Chapter 150: You Finally Came
Shi Zijin was momentarily stunned before asking,
“Why are you here? And who is this?”
His gaze fell on the man standing motionless, wearing a cap and a face mask.
The brim was pulled so low that his eyes weren’t even visible—was he trying to hide?
Shi Zijin couldn’t help but feel a little wary.
Su Tao also glanced at the man, confused. “I don’t know him. I don’t have time for this—Black Sesame is missing.”
As she spoke, she quickly stepped inside, scanning the room.
She called out a few times, but there was no response.
Lin Fangzhi and the others also started searching through drawers and cabinets. Eventually, they found an old burlap sack. When they opened it, they discovered a few cat hairs inside.
Su Tao’s eyes instantly turned red.
She rushed out and grabbed Shi Zijin by the arm.
“Where’s Xiong Tai?! He took my cat! The cat you gave me! It hasn’t eaten or drunk anything in two days—it won’t last much longer! I forgive you for the whole cold war thing, okay? Just go find him, find him…”
Nearby, Gu Mingchi, who had been pretending to be just another passerby, suddenly felt annoyed upon hearing that the cat was a gift from Shi Zijin.
Good. Losing it serves them right.
And now, watching Su Tao act so close to Shi Zijin… he turned his head away irritably.
Meanwhile, Shi Zijin had already gathered information from his subordinates. He bent slightly to meet Su Tao’s gaze, his steady voice carrying a calming reassurance.
“Mr. Shen said Xiong Tai was taken away by two women. I’ve already sent people to investigate. We’ll have news very soon.”
Su Tao slowly loosened her grip on Shi Zijin’s hand and, surprisingly, felt somewhat relieved. “Thank you.”
Shi Zijin noticed how exhausted she looked and wanted to reach out and hug her.
But before he could, Gu Mingchi suddenly spoke up, “Ahem, I have a friend who knows something.”
Then, he pushed the “Retrospect” ability user forward.
The ability user had no choice but to stiffly recount the scene he had just traced back:
“Uh… I happened to pass by here that day and saw Xiong Tai handing a sack to a woman named Miss Qu. He said he’d give it to her for just a bottle of white liquor. Miss Qu opened it and saw it was a cat. She liked it a lot and agreed right away. But as soon as she untied it, the cat jumped out, scratched Xiong Tai, and ran off with a crystal core.”
He then pointed in a direction. “It ran that way. Uh, and then…”
Then, he needed to go there to take another look in order to continue tracing back the events.
Gu Mingchi started making things up. “My friend has a bad memory. He needs to see the place again to recall what happened next.”
Su Tao’s expression gradually changed, but she still said, “Thank you. Go ahead.”
Shi Zijin no longer hid his hostility and questioned, “Who are you?”
Gu Mingchi frowned. “None of your business.”
Right after saying that, he keenly noticed Shi Zijin narrow his eyes slightly, an air of danger pressing toward him.
He immediately turned to Su Tao and asked, “You know me, don’t you?”
As expected, the dangerous aura instantly disappeared, and Shi Zijin looked at Su Tao.
If Su Tao still couldn’t guess who he was at this point, then she’d have to be an idiot. She stiffly nodded.
Gu Mingchi had actually been waiting here for her, even tracking down Xiong Tai’s home.
And after meeting her, he didn’t try to “lock her down” but instead helped her find her cat.
Were they that close? Otherwise, why would he help her for no reason?
This wasn’t like the Gu Mingchi she knew.
The Gu Mingchi in her memory had smeared her reputation for personal gain, haggled with her without giving an inch, and wouldn’t lift a finger unless there was something in it for him.
Su Tao couldn’t help but feel suspicious.
Shi Zijin was skeptical. “Didn’t you just say you didn’t know him?”
Su Tao rubbed her bloodshot eyes. “I’ll explain after we find Black Sesame. I’m too exhausted right now.”
She was too tired to talk or explain anything to anyone.
She just wanted to find her cat as soon as possible and finally get a good night’s sleep.
Shi Zijin felt both heartache and guilt. He couldn’t care less about Gu Mingchi anymore—let him do whatever he wanted. With him here, at least there wouldn’t be any danger.
The Retrospect ability user continued following the traces.
“It buried something here. Oh, it buried it twice and even peed on it. Do you want to dig it up?”
Xuedao ran over, sniffed the spot, then barked twice at Su Tao, confirming that it was indeed Black Sesame’s scent.
Su Tao shook her head. “We’ll check it later. Please keep leading the way.”
“Alright. After burying it, it ran off, probably to find food. But it didn’t find any and got kicked twice.”
Su Tao’s heart ached.
Gu Mingchi, walking behind, kicked the ability user.
Read the room, idiot.
The ability user swallowed the part where the cat also fell, scraped its skin, kept licking its wounds, and even got pelted with stones.
“Then it ran all the way over there. That place is…”
He froze. Wasn’t that Brother Yong’s house?
He quickly resumed tracing back, discovering that the cat had actually stolen a jewelry box from Brother Yong’s house before running away. So that’s what it had buried earlier.
This cat was unbelievable…
Considering that Brother Yong had already fallen out with his boss, the ability user wisely skipped that part.
“That place… isn’t important. After that, it ran to the slums, looking for food.”
“We’re here. It went into this house and never came out. It must still be inside.”
Su Tao got excited and quickly stepped forward to knock on the door.
Although calling it a door was generous—it was just a rickety wooden board barely hanging in place.
After only a few knocks, someone came to open it—a thin, frail little girl, about five or six years old.
Seeing so many people outside, along with a big black wolfdog, the little girl was so scared she couldn’t speak. After a moment, she burst into tears. “Mama, Mama!”
Her mother hurried over. Seeing the group, she was also startled and immediately clutched her daughter tightly. She tried to act brave but was clearly fearful as she stammered,
“Who… who are you? If you’re here for water, we don’t have any left. It was all stolen last time.”
Su Tao quickly reassured her, “No, it’s a misunderstanding. We just wanted to ask if you found a fully black cat in the bucket outside your house.”
The woman relaxed slightly. Seeing Su Tao’s young and well-dressed appearance, she guessed she must be a wealthy girl. She then brought out Black Sesame from inside.
“Is this yours? It passed out, probably from heatstroke. I’m sorry, but we have no water left to give it.”
Seeing Black Sesame—filthy, with patches of missing fur—Su Tao finally felt relief.
She hurriedly took the cat, holding it tightly in her arms, overwhelmed by the joy of recovering what she had lost. She kept thanking the mother and daughter and had Fang Zhi bring them food and drinks.
The two were stunned at the sight of an entire bag full of food they had never seen before and a whole pack of over twenty bottles of clean mineral water.
Su Tao didn’t care about anything else at that moment. She crouched down, carefully feeding Black Sesame some water, little by little.
Xuedao excitedly ran circles around her, wagging its tail so hard it could almost take off.
Finally unable to hold back, it gave Black Sesame two big licks with its huge tongue.
Black Sesame, having drunk some water and had its face cleaned, finally woke up.
When it saw Su Tao and smelled her familiar scent, it let out a miserable “meow meow,” as if crying—
“You finally came.”
