Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 306 - Chapter 306 Chapter 299 Cell Phone Charm

Chapter 306: Chapter 299: Cell Phone Charm Chapter 306: Chapter 299: Cell Phone Charm Within the three days of being deprived of his cat card, Zheng Tan had no worries about his meals: breakfast and dinner, with lunch delivered daily by Jiao Wei. Each time Jiao Wei came by, he looked at Zheng Tan with sympathy. Having known him for some time, Jiao Wei had become somewhat familiar with Zheng Tan and understood that the cat was restless without his outdoor excursions, needing to roam outside every day, regardless of the distance.

During these three days, Zheng Tan indeed behaved well. He didn’t show any signs of rebellion or misbehavior, starkly contrasting with a neighbor’s cat that cried incessantly on the balcony.

When he saw the neighboring cat again, it was wearing an Elizabethan collar and was no longer crying. Zheng Tan guessed something had happened to it, much like what had once happened to Ah Huang.

So, comparatively, not mentioning Zheng Tan, the sheriff and Da Pang were among the few unneutered cats in the courtyard who didn’t cause a ruckus at home. Indeed, it was better to be considerate.

Zheng Tan lay bored on the balcony and yawned. The previous night, he had paraded in front of Mr. Jiao to make his presence known and to probe whether he could get his cat card back early. Unfortunately, last night Mr. Jiao had merely glanced at him without saying a word.

Reflecting on his behavior over the past three days, Zheng Tan didn’t think he had done anything wrong.

To Zheng Tan’s surprise, expecting to be confined for a fourth day, when he returned to Little Youzi’s room, he found his cat card hanging on the cat tree. His spirits, which had been downcast, immediately lifted.

He hadn’t noticed it last night or when he got up this morning, so it must have been Mr. Jiao who silently placed it there before leaving.

Jumping up to retrieve his cat card, which he had been apart from for three days, Zheng Tan slipped it around his neck and unlocked the door to venture out.

Indeed, after not being active for three days, running outside now made him feel much more relaxed and content.

Zheng Tan didn’t head anywhere else, but directly towards the Old Tile House District.

At the start of the year, several more old tile-roofed houses in the district were marked with a “hazardous” warning, signalling students to avoid them. However, for Zheng Tan, these houses were still fine. One marked as “hazardous” for years had even become a gathering place for cats. To the cats, so long as the houses weren’t demolished or disrupted by humans, they were good enough to romp in for a while.

Zheng Tan hadn’t heard any news about this area being slated for immediate demolition, so at least for this year, it would remain a good hiding place for his belongings. He just needed to beware of the rats and some of the cats with an excess of curiosity and a penchant for meddling.

At this time, few students were active inside the sturdier old tile-roofed houses. Zheng Tan approached one such house with a large “X” and a “hazardous” sign, and slipped in through a broken window.

Having been unused for a while, the inside smelled musty. There were signs of spider activity in the corners, and the room was cluttered with discarded wooden desks, their surfaces dotted with aged and discolored rat droppings.

Zheng Tan went over to a desk towards the back and stopped there, opening a drawer. This drawer was in better condition than the others.

Inside the drawer lay Zheng Tan’s phone, along with the diamonds he had brought that night, still unverified.

Nothing was missing, and there were no scents indicating the presence of other people or animals.

Thinking about the diamond identification methods he had read in the newspaper, Zheng Tan hopped onto a desk and meticulously fished out a few larger stones from the bag.

Lacking any specialized tools, he could only use the simple identification methods mentioned in the newspaper: weight, hardness, color, and cut. Zheng Tan roughly checked these indicators, and they seemed to match the characteristics of real diamonds described in the paper, but he remained suspicious. For a more accurate identification, Zheng Tan couldn’t manage it now. However, he speculated from something a professor mentioned in the paper that there might be new methods to lower the cost. Many research institutions and companies were looking into it; it wasn’t far-fetched that someone had found a new way to create gem-level synthetic diamonds indistinguishable from the real thing, and they were just keeping it a secret from others.

After putting the stones he examined back into the bag, Zheng Tan stuffed the bag and the phone back into the drawer, closed it, and exited the old tile house. After some thought, he decided to head towards the small woods at the edge of the neighborhood to check the situation.

Three days had passed, and he wondered if the two people who hid their belongings had come back to check on them.

There weren’t many people in the woods at that time. Though from the path between the new student dormitories and the side gate there were occasional passersby. Even though he couldn’t see the road from his position, Zheng Tan could tell what was happening by listening to the sounds of voices and the movement of vehicles.

Zheng Tan didn’t dash directly towards his destination; instead, he walked slowly and leisurely, all the while watching for anyone approaching and carefully distinguishing any unfamiliar scents in the air. He frequently roamed the woods, so he was well accustomed to the smells there. If there was any unfamiliar scent, he would be able to detect it.

During these three days, some people had come to the woods, and Zheng Tan picked up some scents he hadn’t smelled before. However, he couldn’t say for sure if they were related to that bag of hidden items; they could also be from students who had come to the woods for a tryst. The black-backed dog from the gatekeeper’s had also been in the woods to urinate and defecate, plus there was vomit from some student who had drunk too much.

