Chapter 247: Chapter 240: Fire Chapter 247: Chapter 240: Fire Not far from Zheng Tan, in the courtyard of a household, lay a cat, an ordinary house cat. As Zheng Tan had walked this way just before, he had heard that house cat calling out a few times with a somewhat arrogant tone. Perhaps, for it, this place was its own territory, and upon seeing Zheng Tan, it provocatively called out a few times, proving its courage wasn’t small.

But now, that house cat was cowering in a corner, its eyes round with fear as it stared at the strange cat under the night sky. Maybe it knew who that was, or maybe not, but without a doubt, its eyes were filled with fear and it shrank back, as if facing a creature one level higher on the food chain in nature.

That feeling was very strange.

If it weren’t for his special circumstances, Zheng Tan probably would have crouched in a corner just like that house cat, silently daring not to make a sound, afraid to make any sudden movements.

Could that cat be of the same origin as Lord and the others?

With the precedent of Lord as an example, the first thing Zheng Tan thought of was this possibility, after all, there were a few bases around here, such as the practice base of Chuhua University, and those people who always stayed in this area for research, who knows what strange research they might come up with.

Under the cover of night, Zheng Tan couldn’t see clearly what color the fur was, and the cat only looked in his direction for a while before continuing to move forward. It was very fast, very light; if it weren’t for the alertness and intuition Zheng Tan had developed over the years, he might not have noticed it at all.

That residence which exuded a smell that greatly displeased Zheng Tan, had only some low bushes and grass around the courtyard, with trees being some distance away. Although there were only two floors, the height of each floor was higher than the ordinary housing Zheng Tan had seen in Chuhua City, so in terms of height, the two floors here were equivalent to three floors of a residential building in Chuhua City.

Zheng Tan silently stood by, watching the cat dash past and then leap towards the wall. Whether it hooked its claws onto some part of the wall or relied on running to climb without any support, Zheng Tan only felt a shadow flash on the wall, and that cat was already in front of a second-floor window that was open, suggesting it frequently engaged in similar climbing activities.

The cat stood on the windowsill, looking inside with ears perked up in vigilance, and tail twitching, then jumped in.

What was it doing?

Zheng Tan was very curious. What made him even more curious was the origin of this cat. In three years, Zheng Tan had seen many cats and other animals, and knew that among animals, even within the same species, there were differences in intelligence. But this cat, Zheng Tan felt, was not just simply a threat in terms of its attacking power.

The cat that had been cowering in the corner of the yard was no longer there, probably having gone inside to seek a sense of security. Zheng Tan had originally planned to take a casual stroll and head back to the base, but now he hesitated.

People around here didn’t come out much at night, and it was busier near the base. This place, on the other hand, was truly very quiet, with only the sound of the television programs from residents’ homes giving a sense of human presence.

Mr. Jiao said that Chuishan was a place filled with wonder, yet Zheng Tan had never felt where the wonder lay. As for those rumors and legends, Zheng Tan just took them as stories, but now, although he hadn’t felt anything magical, he finally had some different kind of feelings.

Curiosity, this is a trait that every cat cannot shun. When Zheng Tan inherited this cat’s body, perhaps he also inherited this trait along with it.

Zheng Tan was still pondering this inexplicable eerie sensation when he realized he had already walked several steps toward that residence.

Smelling the faint scent in the air, Zheng Tan shook his fur, as if shaking off the goosebumps.

Arriving in front of the courtyard of that residence, Zheng Tan squeezed through the gap in the fence and stopped at the spot where that cat had climbed the wall, sniffing the unfamiliar cat’s scent. Besides that, there were also the smells of specimens, insecticides, and other complex scents that made Zheng Tan feel uncomfortable.

The wall wasn’t too smooth, Zheng Tan climbed up.

Even though Zheng Tan always thought highly of himself, he had to admit that his wall-climbing ability was certainly no match for that cat’s. He wasn’t as fast or as nimble as it.

After finally reaching the windowsill of the second-floor window, Zheng Tan didn’t immediately go inside but stayed on the windowsill to listen for any movement inside.

It was very quiet, so quiet it seemed as if there were no living creatures inside. If he hadn’t seen that cat jump in with his own eyes, had he not smelled the scent coming from the room, Zheng Tan would have believed there was nothing alive inside.

Even if there was nothing alive, it didn’t mean there were no other animals inside.

The room’s door was closed, and no lights were on inside. Looking at the sky and then at the room, one would feel that the sky was actually brighter than the room.

The night breeze blew into the room, whirling around the room and then coming back out with those complex scents inside.

The curtain by the window swayed with the air current, and the dancing white curtain added an even more eerie feeling to the scene.

When the hanging window curtain was lifted by the air current again, Zheng Tan saw the situation inside the room.

In the room, there were many animals. However, none of them were alive, except for the cat that Zheng Tan had just seen, quietly squatting on a table.

