Chapter 273: Mobile Phone

Zheng Tan looked at his own cat paw, then looked at the few mobile phones in the cabinet, and finally his gaze fell on a flip phone for men.

This phone's screen was considered large at the time, and its buttons were relatively larger, making it easy to operate. Zheng Tan put this phone aside, put the pink phone aside as well, then opened the box holding the SIM cards and took out two SIM cards.

Not finding a bag in the room, Zheng Tan went to the door, listened carefully, confirmed there was no one inside or outside near the room, then jumped up, pulled the lock open, and went out the door.

The two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment wasn't large; the other room was unoccupied, holding some fitness equipment. Zheng Tan walked around, found a clean bag, placed the flip phone, the pink phone, and the two SIM cards inside, tied the bag, then returned to the room to deal with the remaining phones and SIM cards. During this process Zheng Tan also rummaged through a few drawers, but didn't see the lost pendant Zhuo Xiao Mao mentioned; he guessed it had already been sold, or hidden somewhere he couldn't find.

Zheng Tan didn't know where these phones were stolen from, nor who the owners were, and he didn't care about those unrelated people; he usually couldn't be bothered to pay attention. As for the owner of the pink phone, Zheng Tan merely intended to help out in passing.

After finishing, Zheng Tan was about to climb out the window and make a getaway, but suddenly stopped, ran over to grab some paper towels to wipe away traces—such as obvious cat paw prints—and the dusty wardrobe above; after a rough wipe, though not meticulous, it was enough to erase the cat's traces.

Zheng Tan threw the cabinet key into the toilet hole. He then relocked the cabinet, leaving that man to puzzle over it.

After strolling around twice to make sure his footprints were gone, Zheng Tan then clenched the bag containing the phones and SIM cards in his mouth and climbed out the window. As for the remaining traces in the room, based on those alone one wouldn't suspect a cat.

Climbing up is easy, climbing down is hard; Zheng Tan's descent from outside the window was not easy—he clung to the wall, shifted a bit, then jumped onto the awning outside the second-floor window. Although this residential area is rather old, the awning is still fairly sturdy.

Landing on the awning made a bang. The sound wasn't loud, but the people inside surely heard it. However, by the time they came to open the window and look out, Zheng Tan had already flipped from the second floor to the first, landed on the ground, and found a place to hide.

After hiding behind the bushes and seeing the second-floor window close again, Zheng Tan finally let out a long breath.

After a moment, Zheng Tan again carried the bag in his mouth and left from the dark place.

Many places are not illuminated at night; although it requires taking a detour, to keep his movements covert Zheng Tan had to go the long way around.

Arriving at Chu Hua Da Xue, Zheng Tan climbed over the wall near the side gate, opened the bag in the greenery, and when no one was paying attention, he tossed the pink phone toward the guard room; the phone landed right on the steps in front of the guard room's entrance. Zheng Tan watched from the side until a guard noticed, picked up the phone, asked passing students to no avail, then grabbed a pen and wrote a lost-and-found notice on the nearby bulletin board before Zheng Tan left. The guards at Chu Hua Da Xue are of decent quality.

Next, Zheng Tan didn't go straight home but went to a place—the woods near the new student dormitories. Two years ago, before the dorms were built, that area was quite remote, with hardly anyone walking around at night, and the woods also had many thick, large trees. Zheng Tan remembered that when he used to train there, he'd seen a tree with a hole; he had once placed a cat tag inside that hole. Thinking back, he realized he hadn't been that way for a while—since the dorms went up building by building and the new students moved in, Zheng Tan rarely wandered over there. Today was a good chance to go check it out.

Although the new dorms have made this once-remote, low-traffic edge of campus a bit livelier, it's only a little; the wooded area still has students walking about at night, and the small grove has some students making papapa sounds, but overall there are few people, so Zheng Tan finds it easy to avoid those students.

Around the big tree with the hole there was no one; Zheng Tan jumped up the tree, looked at the hole, and saw a pile of rotting leaves—this was stuff he'd stuffed in with branches, leaves, and a plastic board the last time he came here to keep other animals from taking over. Now it seems a bad idea, as maggots have infested the rotting leaves. Zheng Tan broke off a branch and pulled out the contents; it was quite damp, with many tiny bugs crawling around, but he couldn't think of a better way to deal with it for the moment, so he'd make do for now and figure something out tomorrow.

After cleaning out the hole, Zheng Tan placed the bag containing the phones and SIM cards inside.

Although the old tile house nearby also has plenty of places where Zheng Tan could hide his phone without worrying about wind or rain, one never knows when someone might go in there, whereas this tree hole seems only likely to be visited by birds and cats, and ordinary birds and cats aren't as interested in phones as Zheng Tan is.

After thinking it over, Zheng Tan still felt the tree hole was relatively safe and stable.

Stealing phones from the thief who stole phones—does that count as black eating black?

Who cares! Zheng Tan shook his head; he's always lacked scruples.

Opening the bag, Zheng Tan turned on the phone, set it to silent, and launched a racing game installed on it to play.

It had been a long time since he'd touched a phone; even this crude-looking game, Zheng Tan could play happily.

No one would have imagined that at this moment, in the woods bordering Chu Hua Da Xue's campus, a cat was hiding in a tree hole, grinning as it played with a phone.

About half an hour later, the phone warned of low battery, and Zheng Tan, still wanting more, finally turned it off.

This phone had no SIM card installed; seeing the two SIM cards he'd casually snatched and put in the bag, he'd forgotten to insert one while playing the game.

Forget it, we'll talk about it later.

Zheng Tan somewhat laboriously pried open the phone's back cover, removed the battery, and took it home to charge tomorrow using Jiao Ma's universal charger when the house is empty.

After pulling out the battery, Zheng Tan neatly packed the phone and the two SIM cards into the bag and tied it shut. Looking at the battery, he thought holding it in his mouth wasn't a good idea—biting a battery is suicidal; setting aside its toxicity, Zheng Tan recalled the recent conversation between Jiao Ba and Jiao Yuan.

In Jiao Yuan's class, many students, when using electronic products and finding the batteries dead, too lazy to buy new ones, would just bite them to "mine" the remaining energy, so you often see discarded batteries with tooth marks at his school. A few days ago, news broke of a little girl who was injured when a battery exploded after she bit it. According to an expert quoted in the newspaper, batteries contain chemicals; if saliva enters through a bitten battery, it could cause a short circuit and explosion, especially with counterfeit or low-quality batteries. Accidents are likely when quality isn't guaranteed.

Those students commonly use size 5 or 7 zinc‑cased dry batteries. Zheng Tan doesn't know about phone batteries, but he doesn't dare take the risk; he still cherishes this cat's life. Regarding that academic knowledge, Zheng Tan is semi‑illiterate. Not understanding it, he has no interest in digging deeper. Just doing what Jiao Ba and Jiao Ma say is fine—simple, convenient, no brainpower needed.

Therefore, to be safe, Zheng Tan ran to the vendors strolling outside the side gate who sell from small stalls to scavenge a bag. After more students came around, there are also some stall‑setters at the side gate entrance in the evenings and at night.

The stall vendors saw Zheng Tan snatch a plastic bag from their stall and thought the cat was just playing; many cats like to play with plastic bags, which aren't worth much, so they didn't pay much attention to Zheng Tan—the passing students were the real focus.

After putting the battery into a clean plastic bag, Zheng Tan then carried the bag in his mouth back home, hid the battery somewhere in the courtyard, went upstairs, brushed his teeth and took a shower; today he'd carried the plastic bag a lot in his mouth, so he needed to brush extra, and the electric toothbrush Jiao Ma bought works fine.

The next day, Zheng Tan, taking advantage of the house being empty while the building's occupants were off to work or school, brought the bag containing the battery home and charged it with Jiao Ma's universal charger.

To charge the battery more fully, Zheng Tan stayed home morning and afternoon, and also found a bag among the household clutter—an old change purse of Jiao Ma's that hadn't been used in ages and was likely forgotten. He took it out, washed it under the faucet, and hung it on the balcony to dry.

The change purse was the right size, just able to hold that flip phone, and its strap fit perfectly around Zheng Tan's neck, saving him from having to hold it with his teeth.

Once everything was ready, Zheng Tan found an opportunity to return to the tree hole, installed the battery, tested the two SIM cards, and checked the balance—one card had already run out of money and was deactivated, the other had only a few yuan left.

After installing the card that still had credit, Zheng Tan thought about that man's phone number. Yesterday, when Zheng Tan went to the kindergarten, Bai Lao Shi was in the middle of calling that man; after she hung up and put the phone on her desk to look after the other kids, Zheng Tan checked the call log, which showed "Dear," and he noted down the number.

At that moment, in the old residential community.

Zhang Dong was on the phone venting his grievances.

"This morning I changed shoes and found several SIM cards lying inside the shoes; I rushed out, grabbed a suit from the closet and put it on, took the bus, pulled out a few SIM cards from my pocket, went home and cooked noodles, opened the dish cabinet and saw a phone lying inside! I ran to get water to calm down, opened the cabinet under the living‑room coffee table, and found yet another phone in there—damn it… phone… SIM card… phone… SIM card… I'm about to go crazy! Who the hell is playing with me?!"

Zhang Dong felt the intruder was a highly skilled thief, yet why not take the phones away, instead scattering them around as if playing a game?

Zhang Dong checked the locks and windows but found no clues; he lacks investigative skill, dares not make a fuss—if outsiders found out he'd feel bad, and if peers knew he'd lose face—so he could only confide in a close friend he usually hangs out with.

While he was saying this, his phone notified him of an incoming text message.

Upon seeing the number displayed on the phone, Zhang Dong's hand trembled, and a chill instantly ran down his back.

After discovering his bedroom had been visited by a thief more skilled than himself, he tallied all the phone cards he'd found in the room, marked the ones he hadn't found, and the number now shown as the sender of the text was one of those missing cards—a number he had used before, memorable because it contains four sixes.

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Dong opened the just‑received message, which displayed—

"\"Fun? \" (To be continued…)"

ps: (5.31)