Chapter 183: Chapter 183: I’ve Been Waiting for You Chapter 183: Chapter 183: I’ve Been Waiting for You Jiao Ma had been feeling down these past few days. Her two children didn’t require much attention; they went to school from Monday to Friday and rested at home during the weekends; Jiao Yuan might be a bit naughty occasionally, but that was manageable. What truly kept Jiao Ma anxious these days was the family’s cat.

It just couldn’t be kept inside!

Every evening, Jiao Ma was on tenterhooks, fearing their cat might become the third to suffer severe bite wounds. She couldn’t even concentrate on the TV. After nine o’clock, she would check the living room clock every few minutes until Zheng Tan returned.

Ever since two cats in the residential areas had incidents, everyone had been extra vigilant with their pets. Some teachers even proposed to the university security office that the stray cats on campus should be cleared out. Xiao Guo got wind of this and had people from the “Green Wings Association” come over, and they took a few stray cats to the rescue station. After all these events, the conclusion was that the campus was quite normal, with no abnormal situations.

The cats caught by the traps set up by the association, except for a couple of non-threatening stray cats that the students had abandoned, were all claimed back by the people living nearby, as cats wearing cat cards were still a minority here.

Many people felt there was nothing much to fuss about,—it was just a matter of cats, after all. Why make it so complicated and troublesome, as long as one takes good care of one’s own cat, wouldn’t everything be alright?

So, within a week, calm had returned to the school.

The sheriff stayed at the Pet Center for two days and was brought back home; the day before yesterday Zheng Tan saw him lying on the balcony with an Elizabethan collar around his neck during his stroll around their building, not for neutering reasons, but likely to prevent him from licking the medicated wounds on his body. Thankfully, the sheriff couldn’t understand the complex human chatter, or he would have definitely been depressed, as the neighbors would ask his owner whenever they saw him, “Oh, your cat finally got it done?!”

The sheriff’s owner just chuckled.

Anyway, word had spread among the courtyard’s aunties that the sheriff had been neutered.

However, the sheriff seemed to be in good spirits now and could run and jump; his recovery was incredibly strong. He’d probably be able to remove that collar in about a week. Recently, he hadn’t been used to wearing the collar and had been “rebelling” at home, much to his owner’s dismay.

Ah Huang was kept inside, and even Da Pang was often under close watch by his family’s old lady; the only one left running around outside was Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan wasn’t aimlessly wandering outside either. He sensed that those cats hadn’t taught him a lesson yet and were likely to reappear until their goal was achieved. So, during these days, whether in broad daylight or at night, he would conspicuously stroll around, but unfortunately, it led to no results. Probably, the people focusing on the campus cats in recent days were too many, plus those cats must have been injured when they fought with the sheriff and his group, probably taking the time to recover now.

Ah Wu’s cat hadn’t been seen on the campus recently either, but Senior Hetao had visited once, summoned by a phone call from Ermao. It was secondary to see Ermao; primarily, after hearing about the two injured cats from Ermao, Senior Hetao had his suspicions.

That day, Zheng Tan also hung out at Ermao’s, listening to Senior Hetao talk about related case matters. The newly taken photos included that yellow cat, the same one Zheng Tan had encountered during an outdoor advertisement shoot.

Unfortunately, with so many cats in Chuhua City, yellow ones were plentiful; there were several within Chuhua University alone, all looking quite similar. Where does one even start searching? Moreover, no really distinctive features had been captured on film yet, and the Cat Tamer was probably on alert. So, after receiving Ermao’s call, Senior Hetao took some time to personally come over to understand the situation.

Zheng Tan squatted beside them, listening as they discussed the case. According to Senior Hetao, who had gathered information from Ah Wu, if a Cat Tamer were truly acting with a specific purpose, apart from the usual training tasks, other commands needed to be issued up close.

Exactly how the commands were given was unclear to Zheng Tan, but he surmised a conclusion—theft of wallets was likely a routine training task, so the Cat Tamer might not have been very close to the cats during the theft. However, when the sheriff and the cat from the West District were beaten, the Cat Tamer should have been nearby, watching. Perhaps not too close, since cats would dash back and forth during a fight, but likely within a hundred meters?

If he indeed encountered that Cat Tamer, Zheng Tan decided he would give him a “proper” greeting.

