Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 273 - Chapter 273 Chapter 266 The God-like Middle School Student

Chapter 273: Chapter 266: The God-like Middle School Student Chapter 273: Chapter 266: The God-like Middle School Student After sending the text message to Little Luo, Zheng Tan didn’t pay much attention to the progress of the case, and he hadn’t even looked at the newspapers in the past few days, because one day, when he was about to flip through some spicy magazines in Jiao Yuan’s room, he found a bag of something.

Zheng Tan had a vivid memory of the “XX brand milk tea” printed on that small bag; it was the same one he had seen when he followed Ermao to search for Senior Hetao and had initially thought to be a counterfeit product but later proved to be some dangerous substance.

More than half a year had passed since that drug-clearing incident, and weren’t these things supposed to be destroyed by now? If these substances got out, it wouldn’t be a joke; they could harm a lot of people.

Jiao Yuan is just starting ninth grade this September, isn’t he? Isn’t he usually well-behaved? How did he come into contact with these things?

Zheng Tan himself had encountered such stuff during his middle school days, but he didn’t dare to get involved much. Now that this issue had landed on Jiao Yuan, Zheng Tan’s feelings were quite complicated. Of course, Zheng Tan wasn’t sure whether the milk tea powder in this bag was actually that “medicine,” considering that only a few of the bags in the batch he saw before contained “goods.”

Or maybe, Jiao Yuan didn’t know there was more to it?

So, after finding this suspicious bag while browsing through the magazines, Zheng Tan lost the mood to play with his phone, and decided to wait at home, pondering what to do next.

In the afternoon, when Jiao Yuan came back, Zheng Tan stayed in Jiao Yuan’s room, watching him, which confused Jiao Yuan. Usually, after eating, Zheng Tan would be in Little Youzi’s room or go out to play, rarely sticking around to watch Jiao Yuan do his homework.

“What are you doing, Heitan?” Jiao Yuan playfully jabbed at Zheng Tan with his pen.

Zheng Tan swatted it away; he was not in the mood to play with this kid.

“Why do you seem so serious today? Bored, huh? I’ll give you something to play with.”

As he spoke, Jiao Yuan pulled open the drawer, intending to look for the tennis ball he hadn’t used in a long time. Unexpectedly, a cat’s paw stretched over and lifted the bag of milk tea powder to the side.

“Hey, Heitan, what are you doing?” Jiao Yuan tried to pick up the milk tea powder that had fallen to the ground.

What am I doing? Helping you, you little rascal! Before Jiao Yuan’s hand touched the bag of milk tea powder, Zheng Tan gave it another forceful flip, aiming for the garbage bin next to the desk.

Jiao Yuan frowned at Zheng Tan’s action and then asked, “Heitan, is there a problem with this milk tea powder? Yeah, the production date is so old; drinking it would probably cause diarrhea.”

If it were just simple diarrhea, I wouldn’t be this agitated! Zheng Tan flipped the bag of milk tea powder into the garbage bin and wrapped the plastic bag that was covering the bin around the opening.

Jiao Yuan stared at Zheng Tan for a few seconds, then got up and went to his parents’ master bedroom to make a phone call, even closing the door before he made the call.

Mr. Jiao wasn’t home, busy in the yard, and Jiao Ma was watching TV on the sofa. Seeing Jiao Yuan’s actions, she clicked her tongue. Making a phone call and closing the door, teenagers really have all sorts of moods. Jiao Ma didn’t think much of it and continued watching her show.

Zheng Tan stood at the door of the master bedroom, listening intently. He heard Jiao Yuan say to the person on the other end of the line, “I think our cat must have sensed something, you guys mustn’t drink it! I’ll keep calling the others, those guys from the other classes only gave it to the five of us, right? They claimed it to be some expensive good stuff, looking reluctant as hell when they gave it. I’m sure that ‘exempt from inspection’ label is a fake!”

