There's a chat group for pets in my neighborhood.

Behind Building 43 of Tiancheng Residential Area.

Tanuki looked at Lu Fang's words in the group chat and then examined the orange cat in front of him.

Looking at it this way, it's true that there's a lot of protection money lost in Tiancheng Community, more than enough to feed an orange cat.

But now the orange cat is lying on the ground shivering with a flat belly, and it's obvious that it hasn't eaten for a while.

"Did you arrest the wrong person?"

Tanuki turned his head and looked at the sheriff standing to the side.

It was a black and white cat with a small hat on its head. It looked at the orange cat with a serious expression and said softly, "I definitely didn't catch the wrong cat. The traces this guy left behind match the traces of the previous theft of protection money perfectly. Don't you trust my criminal investigation skills?"

"That's true." Tanuki shook its head in annoyance. As a military officer, it wasn't good at thinking. If it wanted to follow its own ideas, it didn't matter whether the orange cat ate it or not. As long as the protection fee was involved, it would just cripple it and throw it out.

"So what do we do now?"

"Don't take any action yet, we need to figure things out first." The sheriff walked gently to the orange cat and slowly paced around it.

"Since you've been caught, according to the rules of the underworld, stealing protection money means you'll get your legs broken and be kicked out." The sheriff's eerie green vertical pupils stared at the orange cat, his voice calm yet carrying an inexplicable sense of oppression: "Don't you have anything to say?"

The orange cat curled its shriveled body into a hedgehog-like ball, burying its head tightly in its paws. It didn't respond, but just trembled incessantly.

"You'll regret it if you don't listen to reason! Why are you wasting your breath talking to this guy?" The raccoon dog on the side completely lost its patience, hunched its back, and sharp nails emerged from its paw pads, flashing with a cold light: "I've killed at least eighty or a hundred of these unruly brats before."

"Wait." The sheriff suddenly stuck out his tail and stopped Tanuki.

It squinted its eyes slightly, brought its nose close to the orange cat, sniffed carefully, and then looked down to examine the orange cat's dirty paw pads.

"Interesting." A glint of light flashed in the sheriff's originally serious eyes: "That kid in the group was right. Not only did this guy not eat it, but it seems he also took the cat food somewhere."

"The cat food and canned food were taken away? If you ask me, beat it half to death, and it will naturally confess what it needs to confess." Tanuki slowly licked its paw, exuding murderous intent. Ignoring the sheriff's obstruction, it leaped high into the air and then lashed out with a claw at the orange cat.

"Brother Tanuki, I told you to wait, didn't you understand?"

At the critical moment, the sheriff stepped between the two cats.

Tanuki is indeed the toughest fighter in Tiancheng Community, but Wuyun Taxue, who holds the title of Sheriff, is also quite powerful.

"You talk too much nonsense, it's annoying me. Don't let this guy waste our time!" Tanuki's patience had clearly run out. Even if the sheriff stood in its way, it would still tear the orange cat to shreds.

Seeing that words alone wouldn't stop Tanuki, the sheriff sighed, and also bent over, assuming a fighting stance.

The sheriff and Tanuki were instantly locked in combat, and in the blink of an eye, only two figures could be seen entangled with each other.

The orange cat standing nearby clearly hadn't expected things to turn out this way.

It cautiously raised its head, glanced at the two cats warily, and tentatively took a step forward.

But the sheriff and Tanuki were clearly engrossed in their conversation and had no time to notice what the orange cat was doing nearby.

After confirming that the two cats were not paying attention to him, the orange cat dared not delay and tiptoed toward the bushes in the distance.

Soon, after turning a corner, it took off running as fast as it could, afraid of being caught again.

"Alright, alright, that orange cat is gone, stop fighting."

As the orange cat disappeared, the sheriff and Tanuki stopped what they were doing and gazed meaningfully in the direction the cat had vanished.

"Not bad, we haven't fought in so many years, and you're still as agile as ever." Brother Tanuki put his arm around the sheriff's shoulder and praised him.

"You little rascal, you're quick on the uptake. I almost missed your line." The sheriff's usually cold face only became a little more lively when he was with Tanuki.

"Come on, we used this trick a lot when we were partners before. Since we can't get anything out of him by asking, let's have that guy take us to see what he's hiding."

The two cats, arm in arm, followed the trail left by the orange cat.

On the other side, Lu Fang, having waited a long time without receiving any messages from Brother Tanuki or the Sheriff, had no choice but to close the group chat.

Looking up, I saw that the clock on the wall was pointing to six o'clock.

"I'm off work!"

If you're not proactive about leaving get off work, there's something wrong with your brain.

When Qin Zhuyan looked up again, she could only see Lu Fang's back as he pushed open the door.

This guy.

She could only smile helplessly and begin the final cleanup work at the store.

Pushing Pudding back into the room and sorting everything, Qin Zhuyan walked to the counter, picked up the little yellow duck that had been sitting on it for three months, and suddenly remembered the scene of the dogs scrambling for toys this afternoon. She chuckled and then resignedly put the little yellow duck away.

"Lu Fang."

Qin Zhuyan murmured the name, feeling a little curious.

"Buzzing..."

Just as she was lost in thought, her phone vibrated. She put down the toy, took out her phone, and turned on the screen, where a Ragdoll cat's image was jumping around.

You can also see previous chat logs above.

"Sis, please, Lu Fang is a really good guy, please let him join the company."

"Alright, alright, but we have to make this clear first: if he doesn't work efficiently, I can fire him."

"Don't worry, sis!"

A new chat log popped up.

"Sis, how's Lu Fang doing at work? Isn't he reliable?"

"It's alright." Qin Zhuyan tapped the screen lightly, the image of him determined to stock up on Ugly Mouse toys flashing through her mind.

"That's good. I didn't lie to you, did I? I've calculated it for Brother Lu Fang. His coming here will bring you good fortune." Xu Yi was still chattering on the other end. She was off today and had just finished showering. She was lying on the bed in her pajamas, her long, shapely legs crossed, their lines smooth.

"You little rascal, you can even do this?" Qin Zhuyan took it as just joking and didn't take it to heart: "Oh right, don't forget you promised me that the rent will be reduced by a thousand yuan per month."

"Don't worry, I'm a man of my word!" Xu Yi patted her chest, finally relieved.

She had worried a lot about Lu Fang's job before, and thought there was no way to help him. But when she went home, she heard her parents say that their rented storefront had been turned into a pet shop called "Hello Pet Shop". So she immediately came up with a plan and persuaded her parents to give her the right to collect rent. Only then did she contact Qin Zhuyan and arrange a job for Lu Fang.

When she first joined the company and was bullied by the unscrupulous bald Cui, it was Lu Fang who stood up for her, taught her how to treat pets, and even took her to feed the stray cats in the neighborhood.

Such a good veterinarian shouldn't have ended up like this!

Thinking of this, Xu Yi opened Lu Fang's chat interface, wanting to ask about his recent situation, but her attention was drawn to the chat background image.

That was a photo she secretly took of Lu Fang undergoing surgery.

But then again, he looks so handsome performing surgery in the clinic.

Xu Yi pressed her phone against her chest, grinning foolishly, her eyes practically overflowing with love.

However, Lu Fang, who was eating chicken leg rice, was completely unaware of this and instead sneezed three or four times in a row.

"That's strange, could it be that the pets in the group are talking about me?"