Chapter 172: Chapter 172 This Thing is Very Familiar Chapter 172: Chapter 172 This Thing is Very Familiar The wind was somewhat strong today, blowing through the ventilation windows in the hallway and pushing the door open a bit.

Zheng Tan thought for a moment, then walked in to see whether the guy in the sunglasses and Ermao would end up fighting. For Zheng Tan, watching the excitement was a great pleasure when bored, a way to pass the time.

Inside, Qin Tao exchanged a few sharp words with Ermao, but afterward, the atmosphere actually eased a bit. However, from their conversation, Zheng Tan could tell that the two were quite familiar with each other and didn’t seem to regard each other as enemies.

Just as Zheng Tan had guessed, Qin Tao, Ermao, and Wang Bin had all grown up together, even being classmates from elementary school through high school. The nickname “Beast” originated from Qin Tao himself during elementary school, when he was punished to write his name but omitted the three dots from the character “Tao” in every “Qin Shou” he wrote, and not realizing his mistake, he had it passed around the class. Since then, the nickname “Beast” had stuck with Qin Tao but only those close to him or of similar status dared call him that; otherwise, he would have punched someone long ago.

Compared to Wang Bin, Qin Tao and Ermao, in fact, shared a more brotherly bond, having frequently occupied the last two ranks in their class during middle school. It wasn’t that they were hopelessly bad at studies, but due to their backgrounds, they were always placed in classes with stronger students and teachers, while Wang Bin was always among the top ten. Therefore, in terms of common topics and shared glorious misdeeds from those days, Ermao and Qin Tao definitely had more to talk about, which was also one of the reasons Wang Bin had asked Qin Tao to come here.

“Speaking of which, why did you come to Chuhua City? Weren’t you supposed to be enjoying your time in Mingzhu City?” Ermao tossed an unopened bottle of mineral water to Qin Tao.

“Ran into some trouble, got dumped here to learn from my uncle, which is really just a nominal position; others handle everything, and I don’t need to lift a finger. I’m bored to death,” Qin Tao said, twisting open the bottle and taking several big gulps. When he turned his head, he caught sight of the black cat peeking at them from the doorway.

“Pff—” Qin Tao, startled, spat out the water in his mouth, his face turning red as he choked. He was reminded of the time he got hit by bird poop.

After recovering, Qin Tao pointed to Zheng Tan standing at the doorway: “Do you know this cat?”

Though it was a question, his tone was certain.

Seeing Zheng Tan, Ermao was somewhat surprised, but remembering that they indeed forgot to close the door earlier, he let it go. The area’s security was good, housing mostly teachers and retired professors with high integrity, so there wasn’t much need for excessive precautions.

“What, did it give you a hard time?” Ermao asked.

Qin Tao recounted the incident where he got splattered with bird poop.

“Tsk, what were you doing following it, and even so stupidly direct? You’re lucky it didn’t lead you into some other trap; getting bird-poop bombed is still better than getting injured,” Ermao remarked.

“No way? This cat is that dangerous?” Qin Tao looked again at Zheng Tan.

“Believe it or not, that’s up to you.” Saying this, Ermao sniffed, “What’s that smell?”

Qin Tao was lounging with one leg crossed over the other, and Ermao’s gaze finally settled on Qin Tao’s shoes.

“Beast, you stepped in poop!” Ermao said with a look of disgust.

“Ah?”

Qin Tao bent his leg up to sniff it, then gagged, quickly finding a plastic bag to take off his shoes and toss them inside, then asked Ermao for another pair to make do.

“No wonder I felt something slightly off when jumping the fence just now.” Having tossed the bag with the poop-stepped shoes at the door, Qin Tao glanced again at the black cat still lingering at the doorway. Did he see a hint of schadenfreude and disdain in the cat’s gaze?

Zheng Tan indeed reveled in schadenfreude, but he quite despised Qin Tao’s behavior: discarding dirty clothes immediately, throwing away shoes stepped in poop without a second thought. What a wasteful child.

Shaking his head, Qin Tao shook off that nagging feeling inside, hit Ermao’s arm with the half-bottle of water left, “It’s all your fault, kid. If it weren’t for looking for you, would I have come here to suffer?”

“Meow—” The black cat, Heimi, lying on the computer desk pressed down its ears and issued a warning sound, its eyes fierce as it glared at Qin Tao.

Upon hearing this, not only Zheng Tan but also Ermao and Qin Tao, who were just about to start teasing each other again, turned to look at Heimi.

For a moment, no one spoke in the room.

Zheng Tan and Ermao knew this cat was fierce when provoked, while Qin Tao was somewhat baffled. After a brief silence, Qin Tao seemed to think of something, tapping Ermao with the water bottle again.

“Meow—” This time, the warning was louder.

Qin Tao looked at Heimi, blinked, and tapped again.

“Grr—” Not only was the warning louder this time, but Heimi also bared its teeth and stood up.

“Hahaha!” Ermao scooped Heimi off the computer desk with a triumphant look, “My daughter, always standing up for her dad!”

Qin Tao, initially surprised by the cat’s protective nature, was confused by Ermao’s follow-up comment, “Daughter?”

“Yeah,” Ermao chuckled as he raised Heimi’s front paw and waved it towards Qin Tao, “Try hitting me with that bottle again and my daughter will scratch you.”

Qin Tao hummed twice, “Why would you ever think of keeping a cat?”

Ermao briefly explained his decision without going into the details of how he dealt with the Cat Abuser, “Didn’t want one too fierce nor did I want those utterly docile ones that won’t even catch a mouse. Moreover, the people from the Pet Center said this cat was probably domesticated before but for some reason ended up stray for a while; overall, it’s quite friendly towards humans.”

Qin Tao looked at the docile Heimi nestled in Ermao’s arms, silently questioning the term “friendly.”

Without taking further action, Qin Tao explained the reason and backstory of why Wang Bin had asked him to find Ermao.

“So you followed this cat here?” Ermao turned his head to look at Zheng Tan squatting at the door, watching the show, “You sold me out?!”

Zheng Tan tugged at his ear. Today was definitely a coincidence. He really hadn’t planned on bringing Qin Tao here; it just so happened that Ermao appeared then.

Neither Ermao nor Qin Tao expected to get any answers from a cat, so they continued their conversation.

When it was time, Zheng Tan went to pick up Little Youzi. By the time he returned to the residential building, Ermao’s door was tightly shut, with no sounds inside, so he probably went out.

The next day, after sending Little Youzi to school and preparing to go home to surf the internet, Zheng Tan noticed that Ermao’s door was ajar again. These days, Ermao was increasingly reluctant to close his door, probably because he often forgot his keys and didn’t want to keep unlocking it with wire, so he left it slightly open. After all, the building had an access control system that could keep the outsiders away and prevent the cats from running out.

Thinking it over, Zheng Tan pushed open the door and went in, having heard someone say yesterday that Ermao’s family might come over.

There was no one else in the room, Ermao was playing games on the computer, and Heimi was on the ground, fiddling with something enthusiastically. Noticing Zheng Tan entering the room, he glanced up and then continued playing with the object with his curved paws.

Seeing nothing exciting happening today, Zheng Tan was ready to leave when he suddenly caught sight of the object Heimi was playing with. He looked intently, a mix of doubt and uncertainty in his eyes. He withdrew his leg that was heading towards the door and went further into the room.

Perhaps due to familiarity with Zheng Tan and assuming Zheng Tan was not a threat, Heimi did not show animosity towards him but seemed cautious, as if guarding his toy.

Zheng Tan ignored Heimi and leaned in to take a closer look at the object on the floor. It was a pendant; Heimi was mainly playing with the string of the pendant, while Zheng Tan’s attention was entirely on the pendant itself.

This object, it seemed very familiar. It looked similar to the jade token that old lady had given.

Zheng Tan was considering this when Ermao finished a round of his game.

“Hey, Black Coal, it’s really not nice to keep barging in like this… Hey, cat, you shouldn’t play with this!”

Ermao didn’t bother to chide Zheng Tan further, hurriedly picked up the pendant from the ground, wiped it with his sleeve, and considering how the string had been both bitten and clawed, he thought about when he might replace it. After all, this pendant’s string had been replaced several times before.

After placing the pendant back, seeing Zheng Tan still staring at him, Ermao waved his hand, “Go back to your place to play, and don’t steal Heimi’s cat food.”

The living room had an automatic feeder which always had some cat food, but indeed, Ermao had never seen this black cat steal food.

Zheng Tan left deep in thought. Seeing how Ermao was, that pendant was quite important to him.

Back when they were at Mr. Jiao’s old home, what had that old lady said again?

Zheng Tan recalled a moment, then went over to Little Youzi’s wardrobe, rifled through a nondescript corner, and pulled out a small bunch of keys. He flexed his paws and inserted one of the keys into the hidden drawer above the cat climbing frame, opened it, searched and found the jade token Mr. Jiao had placed inside, and scrutinized it closely.

It really was similar! The characters on it were almost identical.

Could it be that the person that old lady was looking for is related to Ermao?

Regardless of their relation, Zheng Tan decided to take this jade token and dangle it in front of Ermao. By then, the mystery would be revealed. Seeing that Ermao was unlikely to snatch it, and with Mr. Jiao not around, Zheng Tan could not inform him. If he could solve this matter, it would be a good thing; Mr. Jiao always said he wanted to repay that old lady.

Hanging the pendant around his neck, Zheng Tan relocked the drawer, hid the keys well, and went downstairs to Ermao’s room.

Ermao was starting a new game, and Heimi was curled up in the corner of the bed, sleeping.

Zheng Tan directly jumped onto the computer desk, standing next to the computer.

Ermao was startled by Zheng Tan’s action but was caught up in his game and didn’t shift his gaze to Zheng Tan, having no free hand to push him off the table.

Zheng Tan wasn’t in a hurry and just squatted to watch.

When Ermao finally finished a round, before he could speak to Zheng Tan, his newly bought phone rang.

Zheng Tan watched as Ermao talked on the phone with an impatient look, idly playing with the mouse.

Ermao noticed Zheng Tan’s actions, came over to stop him to prevent Zheng Tan from turning off his gaming interface. Suddenly, Ermao’s movements froze, he stopped talking and took a closer look at the jade token hanging around Zheng Tan’s neck, and then picked it up for a closer inspection.

The person on the other end of the phone was still speaking, but Ermao abruptly hung up.

“Hey, let me take a look at this, I’ll give it back to you in a moment,” Ermao said as he took the pendant off Zheng Tan’s neck.

The first reaction Ermao had upon seeing the pendant hanging around Zheng Tan’s neck was to wonder when the cat had managed to steal his stuff and hung it up with a new string? Upon closer inspection, he noticed minor differences. After all, he had been wearing his own for over a decade and could spot even slight discrepancies.

Without a doubt, this jade token pendant of Zheng Tan was genuine, not some low-quality imitation. The quality of the jade was similar to his own, and even though Ermao was not an expert in this field, he could feel that this piece was similar to his.

Taking out his own jade token, which he had yet to replace the string of, he compared them together.

Then, Ermao became extremely agitated. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to recommend it at Qidian (qidian.com) and vote. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep