The Stuff in a Cat

Bai Yidao squatted on the ground crying and saying he wanted to call his father, but no one paid him any attention.

Liao Leader sighed and told people to first take him back to the police station. I picked up the 'Wealth Ferry Spirit Cat' and looked it over, putting my ear against it to listen. I tapped it lightly with my fingers and heard that there were some things inside the sculpture, like a corpse.

However, the spirit cat wasn't very big, so the corpse inside definitely wasn't a human one, probably a cat's.

I told this discovery to Huang Xiaotao. She suggested, "Why not open it and take a look?"

"No, this thing is too bizarre, it's better not to touch it," I said. I wrapped it up and handed it to Liao Leader, "Liao Leader, please take this to a hospital and get it X-rayed to see what's inside."

"Alright, I'll get someone to do it right away!" Liao Leader nodded.

We left the hotel. Because there were a lot of people, afraid the elevator would overload, Liao Leader, Wang Yuanchao and Wang Dali took the elevator down first, while Huang Xiaotao and I waited for the next one.

Huang Xiaotao asked, "What should we do next? How can we prove this thing has the ability to kill? We can't test it on a living person, right?"

I shook my head. "No need. Now that this is in our hands, the remnants will surely deliver themselves to us."

"Are you sure?" Huang Xiaotao asked.

"Eighty percent confidence," I replied.

Huang Xiaotao smiled, "Every time I investigate a case with you, it feels like things go smoothly. Is it because you have great intuition, or just good luck?"

"Probably because I'm so handsome," I said.

"Conceited!" Huang Xiaotao scolded playfully.

Just then I heard the sound of crying in the hallway, like a woman's, and it sounded a bit familiar.

I followed the sound and Huang Xiaotao urged, "Hey, the elevator doors opened!"

"You go down first," I said.

Huang Xiaotao still followed me. We returned to the room where we had just arrested Bai Yidao, and found Luo Weiwei standing outside the door crying sadly. Hearing our footsteps, she turned around and asked me, "Did you really take Yidao away?"

I nodded, "Yes!"

"Will he go to jail?" Luo Weiwei asked.

I said, "Given his father's connections, probably not, but he'll likely lose his job."

Luo Weiwei suddenly said, "Can you help him? Please, I know Yidao's personality has problems, but I understand him, he's absolutely not a bad person. I don't want to see him end up like this."

I frowned. "No!"

Luo Weiwei suddenly grabbed my hand and pleaded, "Song Yang, please, I know you have powerful connections, even the bureau chief knows you. As long as you're willing to help Yidao, I'll do anything for you."

After saying this, she even placed my hand on her chest, seeming to imply what she meant by 'anything'.

I immediately pulled my hand back and sternly said, "Please respect yourself! Bai Yidao broke the law, in the eyes of the law police and ordinary people are the same. I can't help you with this favor!"

After saying that, I turned and left. Luo Weiwei cried even more pitifully.

Sighing as I went downstairs, I said, "If I had known earlier..."

Huang Xiaotao had been looking at me with a strange expression. I asked what she was looking at, and she said, "Oh nothing, just now when you rejected Luo Weiwei, you looked very manly!"

Praised by her, my face turned red. "No way."

"Also, didn't you say last night that after the case was solved, you'd treat me to something?" Huang Xiaotao said.

"What about it?" I remembered she had rejected it then, and I had felt disappointed for quite a while.

"Silly!" Huang Xiaotao smiled charmingly, "I reconsidered it. We've been busy to death recently, going out to relax would be nice too. So I'm formally accepting your offer! But you have to think carefully about where you'll take me to eat, because I'm quite picky."

I was immediately delighted. Was this an invitation for a date?

At lunch, the four of us found a Chinese restaurant to eat at. After the meal, we went to the police station. Liao Leader said Bai Yidao had been temporarily detained, and Luo Weiwei had also taken leave due to heartbreak. He asked me what to do next.

I said, "Apply to the procuratorate for an arrest warrant and apprehend the remnants!"

Liao Leader said awkwardly, "Then...on what charges?"

"Destruction of evidence. Right now the evidence is ironclad," I took out the plastic cup I had taken from Yu Jun that morning, "Have the forensics team test this cup. It has Yu Jun's fingerprints on it, and some other evidence should have matching prints."

Liao Leader was overjoyed, "Song Yang, you do things so meticulously. I'll get right on it!"

I called for him to stop, "What about the cat?"

Liao Leader slapped his forehead, "Look at my memory. Just now I went to a nearby hospital to X-ray it, and found there's a dead cat's corpse inside the cat sculpture."

"Where is it now?" I asked.

"In the evidence room." Liao Leader replied.

"Take it out and let me examine it carefully," I said excitedly.

Liao Leader brought us to the evidence room. The 'Wealth Ferry Spirit Cat' was wrapped in a plastic bag, sitting on a shelf. I noticed the size of the cat and recalled the beckoning cat from the previous case. Their sizes were similar; it seemed that beckoning cat was the switched evidence from Yu Jun.

I told Liao Leader to send that beckoning cat for fingerprint analysis, then I took the 'Wealth Ferry Spirit Cat' to an empty conference room.

Huang Xiaotao asked, "You're not going to examine the cat corpse inside, are you?"

"No no, I just want to see if there's anything special about this thing..." I said.

I sent Wang Dali to buy me a few bells, half a catty of eels, a spray bottle, a bottle of baijiu, and some thread, as well as to bring my bag from the hotel room.

Half an hour later, Wang Dali came back, holding a big bag in his left hand and my bag in his right, excitedly saying, "Song Yang, I'm getting quicker and quicker at running errands now, right?"

I praised him, took the things, and started preparing.

From my bag I took out a packet of sliced Chinese medicinal herbs and put them in the spray bottle, then added the baijiu.

Huang Xiaotao asked what they were. I explained, "These are sliced guaiacum wood, I prepared them specially since you can't buy them at the supermarket. They're used to detect bloodstains, because the juice of guaiacum wood changes color when it encounters blood protein."

The slices in the alcohol started bubbling continuously, as the herbal juices blended with the alcohol.

I found a basin and burned some paper in front of the 'Wealth Ferry Spirit Cat', putting my palms together respectfully and saying, "Great Immortal Spirit Cat, sorry to disturb your rest. Please accept this paper money as a token of my sincerity."

Wang Dali said impatiently, "You're making such a big fuss over a cat?"

I said, "It's no ordinary cat, it has spirituality. It can be considered a resentful spirit. In short, it's still that saying - if you respect them, they'll respect you!"

Soon the slices stopped bubbling as the herbal effects dissipated with the alcohol. I unwrapped the plastic bag from the 'Wealth Ferry Spirit Cat' and lightly sprayed a layer over the cat. Gradually, the top of the cat's head turned purple-red.

Looking closely, I noticed a small inconspicuous hole sealed with wax between the cat's ears, likely where Yu Jun had fed it blood.

Huang Xiaotao said, "So much blood, just like you guessed, Yu Jun really was feeding it blood."

I said, "I don't know much about these kinds of things, but I could make an educated guess! When we met earlier I noticed Yu Jun looked a bit worn out. Feeding the cat his essence blood means the owner has to give it part of his own vitality, because human blood is an extremely spiritual medium."

I quickly resealed the plastic bag, sliced open some eels, and smeared the blood over the outside of the bag to feed the spirit cat.

Originally I wanted to use my own blood, but was afraid since it might have an owner recognition property, which could lead to some accident, so eel blood was safer.

Although the spirit cat had become sentient, a cat's nature is to eat savory things, so the smell of eel blood should stimulate it.

Then I put the 'Wealth Ferry Spirit Cat' under the table and hung bells around the table. After waiting silently for a while, Wang Dali said, "Nothing's happening."

"Be patient, wait a little longer!"

Just then, crisp ringing sounds came, and the bells started swaying on their own without any wind...