As the knocking on the door ended, a dull male voice with a hint of dissatisfaction came from behind the door: "Who is it?!"
The door opened, and a slovenly man wearing only a vest and shorts, with a cigarette in his mouth, leaned out. It was Wang Yue.
Seeing that "Mouse" was unharmed, the three of them heaved a sigh of relief. But Lei Ting immediately remembered that although the person was fine, after the door was opened, he had to come up with a reason for knocking. He couldn't just say to the person, "You're being followed by a super-powered cat, and we came to see if you're dead, right?"
"Umm... well... Do you want insurance?" After thinking hard and not being able to come up with a good reason, Lei Ting managed to blurt out this sentence.
"Insurance? Humph! Do I look stupid to you? Everyone living here is a penniless pauper. Who would come here to sell insurance? And there are three of you together? You'd better come up with a suitable reason, or don't blame me for being rude to you!" Wang Yue threw the cigarette that was already at the end of its butt on the ground and stepped on it while saying viciously.
"Actually, we're looking for a cat. It has a black-and-white face, and it looks like the Taiji symbol. It's a calico cat with three colors: black, white, and yellow. It got lost, and we saw through the surveillance that it followed you. I don't mean that you stole the cat. Our cat just followed you on its own initiative. Then, through the owner of the nearby grocery store, we learned that you live here, so we came to ask." Qi Cheng told the truth, speaking very quickly, so that Lei Ting and Liu Wang almost couldn't understand him.
However, this speaking speed didn't seem to be difficult for Wang Yue to understand. He spat at Lei Ting's feet and said, "Cat? What cat? I don't know. What does it have to do with me that your cat followed me? It's your own problem if it got lost. Don't bother me!" As he spoke, Wang Yue also started to close the door. Seeing this, Qi Cheng immediately ran in front of Lei Ting and grabbed the door, saying, "Wait a minute! Mr. Wang! Although you don't know about my cat, please keep my phone number. If you happen to encounter that cat with the Taiji face in the future, please call us immediately! Please! Don't approach that cat on your own initiative!"
As Qi Cheng spoke, he took out a blank booklet and a ballpoint pen from his pants pocket, wrote down his mobile phone number on the spot, tore off that page, and handed it to Wang Yue.
At first, when he saw that they dared to hold the door, Wang Yue was about to get angry. But when he saw Qi Cheng, who was 1.8 meters tall and had a big build, he immediately backed down and politely took the piece of paper with Qi Cheng's mobile phone number on it.
After Wang Yue took the paper, Qi Cheng let go of the door. The former immediately slammed the door shut, and a loud "bang" resounded throughout the residential building.
"Crazy person." Inside the room, Wang Yue crumpled up the paper in his hand and threw it into the trash can while muttering in a low voice, not taking the other person's warning to heart at all.
"Most likely, he won't listen to you." In the elevator, feeling the tremor of the elevator, Lei Ting said.
"I know, but I want to take a chance." Qi Cheng replied, "Although I don't know why 'Soul Devourer' is following him, I believe it won't harm humans. If it wants to catch 'Mouse', there are so many 'Mice' of the right size in the park for it to catch. If it wants to catch a 'Big Mouse', there are so many deserted paths on the way it followed Wang Yue here, and it could have taken action at any time. There's no need to let Wang Yue live until now. So, there must be other reasons that we don't know about for 'Soul Devourer' to be following Wang Yue!"
After saying that, the elevator reached the first floor, and the three of them walked out of the elevator.
Just then, as if by some strange impulse, Lei Ting glanced at the stairwell next to the elevator, and an idea came to his mind. "Liu Wang, go and touch that staircase." Lei Ting said.
"Huh? Touch that staircase? Do you suspect that the Taiji cat will run to the floor where Wang Yue is through the stairs?" Liu Wang guessed Lei Ting's idea.
"Yes." Lei Ting nodded. "If that cat has truly awakened its spiritual intelligence, it might be able to understand the meaning of the numbers on the floor display. Since it can't take the elevator upstairs by itself, it can only take the stairs."
"I think what Lei Ting said makes sense! If we're lucky, maybe 'Soul Devourer' is still in this building!" Qi Cheng agreed with Lei Ting's opinion.
"All right. Anyway, it doesn't matter where we look. We can check here." Liu Wang shrugged, walked into the stairwell, and touched the first step.
When his ability was activated, past images flooded into his mind. After rewinding for a while, Liu Wang slightly raised his eyelids and said with some praise, "Wow, it really went upstairs, and we haven't seen the scene of it coming downstairs. Good job, Lei Ting."
"Haven't seen the scene of it coming downstairs? Doesn't that mean there's a high chance that 'Soul Devourer' is still in this building?" Qi Cheng became excited. Just as he was about to rush upstairs regardless, Lei Ting stopped him.
"Wait! Qi Cheng, even if there's no scene of it coming downstairs, it doesn't prove that the cat must still be here. It's a supernatural cat that has most likely surpassed the 'Heavenly Way' and awakened its spiritual intelligence. It can jump off the building without getting hurt, or it can probably easily jump from this building to the adjacent one. So, calm down."
Lei Ting's words worked. After listening, Qi Cheng began to take deep breaths to force himself to calm down. After he composed himself, he said, "The more anxious we are, the more mistakes we'll make. You're right. I should calm down. It's safer to follow Liu Wang all the way."
"By the way, don't you care that I'm a 'Dog' anymore? Didn't you say that with me around, we definitely wouldn't be able to find the Taiji cat? What do you think now?" Liu Wang suddenly brought up what happened when they first met at noon for some reason.
"Umm..." Qi Cheng said sheepishly while explaining, "The main thing is that I didn't expect your ability to be so useful at that time. You're a great hero who helped us find 'Soul Devourer'! Without you, we might never know when we could find it. Thank you for your help, Mr. Liu Wang. I apologize for what happened at noon."
After saying that, Qi Cheng faced Liu Wang and made a standard forty-five-degree bow, which made the latter very satisfied. Then, he waved his hand and said, "It's just a small misunderstanding. It doesn't matter. I've already forgiven you. Let's go. I have a hunch that we'll find that Taiji cat soon!"
At the same time, on the rooftop of the residential building.
A calico cat with a face that looks like the Taiji symbol squatted on the rusty fence at the edge of the rooftop. Its cat eyes were narrowed, as if it was enjoying the rare cool breeze at dusk in summer.
Suddenly, it opened its eyes and looked back at the dilapidated rooftop door from which it had come. After a moment, it retracted its gaze, leaped forward, and fell freely.
Two breaths later, it landed steadily without making a sound, then walked with a cat-like gait and disappeared under the setting sun.