Shuixi has a cat (1)
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the streets were sparsely populated, but cars were constantly coming and going. There were signs of people everywhere, but no sign of them. Hui Zifeng rode his electric scooter through three streets, unaware that he was being followed. It was a yellow, green, and red scooter, seemingly freshly painted. The driver hadn't concealed his features, and several times, he'd parked alongside Hui Zifeng at red lights, openly looking at his profile, without Hui Zifeng noticing.
Hui Zifeng suddenly turned a corner, leaving the pursuer with no time to catch up. He rushed forward, then made a hasty turn in the middle of the road, speeding back to catch up with Hui Zifeng. Even so, he still didn't attract Hui Zifeng's attention. Passing an old building, Hui Zifeng stopped, pulled his camera from his backpack, walked towards the house, found an angle to take a few photos, and then walked into the alley between the two houses, searching for something.
Lu Cangyue thought he had noticed her following him and was taking the opportunity to escape, so she abandoned the car and chased after him. She saw a string of text in Hui Zifeng's camera. She was suddenly surprised: "There's more here?"
Hui Zifeng turned around and saw the girl beside him looking at some ancient characters on the wall. As if meeting a close friend, he asked, "You noticed that too? Do you know what these are?"
"Are you interested?" Lu Cangyue, overjoyed at her chance to get closer to Hui Zifeng, momentarily lost sight of her surroundings. Suddenly, someone stood in front of her. Thinking it was a passerby, she dodged, only for the person to move in front of her. Furious, Cangyue looked up to see a handsome, cool young man with ill intentions. He dismissed Hui Zifeng with a casual remark. Hui Zifeng obediently left, somewhat perplexed but unsuspecting.
"what are you up to?"
"You look familiar! Do we know each other?" Cang Yue pondered, as if she remembered that there was someone who always caused trouble for her. Why didn't she remember him? Why was the other person so lingering?
"Don't worry about who I am. Why are you following him?" Shuixi asked mercilessly. The people in the alley behind them were returning. Shuixi grabbed Cangyue and hid aside. After Hui Zifeng rode away on his bicycle, he pushed her out roughly.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm." Zang Yue guessed that this person was probably Hui Zifeng's bodyguard or something, and mistook her for a bad guy following Hui Zifeng. "I'm leaving now..."
Shuixi stretched out his hand to block Zangyue's way and warned, "I advise you not to get close to Hui Zifeng, otherwise you will regret it too late."
Hey! Lu Cangyue couldn't stand that kind of talk. She immediately attacked, grabbing Shuixi's arm and twisting it backwards, causing him to bend over. Then she raised her leg and kicked him squarely in the face. It should have been a smooth, flowing sequence, but Shuixi countered at the first step and forced her into the alley.
"Who are you?" Zang Yue was defeated, her heart pounding, fearing her life would end here. She didn't want to leave yet, so she tried to calm herself down and face the situation.
"We've met before, but you always forget." Shuixi still easily trapped Cangyue's hands with one hand, pinning her to the wall. With the other hand, she produced a knife. She recognized it as Song Shiwen's knife.
"What are you going to do?"
"If I stab you, you'll probably remember me." Shuixi pointed the tip of the knife at Zangyue's shoulder and, exerting force, slammed Zangyue's body against the wall. "Do you want me to stab you?"
"Are you targeting me?"
"Of course it's targeting you. Who else could it be targeting? Miss Lu, you won't forget the name 'Shuixi', right?"
"I forgot, I forgot, I completely forgot!" Zang Yue begged for mercy, "I don't know anything, please don't stab me."
"Okay then." Shuixi flicked the knife lightly, stabbing it into the brick. This was a threat to Cang Yue. "I have two conditions, and you must agree to them unconditionally."
"You tell me, you tell me, man, spare my life!"
"First, don't set your sights on Hui Zifeng. Promise?"
"Promise, promise." Zang Yue tried to struggle, "I will never have any ideas about him."
"The second condition is, give me your cat. Do you agree?"
As Shuixi spoke of his second condition, he could hear a hint of guilt in his voice. He knew it was more difficult than the first, and he worried Lu Cangyue wouldn't agree. So, what method should he use to achieve his goal? In a moment of distraction, Lu Cangyue broke free, leaving him wounded in the jaw and abdomen. She was incredibly fast, picking up a stick and attacking with even greater ferocity. Shuixi was unable to evade her, suffering a significant loss.
"So you're just a weakling. So what if you're strong? I still knocked you down!" Lu Cangyue was smug, wanting to crush the villain. He raised his leg several times but couldn't bring himself to kick him down. "I remember now. That night, it was you who got badly beaten by Song Shiwen. But where are your injuries? An ordinary person wouldn't heal so quickly. Who are you?"
Zang Yue knew that everyone here would have something that could prove their identity, so he wanted to look for it on him. However, Shui Xi seemed to be defiled, and immediately jumped up and knelt on the ground begging for mercy, "Please, that cat has been with me for many years. Please give it back to me." He cried with tears and snot, looking pitiful.
At this time, two policemen blocked both ends of the alley, slowly approached, and asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Zang Yue immediately raised her hands in surrender, looking at Shui Xi kneeling on the ground. She was at a loss, not knowing how to explain. Putting her hopes on this person was a complete mistake. How could she expect the person who had just threatened her to explain herself?
Shuixi cried even louder, kneeling down and moving towards the police, telling them what had happened to her. "My cat...my cat was taken away by her. I finally managed to catch her. Uncle police, please help me get my cat back..."
