Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 358 - Chapter 358 Chapter 351 The Truth

Chapter 358: Chapter 351: The Truth Chapter 358: Chapter 351: The Truth Sahara held grudges.

Normally, Sahara seemed easy-going and played well with many children in the courtyard, but once he set his mind on someone, he would likely hold it for a long time. This was the experience Zheng Tan had gathered over the more than five years he had known Sahara. From the current situation, those few people must have annoyed Sahara somehow.

Many animals have a strong, lasting impression of humans, based not only on appearance but also on voice and scent. Regardless of the type, Sahara had remembered those three individuals.

Zheng Tan was not Sahara and did not understand dog language. He could only try to interpret their intentions through his years of understanding Sahara and the other dogs in the courtyard, based on their behaviors, but he could not know the cause of the incidents. To understand, he had to investigate on his own.

Considering he had nothing much to do recently and Xiao Guo had already completed the New Year’s tasks and was not busy, Zheng Tan had time to stroll around the school.

After digging in the soil for fun for a while, Sahara began to feel bored. In the winter, there were no insects like grasshoppers to entertain him, and digging up the decorative plants would earn him a scolding, so he had to settle for just digging in the dirt. Now, feeling hungry from all the digging, he decided to head home without any awareness of the trouble he could cause his owner and related people.

When you get hungry, you eat, and to eat, you have to go home. After getting home, he started barking to hurry his meal, which was typical survival know-how for any household pet in the city.

After watching Sahara head towards the courtyard, Zheng Tan did not follow him home but instead went back to the spot where Sahara had bumped into someone’s bicycle. By now, no one was gathered around that place anymore, and people coming and going had no idea an incident involving a dog and a bicyclist had occurred there earlier.

Zheng Tan searched around but did not see the man and woman, so when it was about time, he headed back home, knowing he would be in trouble for being late.

The next day, with no one at home, Zheng Tan turned on the computer to check out Chuhua University’s online forum. To gauge whether the incident had escalated, all he needed to do was look at the university forum — the more advanced the internet became, the more readily students used it to discuss everything from buying cars to headphones, even debating over which remedy to use for smelly feet through hundreds of posts. Even during final exams, the forum was bustling, even more so than usual, with people selling cheating tools, part-time scalpers selling train tickets, and groups organizing trips home.

When Zheng Tan didn’t know what else to do, he often browsed the school forum.

Upon reaching the relevant discussion section, Zheng Tan clicked on a trending topic to find a photo of Sahara, taken by a student during the incident yesterday. The photo quality wasn’t good, but anyone familiar with him could easily recognize Sahara, as he was the only dog of mixed blood with such an appearance at the school; others who owned Huskies and Labradors kept their breeds pure.

The student who posted had been a passerby yesterday and was an active forum user. He wrote that he witnessed a dog knock over a girl on a bicycle while preparing to go shopping with classmates, and his classmate had taken the photo. Through his words, it was clear he felt discontent with the incident on campus, worried that the dog might be sick and pose a threat to other students, making it a dangerous element.

Many people replied to the post, several recognizing Sahara and digging up information on his owner, Ruan Ying, and her grandfather, Academician Ruan.

Few could avoid making sarcastic remarks.

“Shouldn’t this be reported to security?”

“Report what? Didn’t you see that his grandfather is an academician?”

“Who is Academician Ruan? Is he that important?”

“Bro, haven’t you ever listened to the school broadcast? You don’t know the famous Academician Ruan, someone who’s frequently mentioned with plenty of accomplishments, a real celebrity. Even my professor has to act like a kid in front of him.”

“There’s a saying, ‘A dog relying on its master’s power.’

“Just give a bad review online when appraising teachers next time!”

“Maybe there’s a misunderstanding involved.”

“Misunderstanding my ass, I heard that dog is always crazy.”

“Sigh, Ruan Ying is still teaching us, a pretty nice person, but I don’t know about Academician Ruan, only heard of him, never seen him.”

“Like dog, like owner. My impression of Academician Ruan just plummeted.”

“A bunch of losers, I dare you to say this to their faces. Squabbling here instead, you might as well go kiss up to the teachers for hints. Are you planning to fail and take the same class as juniors next year? I don’t know which asshole canceled the resit policy, fuck that!”

…

The large “HOT” tag on the post indicated substantial interest. From the first to the last page, Zheng Tan realized that Sahara had probably really caused trouble this time; many students didn’t even know the cause yet were stirring things up, likely relieving their exam stress here.

Sometimes, it only takes a spark to ignite a massive situation, even just because of a dog.

Unfortunately, dogs can’t talk; even if Sahara really had been wronged, he couldn’t express it, and Ruan Ying could only apologize to others. Now, Academician Ruan had even been dragged into it.

There were games of strategy among the higher-ups. Despite Professor Ruan being an academician, the school had more than one, and there were those who dared to oppose Academician Ruan, with many in the post being from different factions.

When a research fails, they resort to “strategies,” a common and disheartening phenomenon.

Turning off the computer, Zheng Tan headed to where Sahara was kept. Standing downstairs, he could hear Sahara whining through his nose, which sounded incredibly pitiful, but there was nothing he could do now. Letting him out would only make things more troublesome.

