Chapter 197

Zheng Tan actually heard Jiao Ma's shouting, but he didn't stop; after finally catching this cat trainer, he couldn't let his efforts go to waste.

Although the cat trainer looked a bit disheveled and was surprised by Zheng Tan's sudden pursuit, judging from the route the cat trainer took while fleeing, Zheng Tan could see that this guy had made thorough preparations and was very familiar with the layout of the area; he wasn't just running around with his head full of paste.

This guy ran very fast; though he didn't look particularly sturdy, Zheng Tan didn't expect him to run that quickly, and his reactions were swift—almost as soon as Zheng Tan charged, the man turned and fled, leaping over railings and obstacles with ease.

Zheng Tan chased from behind, but he didn't let his guard down; the guy's running route wasn't any of the campus's main paths, and moreover, those areas of the school had no surveillance cameras installed, so it's no wonder the School Security Office personnel couldn't find any clues from the camera footage.

As the cat trainer vaulted over a fence, he glanced back; borrowing the light from a nearby streetlamp, he saw the black shadow closely pursuing him and cursed inwardly. Although he hadn't been caught yet, this cat had been relentlessly tailing him, and in all his years as a cat trainer, he had never seen a cat with such stamina—damn it! Fortunately, he had made preparations……

The cat trainer looked ahead at a small grove and made a few strange sounds with his mouth; the sounds were not loud, somewhat like some insect chirping.

Zheng Tan could hear it clearly; moreover, he had heard this sound before when he was in that grove, but at the time the cat calls were mixed together, so Zheng Tan hadn't paid special attention.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Four figures rushed out from the grove.

These were the cat trainer's backup, just in case. Besides the few cats fighting in that grove, he had brought two healthy cats and two that were only lightly injured last time, which were lying in ambush here; now they had become his aides in escaping.

Zheng Tan wasn't afraid of the uninjured 'big boss,' let alone these few; his main target right now was the cat trainer, so he temporarily ignored these cats.

When the four figures lunged from the front‑left, Zheng Tan leapt over the first cat that lunged at him, then shoved aside the second cat blocking the path; as for the remaining two, they had already been flung behind him by Zheng Tan's movement.

As the cat trainer looked back to see how the interception was going, he happened to see Zheng Tan bodily slam aside the cat blocking the way. He almost spat out a mouthful of blood—'This really is a cat, not a war dog? Which cat would resort to such brutality in this situation?!'

Originally, the cat trainer merely hoped his cats could hold Zheng Tan for a while, giving him a chance to shake off the pursuit, but he hadn't expected them to be utterly ineffective. Thinking of that fierce cat, the cat trainer endured the discomfort and kept running.

However, the cat trainer was ultimately unfamiliar with the surroundings and lacked a cat's keen night vision; while crossing a lawn, he tripped over a raised patch. His foot wasn't sprained, but he stalled for a few seconds; just as he prepared to accelerate again, a sudden strong force struck from behind, sending him sprawling to the ground, his chin hitting the earth. Though it was grass, the impact still hurt, and his head felt a bit dizzy.

The cat trainer shook his head, got to his feet, reached into his waistband and pulled out a stun baton—before he could even locate a target, he was kicked in the back and fell forward again. Moreover, because he had shifted direction while getting up to look for a target, this time he fell and collided with the ornamental stone nearby.

Hitting stone is worse than knocking on grass, especially since he struck it face‑first; his already dazed mind grew more dazed, blood flowing from his forehead and nostrils, and the stun baton dropped to the ground. Although his head was foggy and his thoughts unclear, acting on instinct, the cat trainer still emitted a few urgent insect‑like chirps to summon his cats for help.

Zheng Tan kicked the fallen stun baton into the nearby artificial lake, then lunged at the cat trainer and raked his claws across the man's face, leaving claw marks.

The cat trainer, after taking a claw to the face, cried out in pain and staggered to his feet; with his head still foggy, he couldn't run as nimbly as before, and he didn't even have time to wonder why he had been kicked down—after all, only one cat was chasing him; could a single cat really have that kind of force? He would only realize the answer once his mind cleared.

After seeing the cat trainer get to his feet, Zheng Tan leapt and kicked him again, watching the man collapse for the third time.

Probably exhausted and still dazed, the man had no intention of getting up again; he pulled his hoodie's drawstring up over his head, curled up face‑down on the ground to prevent Zheng Tan from scratching his face.

Seeing the fellow playing dead like a turtle, Zheng Tan didn't rush in right away; spotting the stun baton, he suspected the man might be hiding other devices, so for safety he decided not to engage in close combat. But if the man thought staying at a distance would render him helpless, he was gravely mistaken.

Zheng Tan looked around; recently the school had paved its lawn areas with bricks, turning the paths worn by students into square lawn tiles, while beside the shrubbery lay some broken tiles that hadn't been cleared away. He walked over, picked up a tile, and hurled it at the person feigning death.

There was no one else around, no cameras, and nobody saw this late at night; Zheng Tan stood on his hind legs, then grabbed the broken lawn‑tile fragments with his forepaws and hurled them at the person. A cat came over, and when it attacked Zheng Tan, he swatted it aside, then continued to hurl the tile fragments.

At first the man yelled from the pain, but later he stopped crying out—apparently unable to hold back, as he rose he flicked his wrist and a thin whip lashed out, sweeping a circle. I don't know whether this whip is used for cat training.

The whip strike had decent force and the motion looked quite practiced, but unfortunately Zheng Tan was outside its range.

Zheng Tan was now quite glad he hadn't gone for a close‑range attack earlier, otherwise he would most likely have taken a whip lash.

After the man swung the whip a few times around, he realized he hadn't hit anything; instead he felt a bit unsteady, intending to lean against a tree, when suddenly his face flared with pain—though he had just begun to clear his head, his consciousness grew muddled again.

After throwing the tile, Zheng Tan watched the man fall again. He wondered whether to go over and scratch and kick a few times to help the Security Office vent their anger, when he heard someone running toward this spot.

The comer was Er Mao.

Around here there weren't many streetlights, so only vague silhouettes could be seen. Er Mao switched on his flashlight and saw a half‑dead person on the ground, while the black cat that Jiao Ma had been anxiously looking for was sitting calmly atop a landscape stone.

"Heimeitan, hurry back—your cat mom is anxiously looking for you. I'll take care of this." Er Mao said to Zheng Tan.

Seeing Er Mao, Zheng Tan also didn't intend to keep tangling with the cat trainer; before leaving, he even stepped on the cat trainer.

Finally seeing her cat, Jiao Ma's worried heart eased, but after the relief came anger.

Jiao Ma was furious, the consequences serious. She demanded Zheng Tan produce the house key; Zheng Tan feigned ignorance. Anyway, he had hidden the key well himself—as long as Da Pang didn't give him away, Jiao Ma would never find it.

Soon after the police arrived, the noisy Dongqu Dayuan returned to calm.

Zheng Tan didn't know how A Wu and his three cats were faring, but from the news he heard from Er Mao the next day, he learned that the cat trainer had been personally taken away by Hetaoshixiong, who also took several cats—including the 'big boss' whose leg Zheng Tan had broken—and A Wu had taken his own cat with him.

Hetaoshixiong and Er Mao had no intention of making the cat trainer incident public; otherwise, not only would the cats on campus be targeted, but all the cats in Chu Hua Shi would face public hostility—especially those who had been bought with money, regardless of whether the cats had actually stolen from them, they would direct their anger at the cats, and indeed those who already disliked cats would surely pour all sorts of filth onto them.

Hetaoshixiong and Er Mao didn't want people's first reaction upon seeing a cat to be 'thief,' especially since the recent cat‑loving event had just ended; exposing this now would be a outright slap in the face. It would be better to keep it quiet. Moreover, they had consulted with the school's higher‑ups and agreed on a unified story: say they'd merely caught a night‑time thief. Catching a thief is indeed a fact, so it's not really concealing the truth, and saying so doesn't go against their conscience.

The cats left, the cat trainer left, but people's discussion didn't stop; instead it grew increasingly bizarre.

The aunties of Dongqu Dayuan embellished the story and spread it, claiming the cats and dogs of the estate had again helped catch a thief; with several prior incidents, this tale was told as if it were supernatural, though most outsiders just took it as a joke and didn't believe it.

Last night, the few cats in the grove later expanded their fighting and roaming range; when they passed near a certain district's student dormitory, some students who were still awake at night heard those eerie cat cries, and the next day, upon hearing that the school had caught a thief, they began to discuss it.

Zheng Tan stayed at home; he didn't go out today, and he wouldn't be going out for the next few days at most—just wandering around his own building, at least for the short term. Since he hadn't handed over the key, he felt he was 'facing the wall in self‑reflection' at home, waiting for the day Jiao Ma's anger faded before he would venture out again.

While basking in the sun on the balcony, Zheng Tan saw a familiar car parked in the estate—that belonged to Da Pang's father; it looked like Da Pang should be at home eating instant noodles. The old lady couldn't bear it; only its father came over to urge him.

Zheng Tan wondered what it would be like if Jiao Ba were at home, but he couldn't work out the most likely scenario—Jiao Ba was just too hard to read, not to be judged by ordinary standards.

What annoyed Zheng Tan most was that Xiao Youzi wouldn't let him burrow under the blankets to sleep; these past two days he had been sleeping on the cat tree.

Zheng Tan scooped a small clump of dirt from a nearby flowerpot and tossed it toward the fourth floor, where it struck the wire mesh. The listless General, who had been hanging his head, wondering what to think, heard the noise and immediately flapped his wings over, looking left and right.

Zheng Tan wasn't in the mood to deal with that bird; after rolling around bored on the balcony a few times, he decided to go online to check gossip.

This time Zheng Tan didn't go to the pet forum; instead, he entered the forum network of Chu Hua Da Xue's own campus. The hotly discussed posts were all about this incident.

Zheng Tan couldn't help laughing as he read further; these students' imaginations ran wild, even bringing up demons and monsters.

Some students suspected that the thief incident was being used to cover up the truth, and they also said that cats can see ghosts and doppelgängers, so they must have seen something dirty. Later, some people talked about keeping cats to ward off evil. And this incident was finally rated as one of Chu Hua Da Xue's top ten supernatural events of the year. (To be continued..)

ps: (3.19) If nothing unexpected happens, I'll make up the update this weekend.