Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 379 - Chapter 379 Chapter 369 One Kick

Chapter 379: Chapter 369: One Kick Chapter 379: Chapter 369: One Kick Zheng Tan returned still pondering over what exactly had happened.

Hypnosis?

Zheng Tan had never seen hypnosis like this before. But then, why was it that only “Yu” seemed to be affected when there were so many people at the time?

From start to finish, Huang had simply taken out a cigarette and said a few words.

Zheng Tan also wondered if there was something wrong with the cigarette, like some confusion drug, but it seemed no different from the one Huang smoked during lunch.

As he was thinking, Zheng Tan overheard Ermao next to him saying, “Black Coal, do you know why that guy is nicknamed Weasel?”

They entered the school through the side gate and it was about a ten-minute walk to the East District. At this time, the path was deserted so no one else heard what Ermao was saying.

Zheng Tan glanced at Ermao and listened intently for what would come next.

“His name is Huang Shu. Folk tales say that weasels have the power to bewilder people. Of course, he might not really be as mystical as those stories, he just knows some old tricks passed down from his ancestors. He hustled quite a few people with those skills, and because his name sounds similar to ‘yellow weasel’, everyone started calling him Weasel. Many people know who is referred to by the nickname Weasel, but they don’t know his real name, which is less famous than the nickname.”

Old tricks?

Zheng Tan was quite interested in those tricks of his.

“You could say it’s a more special form of hypnotism, or perhaps it also involves some Spirit Science, a technique that was once popular during theocratic times. To use the scientific explanation of your Cat Dad’s people, it would belong in the field of neuroscience. Of course, with current scientific knowledge, some things are simply hard to explain.

There were those who labeled these techniques as unorthodox or even heretical, but we call it–folk art. Every craft that has been passed down for hundreds of years has its reasons and values for existence. But don’t be scared; he usually doesn’t misuse those tricks, especially not on people. Even in his business dealings, he rarely resorted to them, except in situations like last night where personal safety might be at stake, and I also told him not to use those tricks on you.”

As Ermao talked about Huang’s matters, Zheng Tan wondered, even if someone were a hypnotist, could they hypnotize not just humans, but also cats, dogs, and even mice? If he had that capacity, why stick to running a small grocery store?

Zheng Tan had met plenty of odd characters before, like how Ermao refused to live in a high-end elevator apartment or buy a villa, preferring instead to rent a place in the East District and contentedly nest in a space of just seventy square meters. Everyone has their own ideas, and Zheng Tan couldn’t apply his own way of thinking to figure out the thoughts of those oddballs.

Having witnessed a special side of Huang, Zheng Tan felt his afternoon was not wasted.

The next day, Zheng Tan ran to the grocery store again.

Zheng Tan initially thought of observing more of Huang’s “little tricks.” He was more curious about the “hypnotic” techniques mentioned by Ermao than afraid.

Seeing Zheng Tan again, the shop assistant greeted him with a smile.

The assistant was still somewhat dazed about what happened last night, not understanding why those people came in a huff, exchanged a few words with the boss, and then just left. He had asked the boss, who replied indifferently, “I guess they were just bored,” and brushed it off.

The assistant thought back to the night he couldn’t sleep, replaying the events in his mind, and suddenly realized–was Ermao, who had calmly stepped out to watch, expecting such a situation to occur?

It seemed his boss had many secrets.

Young people always have boundless curiosity, it’s just a pity that Huang showed no intention of sharing.

When Zheng Tan came over, there were no customers in the store, and the shop assistant, bored and idle, was playing the simplest form of poker with Huang–determining the winner based on who drew the higher card in five rounds, with the loser responsible for cleaning the store for the day.

Zheng Tan hopped up to take a look and noticed that the assistant had lost all rounds, as documented on the paper beside them.

Every time, it was best three out of five rounds, and the assistant, even if winning two rounds in a row, couldn’t manage to win in the end.

Zheng Tan thought this simple game of chance should rely on probability, right? And yet, this assistant hadn’t won a single time, the record going from “Shelf 1” to “Shelf 6,” signifying that today the assistant had to clean from Shelf 1 to Shelf 6 alone. Moreover, the card game was still ongoing, but the assistant’s bad luck showed no signs of improving.

“No, no, let’s reshuffle the cards, boss,” said the assistant. He had shuffled the deck himself last time, but ended up losing miserably, so this time he wanted the boss to shuffle. He had seen Huang’s shuffling skills, which were less than stellar. With the boss’s lousy shuffling technique, his luck should turn for the better, shouldn’t it?

Huang didn’t mind and started shuffling the cards.

Zheng Tan had seen Ermao play poker before. Ermao used to hustle female students with fancy card tricks on the street. This person knew Ermao, so he must be a talented character, right? Seeing his recent results, Zheng Tan thought he must be just like Ermao.

“Okay,” Huang said indifferently, grabbing the cards and starting to shuffle.

The shuffling skill… was truly horrible, like that of a kindergarten child, and while shuffling, Zheng Tan clearly saw a King of Spades at the bottom of the deck.

Zheng Tan could see it, and so could the assistant.

So, after Huang finished shuffling in that childish manner, the assistant insisted on choosing first.

“Okay,” replied Huang, still sounding nonchalant.

Sure enough, the assistant picked the card from the bottom, flipped it over with a grin, and then, his smile froze.

