Chapter 265: Chapter 258: Mobile Phone Chapter 265: Chapter 258: Mobile Phone Zheng Tan looked at his cat paws and then at the several cell phones inside the cabinet, finally resting his eyes on a flip phone designed for men.

The phone had a large screen for that time and comparatively larger buttons which made it easy to operate. Zheng Tan set this phone aside, did the same with a pink phone, opened the box containing the SIM cards, and took out two of them.

Unable to find a bag in the room, Zheng Tan went to the door and listened carefully, ensuring that there was no one in the house and no one approaching. He then jumped up to pull the door lock and went out.

The house had two bedrooms and one living room and was not very big. The other room was unoccupied and stored some fitness equipment. Zheng Tan looked around, found a clean bag, and put the flip phone, the pink phone, and the two SIM cards into it, tied the bag, and returned to the room to deal with the remaining phones and SIM cards. During this process, Zheng Tan also searched through several drawers, but did not find the pendant Zhuo Xiaomao had mentioned, guessing it had already been sold or was hidden in a more concealed spot that he could not find.

Zheng Tan did not know where these phones were stolen from or who their owners were, and he did not care about that. He always ignored irrelevant people, and as for the owner of the pink phone, Zheng Tan was just planning to help incidentally.

After handling everything, just as Zheng Tan was about to escape through the window, he suddenly stopped, ran to grab some tissues, and wiped off some traces like obvious cat paw prints and the dusty top of the wardrobe. Although the cleaning was not meticulous, it was enough to eliminate any cat traces.

Zheng Tan threw the key into the toilet and locked the cabinet again, leaving it for that man to puzzle over.

After making sure he had erased his own traces, Zheng Tan bit the bag containing the phones and SIM cards and climbed out the window. As for the remaining traces in the room, those alone could not lead to suspicion of a cat.

Climbing up was easy, but climbing down from the outside of the window was not. After moving a distance along the wall, he jumped onto the sunshade of the second-floor window. Although the residential community was old, the sunshade was still quite sturdy.

Landing on the sunshade made a bang, not very loud, but surely heard by someone inside. However, by the time they came to look out the window, Zheng Tan had already climbed down to the first floor, landed on the ground, and found a hiding spot.

Hidden behind the bushes, Zheng Tan watched as the second-floor window was closed again and then let out a long sigh of relief.

After catching his breath, Zheng Tan took the bag and left the shadowy area.

There were many places that lights did not reach at night, and although it meant taking a longer route, Zheng Tan opted for it to keep his movements hidden.

Arriving at Chuhua University, Zheng Tan climbed over the wall near the side gate and opened the bag in the greenery, and while unnoticed, dialed the guard room from the pink phone, perfectly stopping it at the steps in front of the guard room. Watching from the side until a guard found it and asked the students passing by without success, he then wrote a lost and found notice on the notice board before Zheng Tan left. The guards at Chuhua University were quite decent.

Instead of going straight home, Zheng Tan went to a place, the woods near the new dorms. Before the new dorms were built a couple of years ago, that area was very secluded, almost deserted at night, and those woods had quite a few thick trees. Zheng Tan remembered, during his previous workouts there, seeing a tree with a hole in it, where he once placed a “cat card.” Thinking about it, he really hadn’t gone there in a while since the new dorms went up and the freshmen moved in, taking him even less often to that area. It was a good time to check it out today.

Although the secluded outskirts of the campus had livened up a bit with the construction of the new dorms, it was only slightly so. There were students walking around the wooded area at this time of night, and a few were in the bushes, but it was not difficult for Zheng Tan to avoid them.

No one was around the tree with the hole. Zheng Tan climbed up and examined the hole, which contained a pile of rotting leaves. He had filled it with some branches, leaves, and a plastic board after his last visit to prevent other animals from taking over, but now it seemed not to be a good idea as there were bugs growing all over the rotting leaves. Using a branch, Zheng Tan scooped out the contents. The hole was damp and crawling with small bugs, but he couldn’t think of a better way to handle it at the moment and would just make do for tonight, planning to find a solution the next day.

After clearing the tree hole, Zheng Tan placed the bag containing the phones and the SIM cards inside.

Although there were many places near the Old Tile House where Zheng Tan could hide the phones without worrying about wind or rain, he couldn’t be sure when someone might go there, whereas the tree hole seemed only likely to attract birds and cats, and regular birds and cats weren’t interested in phones like Zheng Tan was.

After some thought, Zheng Tan still felt the tree hole was safer and more secure.

Stealing phones from a thief who stole them, was this considered “black eating black”?

Who cares! Zheng Tan shook his head, he had never been one for scruples.

Opening the bag, Zheng Tan turned on the phone, set it to silent, and started playing a racing game stored in it.

It had been a long time since he had touched a phone, and even this crude game could entertain Zheng Tan greatly.

No one would imagine that at this moment, in the woods on the edge of Chuhua University’s campus, a cat was grinning inside a tree hole playing with a phone.

About half an hour later, the cellphone indicated that the battery was nearly drained, and Zheng Tan reluctantly turned off the cellphone.

There were no sim cards installed in the cellphone, and looking at the two sim cards he casually grabbed from the bag, he had forgotten to install them because he was too absorbed in playing games.

Never mind, he would deal with it later.

Zheng Tan strenuously opened the back cover of the cellphone, removed the battery, and took it to recharge tomorrow when no one was home using Jiao Ma’s universal charger.

After removing the battery, he properly placed the cellphone and the two sim cards back into the bag, tied it up, and glanced at the battery. Carrying the battery directly in his mouth didn’t seem quite right; biting into the battery was courting death. Not mentioning the toxicity of the battery, Zheng Tan recalled the conversation between Mr. Jiao and Jiao Yuan.

In Jiao Yuan’s class, many students, when their batteries died and they were too lazy to buy new ones, would bite the batteries to “extract” any remaining energy. Therefore, it was common to see many discarded batteries with tooth marks on them at their school. A few days ago, there was also a news story about a little girl who was injured by an exploding battery after biting into it. According to the explanation by an expert in the newspaper, the battery contains chemical substances and biting it could cause saliva to enter, possibly leading to a short circuit and explosion, especially with some counterfeit products and low-quality batteries that are more likely to be accident-prone.

The students often used size AA or AAA batteries with zinc metal casings; Zheng Tan didn’t know about the cellphone battery but didn’t want to take the risk, as he still cherishes his feline life. Regarding academic knowledge, Zheng Tan was semi-illiterate, neither understanding nor interested in delving deeper. Just listening to Mr. Jiao and Jiao Ma’s advice and keeping it simple was his way.

Just to be safe, Zheng Tan ran to the vendors who set up small stalls outside the side door. After more students arrived in the area, vendors started showing up during the evenings and nights outside the courtyard’s side door.

The vendors, seeing Zheng Tan picking up a plastic bag from the stalls, just thought the cat was amusing itself, as many cats like to play with plastic bags and the bags weren’t valuable. So, the vendor didn’t pay much attention to Zheng Tan, rather focusing on the passerby students.

After placing the battery into a clean plastic bag, Zheng Tan carried the bag back to the courtyard, hid the battery in a spot, went upstairs to his home, brushed his teeth, and took a bath. He had carried plastic bags a bit too much today and needed to brush thoroughly, Jiao Ma had bought him an electric toothbrush which was pretty good.

The next day, with the house empty and everyone out for work or school, Zheng Tan took the bag with the battery back home and charged it with Jiao Ma’s universal charger.

To have the battery charge longer, Zheng Tan stayed home both in the morning and the afternoon and also found an old coin purse in a pile of miscellaneous items at home, long forgotten by Jiao Ma. Cleaning the purse under the tap and hanging it on the balcony to dry.

The size of the coin purse was just right. It perfectly fit the flip-cover cellphone, and the handle was just right to hang around Zheng Tan’s neck, thus saving him the trouble of carrying it with his teeth.

After everything was ready, Zheng Tan took the opportunity to return to the tree hole, install the battery, and tried the two sim cards, checking the credit balance; one card ran out of money long ago, while the other had only a few yuan left.

Installing the card that still had some credit, Zheng Tan thought about the man’s phone number. Yesterday when Zheng Tan visited the kindergarten, Teacher Xiao Bai was calling that man. After she finished the call and put the phone down to tend to other children, Zheng Tan flipped through the call logs and saw “Darling” displayed, noting down the number.

Meanwhile, in the old residential community.

Zhang Dong was on the phone, complaining to someone.

“This morning, I found several sim cards lying in my shoes. In a rush, I grabbed a suit from the wardrobe to change into, went out to catch the bus, and found a few sim cards in my pocket. Back home, when making noodles in the kitchen, I opened the cupboard to find a cellphone! Running off to drink water to calm my nerves, I opened the cabinet under the coffee table in the living room, and there lay another damn cellphone… cellphone… sim cards… cellphone… sim cards… I’m going crazy! Who the hell is playing with me?!”

Zhang Dong believed that the intruder was a highly sophisticated thief, but why didn’t the thief take the cellphones, instead seeming to play a game by stuffing things everywhere?

Zhang Dong had checked the door locks and windows, unable to find any clues. He had no expertise in investigation and didn’t dare to make it public. It would be embarrassing for him if outsiders knew, and even worse if his peers found out. He could only vent to some close friends he usually hung out with.

While he was talking, his phone indicated that he had received a message.

Seeing the phone number displayed, Zhang Dong’s hand trembled, and a chill ran down his spine.

The number showing on the message was one of the sim cards that he had not yet found in his house but had used before, as it had four sixes in it, which he remembered clearly.

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Dong opened the newly received message, which read—
“Having fun?” (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote on Qidian (qidian.com) with recommendation tickets or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please read on m.qidian.com.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep