Qu saw the cockroaches too, of course. An image of a black cat springing into the air and catching the cockroach with great ease formed in his mind. The reality, however, couldn’t be more different. The said black cat merely glanced at the little pests before hopping onto a relatively clean chair to take a nap. He didn’t even notice the ribs and sweet and sour pork on the table nearby.
Qu felt like he swallowed a fly. He looked at the food on the table and the cat resting on the chair, took a deep breath and decided to let it be. He turned off the living room lights and went into his bedroom.
He sat down in front of his computer and opened the thread he started on a internet forum a few days ago. He found a certain comment and clicked reply. “Nonsense. The rat in my house doesn’t eat cockroaches. Neither does the cat.”
Qu went on the forum for help when his mousetraps failed. It was because of it that he knew to buy a mousetrap in the first place. Someone even commented in his thread that the reason behind the increased intelligence of rats was due to the fact that they had survived SARS. Any weaklings would have been killed by humans as an aftermath of SARS. It was Darwinism at its finest. It was survival of the fittest.
When mouse traps turned out to be a disappointment, the most common suggestion he got was to find a cat. Hence, he went and borrowed Charcoal.
Among those who supported finding a mouse, one person boasted that his pet cat not only caught mice, it was a predator for cockroaches as well.
"Well, if your cat doesn’t even budge at the sight of a cockroach, it won’t catch a mouse either. Even if it wanted to, it wouldn’t know how," The guy replied.
"Let’s see about that!" Qu typed at if he wasn’t pressing on keys on the keyboard but rather poking the person arguing with him.
Zheng Tan opened his eyes in the other room. He flexed his paws and looked at the sharp nails that peeked out.
He was not nervous at the task he was about to face. Instead, he was excited. It was impossible to explain.
Killing mice yesterday did not make him nauseous like he thought it would. Instead, he felt bloodthirsty. It was an unusual feeling that he did not get often. Maybe he just didn’t notice it normally. Yesterday was only a trigger that brought out the animal instincts in him.
Even the cutest, cuddliest and calmest cats were predators after all. They hunted even when they were full. It was their instinct.
It was like what the documentary Jiao Yuan watched recently said: “Inside every kitty, lying lazily by the fire, is a tiger ready to pounce.”
He took a long breath and relaxed his paws. He closed his eyes but perked up his ears and listened. He listened carefully to the light rustles that once in a while disturbed the peace of the room. That was not the sound a mouse would make. So Zheng Tan remained still and waited.
Time passed slowly, the night was growing late. Zheng Tan did not hear or smell the rat, but he could sense its presence in the room. He knew it recently came out, so he was patient. He quietly waited some more in the dark and messy living room.
The light from the bedroom allowed him to see the living room clearly.
He knew most of the people living in the Eastern Quarters were asleep. The Jiao family was past bedtime as well. It was quiet all around. The only sound was the clicking of keyboards and swears coming from Qu’s bedroom.
What was that?
Zheng Tan’s ears twitched. His eyes shot open, pupils enlarged in the dark. He silently hopped off the chair and crouched low. He moved fast, using the dark as a cover. Soon he was beside the stack of magazines. He learned these moves from Sheriff.
Qu took off his headphones after finishing a game. He turned his stiff neck just in time to see Zheng Tan slide off the chair.
Could it be?
Qu got up hurriedly and took out a digital camera from his desk drawer. He paused, then put it back. He found a video camera instead. Turning it on, Qu inched outside on tip toes. His phone rang at that very moment, making him jump. He hastily took it out and whispered something.
Zheng Tan was waiting in the dark. The rat came from the study. It didn’t head off into the kitchen. Apparently, it had grown familiar to the house and its inhabitant. Qu never cooked. He got take-out or ate at the cafeteria. Anything to eat would either be in his bedroom or in the living room.
The mouse was crawling at the foot of the wall towards this way. It stopped and looked around for danger every few steps.
This mouse was no larger than the rats Zheng Tan killed last night. However, it was far more alert.
When it reached the bedroom door, the mouse noticed the person on the phone inside. In a split of a second, Zheng Tan pounced.
Like an arrow leaving the bow, he shot directly at his prey.
The mouse only noticed that there was a lurking hunter the moment Zheng Tan leapt.
The study was too far. It would be caught before it got there. The mouse darted towards the bedroom.
Qu’s room was not much of an improvement compared to the living room. It was messy and provided too many hiding spots for pests. If the mouse got in, Zheng Tan wasn’t sure he could still catch.
But it wasn’t going to get in.
A black paw, nail sharp and extended, stepped and pinned down the tail. The other furry paw was already on the mouse’s neck before it could react.
Snap.
The sound was so soft it was barely noticeable.
The mouse lay limp on the ground. It didn’t even let out a squeak.
Qu was at the door when he saw a shadow flash by. He looked down, there it was, the black cat. Under its paw was a motionless rat.
"Oh... ... F*ck!"
Qu almost dropped the video camera and the phone he had in his hand.
He looked at the cat, then back to the mouse, then to the video camera he didn’t get a chance to use.
"F*ck!” He cursed again.
That’s it?
Wasn’t the cat supposed to do a big chase around the house, toy with the mouse a bit after it caught it, then end its misery when the cat finally felt like it?
Hell, he didn’t even finish his phone conversation and the cat was done?
What was that clean and crisp kill?
This…this was ... absolutely fantasuperaculous!
He was going to tell the guy who told him cats that don’t catch cockroaches can’t catch rats to shut it.
"Hey, Cricket. What’s going on? Why did you go quiet?" The guy at the other end of the phone was confused.
"Oh, to hell with you. I’m busy." Qu hung up and turned on the living room lights.
He took a pair of used disposable chopsticks and poked the rat.
It didn’t move.
So it was really dead, huh?
Chopsticks were not enough. Qu found a set of tongs he never used before in the kitchen. He picked up the rat with the tongs and dangled it a bit to see if it was really dead. Then he took pictures from all angles before dashing back to his computer. He was too triumphant to game anymore. He couldn’t wait to upload the pictures on to the forum. His vivid descriptions of the events that had just transpired were met with wide disbelief.
An experienced cat owner replied with some pictures of his own. The rats in his pictures were covered with bite marks. Some were missing body parts; some didn’t even resemble a rat anymore.
Qu looked at the cat stretching lazily in the living room. It didn’t show the remotest interest in the prey it just caught. He went back to argue some more online, before his phone rang again.
Zheng Tan inspected the rest of the house. There didn’t seem to be another rat. His work here was done.
When he was ready to jump back onto the chair to go back to sleep, he heard a faint sound. Someone was singing downstairs.
Zheng Tan was annoyed. He went on the balcony to listen at bit closer, whilst ignoring the sounds of the keyboard in Qu’s room.
"Last night, ~ the stars last night, ~ has fallen ~ down, ~ ~ disappeared~ in the distant Galaxy. ~~~"
Zheng Tan: "... ..."
The unique tone that was unmistakable even when hushed; the quivering voice that was an attempt to show emotion; the song that was older than Zheng Tan.
What the hell! The bitchy bird downstairs had decided to stay awake to sing nostalgic old songs again.