Chapter 168: Chapter 168: Slip Away Front, Stay Behind Chapter 168: Chapter 168: Slip Away Front, Stay Behind Ermao had the Pet Center do a comprehensive check-up on Chrysanthemum, and overall, the situation wasn’t bad.

The veterinarian estimated Chrysanthemum’s age, and Ermao was surprised to find out the cat was not even a year old.

“By the way, Mr. Wang, do you want to have your cat sterilized?” the young girl asked, and she explained the benefits of spaying in urban pet keeping.

“Sterilized? You mean cutting off its little thingy?” Ermao asked while texting on his phone without looking up.

The girl hesitated for a moment, then said, “…Your cat is female.”

“Female?!” Ermao exclaimed.

Damn, a female that fierce?!

“Is identifying sex different for cats and dogs or what?” Ermao remembered it was quite easy to tell with dogs.

The girl smiled. Clearly, she dealt with customers like Ermao quite often, and she pulled out a thin booklet from a cabinet and handed it to Ermao. It contained some basic information about cats.

Ermao flipped through it briefly, “How much for this book?”

“It’s published by our Pet Center, so I’ll just give it to you,” she said.

That’s more like it. Ermao tossed the booklet into a plastic bag.

In the end, Ermao decided against the surgery, and took the cat home clean, vaccinated, and checked, with the Pet Center staff delivering the items to the address Ermao had provided.

Once the cat’s stuff was arranged, Ermao felt the space in the room got a bit cramped. Fortunately, all the purchases were small items; otherwise, it would have been really crowded.

He poured some cat food into the new cat bowl, and Chrysanthemum, who was sniffing around in her new nest, came over. To Ermao’s slight disappointment, it seemed Chrysanthemum wasn’t picky at all and ate with gusto.

It looks like she won’t be troubling the cat upstairs for now.

Ignoring the cat, Ermao opened up his newly bought laptop and logged onto the pet website.

“All the good names are taken by cats,” this ID had been registered three years ago when he and his fellow apprentices were influenced by their Master’s cat to check out the pet forums and see if other people’s cats were as quirky as their Master’s. Initially, the ID was shared among several friends, but now it was just Ermao using it. The others had lost interest in the forum, and even Ermao himself had only remembered to log in because of a recent incident; otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered with this ID either.

With the rapid development of the internet in the country, the forum had changed a lot over the years, including some who shared video links.

Ermao searched for pictures and videos of the cat from upstairs, and indeed, as the young girl from the Pet Center had said, the popular threads about cat food mostly featured that Black Cat, and many of the replies were from fans of BlackC as the young girl had mentioned.

After carefully examining the images of the cat, Ermao still credited the photo and video effects to the magic of photography, wondering how it was possible to make a common cat look so charismatic in photos and videos. After all, cats are not like humans; they don’t act, and Ermao simply couldn’t believe it. He guessed that the young girl at the Pet Center didn’t even know the real identity of BlackC, otherwise, she wouldn’t have praised it so highly. After all, there’s often a big gap between advertisement photos and the real thing.

The next day was sunny, and the temperature rose quickly after a rain shower.

The tabby cat was lying on the balcony basking in the sun, while Ermao, bored with nothing better to do, decided to try out the comb that came with the cat shampoo they’d bought. The pamphlet that came with it claimed that combing a cat’s fur could not only help remove loose hair promptly, but also prevent the cat from swallowing the hair and developing hairball disease. Moreover, it said combing could keep the cat’s coat looking beautiful, promote skin blood circulation, and enhance the relationship between the cat and its owner or something like that.

Since Ermao was free, he pulled up a small stool and sat beside the cat, following the pamphlet’s instructions on how to comb the fur. After a few tentative tries, he got the hang of it, and seeing the tabby cat squinting its eyes, Ermao immediately felt a sense of accomplishment. See, cats aren’t that hard to keep after all, why did some people make it seem as dreadful as eating bizarre-flavored beans whenever the topic of raising cats came up?

Ermao was feeling quite pleased with himself, when suddenly—
Bang!

The sound of something hitting the iron net came from above.

The tabby cat, which had been lying on the ground with its eyes closed enjoying the sun, sprang to its feet and looked in that direction; its time as a stray had accustomed it to being highly alert.

Ermao too stopped combing and looked over, where inside the iron net, a blue parrot with large claws hooked onto the net was standing, its eyes ringed with yellow, watching the human and cat duo on the third floor.

The General’s attention was primarily on the tabby cat, a cat it didn’t recognize, one it hadn’t seen before. When did this new cat arrive? Hmm, its beak felt a bit itchy.

Perhaps sensing the unfriendly vibes from the parrot, the tabby cat’s ears flattened as it warily watched the parrot on the fourth floor.

Ermao didn’t see it as a big deal; cats and birds were naturally not in harmony. His master’s cat prowled the woods catching birds of all sizes every day. However, such parrots were rare to see domestically, which probably explained why the fourth-floor balcony was completely enclosed with a wire mesh.

Looking at the parrot on the fourth floor, Ermao said in a playful tone, “Yo, Parrot!”

The General in the iron net quickly replied with standard American accent, mixing in some local dialect, “Hello, dumbass!”

Ermao: “…” Who the hell taught this damn parrot?!

On the balcony of the fifth floor, Zheng Tan was rolling with laughter after hearing the conversation below.

Clearly, the General’s hostility had spiked after seeing the new cat, and it used that tone to lash out at Ermao.

Zheng Tan and his family lived right above Ermao and although they couldn’t see Ermao’s balcony from their vantage point, he could roughly figure out the situation from the conversation between Ermao and the General, as well as the low growl from the tabby cat. Fortunately, the residents of this building had quite a high tolerance for such disturbances; otherwise, there would be chaos in the future.

However, with Ermao and his third-floor companions drawing the General’s attention, the bird would likely not bother Zheng Tan as often anymore, which was a relief to him.

Just as he was all ears, preparing to catch more of the argument below, the rhythmic honking of a car horn came from the yard below.

Zheng Tan looked down in confusion; it wasn’t the weekend, so why would Mr. Fang come over?

Curious as he was, Zheng Tan went downstairs to open the access control anyway.

Fang Shaokang entered with Tong Qing. Ever since they had dragged the cat cart home, every time Fang Shaokang took Zheng Tan out, Tong Qing would come up to help carry the cart. Despite its small size, the cart was rather heavy, especially to haul up to the fifth floor, and Tong Qing wasn’t about to stand by and watch his boss struggle alone.

“Happened to have some time today, so I’ve arranged to meet Old Liu to discuss some business. I have a business trip this weekend, so we scheduled for today. I’ve already spoken to your cat mother, and I’ll bring you back later tonight,” Fang Shaokang said, instructing Tong Qing to take out the two small carts stored in the room.

Periodically, Fang Shaokang would take Zheng Tan to negotiate business with Old Liu. As some say, networking is a skill, though using a cat to network was a tactic rarely seen and it just so happened to work perfectly on Old Liu. Well, to be more accurate, it worked on Old Liu’s beloved son.

Third floor.

After hearing the parrot curse “idiot,” Ermao was about to curse back, but remembered this was the faculty dormitory building of Chuhua University, so he held back. Instead, he planned to get a water gun later and retaliate with a shot each time the parrot cursed.

He gathered the cat hair into a bundle—not that there was much. Ermao initially planned to just throw it off the balcony, but then thought better of it and decided to show some decency by throwing the small bundle into a trash can lined with a garbage bag. Seeing the trash can was almost full, Ermao tied up the garbage bag and set it outside the door, planning to take it downstairs later. With the temperature rising, he knew well that trash could start to stink, especially since he also had a cat at home and had heard plenty about cats rummaging through trash.

Literally no sooner had he opened the door than Ermao saw Zheng Tan, who had just reached the third floor.

“Yo, superstar…”
Spotting the person on the stairs, Ermao stiffened, swallowed the sarcastic remark he was about to make, and quickly retreated back into his apartment, slamming the door shut.

Fang Shaokang called to Zheng Tan and signaled Tong Qing to wait, then walked over to Ermao’s door and knocked.

“Open up, don’t hide. I saw you,” Fang Shaokang said calmly.

“No time, I’m taking a dump!”

“You have ten seconds to wipe. Ten—nine—eight—”
Fang Shaokang watched his wristwatch, counting seriously, completely ignoring Ermao’s obvious lie about his toilet escape.

Just as he reached one, Ermao, clutching his head, reluctantly opened the door, cursing under his breath about why he had to take out the trash right then!

“Uncle.”

He called out weakly and sulkily walked back into his room.

Fang Shaokang surveyed the room and then looked at Ermao, now deflated on a chair, “Who are you planning to beat up this time? Or is there a girl you’re eyeing?”

“You’ve got me all wrong, Uncle! I’ve completely reformed. I’m now an upright and honest young man who upholds integrity, and is disciplined and law-abiding,” Ermao hastily clarified.

Zheng Tan glanced sideways at Ermao. Bullshit! This guy’s involved in fighting, lock-picking, and nearly committed murder and disposed of a body.

Fang Shaokang, expression unchanging, turned to Ermao: “You’ve reformed?”

“Uh-huh!” Ermao nodded.

“Really cleaned up your act?”

“Yes, absolutely!” Ermao assured quickly.

“Staying out of trouble?”

“Undoubtedly!”

“An honest good young man?”

“Of course!”

“I don’t believe a word.”

Ermao: “…” His face full of injustice and angst.

“However, I’m surprised you chose to rent a place here. It seems like you really are trying to change… of course, as long as it’s not for hitting on college girls.”

“Absolutely not!”

Fang Shaokang looked around the room again. Compared to where Ermao used to live, this place was rather modest, and the current Ermao seemed much less flashy, even his clothes and appearance were more decent.

“Refocusing is good,” Fang Shaokang remarked meaningfully, then called Zheng Tan and left. He had no time to stand around and chat with Ermao. He wasn’t in charge of other people’s children, at best as an elder he could offer a bit of advice.

“Hey, Uncle…”
“I won’t snitch to your parents. Your brother has been demoted and is busy trying to build his career. He’s not in Chuhua City right now, so you can relax for now; no one’s going to drag you back home.”

Ermao breathed a sigh of relief, but why was Uncle so nice to that cat? Wei Leng never mentioned that before.

After Zheng Tan and Fang Shaokang had left, Ermao sat in his chair, pondering.

“Heimi, do you think I should bolt?” Ermao gently tapped the calico cat’s nose.

“Meow—” The calico cat did not understand Ermao’s words, thinking he was just playing, it tilted its head and nuzzled Ermao’s hand.

Ermao sighed, “Well, let’s stick to the old method then.”

He took out a one yuan coin and stood it up on the tiled floor, flicked it, and the coin began to spin.

“Heads I go, tails I stay.”

Thump!

The calico cat, thinking it was a toy, swatted the spinning coin and pinned it under its paw.

Ermao lifted the cat’s paw and looked at the coin lying on the tiled floor.

A chrysanthemum. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep