Chapter Fifty-six

  With a startled expression and wide-open mouse eyes, as soon as the words fell, I suddenly heard the sound of something being overturned from about one layer below my feet!

  "Grey mouse?! How could...?!" He was so shocked that his voice trembled, "Didn't you close the cage door properly?!"

  "The gate has been broken for a long time," said Xiao Hei. "And if you shout any louder, it will hear us."

  Oh? Oh! At this time, Jian Ran didn't dare to lift his head again, and quickly lowered his voice, bowing his head and saying in a low tone: "Okay, okay, be quiet... I just didn't think - Grey Mouse, what is it doing coming into our cage? Will it bite us? Grey Mouse shouldn't have the habit of devouring its own kind, and strictly speaking, it's not entirely our same species either..."

  Xiao Hei snorted and said disdainfully, "They're all just rats, who's more noble than the other? This guy probably smelled the mouse food in our cage and followed the scent here. Although gray mice don't eat their own kind..."

  But before he could let out a sigh of relief, Xiao Hei said coldly, "However, it will bite to death the hamsters that compete with it for food."

  “…………”

  He had to admit that he was successfully intimidated by Xiao Hei - at this moment, his feeling was as if someone woke him up in the middle of the night and told him that a serial killer had entered his home, and he wanted to call the police.

  But the only justice bringer in the world of mice is... Black Cat Sheriff?

  Pffft!

  Disregarding Xiao Hei's obstruction, Jin Ran plucked up the courage to take a peek outside. As expected, he saw a gigantic creature for a hamster, lurking in the first layer of the cage. It stretched its neck and sniffed around, seemingly searching for food... Due to its long tail, the seesaw used by the hamsters had been flipped over, wood shavings scattered everywhere, and even the bath sand was overturned - the entire first layer looked like it had just been ravaged by Godzilla.

  "It's so big!"

  His heart skipped a beat as he involuntarily let out a silent sigh, staring intently at the wild grey rat with a head almost half his size, its entire body in a state of being scared stiff. At this moment, he suddenly felt that the fur on his back was being pulled by a strong force, and when he turned around, he found that Xiao Hei was pulling him backwards with one paw, her expression extremely serious: "If you keep poking your head out like that and get discovered, it'll think we're competing with it for food, and then... remember, not every mouse is as easy to talk to as I am, willing to watch you make a fool of yourself."

  "...No contest, we don't fight." Jian Ran didn't even have time to react to Xiao Hei's mocking words, and with one swift motion, he grabbed Xiao Hei's shiny chest hair. Na Cha's green bean eyes rolled around in terror as she shouted, "Push the food bowl down! Push the food bowl down! Give it to him, no, not just push it down, give him the whole bowl..."

  "Now if you go out, it will automatically be included in the enemy lineup, and you won't have time to react."

  "I can scream and surrender while walking out."

  "……" Xiao Hei looked at the milk tea in front of him with a disdainful gaze, as if it was an inferior product. He scanned it from head to toe, thought for a moment, and suddenly brought up old grievances, "The first time I came here, you weren't so generous."

  "Firstly, Jiang Chuan was there at that time, you can't bite me in front of him," Jin Ran said. "Secondly, everything has a first time, before you came, I was the treasure of the Jiang family, although my status hasn't been shaken since your arrival, but to give you a place is also very embarrassing for me - this embarrassment comes once or twice doesn't make much difference, let alone that grey old mouse is so ugly, just in terms of being cute, it's completely not my match... Moreover, it will leave with food and won't leave without food, whereas you won't leave even if you have food, and won't take my life temporarily even if you don't have food."

  Xiao Hei listened patiently as Nai Cha spoke with a thick face, saying a lot of big truths - Nai Cha chattered on for a long time, during which those eyes never stopped flashing with fearful light, it was clear that at this moment it was so tense that it was trying to use speaking to distract its own fear...

  Xiao Hei didn't expose it, but instead waited until it finished speaking before taking it from the back of the wooden house to the second floor - Xiao Hei usually lived on the second floor alone, and now with the addition of a chubby Naicha, there was barely any space left. As Naicha squeezed in, it complained: "This second floor is full of your smell, I'm going to suffocate..."