That day, Zheng Tan swaggered to the university square where, even during daylight, many students were active around the square. Next to the square was a cultural corridor where students and some strolling people liked to sit and rest or read. What stopped Zheng Tan in his tracks was a long-haired cat there.

The cat was slightly bigger than the average domestic cat, with a coffee-striped color, and looked like it might have some forest cat in its lineage—not that such a cat was particularly rare; Xiao Guo’s shop had a coffee-striped Norwegian Forest Cat that looked not very different from this one at first glance.

At that moment, the cat was staying in the cultural corridor. Most students were quite kind to the campus cats; one student offered bread to the cat, but the cat waited for the students to put down torn pieces of bread before extending its paw to hook them, leisurely biting into the pieces.

It appeared indifferent to the people around, neither fearful nor friendly. Perhaps the students didn’t notice this, so they continued to stay beside the cat, changing up the types of food they offered, completely unaware that the cat hardly regarded their kindness, eating the handed food when in a good mood or ignoring it when not.

Zheng Tan had not seen this cat in the school before. Seeing that it was an adult, there was a high possibility it was not from the campus, as people there usually raised cats from a younger age.

Perhaps sensing Zheng Tan’s gaze, the cat eating the bread paused to look towards him, its gaze cold. After a few seconds, it resumed nibbling on the bread stuck to its paw. But Zheng Tan knew that creature was definitely alert to his presence.

That look conveyed an unfriendly message to Zheng Tan. If it weren’t for that look, Zheng Tan would only have been slightly suspicious, but after that gaze, he was eighty percent sure there was something off about this cat. The look in its eyes was not typical for a pet cat, yet didn’t quite match that of a stray or wild cat; although the staring duration was short, it gave Zheng Tan the sensation of being considered prey.

However, it remained to be seen who the actual prey was.

After watching for a while, Zheng Tan lifted his foot and started to leave in another direction. As he rounded a corner, he suddenly turned his head back to find the cat still staring at him. Its indifferent look was more intense, distinctly different from that of the one in Xiao Guo’s shop.

Zheng Tan defiantly lifted his chin at it, hooked his tail, and then proudly strutted away, walking deliberately.

Shortly after Zheng Tan left, the cat shook off the piece of ham stuck on its paw, ignored the “over-zealously affectionate” students, and turned to leave. A male student tried to stop it, but received a scratch that left a long blood mark on his hand, immediately dripping blood. Before the student could kick out in anger, the cat quickly ran off, out of the students’ sight.

At the Jiao family’s home during dinner, Jiao Ma noticed that their cat had eaten more than usual. Was it tired from its wandering outside, burning more energy?

Although Jiao Ma often complained about her family’s excessive pampering of the cat, when it came to her turn, she was no different. After adding more rice to Zheng Tan’s bowl, she also ladled two large pieces of meat into it from the soup bowl.

“It’s good to eat more, get full and then stay home to sleep. Put on some weight and stop always running around outside.”

Jiao Ma thought everything was fine, but when it came to watching the news in the evening, Zheng Tan once again dashed out of the door by himself, which almost made Jiao Ma throw the remote control in her hand.

Coming out of the building, Zheng Tan placed the object he wore around his neck on Big Fatty’s balcony to hide it well.

Big Fatty was lying by the door leading to the balcony. Seeing Zheng Tan, he lifted his head and twitched his ears without any intention of getting up. After Zheng Tan left, he rested his chin on his paws and closed his eyes for a nap, with only his ears slightly moving, alert to the surroundings.

Zheng Tan ate so much in the evening actually with the intention of fighting a battle that night. He had a feeling that the cat he saw in the campus square today would definitely seek him out. He didn’t know what would happen, so it was always better to store up more energy.

Zheng Tan walked along a small path in the area where the sheriff and the others frequently roamed. There were few street lamps on this side, and he could only see the sporadic specks of light that filtered through the leaves from time to time.

The moonlight was obscured by clouds, and the evening breeze seemed to carry something different from usual, making Zheng Tan’s nerves a bit tense.

The experiences of the past two years had made Zheng Tan’s intuition sharper. Though he hadn’t really sniffed anything out, he felt like he was being watched. Looking around, he saw only forests and bushes, and behind him was the narrow path, with no one else around.

The faint sound of music coming from the square made this place seem even quieter.

