Chapter 135

Seeing Jingzhang did not change Zheng Tan's walking route; after a slight pause, he went straight to the old tile house where Jiao Wei and his friends' car was.

Jingzhang watched Zheng Tan recede into the distance, then glanced at the two cats emerging from the grass, flicked his tail, and still followed Zheng Tan over. However, the cats in the grass also followed; for these cats, there was no specific destination—they were just coming here to play.

While following Zheng Tan, Jingzhang would sometimes veer aside to chase and play with those cats; the noise of their frolicking attracted more cats from around, so more and more cats gathered here.

This phenomenon is not due to any leader; among feline species, only lions are social. Many say cats are independent and headstrong, perhaps precisely because of this 'independence' that shapes their character, making their thoughts sometimes unconventional and hard to fathom; of course, cats living in the human world also seek companions to play with.

As for why no 'regional power' has formed here, Zheng Tan thought it must be due to the place itself—it's not their den, just a playground, and the cats aren't fixed; Jingzhang, for example, is probably still a newcomer.

Zheng Tan ignored the cats running around, walked along the path while also observing the surrounding tile houses. He had once heard several campus sanitation workers chatting that, although the school had no major projects in this tile-house area, it still sent people periodically to clean up, one task being clearing stray cats.

Once, a cleanup worker found a litter of kittens in one of the tile houses, with no mother cat in sight. Not knowing what to do, a sanitation worker eventually took the litter home to feed. Later, no mother cat was heard calling nearby; likely she had gone out foraging and been snatched.

Moreover, during Zheng Tan's wandering in this area, he gradually realized many of the tile houses were not vacant; besides Jiao Wei and his group, some people had obtained temporary use permits—student clubs that could not find suitable venues. The school encourages students to be self-reliant and innovative, and it supports many clubs and societies; the tile houses they choose have all been inspected. Even if they look like dangerous buildings from outside, they can be used for a few years, whereas those marked are truly hazardous and prone to accidents.

Thus, with people active here, the probability of stray cats settling down becomes even lower.

Therefore, those coming to play are not cats that reside here; they come from various surrounding areas, including Xiqu Dayuan—the one that had just been fiercely chasing and fighting with Jingzhang. That is why Zheng Tan does not fear being mobbed by cats; if it really happened, even with his greater strength, the outcome would not be good.

Zheng Tan climbed over the construction barrier, arrived at the old tile house where Jiao Wei and friends' car was, and saw the door tightly shut. It was a thick wooden door, looking somewhat aged; perhaps they avoided a metal or barred door to avoid the appearance of 'hiding no silver three hundred taels,' since all the surrounding tile houses have wooden doors.

Zheng Tan did not go through the main door; beside it, a window's upper right corner lacked glass. He jumped onto the windowsill and climbed in through that broken window.

After Zheng Tan, Jingzhang followed by climbing in; for cats, entering through a window is not necessarily less frequent than using the door—it's easy and they are practiced. Although a few other cats had also come this way, only two followed him inside.

After Jingzhang and the two other cats entered and sniffed around, Zheng Tan ignored them, jumped onto a storage rack, and from inside pulled out an unassembled car model without its outer shell, together with its matching remote control.

Jingzhang did not understand what Zheng Tan was doing; seeing him place the car model on the track, he came over to sniff, lifted his paw and patted it, found it uninteresting, and was about to leave to find something fun, when suddenly the car model emitted a sound, startling him to arch his back and jump back—but soon, seeing the model start moving on the track, his courage grew and he followed alongside the track.

Zheng Tan pressed the remote with his paw; controlling the car model was somewhat unfamiliar and inconvenient—the remote was large and awkward to hold—so he put it on the ground to operate. At first, the car ran straight into the plastic barrier beside the track. Zheng Tan went over, flipped the overturned car back upright, and placed it on the track again. A few seconds later it hit again, and he flipped it back once more. Moreover, because the track is circular, driving is a bit harder; Zheng Tan's cat paws lack fine control, and he had never felt that operating such a toy car would be this difficult.

Thus, hit, flip back, hit again, flip back again.

After repeating this several times, the situation improved considerably; now he can keep the number of collisions and rollovers per lap under five.

Having been too focused earlier, when Zheng Tan regained awareness of his surroundings he noticed several cats gathered around the track, watching.

Probably wary of the novelty, they kept their distance; Jingzhang initially ran alongside the car, but seeing it was fast and stayed within that range, he crouched there to stare.

After a brief rest, Zheng Tan prepared to start again when his ear twitched and he looked outside; he then lightly ran to the side, jumped onto a chair by the window, stood up, and peered out the window.

A construction barrier was pushed aside, and a sneaky figure slipped in from outside. In the moonlight, even human eyes could see them, but around here there are few people at night, and couples rarely come this way because there are no streetlights and no sense of safety.

A thief? This is the most likely possibility!

But who would take an interest in this dump?

After that person entered, he looked around, saw no one else, and called for the person behind him to come in together.

One man and one woman, both looking young, like school students. Such boyfriend‑girlfriend thief pairs are a dime a dozen and can cover for each other, but Zheng Tan feels their 'skill' is not as high as that of the two from Dongqu Dayuan earlier; their ability is modest, making them relatively easy to deal with.

When the person outside pushed the construction barrier, the cats waiting outside were startled and fled, so the man and woman did not notice how many cats were around. The barrier is made of light materials, not high quality, and after years of use several spots are damaged; a push can open a large gap, making entry easy.

Seeing them approach the window, Zheng Tan jumped down from the chair, looked around, and spotted a wrench in the corner—probably seldom used, covered in dust, unnoticed by anyone, and not gathered together when they tidied up.

Zheng Tan walked over, picked up the wrench, hefted it, then quietly moved to a spot four or five meters from the door.

The few cats inside also heard the outside commotion; the one near the door retreated inside to join the others.

Zheng Tan now walks upright; he is not afraid of the cats informing on him, since these cats cannot even comprehend his behavior that differs from ordinary cats, let alone go tell people.

Holding the wrench, Zheng Tan listened to the two people's low‑voiced talk at the door. Even if they believed no one was present here, they dared not speak loudly, for they could not be sure whether someone might pass by the other side of the construction barrier.

"Is there really anything valuable in here? How much could it sell for?" the woman asked, deliberately lowering her voice.

"Surely, the stuff they play with—if we resell it, we'll definitely get a few hundred, maybe even over a thousand; the money could buy you several more clothes. Remember that bag you eyed at the specialty store when we went shopping? If we sell this, you'll have that bag, and we could even sell brand‑name perfume." the man said.

"You don't have a key to pick the lock, do you?" the woman doubted.

The sound of the lock rang out; the person outside must be picking it.

Because of past incidents in Dongqu Dayuan, Zheng Tan's impression of thieves is extremely bad. Although he usually lazily avoids meddling, when it concerns him personally he settles the score at once; back in Dongqu Dayuan he could rely on Niu Zhuangzhuang and the others to speak for him, but now he must handle it himself.

The cats inside made no sound; at this moment they were merely alert, ready to respond or flee at any time.

The wooden door creaked open with a long 'squeak,' and silvery moonlight streamed in.

"Hey, I told you—this lock won't stop me." the man said proudly.

"Be careful, don't let someone suddenly rush out." the woman, still a little afraid, was nonetheless drawn in by the lure of designer clothes, bags, perfume, etc., and followed him inside.

"Nothing, absolutely no one…"

The voice cut off abruptly, because they saw pairs of glowing eyes.

In the silent night, under silvery moonlight, inside the ancient tile house—especially while the two were engaged in wrongdoing—suddenly seeing those shining eyes invariably inspires fear.

"Ah…"

The woman tried to cry out, but as soon as she made a sound the man clapped his hand over her mouth.

"Don't be afraid, it's just cats, not people…" Although he had also jumped a moment ago, and given his line of work his mental fortitude is stronger than hers, before he could finish speaking, a sharp pain struck his face.

Bang!

Nose blood spattered, and a front tooth fell out.

Someone once remarked, "When a thief meets a cat, what can the cat do? A dog can warn and even bite, but a cat would likely have fled—or simply curled up in a corner to sleep."

Yes, that's usually the case; unfortunately, today this thief had bad luck.

The wrench, stained with blood, fell to the ground with a crisp 'clang'.

And the cats inside, startled by that sharp sound, began to scurry about in fear. (To be continued…)

ps: When the webpage collectively crashed this afternoon, I set aside some of my work, found time to type, so today I could get up a little earlier.