t really go out for a meal. Noting that it was also getting late, he needed to head over to the Affiliated Primary School, so he quickly replied, “No need for a meal. If you really want to thank me, just help me add some phone credit.”

After sending the text, Zheng Tan turned off his phone and didn’t bother with it anymore. Not until the next day did Zheng Tan turn on his phone and receive several messages in a row–the first was a notification of a successful payment. Zheng Tan looked closely–a “1” followed by three “0”s, indeed, 1,000 yuan.

Damn! They actually added it!

In relative terms, this was indeed a substantial sum. Zheng Tan hadn’t expected that a chance encounter followed by sending a simple message would result in a reward of 1,000 yuan worth of phone credit. Coupled with the credit Teacher Xiao Bai had topped up before, Zheng Tan needn’t worry about his phone bill for quite some time.

It seemed, there was much to be gained from such endeavors! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to support it by voting for it or sending monthly tickets at Qidian (NovelFire.net). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.NovelFire.net to read.)