Strange Life of a Cat

There was a cat lying in the small yard of a house not far from Zheng Tan. It was an ordinary domestic cat. When Zheng Tan was walking here just now, he heard the domestic cat meowing a few times, which made him a little crazy. It means pride. Perhaps, to it, this place is its territory. When it saw Zheng Tan, it barked provocatively, which proves that it is not timid.

But now, the house cat has huddled in the corner, its eyes widened, looking at the strange cat in the night. Maybe it knew who it was, or maybe it didn't, but there was no doubt that its eyes were full of fear and shrinking, as if it were facing a creature higher up in the food chain pyramid in nature.

This feeling is very strange.

If it weren't for his special situation, Zheng Tan would probably be huddled in a corner like the house cat, silently daring not to bark or even move.

Could that cat have the same origin as Sir Alex?

Because of the Duke's case, Zheng Tan first thought of this situation. After all, there are some bases around here, such as the internship base of Chuhua University, as well as those who always stay in this area to conduct research. Who knows if those people will come up with any weird research.

In the darkness of the night, Zheng Tan couldn't see clearly what color the coat was. The cat just looked at Zheng Tan for a while and then continued to move forward. It was very fast and very light. If it weren't for the vigilance and intuition that Zheng Tan had honed over the past few years, he might not have been able to detect it.

There were only some low, well-established shrubs and grass around the courtyard of the residence that gave off an odor that made Zheng Tan very unhappy. The trees were still some distance away. Although there are only two floors, the height of each floor is higher than the ordinary houses Zheng Tan has seen in Chuhua City. So in terms of height, the two floors here are worth the three floors of those houses in Chuhua City. The building is taller.

Zheng Tan stood aside quietly, watching the cat run over and then jump directly towards the wall. He didn't know where his claws hooked on the wall, or he just climbed up the wall without any help. Zheng Tan just climbed up the wall. I felt a shadow flash on the wall over there, and the cat had already arrived at an open window on the second floor. It wanted to do similar climbing exercises.

The cat stood on the windowsill and looked inside, its ears alertly paying attention to its surroundings, its tail moved, and then it jumped in.

What is it going to do?

Zheng Tan was very curious. What made Zheng Tan even more curious was the origin of this cat. Zheng Tan has seen many cats and other animals in the past three years, and he also knows that there are differences in IQ among animals, even within the same race. But this cat made Zheng Tan feel that it was not just as simple as having a very threatening attack power.

The cat that was huddled in the corner of the yard was no longer there. It probably went into the house to find a sense of security. Zheng Tan originally planned to just take a stroll and go back to the base, but now he was a little hesitant.

People here don't come out much at night, and the area over the base is more lively. But here, it seems really quiet. Only the sound of the programs on the TVs in the residents' homes can make people feel a little bit popular.

Father Jiao said that this place in Mount Bioshan was full of magic. Zheng Tan had never felt the magic in it. As for those rumors and legends, Zheng Tan only listened to them as stories. Now, although he did not feel anything magical, he did Finally I have some different feeling.

Curiosity, this is a habit that every cat cannot kick away. When Zheng Tan inherited the cat's body, perhaps he also inherited this habit.

Zheng Tan was still thinking about this inexplicable strange feeling, but when he came to his senses, he found that he had already walked several steps towards the house.

Sniffing the faint smell in the air, Zheng Tan shook his hair, as if all the goosebumps were shaken off.

Arriving at the courtyard of the house, Zheng Tan slipped in through the gap in the gate, stopped where the cat was climbing on the wall, and sniffed the unfamiliar cat's scent. In addition, there was the smell of medicines from the specimens, the smell of pesticides, and the intricate smell that made Zheng Tan feel uncomfortable.

The wall was not smooth, so Zheng Tan climbed up.

Even though Zheng Tan has always felt good about himself, he has to admit that his ability to climb walls is indeed not as good as that of the cat just now. His speed is not as fast as that cat's, and his agility is not as good as that of that cat.

After finally climbing to the window sill on the second floor, Zheng Tan did not go in immediately, but stayed on the window sill to pay attention to what was going on inside.

It was very quiet, as quiet as if there were no living things inside. If he hadn't seen the cat jump in with his own eyes, and if he hadn't smelled the smell coming from the room, Zheng Tan would have definitely thought that there was nothing alive in it.

Even if there are no living ones, it does not mean that there are no other animals.

The door to the room is closed, and no lighting equipment is turned on inside. If you look at the sky and then the room, you will feel that the sky is actually brighter than the room.

The night wind blew into the room, and the air flow circled around the room and came out again with the complex atmosphere inside.

The window screen beside the window swayed with the airflow, and the dancing white screen added an eerie feeling to this situation.

When the hanging window screen was lifted up by the airflow again, Zheng Tan saw the situation in the room.

There are many animals in the room. But none of them were living creatures, except for the cat Zheng Tan had just seen standing on a table and squatting there quietly.

This is a room where animal specimens are placed. There are many animal specimens in it. Of course, the area is limited after all, and it is impossible to compare with the many species and large animals in the museum. Most of the animal specimens here are small, such as some Birds, squirrels, rabbits, etc.

The animal specimens in the museum were basically donated by zoos, forestry and other departments, such as some rare animals that died of diseases, which Zheng Tan later found out. I heard from Dad Jiao that there are hundreds of animals frozen in the freezer used to store animal carcasses at the Bioshan Natural History Museum, and the museum's taxidermists have to thaw them one by one and make them into specimens.

However, for many private collectors, they prefer specimens made from animals in a healthy state. Some taxidermists do not like those dead animals because some animal carcasses have a slightly higher degree of decay and smell when the fur is peeled off. It's intolerable to them, so they prefer fresh slaughter.

As for the animal specimens in this room, Zheng Tan had an intuition that they were killed in a healthy state.

Perhaps it is because the people who made these specimens are not very professional. Compared with the specimens in the museum, these specimens are much inferior in terms of production and preservation. Now Zheng Tan can still smell the smell of rotting fur. It is estimated that after a while In two years, some of the specimens will be discarded. Probably the owner didn't care about this. If the specimens rotted and were discarded, they could just make new ones. Throwing away the old ones would also make room for the new specimens.

Zheng Tan didn't want to take a closer look at the stuffed animals, and focused his attention on the cat squatting on the table near the back.

Opposite the cat, there is a stuffed cat. The taxidermy cat should not be an ordinary domestic cat, but its size is similar to that of an ordinary cat.

Zheng Tan had experienced exhibitions and naturally recognized several valuable cat breeds, but this one was not the precious breeds in his memory. Could it be a wild cat living in the mountains?

As those students said when they talked about it, in the wild, as long as there is no reproductive isolation, is anything possible? In layman's terms, it is hybridization. For example, for wolfdogs, super cats, etc., in addition to artificial selection and guided breeding, natural selection can always be happening, especially in a place rich in species like the Border Mountains.

Since it can be made into a specimen with great effort, it should be different from a domestic cat, but I don't know how different it is. Zheng Tan stood on the window sill and could not see clearly and could not observe it in detail.

However, it seems that the cat specimen, in terms of size and appearance, should not be related, right?

The cat just sat there quietly. When Zheng Tan rolled over to the window sill, it moved its ears and glanced at the window sill, and then stared at the stuffed cat again. Face to face, eye to eye, the distance between them is about ten centimeters.

Zheng Tan had a very absurd feeling. He felt that the cat didn't seem to be sad, but more like it was meditating, like a thinker.

Zheng Tan knew that his thoughts were ridiculous, but when he thought about it, he probably felt the same way when other people around him looked at him. He felt that it was unacceptable that such a creature that was supposed to be low-energy and low-IQ suddenly became smart.

Zheng Tan, like most people, underestimated the intelligent species on this planet. Perhaps, they may not have the intelligence of humans, but they may not be as low as people think.

The cat just sat there and looked at it for about half an hour, and then left. When he left, he glanced at Zheng Tan and seemed a little surprised by Zheng Tan. After all, the other cats around him shrank away when they saw him.

After the cat left, Zheng Tan ran into the room and stared at the cat specimen, but he still felt a chill running down his spine just looking at the specimen, so he glanced briefly at it. After walking around the room, Zheng Tan We left and went back to base.

In the next two days, Zheng Tan followed the internship team to the wild during the day and went out for a walk at night. Zheng Tan would see the cat here at this time every day. The cat would do the same thing every day. Zheng Tan had no way of knowing it. What are you thinking about?

On this day, at five or six o'clock in the afternoon, the internship team came back one by one. After eating in the cafeteria, Jiao Yuan and Xiao Youzi went to find the students to deal with the crabs they caught in the mountain streams when they came back today. Because they were all put in a bag, when I came back in the afternoon, I found that the crabs in the bag had almost killed each other, and there were still a few empty shells that had been eaten by the same kind.

Zheng Tan didn't go with him. He planned to go out for a walk after the time was up. The cat should also be there on time today, right?

Unexpectedly, before Zheng Tan could lift his foot out of the window, he heard the sound of the fire truck. Zheng Tan heard the direction of the fire truck, and it seemed that it was also the direction he walked every day.

When he arrived at the house, Zheng Tan discovered that the house that was fine yesterday was now on fire. The fire happened to be in the room where the specimens were displayed. When the fire truck arrived, the fire had spread, but it was quickly controlled. .

The surrounding residents, who normally would have been invisible at this time, all came out to discuss the situation.

Zheng Tan glanced around, but didn't find the cat. He took two steps and suddenly looked up in one direction. There was a forest over there with no residents. The branches were too thick and Zheng Tan couldn't see anything. . When Zheng Tan was about to turn around and go back, a pair of bright eyes behind the leaves flashed. Zheng Tan knew that it was due to the light, but he still couldn't help but the hair on his back stood up. He knew that at this moment, staying in the tree The guy on top is looking at me.

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