"Eh, have you heard, that guy from the old alley was screwed over!"
"I heard that he was messed up pretty badly, when they found him he was already crazy."
"Wasn't it said that he was wasted when he got pranked? Probably hasn't recovered from that yet!"
"I even heard that when his friends asked him who did it, he kept on saying "cat" and "monster" and some other stuff. He was most likely scared to death."
"Didn’t he kill kittens recently? I said a few words on that matter and he even kicked me, it still hurts. If you asked me, I'd say that this is karma… Hey boss, another Chinese donut over here!"
...
Early in the morning, in some shops near the old building area that sold breakfast, people ate their breakfast while gossiping about the incident with the tattooed man.
The tattooed man was found at midnight around eleven or twelve o'clock. His mates working at the club saw that he wasn't there, so they had two people that didn't have much work at hand to find him. It turned out that there was no one in his house, and they only found him in a dead-end alleyway.
When they found him, he was frozen in a single posture: rolled up on the floor, his entire body trembling, mouth murmuring something that nobody could understand clearly. The tattooed man's surroundings were covered in glass fragments, and there were many cuts made by exploding splinters on his body and clothing. His face, hands, and the exposed part of his calf had cuts all over them, and so did the new pants which had a strong odor of urine.
Someone that had gotten off their night-shift at midnight passed by at the time. They pointed over there with their torchlight and took a look . Afterward, rumors began to spread.
No one reported it to the police, and even if they had called the police, the police wouldn’t have wanted to have a hand in it. All of these people had criminal records so the police couldn't be bothered to pay any heed to their personal affairs. Besides, that man was only a little hooligan, there was no need to waste time and energy to investigate his case.
Despite the tattooed man's condition, and the discussions of the residents around the old building's area alley, over at the eastern courtyard, Zheng Tan got out of bed relaxed and at ease. He squatted on the chair that was exclusively for him and ate breakfast.
When he returned last time, even with washed paws and having been in the wind, the smell of alcohol on him hadn't dispersed. He was caught by Papa Jiao as soon as he went home.
Papa Jiao suspected that Zheng Tan had went to that restaurant to sneakily eat or drink alcohol, but he saw that Zheng Tan was quite sober, his pace was steady, he was in good spirits, and his fur was clean, so he didn’t delve any further. However, he still instructed Zheng Tan not to go near places like restaurants or diners, to be careful not to end up as a stewed dish.
Zheng Tan scratched his ears. The matter was taken care of so there won't any need for him to wander there for a long time at nights anymore.
Having lifted the weight off his mind, Zheng Tan had some quality sleep last night. He ate a large bowl of three delicacy rice vermicelli made by Mama Jiao, then went out with the four members of the Jiao family.
When they went downstairs, Papa Jiao rode to the biology building on his little electric motorcycle while Mama Jiao carried the shopping basket and walked the two kids to school with Zheng Tan. Afterwards, Zheng Tan went for his stroll and Mama Jiao went grocery shopping.
The weather began to warm up, and the sun now felt comfortable on the skin.
Birds on the campus began to clamor, and tree leaves began to sprout. It wouldn't be long before "Road of Shitlestrial Beings" began to rain bird poop again. Anyhow, Zheng Tan stopped walking on those roads now. The environmental greening on campus being good was one thing, but with more birds came more crap. Walking through there, Zheng Tan could smell bird droppings from miles away.
He walked through the green belts of the campus. They didn’t permit trampling on grass, but obviously that was targeted at humans. It didn’t apply to cats, so it didn’t matter, and Zheng Tan often trampled on it anyways.
There were some blooming flowers over there. Zheng Tan had seen them when it was snowing, but he hadn't taken a closer look. He approached and took a glance. The leaves looked like Camille's that Lan talked about, but he didn’t know what specific specie it was, though it was quite pretty.
Zheng Tan inched in and sniffed—they didn't have much of a smell.
While he was watching the flowers, Zheng Tan heard a girl's voice not too far away, probably talking to her boyfriend on the phone.
"You've been on the Mingzhu city assistant program for over three months. You said that you'll be back in three months… Delay? How much longer… Alright, I hope I get to see you next month. By the way, what do you think about the specimen I sent you?"
The girl spoke on the phone and the high heel on her foot kicked a little pebble on the road.
"Excuse me?!" The girl's voice suddenly elevated in volume. "That was the specimen I made myself from the leaves of the Japanese maple in front of the dorm! How could it be a rip off sold on the streets… Of course you can't differentiate! Do you know the difference between oriental poppies and opium poppies? Do you know the difference between cherry blossoms and peach blossoms? You don’t know, you can't even see the difference between a Siberian Husky and an Alaskan malamute!"
Zheng Tan listened in by the side. "…" 'The pal at Mingzhu city, thank you for all the trouble you've taken!'
Soon, the girl hung up, stamped with her heels, and trotted away.
Zheng Tan recalled again the times when he was in the university chasing after girls, resorting to everything during that time to please those ice beauties and cold belles. He looked down and stared at his furry paws, then threw back his head and exclaimed - 'life is full of uncertainties!'
Zheng Tan made a face of contemplation at the sky when a voice suddenly drifted over from behind him.
"Charcoal, are you bird-watching?"
Zheng Tan wiggled his ears upon the sound, then turned and looked over. The next moment, a pile of bird dropping rained down from above, landing right on Zheng Tan's ear.
"…"
'F*ck, that's why I said I hate this bunch of birds that sh*t everywhere! They have no sense of shame!'
The culprit had already flown away, chirping before flying off to declare it's presence.
There were some temperature to the poo when it landed on the ear, but it quickly became cold, and the smell of it made Zheng Tan want to grab that b*tch of a bird and cut it to pieces!
"Don't shake your ears, it will fall on your body," Zhuo said, her words carrying a trace of a smile.
Listening to Zhuo's words, Zheng Tan immediately stopped moving and rigidly stood there.
Zhuo took a pack of tissues from her bag and slowly lowered her body.
Zheng Tan's heart stopped a beat when he saw her actions. Was it okay to squat with that big of a tummy?
Zhuo wiped off the bird poo from Zheng Tan's ear, then gently poked his head before slowly rising up again. "This luck of yours!"
Zheng Tan tugged at his ear. 'This luck sucks!'
Zhuo walked over to the trash bin and threw away the tissue, then said to Zheng Tan, "Come, let's go to my place, I will wash your ears."
Zheng Tan kept feeling like there was something wrong with that ear. He still had a subconscious feeling that there was a pile of bird poo in his ear; he could smell it. His heart would only rest assured after washing his ear clean, otherwise he'll continue feeling repulsed by it.
As they headed for the western yard, the smile on Zhuo's face never ceased. She even told Zheng Tan, " I heard that most bird species don't have a bladder. Their rectums are extremely short, so they relieve their bladder and bowels at the same time. Humans and felines can hold it in when they want to do that, excreting when they get to the bathroom. Birds can't, they excrete wherever and whenever they want, even during flight. "
So this bunch of bladder-less birds were the real shameless kind that defecate indiscriminately!
Zheng Tan silently cursed those despicable birds in his heart as he walked., "General", who hadn't appeared for a while, was not spared in his scolding.
Arriving for the second time at the western courtyard that Zhuo lived in, Zheng Tan saw cats walking about, and some that sunbathed on their balconies as they swayed their tail.
The number of cats in the western yard had gradually increased. Zheng Tan had visited this courtyard when he first came to this time period, and there were not many cats back then while some were just kittens that still had their fetal hair. In the blink of an eye, the kittens had all grown up to maturity.
Will there be a battle between the western and eastern courtyard cats in the near future? Sheriff would definitely be overjoyed.
Gang fight, even the thought of such a scene sounded epic to Zheng Tan. He had never seen cats engage in gang brawls before.
By the time Zheng Tan came out from his thoughts, they were already at Zhuo's place. The housemaid was watching television. Her face filled with loving care at the sight of Zhuo returning, but that smile soon shattered when she saw Zheng Tan beside Zhuo's feet.
Zheng Tan didn't care about what the housemaid was thinking, all he wanted to do now was to quickly clean his ear. The smell of bird poo made him want to puke.
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