Zheng Tan slowed his steps and kept his ears perked, listening to his surroundings. Suddenly, a slight rustle came from the bushes ahead, followed by several bird calls and the flapping of wings, which somewhat resembled the scenario when the cat trader set the cages initially.

His tail twitched, and after watching for a while, Zheng Tan stepped towards that direction. There were traps there, but he couldn’t lure those guys out without approaching them.

The sound of wings flapping got closer, but Zheng Tan stopped about ten meters away from it, not continuing forward. The flapping sound came from not far behind the bushes planted on the edge. Zheng Tan ignored it and stayed vigilant to the sounds around him, but apart from that area, the forest was quiet. If anyone was moving there, they would have made noise rubbing against the densely growing Black Grass.

Only the sound of leaves was heard around him, but Zheng Tan’s feeling of being watched grew stronger, along with a sense of impending danger.

When a slight noise came from above, Zheng Tan turned and ran back.

The opponent was actually in the tree!

Generally, cats have a somewhat hesitant manner when descending from high trees, not as brisk as when climbing up. Therefore, Zheng Tan hadn’t previously considered it highly likely for cats to be in trees. But the speed of this one coming down was astonishingly fast, almost in the blink of an eye.

Although he couldn’t see clearly the appearance of the cat that jumped down from the tree, Zheng Tan was sure this was the same one he saw in the square today.

Xiao Guo once praised the Norwegian Forest Cat in the shop while shooting an advertisement, and he even mentioned that this breed is almost the only type of cat that dives fearlessly towards the ground from a height. Unfortunately, the cat in the shop was pampered as a pet since kittenhood, and Zheng Tan hadn’t seen how fierce that cat was. But now, he deeply felt the oppression brought by such behavior.

Regardless of whether other cats did this or not, at least the one Zheng Tan was facing right now was fierce enough!

Even though the opponent was just a normal cat and not the special kind like Lord, Zheng Tan did not dare to underestimate it. Zheng Tan ran fast, and the cat didn’t directly pounce on him. He ran because he was looking for a place where he felt safe. Who knew if there were other traps in this forest in front of him? Zheng Tan didn’t want to stupidly plunge into one, as that would only put him at a disadvantage.

Not far from here was another forest with which Zheng Tan was quite familiar. He had walked that way when he went back for dinner just this afternoon and hadn’t felt any danger, so he thought no one would set traps there. Solving problems in a familiar place was definitely the best option, safer than here. With the advantages of timing, geographical convenience, and human harmony, “geographical convenience” was absolutely not to be overlooked.

The cat pursued him rapidly, but Zheng Tan was faster.

After dashing into that familiar forest, Zheng Tan quickly climbed a tree and shuttled from tree to tree. In terms of this skill, Zheng Tan was quite confident in outperforming the pursuing cat. Moreover, only one had appeared so far; what about the others?

The pursuing cat seemed a bit tired and unable to do anything with Zheng Tan, stopping to meow a few times. When these types of cats meowed, it sounded different from ordinary cats. Xiao Guo said they sounded like singing, but Zheng Tan hadn’t noticed it to be like singing then, and he certainly didn’t think so now.

This was probably calling its fellow cats, right? Good, let them all appear and deal with them all at once. Just now, Zheng Tan had sensed the attention of others around. The Cat Tamer had not appeared yet.

However, just as the cat’s calls ceased, another cat cry came from one direction, causing the cat below the tree to pause its climbing motion.

Zheng Tan watched as the cat seemed suddenly highly alert. Speaking of which, that meow from afar sounded somewhat familiar to Zheng Tan, though he couldn’t match it exactly and didn’t have much time to ponder on which critter it might be.

At this moment.

In the East District courtyard, Building B, Big Fatty’s house.

The old lady, wearing reading glasses, was looking at a book about Kunqu Opera when she suddenly remembered something and called out, “He Tao, bring the slippers on the balcony inside.”

As the weather got warmer, the winter slippers weren’t needed anymore, and the old lady had washed them and left them outside to air dry, forgetting to bring them in today. Typically, the old lady often asked Big Fatty to help fetch things from the balcony. He could still understand a few of the words he heard regularly.

After waiting a while without hearing any movement, the old lady looked toward the balcony, “Big Fatty?”

Realizing something was off, the old lady put down the book she was holding and walked to the balcony to take a look. Big Fatty was nowhere to be seen! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote, monthly recommend, your support is my greatest motivation. For mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep