Chapter 172: This Seems Familiar

Today came with the arrival of strong gusts of wind. Billowing from the corridor vents, it had even managed to drive open the door.

Zheng Tan pondered for a moment before heading straight into the room. He wondered whether the two of them would actually start up a fight. For Zheng Tan, an exciting occurrence was the perfect recipe for escaping boredom.

After a few back and forth lines of dispute, the tension surrounding Qin Tao and Er Mao seemed to dissipate a little. From the interaction between the two, Zheng Tan could tell that the two were quite familiar with one another, and did not harbour true hatred towards each other.

It was exactly as what Zheng Tan predicted. Qin Tao, Er Mao, and Wang Bin were childhood friends that had been together from elementary till high school. The nickname "Qin Shou" was created by Qin Tao himself. When he was in elementary, he was punished with copying out his name, but all the "Tao" characters he had written lacked the three dots of water. The page was filled with awkwardly shaped and cramped repetitions of "Qin Shou". Qin Tao had simply not realised his mistake and had thrown it to his classmates to read. Afterwards, the name "Qin Shou" had stuck with him till now. However, the only ones who would refer to him as such were people who either had similar statuses or were relatively close to him. Else this guy would've already beaten up the other party.

In comparison to Wang Bin, Qin Tao and Er Mao had a special camaraderie between them. Back in the day, they always scored in the last two spots in their class. Regardless of how hopeless their studying ability was, due to their powerful backgrounds, they were always placed in the higher-level classes. In comparison, Wang Bin always ranked in the top 10. So, the two always numerous topics in common and could reminiscent about their best memories together. This was the main reason why Wang Bin had sought out Qin Tao's help in locating Er Mao.

"Back to the main point, how come you're in Chu Hua? Aren't you supposed to be chilling in Pearl City?" Er Mao threw a bottle of unopened bottled water to Qin Tao.

"Got into a bit of trouble and got transferred here to learn from my uncle, but it's really just an idle job. Most of my work gets taken by others, and I barely have anything to do. I'm dying of boredom."

After saying this, Qin Tao cracked open his bottle of water and took a few sips. Just as he tilted his head back, he noticed the black cat watching them as it poked its head out by the front door.

"Pffftt—" Qin Tao spit out the water in surprise, choking till his face turned a bright red. This sight of the cat brought him back to the moment he got shat on by the bird.

After recovering, Qin Tao pointed to Zheng Tan who was by the door: "You're familiar with that cat?"

Although it was a question, he said it like a statement.

Seeing Zheng Tan, Er Mao thought felt like something was off, but recalled that he did forget to close the door earlier and let out a sigh of relief.

The security around this area was pretty good. Furthermore, everyone in the building was either a professor or retired. The quality of security was pretty good, and it didn't concern him to take any additional precautions.

"What, were you screwed over by the cat?" Er Mao asked.

Qin Tao recounted his story of being shat on by the birds.

"Hey, what were you doing following him out of boredom and acting like such an idiot. It's good that he didn't lead you into a trap where you could've actually gotten hurt." Er Mao lectured.

"No way? That cat's that dangerous?" Qin Tao looked at Zheng Tan again.

"Whether you believe me, that's up to you." As Er Mao spoke he sniffed the air, "What's that smell?"

Qin Tao had crossed his leg and Er Mao's line of sight fell on Qin Tao's shoes.

"Qin Shou, you stepped in shit!" Er Mao said with a face of disgust.

"Ah?"

Qin Tao grabbed his leg and took a whiff, then let out a vomiting of vomiting. He desperately searched for a bag and threw in his shoes. He asked Er Mao to help him out with a pair of replacement shoes.

"No wonder. I thought something felt strange after I jumped across that yard." He threw the pair of shoes in the plastic bag towards the front door. Qin Tao looked again at the black cat that remained by the door, it was as if the cat was gloating at him with a look of contempt.

