Chapter 234: The Bound Person

Zheng Tan followed those two people from not far away, twitched his ears, turned his head to look back, and saw Heijin trailing behind, but Heijin didn't immediately catch up, keeping some distance instead.

Dogs aren't as agile or flexible as cats, so keeping some distance is fine—it won't let the two ahead notice, and as long as it follows Zheng Tan, Heijin won't get lost.

When those two spoke, they also glanced around, saw no one, and felt much more at ease.

But those two didn't realize that a follower isn't necessarily human—it could be an animal; perhaps they thought, in the middle of winter daylight, there couldn't be any dangerous beasts about.

No matter what, Zheng Tan's tailing was still successful; he followed the two all the way to a two-story tile house near the mountain base, which looked roughly built from the outside, with nothing worth admiring.

There were other people inside; when the two arrived, they knocked, and the door opened from within.

After approaching, Zheng Tan hid somewhere to observe, discovering two cameras under the eaves; he walked around the house, noting their positions, though he didn't know if there were other, more concealed surveillance devices. From the outside the house looked nothing special, not worth much—who'd expect this shack to have cameras installed?

Zheng Tan looked behind; Heijin remained hidden at a certain distance, not rushing forward.

The house's soundproofing was decent; Zheng Tan stayed there and couldn't hear what the people inside were saying, at most catching faint sounds but not clearly. Therefore, he decided to go over and check the situation, feeling he might gain something.

After taking a few steps, Zheng Tan turned back and saw Heijin seemed ready to rise and continue following; he hurriedly raised a paw toward Heijin's hiding place, palm facing that way, intending to wave for him to stop, but Zheng Tan suddenly realized cats and humans differ—would Heijin understand?

As Heijin was about to rise, he saw Zheng Tan's motion, tilted his head in confusion, then after a few seconds lay down again, still watching Zheng Tan's direction.

Seeing Heijin lie down again, Zheng Tan breathed a sigh of relief. He finally felt the advantage of acting together with another intelligent animal—he didn't need to overdo gestures to explain. Besides, they couldn't understand each other's language; even if he could explain, it probably wouldn't help, it's a matter of comprehension.

After walking a few more steps, Zheng Tan quickly glanced back; seeing Heijin not catching up, he chose an angle where the camera couldn't see him and proceeded.

The exterior walls hadn't been plastered much, nor tiled; Zheng Tan had climbed such walls before, so to him it was nothing—he nimbly scrambled up. Three spots could avoid the cameras; he chose this one because it faces the mountain, with the wall backed by the hill, so it wouldn't draw special attention—the two corner-mounted cameras could only see far away, not the nearby lower area.

The main reason, however, is that this side has a broken opening in an iron-barred window; perhaps they thought the window unimportant or that installing the bars was fine, so they didn't replace the glass, just slapped a piece torn from some cardboard box over it, at least to block the wind.

He pushed aside the cardboard blocking the breach and entered through the gap.

Inside were stacks of boxes; Zheng Tan glanced at the printed text and pictures—"xx brand filled candy," "xx brand milk tea," etc. —all the same brand, a name he'd never heard, likely not a legitimate manufacturer, probably counterfeit; the logo resembled a famous food brand, missing just a stroke.

What amused Zheng Tan further was that the boxes also bore an "exemption from inspection" stamp.

However, if it were merely counterfeit goods, there'd be no need for such a show; Hetaoshixiong wouldn't risk himself over this.

The boxes were taped shut, except a few near the door that weren't sealed; Zheng Tan jumped up and saw that just from the packaging they were inferior products.

The room's door was also locked; Zheng Tan couldn't open it because an iron lock was fastened outside, and with no one coming to open it, he couldn't exit that way.

After scanning the room, Zheng Tan found a gap in the ceiling corner; he jumped onto several boxes, stacked fairly high, leaving only seventy to eighty centimeters to the ceiling. Standing there, he could closely examine the gap.

Zheng Tan looked and saw the gap's edges bore gnaw marks, likely from rats; however, the opening was only big enough for a mouse, and he couldn't squeeze through.

The ceiling consisted of cheap wooden planks; with age, gaps had formed between them, revealing many black stains. Now the wind outside was strong, and Zheng Tan could feel the musty air blowing in through those gaps.

Zheng Tan stood on the edge of an upper box, lightly jumped, and hooked the gap. The board gave a soft "creak"—nothing much, audible only inside the room; besides, when the wind outside howls, the roof makes noise too, so even if someone heard this slight creak, they'd ignore it.

Hooked onto the board and hanging there, Zheng Tan used one hand to push the adjacent plank; unexpectedly, perhaps due to age or having been pushed open while stacking cargo, a little force was enough to shift it slightly.

He carefully lifted the loose board upward, confirming the opening was wide enough to crawl through, then retracted his paw, gripped the gap and seam tightly, and used his head to push the loose board, laboriously squeezing himself up.

The board emitted a crisp "crack," but after listening closely and hearing no other disturbance outside, Zheng Tan continued pushing up. While doing so, he glanced around above: aside from a few tiny insect corpses of unknown age, there was only thick dust and spiderwebs.

After getting up, Zheng Tan carefully let the board settle back without making a loud noise, then tentatively began to walk on it.

The planks weren't great, and with age they likely couldn't support an adult's weight—even Xiao Youzi stepping on them would be risky—but for Zheng Tan it was enough; after all, these boards can bear a cat's weight.

It was rather dim inside, but light seeping through tile gaps and between the lower boards was sufficient for Zheng Tan to see the layout above clearly.

Perhaps it had been renovated several times; it felt haphazard, looks like a slapdash job. From here Zheng Tan could inspect the various second-floor rooms, as the partitions between rooms weren't complete; even a brick-sized gap he could try to squeeze through, and some places were directly connected.

Compared to those, what worried Zheng Tan more was the creaking of the boards under his feet; although they could support his weight, stepping sometimes made a creak. If someone were inside a room, hearing that creak wouldn't immediately suggest an intruder above, but they might suspect birds or rats and pay special attention.

Zheng Tan stepped carefully on the boards, moving through several rooms without seeing anyone—likely they were all downstairs. But upon reaching above one room, he noticed a difference from the previous rooms; peering through a narrow gap between the boards, he saw a person imprisoned in that room.

The room wasn't large, with few miscellaneous items around, so that central object stood out prominently.

In the room's center stood a chair with a person bound to it; viewed from above, Zheng Tan couldn't see the person's face, but what stood out was a head of wine-red hair, the style indiscernible and messy. The person wore a blue cloth cotton jacket with patches, a few tears revealing the inner stuffing. The jeans were covered in dust, and the hiking boots… if the pattern were genuine, this person would still have some worth.

Zheng Tan crept forward a few steps to change his angle. Unfortunately, the person kept his head down, as if asleep, so Zheng Tan still couldn't make out the features.

At that moment, Zheng Tan heard voices outside; someone was coming upstairs, heading straight for this room.

After the sound of the lock turning outside, the room door opened. Three people entered; two Zheng Tan recognized, the third seemed to have been in the house all along.

One of them, wearing a gray coat, walked over to the bound person and grabbed his hair, shaking it.

Then Zheng Tan heard a sound like a pig being slaughtered.

"Shut up!" the gray-coated man slapped him.

The person's shriek halted, then turned into crying—still on a four-beat pattern, first tone rising, the next three falling, the first and fourth drawn out, the middle two short. Though still unpleasant, it was far better than the earlier pig-like squeal.

Zheng Tan had always thought that such crying belonged either to small children or to those who never grow up, or else it was largely an act; he'd only heard some kids in the compound cry like that, and this was the first time he'd heard an adult—or an adult male—cry this way, giving him goosebumps.

And when the gray-coated man, gripping the person's hair, saw him jerk his head up, Zheng Tan saw that the fellow had been beaten to a swollen, bruised face, tears and snot streaming as he cried.

"Is this the person you caught?" asked one who had just come down from the mountain.

"Yes, that's him." The gray-coated man released his grip on the hair.

The questioner glanced at an ID in his hand, then clicked his tongue, "Looks like a rich kid at first glance; his stuff must be worth quite a bit, right?"

The gray-coated man chuckled, "The superiors only said to temporarily detain the person, not that we can't sell things."

Seeing the questioner frown, the gray-coated man added, "We've sold a phone and a camera, not locally, through special channels"—meaning to reassure him that it wouldn't cause trouble.

"You've seen what's in his wallet; as for his leather jacket, I'm wearing it downstairs right now—it's pretty warm. Oh, this guy's phone still has a bunch of decent pictures; if they got out, it'd be another x-photo scandal. The camera didn't capture much, and as for his luxury car, I've hidden it, not dealt with it yet; once things blow over, selling it could net a tidy sum."

"Hmm." The questioner's furrowed brow eased a little, "First, don't let him die—he looks timid, but his family background isn't bad; we'll see what the higher-ups decide later." Lately things haven't gone well; the superiors seem not to want to stir up more trouble, so they'll settle this period's affairs first.

"We know that naturally—this guy keeps needing to go to the bathroom."

"Then we'll save on food." said the gray-coated man.

Meaning, as long as he doesn't starve, we don't need to feed him much.

The bound person started crying again, repeatedly promising to let him go and pay a large sum, but the three ignored him. After asking a couple more questions, they left, and the sound of the lock engaging came from outside.

Zheng Tan pricked his ears; he heard the three, as they walked away, saying whether they should move the person elsewhere, since tomorrow they'd be shipping cargo.

The rest was inaudible; the three had already gone downstairs. Zheng Tan prepared to find a spot to go down and listen to their conversation, but as he lifted his foot, looking through a gap between the boards he saw the person who had just been bawling tears and snot, bound to the chair, now standing—his ropes had been cut at some point, coiled into a bundle, and stuffed into the pocket of his tattered cotton jacket.

Having pulled on his cotton jacket, the man walked to the wall corner, picked up a half steamed bun that had fallen there—his unfinished breakfast from that morning.

He tore off the dusty crust, took a bite, and ate calmly, showing none of the earlier wretchedness. As he ate, he approached, his eyes fixed on the spot where Zheng Tan stood. (To be continued…)

ps：（4.23）