Chapter 475: The Cat’s Crying

The cemetery covered more than ten mu of land, surrounded by towering walls with only one entrance open at the southern side.

All the tombs were constructed from cement and marble.

Moreover, offering food here was strictly prohibited. No one cleaned the area, which also caused environmental pollution.

If even rats couldn’t find anything to eat here, what on earth could stray cats survive on?

Could it be that the cats were actually owned by someone who watched over the cemetery?

A sudden thought struck Shui Miao, and he headed toward his car, driving straight toward the main gate.

Yao Kang and Yao Ye thought Shui Miao had fled. They hurriedly chased after the car.

Shui Miao drove out of the cemetery and saw an elderly man of about sixty-five, thin and small, lying on a reclining chair inside a pavilion not far from the entrance, listening to a radio. Beside the chair was a tricycle equipped with an air pump and various tools for repairing bikes. A sign advertising tire repair and bike maintenance leaned against the right pillar of the pavilion. On the left side sat a small stool with a case of purified water placed on it.

Shui Miao and Chen Bing got out of the car.

The old man glanced up, assuming the newcomers were there to buy water, and immediately said, “Five yuan per bottle, no bargaining.”

Shui Miao smiled faintly, approached the old man, and took out a hundred-yuan note. “Grandpa, how about I pay you one hundred yuan to chat a bit and ask you a few questions?”

“Ask questions?”

Seeing the hundred-yuan note, the old man immediately became more animated. He quickly turned off the radio, fetched two small stools for Shui Miao and Chen Bing to sit on, and took the hundred yuan from Shui Miao’s hand. Feeling a bit guilty, he then gave each of them a bottle of purified water that only cost fifty cents per bottle, adding in a serious tone that it was a “free gift.”

Shui Miao grabbed a small stool and sat facing south with his back to the north.

At this moment, Yao Kang and his son came rushing out. Seeing that Shui Miao and the others hadn’t left but were chatting with the old man, Yao Kang quickly improvised: he sent Yao Ye to go buy something while he himself stood at a distance, pretending to make a phone call to workers while secretly keeping an eye on Shui Miao.

Shui Miao cast a glance at Yao Kang and inwardly sneered. He turned to the old man and asked, “Grandpa, you’ve been repairing bikes here for many years, right?”

“Oh me? About six years. Anyway, my children are grown up and have their own families. I had nothing else to do, and the environment here is nice, so I decided to settle down here and enjoy myself,” the old man lit a cigarette and began puffing happily.

He smiled broadly, his stall neatly kept. Though he was a bike repairman, he wore a white short-sleeved shirt and gray mid-length trousers, looking surprisingly clean. It was evident that business was slow. The fact that he could still smile so cheerfully despite having little business showed that he was telling the truth.

Moreover, the old man’s facial features were quite auspicious, with large earlobes indicating a life of comfort and fortune in his later years.

However, his eyebrows were thick and heavy, suggesting a rather straightforward and serious personality. Such a person usually wouldn’t smile easily or flatter others. The fact that he was smiling so brightly today must be due to the hundred-yuan note.

In other words, the old man must have been in a tight financial situation lately.

Observing the old man’s expression, Shui Miao nodded with a faint smile and asked, “Grandpa, I saw a few black cats inside just now. They aren’t yours, are they?”

“Black cats!”

The old man was slightly taken aback, then suddenly seemed to recall something. He slapped his thigh and said, “Oh, you mean Dahei and Xiaohei? They aren’t mine. They belonged to Lao Huang, the caretaker here before. But I heard that something happened at Lao Huang’s house a month ago. He quit his job and left in a hurry, abandoning Dahei and Xiaohei. I even saw him off when he left. He was accompanied by a middle-aged man who didn’t look much like him. I greeted him, but he didn’t even acknowledge me.”

“You initially thought they might be father and son?”

Shui Miao rubbed his nose thoughtfully. It seemed Lao Huang was a major suspect, but the middle-aged man who left with him was also suspicious.

“I did think that at first, but later I noticed that the middle-aged man looked a bit like someone from Xinjiang. That’s what made me wonder. Lao Huang used to brag to me about traveling all over the country, meeting women everywhere, and having many sons. So whether that man was really his son, I can’t be sure.”

The old man took a puff of his cigarette and shook his head. “But it’s really pitiful. Dahei and Xiaohei only recognize Lao Huang. Every time I try to take them home, they just run off. Recently, Laoli, who’s been on duty here, often tells me that Dahei keeps making strange noises, howling like a ghost. He even wants to beat Dahei and Xiaohei to death!”

“Grandpa, I saw a dead black cat. Could it have been killed by someone?” Shui Miao rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Judging from the old man’s words, Laoli probably hadn’t had the chance to kill Xiaohei. There must be another reason behind Xiaohei’s death.

The old man was momentarily stunned. “No wonder Dahei keeps howling—it’s crying!”

“Cats… can cry?”

Shui Miao felt a jolt in his heart.

“Ah, you young people don’t know much about this! Cats are extremely intelligent creatures. Especially at night, they’re like spirits,” the old man said with interest…

It turned out that the old man’s wife had died many years ago, and he had raised many cats.

He knew that cats meow when they’re in heat, when they’re sad, and when they sense something unclean.

Judging from Dahei’s behavior, it was clearly crying out of grief.

But Shui Miao couldn’t figure out why such a clever cat would end up dying inside a tomb.

As he pondered, a sudden thought struck him. He quickly interrupted the old man’s chatter. “Grandpa, do you think Lao Huang really liked small animals?”

“Not at all!”

The old man immediately scoffed. “If he really liked cats, would he have abandoned them? Besides, I never saw him holding or bathing the cats. He just put them in a cardboard box and gave them some leftover food every day. He definitely didn’t truly love them. Hey, young man, why are you so interested in cats anyway?”

Suddenly realizing that this young man had paid a hundred yuan just to chat, the old man suspected there must be a serious reason behind the conversation.

“I like cats. I just felt so sorry for Xiaohei’s death. I want to know who could be so heartless to kill a cat. But I don’t have the means to find out,” Shui Miao sighed deeply, appearing very compassionate.

Upon hearing this, the old man couldn’t help but excitedly pat Shui Miao’s arm. “Young man, you’re a good soul. With such kindness, you’ll surely become rich and prosperous with many descendants in the future. Today, you’ve come to the right person. After hearing what you’ve said, I suspect that Xiaohei was killed by Lao Huang.”

“Why? Why would you think that?”

The old man furrowed his brow. “A few days before Lao Huang left, we had a chat. He specifically brought up the topic of cats having nine lives and how much bad karma one accumulates by killing a cat. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I find it suspicious.”

“If someone raises a cat and then kills it, yet worries about bad karma, he probably isn’t that ruthless. Could it be that Lao Huang was…?” Shui Miao’s mind raced. He quickly deduced that Lao Huang must have been acting under someone else’s orders. The real enemy of the Yao family was likely the middle-aged man who had left with Lao Huang.

“It definitely wasn’t for cat meat. Maybe he just couldn’t take them with him, so he killed them,” the old man shook his head. “I don’t know much, so I can’t guess accurately, but I have a way to verify whether Lao Huang really killed Xiaohei.”

“How?”

Shui Miao looked at the old man in surprise, not expecting him to have such a method.

The old man chuckled with a hint of pride and began explaining.

Indeed, the old man had a special fondness for cats. He had once studied them and learned that cats can hold deep grudges.

He told a story about a mother and daughter.

Across from the old man’s building lived a family. The daughter loved cats very much. Whenever she had time, she would play with and groom her cat. But her mother strongly disliked cats and often scolded them. The two frequently argued about the cat, but eventually, the mother gave in to her daughter’s persistence.

Later, the cat gave birth to three kittens. Under the daughter’s careful care, the kittens grew quickly, becoming lively and adorable. However, the mother became even more furious. Unable to do anything, the daughter moved the cats to the balcony. That’s why the old man often saw those beautiful cats. Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long. When the daughter went off to school, she left the cats at home and begged her mother to take good care of them. The mother readily agreed. But as soon as the daughter left, the mother took a stick and chased and beat the cats all over the house, killing all three. One cat fell from the balcony, sustaining serious injuries. The old man rescued it and nursed it back to health. After it recovered, he noticed that the cat often ran downstairs and howled toward its former home, its cries sounding exactly like a child crying.

Then something terrifying happened.

The mother started having nightmares every night, seeing many cats kneeling and crying in front of her. Soon, she became mentally unstable, trembling in fear whenever she saw a cat. One day, she suddenly went mad, crawling around the house like a cat, even climbing onto the balcony… and then fell off!

The old man, whose balcony faced hers, witnessed the entire scene with his own eyes. That’s when he realized that a cat’s cry could not only be eerie but also potentially deadly if heard too often.

Since then, the old man had become even more affectionate toward his cats.

Even now, he still kept many cats at home.

The method the old man suggested for Shui Miao was to take an item of clothing that belonged to Lao Huang and present it to Dahei. If Lao Huang had indeed killed Xiaohei, Dahei would become extremely angry and tear the clothes apart, venting his hatred. This would not only help identify the killer but also help Dahei release his resentment—killing two birds with one stone.

However, what intrigued Shui Miao more was how exactly the cat had driven the mother insane.

Clearly, Shui Miao didn’t believe that the mother’s recurring nightmares were just ordinary dreams.

Holding Lao Huang’s piece of clothing, Shui Miao went to find Dahei.

As soon as Dahei caught the scent from the clothes, his teeth bared, he hissed, and every hair on his body stood straight up!