Zheng Tan was delighted at the trouble he caused. He was quite contempt against a person like Qin Tao, who would directly throw away his stained clothing and trash his shit stained shoes. He was the blackest of all black sheep.

Qin Tao shook his head, trying to rid himself of the uncomfortable feeling, then smacked Er Mao on the arm with his bottle. "This is all your fault you know. If it wasn't for the trouble of trying to find you, do you think I would come and put myself through all this suffering?"

"Meow—", Barely who was on the computer desk pressed her ears against her head and let out a warning sound, staring at Qin Tao with fierceness.

Hearing this sound, not only Zheng Tan, but the two who were deep in conversation also turned to look at Barley.

For a moment, there was pure silence in the room.

Zheng Tan and Er Mao knew that when this cat got angry, it would throw a violent fit, but Qin Tao couldn't yet comprehend this. After a moment of silence, Qin Tao seemed to think of something and smacked Er Mao with the bottle again.

"Meowrrr—"This time the warning got louder.

Qin Tao looked at Barley, blinked and tried again.

"Rrrrrr—" This time not only did the sound get louder, she started to grind her teeth. Originally crouching on the table, she was now poised to pounce.

"Hahahaha!" Er Mao scooped up Barley from the computer desk with a proud look, "Daughter ah, of course you'd protect daddy!"

Qin Tao, originally shocked at the cat's level of protectiveness abruptly changed to a look of confusion as he heard Er Mao's last line, "Daughter?"

"Yea." Er Mao happily propped up one of Barley's arms and waved at Qin Tao, "If you try to hit me with that bottle again, see if my daughter will let you get away."

Qin Tao lightly hummed, "Why would you be raising a cat?"

Er Mao spelled it out simply but left out most of how he dealt with the cat abuser, "I didn't want a cat too aggressive or one that was too mellow and wasn't bothered to even catch a mouse. As well, the people at the pet store said that this cat used to be raised at home but had wandered around as a stray for a while. Overall, she's pretty friendly to people."

Qin Tao looked at the obedient cat wrapped in Er Mao's arms and made a mental note to cross out "friendly" for this particular cat.

Without using actions, Qin Tao described to Er Mao the reasons behind Wang Bin's actions to search for him.

"So you followed this cat here?" Er Mao turned towards the door where Zheng Tan still sat. "You sold me out?!"

Zheng Tan tugged on his ear. Today was truly just a coincidence, he really had no intention of bringing Qin Tao over. It was pure dumb luck that Er Mao had appeared at the right moment.

Er Mao and Qin Tao doubted they'd get a reply from a cat and continued on with their conversation.

As it came time, Zheng Tan went to pick up Youzi. When he arrived back to the building, Er Mao's door was shut. Nothing could be heard from inside, he probably went out.

The next day, after dropping off Youzi, Zheng Tan prepared to go home and get online, but he noticed that Er Mao's door was ajar once again. It's seemed that recently, Er Mao was forming a dislike to locking his door. He probably because he forgot the keys again and decided that it was too bothersome to pick his lock every time. It was simply a small opening and the entire building had access control, if it could prevent random people from entering the building, for sure it could prevent his own cat from escaping.

After pondering for a bit, Zheng Tan pushed open the door. Listening to what the guy said yesterday, seemed like Er Mao's family would come knocking sometime soon.

There were no visitors in the room. Er Mao was gaming on his computer, whereas Barley was sprawled on the floor immersed in whatever it was that she was playing with. Sensing that Zheng Tan had come into the room, she glanced at him, then returned to her game.

Zheng Tan understood that there probably wasn't going to be anything too interesting today and prepared to leave. Then he caught sight of what Barley was playing with. Zheng Tan squinted at the object, confused and unsure. He brought back the step he had took towards the door and headed further into the room.

Probably because of her familiarity with Zheng Tan and understanding of the lack of threats, Barley did not show any hostility but heavily guarded her toy.

Zheng Tan ignored Barley and got closer to see what it was that was on the floor. It was a pendant. Barely was fully immersed into playing with the pendant strings, but what caught Zheng Tan's attention was the pendant itself.

