Chapter 449: Chapter 418 Transform into Your Uncle’s Cat! Chapter 449: Chapter 418 Transform into Your Uncle’s Cat! Zheng Tan never expected that after leaving the Pet Center, he would still be able to make waves, although not as sensational as the sheriff had been, but whenever he went out, he would still hear students pointing at him, discussing.

Regarding this, Zheng Tan didn’t really care, and the Jiao Family didn’t go out of their way to do anything. After all, the impact wasn’t that big and it didn’t bring direct trouble–just a few more photos were taken at most.

Nowadays, Zheng Tan would still stroll over to where the school buses parked and continue playing games in cooperation with the bald driver. As a result, the bus Zheng Tan was on was always full in no time. If it weren’t for the fines included in the contracts for overloading, the bald driver would probably overload on every trip.

Sometimes, even when Zheng Tan wasn’t there, the students who usually took the bus had gotten to know the bald driver. Given the choice and if they were not in a rush, they would prefer to take the bald driver’s bus out of those that were parked there. Some more outgoing students would even chat with the driver, asking things like “Did you break the game record?”, “Let’s add each other as friends in the game to compare scores”, or “Did that Black Cat come today?”, and then they would post on social media, “Look, your brother took this bus again today, just a shame I didn’t see that Black Cat.”

The bald driver’s booming business had made the other drivers in the fleet envious, but what could they do? They didn’t have a cat to attract customers like he did.

When Zheng Tan was in a good mood, he would ride around the campus on the bald driver’s school bus. During breaks, the bald driver would also share some of the bread from his bag with Zheng Tan. After munching the bread and drinking some water, the bald driver would continue driving and Zheng Tan would continue enjoying the scenery from the bus.

When Zheng Tan was there, the students would even vacate the seat next to the driver for him. If someone who was not observant tried to take the seat, they would be met with angry stares from the others. Unless Zheng Tan voluntarily got off the front passenger seat, it was rare for anyone to try to take it.

However, Zheng Tan avoided the bus during peak times; that was just asking for discomfort.

Moving around campus by himself compared to riding around on the bus felt different. When Zheng Tan was too lazy to walk, it was nice to just sit on the bus and enjoy the view.

Zheng Tan got off the bus at an intersection. This area was quite remote, and usually not many people got on or off the bus here. However, today there was an old lady with her grandson waiting to hail the bus. There were no seats left on the bus, so Zheng Tan just got off and gave his place to the grandmother and child. Also, Zheng Tan was thinking of taking a turn around the Old Tile House District.

The mobile phone was still hidden there. More buildings in the Old Tile House District had been marked as dangerous, but the school had yet to take major action against them. Rumors said the school was planning to tear down the area and rebuild it, but that was expected to drag on for another year or two, maybe even longer.

Until this area was demolished, Zheng Tan would keep the mobile phone hidden in the old spot.

Liu Ba and Jing Gui had taken on a big job and went on a mission together; there hadn’t been much news from them for two months. Before leaving, Liu Ba replaced Zheng Tan’s phone with a new one. With mobile devices updating so rapidly, Liu Ba got a new device for himself and took the opportunity to replace Zheng Tan’s as well, even prepaying the phone credit and arranging a plan for him. Zheng Tan found it very convenient to use, without worries.

Climbing in through a window and pulling out the mobile phone from the drawer, Zheng Tan began to scroll through social media. He knew that he had been quite popular on social media recently. Each time he checked his phone, he felt smug, and then he would critique the angles of the new photos that the students had taken of him. Picking out a few that had captured him quite well, he would retweet them. Since the account was registered, Zheng Tan had posted quite a lot.

As he browsed social media, Zheng Tan noticed a student promoting end-of-the-world prophecies. Indeed, that year had been rife with doomsday rumors, especially towards the end of the year, with all kinds of claims flying around–some arguing, some joining in the hype, and some even using the opportunity to peddle “end-of-the-world survival kits”.

Zheng Tan paid little attention to the others, but he noticed a user with the ID “Playing with You Muhaha”. Lately, all of his posts were about the end of the world: “How to spend money before the end comes”, “It’s all over if we don’t go crazy now”, “N ways to die if the end truly comes”, and so on.

After browsing a few posts, Zheng Tan couldn’t resist and replied “Idiot” to the newly published one.

The other party’s response was swift, at first debating the likelihood of the end of the world on 2012-12-21. When he saw that Zheng Tan still insisted it was all nonsense, the other party grew impatient, turning the debate into an argument. The user was indeed a firm believer in doomsday theories, but Zheng Tan, who had lived through that time, knew that life just went on as usual after that day.

Because Zheng Tan had retweeted some posts about himself, he had attracted quite a few followers. The user “Playing with You Muhaha” also had a sizable following, and the argument between Zheng Tan and him brought their followers over to watch the show.

And there were those who loved to stir up trouble: “What if nothing happens on the 21st?”

“Playing with You Muhaha” replied, “If it’s all fake, I’ll livestream cutting my ding-dong!”

Even more people joined in the commotion.

If you can con people convincingly enough, you are right. Evidently, before the 21st, the user “Playing with You Muhaha” had indeed convinced quite a few people, judging by his tone, confidently without a hint of hesitation. Of course, there were also people who thought such a promise was as unreliable as the “fake one loses his life” guarantee on Taobao.

After that, “Playing with You Muhaha” posted another individual tweet: “If the 22nd comes as usual and there’s no apocalypse, I’ll curse myself to turn into a cat. If the end of the world does happen, Zheng Tan, you turn into that kind of Black Cat you have on your profile picture. Dare to bet?!”

This tweet, brimming with a provocative tone, galvanized even more of those who had quietly been watching to join the frenzy.

Zheng Tan, who was initially struggling to type with his paws, hadn’t even finished typing a sentence when he saw this tweet and wished he could smash his phone.

Turn into a Cat?

Turn your grandpa into a Cat, dammit!!

Although the internet is full of such jokes, and to others, it might seem like a playful bet, in this day and age, if curses worked, what would we need the police for? But Zheng Tan was really annoyed, feeling as if he had been stabbed countless times.

For Zheng Tan, his end of the world was the day he woke up to find himself turned into a Cat–a day that truly made him feel the world was filled with malice and utterly absurd.

Zheng Tan really wanted to reply, “If the End doesn’t come, let me turn back into a human,” but no one would believe such a claim. Others would ask, if you’re not human now, then what are you?

Even from a great distance, as everyone looked at the small screens of their phones, no one believed in the truth of Zheng Tan’s words. Instead, more people would join in the ruckus, saying Zheng Tan didn’t dare to make the bet.

F*ck!

Typing, deleting, typing again, not satisfied, deleting again, finally Zheng Tan took a deep breath and just turned off his phone.

Forget it, out of sight, out of mind, nothing said could change reality anyway.

Putting the phone into a drawer, Zheng Tan climbed out of the window, looked at the somewhat murky sky outside, and crouched by the flower bed to think hard. He tried to recall if he ever made a similar bet with anyone, where losing would turn him into a cat. His memory was a bit faint, but Zheng Tan still firmly believed he had never made such a bet. The question was, why had he turned into a cat?

This was something that Zheng Tan had been puzzling over for many years.

As Zheng Tan crouched beside the round flower bed deep in thought, an old man came out for a walk with a large dog. It was Old Man Li and Xiao Hua. Xiao Hua should now be called Old Hua; the body that once seemed somewhat heavy, after losing weight from its prime, now appeared even more cumbersome when moving. The pace of the man and dog was not fast, strolling leisurely like two aging old men side by side.

Large dogs tend to show signs of aging more easily than small dogs and don’t have the advantage of a longer life expectancy, so Old Man Li would always get nervous whenever Xiao Hua fell sick, and he ensured timely treatment. When the weather was good, he would take Xiao Hua for walks, as moderate exercise was beneficial for both old fellows. Old Man Li was also careful about feeding Xiao Hua, crafting a special dog food based on her constitution after consulting with the Pet Center, avoiding irregular feeding.

A while back, Old Man Li took Xiao Hua to the Pet Center for a check-up, and the staff there said Xiao Hua could live over 15 years without any problems. Whether the Pet Center staff was saying this to comfort Old Man Li or based on Xiao Hua’s health examination report, Old Man Li had been persistently following the methods suggested by Xiao Guo and others, consistently and diligently. Even though Xiao Hua was not as capable as Niu Zhuangzhuang in catching rats or chasing thieves, this white-haired old man still took care of her like family, a dog more gentle and larger than any other in the courtyard.

Watching the two old guys walk away, Zheng Tan jumped down from the flower bed. The wind picked up, tearing dry yellow leaves still clinging to the branches and dropping them on the cement ground, where they made a rustling noise as they were blown about.

Crushing the fallen leaves crisply underfoot, Zheng Tan walked along the path towards the courtyard. He hadn’t gone far when he turned a corner and saw Sahara lying on the ground, making “ow-ow” sounds like buzzing from its nose.

Ruan Ying stood a few steps in front of it, her face etched with helplessness.

“Walk two more steps. Come on, be good, just two steps,” Ruan Ying coaxed Sahara.

“Ow-ow,” Sahara remained immobile.

“Lazybones!” Ruan Ying, frustrated, started pacing in place.

Just like Old Man Li, Ruan Ying made time to take Sahara for a walk every day. Unlike Xiao Hua, who was cooperative, Sahara seemed born to be rebellious. Now of a certain age, it still always had sly tricks up its sleeve. If you wanted it to do something, it would do the opposite, and what it wasn’t supposed to do, it did with great enthusiasm.

The creature was also lazy, full of energy at home as if it had ADHD, but it turned lazy outside, laying down after walking a distance. Ruan Ying couldn’t bring herself to tug at the leash as she did a few years back, afraid of causing some ailment, even though the health check from the Pet Center came back clear. She still couldn’t bear to do it.

Seeing this, Zheng Tan snorted to himself: Sahara was now just pretending to be weak. It was just yesterday that it chased a little Pekingese across the courtyard for stealing its bone. Today, it was acting decrepit again, apparently certain that Ruan Ying wouldn’t do anything to it.

Sure enough, in the end, Ruan Ying had to pick up Sahara.

“I’ll carry you a bit and then you walk on your own, got it?” Ruan Ying scolded.

“Ow-ow-ow–” Sahara protested even while being carried, as it squirmed around, finding the current hold less comfortable than before.

Ruan Ying, who had been taking care of Sahara for many years, obviously knew every bark and behavior too well.

“Stay still, don’t fidget. You just did your business, I’m not carrying your butt!”

“Ow-ow-ow-ow–”
“Damn it, have I raised an ancestor or what?” Ruan Ying muttered.

Dealing with such a dog and having raised it for so many years, Ruan Ying had come to accept its stubborn temperament. She switched carrying positions, and Sahara finally settled down and stopped barking. Then it looked back at Zheng Tan smugly and wagged its tail in triumph.

Zheng Tan quietly scoffed: What an attitude!

Beep-beep–
At the intersection ahead, Mr. Jiao rode an electric bike, honking the horn as he spotted Zheng Tan’s direction.

Zheng Tan chuckled, hurried over and jumped onto the seat, then as Ruan Ying wasn’t looking, he flipped Sahara the middle finger. (To be continued. If you like this book, please come to Qidian (wuxiaworld.site) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.wuxiaworld.site to read.)