Drip, drop, drip, drop. A dripping sound reverberated in the pitch-black room.
Bounded by a rope at her feet and her mouth stuffed, a middle-aged woman hung upside down on the wall.
Her neck sliced with a thumb-long cut, streaks of crimson-red blood oozed out of her fresh wound which then converged at the back of her head, leaving behind a gory pool of blood.
The woman"s eyes were filled with terror. She struggled and struggled but to no avail, unable to escape from the tightly bounded rope.
In front of her, a middle-aged man gently placed his finger on her lips, signaling her to keep quiet as she vigorously shook her head in fear.
"Don"t you move darling, the more you struggle, the more blood you will lose, and the faster you"ll die."
At this moment, the woman"s eyes filled up with tears which streamed down her face like a waterfall. She looked at the man with a pitiful and frightened look in her eyes.
"Don"t beg me. Did you show mercy to the cats you abused? Did not plead you the same way you did to me?" The man led out a wicked laughter, licked his lips and whispered into her ears, "When a prey meets a predator, the prey doesn"t even have the right to plead."
Having said that, the man sat right in front of the woman; his eyes fixed on the fresh dripping blood. He saw as the terror in the woman"s eyes turned into hatred and eventually despair.
The man"s eyes lit, and his lips curved in malicious pleasure.
"You love to abuse cats, while I simply love to abuse people like you. If you live through this, perhaps we could even be good friends."
At this moment, the doorbell rang. The man calmly turned his head around and over at the front door was another middle-aged man -- a man that shared a similar physical appearance as him.
As the man at the door stared at the pool of blood below his wife"s hanging body, blood drained from his face, and he stood motionless in horror.
Before he could even let out a cry, he felt a stabbing pain in his chest as a wave of fear rushed through him. The man choked the husband by the neck and pinned him against the wall.
"Exsanguination... Amputation... Fire... Poison... Electrocution..."
"If you were to die, which would you love most?"
Back in the pet hospital, after several hours of hard work, the 18 cats, Elizabeth and Matcha had all been thoroughly screened.
Doctor Liu rea.s.sured Zhao Yao, " The stray cats seem to be in good shape, with the exception of a few bugs and minor malnutrition, and there seems to be not much a problem. We will proceed with the vaccination now, and we should be good by then. This cat, in particular, is very healthy, it"s skin firm as ever and very well nourished. As for this ragdoll..."
Zhao Yao eyes widened and urged, " What"s the matter with her? "
Elizabeth was the key to completing the mission, and if anything were to happen to Elizabeth now, they would not be able to gain experience for half a year. This made Zhao Yao extremely worried.
Elizabeth turned her head towards the doctor. It was obvious that even though she always claimed that she was fine, she was actually still very concerned about her own health.
Doctor Liu replied, "This ragdoll... She ate too much."
"?" Zhao Yao gave a confused look.
Doctor Liu shook her head as she continued, "Ragdoll"s do not have a good digestive system. This ragdoll"s stomach was packed with raw meat and bones and has expanded more than three times its original size. Having eaten so much, it is without a doubt that she would get indigestion; vomiting is completely natural."
"V..V...Vomiting?" Zhao Yao stuttered, "You mean..."
"It isn"t blood that she is vomiting. They are undigested meat." Doctor Liu frowned and nagged, "I understand that you cat lovers really love your cats, but you can never feed them too much. Domestic cats usually lack self-control and will eat more than they actually need. What makes it worse is that ragdolls already have a weak digestive system which makes it even easier to develop indigestion."
Zhao Yao nodded profusely and asked, "So are you saying that she will be okay? And that it"s just normal indigestion? No big deal right?"
"Yeah." Doctor Liu gently nodded. "Rest a.s.sured; they are really just meat and bones that she is vomiting. I will give her some medication to aid her digestion. Just feed her less in the future, and it should be fine."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yao scowled at Elizabeth.
"This fellow here... Must have been too greedy..."
Elizabeth turned her head around, refusing to make eye contact with Zhao Yao.
Elizabeth mumbled, "I told you that I"d be fine."
As they conversed, they spoke in their minds, and no one else could hear their conversation.
It was already 10 in the morning. All 18 stray cats had finally been transported to Zhao Yao"s house. He placed 15 adult cats in a room and three kittens separately in another room.
Fortunately, Zhao Yao still had cat food and the litter box from raising Matcha in the past. He took them out to cope with the inflow of cats as a temporary solution.
During this whole process, Matcha had been scurrying around the house, preventing the stray cats from exploring the house.
"Psst, go away, the toilet is out of bounds." "Psst, that"s my bed over there, you are not allowed to sleep there." "Hey, you! I"m talking to you black guy. Don"t you dare touch my cat food."
As Matcha continued to grumble, Zhao Yao shrugged his shoulders and asked, "Is it that hard to communicate with them? Have you forgotten how to talk in cat language?"
Matcha snapped and shouted, "Hey, there is no logical way to speak in cat language you know? Unlike humans, cat language is not as complex and is only used to express affection and emotions." Matcha continued yelling. "None of these stupid cats have yet to awaken their power, and they completely do not understand complex language. Tell me, what can I do? Just imagine 18 mentally challenged and r*tarded people coming to your house, how would you feel?"
Zhao Yao nodded sympathetically and turned to ask Elizabeth, "How is it? Do you have any other requests?"
Elizabeth scrutinized the environment carefully but nodded in satisfaction, " I guess it"s fine. I do have another request..."
Zhao Yao looked intently into Elizabeth"s sapphire blue eyes as they sparkled with compa.s.sion.
"I hope you can help me to find the old granny who raised me up back then. I wish to see her again."
Zhao Yao heaved a sigh of relief and replied with a smile, "That"s simple, do you remember the villa you once came from?"
Elizabeth acknowledged, "Yes I do."
Zhao Yao brought Elizabeth back to the villa and followed Elizabeth"s memory to the place where they were picked up by the old granny. During the process, it seemed like Elizabeth had no intention of turning hostile and Zhao Yao decided to loosen the rope on Elizabeth.
They asked many people along the way and searched miles and miles of roads from noon to 8 in the night. Finally, they managed to get hold of an address from an old man and arrived at the house.
"Finally, we found it." Zhao Yao sighed as he looked at the huge metal door in front of them. He managed to find the place before the deadline.
However, at this moment, Elizabeth"s eyes dilated with horror and lunged herself straight towards the front door.
"I smell blood." She shuddered.
Elizabeth who was right on Zhao Yao"s back a second ago was gone in a blink of an eye. Like a bullet, she had already leaped through a tiny opening in the window grill into the house.