The police looked at the big twenty-year-old boy crying like a little girl, and the teenage girl with her hands raised above her head and a pair of innocent big eyes staring at her. They didn't know what to do for a moment. They could only take the two to the police station for questioning and carefully collected the knife on the wall as evidence.
A recent incident of cat abuse in the city has sparked widespread online outcry. Under pressure, the police have stepped up their efforts and are working tirelessly to find the suspect. Shuixi, a man well versed in the art of survival, possesses a clear identity, a clean record, and is both articulate and a skilled performer. Even Cangyue is unsure whether his story of a cat being abducted is true or not, if the police hadn't asked him to provide a photo of his beloved cat so they could help find it, and he had repeatedly declined and deflected.
"Do you have your ID card?" the police asked Lu Zangyue.
"No." She told the truth.
"What's your name?"
"My last name is Ming Yan."
Shuixi's gaze naturally turned to Lu Zangyue's face, to see how she continued to lie calmly.
"Where do you live?"
"No. 108, Liyuanfang Street."
"It's a mansion." The police officer thought for a moment and confirmed with a colleague, "Isn't this place a restaurant? Give them a call and ask."
As soon as the call came in, Lu Cangyue's lies were exposed. The police slammed the table in front of this stubborn, cold-hearted girl, handcuffed her to a chair in the corner, and said, "We'll let her go when she tells the truth or ask her parents to come."
The knife was later found to be a type commonly used by cat abusers, and cat blood was also found on the knife. Before Shuixi left, he stared at her, his lips slightly raised.
You should know what this evidence represents, right?
It has nothing to do with me.
Shuixi lifted her sleeves, revealing several scratches on her arms that looked like they were made by a cat. Cangyue understood that Shuixi was hinting at her: the knife belonged to Song Shiwen, and Song Shiwen was the kind of person who could do such a bad thing. You don't want his reputation to be ruined, do you?
She slowly remembered. In her grief and despair, she recalled the hostile look he had given her when they first met, the words he had spoken when he had cornered her, the one-sided beating he had received from Song Shiwen, and the fact that he had taken Song Shiwen to the hospital when he had injured himself in front of the temple. It was at that moment that she had taken the knife. And it was this man who had sabotaged the situation when she had deliberately appeared before Hui Zifeng and conspired with Wen Jie to trick Hui Zifeng into accepting the purse. Who was he?
"It was me, I did it." Zang Yue admitted, looking back at Shui Xi who was about to leave, tears welling in her eyes. At this point, she was certain that this man was definitely her enemy, and his goal was He Ren. The scars on his arms were clearly the work of He Ren. He Ren should be able to protect himself. It would probably find its way here too. She kept telling herself, "It's okay, stay calm, it's okay..."
The police probably thought that the girl had some mental problems and insisted that she ask her parents to come forward.
Where could she find someone to impersonate a parent? She didn't even remember Wen Jie's phone number.
As soon as Shuixi left the police station, he sprang into action. He first returned to "Shan You Fu Su," took a long bath, and donned clothes fumigated with mugwort. He then thoroughly cleaned the house inside and out, sprayed it with various odor-removing products, and meticulously decorated the stone lions at the entrance. Finally, he shouldered his backpack, hopped on his bicycle, and scattered incense ash-like objects at every corner of the city. His chosen locations were carefully planned, and all the dots pointed back to Ming Yan's shop.
As evening fell, some creatures came out to forage. Shuixi was betting on it not being able to resist the temptation and falling into the trap she had set. For a long-starved animal, the temptation was too great. To avoid alerting the prey, Shuixi lit a variety of incense sticks in the house to distract the prey, then sat quietly, waiting for its prey to come.
The clock was ticking, and it was almost midnight. Shuixi could no longer sit still. He walked to the door again and again, but then suppressed his inner uneasiness and sat back in his chair.
Will it come? Why hasn't it appeared yet? Has it lost some ability? Or has it seen through the ruse, restrained its desire, and called it quits?
Shuixi smelled something and immediately walked to the door, peeking out. The white cat beside Lu Cangyue was crouching in front of the stone lion to the right of the gate, contemplating the place. What was it thinking about? Was it thinking of the past? Was it thinking of its companions? Was it repenting for its betrayal? Go in! That's definitely the place you've been thinking about day and night. Why not go in? What are you still hesitating about?
The white cat accurately caught the gaze from behind the door, gave him a shrill cry, and turned to flee. A bolt of lightning struck from the sky, striking the white cat directly at her feet. The bright light illuminated the circular talisman array on the ground, and another thunderclap exploded in the air, deafening the ears. The white cat slammed headfirst into an invisible object, and the wind in front of it quickly swirled the dust into the form of a lion, its maw gaping and fangs bared.
Shuixi walked out of the shop and, beneath the red lanterns, watched the frail white cat struggle and scream in the formation until it was dragged into the stone lions. Everything vanished. The sky was clear, the moon and stars sparse, and a gentle breeze rippled the waves.
A cage was placed on the stone lion. Shuixi pulled the red strings from the stone lion, and the white cat slipped out from under the lion, slamming its head against the tightly packed iron cage. A golden bell had grown around its neck, and every time it moved, it jingled. The sound was like thunder in their ears, a sound they hadn't experienced for so long that they were no longer accustomed to it.
"You have become so pampered now." Shuixi opened the cage and watched the white cat stumble out. After walking a few steps, it fell weakly to the ground. He picked it up contentedly, held it in his arms and went home to sleep.
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