Chapter 50 – Poacher (2)
Mi Wan majored in Landscape Design. As someone who has spent her previous life illiterate, and then inherited the memories of a person who barely graduated high school, it was impossible for her to understand a college-level professional course. Barely a few words in and she fell asleep on the spot. On the side, Han Xiao frowned as he watched her learning attitude, internally wondering if this person was really counting on getting cheat notes from him for the finals.
When class was dismissed, Han Xiao was dragged away by his roommate, while Mi Wan carried her school bag and went to find food on her own. Although the previous host’s memories contained information about the school that allowed her to recognize her way around, as the person who was walking around with someone else’s private knowledge, it felt a bit violating.
As Mi Wan strolled towards the cafeteria, she curiously observed the school surroundings when suddenly, she felt a tinge of demonic aura.
Is there a demon amongst my schoolmates? As Mi Wan looked around inquisitively, hoping to find this demon classmate of hers, she was violently slammed into, followed by a piercing scream by her ear.
“Ah~~”
Even though Mi Wan was too heavy to be slammed aside, the howling scream was enough to cause her to take two steps back.
“Cat, a cat just fell.”
“So much blood, is this cat dead?”
“Doesn’t look like it. We need to send it to the hospital. There’s a pet hospital outside the north entrance.”
Mi Wan turned to find a dying cat laying two feet away from her. The cat seemed to have fallen from the tree. Blood was pooling from its body and staining the ground, painting a gruesome sight. There were several kindhearted students amongst the spectators and when they saw an injured cat, they felt an urge to carry it to the pet hospital. However, the cat was extremely fierce, and even though it was at the brink of death, it still swiped its claws and bared its teeth at anyone who dared to come near, all the while making warning noises in the back of its throat.
“What should we do? The cat won’t let us touch it.”
“How about we wait for it to tire itself out and then carry it off?”
“Its stomach looks sliced open by a sharp object. If we don’t stop the bleeding, it can’t be saved.”
Mi Wan took two steps forward and squatted down to look at the vicious cat demon that was reacting out of instinct.
“Be careful.” The classmate who was previously snapped at reminded Mi Wan.
Mi Wan paid no attention because she only squatted down to take a good look at the cat’s injury. The classmate was right, this cat’s stomach was sliced open by a knife but the intent was not to kill it, but to dig out its demonic source.
This cat demon had pretty good luck and was able to escape at the last minute, which was why its demonic source was still intact. The demonic aura she had sensed before was emitted from the demonic source, and it was a very weak one.
“Meow~~” The cat demon seemed to have sensed the spiritual energy radiating from Mi Wan’s body, and cried out weakly.
(Don’t kill me, my older brother has money.)
Mi Wan stared at it for a moment and then reached over and picked the cat up.
Seeing that there was finally someone who could get close to this cat, the spectators all let out a sigh of relief.
When Mi Wan carried the cat, her coat worth several thousand yuan was stained with blood, “Where is the pet hospital?”
“At the northern entrance. From here, go out to the north gate, make a left and you will be there. The store owner really loves animals, so he will definitely treat the kitty.” The young girl who spoke up seemed to really like cats and she was also the one who had attempted to carry the kitty several times.
“Thanks.” Mi Wan expressed her gratitude and then made her way to the hospital with the cat in her arms.
When Mi Wan arrived at the pet hospital, she discovered that the store owner really did love animals. The moment he saw Mi Wan carrying an injured cat, he made a startled sound and took it away to perform emergency surgery without accepting money. Mi Wan was left alone in the shop, unsure if she should leave or stay. In the end, her stomach was so hungry that she could not stand it, so she went next door to have lunch. When she finished her meal and returned, there was a female doctor in the pet hospital, and the moment she saw Mi Wan, her two eyes glowed in anticipation.
“Was it you that brought in that cat?” The female doctor asked.
“Yes.”
“Please pay up. The surgery and medicine add up to a total of 6855 yuan. We can round it down so you would only need to pay 6800 yuan.” Passing the invoice over, one could tell that she had long done the calculations and was just waiting for Mi Wan to settle the bill.
“6800?” It was even more expensive than treating that big dog.
“That cat is so cute and besides it’s yours. You should treat it even if it’s expensive.” The female doctor thought the other party was reluctant because of the expensive treatment, so she quickly persuaded her.
“I don’t own it. I found it,” Mi Wan clarified.
“You found it?” The female doctor turned pale and slumped to the floor, “We’re done for. We are going to be behind on rent for another month.”
Mi Wan glanced at the female doctor expressionlessly, took out her cell phone and paid.
“Ding! You’ve received 6800 yuan.”
At the sound of the alert, the female doctor resurrected on the spot and grabbed Mi Wan’s hand dramatically, “Miss, you are such a good person.”
Boohoo… Finally, a person who is willing to spare the money for treatment. I really thought I had to eat dirt again this month.
Since it would still take a while for the kitty’s treatment, Mi Wan remained in the store and chatted up with the Doctor Jie-jie. (T/N: Jie-Jie = Big Sister without sounding like a mouthful) Turned out, this clinic was opened by a pair of lovers. Doctor Jie-jie and the surgeon that was operating on the cat were a pair of lovers who majored in veterinary science. After graduation, the two opened a pet hospital near the school and since the street was connected to the residential areas, business was decent. However, her boyfriend loved animals to a fault, so much so that he often brought back strays to treat them, even though their income was not sufficient to cover the medicine and equipment in the clinic.
After that, the pet clinic’s owner’s habit of picking up strays became widespread, so the surrounding students would occasionally bring in injured small animals that they found and leave them behind without paying. As a result, they kept losing money and failed to make ends meet. Now the two were so poor, they almost could not pay their rent.
“We have decided that if we still can’t sell our clinic by the time our rent is due this month, we are going to cancel our lease. I’m done with it anyway.” The two had fought over this issue several times and almost broke up because of it.
“You are selling the clinic?”
At this moment, two guys suddenly barged through the door. One of them had black hair and cat-like eyes, and the moment he entered, he went over to grab hold of the female doctor and asked: “Doctor, did someone bring in a cat just now? It’s about this big and has pink tips on both ears.”
“Guan Li, calm down.” Following behind him was a guy with dazzling blonde hair. Seeing his friend squeezing the female doctor’s hand, he quickly went over and pulled him away, “Sorry about that. That cat belongs to my classmate and he’s really worried.”
“No problem, we did receive a cat just now and the physician had begun performing surgery. It is not life-threatening. This is the student that found it and brought it over here.” The female doctor had seen her fair share of people who would treat their pets like their children, but she had never seen one quite as distraught as this student.
The two followed the female doctor’s gaze and…
“It’s you!” Blondie instantly recognized Mi Wan.
“Xiang Zhen, you two know each other?” The cat-eyed boy called Guan Li asked in surprise.
Mi Wan naturally recognized Blondie and felt instant joy. Looks like she’s getting her 6800 yuan back.
“Why? You guys own that cat?” Though Mi Wan had referred to the both of them, her gaze landed directly on the guy with cat-shaped eyes. This young man’s demonic aura had the same resonance as the cat inside.
“It belongs to him.” Xiang Zhen coughed awkwardly and vaguely gestured.
“You mean it’s your younger sister,” Mi Wan stated flatly.
“Yes, thank you for saving my younger sister.” Guan Li was not surprised that the other party was able to discern his identity. As someone who knew Xiang Zhen, and did not possess a demonic aura, she was probably also a demon hunter.
“Good timing. The medical fees were 6800 yuan. I just paid for it on your behalf.” Mi Wan pulled out her cell phone to settle the bill.
Though Guan Li paused for a bit, he still reacted quickly and returned the money back to Mi Wan. He was clearly someone who did not look like he was hard on money.
“The surgery is done. Do you wish to take a look at the cat?” At this time, seeing that the surgery had concluded, the female doctor asked the group if they wanted to visit the patient.
“I do.” Guan Li did not stick around to ask Mi Wan further questions and turned to run after the female doctor into the building, leaving Mi Wan and Blondie in the waiting area.
“Why are you here?” Blondie asked.
“I came here today to attend class and while I was walking down the road, that cat in there fell in front of me with a plop. I decided to follow my conscience so I brought it to the hospital,” Mi Wan explained.
“You are attending classes here. Are you a student from H University?” Blondie asked in surprise.
“Yup. Are you one too?”
“First year.”
“Hello, Junior.” With a familiar face around, Mi Wan felt instantly less pessimistic about her school life, “Second year, Landscape Design.”
Blondie was not too happy about the idea of becoming Mi Wan’s junior in school, so he changed the subject to the topic that brought him here in the first place and asked professionally, “When you found Guan Tong, did you discover anything out of the ordinary?”
Guan Tong? Must be referring to that cat in there.
“When I found her, her stomach was sliced open by a knife. I think someone was after her demonic source.” Mi Wan did not hide any details and recited exactly what she saw.
“Definitely the work of a poacher.” Guan Li and he were students from the same class. The two of them were out participating in a technology exhibition today and when they returned to school, they heard that someone was abusing cats in the schoolyard.
Guan Li lost his mind at that moment and dashed towards the schoolyard where the stray cats usually gathered and sure enough, found 7 to 8 cat carcasses that had their stomachs sliced open by a knife. It was fortunate that Guan Li’s younger sister was not among the casualties, and when they heard that a cat was brought here, they rushed over as quickly as they could.
“Poacher?”
“There is a group of demon hunters who are not under the Demon Hunter Association’s jurisdiction that are known to use their abilities to poach on weak demons by killing them and digging out their demonic sources to sell for money,” Xiang Zhen explained.
She knew that demonic sources could be sold for money. The dog demon from before had asked if she would be willing to take his demonic source and sell it for money, so it probably thought she was one of those poachers?
“Why don’t the demons carefully guard their own weak offsprings?” Mi Wan glanced at the guy with cat-shaped eyes who was slumped over outside the incubator and watching over his younger sister intently.
“It’s not that Guan Li wanted it to be like that. His younger sister has degenerated and was not allowed to remain in the tribal home.” Xiang Zhen defended his good friend as he continued, “Since his younger sister was not a cat with an expensive pedigree, no one was willing to adopt her, so Guan Li could only take care of her in the schoolyard. There were more than a dozen cats living in the bushes behind the artificial lake of our school. All of them are degenerated cats demons from their families.”
Degeneration again?
“Xiang Zhen.” At this moment, Guan Li had finished visiting his younger sister and walked out, “Tongtong said that it was a middle-aged man around 40 years old with a mole on his left cheek.”
“I’ll report this up the chain to see if the Association knows of such a person,” Xiang Zhen said and took out his cell phone to report to the Association.
“I’m heading off first.” Seeing that it was none of her business, Mi Wan hoisted her school bag and left. That morning, Han Xiao had warned her that attendance was also counted as part of their scores and that teachers loved to take attendance in the later parts of the semester. So even if she were planning to sleep, she would have to do it in the lecture hall.