When Zheng Tan arrived at the bushes, the strange scent had basically vanished. He observed the surrounding grass for a moment and found no obvious indentations–compared to the situation that night, it seemed like nothing had changed. He sniffed around the bushes but didn’t detect any unusual odors.

It seemed that those two people hadn’t come back to check. Were they really that at ease? Or was it that… they were no longer able to come?

Shaking his head, Zheng Tan stopped thinking about it and ran over to the tree hollow where he used to hide the mobile phone. It hadn’t been taken over by birds, and there were no other traces; except for the absence of the phone, everything was just as usual.

Everything was the same as always.

This left Zheng Tan, who had been somewhat hopeful, quite disappointed.

On the way back, Zheng Tan had initially intended to stop by Mr. Jiao’s office at the Life Science Institute to check in–having not been there for a long time, he wanted to show his presence and let Mr. Jiao know he hadn’t been wandering around. However, as he walked, Zheng Tan suddenly turned and ran towards the Chemistry Department instead.

He had seen someone, a person he had read about in the newspaper, in another photo from the report on Gem Level synthetic diamonds. Although he felt that the bag of stuff he had might not be related to that person from the Chemistry Department, Zheng Tan didn’t have anything else to do at the moment, so he decided to observe whether that person showed any other emotions. If one had lost something valuable, no matter how well they hid it, they would be somewhat anxious, right?

The Professor, who appeared to be in his fifties, had just come out from inside the courtyard and seemed to be in a good mood, smiling genuinely. He did not look like someone who had lost something valuable.

Walking with the Professor were two people, a scholarly and somewhat gentlemanly man in his thirties, and a tall and exotic-looking mixed-race beauty in her mid-twenties, wearing glasses. However, the woman simply walked quietly beside them, not joining in the conversation, which was being carried by the Professor and the other man. Judging from the Professor’s demeanor, he was being quite courteous; the people who can make these somewhat wealthy and reputable Professors behave so respectfully must not be ordinary individuals.

They parted ways at a fork in the road, where the Professor got into his car and left, while the man and the woman continued walking along the path ahead, seemingly to admire the scenery and architecture of the area.

Zheng Tan didn’t follow them anymore. He ran over to the Life Science Institute and circled around Mr. Jiao’s office before coming out. He had planned to sleep there, but since there were always people looking for Mr. Jiao, it didn’t seem right for Zheng Tan to stay there. He decided to leave and take another lap before heading over to Jiao Wei’s family restaurant to mooch a meal.

After making a round, Zheng Tan slipped into a small path that didn’t allow vehicles, just a stone walkway through the woods and lawn. This was also a shortcut that Jiao Wei usually took after class, and judging from the time, it was about right for Zheng Tan to wait for Jiao Wei here.

There was a meter-long wooden bench, and Zheng Tan jumped onto it and lay down to sleep. Even if he fell asleep, Jiao Wei would surely wake him as he passed by, so there was no worry about missing him.

Lying on the bench, Zheng Tan breathed in the fragrance of flowers from the season, ignoring the noisy birds flying around, and closed his eyes to nap. He had just dozed off for a short while when he heard someone approaching the bench.

Opening his eyes to a slit, he looked over and saw the same man and woman he had seen before. The two had wandered through the campus to this spot, and from their conversation, they intended to find a place here to rest a bit. However, they hadn’t expected to find Zheng Tan lying there.

The man and woman had initially decided to come over and sit on the bench to take a break when they spotted it from a distance, but they hadn’t anticipated that the bench would still be occupied by a Cat as they approached. As they got closer, instead of the expected departure, the Cat lay comfortably on the bench, slightly lifting its head, half-opening its eyes, and looking at them, exuding an attitude of “I’m too lazy to bother moving.”

Zheng Tan ignored the gazes the two people cast on him–he was hungry now. After running around in the morning, he had almost digested all his food and didn’t want to run anywhere else or sleep on the ground.

About half a minute of the man, woman, and cat staring ensued until, just as the exotic beauty was contemplating whether to shoo the cat away, Zheng Tan yawned, then lay back down, planning to continue sleeping. He didn’t feel much malice from the two, and since there was no threat, he decided to continue snoozing shamelessly.

The mixed-race beauty, about to reach out her hand, paused as her gaze fell on Zheng Tan’s sharp teeth while he yawned. She then adjusted the glasses on her nose and looked to the man beside her, waiting for him to decide what to do.

The man glanced at Zheng Tan, who had a cat card hanging from his neck–clearly a pet cat with an owner, as no stray cat would be so well taken care of. Plus, considering how well this cat looked, the owner’s living conditions must be pretty good. Seeing that the cat on the wooden bench had no intention of giving up its spot, he refrained from shooing it away. Instead, he reached into his pocket, pulled out his mobile phone, and dangled an attached charm.

All cats are interested in such swinging thread-like things, aren’t they?

Zheng Tan was still listening to the couple’s movements with his eyes closed. Sensing someone approaching, Zheng Tan opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a very pretty charm dangling in front of him, the other end attached to the man’s mobile phone, while droplets composed of several clear, soybean-sized spherical beads with… diamonds?

They must be fake, right?

Similar mobile phone charms can be found at street stalls, including those that resemble diamonds. However, the several beads on this particular charm resembled the ones Zheng Tan had inspected that morning. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at Qidian (NovelFire.net), your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.NovelFire.net to read.)

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