Revenge of the Garfield

Li Zhenran peeled the eggs for him.

       When Li Zhentai came downstairs, he saw Li Zhenruo licking Li Zhenran’s fingers. He smiled and sat down and said, “Whether this cat is Zhenran’s or Zhenzi’s, I could no longer figure it out.”

       Li Zhenran fed Li Zhenruo an egg and cleaned the sticky egg yolk on his whiskers with his fingers.

       Li Zhenzi also said, “Second brother, since you like cats, why didn’t you raise one before?”

       Li Zhenran didn’t reply and just smiled.

       Li Zhenzhi poured milk into the bowl of cereal, and then said, “I thought only kids like Jason like cats.”

       As soon as he finished speaking, the whole dining room was quiet.

       This was the first time that Li Zhenruo heard the Li family brothers mention his name when they were sitting together. He couldn’t help but raise his head to look at everyone’s expressions. Li Zhentai seemed to frown slightly, while Li Zhenran on the other hand, sandwiched ham with bread without much movement, and Li Zhenzi seemed to smile at himself as if he had said something wrong.

       Only Wang Ma’s eyes were red and said she was going to check the kitchen.

       Everyone was silent, and after a while, Li Zhenzi changed the topic and said to Li Zhentai, “Yesterday, Chun jie told me that she wanted to play tennis. I said I would make an appointment with her for this weekend. I don’t know if eldest brother is free. Let’s play doubles?”

       Li Zhentai looked up at him, “Oh? Who else is there?”

       Li Zhenzi said, “Won’t it look like I’m bullying you guys by teaming up with the tennis coach?” After that, he thought about it and turned to Li Zhenran, “Is second brother interested?”

       Li Zhenran also played tennis well, but it seemed that he was not interested. Sure enough, upon hearing Li Zhenzi’s invitation, he said, “I can watch the game, but I won’t play on the court.”

       Li Zhenzi felt a little regretful, and said, “Then I’ll go find a classmate from the tennis club to come to just play at home. And we’ll have a barbecue in the front yard at night, how about that?”

       Li Zhentai thought for a while, and replied, “Okay.”

       Li Zhenzi smiled ambiguously at Li Zhenran, “Second brother, you are welcome to bring a girlfriend.”

       Li Zhenran surprisingly smiled and responded, “Okay.” At the same time, without stopping, he tore a small piece of bread with ham in it and fed it to Li Zhenruo’s mouth.

       Li Zhenruo bit it while thinking, Li Zhenran has a girlfriend? Who is it?

       During the daytime, all of the Li brothers went out. It was a big mansion, and all that was left were the servants hired by the family.

       Li Zhenruo had nothing to do. As a cat, he climbed to the top floor, lay down on the pool table on the top floor, and basked in the sun quietly. In fact, he wasn’t as calm as he looked. He had been thinking about several things in his heart.

       Now that he has become a cat, the advantage that was placed in front of him was of course that he could smoothly return to Li’s house, and he could easily wander in every corner of Li’s house, as well as eavesdropping on the private conversations of Li’s family. On the other hand, there was an obvious disadvantage, such as that he couldn’t get out of here easily, and he didn’t have anyone to help him. So the scope of his investigation became very limited, and some clues that existed before had gone.

       Yes, before he was killed, he had already calmed down to investigate the person who put the identification’s result in front of Li Jianglin.

       The first identification was done without his knowledge, and the specimen was made using his blood sample. Later, he recalled, he remembered that he shaved and hurt his face one morning, wiped the blood on his face with a tissue, and threw it in the trash can at home. So anyone in the Li family could get his blood sample. It was also the reason why he suspected a few of his older brothers from the beginning.

       It might be possible to start from where the blood sample was obtained, but there is no surveillance at home, and second, he was quickly driven out of Li’s house, so there was no time to investigate.

       So he put the direction of the investigation on the source of the identification.

       The identification certificate was issued by the appraisal office. It has the name and contact information of the office. He had been to that appraisal office before, but the other party stated that the identity of the appraisal client was absolutely confidential and they could not be disclosed to him.

       At that time, he tried to bribe the staff member inside the appraisal office to act as his trustee, and the most recent news he got was that it was a young woman who had brought a sample for this test.

       When commissioned, the woman used the pseudonym, and the client’s name written on the appraisal letter was Anna, which was meaningless to Li Zhenruo. But there was one more thing, the sample used for the identification of Li Jianglin was his se/men.

       The one who could obtain Li Jianglin’s se/men should be a woman, and the scope of this investigation suddenly becomes narrow. Li Zhenruo believed that he has a way to find out the truth.

       However, when he was getting closer and closer to the truth, he was accidentally killed in a secluded street.

       Those past clues were instantly cut off.

       If he couldn’t leave the Li family now, the most convenient thing was to get some useful news from the Li family brothers. If the woman with whom Li Jianglin has a relationship could show up, it would naturally be better.

       Li Zhenruo was lying on the pool table, the fur on his back was warmed by the sun, so he turned over and planned to tan his belly. But after all, there is a grown man’s soul in the cat’s body, and he was a little embarrassed to put his hind legs together and lie on his side to continue enjoying the sun.

       In the garden downstairs, the gardener and the cleaning auntie joked and laughed, and their lives were actually quite comfortable.

       Li Zhenruo listened quietly for a while, turned over and jumped to the edge of the balcony, and looked down at the cleaning auntie who was talking.

       This lady’s surname is Wu. She cleaned up the trash in the room every morning. If Aunt Wu picked up his bloody tissue, who would she give the tissue to?

       How could he test her out?

       In the evening as soon as Li Zhenran came back, Li Zhenruo would intentionally jump on his lap and stay there.

       Li Zhenran’s kindness to him was certainly one of the reasons. Li Zhenruo himself was thinking about it. He could use sticking to Li Zhenran as an excuse to stay openly among the Li family brothers and listen to their conversation. Otherwise, his arrival would always appear a bit abrupt and he was afraid it would be seen as suspicious.

       Li Zhenran stood up after eating.

       Li Zhenruo quickly jumped off his lap before he got up.

       Li Zhenran said to Wang Ma, “I’ll go for a walk.”

       After he finished eating, he sometimes used to go for a walk around the lake outside the Li family house.

       Li Zhenruo had stayed inside for a long time and wanted to follow when he saw Li Zhenran go out.

       Li Zhenzi yelled, “Uh!” He suddenly forgot the name of the cat.

       Li Zhenruo realized that Li Zhenzi was calling him, and looked back at him.

       Li Zhenzi remembered it this time, “That what? Dumpling! What are you running after? You are not a dog, but you want to take a walk after dinner?”

       Li Zhenruo felt ignoring him and followed Li Zhenran’s legs.

       Wang Ma smiled and said, “Look at Zhenran, this cat still understands you in his heart. If you treat it well, it will be nice to you. It’ll take a long time to bring it back and make it follow you.”

       Li Zhenran didn’t say anything, and already took Li Zhenruo to the door.

       Li Zhenzi couldn’t help but say, “Second brother, be careful that it runs away.”

       Li Zhenran even said, “It won’t.”

       His tone was so determined that Li Zhenruo didn’t know where his confidence comes from! He couldn’t wait to just run away like this to slap him in the face. In the end, he still didn’t run, because he didn’t know where he could go. He walked with Li Zhenran on his short legs like this.

       He has seen anyone who walks a dog without being tied to a rope, and probably no one has ever seen a cat walking without being tied to a rope.

       Fortunately, there were not many residents in this neighbourhood. Sometimes people pass by in a car, and they look surprised at the flat-faced cat following Li Zhenran’s feet.

       Li Zhenran didn’t walk fast, and occasionally slowed down to wait for Li Zhenruo. When he lowered his head to look at Li Zhenruo, Li Zhenruo would look up at him. In Li Zhenran’s eyes, he was probably very clever.

       After walking home, Wang Ma saw Li Zhenruo following on Li Zhenran’s feet about to enter the house in the living room, and she couldn’t help but be surprised, “Oh my, I’ve never seen such a well-behaved cat. Isn’t he good?”

       Li Zhenruo glanced at her. He wanted to “meow”, but Li Zhenran picked him up and took him to the bathroom to wash his paws.

       It was the weekend in a blink of an eye.

       The Li family was very lively this week, because Li Zhenzi has asked his eldest brother and sister-in-law to play tennis at home. After they played tennis, he planned to have a barbecue picnic at home.

       So from the start of the day, the whole Li family started to make various preparations.

       What Li Zhenruo was most curious about was whether Li Zhenran would bring his girlfriend.

       However, he didn’t know whether he was unknowingly disappointed or felt that it was a matter of fact that Li Zhenran did not bring his girlfriend back. He went out that morning, but only Hua Yibang followed him back to Li’s house.

       Hua Yibang was also 28 years old this year. He had lived with his parents in Li’s family for a long time since he was a child. At that time, because he was the closest to Li Zhenran in age, the two had a close relationship. It could be said that Hua Yibang’s college money should actually come from the Li family. After he graduated from college, he worked directly with Li Zhenran as an assistant until today.

       When he arrived at Li’s house, of course he had to visit Wang Ma first.

       No matter how deep the relationship between Li Zhenruo and Wang Ma was, they were always separated by a layer, and it couldn’t be compared to her biological son.

       When Wang Ma saw Hua Yibang, she took him to her room. The mother and son closed the door and talked.

       Li Zhenruo was not interested in eavesdropping on what they were saying and was still lying on the back of the sofa chair.

       Li Zhenran gently scratched the top of his head with his fingers when he passed by.

       Li Zhenruo turned his head habitually and touched Li Zhenran’s finger with his nose to show intimacy.

       Soon after, Li Zhentai drove back with Wen Chun.

       Wen Chun was dressed in sports attire today, with her long hair tied up, and a light makeup on her face. She looked like an innocent student.

       After she arrived, she heard that Li Zhenzi hadn’t returned, so she followed Li Zhentai upstairs first, and when she passed Li Zhenruo, she also touched his head, but Li Zhenruo did not respond.

       Li Zhenzi came back last, and brought home two beautiful women in one go.

       One was his assistant Su Yao.

       Another woman, young and beautiful, was wearing a tennis uniform with a sports jacket. Li Zhenruo knew her.

       This woman’s name was Yue Zijia. She was said to be the eldest lady of a wealthy family. Actually, the Yue family was not as good as before. They suffered some business losses year after year and owed a large amount of debt to the bank. However, Yue Zijia was unwilling to be left out, and she still wanted to maintain her glamour on the surface, to maintain close contact with these wealthy sons.

       If Li Zhenruo knew her in the past, it was no surprise that Li Zhenzi was familiar with her. It was just that Li Zhenruo didn’t expect that when Li Zhenzi said that he would bring a partner back today, and it would turn out to be Yue Zijia.

Notes:

I’m gonna update sporadically but will at least do one chapter/week (˵¯͒⌢͗¯͒˵)
RL work still torturing me…