This was a room filled with animal specimens. Many animal specimens lay throughout, but naturally, given the limited space, there weren’t as many varieties or large animals as one might find in a museum. Most of the specimens here were of small animals, such as some birds, squirrels, rabbits, and so on.

Those specimens in museums were basically donated by zoos, forestry departments, and others, for instance, rare animals that died from diseases, something Zheng Tan would come to know later. According to Mr. Jiao, the Chuishan Nature Museum’s freezers for storing animal carcasses held several hundred animals at that time, and the museum’s specimen makers had to thaw them one by one and turn them into specimens.

However, for many private collectors, they preferred specimens made from animals that were healthy before death. Some specimen makers disliked working with dead animals, especially when a body was slightly more decomposed, as the smell from skinning was unbearable. Therefore, they leaned towards freshly killed specimens.

And Zheng Tan’s intuition told him the specimens in this room had been healthy animals at the time of their death.

Perhaps because the person who made these specimens was not very professional, these specimens were inferior in both craftsmanship and preservation compared to those in a museum. Zheng Tan could now detect a rotting smell from the fur, estimating that in a year or two, some of the specimens in the room would be completely damaged. Probably the owner didn’t care about this; once the specimens rotted and fell apart, they could simply make new ones and throw the old ones away to make space.

Zheng Tan didn’t want to look closely at the animals that had been turned into specimens, focusing his attention instead on that cat squatting on the table towards the interior.

In front of that cat, there lay a cat specimen. The cat made into a specimen must not have been an ordinary house cat, though its size was close to that of a regular one.

Having attended exhibition events, Zheng Tan could recognize several valuable cat breeds, but this specimen didn’t belong to any of the costly breeds he remembered. Could it be a wild cat from the mountains?

As the students discussed, in the wild, as long as there’s no reproductive isolation, couldn’t any number of things happen? To put it more plainly, hybridization. For instance, wolfdogs, super cats, and the like—aside from selective breeding directed by humans, natural selection was always occurring, especially in a species-rich place like Chuishan.

Since someone took the trouble to turn it into a specimen, it must be different from the common house cat, but to what extent, Zheng Tan couldn’t say. Looking from the windowsill, he couldn’t see clearly enough to observe in detail.

However, judging by the differences in body size and appearance, these two probably weren’t related, right?

The cat just sat there quietly, its ears twitched and glanced at the windowsill when Zheng Tan flipped over, and then it continued to stare at the specimen cat. They were facing each other, eye to eye, with a distance of about ten centimeters between them.

Zheng Tan had an absurd feeling that the cat did not appear to be mourning something; it looked more like it was in deep thought, like a philosopher.

Zheng Tan knew his thought was laughable, but it reminded him that when others in his daily life looked at him, they probably felt the same way, finding it hard to accept that a creature assumed to be of low intelligence suddenly appeared so smart.

Zheng Tan, like most people, underestimated the intelligent species on this planet. Perhaps they wouldn’t have human-like intelligence, but they also might not be as low as people believed.

That cat stayed sitting there, maintaining its position for about half an hour before leaving. As it left, it glanced at Zheng Tan, seemingly surprised, since the other cats in the vicinity always shrank away at its sight.

After the cat left, Zheng Tan went into the room and stared at the cat specimen, but he always felt a chill down his spine looking at its back, so after a brief glance and a walk around the room, he left to return to base.

For the following two days, Zheng Tan accompanied the internship team into the field during the day and went for a walk each night. At this time each day, he would see that cat, which would repeat its same behavior, but Zheng Tan could not fathom what it could be thinking.

That day, around five or six in the afternoon, the interns returned one by one. After eating dinner at the canteen, Jiao Yuan and Little Youzi went to deal with the crabs caught by the students in the stream in the mountains earlier that day. The crabs they previously captured, all kept in one bag, had mostly killed each other by the time they returned in the afternoon—some were even reduced to empty shells, eaten by their companions.

Zheng Tan didn’t join them. When the time came, he planned to go for another walk. The cat should be arriving on time today, right?

Yet, before Zheng Tan could step out of the window, he heard the sound of fire engines. Listening to the direction the fire engines were headed, it seemed they were going towards the same area he wandered daily.

Upon arriving in front of the building, Zheng Tan discovered that the house which had been fine yesterday was now ablaze – the very room where Chen Fang kept his specimens was on fire. By the time the firefighters arrived, the fire had spread, but it was quickly brought under control.

The surrounding neighbors, who usually weren’t seen around this time, were all outside, discussing the event.

Zheng Tan glanced around but didn’t see the cat. He took a few steps, then stopped abruptly, looking towards a certain direction where there was a forest with no residents. The branches were too dense for Zheng Tan to see anything. But just as he was about to turn back, a pair of shining eyes flickered from behind the leaves. Zheng Tan knew it was due to the light, but still, he couldn’t help but feel a shiver down his spine – he knew that the creature sitting in the tree was watching him.

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

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep