Chapter 39: No Touching!

Actually, Zheng Tan didn't approve of Xiao Youzi going into the woods, even though it was daytime now; he had seen too many dark things in this forest, and perhaps only after the surrounding new construction is completed and the area gradually gains people would teachers and students regain a sense of safety.

The woods have many deciduous trees, but evergreen species are not few either. Yet secluded places always give a feeling of darkness; even if what meets the eye is lush greenery, the feeling it brings to the heart is always that patch of gloom behind.

Xiao Youzi gripped the rolling pin in her hand tightly, showing she was still a bit nervous about entering this "Danger Zone"; when she had come before with Jiao Yuan and the others, several kids were together, and since Jiao Yuan, Xiong Xiong and the other boys were naturally bold, none of them felt uneasy.

But now, although she was alone, perhaps because Zheng Tan was leading the way ahead, she wasn't as frightened and trembling as other children would be when entering alone.

Zheng Tan listened to the sounds coming from over there: two children's cries, a girl's voice filled with intense fear and anxiety, mixed with the barking of a black-backed dog. At first Zheng Tan felt it showed no aggression, but gradually the dog's bark changed, becoming impatient.

Children who have never raised a dog cannot judge its mood from its different barks and behavior. In fact, compared to cats, a dog's thoughts are generally easier to understand. Zheng Tan didn't get this before, but after becoming a cat, he often hung out with these cats and dogs and could accumulate some experience from daily life.

That black-backed dog wouldn't attack people on its own, and its bark showed no signs of madness; besides those three sounds, there were no other human or animal noises, so Zheng Tan guessed the two kids must have offended it somewhere and were still doing so, otherwise, given the dog's temperament, it wouldn't have waited until now to become impatient.

To make sure there were no other threats, Zheng Tan sniffed around; there was no stranger's scent. Lately, because of vacation, no students had come here for a long time. The construction workers wouldn't come here either; when they're tired they find a place to smoke, and they definitely wouldn't smoke in the forest area, where signs prohibit smoking—if caught by the school authorities they'd surely get in trouble, and their New Year's wages would probably be docked.

After confirming, Zheng Tan felt much more at ease—it was just two kids and a dog, and a familiar one at that, nothing to fear.

Finally, upon seeing those two small figures, Zheng Tan could finally relax completely. The two children had no obvious injuries,. reading.