Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 388 - Chapter 388 Chapter 376 Origins_2

Chapter 388: Chapter 376: Origins_2 Chapter 388: Chapter 376: Origins_2 Some people get talkative when they drink, and even though they’ve repeated the same old stories countless times, everyone has grown calluses on their ears from hearing them, they still tell them with vigor. This also allowed Zheng Tan to learn more about Lord.

Listening to this person, Zheng Tan finally matched up Lord with the “Ah Mi” mentioned by the person, realizing that Lord had lived here before he ventured out!

In those days, Zheng Tan had suspected that Lord might have been hiding in the botanical garden, evading the strict initial two-year crackdown on “CFH.” Now, nobody cared about “CFH” anymore, they were too busy covering up their own embarrassments to bring it up. Unexpectedly, not only was he hiding here, but he also had people helping him cover it up.

Indeed, back then, Zheng Tan felt that Lord could understand a lot of human language; he wouldn’t have understood so much if he hadn’t been in contact with people for a long time. If he had grown up completely in the wild, he wouldn’t be willing to stay with Mr. Tang Qi and the others now.

The person speaking is a researcher of rock plants, like his father. The “old man” he mentioned had passed away in 2003, precisely in October. Just a few days ago, this person had taken his family to visit the old man’s grave.

The old man had lived here back then, conveniently researching plants and also taking care of the plants around here. Initially, it was the old man who discovered Lord, or more accurately, he found a pregnant mother cat, whose health was in a poor condition, and soon after giving birth to Lord, she passed away.

There’s an old saying that a cat should be hung in a tree after it dies, but the old man didn’t do that; instead, he placed her in a box and buried her under an old pine tree on the slope. The old man thought of raising a small cat to catch mice, especially since there were signs of mice gnawing on books in the house. Spontaneously, he started raising it, from feeding it milk powder to later cooking cat food. At that time, regulation wasn’t strict, and there were no restrictions on keeping cats. Without any experience, the old man didn’t know what cats could or couldn’t eat and just bought milk powder to make do. By the time he realized not to feed it haphazardly, he found that the kitten was easy to raise, eating all kinds of milk powder and porridge without any digestive issues.

As a result, in a year’s time, the cat grew as if it had been fed hormones, significantly larger than regular cats, and much bigger than its mother, prompting the old man to suspect that Lord might have been a hybrid of a domestic cat and a larger feline species. He even checked around the botanical garden to see if there were any traces of other large feline species. To avoid any trouble, the old man hid Lord very well. When people were around, he had Lord hide in the room or in the woods. Lord, too, was smart, and the duo cooperated very well.

Like other cats, Lord did plenty of silly things back then, sometimes acting on a whim, like the incident this person just mentioned about catching birds to vent his frustration and assert his presence when ignored. The old man would bury those poor birds under the same pine tree, saying it was for Lord’s mother. Later on, Lord wouldn’t let the old man do it anymore, choosing to bury the birds himself. He also liked to lie there and sleep; no one disturbed him, and the view was open, sometimes sleeping for half the day.

Lord also had his youthful days full of vigor.

Without a doubt, Lord was fortunate. His very birth was a low-probability event, and both the old man who adopted him and the others here were only interested in plants, not so much in animals, at most considering them from an ecological perspective.

When the old man passed away, no one was in the cabin for a while. Lord was only familiar with the old man. Although he was quite good with the old man’s family, it was just “quite good” and nothing like their mutual understanding and closeness, so he gradually tried to venture further afield.

In Chuhua City, this guy could be considered king in terms of combat power among the cats. Back then, he probably considered the entire area of the botanical garden as his territory, patrolling his domain frequently. Chuhua University wasn’t too far from here; the surrounding area also fell within his range of activity. Otherwise, how would Li Yuanba have encountered Lord and fathered Xiao Bai back then?

Although Lord has left the botanical garden, now following Ye Hao and Mr. Tang Qi, he still returns every year at this time, catches a bird, buries it there, then quietly lies under the pine tree.

“Really, this cat is so good, and it doesn’t hurt people. My grandchildren were very young back then, often using him as a pillow. My spouse always said, despite this cat’s size and occasional mischief, his temperament is still gentle,” the man sighed.

Tang Qi, who had been silent, chuckled, “Hehe.”

Let alone Tang Qi chuckling, even Zheng Tan, after seeing how Lord handled people, would not associate him with the word “gentle.”

“Ah Mi is sentimental, every year at this time, she comes back to pay her respects to the old master,” the person sighed again.

“Being sentimental is good, very good,” Tang Qi said.

This was also why Tang Qi was willing to keep Lord by his side. If Lord had been heartless, Tang Qi would have been more worried. With someone like Lord, if you treat him well, he remembers and will treat you well in return, rather than biting you back when it matters most.

As Tang Qi and the others began to talk about investments related to medicinal plants in rock gardens, Zheng Tan stopped listening, climbed out the window, and even helped close the screen behind him.

Returning to the slope, Zheng Tan saw two children, about seven or eight years old.

A little girl in a flowered dress was rubbing up against Lord.

“Come play with Ah Mi, don’t be lazy and sleep!”

After saying it a few times to no avail, the little girl grabbed Lord’s two front paws and tried to drag him out with difficulty. Lord let her drag him, lazily watching. The girl, lacking strength, turned red in the face, but she didn’t manage to drag him far. Lord was somewhat heavy, and children of this age didn’t have much strength.

Later, a little boy joined her, and each took one of the cat’s paws and dragged Lord out from under the tree. Lord wasn’t annoyed, letting them exert themselves. Dragging him over the grass didn’t hurt, and the tip of his tail leisurely curled up, as if he found it quite amusing.

These must be the grandchildren of the person in the house, otherwise Lord wouldn’t be so good-natured and let them fool around.

Someone called for the children from down the slope, and after dawdling a bit more, the children reluctantly left. But before leaving, the little girl picked a small white flower and tucked it in Lord’s ear. Lord had long fur which wasn’t thin there, so the stem of the flower didn’t fall out immediately.

After the children had left, Lord finally got up, leisurely walked to the pine tree, and lay down in his usual spot. He raised his paw to flick his ear, chewed the fallen white flower a couple of times, spat it out disdainfully, and then continued looking into the distance. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (NovelFire.net) to vote for it with recommendation tickets, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.NovelFire.net to read.)