  "There's no smell on me."

  "I know," said Milk Tea, "but being surrounded by the breath of a strange mouse makes me feel uneasy."

  "The space below is larger, and who knows, that gray mouse might give you a sense of security," Xiao Hei said with a cold smile. "Are you going?"

  “……”

  "Go try it out, maybe fate has arrived?"

  Milk Tea stuck to the corner of the wooden hut, froze stiffly and shook its head, as if it was really afraid that Xiao Hei would throw it down. The expression of immediately shutting up and repenting made Xiao Hei stop teasing it. With a satisfied smile, he stretched out his hand, pinched Milk Tea's chubby face, and pulled it to the side. Seeing the mouse's face being distorted by himself, even its green bean eyes were squeezed into a slit, he was finally satisfied and slightly narrowed his eyes before releasing his hand.

  The flesh of the milk tea "slapped" back, and the spot shook and rippled twice.

  "Come out later." Xiao Hei withdrew his paws and said lightly, "If you hear any movement, hide well and don't come out. You're hiding in my house, covered by the smell, that wild mouse may not know there are two hamsters in the cage... Just hide well, wait for those humans to finish filming, and Master will come looking for you. By then, whether that wild mouse is still in the cage or not, you'll be saved."

  "So you..."

  "What can I do? Go fight it." Xiao Hei said in a tone as if saying "Today's fruit after dinner is an apple".

  "How is it possible? That guy is much older than you! You go and fight him, that's just asking for death!"

  In this case, Jian Ran made a move that even he himself did not expect - he actually stretched out his paws and grabbed the front paws of the black-bellied hamster... This is absolutely the first time, before this, except for the fake fight of snatching food, he had never actively touched Xiao Hei like this.

  At the moment his paws clasped onto Xiao Hei's paws, both hamsters were stunned.

  "Chubby, you said you were human."

  “……”

  "Do you still remember how you became a hamster?"

  "This is not the time to say this—"

  "I'll go first, and if I wake up, you follow in the same way and wake yourself up too."

  "What did you say? I have no idea what you're talking about now——"

  "Let go now."

  Xiao Hei lowered his voice and spoke in a tone that was impossible to refuse for the first time.

  “……”

  Jian Ran blinked his eyes, completely not understanding what Xiao Hei was saying. What "take a step first" sounded too ominous, and he wasn't clear about the meaning of "wake up" either - damn it, could it be that even a translated hamster's last words were so hard to understand?! Jian Ran went crazy, his brain completely losing its thinking ability, and he subconsciously followed Xiao Hei's calm gaze - when he saw his own claws tightly grasping the fur on Xiao Hei's arm, he suddenly shuddered and quickly withdrew his hand!

  Just as he withdrew his claws, he always felt that he seemed to hear Xiao Hei's meaningful snort - but before he could figure out whether Xiao Hei was really laughing or it was just his illusion, the black belly line that was originally tightly attached to its body had already half-protruded from the small wooden house... This time, Jing Ran wanted to stretch out his hand to pull it back, but it was too late. Xiao Hei fell onto the open platform on the third floor like a nimble loach, and this time, it probably did so intentionally, making a soft "thud" sound when landing.

  He listened with rapt attention, his heart racing with fear.

  At the same time, the rustling sound that had been coming from below suddenly stopped - it was clear that the wild gray mouse had also discovered that there were other creatures in the wooden house... So the wild gray mouse started "squeaking" - compared to the hamster, its voice was louder, sharper and even more piercing, sounding full of aggression!

  "Take cover, fatty."

  A low, determined voice came from outside, and he tensed up, his hairs standing on end. He grabbed a handful of hay beside him, not even caring if it was stained with the "strange hamster's" scent. At this moment, he seemed to be seeking comfort as he stuffed the hay into his chest. Meanwhile, in his heart, he silently screamed out Jiang Chuan's name, as if hoping that guy would somehow sense it and rush over to save them.

  But what was heard from outside the cage was Jiang Luocheng holding a small loudspeaker shouting "Ka", and then that cheap person said: "This shot is not bad, Jiang Chuan, don't take it again, prepare for the next shot directly, make the sword swinging action bigger..."

  The mouse was completely desperate.

  He pushed aside the hay that blocked his view, not using it to block the door and pretend to be dead as Xiao Hei had said. Instead, he held a handful of hay tightly in his arms and cautiously poked his head out. As a result, he saw Xiao Hei standing at the entrance of the third floor staircase, as well as a wild gray mouse standing at the entrance of the second floor staircase leading to the third floor, looking up with its head raised.

  It wasn't until now that I realized, after comparing it to a wild mouse, that Xiao Hei is actually much stronger than I thought - compared to ordinary hamsters, it's a whole circle bigger, which makes it look less inferior when standing in front of the wild gray mouse. At this moment, when the gray mouse slightly arched its body and made a "squeak" sound, before you could react, Hei, who was standing at the stairs, pounced on the wild gray mouse with an unbelievable reaction speed, opened his mouth, and quickly and accurately bit the gray mouse's ear!

  "Squeak! Squeak!"

  The grey mouse was in pain, looking shocked and angry. It frantically twisted its body to try to shake off the hamster hanging from it - but Xiao Hei seemed to have hooks all over his body, clinging tightly to the wild grey mouse until it retreated several steps back, away from the staircase leading to the third floor. Only then did Xiao Hei suddenly release his grip, rolled backwards a few times, and landed steadily beside the food bowl on the second floor.

  It opened its mouth and spat out a piece of meat.

  From this direction, it can be seen clearly that what comes out of its mouth is one ear of a gray mouse.

  Bloody hell, one ear!!!!!

  Damn it! The black-bellied hamster is indeed known as the fighting breed among hamsters, this sentence really isn't wrong!!!!!!!!!!

  In the small wooden house, Na Cha was completely at a loss and was about to kneel down in shock at the scene before her eyes. She stared blankly with wide eyes as the two mice started fighting again - if mice had gladiators and bloody battles, then this scene would undoubtedly be the top-level struggle between them!

  The little black body is small, but agile. Although its body is small, it can't compare to the gray old mouse in terms of strength. After a few rounds of fighting, it starts to become slightly sluggish. The wild mouse has a larger build, but it doesn't have any advantage. Every time, the little black mouse jumps high and rides on its back, biting and tearing at it. The wild mouse is completely unable to counterattack, and can only use the moment when the hamster falls off its back to launch a counterattack. However, the hamster always quickly reopens the distance between them before the wild mouse can make another attack, waiting for the next opportunity to strike!

  After several rounds, both sides had injuries - the little black's fur was dark in color and couldn't see how its injuries were; from Jianran's direction, it could only be seen that it chose to move to the right every time, and inferred that it might have been injured on the left paw or somewhere else. The wounds on the gray mouse's body were much more obvious, one of its ears was bitten off by Xiao Hei at the beginning, and now its body was also bitten with blood marks all over the place -

  When the two mice were tangled together, they knocked against the entire acrylic cage, making a loud noise. Their bodies were covered in blood, which had also splattered all over the cage - on the milky white floor, the hay bedding, the wood shavings, and even on the transparent acrylic walls of the cage. Everywhere was stained with shocking bloodstains, some of which had been smeared into streaks, while others remained as thick drops stuck in place...

  The blood color made Jin Yan's whole body stiffen as he crouched on the high floor.

  He only felt that at this moment, his brain was frantically screaming, as if someone was singing a song with an ultra-high pitch next to his ear; it was like someone was pulling and stirring the water in his brain, making his head ache and unable to rest - everything around him seemed to have returned to that day when he, still human, stood outside the audiovisual building, hearing Jiang Luo's terrified cry behind him and the massive shadow pressing towards him.

  In the last second, he saw Xu Qianqian's dazzling smile on the billboard, Jiang Luocheng frantically running towards him with a panicked face, and blood - yes, he thought he probably saw his own blood, that blood was like a small river flowing endlessly from his body. He was pressed under the billboard, able to hear Jiang Luocheng's collapsing roar outside.

  It's strange.

  The voice of Nasreddin was suddenly merged with the angry and painful cries of a small black or gray mouse next to his ear at this moment.

  As if it symbolized some ominous omen.

  His heart was racing, and he muttered unconsciously "don't do this", his body trembling as he leaned out of the small wooden hut that warned him "absolutely don't take a step out". When he lowered his head, he suddenly saw that at this moment on the second floor's partition board, there were bloodstains everywhere, the vegetables, nuts and grains from the food bowl scattered all over the ground, mixed with the fresh blood, making it impossible to distinguish their original appearance...

  The little black one was pressed under by the gray mouse.

  The old mouse's paws were firmly planted on its back.

  It was struggling, seemingly trying to climb up - but it was clearly injured somewhere on its body, with red blood flowing continuously from the bottom of its abdomen. Along with its struggles, a transparent acrylic board had streaks of blood drawn on it, which were quickly covered by new blood. The hamster's black abdominal hair was disheveled and wet, as if soaked in fresh blood.

  It was uncertain whether he had seen something even more terrifying, such as when Xiao Hei was dissected and something leaked out from inside.

  At that moment its mind was already empty.

  Before it realized what it had done, it was already standing at the top of the three-story staircase leading down to the second floor...

  When it regained consciousness and fear returned to its body, it had already rushed in front of that grey old mouse whose buttocks were bigger than the whole mouse!

  The hamster's whole body was trembling, unsure whether it was anger or fear - and then it felt that it had probably completed the most magnificent jump in its mouse life. It jumped high, its round body heavily colliding with the gray old mouse that was pressing on its companion, the gray old mouse apparently really didn't expect there to be another hamster in the cage, at this moment being hit unexpectedly, together with the colliding hamster, flying out horizontally.

  The two of them crashed into the wall on the second floor with a loud "bang"!

  The first floor's cage door was shaken open!

  He felt as if he had really crashed into Godzilla, his whole body was about to fall apart and every part of him hurt. The smell of the gray rat's blood, the stench of its rotting flesh, and the pungent odor from its body all pierced his nostrils at once, filling his brain with fear that made him come to his senses. He scrambled to his feet using his hands as well, and when he saw the gray rat convulsing on the wall of the cage, stretching out its claws and trying to get up after brushing off the food scattered over its head...

  It used its four limbs and frantically retreated backwards with a farting sound.

  He hadn't shrunk back a few steps when he bumped into a warm, damp and fluffy fur - the solid yet soft touch made him stiffen up entirely, without turning his head, letting the overwhelming bloody smell envelop him. He clearly heard Xiao Hei scolding in his ear with its usual calm and slightly arrogant tone: "Fatty, didn't you understand what I said? Didn't I tell you not to come down?"

  Everyone is a hamster, where did human language come from?

  Jin Ran's whole body trembled, wanting to refute Xiao Hei - but at this moment, he could clearly feel a wet, hot, and sticky substance sliding down his back, along the spine of his tightly attached belly fur. As it slid down, Jin Ran's heart also quickly fell into the valley with a "thud", and he didn't even dare to look back.

  "The gate was knocked open, count to three and you run outside on the first floor, don't look back -" Xiao Hei's voice was low and hoarse, with an unmistakable fatigue, "This time if you don't listen, I'll make sure your hamster gets pregnant afterwards."

  "I I I I I——"

  "What's with you? Ah, that guy is getting up," Jian felt a surge of power push his back from behind, "Ready, three... two..."

  He rushed out hastily.

  But not in the direction of the escape staircase.

  At the critical moment, he was like a real hamster with a handle on his bottom, bravely and stupidly blocking in front of his heavily injured comrade, rolling into a ball with the gray mouse as if they were going to die together - in the midst of chaos, he heard the sound of the food bowl being kicked over, Xiao Hei's vicious curses behind him - when it topped the gray mouse's belly, like an ox, and flipped it over onto the acrylic wall again, the hamster cage that was already unable to bear the weight shook and "clunked" as it fell down!

  The grey mouse turned its head and bit down hard on Jian Ran's back, the tearing pain instantly spreading throughout his body. As he felt dizzy and saw stars, Jian Ran suddenly heard a woman's shrill scream coming from outside the cage.

  At first, it thought it was just filming.

  But soon, in a daze, he heard what was probably Ronnie's woman shouting: "Jiang Chuan, your hamster cage has fallen over and a wild rat has run inside! Jiang Chuan, come quickly and take a look, there's so much blood!"

  No matter how I listen to this phrase, it doesn't seem like "Republic of China's Strange Stories", thought calmly and quietly while enduring the pain.

  It was probably a few seconds later that he heard the sound of someone's footsteps hastily approaching him - Jian Yan guessed that the situation inside the hamster cage must be particularly intense, because in addition to Ronnie's screams outside, he also heard Fang Yu take a sharp breath. The agent asked the innocent little assistant where he had gone and how he couldn't even watch a hamster cage properly, the little assistant stuttered wanting to explain, but soon, the noisy voices fell silent again.

  The people originally surrounding the hamster cage quickly dispersed.

  Right after that, a tall figure loomed over the entire cage - the newcomer was probably just rushed out of filming and ran over. He had his sleeves rolled up, with sweat dripping from his sturdy arm, which reached directly into the open cage door and grabbed the panicked gray mouse in one swift motion. All that could be heard was a faint "click" sound right next to her ear, and she only managed to catch a glimpse of the gray mouse's previously proud appearance before it hung its head in defeat, its brain twisted to one side.

  He was strangled to death on the spot.

  Jiang Chuan casually tossed the gray mouse aside, glanced at the blood-soaked back of Na Cha who was lying on his side, and furrowed his brow. He was about to grab it for a closer look when Na Cha suddenly dodged his hand and frantically scurried into another corner. It was then that Jiang Chuan finally saw another hamster lying in the shadows of the corner.

  It's as if he was soaked in blood.

  Ignoring the awkwardness of the hamster next to him, Jiang Chuan's eyebrows were furrowed so tightly they could pinch a fly to death. He turned his head and asked Fang Yu and the little assistant, who was now almost frightened out of their wits: "Is there a motorcycle?"

  Fang Yu was stunned for a second, then pushed his assistant beside him - the latter "oh oh" twice, with a pale face saying that in order to conveniently deliver cooling tea or medicinal drinks to Jiang Chuan and Fang Yu, he had borrowed a car in H city. Before Jiang Chuan could speak, he had already taken out the keys. At this time, Fang Yu was already on the phone asking where the nearest pet hospital to the film and television shooting base was.

  Jiang Chuan didn't say a word, took the motorcycle key, picked up the fallen hamster cage with one hand, and quickly ran towards the parking lot with steady steps - Fang Yu hung up the phone on this side, shouting an address while chasing after his butt.

  ……

  Experienced another midnight storm.

  But this time, it didn't care whether Jiang Chuan was going to slow down or if Jiang Chuan had run a red light - throughout the whole process, it just crouched beside Xiao Hei, and after intense fear, he calmed down instead, quickly using his hands and feet to stuff Xiao Hei's intestines that had fallen out of its body back in. It futilely stretched out its paws, gently pressing on the wound that was bleeding profusely - as if doing so could stop the bleeding.

  Jin Ran let Xiao Hei lean against him in an attempt to reduce the shaking caused by the motorcycle's rapid progress - when the wet, warm hamster fur stuck to him, also messing up his own fur with blood all over, he numbly thought: This was probably the first time they had leaned against each other so peacefully since Xiao Hei came to his side.

  It suddenly occurred to me that the first time they met, destined not to get along, this despicable black-bellied one-line toe was called -

  Fatty?

  "Huh?"

  "Get your paws off me, you're still going to make me bleed like this, don't be stupid."

  Leave it alone calmly.

  "You're quite soft."

  “……”

  "I knew it was like this, I would have slept on top of you every day."

  "Get out."

  In the roar of the motorcycle engine, Jian Ran seemed to hear Xiao Hei muttering "You just don't listen".

  When they arrived at the pet hospital, the doctor was clearly shocked by the state of the hamster and its owner's frantic attempts to save it. However, after Jiang Chuan said "whatever the cost", he temporarily put aside his shock, took over the hamster cage, and looked at Xiao Hei, realizing that moving him would only make things worse. The veterinarian directly opened the acrylic cage with a tool, and what surprised him was that as soon as he opened the cage, the milk tea that had been sticking to the black-bellied hamster's side suddenly moved aside to let him pass.

  It's as if he knew the vet was going to treat another hamster.

  "Is this IQ a bit high?" The veterinarian asked Jiang Chuan while examining Xiao Hei's condition without raising his head, "......How did it get bitten like this? ......Hamsters are very fierce and can't be bitten like this by milk tea, right? ——Also, hamsters can't be raised in cages, you're doing this and things will turn out like this——"

  "The pet store owner said it's okay as long as there is one male and one female."

  "That pet store owner must be blind," said the vet. "These two hamsters are males, you told me they were females?"

  "In short, it's not the hamsters biting each other. " Jiang Chuan furrowed his brow, which had never relaxed, "It's my fault, the cage was broken and didn't get fixed, so wild mice got in."

  The veterinarian's hands paused, and he gave Jiang Chuan a strange look, muttering "Damn, there's still this kind of thing". Then he asked Jiang Chuan to help him carefully place the cage on the pet operating table, turned on the shadowless lamp, and began suturing the hamster: "It didn't hurt the internal organs too much, but it lost too much blood. All we can do is suture it, whether it will be okay or not depends on luck - I think you'd better not have too high hopes, it really lost too much blood, look at this cage..."

  "I understand."

  The veterinarian shut his mouth.

  After stitching up Xiao Hei, he grabbed another fatter hamster to check - and found that this hamster was much better off, with only a bite wound on its back. After some disinfection treatment, the wound had stopped bleeding.

  When the vet put down the milk tea, he stared at the milk tea rolling and crawling back to the black-bellied hamster lying on the grass mat. The vet smiled: "The two hamsters have a good relationship."

  Jiang Chuan did not respond.

  The veterinarian took a look at the man and only then discovered that the man was still wearing something that was obviously a costume - looked him up and down, and suddenly said: "Ah, you're not that potato chip guy..."

  His words were cut off by a silent stare from Jiang Chuan before he could even finish speaking.

  For the next half hour, the entire pet hospital was eerily quiet, except for a few phone calls from the crew that Jiang Chuan answered to discuss some matters. The whole process was wordless... He knew that this was just him and himself quietly waiting for something.

  But life is not a TV series, and bad things still happen.

  He could distinctly feel the body next to him growing colder and colder, and even when the vet turned on the heating, it couldn't stop its trend of getting cold.

  He cautiously didn't dare speak, but instead pretended as if he hadn't noticed anything and continuously asked the guys beside him: Do you feel a bit better?

  Xiao Hei still had a smug look on his face and replied viciously: No.

  The conversation is going smoothly as if everything is really getting better.

  Until the very end, he suddenly felt that the frequency of the slight tremors in the body leaning against him had increased somewhat, and the hair matted with blood also began to feel cold and hard. The tactile sensation on his back, which was originally evenly undulating, became less intense. He turned his head around and called out in a low voice, "Little Black".

  "Don't talk to me, let me be quiet for a bit, okay?" Little Hei's calm voice sounded, "Fatty, you're really a troublesome guy. When I wake up later, it's best if you don't let me catch you, otherwise I'll make sure your wife gets pregnant."

  “……”

  Xiao Hei said with his eyes closed.

  I thought I'd say it's good for you to come and sit in wait, but unfortunately, Xiao Hei never woke up again.

  It ended with Jian Ran saying something so unromantic, vicious and despicable.

  Not sentimental at all.

  But in the end, he still leaned against its cold body and cried like an idiot.