Gift Box

The little gray cat strolled leisurely across the campus. It was already quite late, and apart from a few other night owls like it making some noise in the dormitories, there was no one else on the streets.

The cat licked its paw. It wasn't as thin as it had been when it first arrived. The students at school loved it and would often feed it ham and chicken. The kitten had grown plump and its fur had become smoother and softer.

It had just rolled over on the grass and was about to stretch, but its ears had already stood up.

Someone is coming.

It looked towards the source of the sound curiously. The little gray cat was not afraid of people. After all, both teachers and students in the school liked it, which made it unconsciously relax the vigilance habit it developed when wandering outside.

The person was wearing clothes familiar to the cat, the same clothes that the students who came to feed the cat wore: white and blue. The little gray cat meowed and hopped lightly to the person's feet.

This is a person who is a bit "big", the little gray cat thought to himself. He was a little different from the students who usually came to see him. The little gray cat knew that he was very popular. Anyone who saw him would scream, then run over to stroke his fur and feed him food.

Why didn't this person react at all?

The little gray cat decided not to bother with him. It showed its round little belly and rolled over on the ground.

The male student in front of the kitten suddenly showed a strange smile.

————

When Shen Anyan came to school today, he found that everyone seemed to be discussing something. It must not be a good thing, because no one laughed, and most people frowned when they talked about it.

She vaguely heard words like "cat", "lots of blood", and "disgusting".

When she arrived at the classroom, she saw Lin Yue and the others gathered together talking about something.

When Lin Yue saw her, he didn't come over to ask for breakfast immediately. Instead, he pouted and looked like he was about to cry.

"Feast, the little gray cat is dead!"

Shen Anyan was startled when he heard this, and slowly opened his eyes wide: "What?!"

Chen Shan shuddered: "It's so scary. This is what we saw when we got up this morning and came to the teaching building. That..."

She couldn't bear to continue.

He Qingtian said: "When I went to the office just now, I saw Lao Jiang crying. She loves cats the most. I guess she will be feeling very uncomfortable for a while."

Shen Anyan put down his schoolbag, said to a few people, "Breakfast is in there, please help divide it up, I'll go check it out," and ran out of the classroom.

The teaching building has two doors, the front door facing the school gate, and the back door facing the dormitory building. Shen Anyan came to the school through the front door and didn't see any cats, so the problem probably happened at the back door.

Shen Anyan ran to the back door.

Blood, blood everywhere.

From the flower bed to the stairs, there were drops of blood everywhere.

Where is the kitten?

Shen Anyan turned his eyes somewhat dazedly and finally saw it.

…

She finally understood why Chen Shan had such a hesitant expression at that time.

Shen Anyan felt his body shaking uncontrollably.

Not out of fear, but out of anger.

She heard someone talking in her ear.

"Oh, how do we handle this?"

"It's so dirty, clean it up quickly."

"What about the cat?"

"Put it in a dustpan and throw it in the trash can."

Shen Anyan finally spoke, she said: "Don't touch the cat, I'll take care of it."

The two male staff members who spoke were stunned and looked at her together.

Shen Anyan ignored them. She walked to the kitten's body and wanted to pick it up.

Someone grabbed her.

"I got a plastic bag. Put it here."

Gu Cijiang held the other person's wrist and spoke softly.

Shen Anyan nodded, took the bag and put the gray cat in it.

There was a forest next to the school playground, where not many people usually came, so the two decided to bury the kitten there.

On the way, Shen Anyan asked, "Why are you here?"

Gu Cijiang said, "I happened to meet Teacher Jiang in the office. She was worried that the cleaner would just throw the cat away, so she asked me to come over and tell her that if no one was willing to take care of it, she could come and bury the kitten."

Shen Anyan nodded.

When they reached the woods, they dug a hole together and put the gray cat in it.

The kitten's belly is empty and it feels very light when held in your hand.

Shen Anyan put it at the bottom of the pit, and when he squatted down to fill it with soil, he couldn't help but tear up.

Gu Cijiang also felt uncomfortable. He noticed the other person's situation and said nothing, but just patted her shoulder gently.

Before leaving, Chen Anyan stared at the simple little mound for a while, picked up a small flower that had fallen on the roadside and put it on the mound.

Back in the teaching building, Shen Anyan said goodbye to Gu Cijiang, but instead of going back to the classroom, he went to the monitoring room.

She made up an excuse, saying she had lost her tuition fees and needed to check the surveillance footage. After dealing with the security guards, Shen Anyan turned on her computer and selected the time after yesterday's evening study session.

No record?

Shen Anyan opened his eyes wide in disbelief and refreshed the screen repeatedly, but the displayed result remained unchanged.

She turned around and asked, "Uncle, please tell me why I can't find any footage after 11 o'clock last night?"

The male security guard was stunned when he heard this. He glanced at her with a guilty look and asked irrelevantly, "Didn't you lose something? Why are you checking this record?"

Shen Anyan said: "I just couldn't find it this morning. I have to see if anyone came to the classroom last night."

Seeing that the other party was evasive, she pressed him, "I lost several thousand dollars. If they can't find it, I'll have to call the police."

The male security guard hurriedly said, "Hey, hey, hey, let's check again. It doesn't necessarily mean it was lost at night. Look at other times..."

Shen Anyan insisted: "I just want to watch the surveillance at night."

Seeing that the other party refused to give in, the male security guard had no choice but to tell the truth.

Every evening when school ends, staff are required to turn off the power. Each device has its own power source, and the scattered power adds up to quite a lot. The power to the surveillance system should ideally be left on. However, the male security guard, to save time and effort, simply flipped the main switch every time he left work to avoid having to press any buttons. Since no one was in the school at night anyway, nothing would usually happen, so it didn't matter if the surveillance wasn't available.

Shen Anyan was furious. Haicheng No. 1 Middle School was a university after all. What kind of people did they recruit every day?

This incident was extremely serious, but due to the irresponsible behavior of the male security guard, the matter was left unresolved. He also lost his job.

Each class held a class meeting on respecting life and loving animals. During the flag-raising ceremony on Monday, the school leaders also emphasized the school's discipline and rules. After-school patrols were also strengthened due to this incident.

The impact of this incident seemed to be fading away gradually. Apart from the fact that people no longer encountered the little gray cat that would happily run towards people on the way to class, there seemed to be no other difference.

But when everyone walks to the place where the kitten often stays, they still can't help but sigh.

Classes one and two were the most upset. After all, they were the first to discover the kitten, and since then, the gray cat has been living in the school, and the students in those two classes are the ones who love to feed and pet the cat the most.

Shen Anyan arrived early today. She had come across a geography question during evening study yesterday, but no one had the answer. Since there was no evening study session with the geography teacher that day, Shen Anyan saved it for the next morning.

Now her classmates are very familiar with her. One of the manifestations is that when Shen Anyan puts the bag containing breakfast on the table, everyone will come and take it without her saying anything.

So she put her schoolbag on the table as usual and went to the office with her exercise book.

It was still early and no teacher had come yet, so Shen Anyan stood at the door waiting.

"Hey, Xiaoyan, why are you here so early?" The English teacher was the first to arrive. When he saw the other person, he greeted him with a smile.

Shen Anyan said: "I will ask the questions."

The English teacher glanced at the book the other person was holding and said angrily: "Are you asking about geography? Why don't you ask about English as well?"

Shen Anyan laughed and said, "Well, if I could only get 70 points in English like in geography, I would come here and ask questions every day."

The English teacher was amused by the other person. She rummaged through her bag for the key and said, "Forget it, just keep getting a perfect score."

"Why?"

When he inserted the key into the keyhole and was about to turn it, the English teacher suddenly frowned.

She pulled out the key, turned the doorknob, and the door opened easily.

She couldn't help but wonder, "What's going on? There's no one inside. Did someone leave the door unlocked yesterday? I'm going to criticize them later."

Shen Anyan reluctantly tried to smooth things over: "It must have been an accident."

The English teacher said, "Well, it's still dangerous. It's such a worry. Why don't you come in and sit down and wait? It's too noisy standing outside."

Shen Anyan followed the other party in.

The English teacher walked to her workstation and suddenly laughed, "Hey? Who put the gift box here for me? It wasn't there when I left yesterday!"

Shen Anyan looked over. It was a very ordinary gift box, dark blue, wrapped with a yellow ribbon, and with a pink bow on top. The color combination looked tacky, but the other party seemed quite happy.

The English teacher picked up the box and gestured towards Shen Anyan: "It looks like something has been sprayed on it. It smells strange. Who gave it to me?"

Shen Anyan walked over and complimented, "It must have been given to you by a student who likes you. The packaging is quite cute, it looks like it was given to you by a male classmate..."

As she was speaking, she suddenly stopped talking.

Chen Anyan frowned slightly. She smelled a strange smell, a bit stinky, but not the kind of stinky smell that comes from not taking a shower or from the toilet. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was very strange anyway.

Shen Anyan turned his gaze and looked at the gift box.

The English teacher was very happy and was about to open it to see what was inside.

Shen Anyan suddenly thought, why spray perfume on it? Of course, this is not a new thing. Some people do like this kind of delicate tone, but the smell of perfume may be a little too strong.

Her intuition told her that something was wrong.

Shen Anyan suddenly held the other person's hand.

"Teacher, don't open it yet. Can I take a look? I think there seems to be something wrong with this box." she asked.

The English teacher looked a little confused, but still handed the gift box to the other party as he was told.

Shen Anyan took it and opened the gift box a little.

After seeing what was inside, she immediately closed the lid and placed the box on the ground away from the two of them.

The English teacher's expression changed.

There was no need for Shen Anyan to say more, she already knew that what was inside was definitely not a good thing.

The moment the gift box was opened, a strong stench of decay gushed out. Fortunately, Shen Anyan closed it quickly, so the stench did not spread too far.

The English teacher asked in a trembling voice: "Then...what's in there?"

Shen Anyan hesitated for a moment and said euphemistically: "Some pieces of meat."

The English teacher subconsciously took a few steps back, moving away from the gift box.

Shen Anyan's description was still conservative. There were not only pieces of meat in it, but also blood and wriggling white flesh worms. Just one look at it made people feel like their eyes were being pricked by needles.