Chapter 151: A Trip For More Righteousness
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
There came a rotten smell.
The dead, rotten smell came from a quiet lane ahead.
Old Time Tea knew it had arrived at its destination.
A hot wave came from its chest up to its throat.
It knew it was getting old, not as strong as he used to be, just like how the song went:
[The wind smiles
It makes me feel lonely
But there are still great thoughts in my mind.——]
It wasn't a good time to be sad at the moment. Old Time Tea tried to let out excess body heat from breathing quickly, which also reverted its rapid heart rate back to normal.
Old Time Tea didn't enter the lane from the ground. Being a cat, walking on the wall was way safer.
Standing up on the wall, Old Time Tea carefully observed this lane.
Slop and garbage was everywhere. The heavy stink was, in fact, a natural protection of the lane from outsiders. A normal person would not come in.
There were no street lights.
It raised its head and found that there were indeed street lights, which were all intentionally broken.
The lane was dark, but darkness wouldn't stop Old Time Tea.
Through the eyesight only cats had, Old Time Tea discovered that there were signs of fresh cat urine in the lane. A place where humans abandoned could sometimes be a cats' heaven.
A big fat rat came out from the sewer. It was squeaking and smelling around before it decided that this was a safe spot to find some food. Immediately, it ran towards the trash piling up at the corner, tore up the plastic bags, and searched for dinner.
Old Time Tea was about to move forward until suddenly, a slight friction-like noise caught its attention. It stopped.
A black cat quietly squeezed itself out from another corner, staring at the rat. Apparently, it had been waiting for its prey's arrival for quite a while.
Quietly raising its feet and lightly approaching to the rat, the black cat didn't make even a tiny bit of noise. It was getting closer and closer to the rat from behind. However, the rat didn't hear the cat all, digging half of its head into the trash bag and enjoying its delicious dinner.
As the black cat got close enough, it suddenly jumped up with two front paws, and landed on the rat's head and body.
The rat was scared, screaming and whipping its tail. Yet it was fate that decided that tonight was the end for him.
After watching this scene, Old Time Tea once again jumped up and headed inside the lane.
The black cat was frightened by Old Time Tea's movement. It thought that was a competitor so its paws loosened. The rat grasped at the chance to escape, but the black cat wouldn't let it go. It was thrown at the wall and passed out.
Old Time Tea changed from running quickly to slowly jumping so it had time to carefully observe the environment as it proceeded.
People lived in this lane. Dim lights came out from a few houses. Why would they live here? Out of financial reasons or others?
A small three-story building, which looked very much like an observation tower, appeared in front of Old Time Tea. Surrounding the building, there were short one-story houses on either side.
It was the Qing Ren Consulting Firm.
The building was dark and as quiet as a tomb. Old Time Tea listened carefully, but it could not hear a thing.
Old Time Tea jumped down from the wall and walked around the outside of the front door.
It smelled carefully.
That was it!
The smell of rotten rats from the sewer lingered.
The front door was a metal gate. Old Time Tea reached out its paw and tried to open it. The door was tightly shut.
It didn't really matter because Old Time Tea had other options as it came to entering a building.
If a person wanted to enter the building, he had to pull the door open from outside. Old Time Tea thought about it for a second and found a piece of wood that was about 3 feet long, which was very likely a piece of leftover material from a piece of furniture.
Old Time Tea pressed its sharp nails in the wood to pick it up and went back to the door. It tried a few different angles and utilized a small hole on the ground to place the wood against the doorknob. Old Time Tea then raised and kicked so that the wood was tightly fixed on the door and kept it shut.
In this case, if someone in the building tried to escape, they could not get out from the front door.
When Old Time Tea pushed the wood against the door, it made a loud noise.
Old Time Tea listened again. It was still dead-silent inside.
It then jumped up to the wall and walked to the side of the building.
Sewer pipes ran from the top level to the ground.
The plastic pipes were held on the wall by a few old rusty metal rings.
Old Time Tea jumped up, grabbed a pipe and went up to the top level within seconds.
There were all sorts of garbage and leftovers on the top level. A small door led to the roof.
The roofs between this building and the neighboring one were close enough that if someone rushed to escape, he could jump to directly from one roof to the other.
The door was made of metal, and was locked from inside.
Old Time Tea did the same thing, using some garbage to secure to lock so no one could ever get out.
It had to eliminate all possible ways out.
Standing on top of the building, Old Time Tea was staring down at the lane and thinking everything over again.
A few seconds later, it jumped down from the roof!
Within the blink of an eye, it was at level three.
Old Time Tea whipped its tail, strengthened its back, and adjusted its core and direction. It reached out its paws to grab the balcony on the third floor, and pulled itself up to third floor.
Sitting outside of the window, it looked into the room.
It was completely dark inside, but that was not a problem for Old Time tea.
If someone was watching from inside, he would be frightened to death by Old Time Tea's yellow eyes.
It seemed like there wasn't any activity going on inside. People had left.
Old Time Tea raised its paw and hit the glass rapidly.
Bang!
The glass broke. Most fragments fell inside. Some fell outside, rolled down to the ground and got smashed.
What a loud noise!
It there was someone sleeping inside, he should've been awakened by now.
Old Time Tea didn't rush to get in. Instead, it stayed by the window to observe.
The residents in the lane might have gotten used to such disturbances. If they heard glass breaking, no one would come out and everyone would shut their doors and lights.
The lane got even darker.
It was still quiet inside the building.
Old Time Tea wiped away some of the fragments on the window. It put down its sleeves to cover its two front paws, cleaned up the rest of the glass and hopped in.
In fact, before it broke the glass, Old Time Tea already knew no one was there because the human scent was very light, which meant people had left a while ago.
It looked like an office. The person didn't leave in a rush so he cleaned up the place. He swept to floor, mopped the desk and everything in between.
Looking at this, Old Time Tea know two things. First, it would not be able to find any clues here; second, the person was cunning as a fox.
It wasn't accurate that the person didn't leave behind any sort of clue. In the middle of the desk, there lay a stack of documents. It looked as if it was waiting for people to read it. Old Time Tea worried that it was a trick.
Old Time Tea walked around the room from the outside inwards, round after round, trying to search for clues. The couch, under the desk, the coat rack… it didn't miss any spot.
When Old Time Tea searched, it usually reached out its paw to knock on the floor and listen to the resulting noise. It had to make sure there wasn't a trap underneath.
Finally, it had searched everything but the desk.
First, it checked the bottom of the desk to see if there were any killing traps.
None. Everything looked fine.
It jumped up to the surface. Besides those documents, there wasn't even a paper left in the room. It reached out one paw and slightly pulled at the documents in front of it.
There was a note on the paper sitting on top of the stack.
"I was not sure who would get here first. It might be the police or someone else. By the time you see this paper, I've already left the city. Don't waste your time looking for me. There was no personal grudge between us. My business was merely a commercial act. Someone paid, and I provided the service. That's all."
"I am only a small potato trying to make a living by running a business like this. It is not worth your time searching for me. There are too many people just like me. You can't get them all. A famous saying goes: where there is a will, there is a way. I say that where there is demand, there is supply."
"Of course, my words won't ease your pain. I understand. I haven't failed my mission a lot, but this is not the first time. The fighters might be too weak or you might be too strong. I admire you for beating us. The documents underneath this paper are your souvenir. I hope this makes you feel better. "
"If you insist in chasing me, I will show you real trouble."
Signed – Qing Ren.
Old Time Tea moved away the paper. There were some documents that looked like conversation records. Besides the stack of documents, there was also a small plastic thing which looked like Zhang Zian's thumb drive. It might be the same thing.
Qing Ren thought these things would ease the visitor's anger. Old Time Tea was debating whether or not it wanted to believe him.
From the lane, there came the siren.
Old Time Tea jumped back to the window and saw that a few police cars were blocking the lane.
The police sergeants were here!
It rolled the first paper into a ball, put it in its pocket and was going to leave from the window. Suddenly, a banner on the wall attracted its eyes. There were two lines on the banner, written in beautiful Chinese calligraphy:
If someday I become king, there will be peach blossoms everywhere.
Old Time Tea sneered. What an egomaniac!
It jumped up, reached out its paws and cut the banner in half like slicing a piece of tofu. The cut landed on the character "Qing". The wall behind the banner was all fine.
The lane was too narrow for cars. It was dark, and the policemen ran in.
Old Time Tea jumped out of the window and slid down to the ground through a pipe. It kicked the wood at the door to the side, jumped back on the wall and was ready to head back to the pet shop. There, a new partner was waiting for it, just like how the song went:
[People laugh,
No more loneliness
My great thoughts are still there——]