Listening to Jiao Yuan’s words, Zheng Tan felt somewhat relieved. It was good that they realized something was off; regardless of whether the stuff contained any illicit materials, it was always good to steer clear of it. Finding out that others had given it to Jiao Yuan and his friends, and these kids had no clue what might be in it, Zheng Tan felt a surge of anger.

Who the fuck is asking for trouble, actually coming over to harm one’s own children!

Students from the other classes? That would mean the students from grade nine at Jiao Yuan’s school.

After the call, Jiao Yuan returned to his room. He wasn’t in a rush to do homework and closed the door to talk to Zheng Tan since there were many things he couldn’t discuss with the rest of the family. With all his friends staying at their own homes, Zheng Tan was the only listener he had, and there was no worry about snitching.

“Heitan, do you think those guys had bad intentions?”

After hearing Jiao Yuan’s words, Zheng Tan knew it happened during Jiao Yuan’s attendance at a classmate’s birthday party where several students from other ninth-grade classes gave them the stuff, initially wanting to give only two bags. Xiong Xiong felt they were being stingy, so, begrudgingly, they gave one bag to each of the five of them.

It wasn’t that Xiong Xiong really thought they were stingy; he just couldn’t stand those guys. Among the students from other classes attending the birthday party, there was one who had incited animosity in Jiao Yuan’s class. This person had a good relationship with the class beauty, often visiting their class. When he arrived, he would cozily stand next to the class beauty, and right then, Jiao Yuan felt the pH level of the guys in his class plummet. That’s why Xiong Xiong was always targeting those people.

They had received this stuff almost two days ago, and none of the five guys had actually drunk the milk tea powder. Fu Lei refrained because he didn’t want to drink something given by enemies, having fought with those guys before; Xiong Xiong almost drank it, but his mother intercepted him, feeling the milk tea was too low-quality and something seemed off about it, with some powder even clumping together; drinking it could harm the body, so she threw it away. As for Jiao Yuan and Lan Tianzhu, they hardly drank anything given by strangers, especially those they took a dislike to. The most peculiar of them all was Su An, who didn’t plan to drink it but decided to use it for an experiment, only he hadn’t found the time until after Jiao Yuan’s phone call when Su An squeezed in some time to perform a quality check.

The next day, after having dinner at home, Jiao Yuan told Jiao Ma that he was going to hang out with Su An and the others. Jiao Ma didn’t think much of it; the boys were always playing and shooting hoops together, nothing to worry about.

But Zheng Tan saw Jiao Yuan pocket the milk tea powder, which should have been discarded in the trash can, and instantly became anxious, quickly following Jiao Yuan out.

Jiao Ma didn’t say anything when she saw Zheng Tan leave; after all, the cat’s nature was getting wilder with play, and it was normal for it to go out for a walk after dinner.

Jiao Yuan saw Zheng Tan following him and, no matter how he tried to shoo Zheng Tan away, it didn’t work, so he stopped trying and took Zheng Tan to Su An’s house.

Jiao Yuan, Xiong Xiong, Su An, Lan Tianzhu, and the fight enthusiast Fu Lei often hung out together. After Fu Lei started hanging out with Jiao Yuan and the others, he got into fewer fights and his grades had improved somewhat; although they weren’t top tier, any progress was good, and Fu Lei’s dad was so overjoyed he could barely see straight every day.

When Zheng Tan and Jiao Yuan arrived at Su An’s house, Lan Tianzhu was already there. Fu Lei and Xiong Xiong arrived a little later.

Su An’s dad was busy in the yard, and his mom had gone to the gym to dance and exercise, so there weren’t any adults at home.

The others were only slightly surprised to see Zheng Tan, and didn’t ask too many questions. They’d been around Zheng Tan long enough to not be phased by certain things anymore.

“Did you bring the stuff?” Su An asked.

Everyone took out the milk tea powder they were holding, and Su An marked them one by one before taking out a foam box from the windowsill, which contained several small bottles of reagents.

“Did you mix them yourself?” Jiao Yuan inquired.

“No, my dad is strict. His master’s and doctoral students run the other way when they see me, afraid I might ask them for reagents. I managed to get this stuff with Shi Rui’s help.”

As Su An spoke, he put on his white lab coat, his small-sized double-layer gloves, and his professional-grade mask.

Zheng Tan stood by, his eyes twitching at the spectacle – this didn’t look like the setup of a middle schooler at all!

The “fully equipped” Su An opened the door to his home’s “study,” a room that was different from what other people might use as a study.

Though not large, it had a partition, and a simple fume hood was set up in the inward area. Su An carried the box into the compartment, pulled the transparent door closed, and asked the others to wait outside.

Zheng Tan watched as Su An cut a small opening in the milk tea bags that Jiao Yuan and the others had given him, then took out several marked test tubes, poured some in each, and proceeded with a series of tests.

“What’s that one labeled ‘Horse II’?” Xiong Xiong asked, peering through the glass partition at the small bottles marked with words. He recognized the others like “Iodine–Potassium Iodide” and “Sodium Nitrite,” but he didn’t understand the one marked “Horse II.”

“Marquis reagent, second upgraded version,” said Jiao Yuan, who was already informed about some of the facts.

“What did he say might be in there?” Fu Lei asked, intrigued as well.

Lan Tianzhu’s expression turned chilly, “Amph-etamine.” Seeing Fu Lei and Xiong Xiong’s blank faces, Lan Tianzhu simply explained.

Hearing a few sensitive words, Fu Lei and Xiong Xiong almost cried out. Especially Xiong Xiong, who would have roared if he hadn’t been worried about disturbing Su An, who was identifying substances inside. Although he couldn’t yell, Xiong Xiong still took a deep breath, then cursed softly, “His grandma’s!! I’m going to teach him what ‘everlasting memory’ means!”

Lan Tianzhu glanced at him and said somberly, “The term ‘everlasting memory’ has somewhat of a positive connotation.”

Xiong Xiong: “…” After thinking for a bit, but failing to come up with a derogatory term, he settled on, “Anyway, I should educate them, thoroughly educate them!”

Fu Lei too clenched his fists, clearly very angry.

“Lan Tianzhu and I extracted something from his grandfather’s small flower bed last week, we’ll properly entertain them with it,” Jiao Yuan said.

By this time, Su An had also finished the testing.

“How is it?” They all looked at Su An.

“It’s like my bag,” Su An pointed to the transparent test tubes in the fume hood that had changed from milky white to an orange-red color, “eighty percent sure it’s of the amphe/tamine class, but the reagents are limited, the test results are not absolute, there might be a small chance they’re of the chlor/amph-etamine class.”

“Doesn’t matter, as long as we know there’s ‘poison’ in there,” Xiong Xiong was already thinking about how to get revenge.

Fu Lei gave Su An a thumbs up; he had watched Su An operate inside and felt his movements were even smoother and more precise than those of chemistry teachers at school.

Su An modestly waved his hands, “Back in the day, my cousin used to make ‘ice’ out of cold medicine.”

“That’s so badass!!” Xiong Xiong and Fu Lei’s mouths hung open in awe.

“Yeah, and then he got beaten by his dad so badly he lay in bed for half a month,” Su An grimaced, “That stuff’s illegal. Half a month in bed is better than being locked up.”

“How will I spot stuff like this in the future? I can’t bring everything to you every time, right?” Xiong Xiong voiced his concern.

Out of everyone, Xiong Xiong was the most worrisome – his knowledge was limited and he was a bit thick-skinned.

“Haven’t you heard this saying?” Su An said, “Crystal meth, looking like ice but not sweet, K powder imitates salt, if it looks like milk tablets it’s Shaman. My dad told me this when I was in junior high. Just remember it, and you’ll be fine. Stuff mixed with other things isn’t so easily identified, but in general, don’t eat what strangers give you, and stay away from that path.”

As for Zheng Tan, he was simply stunned by everything he was witnessing.

Godlike middle-schoolers. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for it at Qidian (NovelFire.net), give it a monthly vote; your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.NovelFire.net.)