Chapter 264: Chapter 263: Suspicious Cat Murder Scene Chapter 264: Chapter 263: Suspicious Cat Murder Scene Watching the cats rush toward him, Richard blinked and his expression became slightly serious. With a flip of his hand, a bunch of small clippers appeared in his palm.
At that next instant, a large yellow cat charged at him. Richard’s hand shot out lightning-fast, grabbing the cat’s back, then he clamped a clip onto it.
Having done this, he set the yellow cat down on the ground. Initially fierce, appearing as if it were a ferocious ancient beast choosing its prey, the cat now “knelt” as if it were pushing a golden mountain and toppling a jade pillar—its body slanted and fell over, as if its fate’s throat—its nape—had been seized.
Subsequently, a black cat pounced. Richard repeated the process, clipping another onto the nape of this cat.
Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth…
Be it black cats, white cats, big or small, purebred or spotted, any that dared attack Richard were treated without discrimination.
Before long, the assaulting army of Cat People had not achieved any success; instead, they all lay sprawled across the ground, utterly motionless.
The room was eerily silent, resembling the scene of a massacre.
Richard touched his nose, pondering how to explain this to a girl named Heidi, when he heard footsteps in the corridor outside, followed by the voices of two people.
A young voice said, “Teacher, why don’t you… reconsider.”
An older voice, slightly impatient, replied, “Weaver, I don’t want to hear it again. I won’t agree. Also, try to visit me less in the future.”
“To be honest, Weaver, I’m very disappointed in you.”
Their voices gradually faded, as if they moved outside, followed by the heavier, somewhat faltering solitary footsteps returning. Richard guessed it was the elder, whom he was here to visit.
With a creak, Richard pushed the door open.
In the hallway, a slightly gaunt, silver-haired old man, looking to be in his seventies, looked his way. After sizing Richard up briefly, he asked, “Who are you?”
“Hello Socratic Scholar, I’m Richard.”
“Hmm…” The man nodded nonchalantly and began to head toward the study. After a couple of steps, he paused as if recalling something, pointed tentatively, and asked, “We had an appointment, didn’t we?”
“Yes,” replied Richard, “It was scheduled for this afternoon.”
“Ah, well then, come with me to the study. Let’s talk,” the old man said and walked into the study.
Richard followed him inside.
Upon entering, Richard discovered the study was exaggeratedly large, nearly comparable to a living room, covering over fifty square meters with a ceiling reaching five meters high. Among the most striking features were the extensive, towering bookshelves.
All four walls were present, with three of them completely filled with custom-built immense bookshelves—bookshelves functioning as walls.
The shelves were filled with books, scrolls, parchments, and other materials, obviously the old man’s collection, which was indeed impressive.
Besides the shelves, the rest of the room’s furnishings appeared rather sparse. In the center of the floor, there was an old desk painted with red paint, with each side flanked by a chipped paint chair.
Richard noticed that the desk’s surface was cluttered with a mess of items, among them a small piece of cloth wrapped around a rectangular stone, resembling a stalactite.
Noticing Richard’s gaze, the old man turned his head, continued tidying up the desk, and with some apology said, “You must find this funny; that was brought by the person who was here just now.”
“He is your student,” Richard said.
“Indeed,” the old man nodded and paused as something crossed his mind. “However, to be precise, he was my student before; now… it’s hard to say.”
“Uh…” Based on the previous conversation, Richard guessed part of the reason but didn’t really want to delve into it. The old man, however, started to talk about it.
“His name is Weaver, the son of a mineral merchant from White Stone City, who studied with me for several years. I thought he would have amounted to something after leaving me, but it turns out he has become more mercantile. This time, he came to visit me, and I thought he had some questions to ask, but it turned out he was trying to sell me some stones produced by his family.”
“Look, this stone,” the old man shook the small wrapped stone on the desktop, “He said it was a precious dripping stone from a cavern, very much in keeping with my distinguished status. If I wanted, he could sell me a batch cheaply.
Hah, I’m just an old man; what sort of distinguished status do I have? He must have mistaken his person. What use do I have for these useless stones? Am I really supposed to tear down my small, shabby porch and build a large, luxurious one? Hmph!”
“Actually, if you really wanted to rebuild a porch, you should definitely not use this type of stone,” Richard said.
“Hm?” the old man looked over.
“Although I haven’t examined it closely, this stone should be a type of calcite, which is softer and easily damaged. It softens under high temperatures and dissolves when it comes into contact with acid. So, it’s unsuitable for constructing porches or any other buildings,” Richard briefly explained.
“Ah, is that so?” Though the old man was knowledgeable, his expertise was mainly in languages and history, with little study into such obscure subjects as minerals. Hearing Richard’s explanation, the old man briefly paused and then retorted, “Hmph, I knew it; Weaver had no good intentions.”
Richard didn’t think that Weaver truly had bad intentions. After all, deceiving the old man in front of him wouldn’t benefit Weaver personally. It was likely that he didn’t know about the shortcomings of calcite and simply chose it because it looked fine, only to end up backfiring. However, Richard didn’t bother to explain for Weaver, since he had no connection with him.
At that moment, the old man looked at him again, visibly having a slightly better impression of Richard, considering him from a mere stranger to a fairly decent one.
Then, the old man thought of something, turned his head towards the door, and shouted loudly, “Heidi, is the tea ready yet? Bring it for the guest quickly.”
After shouting, the old man cleaned up the desk’s surface, sat down on a chair beside it, and gestured for Richard to sit.
As Richard sat down, soft footsteps sounded from outside; then, with a “creak,” the study door opened, and Heidi, a girl with big eyes, entered with a tray. The tray held two steaming cups of tea.
Heidi walked straight to the desk, first smiling and carefully handing a cup to the old man. Then, she turned around, her face falling, and with an angry expression looked at Richard as if she was a little dog about to jump and bite.
Heidi picked up the cup, slammed it down in front of Richard; the tea in the cup sloshed, nearly spilling.
Richard was slightly puzzled; he didn’t think he had offended her. Why was she suddenly turning her face after being all right a moment ago?
Richard thought of the corridor cat room, where several cats were caught in traps and lying all over the floor.