Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 355 - Chapter 355 Chapter 348 God Demon

Chapter 355: Chapter 348: God? Demon? Chapter 355: Chapter 348: God? Demon? After returning to the courtyard, Zheng Tan did not see Little Youzi on the lawn and found her upstairs at home on the phone.

It turned out that the event of the twin stars accompanying the moon was known by many people, it had been mentioned in newspapers a few days ago, but most people didn’t pay attention to it. However, there were some who were keeping an eye on it, especially the likes of Jiao Yuan and his buddies.

It was Jiao Yuan’s call just now, telling Little Youzi to go down to the courtyard to have a look, because due to the angle, it was not visible from the balcony at home. Hearing that Little Youzi had already seen it, Jiao Yuan didn’t say much more as his group of friends were busy taking pictures and calculating the approximate distances between the three celestial bodies and their trajectories for the rest of the night to see if they matched what the newspaper had reported.

Little Youzi then received several texts from others, and she didn’t mention the incident downstairs, which relieved Zheng Tan. When the phone rang earlier, Zheng Tan reacted quickly, and coupled with the dark bushes, he was certain Little Youzi hadn’t seen him, but he was worried she might overthink it.

Now that he saw Little Youzi acting normal as usual, Zheng Tan felt reassured.

After calming down, Zheng Tan thought again about that feeling he had in the Old Tile House District, as if someone was watching him. It was just that he had been in a rush at the time and didn’t see or smell any unfamiliar scents, so he didn’t linger.

Zheng Tan didn’t consider himself paranoid, and even if he was, he wanted to go back and check again, but… glancing at the wall clock, he saw it was already late, and Mr. Jiao had returned home; at this hour, the Jiao family were unlikely to approve of him going out.

Forget it, he would go take a look tomorrow. If someone had really been there, after so much time, they should have left by now, so going now might not result in catching anyone.

Though he couldn’t go out, Zheng Tan still reviewed the night’s events from the beginning. The evening’s activities had been a spur-of-the-moment decision, as he had only meant to go for a stroll to walk off his meal. It was only after seeing the twin stars with the moon that he had decided to fetch his phone, not even taking time to put on a vest.

As he pondered, and his thoughts returned to the sound of the phone’s ringtone, Zheng Tan’s whiskers twitched. Recalling further back, he remembered that since he had started using this phone, incoming calls were almost always on silent or, rarely, on vibration, but he had never turned on the ringtone, let alone be familiar with the ringtone that sounded today.

The phone had been tampered with.

That was the first thing Zheng Tan suspected.

He had left the phone in a small hollow in the forest, where only the phone and the bag around it could fit; Zheng Tan himself couldn’t squeeze into the hole–it was too small, which is why he had hidden the phone there.

What did it look like when he first hid it?

Having been away from Chuhua City for so long, Zheng Tan couldn’t remember anymore. The bag holding the phone looked the same, and even the knot on the bag was the kind he often tied.

Of course, that was just the appearance.

When Zheng Tan went to get the phone, he didn’t smell anyone else’s scent, but that didn’t prove no one had been there. During the quarter he was away, there had been plenty of windy and rainy weather. In such cases, any scent would have mostly dispersed, particularly if the person took measures to minimize their presence. If someone had discovered the place shortly after Zheng Tan had left Chuhua City, the scent would indeed be hard to retain.

But who could it be?

Several suspect figures flashed through Zheng Tan’s mind, with Liu Ba being the most suspected.

Of course, it was just a suspicion for now, and he would wait until tomorrow to go back to the Old Tile House District.

The next day, early in the morning after Jiao Ma and Little Youzi had left, Zheng Tan followed Mr. Jiao out. They went to the staff canteen for breakfast, after which Mr. Jiao headed to the department, and Zheng Tan went straight to the Old Tile House District.

At this time, students were in the Old Tile House District memorizing words; it was quiet and undisturbed and wouldn’t bother anyone. Sometimes, there were also morning activities of various clubs.

Zheng Tan walked the path he had taken the day before when hiding the phone, carefully searching and sniffing in the vicinity for anything he might discover.

He found nothing.

He ran to the tile house where he had hidden the phone and looked around. There were no scents to indicate others had been there. There was the smell of mice, and the dusty old desk had a piece of recent rat droppings, probably because Zheng Tan hadn’t been there for a while and some mice had gotten in. He didn’t care about these.

Stepping out of the tile house, Zheng Tan jumped onto a stone bench and glanced around. Many places could hide a person, but he couldn’t be sure.

While Zheng Tan was contemplating, a gust of wind blew, carrying the scent of the students’ breakfast.

Zheng Tan looked over and saw a student not far away holding a meat pancake bought from the canteen in one hand and exam materials in the other, sitting by the flower bed, eating, and reading.

Looking at the direction of the wind, Zheng Tan recalled the wind direction from yesterday. When he had come here last night, he had seen leaves being blown away, and from the direction the leaves took and the surrounding buildings, he had inferred the wind direction.

He had heard that sophisticated predators approached their prey from downwind so that the prey would hardly catch their scent. Did this apply to trackers?

The downwind place yesterday was…

Zheng Tan looked to one side, then walked over, observing possible hiding spots for a human figure and carefully discerning scents as he approached. A cat’s nose was still quite effective.

Behind a bush nearly two meters tall, there was the smell of smoke, which Zheng Tan recognized, and apart from that, there was also a faint human scent. If Zheng Tan’s memory served him right, that should be…

Zheng Tan suddenly turned around to look behind him.

About fifty meters away from Zheng Tan, Liu Ba was walking over here while gnawing on a burrito wrapped in a plastic bag printed with the school cafeteria’s logo, his gaze fixed on Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan knew he wasn’t smart; compared to the people he knew, eight out of ten could outsmart him, not to mention individuals like Ermao or Liu Ba.

Actually, from the moment Zheng Tan decided to seek Liu Ba’s help before the earthquake, he had considered the possibility of being discovered. Someone as sophisticated as Liu Ba was likely to find out, so the risk of exposure was significant. At the same time, Liu Ba was the most suitable person to spread the word back then. Since Zheng Tan had made his choice, there was no regret, nor could there be any.

The brief contact after the earthquake made Zheng Tan aware, but since there was no movement afterward, he clung to the hope that he had not been discovered.

Now it seemed, hoping for luck was not an option.

Liu Ba was the one hiding here yesterday, Zheng Tan was now sure of it. If the other party was really determined to search, there were means to be found. Liu Ba’s special occupation gave him more experience, tools, and channels in this area.

It was just hard to know how much Liu Ba actually knew.

As Zheng Tan pondered how to deal with the upcoming situation, Liu Ba finished his burrito, tossed the plastic bag into the trash can, and continued walking over here. His pace wasn’t fast, maintaining the same rhythm as before, but Zheng Tan could feel that Liu Ba was also restless inside.

Anyone who knew about such things probably couldn’t stay calm, wondering how many times their heart had been trampled by an alpaca.

As Liu Ba got closer, Zheng Tan saw the bloodshot in his eyes, making him look as if he hadn’t slept all night.

Could it be that the shock of hiding here last night kept him awake all night? Zheng Tan thought.

Zheng Tan’s guess was close to the truth. Indeed, Liu Ba had spent the whole night here, pondering in the cold wind. When he came to his senses, dawn was breaking, and he still wasn’t sleepy. After washing his face in the student cafeteria restroom and buying breakfast, he continued to stake out this place and, as expected, encountered Zheng Tan.

Liu Ba never imagined that the owner of this mysterious phone number could be a cat. He had suspected many people, including Professor Jiao, but evidence showed that this was indeed something the cat had done by itself. Everyone else was clueless.

Liu Ba stopped two meters away from Zheng Tan, and the two, a man and a cat, stood off, each pondering what the other would do next.

Zheng Tan wondered if he should bolt after kicking the man if Liu Ba knew too much or whether he should stay calm and have a chat with Liu Ba. Pretending to be oblivious or playing dumb surely wouldn’t work on Liu Ba. Since he could investigate this far, even tampering with a phone, how could he not have evidence?

No words? No problem, there was Morse code, which had been used before.

But if Liu Ba intended to threaten with this knowledge or wished to make Zheng Tan’s situation difficult by going public, Zheng Tan would immediately seek help. Mr. Jiao, Ermao, Wei Leng, Fang San–they all seemed pretty reliable. Having many acquaintances meant there were fallback options.

Liu Ba saw the black cat in front of him just staring, making no other move, and hesitated how to start the conversation. The expression in the cat’s eyes did not seem too friendly.

“God? Demon?” Liu Ba asked.

A demon, my ass!

Noticing that Zheng Tan’s eyes had become a bit more dangerous, Liu Ba quickly raised his hands to show he meant no harm, “Don’t get agitated, let’s have a nice talk. But, shouldn’t we change locations first?”

Liu Ba talking to Zheng Tan here would look like he was talking to himself in the eyes of nearby people. They wouldn’t think anything was wrong with Zheng Tan, but they might consider Liu Ba a bit neurotic.

Zheng Tan could sense Liu Ba had no ill intentions, but it was still necessary to be cautious and prepared. Zheng Tan wouldn’t follow Liu Ba, and if they were to have a talk in a different location, the place he found himself would be safer.

Zheng Tan had already memorized this area well and knew where it was quiet and where there was no one at this time.

After Zheng Tan walked away, Liu Ba followed. The two, man and cat, kept a distance of two or three meters between them, which seemed to be their mutual warning distance, both on guard.

Zheng Tan led Liu Ba to a small path not far from the Old Tile House District. Here, there were a few wooden chairs. Zheng Tan jumped onto one of them, then looked at Liu Ba.

Liu Ba sat down on another chair across the path, glanced around, and saw that indeed there were no other people here. They could talk without worrying about being overheard.

After making sure there were no others around, Liu Ba turned his pockets inside out and said to Zheng Tan, “I swear I didn’t bring any weapons or spying devices. Our conversation will only be known to the two of… us.”

Initially, Liu Ba intended to say “two people,” but he realized in time that he was facing a cat and promptly changed his wording, feeling a bit awkward. However, having experienced much, Liu Ba quickly adjusted his mindset.

“Let’s get reacquainted. My name is Gao Xing, with ‘Gao’ from ‘happy’ and ‘Xing’ also from ‘happy’.”

Zheng Tan: “…” So, the surname this guy used when disguising himself was real?

While speaking, Liu Ba picked up a thin twig that had fallen beside the wooden chair and began to write his name with it in the bald earth beside them, where no grass grew.

He wrote the character “Gao” normally, but when writing “Xing,” he did not follow the usual stroke order. Instead, he first wrote a “6” standing upright, then added an inverted “8” on top of it. (To be continued. If you like this book, you are welcome to vote for it with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian (NovelFire.net). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.NovelFire.net to read.)

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