Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 336 - Chapter 336 Chapter 329 Random Passerby Who Picks Up Junk

Chapter 336: Chapter 329: Random Passerby Who Picks Up Junk Chapter 336: Chapter 329: Random Passerby Who Picks Up Junk When he left the neighborhood, there was only the little boy, as the little girl actually lived here and had just gone home.

Zheng Tan followed not far behind the little boy. After exiting this lakeside villa area, they walked along the avenue, turned at a corner, where there was a community built a decade ago, and the boy’s home was located there.

It was Zheng Tan’s first time in this area. Compared to some of the communities on the old street side, there wasn’t much difference here, perhaps because the communities built at that time were all quite similar.

The child’s family lived on the second floor, and even before entering the building, one could see a cat with yellow and white patches squatting on the windowsill. This must be the twelve-year-old Old Cat. In comparison with Ah Huang and the sheriff, the emotions revealed in this cat’s eyes seemed more composed, whether due to its age or its inherent nature.

The boy glanced at the cat on the second floor, waved with a smile, then entered the building. In the past, his family’s cat could have easily leaped down from the second floor, and no door could keep it in, but now it couldn’t; it stayed indoors most of the time, at most lying on the windowsill to bask in the sun and watch the outside.

Zheng Tan did not follow inside. Seeing the cat on the second floor returned to the room after the boy entered the building, Zheng Tan decided to climb directly to the second floor to take a look. After all, he was just a cat now, not a human; he probably wouldn’t be regarded as a thief.

Climbing in such old residential communities was easy, especially since many residents liked to install canopies over their windows to block rainwater and air conditioning drainage from the units above.

After climbing to the windowsill on the second floor, Zheng Tan did not go inside; instead, he just squatted there.

The area of this room was not large, similar to the Jiao family’s, but it was a two-bedroom and one-living-room setup. Probably, older community housing liked to design bedrooms to be somewhat larger, which made the living room seem much smaller.

This room did not have a balcony. Looking at the photo on the bedside table, it should be the boy’s parents’ room. The door was not closed, so from the windowsill, Zheng Tan could see the situation near the main door.

Old Cat was squatting about half a step away from the door. When it heard familiar footsteps, its tail slowly started to sway and curve as it looked at the gap under the door.

After the sound of the security door opening, no immediate sound of the wooden door being opened followed. Instead, a long green stalk was poked through the gap below the door. Zheng Tan had seen the boy pulling this stalk up in a flower bed within the community earlier and had wondered what the child would do with the grass. He initially thought it was just the playful nature of children at this age, always wanting to pull on something for fun, but now it seemed that was not the case. Moreover, from the way they interacted, this scene must have occurred more than once, perhaps having continued for several years.

Old Cat looked at the swaying stalk and reached out to scratch at it.

If it had been Ah Huang and the others, they would have already started hopping around and scratching like crazy, making a fuss over the slightest sound as if they had discovered a new continent.

But this cat did not hop around, perhaps just as the boy had said; it could no longer jump as it used to, unlike younger cats that loved jumping around.

Although it didn’t jump much, the speed at which it scratched was still quite fast. After pulling the stalk into the room, Old Cat bit it a couple of times and then ignored the stalk stuck to its paw, continuing to stare at the door. This time it wasn’t watching the gap under the door, but the door lock.

The sound of the wooden door opening was heard. The boy walked into the room, tossed the bowl he was carrying aside, picked up Old Cat, smoothed its fur, and then set it down.

Mr. and Mrs. Jiao weren’t home, the child’s grandmother was resting in the room, which was divided into two, one for the grandmother to sleep, and one for the child.

On the living room dining table were ready-made dishes, still warm, with rice in the rice cooker.

Before eating, the child first took out the red string handicraft from his pocket and put it around his own cat.

After the Old Cat was outfitted with the woven ring, it seemed uncomfortable, rubbing against the corner of the table twice, but it quickly compromised under the child’s soothing, and didn’t rub against it anymore.

While scratching the Old Cat’s chin, the child whispered, “Don’t run off, don’t get hurt like last time. You’re too old for that, you’re not young anymore, you know?”

As for that red string, he had no intention of telling his family the truth. If asked, he would say it cost two yuan. If his family knew he spent 50 yuan on such a thing for a cat, a thing without even a single stone as an ornament, he would definitely get scolded and have his already limited pocket money docked.

He didn’t understand the significance of the zodiac year, he merely heard Ni Ni mention people in their community buying red strings and thought about the even older cat upstairs, which led him to decide to buy one on the spot. He didn’t necessarily believe in those things, perhaps, he was just seeking some psychological comfort.

While the child was eating, the Old Cat seemed to want to jump onto the high stool next to the child. After approaching the stool and sizing up its height, it gathered its strength to jump, not as agile as Ah Huang and the others. Most people might not notice, but Zheng Tan, being familiar with cat movements, could see the slight difference.

The child picked up a piece of chicken, rolled it in the bowl to remove the oily and heavily flavored sauce, and then gave it to the cat on the adjacent stool.

Watching the cat eat the meat, Zheng Tan felt that although this cat seemed to look old, it wouldn’t decline very quickly, but it was hard to say how many years it had left, considering most cats live about ten years, some less.

Turning his head, the child suddenly saw another Black Cat on the windowsill of his parents’ room, but by the time he walked over, the Black Cat had already jumped down from the sill.

After landing, Zheng Tan looked at that second-floor window, walked over to the flower bed beside the building, and squatted down, planning to stay there a bit longer.

After dozing off, he woke up around half past one in the afternoon, awakened by the voices of two children.

They were likely children from the same community, coming to find the child on the second floor to go to school together.

“Hey, Wang Xing, your cat is waiting for you on the windowsill again,” one child said, “By the way, how is the cat upstairs doing?”

“It’s not doing too well. From what my dad said, the cat upstairs is already seventeen years old, five years older than our cat. It had a seizure and collapsed while playing with a ball of yarn last month, its legs have also stiffened… That cat used to be so plump, now it’s only around two or three pounds. Yesterday when I went upstairs, I saw Auntie upstairs feeding it water with a syringe, it can’t even drink on its own anymore…” Not wanting to go on about it, Wang Xing instead asked, “Are you guys going over there this week?”

The other two children clearly understood what Wang Xing meant by “over there,” and nodded, “Of course, are you going too?”

“Hmm, call me when you go over.”

“Sure, but don’t mention it to your family.”

“Of course, I’m even afraid my parents will know.”

After leaving the community, Zheng Tan didn’t follow those three kids anymore. He was hungry and decided to go home to eat something first.

Zheng Tan saw the kid named Wang Xing again on Saturday.

In the morning, he went out with Mr. Jiao. Mr. Jiao went to the institute, and Zheng Tan took a jog around the school. Exercising was essential.

When he saw the three children, they were each holding a snake-skin bag, already filled with some empty bottles, including plastic bottles and aluminum cans.

The “there” they mentioned turned out to be Chuhua University.

With large consumption by the students at the university, there were many empty bottles, and even though the weather was still quite cool, there were plenty of bottles.

Zheng Tan followed them at a distance, watching as they picked empty bottles out of trash bins or piles.

As they picked, the three kids talked.

The kid named Wang Xing seemed to be doing this for the first time, and the other two were sharing their experiences with him. Besides mineral water and beverage bottles, there were pull-tab cans–distinguishing which were aluminum and which were iron, which to collect and which not to, which were expensive and which were cheap–it looked like these two kids had done this quite often.

Wang Xing dragged the bag, which was an old comforter bag originally from his grandmother. It had torn several holes and, though damaged, was spared from being thrown out, resting in a corner filled with miscellaneous items for two or three years. When he took it out, it was covered in dust, probably forgotten by his grandmother. The holes didn’t matter much; though numerous, they were small, and it was sufficient to hold the bottles.

By mid-morning they could collect quite a few, then drag them to the campus recycling point to sell.

A full bag of various sorted bottles could sell for about 4 yuan.

What then?

The two kids kicked at their money and ran to the internet cafe, planning to spend two or three hours there in the afternoon. Zheng Tan watched speechlessly, wondering if collecting bottles was just for this? But, this was also a form of self-reliance, after all.

Wang Xing didn’t go. Although he also wanted to play computer games, he was still in debt. He made plans with those two and then continued picking with his bag.

Zheng Tan didn’t have much else to do today, so he followed the boy to see just how much he could collect.

Walking along, they reached the back of the Life Science Institute, where there was a row of large trash bins.

Wang Xing saw a few bottles inside and planned to dig through, but just as he was about to touch them, his arm was pushed slightly, and turning his head, he saw only a black cat.

A black cat again?

Wang Xing frowned, dismissing the cat, and reached out again to grab a bottle. This time it wasn’t the cat stopping him, but a person.

An auntie who was responsible for cleaning the area told Wang Xing that the contents inside were very dangerous and should not be touched with bare hands. The trash here needed special treatment and was not mixed with regular household waste.

Zheng Tan knew this, too, which was why he had stopped Wang Xing from collecting bottles there.

After the cleaning worker left, Wang Xing looked at the several big trash bins, then turned back to Zheng Tan, “Thanks.” He now somewhat understood the actions of the black cat earlier.

At the back door, a person in a white lab coat came out dragging a large trash bin, prompting Wang Xing to decide to leave. Since the bottles here were potentially dangerous, he thought it better to switch locations–it certainly wasn’t worth injuring himself over some bottles.

“Heitan!”

Wang Xing paused in his steps upon hearing the voice behind him. He didn’t know who they were calling, but since he was picking bottles on someone else’s premises, he felt a bit guilty and planned to walk away quickly. However, it seemed like the person was shouting towards him.

Zheng Tan looked at the approaching person and sighed inwardly; there was no avoiding acquaintances anywhere.

The person pulling out the trash bin was one of Mr. Jiao’s students, the burly Su Qu, currently a second-year doctoral student. After Yi Xin graduates and goes abroad this year, he would become the senior of the group. His personality hadn’t changed much, though–those who went through years of master’s and doctoral studies didn’t tend to change much compared to their peers who entered society earlier; they remained much more simple.

“Hey, who is this kid?” Su Qu approached and looked at the child next to Zheng Tan, asking.

Wang Xing’s face turned red with embarrassment. It was his first time doing this, and his face wasn’t as thick-skinned as his two schoolmates. He hesitated whether to simply answer, “I’m just a passerby here to collect some scrap.” (To be continued. If you like this book, please visit Qidian (NovelFire.net) to vote and support us. Mobile users, please read on m.NovelFire.net.)