Where he thought there was a King of Spades, it turned out to be a Three of Hearts.

Huang, however, randomly drew a card from the middle–King of Spades.

“No way, boss, how can this be? I was sure the bottom card was the King of Spades, how did it turn into a Three of Hearts?” the assistant was perplexed.

Huang chuckled as he wrote “Shelf 7” in the ledger next to him, then said, “Even eyes can deceive.”

“You’re cheating!” the employee accused.

“Talk is cheap without evidence. Without evidence, don’t talk nonsense–it’s just being a sore loser,” Huang lectured like an old hand.

“I’m not playing anymore! This is too much!” The employee gathered up the cards, planning to go buy a boxed lunch. If this continued, he would be exhausted from losing. The store wasn’t very big, but cleaning so many shelves by himself was tough work, and now it was summer, when any movement made him sweat profusely.

The time was about right, so Zheng Tan went to Feng Baikin’s place to scrounge for lunch.

Once Zheng Tan was a good distance away, Huang flipped through the morning’s earnings. Noticing the white cat jump onto the counter, Huang eyed the oil stain on it, took out a one yuan coin.

The white cat thought Huang was going to play with it and approached.

Huang placed the one yuan coin on the counter in front of the white cat and then stood it up; with a flick of his finger against the coin’s edge, the coin began to spin.

The white cat gazed intently at the spinning coin, gradually halting the swishing of its tail tip.

Huang took a napkin out, wet it with some water, and then wiped the oil stains from the white cat’s head–stains that likely came from breakfast that morning. With white fur like that, even a small smudge was noticeable.

Beyond removing the oil stains, Huang also gently wiped the white cat’s ears. Normally, the cat squatted on the shelves, which were usually cleaned and wiped maybe once a week or every few weeks. Dust was a common issue in a grocery store by the road; with the constant flow of air stirred by passing vehicles, not wiping the shelves for a day would leave a layer of dust. Since the white cat often slept on the shelves, its fur got all dusty, and although it couldn’t be bathed every day, Huang would wipe it down every few days.

However, the white cat was uncooperative, resisting getting its fur and ears wiped as if its life were under threat, so often, Huang adopted other methods, like the situation at hand.

After cleaning the cat’s ears, Huang casually rifled through the white cat’s fur, having seen it catch a fat mouse earlier and wondering if it had picked up any fleas.

Cats prefer to be stroked with the grain, and flipping their fur causes discomfort. Many cats will resist, including the white cat, but it stayed completely still, allowing Huang to do as he pleased.

Huang checked for fleas and found none, which eased his mind for the moment, and he decided not to bathe the cat or buy flea medicine.

After putting down the towel, Huang lifted a finger and gently tapped the white cat’s nose bridge.

The white cat shuddered as if jolted awake, then looked at Huang, and at the coin next to its paw, batting at the coin seemingly unaware of what had just transpired.

Watching the white cat nonchalantly play with the coin, Huang’s thoughts drifted back to the Black Cat that visited that morning.

Was that Black Cat male or female?

Ermao seemed to have never mentioned it, right?

Huang pondered; the white cat in his store was female, and since that Black Cat often came around, if it was male, could it be that it had taken a fancy to the white cat in his store?

It couldn’t be confirmed. The Black Cat always walked with its tail hanging diagonally; Huang couldn’t tell whether it was male or female.

Huang resolved to check if the Black Cat was male or female if he saw it again. Although Ermao had warned against playing tricks on this cat… just checking the gender should be fine, right? It wouldn’t harm the cat, after all.

Huang picked up the coin that was nearly knocked off the counter by the white cat, fidgeting with it in his hand. He set aside the newspaper, and after finishing lunch, he kept an eye on the outside of the store, wondering if the Black Cat would come back.

After lunch at Feng Baikin’s and watching Feng play a new game, Zheng Tan climbed a willow tree by the lake for a nap before heading back.

Zheng Tan hadn’t planned to enter that grocery store; he was just passing by. Yet Huang, who had been watching outside the store, called out to Zheng Tan.

“Coal! Coal, come over here!” Huang waved.

Zheng Tan thought, “…” This guy must’ve learnt from Ermao, right? But even worse than Ermao, he didn’t even bother with the word “Black.”

Wondering what Huang wanted, Zheng Tan still approached.

Huang pointed at the counter, “Come here, Coal, let’s play a game.”

As he said this, Huang dangled a piece of twine over the edge of the counter, playing with it as he usually did to tease cats.

Zheng Tan gave him a look as if he were an idiot, completely ignoring the twine and instead jumping onto the counter to see what exactly Huang wanted to do.

Seeing Zheng Tan hop up, Huang didn’t question why Zheng Tan hadn’t played with the twine, and took out the same coin he had used with the white cat, flicking it to spin.

As the Black Cat in front of him stared motionless at the coin, tail not stirring, Huang felt it was about time and attempted to lift Zheng Tan’s tail to see if it was male or female.

However, the instant his hand touched the tail, Huang’s eyelid twitched, sensing something was off. The black silhouette flashed, and though he raised his hand to block, he couldn’t stop Zheng Tan’s swift kick.

Huang, nearly falling off his chair from the kick to his face, was too shocked to mind the pain.

Ineffective?! How could this cat be completely unaffected?!! (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for it at Qidian (NovelFire.net) with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.NovelFire.net.)