Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 331 - Chapter 331 Chapter 324 Unease

Chapter 331: Chapter 324: Unease Chapter 331: Chapter 324: Unease It was clear that Boss Cai had been especially busy lately, which was why he’d made such a remark.

For Boss Cai, being busy wasn’t an issue, but given the same amount of time, he’d prefer to spend several days in a row in the kitchen perfecting new dishes rather than dealing with contractual paperwork. Back in South City, he had hired people to help out, but now, there weren’t as many helpers around, so more of the workload fell on Boss Cai, consuming even more of his time.

Perhaps since the New Year had passed, Boss Cai hadn’t had much of a chance to complain to anyone, so he couldn’t help but say a bit more to Zheng Tan. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Zheng Tan to understand the owner’s mood.

Originally, Boss Cai had also planned to carve out some time to devise a few new dishes. From a personal hobby perspective, developing dishes satisfied Boss Cai’s interests, and from the restaurant’s performance point of view, it was always necessary to introduce new items to attract and retain customers, as the document on his desk stated, “Customer satisfaction is significantly positively correlated with financial performance, employee satisfaction is significantly positively correlated with customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction has a completely mediating effect on the relationship between employee satisfaction and financial performance.”

Once the customers were happy, everything else was no problem.

With such fierce competition at Hengwu Square, everyone was trying hard to figure out how to entice the surrounding youngsters to spend a bit more money. As the shop owner, of course, Boss Cai was the same. After all, this directly reflected people’s satisfaction with the food here. Even though “Shiwei” already had a great reputation, Boss Cai couldn’t afford to be complacent and had to seize the opportunity to further establish his brand.

Now, some customers who couldn’t find a seat or were in a hurry would reserve takeout meals in advance and come to pick them up when ready, as there was no delivery service available here yet.

After lunch, Zheng Tan didn’t leave right away; he watched Boss Cai drink some tea and then get back to work, opening a document on his laptop. It listed the new dishes introduced after the holiday, including one that Zheng Tan had just had for lunch, which he found quite satisfying for the local palate.

Another document contained names of various restaurants spread across the districts of Chuhua City, reminiscent of a diary entry for Boss Cai. Behind some of the restaurants were notes, such as the date, time, and dishes sampled at a particular restaurant, along with his thoughts on each dish and his personal ratings. This was one of Boss Cai’s hobbies, a practice he had maintained for a long time. He kept a notebook for on-the-spot recording and later collated these notes together.

Besides going out to taste dishes from other restaurants, it seemed that Boss Cai also planned to recruit several chefs, which was sure to keep him busy.

After spending some time in Boss Cai’s office, Zheng Tan decided to leave. He didn’t use the stairs; the restaurant was still full of customers, and it wasn’t appropriate for Zheng Tan to pass by that way. Besides, it was more convenient and quicker to exit through a window.

Watching the well-fed Black Cat casually slip out the window, Boss Cai smiled and shook his head before getting back to the papers he was working on. He knew some of his staff grumbled privately about it being a waste to feed such good food to a cat that wasn’t even his and didn’t catch mice in the restaurant, basically seeing it as a bad deal.

Boss Cai had never explained the reason behind this; some things weren’t necessary for others to know. And when it came to the Black Cat, he quite liked it, and didn’t think the cat was as indifferent to flavors as the employees complained privately. He was very sensitive to the subtle expressions and changes in the eyes of people while they ate, from which he could infer their level of satisfaction with the dish. The Black Cat showed similar subtle expressions when it ate, very much like a human–something other cats didn’t do.

As Boss Cai analyzed the expressions Zheng Tan had shown while eating the new dish, Zheng Tan jumped out the window and was about to leave when suddenly, he heard someone calling his name. Turning around, he saw Feng Baikin stepping out of “Shiwei.”

After school that afternoon, Feng Baikin had come to “Shiwei” for a meal. He really enjoyed the dishes here, though he had made a reservation too late and ended up with a later order number. He had to wait a while to get his food, but he didn’t mind since he had no classes that afternoon. He hadn’t dined in; all the seats were already taken. He had just walked out with his food when he spotted a familiar shadow, called out to make sure, and it indeed was.

Knowing the Black Cat often hung around the area and had many acquaintances, Feng Baikin didn’t think much of it. He placed his food in the storage compartment of his electric scooter, ready to head back. But when he looked up, he saw the Black Cat running toward him.

Feng Baikin’s first thought was that the food in the storage box had caught the cat’s attention. However, seeing Zheng Tan jump onto the seat without scratching at the box, he said no more, realizing the cat wanted a lift.

Having eaten his fill, Zheng Tan was feeling a bit lazy and didn’t want to walk. He had planned to stroll back slowly, but since he had bumped into Feng Baikin, he decided not to continue on foot and hitch a ride instead.

As Feng Baikin rode through Chuhua University with the Black Cat still on board, he decided to take a detour to the East District courtyard. Passing by a path, a couple of cat cries came from the woods nearby.

Zheng Tan instantly recognized which two cats they were, and Feng Baikin obviously did too.

Stopping the scooter, Feng Baikin shouted toward the woods.

“Tiger–time to eat–”

Why not call “time to come home”? Because Feng Baikin knew all too well that the allure of “time to eat” far surpassed that of “time to come home.” As long as he called “time to eat,” even if Tiger was in the middle of an exciting fight, he would come running immediately.

As expected, once Feng Baikin called out, the aggressive cat cries from the woods ceased.

Zheng Tan had already jumped off the scooter; it wasn’t far to the East District courtyard, so there was no need to stay on any longer.

Whoosh–

The grayish-black shadow swiftly leaped out from the bushes, and compared to how it looked in the morning, Tiger now had two new scratch marks.

Originally having slightly less attacking power than Huasheng Tang, and short fur that didn’t offer much defense, this was also why this guy lost nine out of ten fights.

Feng Baikin looked at the wounds on Tiger’s body with a sense of helplessness. The wounds weren’t deep and would heal in a few days with some rest at home, as Tiger had a strong healing ability.

Feng Baikin was taking care of a cat for the first time, and his experience could be summed up as full of tears. Scratching furniture and breaking things had long become normal for him, but as for the gifts cats supposedly bring, Feng Baikin would only “hehe” twice at the thought. Can you imagine waking up in the early morning and finding a dead, fattened mouse played to death at the side of your pillow?

That feeling was simply… screwed up!

House mice?

The house was cleaned well and shouldn’t attract so many mice. Aunt Li, who was in charge of the housekeeping at Feng’s place, was puzzled until one day, when she was walking around the neighborhood, a resident greeted her with a laugh and said, “Your cat might have gone too far, it caught every mouse in my house.”

As Feng Baikin pondered this, Tiger had already jumped onto the seat of the e-bike, clawing at the back storage box and meowing.

“Go home and eat your cat food; that’s not suitable for you, the taste is too strong.” Feng Baikin lifted the cat that was clinging to the e-bike’s storage box and put it in the front basket.

Tiger complied, crouching in the basket, resting its chin on the edge, looking down at Huasheng Tang, who had just leaped out of the bushes.

Huasheng Tang stared in that direction, his tail swinging vigorously.

The meaning of a cat’s tail wagging is different from a dog’s. Dogs usually wag their tails when they are in a good mood, happy, but it’s not the same for cats. A cat’s tail wag can mean many things, with different amplitudes and strengths reflecting different states of mind. It might be scheming or it might be anger, like Huasheng Tang at the moment, definitely the latter.

As Feng Baikin was telling Zheng Tan and Tiger not to randomly eat dead mice and the like, he saw Huasheng Tang and, without saying a word, just drove away.

Every time Feng Baikin saw Huasheng Tang, he would take a detour. There was no helping it–his cat had provoked hatred, and by extension, he suffered too. Huasheng Tang could chase the e-bike for a good distance, and those claw marks on Feng Baikin’s e-bike were made by Huasheng Tang. Feng Baikin’s family always thought it was Tiger; otherwise, they would have been even more worried. Huasheng Tang hardly acknowledged even Xiao Guo, let alone someone unrelated like Feng Baikin, making each encounter a nerve-wracking experience for him.

However, it was probably because Zheng Tan was here that Huasheng Tang didn’t give chase this time.

After they left, Huasheng Tang no longer looked ferocious and untouchable. It turned back into the harmless, obedient cat, walking over to Zheng Tan wanting to rub against him, but Zheng Tan ignored it. He just ruffled Huasheng Tang’s long fur and didn’t see any signs of wounds.

As for not eating dead mice, as Feng Baikin said, Huasheng Tang seemed to genuinely avoid that, never having done so since it was young. Perhaps it could also detect that something was off.

Speaking of dying from poison used in rat poison, in earlier years, Mr. Jiao trained Zheng Tan to prevent him from meeting the same fate as two other cats in the courtyard that died after eating mice that were poisoned. Mr. Jiao even dissected a few poisoned mice in front of Zheng Tan, who witnessed the entire process but found it quite nauseating. Later, when it became clear that Zheng Tan never ate mice, Mr. Jiao stopped worrying about it.

In rural areas, many people keep cats, and many animals like cats and dogs are left to roam, even children to a certain extent. To prevent accidents, not many use rat poison, but in the city, it’s more common. With higher living density and not-so-strong relationships, people won’t care if their neighbors have cats when they decide to use rat poison. This is why families with free-roaming cats often worry about poisoned mice.

But, fortunately, it seems like hardly anyone in the courtyard uses rat poison. The cats that were poisoned were those that had wandered far away.

That day, Zheng Tan strolled to “Shiwei” at noon and climbed through the window into Boss Cai’s lounge.

Boss Cai was organizing a document, his fingers tapping on the keyboard as he stared at the computer screen. Hearing the sound, he looked over.

“Yo, Blackie’s here,” Boss Cai said while tidying up some printed documents on his desk to make space.

Zheng Tan had intended to jump over to the desk, but just as he was about to leap, he suddenly paused, drew his foot back, and sniffed the air vigorously, distinguishing the smells in the room.

Boss Cai watched Zheng Tan’s behavior with curiosity. This cat would usually jump straight onto a chair or the desk after climbing through the window. What was it doing now?

Zheng Tan sniffed around Boss Cai’s desk and other areas, then retreated a bit and crouched on the windowsill deep in thought, ignoring whatever Boss Cai said and refusing to go any further inside.

Boss Cai was puzzled, and in the cat’s eyes gazing from the windowsill, he saw an unsettling expression. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please head over to Qidian to vote, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.NovelFire.net to read.)

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