Chapter 350

Liuba had been busy with things outside for a while, basically not in Chu Hua Shi; as for the four six-number he kept monitoring, each call was off, leading Liuba to think that person had simply cancelled the number, he even topped up two hundred dollars into that number, but to this day there's still no news, no response from the other side.

Zheng Tan simply didn't know that someone had again topped up his number; he hasn't turned on his phone now, aside from the initial excitement of getting it, afterward he was bored, and he couldn't possibly call other people to chat—what would he say? Meow?

There aren't many people he knows, and besides, he can't speak, so he just left the phone there.

When Zheng Tan saw Liuba, he had just finished eating and climbed out of Cai Lao Ban's restroom window, and Liuba happened to see him.

"Hey, cat stealing food!" Liuba shouted at Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan: "……" Stealing your sister? Do I need to steal to come here to eat?

After giving Liuba a sideways glance, Zheng Tan planned to ignore him and leave directly, but didn't expect Liuba to follow him over.

Liuba had just returned to Chu Hua Shi not long after going out, when Jin Gui dragged him over to Shi Wei for a meal.

Jin Gui loved the dishes at Shi Wei, had recommended them several times to Liuba, and when a new dish appeared, he pulled Liuba over.

The two had just finished eating and come out; they originally planned to go back to Jin Gui's place, but unexpectedly ran into Zheng Tan, so Liuba changed his mind, decided to follow Zheng Tan for a stroll to aid digestion—anyway, walking is walking, he had nothing else to do, coming to Chu Hua Shi was just to rest a few days. This morning he called that number again, same old story; the other side was off. He didn't know what to do, it was meaningless, boring, wondering whether to go to a bar tonight to find a girl and spend a good evening together.

Zheng Tan hadn't planned to pay attention to the two people behind him, nor did he deliberately walk fast—after eating, why rush for no reason? Why tire himself out for those two behind? Out of sight, out of mind; he just treated those two as farts.

But after hearing what Jin Gui and Liuba said, Zheng Tan unconsciously started paying attention to their conversation.

According to Jin Gui, Liuba would be going to a small town in Shu Bei next month; he probably got another job. It's already April; next month is May, and at the beginning of May Liuba will be heading to Shu Bei…

Zheng Tan couldn't help but recall the natural disaster he had posted about on a forum a few days earlier when he secretly went online; back then he actually hadn't paid much attention to that disaster, didn't really understand it, only knew a rough outline. At that time he was still a clueless simpleton, crazy about playing games and chasing girls, wasting his youth in idleness. Now he wanted to tell more people what he knew, but after posting, less than a minute later his account was banned and the post deleted, the reason being alarmist, spreading rumors, disrupting harmony, and a ban with no negotiation.

Well, Zheng Tan now also doesn't know what to do; if he were a person, it would be somewhat easier, but he's just a cat, his means are limited, and among the people he knows and is familiar with, it seems nobody goes there, so Zheng Tan has been agonizing over it for several nights.

But now, hearing that Liuba is going to Shu Bei, Zheng Tan has formed an idea: he can get help from others for things he can't do himself, though he doesn't know whether Liuba will believe him.

Returning to Chu Hua Da Xue, Zheng Tan rarely checked his phone—it was off, out of power, needed charging. The good thing was the phone's quality was decent; after sitting there so long, once charged and turned on it still worked fine.

There were many messages and many notifications; Zheng Tan went through them one by one, deleting each, and discovered there was still a top‑up notification, which surprised him greatly. Looking at Liuba's later messages, although not explicitly stated, Zheng Tan could infer it was Liuba who had done the top‑up.

Zheng Tan didn't contact Liuba right away; instead, after a week he sent Liuba a message asking whether he would change his number next month.

Liuba, bored and yawning while watching Animal World on the sofa, perked up immediately upon seeing that familiar number, dialed it right away—same old story, the other party rejected the call.

However, looking at the message, Liuba still replied seriously: next month his number will still be in use, and he also gave another number—if this one doesn't get through, call that one; there will always be a working line.

Zheng Tan also asked whether Liuba would be going away next month; after a while Liuba replied, only saying he would be going away, without specifying where. He couldn't discuss business matters with Liuba the way he did with Jin Gui.

Having obtained the information he wanted, Zheng Tan simply turned off his phone.

Liuba made several calls in a row, hearing the familiar prompt tone each time, hung up, and pondered what the other party meant; he had the feeling they wanted to tell him something important.

Because he kept this matter in mind, on the day he left Chu Hua Shi, Liuba called that number again; it was off, so he sent a message saying he was leaving Chu Hua Shi today.

Zheng Tan looked at the calendar on the living‑room wall at home, calculating the time; he would turn on his phone almost every day, but at irregular times—sometimes morning, sometimes evening—precisely because of this lack of routine, Liuba never caught him, so every call went to voicemail.

After seeing Liuba's message that he had left the city, Zheng Tan also didn't reply; now replying there would definitely trigger another round of phone attacks.

When there was still a week left until the date Zheng Tan had marked out, he thought Liuba's side should have stabilized, so he could talk about things; after dinner he slipped out and headed to the Old Tile House area.

At this time of night, the Old Tile House area is usually very quiet, which also saves Zheng Tan a lot of trouble; if it were noisy with other sounds, Zheng Tan would worry that Liuba could infer the exact location from the noise.

After turning the phone on, he saw a few messages; Liuba was probably on duty, not so idle, so there were fewer messages. They were all trivial, just asking Zheng Tan what he wanted to say. After deleting them, Zheng Tan composed a message asking Liuba what he was up to, rather than calling directly, for fear of disrupting Liuba's task and making him uncooperative.

The result was that Liuba's side quickly replied with one message: "Taking a dump."

Zheng Tan: "……"

At that moment, in a fairly decent hotel in a small town of Shu Bei, Liuba was having a meal with someone. Midway he left for the restroom to urinate and smoke a cigarette to relax; with too many people coming and going, he simply found a locked stall, sat on the toilet lid, undisturbed, convenient for thinking and waiting.

Next door, a man and a woman had just entered, drunk but highly aroused, locked in a fierce session. They didn't bother to check whether this was the men's or women's restroom, nor did they care; the ambiguous sounds kept filling the air, and anyone who came to use the toilet, even if they couldn't see the action inside, still whistled lewdly.

Liuba intended to stay and listen a bit longer, since the group in the private room next door was drinking loudly. He planned to wait until they had drunk enough before returning. He didn't expect to receive that message at that moment.

The message Zheng Tan received was exactly the one Liuba replied while sitting on the toilet lid.

After thinking, Zheng Tan sent another message: "I have something to tell you."

"Okay, I'm all ears." Liuba, sitting on the toilet lid, pulled out a tiny earpiece from his pocket and put it on, isolating external noise so he could hear the phone voice better when calling.

Liuba was about to dial when a call came in from the other side.

Liuba raised his eyebrows, surprised—how rare, this mysterious guy actually initiated a call; could he be asking for help?

His thoughts raced, his hand wasn't slow either; after pressing the answer key, Liuba focused intently on the voice in the earpiece, but after a while he noticed there was no sound from the other side.

When the call first connected, Zheng Tan nearly spat out the dinner he had just eaten; hearing certain sounds from the other end, he remained silent for a while, and just thinking about it told him what the situation was—he seriously suspected Liuba was either genuinely taking a big dump or watching something not suitable for minors.

After Liuba said "wei" twice, Zheng Tan then proceeded with the main matter. Zheng Tan didn't send a message about this; he chose this method naturally for his own considerations.

Liuba wore the earpiece; although the next room was noisy, the earpiece could clearly transmit the phone's voice. Moreover, if the call involved secret information, he could also use the neighboring noise as a cover, so he wouldn't worry about being overheard—after all, everyone was paying attention to the next room.

There was still no human voice on the other end of the call; through the earpiece came only a ticking tapping sound.

Liuba was prepared; as soon as the call connected he pulled out a folding pen and a small piece of paper from his pocket, and with the ticking sound from the earpiece, a sentence appeared on the paper, composed of pinyin.

Liuba looked at the sentence on the paper, spelled it out three times, and doubted whether he had misspelled it or misunderstood the meaning.

The other side had already hung up; after the call ended, a message came in: "Do you understand?"

"I don't think I get it." Liuba stared at the sentence on the paper, still finding it hard to believe.

Zheng Tan didn't believe Liuba truly didn't understand; upon first hearing something like this, being doubtful is normal.

If you understand, then tell as many people as possible.

After sending that message, Zheng Tan simply turned off his phone. He chose Liuba to help purely out of intuition; he felt Liuba could do what he couldn't, wouldn't leak the information, and could even handle things more neatly.

On the other side, Liuba is now in a quite troubled state of mind. Speaking rationally, the credibility of this information is really low, after all, no one can predict the future, and moreover, it's the kind of news that makes you feel chilled to the bone at first glance.

If it were someone who knew nothing, that would be fine, but Liuba has experienced many things, natural disasters ** and all; precisely because of that, he can infer several outcomes from this short sentence, each outcome being quite grim.

Liuba put the earpiece back in his pocket and sat on the toilet lid, staring blankly at the paper in his hand.

The next room's frenzy continued, but Liuba paid it no heed; he had no spare capacity to think about anything else, instead carefully analyzing how likely the message on that paper was to be true, or whether it was just a trick by the other side.

When Liuba came to his senses, the people next door had already left, the restroom was empty and quiet, the soundproofing was excellent, and outside noise couldn't be heard.

Liuba tore the paper into pieces and flung it into the toilet to flush away.

In the restroom, who knows which drunk smashed a phone into the light; the floor has a broken phone, two of the ceiling lights are out, making it much dimmer, with one still flickering, adding an eerie feel.

The toilet has a window open, letting in a night breeze that's a bit cool.

Walking out of the restroom, Liuba touched his forehead; it was all cold sweat. (To be continued...)

PS: Updated on August 4.