The cheetah impatiently clamped a cigarette in his mouth, extending his claws to tap the keyboard. “What are you rushing me for? We just connected to the computer.”
Jiang Xiaoyu was afraid of the smoke smell, so he jumped onto the windowsill and pulled open the window. Sweltering hot air came rushing in. Tall phoenix trees by the building swayed in the wind, golden flecks of light flickering between the leaves—very much like the color of Ye Lian’s eyes. He recalled the name Ye Lian had shouted before he escaped, jumped down from the windowsill, and asked, “Master, do you know Shen Qie?”
He hadn’t held out much hope to begin with. Pine City was huge, after all, and the odds of knowing any one person were slim. But the instant he finished speaking, Jin Ge’s brown pupils narrowed into a thin slit. He said, “What do you want with him?”
Jiang Xiaoyu froze for a second. Jin Ge was always so laid-back; it was rare to see him looking this serious. “I saw him at the Ji Family. He seems to have some connection to Ji Wangan’s case.”
“Oh, not surprising.” Jin Ge shifted back to human form and stubbed out his cigarette. “Nothing those spoiled young masters do would surprise me.”
“You’re shapeshifting just like that!” Jiang Xiaoyu covered his eyes with both paws, refusing to look. Borrowing the old butler’s words, he let out a big meow: “You have no manners at all!”
Jin Ge snorted. “Manners? I’ve seen you back when you didn’t even have all your fur grown in. Besides, we’re both guys—what’s the big deal?”
Jiang Xiaoyu disagreed. His fur bristled as he kept his eyes covered. “Put your clothes on!”
“Fine, fine. Such a prude.”
He dressed without any care—police uniform all wrinkled, pants sagging loosely around his waist. Blue stubble sprouted along his jaw, his eyes drooping in a listless expression. If he weren’t an upright people’s police officer, Jiang Xiaoyu might’ve suspected he’d been smoking opium. Well, in a certain sense, this guy’s two packs a day weren’t much different from opium.
“Ridiculous disciple—are you grumbling about me in your head?” Seeing that green-eyed, furry face full of disdain, Jin Ge felt puzzled. It’d been a few days since he’d seen him, and somehow this dead-fish-eyed disciple seemed more spirited.
Little did he know, Jiang Xiaoyu’s current look of disdain was identical to that of the old butler at the Ye Residence.
The master-disciple pair, each despising the other’s lack of vigor, bantered for a bit before Jin Ge fished out another cigarette and stuck it in his mouth. “Nah, can’t crack it.”
“How come?”
“Pear Phone’s a closed-source system.” He shrugged. “Encryption’s too strong—pretty much impossible for unauthorized access.”
Jiang Xiaoyu pawed at the phone. The screensaver was a photo of Teddy grinning wide. “Then what do we do?”
“Wait while I call in some folks from Criminal Investigation. We’ll probably need the phone manufacturer to cooperate—whole process is a pain.”
He’d just mentioned calling in backup when Zhang Pangpang’s super loud shout came from outside: “Officer Lu! What’re you doing here during lunch break?”
The racket startled Lu Wanhui. “Why’re you yelling so loud? I’m just delivering watermelon to my master!”
“What! Officer! Lu! You! Came! To! Deliver! Watermelon!”
“You trying to die? Keep it down!” Lu Wanhui covered his ears as he headed into Jin Ge’s office.
Jin Ge, alerted by Zhang Pangpang, opened the door with a cigarette dangling from his lips. “What?”
Seeing Jin Ge’s disheveled, sleepy-eyed state, Lu Wanhui’s heart skipped a beat. He stood there with the watermelon, unsure whether to set it down or hand it over, his face turning red as he stammered, “I… I brought you a watermelon.” He was so focused on the man in front of him that he didn’t notice the Little Black Cat slipping away along the edge of the door.
—
Jiang Xiaoyu left the Public Security Bureau, unsure where to go. With the phone still locked, he had no idea what was inside, but he definitely needed to keep tailing the Ye Lian situation. That said, Ye Lian’s mother had spotted him… and her attitude had been weird. He didn’t even want to imagine if she’d tell Ye Lian…
So when Ye Lan escorted Ye Lian out the courtyard gate, her gaze landed on that black cat skulking at the entrance. He poked his head in to peek, then hurriedly shrank back when he saw them.
“His sneaky vibes are getting stronger,” the old butler said sternly. Mother and son both smiled, though Ye Lian’s curved lips lingered while Ye Lan quickly suppressed hers.
She said to Ye Lian, “It’s nothing. Just take your little brother out more often and teach him the ropes. The Ji Family will have to rely on him in the future, after all.” With that, she took something from the servant behind her and beckoned to Jiang Xiaoyu. “Little— ” She paused. “Kitty, come here.”
Jiang Xiaoyu’s ears twitched. He sneaked a glance up at Ye Lian, only to find him looking right back, so he quickly ducked his head. He didn’t raise it again until he heard Ye Lian say, “Baby, come here.”
There it was again. Jiang Xiaoyu thought, his ears burning, his paws feeling scorched by the summer ground. He clumsily shuffled forward to stand before the two of them.
Ye Lan smoothed the hem of her qipao into the crook of her knee, then squatted down to fasten the watch-like device around Jiang Xiaoyu’s neck—just like how she’d tied the handkerchief on him earlier. “Here’s a tracker for you. Now you won’t have to worry about getting lost.”
She pinched his front paws and half-pulled him upright, leaning close to whisper in his ear, “Don’t worry, little thief cat. I didn’t tell him.”
As she stood, she smoothed the bun at the back of her head. She was like a green chrysanthemum that had settled to the bottom after enduring years of wind and frost—its sharpness patiently concealed. “Alright, off you go.”
It had to be said: Though mother and son each harbored their own ulterior motives, in a certain sense, their goals aligned—they both wanted to see Jiang Xiaoyu’s next performance.
Little Cat Officer had no idea about these human schemings. He stared blankly at the woman turning away without a backward glance, still not quite back to his senses.
It was hot. The temperature difference between the ground and the air caused refraction and distortion in the light, filling the air with thread-like mists resembling cigarette smoke. Her silhouette was indistinct through the haze, but her spine was ramrod straight.
“Keep staring like that, and Uncle’s gonna get mad.”
Jiang Xiaoyu dazedly looked up.
Light and shadow flickered through the leaves, sprinkling onto Ye Lian. He gazed down at him, his long lashes like butterfly wings draped in light—gentle enough to send a soft, indescribable feeling surging through Jiang Xiaoyu’s heart.
“What do you have to be mad about…” he mumbled with a meow.
Ye Lian bent down and scooped him up, pinching his ears teasingly. “Next time you stare at someone else with such longing, Uncle’s gonna pinch these ears of yours—hard—a hundred times.”
Jiang Xiaoyu’s face heated up. Unable to hold back, he twisted his head and nipped at the hand pinching his ear, glaring fiercely with no real menace: “You wouldn’t dare!”
—
Pine City had entered the plum rain season; the days were perpetually damp. While waiting for Criminal Investigation’s progress on cracking the phone, Jiang Xiaoyu spent the next few days on tenterhooks.
A string was tied tight around his heart, the other end gripped in Ye Lan’s hand. Her behavior was just too suspicious, leaving Jiang Xiaoyu—who’d had almost no contact with women—completely at a loss.
The Cat House was finished, complete with its own air conditioning. Feeling a bit chilly, Jiang Xiaoyu hopped back onto the bed and curled up, listening to the cats and dogs chattering faintly through the watch.
The pendant Ye Lan had put around his neck was actually a communicator—it could make and receive calls. He’d begged Jin Ge to leave a phone at his place so he could talk with the Little Strays.
The half-earless Little Calico Cat sprawled in front of the phone, meowing, “Boss, what’s a ‘coplight’ mean?”
It was such a vague term that Jiang Xiaoyu didn’t get what it was meowing at first. Then Little Milk Cow chimed in: “Yeah, yeah! That scary leopard said your Little Cat Coplight is such a hassle. What’s coplight mean, meow?” They knew ‘little cat’—strangers often yelled it at them while they were strays—but coplight stumped them.
Jiang Xiaoyu corrected it. “It’s not coplight, it’s cop.”
“Coplight!”
“Jinguan!”
“Jingguang!” They meowed and barked back and forth, getting nowhere—like foreigners mangling Chinese.
“Fine, coplight it is, then.” Jiang Xiaoyu lifted a paw to scratch his head; it was a little itchy there.
“But what does coplight mean?”
“Coplight is…” Jiang Xiaoyu paused, lowering his paw. “Someone who maintains public order, prevents and combats crime, protects citizens’ lives and property, and enforces the laws.” Straight from the textbook—the first thing their teacher had told them on day one.
But the cats and dogs didn’t get it and kept asking. Jiang Xiaoyu thought for a second. “Simply put, it’s the people who protect you guys.”
Protect them = coplight, so Boss is Little Cat Coplight! Got it!
Now they understood. The little ones cheered: “Oh, so coplight means Boss!”
Amid their noisy racket, Jiang Xiaoyu’s thoughts suddenly flashed back to that sweltering high school summer. Back then, Jin Ge had said: Don’t you want to protect them? Don’t you want animal cruelty to be a crime? If you do, then become a cop.
Sure, reality was a universe away from the ideal, but that had been his motivation for applying to the Police Academy—he wanted to protect them. He wanted to make hurting animals a crime.
“Boss, Boss! Little Flower and Little White are fighting—they want you to say who’s at fault!” Little Calico Cat, full of second-in-command energy, swatted one with its paw to make them cut it out.
Jiang Xiaoyu chuckled helplessly. “Have them explain what happened, then.”
Little White meowed: “Little Cat Coplight, it called me a deadbeat fat otaku!”
Little Flower meowed: “That’s what humans call you! And you are kinda ugly! Little Cat Coplight, tell us—isn’t Little White the ugliest one here?”
Little White was a pure-white, odd-eyed little thing with weak fighting skills and poor hearing; from a cat’s perspective, its prospects weren’t great. But Jiang Xiaoyu was human—from a human viewpoint, he couldn’t in good conscience call Little White ugly. Plus, these little guys had tiny mouths—how were they spewing body-shaming like that?
Jiang Xiaoyu put on a serious furry-faced expression and slammed his paw on the ground. “No discriminating against your companions! Little White’s good, Little Flower’s bad. Next!”
Judged as a bad cat by Little Cat Cop, Little Flower Cat felt like the sky was falling. It was dragged away by the other cats nearby for some ideological education.
Jiang Xiaoyu listened to the chaotic mess on the other end, grinning with his furry mouth. But he didn’t laugh for long before a ringing bell interrupted him. He looked at the watch face, where an incoming call from Ye Lan was flashing. He nervously swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Why was she calling…
The phone kept ringing. He extended his trembling paw and clumsily pressed the answer button.
“Hello?” Her voice was low and husky from age, yet still pleasant. “Thief cat, I know you’re listening.”