This thing. It looked very familiar. It looked like Jade pendant that they received from the strange old lady.

As Zheng Tan pondered about this situation, Er Mao finished up his game.

"Hey, Charcoal, you can't just welcome yourself in all the time...Hey, daughter. You can't play with this!"

Er Mao didn't bother to continue his lecturing with Zheng Tan and diverted his attention to the pendant on the floor. He quickly picked it up and wiped it with his sleeve. Seeing as how the string was badly chewed up, Er Mao made a mental note to get the string changed sometime soon. It wasn't a big deal, as the string had already been changed multiple times.

After placing the pendant in it's original location, Er Mao caught Zhang Tan staring at him. He waved his hand at him, "Come on, just go home to play. And don't let me catch you stealing Barley's food."

There was an automatic cat feeder in the living room and it was always full of cat nip. But the truth is, Er Mao had never seen the black cat grab a bite to eat from there.

Zheng Tan went back home, deeply immersed in his own thoughts. Seeing Er Mao's reaction, he guessed that the pendant had to be pretty important.

That time he was at Papa Jiao's hometown, what was it that the old woman had said again?

Zheng Tan thought back to that particular meeting and then headed to Youzi's closet. He dug out a string a keys from a relatively plain corner of the room. Stretching his claws, he selected a key and inserted it into a hidden drawer on the cat climbing frame. It opened easily. He fumbled around the content of the drawer until pulling out the piece of Jade that Papa Jiao had hidden there. He pulled it up close and meticulously examined it.

Almost identical! There were only a few discrepancies with the wording.

Perhaps, the person that the old granny was looking for was somehow related to Er Mao?

Regardless what the relationship was, Zheng Tan was determined to bring the jade pendant with him and dangle it infront of Er Mao. Only then, would the situation clear up. Er Mao wasn't the type to commit robbery, so Zheng Tan wasn't worried on that front. As Papa Jiao wasn't here, Zheng Tan couldn't inform him of his plans either. If he could resolve this issue by himself, it'd be a pretty good outcome nonetheless. And Papa Jiao was always talking about how they had to repay the old granny.

Zheng Tan wrapped the pendant around his neck, locked up the drawer, returned the keys to its original hiding place, and continued on his way downstairs to Er Mao's apartment.

Er Mao had started a new round of his game while Barley had curled up on a corner of the bed, fast asleep.

Zheng Tan leaped onto the computer desk and stood right beside the computer.

This move had taken Er Mao completely by surprise. But as he was super engaged with his game, he didn't even look at Zheng Tan, too busy to even push Zheng Tan off the table.

Zheng Tan wasn't in a rush, so he settled down to watch the game.

As soon as he finished this round of his game, his new phone started ringing before he could turn his attention to Zheng Tan.

Er Mao was speaking impatiently into his phone. Zheng Tan could only watch, and out of boredom, he started to play with Er Mao's mouse.

Noticing Zheng Tan's actions, Er Mao made a move to interfere before the interface was forced to exit. Suddenly, Er Mao froze in his tracks. Stopping his conversation over the phone. He stared at the pendant around Zheng Tan's neck and moved closer to scrutinize it.

Er Mao hung up mid-sentence on the person who was on the other side of the phone.

"Hey, I'm going to take this off and get a good look. I'll return it in a bit." He then took the pendant off Zheng Tan's neck.

Er Mao's first reaction to the pendant around Zheng Tan's neck was when had this cat stolen his pendant and changed the string around it? But after taking a second look, he noticed the small dissimilarities. After all, he had worn his own piece for over 10 years, any small difference would be easily discernible.

Without a question, Zheng Tan's pendant was the real thing, not some counterfeit good. The quality was just as good as Er Mao's own. Even though he wasn't an expert in this field, he could still feel that this piece of jade was very similar to his own.

He took out his own piece, whose string had yet to be replaced, and compared the two.

He was absolutely thrilled.