Chapter 51
I didn't expect to see Sui Yusheng here. I was sure that I was not seeing things, that person was Sui Yusheng.
I thought what the people in the orphanage meant by "receiving the goods" was just as Li Ying'an told me, that someone might come tonight to secretly deal with some of the children in the welfare home who were unaware of the situation, and then fake their death from illness. I never expected to meet Sui Yusheng here, and the several kittens in the cage he was carrying.
I lay on the roof, cautiously exposing only the upper half of my face, with the rest of my face safely pressed against the cement.
I heard the people below talking in very low voices. The content of their conversation was extremely simple, and they used code words throughout the whole process. It was impossible to hear the beginning but not the end, and it was impossible to understand what they meant. After a few minutes, they went their separate ways, as if they knew the other party's next move before the transaction.
"If you need anything..." There was the rustling of footsteps, followed by a female voice whispering, "This is the dean's business card. You can contact him. The leader also asked me to tell you something: we're all in the same boat now, living and dying together, and advancing and retreating together."
I didn't hear any sound from Sui Yusheng's end, only the sound of the car door closing and the engine starting. I guess it was his usual behavior to keep a sour face and remain silent, but now I had no intention of complaining about his impolite behavior in this regard, because what the woman said just now made me smell danger. I even classified Sui Yusheng into the group of people that I found unfamiliar and scary.
Sui Yusheng doesn't seem to be the cold but kind-hearted Sui Yusheng I know. He now fits Sui Jiangbao's words more closely.
The fact that overturned my cognition made my body feel a little weak. I didn't want to break the image of Sui Yusheng in my cognition, but Sui Jiangbao was his younger brother after all.
The car gradually drove away and the small door closed gently. I stood up and looked at the woman's graceful figure walking steadily forward under the light. I jumped down the wall nimbly, avoiding the sight of the kitten in the cage who was trembling in panic because of being moved to an unknown place. I followed her footsteps and came to an office on the rooftop of a building with her.
The office door was closed when I approached, but with my hearing ability, I could hear the rhythmic notes clearly even through multiple doors and walls.
"Leader, the things are here." It was the same female voice that answered Sui Yusheng's voice. She probably put the cage on the table.
"Those beggars will be here soon. I still have to report the situation to the dean. You should give this to them later." Although her expression was unclear, her tone was quite serious. "Tell them to take advantage of the recent warm weather. Many parents still take their children out to the snack street. Tell them to be ruthless."
"Yes." The female voice responded to her leader, "I heard from the dean that someone from that side would come to see us tonight. If so, I'll have Xiao Li put the child to sleep quickly to avoid any accidents."
"I'll check this with the dean later. Your current task is to send these cats away. Remember to tell them."
The conversation between the two soon came to an end. I returned the same way before they opened the office door, hid in the grass at the downstairs door and waited for them, trying to continue following them.
I debated for a while whether to follow my leader to the dean's office or go with Xiao Chen to send the cat off. Only when both of them passed by the bushes where I was hiding did I come to a conclusion.
In fact, I didn't think about it. My body instinct drove me to get closer to my companions. Even if I didn't know him, I would get closer to Xiao Chen.
I followed Xiao Chen to the pavilion built near the small door we had just left. I saw her put the cage on the stone table, then briefly escaped from the work at hand and lowered her head to open her mobile phone.
While she was resting and having fun, I quietly moved from behind her to the pile of lush grass next to the stone table, and looked up at the colorful kittens in the cage.
They looked young, only a few months old, and even the blue film on the youngest's eyes hadn't faded yet. Having been transferred, they didn't know what to expect next, and their expressions ranged from curiosity to fear to calmness. It wasn't just that they didn't know what to do next; I had no idea what these hypocrites at the orphanage were planning to do with these cats.
About half an hour later, someone knocked on the small door. I witnessed the whole process as Xiao Chen handed the cat in the cage to the two people outside the door, and whispered to them what she had said to the leader in the office. After the two nodded in agreement, she put the envelope in their hands and closed the door.
I was just about to follow the two people and find out what happened before they went far away when Xiao Chen's cell phone suddenly rang.
Judging from the tone of her voice, I guessed that the other person was her leader, and I also had a rough idea of the content of their conversation. She asked Xiao Chen to tell Xiao Li, the dormitory manager today, to arrange for the children to go to bed as early as possible.
This phone call made me give up the idea of following the two beggars. I decided to follow Xiao Chen to the dormitory to see what was going on.
I have never been to the dormitory in the school, so I don’t know what the layout is like there, but I have wandered around the hotel. The layout here is similar to that of a hotel room, except that it is not brightly lit. This corridor is pitch black, and the darkness becomes darker as you go to the end, as if there is a man-eating monster lurking.
As Xiao Chen entered the dorm manager's office, I slipped upstairs, right out of her sight. A quick glance from outside revealed six floors of the dormitory. There were no elevators or other amenities, so going up and down the stairs was a necessity. The anti-slip strips gleamed in the darkness. Aside from the occasional cough from a child and the chirping of birds outside the window, there was virtually no noise.
It is very quiet here, a place that makes me feel comfortable. My tense mood seems to sink into sleep at this moment.
Soon, the quiet corridor became lively and I heard the sound of footsteps coming towards me.
Such darkness is no different from that of a blind person for human vision, and they absolutely cannot see each other's appearance. But I am a cat, and I am a nocturnal animal. I can easily penetrate this layer of black, and while hiding myself, I can easily capture the other party's figure and even appearance.
A young woman gently opened the door and closed it again. It turned out that this Xiao Li was Li Lan who had just taken office.
She had a leather bag on her wrist, which was bulging with stuff. My fur was hidden in the darkness, so even if she noticed me, she wouldn't be able to find me with her eyesight.
As she continued to open the next door, I tiptoed to the door, determined to see how Xiao Chen wanted Li Lan to coax the children to sleep quickly.
However, there was no gentle whispering or doting. After entering the room, Li Lan only smiled slightly at the children who looked up at her when they heard the sound. Then he took out a piece of incense similar to a candle from his bag, lit it on the table in the middle, covered it with a cover, and finally explained that it was a mosquito coil, and then left.
Li Lan followed the same steps for the next few rooms.
During this period, I followed Li Lan all the time.
Half an hour later, Li Lan's figure disappeared at the stairs on the sixth floor.
As the sound of footsteps faded, I didn't think of following them. Instead, I circled back along the path Li Lan had taken. I descended the stairs on the other side, feeling increasingly dizzy. I could faintly smell a sickening odor mingling with the fresh air, as if it were wafting from every room. It was probably the incense.
I can't imagine how the children could fall asleep peacefully in such a sweet smell. Maybe because I am a cat and my sense of smell is more sensitive than that of humans, the children couldn't notice it.
When I reached the second floor, I stopped and heard a flurry of footsteps and whispers on the other side.
I squatted down at the stairs, used the wall to hide myself, and stuck my head out to check the situation on the opposite side.
As the night deepened, the soft and bleak moonlight shone through the window, stretching the figures into slender shapes.
If I'm not mistaken, one of them is a woman whom I just met today. She is Xiao Chen's leader. She stood next to the man in his fifties, raised her hand to push open a door, and directed the remaining two people to do something inside the house.
In less than a minute, I saw two people carrying out a child who was sleeping soundly from the room. I don’t know what kind of sweet dream the child had that he was not awakened by such a big commotion.
Sleeping so deeply...
Suddenly, I was furious and felt a chill running through my body and spreading out, finally all accumulating in my brain.
I thought of what Li Ying'an told Kiki, and was shocked. I guessed that someone must have put the drug in the incense!
In a hurry, I wanted to follow and check it out, but I didn't expect someone to sneak up on me from behind and attack me. I screamed shrilly at the top of my lungs, my legs unable to move due to the severe injuries, and I was surrounded by an unfamiliar aura.
Amidst the pain, I heard several footsteps approaching me.
"What's here?" The first voice to come out was the female voice. "How come there's a wild cat running in here?"
I was grabbed by the neck, and the pain made me look like a dying cat, with my drooping body curled up unnaturally.
"Put it—" said the man next to the woman.
"Wait a minute!" someone suddenly interrupted him.
Li Lan hurried up the stairs, but was stopped in the middle by the woman leading the group: "Why aren't you staying in the dormitory?"
Li Lan and I exchanged glances. She clearly recognized me. She didn't understand why I was here, and she didn't have time to think. Perhaps she was simply anxiously focused on rescuing me unharmed. "Leaders, this is... this is the stray cat I've been keeping outside. I don't know how he got in. He might just be hungry. It's my negligence!"
After she finished speaking, she was about to reach out to touch me, but was startled by the man she had interrupted who suddenly spoke up: "Xiao Li, there are so many children here, and you secretly raising a cat is a big nuisance. Don't you know that such livestock are full of bacteria that are hard to clean? Besides, you said it was a stray cat, but wouldn't it become accustomed to it if you kept it for a while? The rules of the hospital don't allow cats to be kept. If it gets accustomed to it, it will just stay here."
The man spoke slowly, his words filled with criticism of Li Lan's private cat ownership and his indifference towards returning the kitten. Without waiting for Li Lan to respond, he offered what seemed to be the fairest and most reasonable suggestion: "Xiao Zhang, contact the rescue center and give the cat to them."
"Dean..." Li Lan wanted to argue again, but the leading woman, Xiao Zhang, glanced at her coldly and signaled her to shut up.
The director smiled and said, "Rules are rules. You can be kind, but don't break the rules. You know what the rescue room is like. This cat won't die."
Li Lan watched helplessly as I was put into the cage, and I also watched helplessly as I was carried to the small door by others.
The pain made me howl from time to time. In the dead of night, it was as terrifying as the howling of a cat in heat. Finally, the guard couldn't stand it anymore and called someone. After a while, Xiao Zhang came over with small steps and handed the man a needle. I was forced to take the injection and then fell asleep.
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