Exiting the district, Zheng Tan prepared to hitch a ride.
When he decided to come to this city, Zheng Tan had thought it over.
Zheng Tan rarely rode on the bus, when he was too young to drive he would hail a taxi every time he went out and not squash in the bus with other people. It was because of this Zheng Tan left the impression of a rich dandy, of course, the title of "rich dandy" also had a "pig in a poke" following it.
Following the footpath, Zheng Tan arrived at a bus stop.
Some young girls who were waiting for the bus saw Zheng Tan, they even squatted down and played with him. People around them just smiled and didn't comment too much.
That was the advantage of wearing a cat tag. To many people, wearing a cat tag and having clean fur meant that the cat before them had been vaccinated and was a well raised domesticated cat instead of a stray that possibly carried some virus. That's why even if they didn't like cats they wouldn't give it the cold shoulder. If it had been an ordinary cat and didn't wear a cat tag, no matter how friendly it appears to be, people will reject it.
Zheng Tan didn't immediately pull a long face at these young girls and leave, he cooperatively walked up and rubbed against them. He was happy to be touched by girls, if they took out some dangles on their keychain, Zheng Tan would even pretend to be interested and play with them a few times to earn a favorable impression.
While he was pretending, Zheng Tan also took note of the bus routes and stops at the bus stop. He wasn't familiar with many of the stops but some iconic monuments and locations he knew very well.
It wasn't convenient for him to act during the day, so he could only wait until night time to hitch a ride.
After getting an approximate idea of the routes, Zheng Tan found a place to hang out, waiting for nightfall.
It's not possible to hitch a ride on that kind of ute every time, and not every ute and truck traveled the same route that Zheng Tan planned out, that's why Zheng Tan decided to hitch a ride on the bus.
Double-deckers and trams are out of the question, to prevent any accidents, Zheng Tan chose the most common single deck bus.
The sky finally darkened, Zheng Tan's chest felt stuffy just from looking at those crowded buses, luckily he didn't need to push into them.
He waited until the bus that heads to the route he wanted drove into the stop, before the door opened, Zheng Tan accelerated and sprinted over there, then jumped onto the top of the bus. It was quite noisy inside the bus, no one heard that noise from the roof.
"What happened just then?!" A passenger near the window saw a black shadow flash across the corner of his eyes.
"What do you mean what happened?"
"Nothing, I am probably seeing things. I'm going to take a snooze, wake me up when we arrive at the stop." That person leaned against the window when he finished and began to doze off.
Zheng Tan who had jumped onto the roof was quite surprised, initially he thought he would step on a window or something else as a jumping platform when he leaped. He didn't anticipate that when he dashed towards the train he would suddenly get a strong sense of confidence to be able to leap on without any help, and then he was already on the top of the bus.
He moved his feet and didn't feel any discomfort.
Hiss--
The passengers finished boarding and getting off, the bus door closed and began to drive.
Zheng Tan quickly ran over and hooked onto the bulge on the sunroof of the bus. The top of the bus was quite smooth, when the bus picked up in speed, any sudden turns or stops Zheng Tan would probably be swung out, that's why he needed to tightly hook onto fixed object to secure himself.
Probably no one would have guessed that on top of this ordinary bus lay a cat.
Zheng T
an couldn't identify where the bus was at, he had to pay attention to the announcements on the bus every time they arrived at a stop.
Zheng Tan only wanted to ride a section of this bus's route, so when he reached a certain station, Zheng Tan needed to get off and hitch rides on buses traveling different routes.
Some buses ceased work after sometime around nine in the night while some operated throughout the night. Every time he changed buses, Zheng Tan needed to see when the bus that he was about to ride stop operating. Preferably he would chose those that operate the entire night, that way he didn't need to worry about the bus not coming.
Riding on buses was extremely troublesome, but to reach the destination, Zheng Tan had to endure this trouble again and again. After these changes, Zheng Tan was getting closer and closer to the destination at heart.
While he was waiting at one of the stops in the middle of his route, Zheng Tan suddenly heard someone calling him.
"Hey, Zheng Tan, wait up!"
It was a child's voice, Zheng Tan couldn't recall who it was.
Zheng Tan looked towards the direction where the voice came from, but he only saw the backs of a few children boarding a taxi. The light beams cross in the darkness of the night, he couldn't get a clear view.
There were video arcades around this stop, Zheng Tan remembered coming here when he was younger. When his interests arose, he would skip classes and come here, sometimes he would spend an entire day playing. Although some places forbade people who were under eighteen from enter, but that was only on the surface, as long as you were willing to spend some money there will naturally be places for you to play around.
The taxi drove off into the distance, traveling in the same direction as Zheng Tan's plan. However, Zheng Tan wasn't able to see the passengers' face in the car, he could barely make out that they were a few children.
Zheng Tan suddenly became a little anxious, when the bus suddenly started up Zheng Tan almost lost his grip and fell off.
When he got off at the stop, Zheng Tan squatted not too far from the platform and looked to the route guides on the stop sign. This was the last change he needed to make, when this route's bus arrives after seven or eight stops he would be close to the destination. The name of the last stop on that route was the name of the district that Zheng Tan had lived in, very easy to identify.
Just as he was deep in his thoughts, Zheng Tan suddenly became alarmed and leapt to the side. On the place where he was just squatting, a rubber bullet hit, then bounced off and disappeared.
After experiencing the kidnap, Zheng Tan had became much more aware of his surrounding, his senses on nearby danger also sharpened, that's why he could rapidly avoid the oncoming rubber bullet.
Zheng Tan had played with this type of rubber bullet before, all kids liked this toy, even Jiao Yuan had one.
He turned his head and looked over. Zheng Tan saw some young men sitting on the railing, they look drunk, probably saw a cat on the street side and shot at it with the toy gun on a whim.
They liked to play shooter games, they had played games like rubber bullets, outdoor paintball and others. They had just won the toy gun in their hands when they were playing shooting games in the club. Although they turned their nose up at these children's toys, they occasionally killed time with it. Even after drinking alcohol, they were still quite confident in their shooting skills. Originally they expected to hear the cries of the cat, they didn't think that the cat would able to dodge it.
So they got their spirits up , stood up and headed towards Zheng Tan.
Sh*t!
Zheng Tan silently cursed in his heart, so freaking unlucky!
The young men held their toy gun, chased after Zheng Tan while yelling at him like maniacs. One after another, the soft rubber bullets shot out.
Zheng Tan didn't want to ran too far, he wanted to wait for the last bus, but the maniacs behind him were following him closely. Zheng Tan looked for good places to hide around him as he ran.
Around the corner a van was parked with the door of the trunk left open. Zheng Tan immediately ran over and found a place to hide.
The driver of the van rested his arm against the car window, a cigarette between his fingers. He spoke to the person standing outside the car and didn't have a clue that there was a cat in his car.
There was no one in the van other than the driver, even the seats had some products on them, small household appliances like colored television, there were some piled in the baggage areas as well. The rest were daily necessities like toothpastes, shower gels, shampoos etc. Zheng Tan hid behind this merchandise, through the gap he peeped outside and watched the crazy youngsters run over.
"Where did that cat go?" On of the young man said while tampering with his hair.
Nearby were mostly shopping malls, after turning into the corner, there were only trees on each side of the road, no bushes or flower beds.
"Did it climb up a tree?" Another youngster said while looking at the trees around him.
The person that first shot at Zheng Tan examined around and walked over to the van.
Zheng Tan ducked behind, lowered his body and tried to conceal himself.
However, just as the young man walked closer and closer, anther person came to the back of the van. This person was the one that was just talking to the driver, he lifted his hand and dragged the trunk lid down.
Bang!
The trunk of the van closed.
Zheng Tan: "…"
He turned around, the driver had already finished smoking. He closed his car window, destroying Zheng Tan's hope of running out from the window.
Sh*t!
Destiny is full of wrong timing and bad luck, one may suffer many setbacks and misfortunes during their life.
No number of beautiful girls was enough to pacify the galloping alpacas in Zheng Tan's heart.
Zheng Tan really wanted to howl: F*ck, let me out!
However, what responded to Zheng Tan was the rumbling sounds of the engine.
It was as if there was a pair of invisible hands, separating you every time you reach your objective.
Unable to revolt.
Twice he had been that close, but he had got the same result.
Fate?
Zheng Tan didn't know.
The driver played some reminiscing classics inside the car, Zheng Tan had heard that bitchy bird "General" sang many of these songs. This in addition to the complex feeling that Zheng Tan was feeling made him want to hit his head against the wall.
There was no wall, so Zheng Tan hit the backseat instead.
The music was too loud inside the car, the driver was drowned in self-enchantment and hummed along, couldn't hear the strange noises from the back of the car.
After a while, the driver's phone rang, he turned the music down and picked up the phone.
Zheng Tan really want to comment that talking over the phone while driving was dangerous, although he used to frequently do these things as well, sometimes driving under the influence of alcohol was a normal thing. Zheng Tan truly felt that he was lucky to have grown up and lived through all these years safely.
"…Okay…I will call him when it's time…Yes, I know, call the landline… Oh, by the way what's the area code at that end of the capital… 010…Okay…I got it…"
The driver cheerfully answered the call, but Zheng Tan suddenly had the feeling of sinking into mud then struck by lightning.
Area code?
Hell, he didn't add the area code when he dialed last time.
As to mobile phone, calling interstate probably needed to add a 0 before the number?
Zheng Tan, you are such an idiot!
After not touching a phone for a long time, he couldn't even remember this basic knowledge!
Zheng Tan wanted to slap himself hard, his mind short-wiring at such an important moment! He really didn't think that his brain would short-circuit that badly during that moment. An opportunity within his reach had slipped away just like that, he had suffered all this for nothing, his current situation was even more unpredictable.
If Papa Jiao knew, then he would seriously condemn himself for not teaching his own cat the technique of calling interstate.
Zheng Tan lay on a cardboard box, recalling his self that was dialing on the phone. His head wasn't too clear back then, and wasn't too rational, it must have been the side-effect of the drug, yes, and the telecommunication operator's fault as well! Even if they can't recognize interstate numbers they needed to at least give some hints!
No matter what, he had lost that opportunity and there was no way of rectifying the issue.
'What should I do now?"
Zheng Tan was vexed.
How about knock the driver out and jump off the car?
Zheng Tan peeked outside the window at the flashing streetlight. He estimated the speed that the car was traveling, then at the vehicles that were driving to and fro outside. The danger was not minor, a little incautious action can cause a car accident.
Never mind, he will find an opportunity to call when they arrive at the driver's house. Since he had found where the problem was, he wasn't afraid that it couldn't be solved anymore.
Zheng Tan continued to have an optimistic mindset, planning out future actions.
However, when the car finally stopped, Zheng Tan took the chance while the driver was lifting cargo to run out of the van. He was shocked by the forests and farmlands that filled his sight.
'Where the f*ck is this!"