Chapter 182

Today the wind is rather strong; the wind blowing in from the hallway vent pushes the door open a bit.

Zheng Tan thought a moment, went inside, wanting to see if the sunglasses man and Er Mao would fight; for Zheng Tan, when bored, watching a commotion is a great pleasure, a way to kill time.

After Qin Tao and Er Mao traded a few barbs, the atmosphere actually eased a little; but Zheng Tan could tell from their conversation that the two were quite familiar, not seeming hostile toward each other.

Just as Zheng Tan had guessed, Qin Tao, Er Mao, and Wang Bin all grew up together; they were classmates from elementary through high school. The nickname 'Beast' originated when Qin Tao, punished to write his name in elementary school, omitted the three dots of water in 'Tao', writing a mess of crooked 'Qin Shou'; unaware, he passed the notebook around class, and the nickname 'Beast' stuck—though only those close to him or of similar status dare use it, otherwise he'd have punched them long ago.

Compared to Wang Bin, Qin Tao and Er Mao actually share deeper revolutionary camaraderie; in middle school they constantly occupied the bottom two spots in class, not because they were hopelessly poor students, but due to their background they were placed in classes with many gifted taught by strong teachers, whereas Wang Bin always ranked in the top ten; thus, regarding shared topics and past glories, Er Mao and Qin Tao certainly have more to talk about, which is one reason Wang Bin asked Qin Tao to come find him.

"Speaking of which, how did you end up in Chu Hua Shi? Shouldn't you be enjoying yourself in Ming Zhu Shi?" Er Mao tossed Qin Tao an unopened bottle of mineral water.

"I've stirred up some trouble. Being dumped here to study under my uncle is basically a sinecure; others handle everything, I don't need to lift a finger, I'm bored to death." After saying that, Qin Tao twisted open the mineral water bottle and gulped a few mouthfuls, then, turning his head, happened to see the black cat peeking in at the doorway.

"Pfft—" Qin Tao choked, spraying water from his mouth, his face flushing red; he then recalled the time he got hit by bird droppings.

After recovering, Qin Tao pointed at Zheng Tan standing in the doorway and asked, "Do you know this cat?"

Although phrased as a question, the tone was quite certain.

Seeing Zheng Tan, Er Mao was a little surprised, but then recalled that he had indeed forgotten to close the door earlier, so he relaxed; the neighborhood security is good, the building houses teachers and retired professors, of high quality, so there's no need for excessive vigilance.

"How, did you come off worse against it?" Er Mao asked.

Qin Tao recounted what had just happened—being hit by bird droppings.

"Tsk, why follow it for no reason? And to be so stupidly direct about it—if it hadn't led you into other traps, getting pooped on is better than getting hurt." Er Mao said.

"No way? Is this cat really that dangerous?" Qin Tao glanced at Zheng Tan again.

"Believe it or not, it's up to you." Saying that, Er Mao sniffed and asked, "What's that smell?"

Qin Tao was sitting with his leg crossed, and Er Mao's gaze finally landed on Qin Tao's shoe.

"Qin Shou, you stepped in shit!" Er Mao said with a look of disgust.

"Huh?"

Qin Tao lifted his leg to sniff, then gagged, quickly found a plastic bag, took off his shoe and tossed it in, then asked Er Mao for a spare pair to make do.

"No wonder I felt something off when landing just now while hurdling." He tossed the plastic bag holding the poop‑soiled shoe to the doorway, glanced at the black cat still lingering there, and sensed a hint of schadenfreude and contempt in its gaze.

Zheng Tan was indeed feeling schadenfreude, but he regarded Qin Tao's habit of tossing out dirty clothes and flinging away poop‑soiled shoes as utterly wasteful—'Good-for-nothing! Good-for-nothing!'

Shaking his head, Qin Tao shook off the lingering feeling of Maomao, tapped Er Mao's arm with the half‑full mineral water bottle, and said, "It's all your fault, kid—if I weren't looking for you, would I have come here to suffer?"

"Meow——" Hei Mi, lying on the computer desk, pressed its ears and emitted a warning sound, looking at Qin Tao with a somewhat fierce gaze.

Upon hearing this sound, not only Zheng Tan, but even Er Mao and Qin Tao, who were about to start continuing to expose each other's shortcomings, also looked at Hei Mi.

For a moment, nobody in the room spoke.

Zheng Tan and Er Mao knew that when this cat got angry it was absolutely ferocious, while Qin Tao was somewhat bewildered. After a moment of silence, Qin Tao seemed to think of something and, holding a bottled water, knocked Er Mao again.

"Meow——" this time the warning sound was a bit louder.

Qin Tao glanced at Hei Mi, blinked, and knocked again.

"Huh——" this time not only was the warning sound louder, but it also bared its teeth, and the cat, which had been lying down, stood up.

"Hahaha!" Er Mao scooped up Hei Mi from the computer desk in one grab, looking smug, and said, "My daughter, indeed you're defending your dad!"

Qin Tao, originally surprised that the cat was so protective of its owner, upon hearing Er Mao's later words, had a constipated expression, "Daughter?"

"Right." Er Mao chuckled, lifted one of Hei Mi's front paws and waved it at Qin Tao, saying, "You bastard, if you hit me with the bottle again I'll let my daughter scratch you."

Qin Tao snorted twice, "How could you even think of keeping a cat?"

Er Mao just briefly mentioned it, without going into detail about how to deal with that cat-abuser, saying, "I don't want to keep something too fierce, nor do I want those overly gentle ones that don't even catch mice. Moreover, the people at the pet center said this cat was probably a house pet before, but later, for some unknown reason, it ended up stray for a period; however, overall, it's still fairly friendly toward people."

Qin Tao looked at the well-behaved spotted cat nestled in Er Mao's arms, and in his mind discounted the word "friendly."

Without further action, Qin Tao briefly explained the circumstances of Wang Bin's request for him to find Er Mao.

"So you came here following this cat?" Er Mao turned his head to look at Zheng Tan, who was crouched by the door watching the show, "You bastard, you betrayed me?!"

Zheng Tan tugged his ears, today this is definitely a coincidence; he really hadn't planned to bring Qin Tao over, it just happened that Er Mao showed up at that moment.

Er Mao and Qin Tao also didn't expect to get any answer from the cat, and continued chatting.

Seeing that it was time, Zheng Tan went to pick up Xiao Youzi. When he returned to the apartment building later, Er Mao's door was already tightly shut, and he heard no sound from inside, guessing that Er Mao had gone out.

The next day, after Zheng Tan sent Xiao Youzi to school and was preparing to go home to get online, he saw that Er Mao's door was again left ajar. Er Mao now increasingly dislikes closing the door, probably because he often forgets his keys and doesn't like to frequently pick the lock with wire, so he leaves a gap; anyway, the building has access control. This both keeps out random people from outside and prevents the house cat from running out.

After thinking it over, Zheng Tan pushed the door open and entered, having heard from that person yesterday that Er Mao's family might come looking for him.

There was no one else in the room. Er Mao was playing a game on the computer. Hei Mi was on the floor, playing enthusiastically with something it was fiddling with. After noticing Zheng Tan enter the room, it glanced at him and then continued bending its paw to fiddle with that thing.

Seeing that there was nothing lively to watch today, Zheng Tan prepared to leave. Suddenly he caught a glimpse of what Hei Mi was playing with; his eyes narrowed, feeling doubtful and uncertain, he withdrew his leg that was heading toward the door and went into the room.

Probably because he was familiar with Zheng Tan and also thought Zheng Tan posed no threat, Hei Mi did not show hostility toward Zheng Tan, but it seemed to be guarding against Zheng Tan snatching its toy.

Zheng Tan ignored Hei Mi, moved a bit closer to look at the thing on the floor. It was a pendant; Hei Mi mainly played with the pendant's string, while Zheng Tan's attention was entirely on the pendant itself.

This thing looks very familiar. It looks almost like the Jade Pendant given by that mysterious old lady.

While Zheng Tan was thinking about that, Er Mao had already finished a game over there.

"Hey, I'm saying, black coal, you always barging in uninvited is not good... hey, daughter, you can't play with this!"

Er Mao also didn't have time to criticize Zheng Tan, quickly picked up the pendant from the floor, wiped it with his sleeve, seeing that the pendant's string had been bitten and scratched again, he wondered when to replace the string, anyway this pendant had already had its string changed several times.

After putting the pendant back in place, Er Mao saw Zheng Tan staring at him, waved his hand, and said, "Go play at your place, don't steal Hei Mi's cat food."

The living room has an automatic feeder, which always has some cat food, but Er Mao has indeed never seen this black cat sneak food.

Zheng Tan returned, deep in thought, and seeing Er Mao's demeanor, felt that the pendant was still quite important to him.

Back when they were at Jiao Ba's hometown, what did that old lady say again?

Zheng Tan recalled a bit, then went to Xiao Youzi's wardrobe, pulled out a small bunch of keys from an inconspicuous corner, flexed his claws, inserted one key into the hidden drawer on the cat climbing frame, opened it, and rummaged to find the Jade Pendant that Jiao Ba had placed inside, examining it carefully.

It really is quite similar! The characters on it are also almost the same.

Could it be that the person the old lady was looking for is related to Er Mao?

Regardless of any connection between the two, Zheng Tan decided to take this Jade Pendant and wave it in front of Er Mao to see what happens; then he'd know the answer. Er Mao wouldn't forcibly take it anyway. Jiao Ba isn't around, and Zheng Tan doesn't feel comfortable informing him. If he could settle this matter, it would also be a good thing, since Jiao Ba always says he wants to repay that old lady.

After hanging the pendant around his neck, Zheng Tan relocked the drawer, hid the key, and went downstairs to Er Mao's place.

Er Mao started a new game round, Hei Mi lay curled up in a corner of the bed sleeping.

Zheng Tan jumped directly onto the computer desk, standing beside the computer.

Er Mao was startled by Zheng Tan's movement, but he was in the middle of an intense game, didn't take his eyes off Zheng Tan, and couldn't free a hand to push Zheng Tan off the desk.

Zheng Tan wasn't in a hurry, just crouched nearby to watch.

When Er Mao finally finished a round, before he could even speak to Zheng Tan, his newly bought phone rang.

Zheng Tan watched Er Mao talk on the phone with an impatient expression, boredly playing with the mouse.

Er Mao noticed Zheng Tan's movement, came over to stop him, lest Zheng Tan close his game interface; suddenly, Er Mao's action stalled, he stopped talking, looked at the Jade Pendant hanging from Zheng Tan's neck, and then examined it closely.

The person on the other end of the phone didn't know what was still being said; Er Mao simply hung up.

"Hey, I'll take it down to look at it, I'll return it to you later." Saying that, Er Mao took the pendant off Zheng Tan's neck.

Er Mao's first reaction upon seeing the pendant hanging from Zheng Tan's neck was: When did this cat steal my thing and replace the cord? On second glance he noticed a subtle difference, after all his own piece had been with him for over ten years, any tiny difference would be noticeable.

Without a doubt, Zheng Tan's pendant Jade Pendant is definitely genuine, not some low-quality textile; the jade quality is similar to Er Mao's own piece, and even if Er Mao doesn't know much about this, he can feel that this piece's jade quality is about the same as his own.

He took out his own Jade Pendant, which he hadn't yet had a chance to change the cord on, and placed them together for comparison.

Then, Er Mao got fired up. (To be continued...)

ps: (3.6)