At noon, Zheng Tan heard people in the courtyard discussing that Ruan Ying had locked up Sahara, and it seemed it would be a long time before he was let out. Ruan Ying was busy apologizing to people.

Zheng Tan went to the spot where Sahara had urinated on the bicycle the previous afternoon and didn’t find the bikes that reeked of urine, guessing they had already been sold by those two, and after waiting for a long time, he still didn’t see them.

Over the following few days, Zheng Tan wandered around the school, specifically looking for those three individuals, and finally one day, he saw them, not inside the school but near the school entrance.

That day, Zheng Tan had lunch at Jiao Wei’s small restaurant and was walking back, glancing at the “Wutailang Pancake” shop along the way. The shop was still crowded, and although it was past lunchtime, there weren’t long queues, but there were still seven or eight people in line.

A female student with a backpack rode her bike to the pancake shop and stopped by a tree, probably thinking it too troublesome to lock it up for just buying a pancake and so didn’t lock it. She left it there and walked to the shop. Just as she got in line, Zheng Tan saw someone calmly walk up to where the student had parked her bike, push it away, and ride off on it.

Zheng Tan watched, stunned, but to others who saw this scene, it didn’t raise any suspicions–it seemed too natural.

But when the female student returned with a pancake and loudly exclaimed, “Where’s my bike?” Zheng Tan knew there was indeed something wrong with her.

The one who rode off with the bike was the same student from Sahara’s incident, who had pushed over both the person and the bike, and nearby, Zheng Tan saw another familiar face–the owner of the bike that Sahara had urinated on the day before.

Zheng Tan had no time to think further, as he lost sight of the female student who rode off with the bike, blocked by the passersby and traffic, but he could still follow the other person.

The man was riding an old bicycle that looked somewhat battered, not too fast, which made it easy for Zheng Tan to follow him.

The man didn’t ride towards the inside of the school, but in the direction away from it.

Zheng Tan hesitated for a moment, since he wasn’t sure where these two were heading, but he quickly stopped overthinking and continued following.

Riding a bicycle didn’t mean they could get very far. Besides, if it was too far, Zheng Tan could just stop chasing them.

Fortunately, the man didn’t ride far, only about two to three minutes before he arrived at a bicycle shop that repaired and also sold new and used bicycles. The shop was initially estimated to be about 50 square meters, filled with bicycles. Repairs were done under a makeshift canopy outside, where two students were using a pump to inflate tires and another was fixing a bike chain.

Inside the shop, a man in his forties sat in a velvet chair, playing with his phone. Seeing the visitor, he didn’t speak but merely nodded slightly.

With one glance, one small gesture, they understood each other.

Zheng Tan watched as the man pushed the bike into a small alley next to the shop, and he followed.

Without a cat card and without anyone suspecting a cat, people just assumed it belonged to someone nearby.

Since Zheng Tan hadn’t shown himself during Sahara’s disturbance, they hadn’t seen him, so the person ahead didn’t take any notice when he looked back and saw Zheng Tan.

Behind the shop was a small courtyard with a two-meter-high wall. The man opened the back gate and pushed the bike in.

Zheng Tan went to the corner of the wall, jumped up, and looked inside.

Four people were standing in the courtyard, three men and one woman, all about the same age, chatting and laughing. Zheng Tan recognized three of them from the day of Sahara’s disturbance, and one looked unfamiliar, appearing to be a student with no dyed blonde hair or non-mainstream clothes. At first glance, no one would think anything bad of him.

Two bicycles were parked in the yard, one of which was the one the female student had ridden over.

The unfamiliar man, wearing a blue work suit next to some tools, was apparently about to strip the bike, sand off the original paint, and apply a new coat.

Watching their brisk movements, it was clear they had been at this for more than a couple of months. The calm way that girl had ridden away with someone else’s bike was telling; this wasn’t their first time. A seemingly quiet girl, who had garnered much sympathy when Sahara knocked her and her bike over, who knew she would do such a thing?

These people didn’t look like they were up to no good, but the fact remained that they were.

These bike thieves had probably angered Sahara on one occasion, who kept an eye on them, but unfortunately, the dog couldn’t speak or explain itself, nor did it have anyone to defend it.

Just knowing that these people stole bikes was useless.

They had the upper hand with numbers and could argue back, whereas compared to them, Sahara would be crushed in an instant, wronged and confined at home, whining.

Zheng Tan actually wanted to deflate all the tires in the shop to teach them a lesson, but it wasn’t the right time yet; it would be too easy to startle them.

After watching from the wall for a while, Zheng Tan quietly left.

To clear Sahara’s name, he needed evidence.

As Zheng Tan ran back to the school, he thought, “This time it’s not me causing trouble, just helping Sahara out a bit.”

At the same time, Zheng Tan had to admit that every time he did something like this, he felt a slight thrill.

He really can’t stay idle! (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to visit Qidian(NovelFire.net)to vote, recommend, and support your favorite books. Mobile users, please visit m.NovelFire.net to continue reading.)

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