Chapter 192: Beat Him First, Talk Later

That cat quickly vanished into this pine grove; Zheng Tan didn't even prepare to give chase, since catching thieves is the police's business, it's Hetaoshixiong's business, and Zheng Tan had no inclination to get involved.

Compared to the downtown area, the air here is much better, with large swaths of greened woodland plus a lake, and there's little indiscriminate dumping of domestic sewage or lab wastewater, so the environmental quality jumps up a notch—no wonder many people like to come here to relax; Xiao Guo's choice of this spot isn't without reason, even a pet-themed public service ad would need careful packaging, right? Otherwise, as vice-chairman, Xiao Guo would feel embarrassed to show his face.

As he walked and thought, Zheng Tan heard Cha Li shouting from over there, guessing he'd noticed Zheng Tan was missing and had gotten anxious.

Cha Li now feels great regret, thinking that leaving for just five minutes would be fine, but when he returned he didn't see Zheng Tan's shadow at all. If he lost this cat, Cha Li would never be able to get by in Chu Hua Shi; boss Xiao Guo would definitely not let him off.

Meanwhile, as Cha Li and the few members of the work group were anxiously looking for Zheng Tan, Zheng Tan strolled out from the small pine grove.

Seeing the cat wasn't lost, Cha Li and the others immediately relaxed, no longer leaving Zheng Tan's side; even if others were busy, they wouldn't go find Cha Li to help, otherwise losing the cat would make them guilty parties at the pet center as well.

Being watched like that, Zheng Tan couldn't muster the mood to go sightseeing; he lay down at the arranged spot and took a nap, only following back after the pet dogs' filming wrapped up.

He headed straight to the pet center, where Zheng Tan still had to wait a bit; Xiao Guo would finish his few urgent matters before sending Zheng Tan back to the estate, and he wouldn't feel at ease if he didn't personally see him off. During this time, Zheng Tan and the several pet cats and dogs taken out for filming would undergo a full physical checkup together.

This is a new rule Xiao Guo instituted, to prevent cats and dogs from picking up germs outside and bringing them into the pet center to infect more animals, and to catch any bodily discomfort early—after all, pets aren't people, and not everyone knows how to express where they feel unwell.

While Zheng Tan was undergoing the checkup, he happened to see a familiar face next door.

Sahala's dog dad brought it over for a shot; apparently Sahala had come down with a slight illness, and during the injection this little thing buried its head in its dog dad's embrace, whining and coquettishly.

Zheng Tan felt strong contempt.

Damn it, it's just a prick—where did that usual reckless bravado go?

Back at Dongqu Dayuan, he glanced at the living-room wall clock—it was just past three in the afternoon. Zheng Tan opened his computer and indeed found forum posts where cat lovers complained about cats liking to snatch things from others' homes and bring them back. Someone even posted a video link, a covert clip of that cat lover's own cat dragging back a plush toy in the middle of the night, unknown where from.

If a cat had such a 'talent' and then received training from those cat trainers, what would it become?

Zheng Tan couldn't guess.

Thinking of that cat he saw today, he dared not say more—whoever trained that cat surely wouldn't be short of money.

In that forum post, someone with legal training replied: 'If it's just an animal stealing things, that's animal instinct and not a crime. But the animal's keeper or owner should bear liability for damages caused to others' property due to poor management; if the kept animal has undergone professional training and is committing theft, the animal itself still isn't committing a crime, but the person directing it is typical of using an animal as a tool for theft, and by secretly taking others' property for personal gain, they constitute theft under criminal law.'

There are far too many such discussions, and in real life there's plenty of wiggle room, with loophole-seekers popping up all the time; however, Zheng Tan views these merely out of curiosity—as long as it doesn't happen to him or to the Jiao Family, he can't be bothered to spend too much time on them.

He shut down the computer, wiped away some obvious traces, and Zheng Tan stepped onto the balcony. As soon as he came out, he heard the guy on the fourth floor singing opera again.

He didn't know why that damned bird had become obsessed with singing opera lately, but Zheng Tan really didn't want to endure the torment here; he truly couldn't fathom how others in the building put up with it—maybe the old men and women just like that tune?

Having slept long enough outside and still restless at home, Zheng Tan finally decided to go out for a stroll, timing his return so he could pick up Xiao Youzi right on schedule.

It had been a while since he'd been to the construction site, so Zheng Tan decided to have a look. Passing by the school where Jiao Yuan and his peers study, he heard their teacher on the podium denouncing the ills of national education and spitting out criticisms of exam-oriented education.

Zheng Tan flicked his tail, too bored to listen—such talk is useless. He kept jogging forward.

At the construction site, the surroundings were still blue barriers, but the buildings going up inside were unstoppable; progress was decent, and he hoped this area would finish soon, giving Zheng Tan another venue for entertainment.

As he watched, Zheng Tan suddenly heard someone calling his name; turning his head, he saw Zhong Yan, whom he hadn't seen in a while, wearing a hard hat and work clothes, carrying a bundle of unknown items walking over.

Zheng Tan hadn't expected to run into Zhong Yan at this time of day; calculating the schedule, this kid seemed indeed to be on his monthly break, and before every holiday in senior year there are mock exams, but Zhong Yan's demeanor didn't show much stress.

"Hey, how'd you come over today?"

Zhong Yan stepped to the side; he had originally planned to rest there anyway, so he hadn't expected to see Zheng Tan.

After getting water from the temporary rest area, Zhong Yan found a spot to sit, took two gulps, then passed the water from another disposable plastic cup to Zheng Tan before telling him something.

"You know, recently a cat showed up at the construction site that looks a lot like you, also all black; at first Ning Ge and the others thought it was you coming over, and they treated it with good food and drink, but in the end I recognized it." Zhong Yan said this rather proudly.

"That black cat usually shows up at night, makes a round and leaves; Ning Ge and the crew said there were probably rats around the site drawing it in. But I don't think that cat is a stray. It's very wary and aggressive—when Ning Ge and the others teased it, they got scratched. I've heard that after people on the site realized it wasn't you, someone tried to bag it and put it in a pot, but they never succeeded."

Zheng Tan hadn't originally given it much thought—just a cat that looked a bit like him, nothing special; there are plenty of black cats. But Zhong Yan's next sentence made Zheng Tan's heart skip.

"Getting back to it, lately a few things have happened on the site—several people's wallets went missing; supposedly they were drinking and not paying attention, so someone likely snatched them. Now everyone hides their wallets well. Ah, that's just how the site is—pretty chaotic." Zhong Yan sighed.

Zheng Tan didn't know if he was being paranoid. When Zhong Yan spoke of this, the first thing that came to Zheng Tan's mind was linking that black cat to the missing-wallet incidents.

Maybe he was overthinking it—after hearing Hetaoshixiong's conversation that day and even seeing a wallet-stealing cat with his own eyes, Zheng Tan now thinks of a missing wallet and wonders which cat did it. Besides, Zhong Yan had just said there's a black cat that looks a lot like him that often shows up.

Whether or not he was overthinking, Zheng Tan decided to err on the side of caution. If that cat, which looks similar to him, really stole things like the one he saw this morning, and someone saw it doing wrong, would the blame fall on his head?

Zheng Tan absolutely refuses to take the fall for a black pot; to avoid mishaps, he decided to stay wary of other black cats lately.

Zhong Yan quickly returned to the construction site to work, and Zheng Tan headed back as well, meanwhile keeping an eye on the cats around; he didn't see any black cat like himself, probably because it wasn't time yet for that cat to come out and move about.

That day, after dinner, Jiao Ma was summoned by coworkers to dance at the campus square; the temperature wasn't low, so they didn't hole up in the gym but were active right on the plaza, with many former teachers still around.

Zheng Tan watched Jingzhang scuffling with the cat from Xiqu Dayuan, following them all the way near the plaza, thinking he'd just go find Jiao Ma later—although Jiao Ma was active in the plaza, she had acquaintances in the gym where her bag and water cup etc. were kept in lockers, so Zheng Tan just needed to wait at the gym entrance.

Zheng Tan was about to head that way when suddenly a figure darted across the road not far ahead, running from the left side near the plaza toward the right-side greenbelt grove.

He stopped, paused for two seconds, then turned and followed.

Zheng Tan heard the rustling from within the small grove—the sound of something running and rubbing against the black oat grass on the ground.

Although it was night, with the help of the streetlights along the surrounding roads Zheng Tan could make out the scene inside the grove—except the overly lush black oat grass and some trees inside blocked his view. Fortunately the trees here were thick enough and spaced just right, so Zheng Tan leapt onto a tree and darted through the branches. This skill wasn't acquired for nothing.

His intuition proved right sometimes; Zheng Tan saw a cat not far ahead in a clump of black oat grass, its raised head letting him see that it had a wallet in its mouth—though he couldn't tell the cat's exact color, nor whether it was the black cat Zhong Yan had mentioned.

Zheng Tan really hadn't expected to run into this sort of thing again so quickly; although he usually adopts a 'not my problem' attitude, he wanted to avoid being framed.

Regardless of whether it was that black cat that looks a lot like him, Zheng Tan decided to hit first and ask questions later!

Besides, Zheng Tan had claimed Chu Hua Da Xue as his own turf; causing a ruckus on his own territory without disciplining it would make him ashamed to say he's the boss here!

The sound of Zheng Tan leaping on the branches also alerted the cat; it sped up a bit, but not in great panic—apparently it thought a cat posed less threat than a person.

Approaching from above, Zheng Tan lunged down and pounced at it, delivering a straight paw strike.

The cat was slapped aside and rolled twice; its mouth, still holding the wallet, dropped into the black oat grass. After getting up it growled angrily at Zheng Tan a few times, seeming to want to fight, but it quickly ran off.

Zheng Tan wanted to keep pursuing, but just then Jingzhang and the cat from Xiqu Dayuan arrived, having fought their way here; seeing Zheng Tan, Jingzhang cheerfully trotted over to say hello, interrupting him. And the cat, unburdened by a wallet, fled just as fast, soon disappearing from the grove.

Jingzhang didn't realize he'd done wrong; after Zheng Tan slapped him he was a bit dazed, but soon he resumed scuffling with the Xiqu Dayuan cat, fighting their way out of the grove.

After cursing Jingzhang as a pig of a teammate in his mind, Zheng Tan flexed his claws, lifted them to sniff, and from the feel of that paw strike he'd just dropped from the tree, he knew he'd drawn blood, leaving a wound on the opponent—today wasn't a total loss. (To be continued…)

ps: (3.14)