Chapter 452: Chapter 419 (Final Chapter)_3 Chapter 452: Chapter 419 (Final Chapter)_3 The turn-right light came on, and the car Zheng Tan was in led the way. As the vehicles moved, there was a fleeting moment when Zheng Tan saw clearly the puzzled expression in the other driver’s eyes, but soon the cars drifted apart.

As the street scenes became familiar, Zheng Tan’s feelings grew more complex, uneasy, yet somewhat joyful.

On the side of the street, a young police officer had just apprehended a thief and handcuffed him, speaking into his walkie-talkie.

A movie trailer played on the giant screen of the commercial square, directed by Kong Han, featuring actors Wei Wen, Xue Ding, Tao Qi…
Two stops before the destination he originally intended, Zheng Tan got off the bus.

Walking along the familiar road from memory, he passed by a lakeside villa community. A three-legged tortoiseshell cat ran across the street carrying a mouse in its mouth, briefly looked at Zheng Tan, and then deftly jumped over the fence into the villa area. Along the lake road, a notably larger deep gray cat with black markings was sharpening its claws on a willow tree.

Without speaking, Zheng Tan continued on his way. Passing by the Affiliated Hospital and a small grocery store, he glanced inside. The store manager, with a pinched face, sat behind the counter, smoking a cigarette and directing an employee to move merchandise, while a white cat with a sharp gaze watched the passing pedestrians from atop a shelf.

Entering from a side gate beside the Chuhua University campus, Zheng Tan followed the perimeter fence inward. Pencil-written crooked lines on an inconspicuous part of the wall near a large tree caught his eye.

“Zheng Heitan was here, December 12, 2009.”

“September 9, 2010.”

“February 28, 2011.” Followed by an abstract sun.

…

Zheng Tan lifted his finger and touched the words, picking up some pencil blackness.

Twirling his fingers, Zheng Tan continued along the path next to him, past small forests, by the Old Tile House, past familiar buildings, familiar lawns, a path he could recognize with his eyes closed and even that courtyard…

The sharp-eyed gatekeeper of the East District courtyard spotted Zheng Tan, a new face, almost instantaneously among the people entering and exiting.

“Hey you, whom are you looking for?” the Gatekeeper Uncle called out from the gatehouse window, pointing at Zheng Tan.

“I’m looking for Professor Jiao who lives in Building B, fifth floor,” Zheng Tan walked over and said.

“Oh, Mr. Jiao’s place, he isn’t home; he should be at the Life Science Institute right now, but they’ve been going crazy the past few days because their cat went missing. Young man, do you have any clues about their cat? He’s a pure black cat, this big, named Heitan, ever seen him?” the Gatekeeper Uncle eagerly asked.

“I’ve seen him before,” Zheng Tan paused, then added, “He’s a handsome cat.”

Hearing Zheng Tan’s response, the hopeful light in the gatekeeper’s eyes dimmed, he didn’t say more, merely waved his hand, indicating that Zheng Tan could go in.

Zheng Tan took a deep breath and stepped inside.

A woman carrying a grocery basket in and out of the building glanced at Zheng Tan a few times, probably guessing his origins in her mind.

By the entrance of the courtyard, under the tree-shaded bench, Old Man Li and Old Yan were chatting, sitting with Xiao Hua and Zhuangzhuang. The two old men only glanced at Zheng Tan and looked away, but Xiao Hua and Zhuangzhuang kept their eyes on him. Zhuangzhuang’s usually fierce little triangular eyes looked unusually docile.

Ruan Ying was leading Sahara out and passed by Zheng Tan, who suddenly found Sahara biting at his foot with lightning speed, a stark contrast to its usual feigned weakness. The bite wasn’t hard enough to injure, but it wasn’t gentle either, leaving several deep teeth marks and a shoe full of saliva on Zheng Tan’s sneaker.

Ruan Ying, surprised by Sahara’s unusual behavior, hurriedly apologized to Zheng Tan, even mentioning compensation, which Zheng Tan declined with a laugh.

As Ruan Ying scolded Sahara while leaving, Sahara turned back to glance at Zheng Tan with a somewhat provocative look, its tail flauntingly swishing about.

Zheng Tan glared back, “Sahara, you wait, I swear I won’t kill you!”

Arriving downstairs at Building B, Zheng Tan’s heartbeat quickened, wondering whether to press the doorbell based on the door number or just call out. At that moment, an old lady with a calico cat walked out to the balcony, saw Zheng Tan, and asked who he was looking for, also inquiring if he’d seen a black cat.

After Zheng Tan answered, the old lady also showed a face of regret, “Their family isn’t home; go to the Life Science Institute to find Mr. Jiao. Youzi should be there too… It’s such a pity about Heitan, the Jiao Family has been distressed, Jiao Yuan even came back and just left last night, Little Gu went to work today with red eyes, what a mess.”

The old lady continued lamenting, but Da Pang kept staring at Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan reached out his hand, and after glancing at the old lady, Da Pang walked over.

“Eh?” the old lady was surprised, “Young man, have you been here before? Da Pang doesn’t get close to strangers.” There was another thing the old lady didn’t say, that Da Pang didn’t even give face to the people he knew. But the old lady didn’t expect Da Pang to act so familiar this time.

Zheng Tan grunted, not sure how to respond, scratched Da Pang’s chin, then got up and said to the old lady, “Then I’ll go find Mr. Jiao, you go ahead with your work.”

Although puzzled, the old lady didn’t ask further. However, after Zheng Tan left, Da Pang followed him too.

In the courtyard, under a tree that was neither dense nor tall, a black and white cat was catching insects in the grass, and a yellow cat was hugging the tree and sharpening its claws on it.

Zheng Tan walked over, picked up Ah Huang who was sharpening his claws, “You numbskull!” He had held onto these words for ten years, but finally got them out.

The sheriff, hearing the noise, also stopped playing with insects and came over.

Zheng Tan sat down on a nearby long wooden bench. Da Pang jumped onto the bench and squatted next to him. Seeing this, Ah Huang and the sheriff also jumped up and sat in a line next to him, just like in the past.

The morning air in summer floated up with the rising sun. There was a breeze, coming in gusts, making the leaves rustle.

People going to work, school, or shopping in the courtyard glanced at the bench as they passed by. They always used to see four cats sitting lined up there, but now the Jiao family’s black cat was missing, yet here were one man and three cats sitting there, really strange how these three cats had become so familiar with the same person?

After sitting on the bench for a while and calming his mind, Zheng Tan patted the three cats, “I’m leaving now, I’ll come back later to play with you.”

He stood up and left the courtyard, walking along the road to the intersection where a school bus passed by, and Zheng Tan quickly waved for it.

The driver was that bald man, wearing a hat for the sake of appearance.

Since it was class time, there weren’t many people on the bus, so the bald driver started talking to Zheng Tan, who sat in the co-pilot seat.

“Young man, are you from our school?” the bald driver asked.

“No, but I used to come here quite often, very familiar with the place, and have ridden your bus several times too,” Zheng Tan answered.

Taking advantage of a moment when someone was getting off, the bald driver looked at Zheng Tan, shook his head, and said confidently, “Impossible, if you came here often and rode my bus, I would definitely remember.”

“Oh, maybe I remembered wrong, probably rode another master’s bus,” Zheng Tan didn’t dwell further on the matter.

The bald driver looked at Zheng Tan sympathetically, “You’re so young and your memory isn’t even as good as mine, you should go home and have your mom make you some fish heads, walnuts, something to boost your brain.”

Zheng Tan: “…heh heh.”

“You better take it seriously, I’m telling you…”

“Master, I need to get off!”

Having been lectured by the bald driver all the way, Zheng Tan couldn’t wait to get off. Looking at the familiar school gate, he walked in.

The gatekeeper uncle sitting inside the gate saw Zheng Tan walking so confidently and thought about it but still didn’t stop this unfamiliar face.

Mr. Jiao’s office, Zheng Tan knew it very well. As he came to the office door, Yi Xin just happened to come out, and inside, the sounds of Little Youzi and Mr. Jiao talking were audible but not loud, and were cut off as Yi Xin closed the door.

Yi Xin looked curiously at the person in front of him, thinking he was an undergraduate from the department, casually asked whom he was looking for, then left.

Zheng Tan stood at the door, knocked.

“Come in,” a voice came from inside.

Zheng Tan turned the doorknob, pushed open the door.

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(End of this text) (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at Qidian (wuxiaworld.site), monthly ticket, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.wuxiaworld.site to read.)