Chapter 6: The Bizarre Human-Faced Cat (3) Part One

  Two wrists with bulging veins protruded from the sleeves of his down jacket, wrapped in only a layer of skin. After he walked in, he smiled slightly at me, his face like a crumpled up piece of paper, with deep wrinkles that could even crush flies.

  "He's looking for something on you!" The old man spoke, spitting out a strong tobacco smell from his mouth. I thought I had at least ten years of smoking experience, but the smell was not even one tenth of his.

  I furrowed my brow and dodged his lips, then said: "What's on me? What's on me?"

  The old man chuckled and the strong smell was almost comparable to the stench on Lao Cong's body. I thought to myself, "Is this damned old man intentionally trying to disgust me?" But before I knew it, he suddenly grabbed my arm, and I reflexively struggled to break free. The old man looked thin and frail, but his strength was surprisingly great.

  Before I could fully react, the old man had already inserted his other hand into my pocket and was rummaging around inside. He then pulled out his hand, tightly clutching something in it. Only then did he release my hand. I gritted my teeth, glaring at him furiously. The old man still wore that same smiling expression, resembling the legendary lucky cat.

  If it weren't for his age, I would have punched him long ago. As I rubbed my wrist, I stared at the old man's clenched fist, and suddenly, I had an epiphany - it was that black stone, or rather, that egg.

  The old man slowly opened his fist, and what surprised me even more was the old man's pair of hands, which were not like hands at all, but rather a pair of claws. The fingers were very short, slightly curved towards the palm, with each finger's second joint deeply sunken, and the uppermost joint protruding outward, covered with thick calluses.

  Although the old man was very thin, the flesh on his palm was thick and solid, with a layer of wax-like nodules growing on top. The black stone lay flat in his palm, emitting a faint glow under the fluorescent light in the room. Strangely, the originally black "stone" seemed to have turned more greenish, with many red spots appearing on its surface.

  The old man had already lifted the egg high up, and with a pair of eyes staring at the white incandescent lamp, he was in a daze.

  Then he held out the egg in his hand and came closer to me, saying: "This is what they are looking for!"

  "What is it?" Du Wei and I asked in unison, I gave Du Wei a glance, he understood and lowered his head, after a while, he raised his head again to continue staring at the old man's hand holding that egg.

  "What is this?" Before I could speak, Du Wei couldn't help himself again. I really had the urge to go up and punch him, but at this time, the old man chuckled and said: "You guys take a closer look at what's inside, it's not a stone at all, it's an egg!"

  Although I already knew it was an egg, I still wanted to ask what it really was.

  "Do you know its origin?" I asked, subconsciously glancing at Du Wei, only to see his eyebrows furrowed and his facial expression completely frozen.

  The old man nodded and then glanced at Du Wei, whose expression had frozen, saying: "You've seen this thing before, haven't you?" Du Wei was taken aback, then hastily shook his head, saying: "N...no, I haven't seen it before!"

  The old man didn't refute me, then slowly turned his head and said to me: "Take good care of this thing!"

  I looked at the old man in front of me with suspicion, who was spouting strange smells from his mouth, and then carefully took over the egg, putting it in my pocket like a hot potato.

  "This thing!" The old man pointed at my pocket and said, "It's a Man-Faced Cat's egg."

  "Cat face?"

  "Yes." The old man said affirmatively, "This thing is generally over a meter tall after adulthood, with the body of a cat and the face of a human. It lives underground for a long time, feeding on rotting flesh. Because it hasn't seen light for a long time, its eyes have degenerated, leaving only two small holes where the eyes used to be. Its Adam's apple is extremely large, constantly twitching, then relying on echoes to determine direction, similar to bats. Its body is very sturdy."