Chapter 303: Chapter 296: The Cat by the Pond Chapter 303: Chapter 296: The Cat by the Pond Chairman Shu had always believed he was quite skilled at reading people, able to guess what they were thinking from subtle changes in their expressions, but now, he was puzzled.

When Professor Jiao and Mr. Yuan had heard Boss Cai mention that phrase, specifically when he referred to “Hengwu Square,” their facial expressions had become very…difficult to comprehend. He truly didn’t know how to link their reactions to “Hengwu Square” and that cat.

Looking at the two still with subtle expressions, and then at the Black Cat, Chairman Shu coughed and said, “Professor Jiao and Mr. Yuan, what are your thoughts on Hengwu Square? Could you discuss a bit, offer some advice, so Old Cai can avoid some trouble after he goes there? I’ve heard that place is quite particular.”

Some ordinary small shops wouldn’t be much of an issue, but for those wanting to expand, becoming involved in some interests was inevitable, like dealing with certain people there, such as Ye Hao, the boss behind Hengwu Square. Chairman Shu wasn’t very familiar with many local big shots in the mainland, having hardly any interactions with Ye Hao. His knowledge of Ye Hao was limited to the information his assistant had given him, which included Ye Hao and some other unofficial forces around Hengwu Square. Chairman Shu actually didn’t approve of Boss Cai choosing that location, but since Boss Cai insisted, he was left with no option but to do his best to help.

“This… Hengwu Square…” Mr. Yuan hesitated, opened his mouth, but then looked at Mr. Jiao, “Mingsheng, you talk, after all, your family…someone is more familiar with it.”

That someone…

Zheng Tan had stopped flipping through the tofu’s erect ears when they started discussing Hengwu Square, jumped back to the chair beside Mr. Jiao, and listened to their conversation. Mr. Yuan’s gaze kept darting towards Zheng Tan as he spoke, and Zheng Tan didn’t know what this guy was thinking.

Mr. Jiao thought for a moment and said, “I believe Chairman Shu and Boss Cai have done some research on Hengwu Square. Although I live near Chuhua University, I don’t often go there, and I might not know more about it than you two.”

Chairman Shu picked up the cup in front of him, took a sip of tea, and looked at Mr. Jiao, “Do you know Ye Hao?” Not knowing about Hengwu Square doesn’t necessarily mean not knowing about the person behind it.

“I know him, but not well,” Mr. Jiao did not deny. There were many things he didn’t want to discuss, especially since it involved his cat, but Chairman Shu was too sharp, and since it was their first meeting, they were hardly acquainted, let alone likely to share much.

Hearing Mr. Jiao say he knew Ye Hao somewhat surprised Chairman Shu; he hadn’t expected the two people he happened to meet to actually have connections there. He knew from the material given by his assistant that Ye Hao, much younger than him, wasn’t easy to deal with, having quite ruthless methods. This was also why he was worried about Boss Cai opening a shop there. Boss Cai wasn’t very tactful and could easily offend people. Back in South City, they had a few people to back him up, but it would be different in Chuhua City, even if it was just a branch. Boss Cai would surely spend more time there, as it was his first branch. As a friend for many years, he didn’t want to see Boss Cai fail shortly after arriving there.

Of course, Chairman Shu also noticed that Professor Jiao didn’t want to share some details; it was enough for him to know that they knew Ye Hao. His intention was, when the time came, perhaps they could arrange a meeting with Ye Hao. Although Chairman Shu, with his status, could meet Ye Hao to talk, having someone familiar mediate would be better.

Regarding this, Mr. Jiao didn’t immediately refuse. He would need to ask Ye Hao about the meeting first. Often, at Ye Hao’s end, his influence wasn’t as great as his own cat’s, so it all depended on whether his cat was willing to help.

Zheng Tan sat there, yawning several times, bored listening to the conversation of these four people, unable to sleep even if he wanted to.

Perhaps noticing Zheng Tan’s boredom, Mr. Jiao said, “If you’re bored, go out for a walk.” After saying this, Mr. Jiao remembered Zheng Tan’s history of running around causing trouble and added, “Just stay in the yard, don’t go far, or you’ll be grounded.”

Zheng Tan couldn’t stand it any longer; staying here listening to their chat was worse than finding a shady spot outside to sleep. It was too noisy here.

Seeing that Zheng Tan wanted to go out, Boss Cai, who was closest to the door, stood up and opened the door a crack to let Zheng Tan out. Mr. Jiao, who had initially planned to get up and open the window, saw this and sat back down.

However, no sooner had Zheng Tan squeezed through the door crack than Tofu followed, squeezing through as well. During the hot summer, other people’s dogs would crowd into air-conditioned rooms, but this guy would take any chance to run outside and frolic in the pond.

Boss Cai looked at the shady spot in the courtyard. The afternoon sunlight was slanting, and the pond area was not in the sun anymore. Seeing Tofu squeezing through the door and whining, he opened the door wider to let it out, to keep it from fussing inside.

Zheng Tan and Tofu had both gone out, and Mars looked pitifully at Chairman Shu. Chairman Shu choked, “Oh well, let him go out and play. There’s no one else in the courtyard anyway.”

After the two big dogs went out, they ran straight toward the pond, while Zheng Tan leisurely walked to a nearby rockery and jumped up. It was shady here.

Perched on the rockery, Zheng Tan planned to find a spot to get a good sleep, as he hadn’t fully recovered his energy spent today.

Just as Zheng Tan was about to close his eyes for a nap, his ears twitched. He heard a familiar voice.

Opening his eyes, he looked in that direction and listened carefully, ignoring the noise made by Tofu and Mars. Zheng Tan caught a very familiar voice not far from there. Familiar as it was, it was a voice from his memories, one he hadn’t heard in the years since he became a cat. Now hearing it, he could still recognize it immediately. Sleep was forgotten.

He immediately jumped down from the rockery, climbed a tree, and using it, Zheng Tan scaled the wall surrounding the yard.

In the private room, as Mr. Jiao was chatting with Chairman Shu and Boss Cai, he also occasionally kept an eye on the courtyard outside. From where he was sitting, he could see part of the yard through the window. Just now, he had seen Zheng Tan lying on the rockery ready to nap and had felt relieved, but when he turned back from the conversation, he saw that little rascal scaling the wall.

Professor Jiao’s forehead vein bulged.

He had just said to let it play in the yard, but in the blink of an eye, it had scaled the wall and run off. Indeed, confinement was the only way.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have someone keep an eye on it. It won’t escape their line of sight, and besides the clients’ private rooms, there are surveillance cameras in the outside corridors and some other areas,” Chairman Shu said.

Mr. Jiao really wanted to tell Chairman Shu that cats are not like dogs; they aren’t something you can monitor just because you want to. A moment of inattention and they’re gone without a trace. Besides, his cat had a serious history of escaping, but he figured that even if he explained, no one would believe him.

Once again, Zheng Tan had ignored Mr. Jiao’s admonition. He was now following the sound toward that direction. The buildings here were not tall, mostly two or three stories, and easy enough to climb over.

With Zheng Tan’s rich experience in climbing walls and buildings, he soon saw the source of the voice, as it wasn’t far off.

At the end of a long corridor stood a woman, seemingly just over 30, dressed meticulously, holding a phone and saying something with a look of impatience on her face.

“Your own son and you come to me? What can I say? Need money, give money, need a house, give a house, how can I just wash my hands of responsibility? Enough, I’m busy right now, the whole afternoon is booked, I don’t have time…”

Zheng Tan knew who she was talking to and he also knew who their conversation was about.

Although he had considered many possibilities upon arriving in South City, he hadn’t expected to see both people on the same day. Three hours ago, he had seen his own father, and now he was also seeing his own mother. One always took different lovers to revel in joy; the other, when free, contacted various wealthy ladies to network and expand her own business. Regarding Zheng Tan, aside from providing money, they barely gave any care, and their negligence was partly to blame for his own ill temperament back then.

He couldn’t pinpoint his feelings, nor could he talk about disappointment or sadness; perhaps it was because he had expected it to be this way, so he had long since given up hope.

The person in the corridor ended the call abruptly, with her expression still indignant. It was clear she was in a foul mood.

In his memory, Zheng Tan often saw such an impatient expression.

The woman standing there tucked a strand of hair that the wind had blown over her forehead behind her ear, took a deep breath, and scanned the surroundings to adjust her mood. Her gaze swept around and paused at a round garden sculpture pool not far from her, over a meter high and nearly two meters in diameter.

Inside the white circular sculpture were some water lilies, blooming in white.

The white water lilies, the white sculpture pool, and, by contrast, the black cat.

The woman stood by the corridor, looking at the cat perched on the edge of the pool.

The black cat sitting by the edge of the pool quietly looked back at her.

The woman’s movement of stroking her hair stiffened slightly. She always felt vaguely intimidated by those cat’s eyes.

At that moment, the door of a private room opened, and a woman in her thirties came out.

“Hey, have you finished your call? We’re only waiting for you to start the mahjong game.”

The impatience on Zheng Tan’s mother’s face immediately fell away; she responded with a smile, “Alright, alright, I see you’re all anxious.” Saying this, she walked into the private room. Before entering, she glanced once more at the pool and then turned back, entered the room, and closed the door.

The windows of that private room were covered by curtains, Zheng Tan couldn’t make out the inside, but he knew who usually mingled with his mother, a few wealthy ladies.

Turning his gaze, Zheng Tan looked at the water lilies in the pool and reached out to touch the nearest one.

Tsch, still inexplicably annoyed!

Underneath the lily pads, some small fish swam about, unidentifiable. After touching the flower, Zheng Tan started slapping at the fish that swam to the surface, scaring them back into the water.

Because of instructions from Boss Cai and Chairman Shu, two men secretly watching Zheng Tan exchanged glances.

“There’s no issue with the cat doing that, is there?”

“Should be… no issue… I guess?”

“That fish was specially brought back by the boss’s son from a trip abroad, I heard it’s not available locally. That fish is not only attractive but doesn’t eat leaves like the koi they used to keep. If it’s gone, it’d be hard to replace.”

“But we haven’t seen it eat fish, have we? It seems like the cat is just slapping them for fun. Didn’t the boss say to not bother it unless something big happens?”

“So we wait until it actually eats them before stopping it?”

“Right. To catch a thief, you need to catch the evidence, don’t you? If we go now, not only will we not catch it red-handed, but we might also scare it away. Once a cat starts running, it’s not easy to catch.”

“True.”

When Zheng Tan lost interest in slapping the fish, he jumped down from the sculpture pool, climbed over the wall to leave, and as he passed the corner where the two men stood, he glanced down at them from his higher vantage, thinking to himself, “What a pair of idiots, still trying to ‘catch the evidence’.”

Watching the cat leave, the two men standing there were somewhat puzzled.

“Why do I feel like that cat was just now scoffing at me?”

“…I deeply share that sentiment.” (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendations or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read further.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep