[WP] Chapter 26: Sun, Cat, and Light

[WP] Chapter 26: Sun, Cat, and Light

"Of course, it's not lost, detective; you can't just suspect others for no reason. But that damn cat."

The man inside the door gritted his teeth and said, as if the cat had eaten all his belongings, his expression was distorted:

"Get rid of that cat quickly; I will never help take care of any orange cats again."

"Okay, where is the cat?"

Shade asked; he didn't like cats very much, but for the generous commission fee, he would not object even if he carried the cat through the streets and alleys.

"On the roof."

The man pointed upwards, his gnashing teeth expression becoming more intense.

"Since the detective came to foster the cat, this cat has not allowed anyone to touch it easily. It has scratched my wife and Miss Cindy at least twice. It doesn't eat cheap cat food and keeps bullying other pets here. I have been running this place for so many years and have never seen such an aggressive six-month-old kitten. At this time, it must be basking in the sun up there! Get rid of it quickly; I can't stand it anymore."

Shade pretended not to hear the man's complaints, stepped back from the door slightly, and then looked up at the three-story building.

"How do you want me to climb to the roof?"

"There is an escalator in the yard of this house that can climb from the first floor to the roof. I won't go there. I don't want to see that cat again!"

Shade certainly didn't want to climb so high. He took safety issues very seriously. Just as he was trying to persuade the middle-aged man with a big nose, the latter directly stuffed a 1-shilling note into his hand:

"Detective Hamilton gave me 1 shilling and 10 pence to take care of it for two months. Now I give you this shilling back; get rid of it! Never let that cat appear in this alley again!"

The voice was almost hysterical, so much so that the children chasing and playing on the street and the woman leaning out of the building opposite to hang clothes all looked over.

It is really hard to imagine how much psychological damage the orange cat has caused him.

Following the middle-aged man through the house, he came to the backyard full of empty pet cages. The middle-aged man was holding the long metal ladder, and Shade carefully climbed to the roof.

The roof was full of all kinds of garbage and debris, and it was unknown how these things were transported up when only ladders could be used. And in the southeast corner of the roof, the only clean ground, Shade saw the cat lying lazily on the metal pipe facing the summer morning sun.

It was indeed a kitten that looked young, with a soft body like a puddle of water lying on the pipe. It was not big and could even be said to be a little thin. The color of its fur shone slightly in the sunlight that penetrated the mist, which was a sign of health.

However, rather than saying that it was an orange cat, it was more like a white cat covered with a warm orange blanket. Only when the cat stood up did Shade realize that the layer of even dazzling orange-yellow was the color of the cat's fur.

The cat stood on a metal pipe discarded on the roof, and one end of the pipe was padded on a broken sofa cushion, making the cat's position slightly higher than other surrounding objects.

It stood up with its back to the morning sun, and its amber eyes looked at Shade, looking at the stranger warily. Shade had no experience dealing with such animals, and because of the words of the middle-aged man with a big nose, he was a little worried that the orange cat would pounce on him.

But this orange cat, named "Mia," like its owner, did not look very fierce. It was observing Shade, and Shade knew that he was being observed, so he tried to be friendly and kept reminding himself of the value of this cat:

"I'll take you to see your owner, Miss Mia San Gold."

He found a place to stay among the waste, squatted down slightly, and clapped his hands with a deliberate smile on his face, and then, as expected, this suspicious look did not get a response from the cat.

"Miss Mia Gold."

Just now it was the most standard "Northern Kingdom Human Common Language," that is, Delarian. This time it was a sentence with some Tobesk local accent, which was a skill Shade learned in the past two days:

"I'll take you to see your owner, Miss Mia Gold."

The orange cat's small ears shook; it raised its right front paw and licked it, and then put it down and continued to look at Shade with a sharp gaze.

Shade pursed his lips, looked around, confirmed that there were no taller buildings nearby, and then extended the index finger of his right hand.

"Look."

The silver light on the index finger lit up, and the orange cat's amber eyes immediately widened. It opened its mouth slightly, stood on the rusty metal pipe, and its whiskers trembled as it stretched its head slightly to look at the light.

"Ms. Mia Gold."

Shade continued, and then slowly approached the orange cat. Slowly extending his left hand, suppressing his worries about "wild animals," he gently picked it up with one hand.

The orange cat is not heavy, at least not now.

The cat still tilted its head to look at Shade's right-hand finger, but after the light of the finger went out, it did not escape from Shade's arms. It leaned against Shade's chest, waving its two small paws with appropriate strength and scratching Shade's glowing fingers just now, seeming to be very interested in the "new toy.".

"Very good."

The detective breathed a sigh of relief and stood up to leave. The young orange cat Mia just squirmed a little but did not struggle too much.

"Not fierce at all, even very well-behaved. It seems that I am also a person who can make other animals feel good about me."

Shade thought happily, and then he saw something lying under the pipe where the orange cat was lying just now. So he held the cat in one hand, bent down, and picked up the thing with his right hand, and then he saw that it was a box of old Rhodes cards.

When using Rhodes cards, you must collect a full set of 54 cards before you can use them. If there are special cards, you can replace them according to the suit and card number, because the patterns on the back of all Rhodes cards are the same.

The box in front of him is not a special Rhodes card. It is similar to the set used by the three men Shade saw in the tavern. The pattern on the card is extremely simple, and you can buy a box for about a few dozen pence.

Seeing that it was not an important thing, he put it in his pocket. Then he held the cat in one hand and climbed back to the yard along the ladder carefully.

"I took an old deck of Rhodes cards from the roof. How much do I need to pay you?"

The old deck looked like garbage, but Shade didn't forget to say it. This old deck is worthless. Shade put it in his pocket just because he wanted to make a complete deck with the [founding silver moon].

The middle-aged man with a big nose almost cried in front of Shade when he saw that Shade wanted to take the cat away. As for the garbage on the roof, he didn't care at all.

Then he left Purple Iris Lane, but Shade didn't walk around with someone else's cat but went straight to Miss God's house. During this period, the orange cat Mia only made a "purring" sound at the beginning and only kept scratching Shade's sleeves and clothes on his chest with her claws, but didn't try to escape from his arms.

Since Miss God is willing to pay such a high price to find her cat, she must not be a poor person. She lives in a quiet residential area in the south of the city, "Sandro Street." Every household here has an independent small garden, and the fence gate is marked with their nameplate.

(End of this chapter)