Zhao Yao kept rattling off things he could help with, but no mission would appear.
As Inspector Ho"s eyebrows moved higher and higher into his hairline, he knew he had to stop before his sanity would end up being questioned.
He pursed his lips and wondered, "Maybe the exclamation marks do not mean that there"s a mission?"
He shook his head with a sigh before giving up. There were other things he needed to talk about.
"Oh, right, my cafe was destroyed by what went down. I need help fixing it," he pointed out.
Inspector Ho shot him a knowing smile, "I knew that was coming. I"ve already called in favors from the best interior designer and construction team in Jiangmen City. They"ll work overtime to build an even nicer cafe than what you had. Do you want to use your new unit to expand it?"
"Yes, of course. I want to open the best cat cafe in the world!" Zhao Yao responded promptly.
He grinned toothily at the inspector, who had no clue that growing the cafe was more than just earning more profits. More money rolling in would be more experience points and that was all that he wanted.
"Did you know that your hairstyle looks perfect today?" Zhao Yao beamed.
The inspector narrowed his eyes at him. He was bald. There was no hairstyle to speak of.
"That is not how being a suck-up works," he stated coolly.
Zhao Yao misunderstood that as a cue to keep trying.
"You, Inspector, are a vision. You are the perfect combination of good looks, talent, cla.s.s, skill, intelligence, drive, invincibility…"
"Okay, okay, enough. Stop that right there," Inspector Ho raised a hand, "The team will let you know when the renovations are complete. Case closed. You can go now."
"My cats?"
"That Baiquan fella already brought them home."
Once Zhao Yao left the office, he whipped out his phone and sent a text to Matcha and gang to verify that they were alright. Then, he hopped into the Panamera and headed to the cafe to grab his belongings.
As he drew closer to the cafe, he spotted a gigantic tent set up right by its entrance. A great number of people were crowded inside. They stood in a haphazard circle around someone or something. There was one man in black stationed at each corner of the tent, guarding the area. They looked like Ah Wei"s men. Each of them had a pair of electronic eyegla.s.ses perched on the bridge of their noses.
Ah Wei was situated in the heart of the crowd. He shouted to everyone, "I"m sure the explosions you witnessed today must have been unsettling. Everyone, come closer, the government will make it up to each and every one of you."
"Come on, don"t be shy! Squeeze a little, people!"
"Now, we"re about to unveil just what the government has in store for you. But first, take a look at this cat!"
"What the h.e.l.l is going on?" Zhao Yao muttered, hurrying towards the crowd, "There are so many witnesses."
As of now, he could hear Ah Wei"s beckoning voice. He could not see him or any cat at all.
The next moment, a portion of the crowd had fallen onto the ground. The rest followed like dominos, collapsing one after another. As soon as a person touched the floor, he or she would instantly fall into a deep sleep.
Zhao Yao stopped in his tracks, his eyes growing as round as marbles. He had no idea what just happened. He watched in stunned silence as a ragdoll cat appeared. It ambled elegantly through the fallen crowd, placing its paw on each person it pa.s.sed.
He quickly looked from the ragdoll to the rest of the tent. There were two more ragdolls here. They boasted glossy coats of fur that shone in the sunlight. These were definitely not your average cats. They were pedigree and very well taken care of.
Zhao Yao"s gaze eventually landed on Ah Wei.
"What the heck is going on here? Men In Black 4? Are those three supercats too?"
"Mr Zhao," Ah Wei greeted tensely.
He was speaking to Zhao Yao in an awkwardly deferential tone, "Yes, these are supercats. They belonged to Sun Meng. This one can put people to sleep by just looking at them. That one over there can erase memories. I have orders to do that to every eyewitness."
Zhao Yao nodded. That would explain why Ah Wei"s men were all wearing electronic gla.s.ses.
"How much can the cat erase? Someone is bound to remember something," he commented.
"Yes, that might be true, but it doesn"t matter. Top management"s strategy to is to erase the memories of as many people as possible. The IT and web department will be squas.h.i.+ng as many of the rumors and stories online as they can. A small minority might escape us, but they will not be enough to create too much of a problem."
Zhao Yao gave another curt nod. "Alright. Make sure to fix my customers too. I don"t want them to remember what happened today."
"Of course."
Ah Wei"s att.i.tude towards Zhao Yao had transformed rather dramatically.
He had faced the fugitives first hand, so he knew that defeating them was a feat. Zhao Yao, however, made it look like a cakewalk. He could not help but feel a deep reverence towards him now.
He shuddered to think that he almost initiated a fight with him.
A little way away, the family of ragdoll cats was having a discussion of their own.
Caesar, the father, who was busy complaining, "How long is this going to take?"
Catherine, the mother, chimed in as well, "What kind of humans must they be to force cats into labor?"
Caesar and Catherine"s daughter, Diana, tried to speak some sense into her parents.
"Mom, Dad, let"s not complain. Remember that we are pure-bred. We must remain elegant and graceful even when we work."
Zhao Yao was the only person who could understand the cats" yowling. He could not help but roll his eyes in response to their conversation.
He gave Ah Wei a quick wave before entering his cafe to pack his belongings. Then, it was finally time to go home.
As soon as he stepped foot into his house, a blur of orange rocketed straight for him, burrowing head first into his chest.
"Zhao Yao!" Matcha cried, "I"m starving! Baiquan did not cook for us!"
The warmth and happiness that seeped into Zhao Yao"s heart immediately froze over. Without hesitation, he tossed the ginger cat off him. He had naively believed that Matcha had been worried for him.
The rest of the supercats dispersed around the living room turned to him as well.
"Hey, boss, are you alright? What did the inspector say?" Baiquan asked.
He was the only one who showed any concern for his well-being.
"Everything"s fine. You know who I am. A small thing like that won"t get in my way," Zhao Yao replied lightly, "In fact, I managed to get them to renovate our cafe and expand it."
"That"s good," Baiquan let out the breath he was holding, grinning, "Boss, you must be hungry. I"ll make dinner."
Zhao Yao nodded, then slumped wordlessly onto the couch. He looked at the cats around him.
Roly Poly had collapsed by the kitchen door, presumably out of hunger. He was not moving.
Rice Cake, Dust Ball, and Mango were chasing each other around the house. They were in high spirits. Mango would evade capture by jumping nimbly on the table and Dust Ball would hide beneath the couch.
The strays were herded into their room, from which the occasional meow could be heard.
Matcha was circling the kitchen, yowling at Baiquan to hurry up with his cooking.
Zhao Yao could feel his body finally begin to relax as he watched the cats playing carefreely.
"You guys don"t have a care in the world, do you?" he mused, wis.h.i.+ng he could say the same for himself.
The day had been eventful. He was relieved that just by agreeing to join the bureau, he could keep his cats and remain on good terms with the authorities. He knew that he could afford to strike such a good bargain because he was powerful. If he wanted to keep the ball in his court, he had to remain that way.
"I don"t know what the world will be like in the future. Whatever it is, I need to grow stronger and keep leveling up. That is the only way to protect myself as well as Matcha and the cats."
While he was deep in thought, Elizabeth had walked up to him quietly.
"That girl, Sun Meng, what happens to her now?" she asked.
"Sun Meng?" he thought about it, "Well, she"s been captured. After a trial, she would probably be sentenced to life in prison. The worst-case scenario would be capital punishment."
He turned to look at Elizabeth, "You know her?"
"She owned the cattery I grew up in. I knew her even before I was awakened."
Zhao Yao raised his eyebrows. He did not expect that Elizabeth knew, much less shared such a close relations.h.i.+p with Sun Meng.
"How about the three ragdolls cats with her? What"s going to happen to them?" Elizabeth continued asking.
"The authorities would never kill powerful supercats," Zhao Yao responded, "Are they your relatives?"
Elizabeth nodded slowly. "It"s very likely that they"re my parents and sister."
"Don"t worry," Zhao Yao tried comforting her, "The government is dying to get their hands on powerful supercats. They would be in no danger. In fact, they"ll probably be pampered at some top secret facility. They might even be fed better food than what you get here."
That did not work. Elizabeth sighed.
"I had run away from home on impulse. I never thought that this would happen," she said.
Zhao Yao looked at her awkwardly. "Well, about that, I was actually intending to play a round of PUBG. You don"t have to tell me what happened if it"s too much for you."
Elizabeth continued talking as if Zhao Yao never spoke at all, "But Sun Meng wanted me to mate with some stupid cat to make babies! I did not even like him! How could I just go through with that?"
Her voice got louder, "He was this dull-witted, unawakened cat! His only redeeming factor was that he was good-looking!"
"Who"s talking about me?" Matcha called from the kitchen.
Zhao Yao yawned as he surrendered himself to the fate of having to listen to Elizabeth"s tale.
The summary of it was that Sun Meng used to run a breeding cattery. She had always hoped to create more outstanding cats with each generation of ragdolls. This did not change when Elizabeth"s family was awakened. Sun Meng wanted to breed more supercats, starting with matching Elizabeth with a handsome male ragdoll.
Elizabeth was adamant about not going along with this plan. This resulted in a ma.s.sive fight between her and Sun Meng, which ended with Elizabeth running away from home. The cat ended up on the streets, where she would cast an illusion so that she could travel further away by random cars. Eventually, she ended up in Jiangmen City.
Her story bored Zhao Yao to death. He had seen this play out in a thousand different TV shows.
However, his eyes widened when he noticed that an exclamation mark had appeared above Elizabeth"s head.