Chapter 266: Chapter 259: Recharging Phone Credit is a Difficult Task Chapter 266: Chapter 259: Recharging Phone Credit is a Difficult Task Seeing those three characters, Zhang Dong wanted to smash his phone, but thinking about the value of the phone he held, his arm, already poised to throw, forcibly stopped. He took several deep breaths before his emotions settled a bit.

If the other party had just stolen the stuff and left, Zhang Dong would have accepted it, the other party’s skills were too good, and he was willing to admit defeat; if the thief was playing him, hiding his phone and SIM card all over as a prank, he would consider it a jest. But now, the thief even sent a message, though it was only three words, it carried an intense taunting tone, Zhang Dong felt as if he had been slapped in the face and then punched. Clearly, the other party had no intention of stopping, and what Zhang Dong worried about now was whether the thief would come back here, even target him, and do something life-threatening.

The more Zhang Dong thought about it, the more anxious he became as many of his daily activities were not exactly moral, which he’d typically choose to ignore, but once certain things happened, his negative emotions would spike immediately.

Staring fixedly at the screen, Zhang Dong scratched his head and pressed the dial button.

Guesses were just guesses, but Zhang Dong hoped to speak directly with the other party, clear the air, and even if it meant sacrificing some interests, it didn’t matter.

However, after dialing, Zhang Dong listened to the formulaic voice on the phone and almost smashed his phone again—the other party’s phone was turned off and unreachable.

Pacing around his house several times, Zhang Dong decided to temporarily move to another place. If he couldn’t face them, could he not hide? So, he immediately called someone to rent another place and packed up his luggage that day.

Compared to Zhang Dong’s doubts and anxiety, Zheng Tan was doing quite well, turning off his phone immediately after sending the message. He didn’t want to waste words or battery power.

A mobile phone was indeed a convenient item, enabling communication without seeing who was on the other end of the line. Unable to play on a computer, playing on a mobile phone wasn’t too bad either.

However, remembering the account balance he had learned about when checking his phone charges, Zheng Tan became distressed again.

Recharging the phone was quite simple for others, whether they went to the service hall or had someone else top it up, but for Zheng Tan, it was a technical challenge. How could he do it so that no one would see or recognize him?

Money?

Zheng Tan had some.

He knew where to find the private savings of Little Youzi, Jiao Yuan, and Jiao Ma, and Mr. Jiao’s bank card, but Zheng Tan didn’t want to use their money. Call him stupid, stubborn, prideful, or rigid-minded if you will, but Zheng Tan couldn’t bring himself to use their money for his phone charges, even though he had planned to give the money in the card back to the Jiao family. To him, those were two separate issues.

To take without telling was to steal, Zheng Tan could act against Zhang Dong or strangers, but he couldn’t bring himself to do the same to the Jiao family.

Returning home, he pulled open the drawer on the cat climbing frame and looked at the several cards inside. There was a lot of money in these cards; Zheng Tan once saw the balance when Mr. Jiao registered for online banking and logged in. The amount even scared Zheng Tan himself. Unfortunately, no matter how many zeros were on the card, Zheng Tan couldn’t get even 10 cents of it—it wasn’t that Mr. Jiao had moved the money, but Zheng Tan simply couldn’t withdraw the money, as there were cameras at the ATMs.

He hadn’t seen any nearby charging stations for phone credit that accepted bank cards. If there had been, Zheng Tan might have tried sneaking there unseen to recharge by card.

Ask someone to help recharge?

Zheng Tan wasn’t too willing. He wanted to use this mobile number for other things, so the fewer people who knew about it, the better.

What to do?

Zheng Tan lay down on the balcony, pondering.

A rustling sound came from the fourth floor; it was the “cheap bird” from the fourth floor cultivating its artistic sensibilities.

At that moment, General was biting on a pen, engrossed in drawing. To prevent this creature from causing more trouble outside, General’s owner, Professor Qin, taught it a few things, among which drawing was something General now found interesting. It spent every day biting on a pen to draw, and Professor Qin even bought a special drawing board and eco-friendly pens for it.

This way, not only could it distract itself and avoid generating animosity outside, but it would also keep its mouth shut. Its learning ability had made its mouth cheekier by the day. If left uncensored, General could infuriate people. The Computer Science Institute was still the butt of jokes from other faculties, and General’s antics had been widely shared. However, it was also said that the Computer Science Institute had made an animated chat emoji based on General’s antics that was highly downloaded online, even Professor Qin used it for his chat expressions.

Zheng Tan leaned over the balcony to look at General’s paintings, not sure what the subject was, probably abstract art. After inspecting his work, General tilted its head, then raised its big paw, grabbed the eraser next to it, wiped the drawing board clean, and continued its artistic pursuits.

Watching General drawing with a pen in its mouth, Zheng Tan suddenly thought that since he could write and draw, he might try finding someone to recharge through this method. However, there were certain risks involved.

To solve the technical problem of recharging his phone, the first step was to have cash. Online banking payments were out of the question for Zheng Tan at this stage. How could he get cash, and legitimately at that?

That day, Zheng Tan ran to Xiao Guo’s place to shoot a new promotional advertisement. Xiao Guo’s shop didn’t just attract customers with its pet products; now the main attraction was the promotional videos regularly released on their Pet Center website. Whenever the release date arrived, a large group of Pet Center customers and curious netizens would wait in front of their computers, then share or screenshot it on various video websites and forums to attract attention.

This time, Zheng Tan’s prop was a small backpack as he played the role of a mountaineer. However, during the filming, the other cats were unusually low in spirits and uncooperative, which resulted in a longer shooting time. A short video that should have been finished by 2 PM wasn’t completed until 3 PM, and Zheng Tan was getting quite impatient.

Xiao Guo was worried and sent his crew to soothe the other cats, as for Zheng Tan…

“Heitan, let’s talk about this. Can you hang in there for one more hour?” Xiao Guo looked at Zheng Tan, knowing after all this time how to communicate with the cat.

Zheng Tan ignored him, lying down with his eyes half-closed, thinking about how to get cash and showing a blatant disregard for Xiao Guo standing in front of him.

After talking for a long time without getting any response, Xiao Guo decided to step out for a smoke. As he was reaching for a cigarette, he found a 50 yuan note in his pocket. On impulse, he waved it in front of Zheng Tan, “Hang in there for one more hour, and I’ll give you this 50 yuan as overtime pay!”

Xiao Guo had been joking, planning to put the money back in his pocket and go out for a smoke. Unexpectedly, the cat, who previously couldn’t be bothered to even lift its eyelids, suddenly stood up, looking spirited.

Xiao Guo: “…” He felt the cat’s eyes had practically sparkled at the sight of the money.

After a pause, Xiao Guo took out the half-put-away bill and slowly waved it in front of the cat again, watching as its eyes followed the bill.

Damn!

That worked fast!

Xiao Guo usually transferred Zheng Tan’s payment directly to his account, but he hadn’t expected cash to be so effective. If he’d known this could motivate the cat, he would have tried it sooner. Xiao Guo shook his head, trying to recall if this had happened before, but he couldn’t remember whether it just hadn’t occurred or he’d forgotten about it.

“Heitan,” Xiao Guo folded the bill and stuffed it into the small backpack Zheng Tan was carrying, “Overtime pay’s in, shall we start work?”

Let’s get to work!

Now that the cash issue was resolved, Zheng Tan was in a great mood. The other cats had also calmed down thanks to the crew’s efforts,
so, with everyone cooperating, Zheng Tan worked with extra zeal, was highly accommodating, and patient, not even showing signs of wanting to slap the other cats when they made mistakes as he normally would.

Xiao Guo, resting his chin in his hands, watched the shooting thoughtfully. He concluded that if they ever needed to work overtime again, he might as well settle it with cash. After all, 50 yuan wasn’t much for him anymore, and getting such cooperation from the cat was indeed a good deal.

After filming was finished, Zheng Tan didn’t bother to take off the backpack prop, and Xiao Guo didn’t ask for it either; he let Zheng Tan carry it home. When he got home, Jiao Yuan wanted to check the backpack, but Zheng Tan didn’t let him. He decided to carry this backpack whenever he went to the Pet Center.

With the cash in hand, the next step was to figure out how to charge the 50 yuan into his phone bill.

Zheng Tan had thought about leaving a note with the cash at a recharge station, but while wandering around, he discovered another way to recharge.

There was a newsstand on the road leading to the student dormitories. Zheng Tan observed it for a few days and noticed that every afternoon around 3 PM, the middle-aged lady running it would take a nap there. She wasn’t worried about theft since the students generally had high integrity and the security within the campus was much better than outside. If a student wanted to buy newspapers or cards, they could simply wake her up.

Zheng Tan had his black coin purse around his neck, not carrying his phone, but instead the 50 yuan in cash.

After the lady lay down and fell asleep, Zheng Tan hid his coin purse behind some bushes. He then jumped through the window into the newsstand with the 50 yuan note in his mouth, now getting more accustomed to carrying things this way.

Since no one was around and there were no cameras, Zheng Tan jumped in and observed the sleeping lady, confirmed she was deeply asleep—he had made sure of this before deciding to target this place.

The box of recharge cards was located below the window on a shelf, not fully covered probably because it was frequently accessed by buyers, and she didn’t bother to close it properly.

Zheng Tan placed the money in a coin box next to him — he didn’t see any box for larger notes, guessing it was hidden. Then, he went over to the box with recharge cards, rifled through to find a card of the right carrier and denomination, listened for any noise outside, and quickly left after securing the card.

Hiding behind the bushes, Zheng Tan glanced toward the newsstand; the lady was still sleeping. He sighed in relief, put the acquired card into his coin purse, zipped it up, and then headed toward the woods.

Hidden in a tree hollow, Zheng Tan followed the voice prompts on the phone to enter the card number and password. When the phone received a message confirming the recharge was successful and displayed the balance, Zheng Tan felt immensely relieved. Such a hassle just to recharge his phone credit!

However, recharging couldn’t always be this dramatic. He had been lucky today. If the newsstand changed hands or simply closed down, Zheng Tan would have to worry again. Therefore, he decided to look for other methods during his free time. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep