Chapter 5

()Xiao Qu at the doorway naturally also saw those few cockroaches, and at the moment he saw the cockroaches he was actually imagining a magnificent scene of a black cat pouncing on cockroaches, but unfortunately the black cat in front merely glanced at it indifferently, then jumped onto a relatively clean chair and lay down, squinting its eyes to rest, not even glancing at the still-warm taro spare ribs and sweet-and-sour pork tenderloin on the nearby dinner table.

Xiao Qu comrade instantly felt choked. He glanced again at Zheng Tan, eyes closed, lying on the chair with no intention to move, then looked at the food without a table cover, thought about it, but still didn't bother, turned off the living room light, shuffled his feet and walked into the room.

After sitting down, Xiao Qu opened a community forum, found the post he had made a few days earlier, and replied to a comment: "Nonsense, my family's mice don't eat cockroaches, and the cat we found ignores cockroaches when it sees them!"

After discovering mice at home and finding his own mouse trap ineffective, Xiao Qu's first thought was to post for help online. Buying mouse traps and mouse glue were suggestions from netizens, and under the post a netizen summarized why mice become smarter: "Animals that have gone through '****' have greatly increased intelligence and vitality; those lacking that intelligence and vitality were all killed by humans in the '****' incident."

So after the mouse glue and mouse traps proved useless, and on the condition of not buying mouse poison, the most common suggestion was still to get a cat; then Xiao Qu's action of borrowing a cat from the Jiao family followed.

Among the netizens supporting borrowing a cat, one who boasted about his household pet cat had commented, "Cats and mice are also considered natural enemies of cockroaches; they will also prey on cockroaches." Xiao Qu is now arguing with that person's theory.

"Just watch, if it doesn't even bother with cockroaches, that cat definitely won't catch mice, and even if it wanted to it might not succeed," that netizen finally said.

"Let's wait and see!" Xiao Qu comrade hammered the keyboard with a papapa sound, his finger force as if he wanted to stab the other person directly.

Meanwhile Xiao Qu was arguing on the forum, while Zheng Tan opened his eyes, flexed his paw, and silently watched the sharp claws revealed between his fingers.

Regarding this first test of catching mice, he was not nervous at all; on the contrary, Zheng Tan felt some excitement, unable to say why.

Last night was the same: after killing several white mice in succession, he felt no disgust at all; instead, a mysterious bloodthirsty excitement welled up from his heart, something he never had before. Perhaps because he usually didn't pay attention, last night's events acted like a fuse igniting the bloodthirsty factor deep inside.

However, this should stem from the animal's innate nature.

Cats are the kind of animal that will hunt even when full; hunting is almost their nature, and even the gentlest-looking house cat possesses this nature.

Just as a documentary that Jiao Yuan and the others watched a few days ago said, "On every cat that is full and lazily lounging by the stove, there hides a tiger restless and eager to move, eager to pounce."

He let out a long breath, Zheng Tan opened his palm, closed his eyes and lay still, but his ears twitched, moving now and then at some sounds; however, since those noises weren't made by mice, Zheng Tan remained motionless.

Time slowly passed, night deepened, Zheng Tan didn't detect any mouse movement, but the surroundings definitely had mouse scent, proving the mouse had come out not long ago. Zheng Tan wasn't in a hurry, quietly waiting in the dark, cluttered living room.

By the light from the bedroom, Zheng Tan could see the entire living room clearly.

Most of the people in the East District staff quarters had fallen asleep, the surroundings were no longer noisy, and the Jiao family side was surely also resting; here, aside from Xiao Qu's keyboard clacking and his muttering, there was no other movement.

Huh?

Zheng Tan's ears twitched, he suddenly opened his eyes, and in the dark environment his dilated pupils expanded further due to his emotions.

Silently jumping down from the chair, his body lowered, his movement not slow, under the cover of darkness Zheng Tan crept to the side of the pile of magazines and stopped. His stealth was still learned from the police chief.

In the bedroom, Xiao Qu, who had just finished a game, took off his headset and stretched his sore neck; turning his head, he happened to see Zheng Tan silently descending from the chair.

There's a show?!

Xiao Qu hurriedly rose from the computer chair, took out a digital camera from the drawer, hesitated, put the digital camera down, rummaged in the cabinet for a DV, turned it on, and tiptoed toward the bedroom door; but who knew the sudden ring of the phone startled him, he quickly freed a hand to answer, lowering his voice to speak.

Zheng Tan waited in the dark; the mouse came out from the study side, obviously not heading for the kitchen, clearly it had already become familiar with the environment and the host's living habits. Xiao Qu basically never cooks for himself, ordering takeout or eating at the cafeteria, and the edible things are either kept in the bedroom or the living room; now this mouse is coming along the wall toward here, stopping after a stretch to vigilantly check for danger.

This mouse is about the same size as the big white mouse Zheng Tan killed last night, but compared to that, its vigilance leaves experimental mice far behind.

As it approached the bedroom door, the mouse's attention focused more on the person inside the bedroom who was on the phone.

Just as the mouse neared the doorway, Zheng Tan moved.

A tremendous burst of acceleration over a short distance, like an arrow, straight toward the prey!

The mouse only realized at the moment Zheng Tan charged that there was also a hidden hunter! The route back to the study to find a hiding point was somewhat long, and if it turned and ran it would surely be caught within a few steps, so its strategy was to rush straight into the bedroom. Xiao Qu's bedroom is a bit better than the living room, but still a mess; however, for mice and cockroaches there are more hiding spots. Once it got into the bedroom, Zheng Tan truly wouldn't have a way to catch it for a while.

But it had no chance.

A black-furred hand with sharp claws stepped on its tail; before it could move, another furry hand already pressed on its neck.

Snap!

The sound was so faint that people could not notice it at all.

And that mouse instantly went limp on the ground, not even twitching.

Throughout the whole process, the mouse didn't even have time to squeak.

Just as Xiao Qu reached the doorway, he felt a black shadow flash under his feet; he looked down and saw a black cat, with a motionless mouse under its claws.

"I... damn!"

Xiao Qu almost threw his phone and DV straight out of his hand.

He looked at the cat, then at the mouse, then at his DV in his hand that was utterly useless.

"Damn!" Xiao Qu cursed again.

Is that it?

Shouldn't one first chase it around the house, catch it, then play with it by clapping, and only eat it when it's almost dead from playing?

Damn, I haven't even spoken two sentences on the phone, and it's already over here?

What the heck is this clean, swift claw technique supposed to be?!

This this this... absolutely crazy flashy cool domineering swag, right?!

Whoever says again that a cat that doesn't catch cockroaches can't catch mice, I'll be angry with them!

"Hey, cricket, what's wrong over there?" The person on the other end of the phone sensed Xiao Qu's oddness and asked.

"Hey, you old man!" Xiao Qu hung up directly, turned on the living room light so he could see more clearly.

Xiao Qu took the two chopsticks stuck in the unfinished lunch box and poked the mouse.

No movement.

Really dead through?

Feeling the chopsticks were not handy, Xiao Qu threw them away, ran to the kitchen, fetched the fireplace tongs that had never been used since he moved in, clamped the mouse and swung it back and forth, seemingly to confirm whether the mouse was really dead. He then used a digital camera to take photos from all angles, then immediately went back to the computer, stopped playing the game, hurriedly uploaded the photos to the forum, vividly describing the scene just now. As a result, many people who replied said they didn't believe it.

A veteran cat lover posted several photos; in the photos, some mice were bitten full of holes, some only had incomplete limbs and tail, the torso gone.

Xiao Qu turned his head to look at the black cat in the living room that was stretching, utterly unwilling to glance at his prey, continued arguing with the forum people; the phone rang again at that moment, Xiao Qu clamped the phone with his shoulder and typed furiously on the keyboard.

Zheng Tan walked around the house, didn't detect any other mouse scent, so he no longer waited here.

Just as he was about to go back to the chair for a nap, Zheng Tan twitched his ears, heard someone singing downstairs.

He walked out of the room, Zheng Tan came to the balcony, filtered out Xiao Qu's phone talking and keyboard typing sounds, listened carefully, this time he heard it clearly.

"Last night's~ last night's stars~ have fallen~ dropped~~ vanished in~ the distant galaxy~~~"

Zheng Tan: "……"

That deliberately lowered voice, which couldn't conceal its inherent quality, the vibrato sung to express the song's feeling, and then linked to this melody older than Zheng Tan's age…

Damn, that pesky bird downstairs, not sleeping in the middle of the night, has started singing those nostalgic old songs again!