Chapter 17 Infiltration

"What's here?" Xiao Tan asked, looking at the large X that Brother Jue was pointing at on the map.

"That's the end of the corridor on the second floor. There's a sliding window on the wall," Feng Bujue replied. "Earlier, I used those few minutes of 'going to the bathroom' to set up a little trick on the window..."

"Using transparent tape?" Xiao Tan immediately reacted.

"Heh... pretty clever," Brother Jue said with a smile.

"I remember you played this trick back in the second grade," Xiao Tan said. "That night, you snuck into the school and sawed through the desks and chairs of several boys in the next class overnight..."

"You remember that so well," Feng Bujue said. "I'd almost forgotten about it myself."

"I basically remember all the bad things you used to do..." Xiao Tan said, a thoughtful look on his face. "Hmm... I don't know why."

"Heh... maybe your 'conscience' has a surplus, so you took on my share of 'sins' as well," Feng Bujue said with a laugh.

"Actually... I think... you definitely have a conscience too..." Xiao Tan said, "It's just that your views are a little different from normal people..."

"Hmph..." Feng Bujue revealed a meaningful smile. "Perhaps..."

Two seconds later, he brought the topic back to the "serious business" at hand: "Alright, now that you know my method, let's stop the small talk and I'll assign the tasks..."

Saying that, Brother Jue looked at Xiong Ji: "Xiong Ji, you're the heaviest here, and your clothes are both conspicuous and inconvenient, so you'll have to be at the bottom of the human ladder."

"Huh?" Xiong Ji was stunned for a second. "What human ladder?"

It turned out that he still hadn't figured out the meaning of the "transparent tape trick"... so he had no idea what the two of them were talking about.

Of course, he couldn't be completely blamed for this. Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi had many years of tacit understanding. There were many things that they could understand without saying them. But with Xiong Ji's IQ and EQ... if you don't explain things completely, he won't understand.

"At the end of the corridor on the second floor, there's a window that looks closed, but it can actually be opened..." Xiao Tan was still patient, and he immediately turned to explain to Xiong Ji. "We'll go in from there."

"Oh..." Xiong Ji responded, seemingly understanding.

Feng Bujue continued, "Considering that Hayatarou's hands aren't very convenient for opening windows, the person at the top of the human ladder has to be me." He raised his cat paw and waved it in front of the bear and hawk. "Besides... I'm light and not afraid of falling from heights. It's most reasonable for me to be at the top."

"Understood." Xiao Tan naturally had no objections to this.

"Uh... Cat-sanrou-sensei, how do we get in then?" Xiong Ji asked another very low-level question.

"Is your round head full of shit..." Brother Jue's desire to mock was ignited once again. "I'm already inside, so what do you think?"

"Uh..." Xiong Ji thought for two seconds. "Could it be... you'll throw a rope down from the second floor and pull us up?"

*Pa--*

This time, Brother Jue didn't slap Xiong Ji's bear face, but instead pressed his palm against his own face. "Gotta be patient... twelve more chapters... after twelve chapters, I'm gonna stab him to death..." he muttered viciously in a voice that only he could hear.

"Sigh..." Xiao Tan patted Xiong Ji on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Since Cat-sanrou is already inside, he can just go back to the first floor and open the front door for us, right..."

"Ah! That's right!" Xiong Ji clapped his hands.

"Alright, alright... let's move." Feng Bujue took out two flashlights from his pocket and gave one to Xiao Tan and one to Xiong Ji. "Put them away first, and turn them on after we get inside... When you turn them on, don't forget to cover the front with your hand, so the beam of light doesn't shoot out all at once."

"Eh? Aren't you going to use one?" Wang Tanzhi asked, looking at Brother Jue with suspicion.

"I'm a cat, have you forgotten?" Feng Bujue replied.

...

Five minutes later...

Climbing over Meowmi's outer wall didn't take too much time for these three night thieves. It was just a very ordinary low wall, and with Feng Bujue's cat-like skills, he could easily jump onto the top of the wall. Once one person was up, it was much easier for the other two. The one who went up could help pull up their companions as they climbed the wall.

After entering the wall, the three quickly and quietly passed through a not-so-large backyard...

At this hour of early morning, everything was silent, and even the slightest noise would be much more noticeable than during the day. Therefore, the three of them had to be extra careful, otherwise, they could easily stir things up.

"Hmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmm... hey!" After arriving at the wall, Feng Bujue lowered his voice and made six gestures to Xiao Tan and Xiong Ji, accompanied by small, humming sounds.

The reactions of Xiao Tan and Xiong Ji after seeing that set of gestures were the same. They both stared at Brother Jue with wide eyes, their expressions as if to ask, "What are you doing?"

"Sigh..." Feng Bujue shook his head and simply spoke, "You, here, squat down securely, you, over there, prepare to run." As he spoke, he repeated the gestures he had just made.

"You could have just said it..." Xiao Tan whispered back.

*Pa--*

"Eh? Why did you hit me?" The next second, Xiong Ji was slapped for no apparent reason.

But when Feng Bujue hit him, he was looking at Wang Tanzhi.

"Hey... is this psychological intimidation?" Xiao Tan muttered.

"All of you [BEEP--] stop talking nonsense and get moving," Feng Bujue replied irritably.

The two couldn't resist him, exchanged a glance, and then acted accordingly...

A true "three-person human ladder" is a technical skill that requires a lot of coordination. In theory, even ordinary people can use this skill to climb to very high heights. To give a more extreme example... Rantaro, Amaru, and Shinbei (all from *Nintama Rantarou*) have used this move to climb extremely high cliffs.

And right now, Cat-sanrou, Hayatarou, and Xiong Ji only needed to get to the second floor, using a three-person human ladder shouldn't be too difficult (if they weren't designed to be elementary school students, maybe a two-person human ladder would have been enough)...

"We're ready~"

Two minutes later, Xiao Tan, already riding on Xiong Ji's shoulders, called out softly to Brother Jue, who was a few meters away.

At this time, Xiong Ji straightened his back, bent his legs, and stood in a horse stance, his hands stacked together with his palms facing up, ready to be used as a foothold for his companion.

Xiao Tan's posture wasn't easy either. In addition to using his waist and feet to stabilize his body, he also had to extend his wings forward to provide a "second layer" of footholds.

"Okay... I'm coming..." Feng Bujue responded when he saw that his companions were ready, and took off.

As the saying goes, one should strike while the iron is hot. When performing a movement with a certain degree of difficulty that requires strength, endurance, and skill, the probability of success on the first try is the highest.

Feng Bujue naturally understood this, so he went all out from the start, bringing his concentration to the limit...

In the blink of an eye, two "poof poof" sounds (the sound of paw pads landing isn't loud) could be heard...

A swift black shadow, light as a cat, leaped up.

It wasn't until he shot into the air that Feng Bujue realized... his body was more useful than he had imagined.

A cat is a cat. Although it has been given anthropomorphic treatment, many characteristics are still retained. For example... during the day, when Feng Bujue saw a reflective glass bottle on the ground, he had an inexplicable desire to go over and play with it for a while; also, when he saw a regular, high-speed, back-and-forth moving object, he wanted to rush up and stop it; the most outrageous thing was... he passed by a fruit stall today, smelled the scent of oranges, and then involuntarily ran away...

In short, "Cat-sanrou" still retained many of the characteristics of a cat.

In addition to those "cute points" that made Brother Jue feel a little embarrassed, there were also many useful skills... night vision, climbing ability, balance, a flexible body, and claws that could injure people when necessary, were all things that Brother Jue was happy to see.

"Hmph... this is really easy..." Feng Bujue easily clung to the windowsill, feeling that his body wasn't heavy at all and that he could support himself with one arm.

Soon, he placed the paw pads of his other claw on the window and pulled it open...

Turning over and entering the house, he looked ahead.

The darkness in the second-floor corridor was completely ineffective for Feng Bujue. Not to mention that he had already memorized 90% of the terrain and distances when he was here during the day. Even now, his light-gathering eyes could directly see everything in the house by relying on a little moonlight shining in from outside.

*Poof poof poof poof--*

Feng Bujue took off his shoes (because he was an anthropomorphic character, he was wearing shoes, just like Xiong Ji in the previous case), and moved quickly through the house on all fours. The paw pads under his feet made only a slight "poof poof" sound on the floor, almost silent.

In less than a minute, Brother Jue felt his way down to the first floor in the dark and stood at the front door.

There would be a little noise when opening the lock. Even if the sound wasn't loud, the collision of metal objects should be very noticeable in this dark night.

Therefore, Feng Bujue's movements when opening the door were very slow, trying to minimize the sound of the lock popping open.

It took him a minute to go downstairs, but it took him a full two minutes to open the door...

Two minutes later, the door opened.

Outside the door were two figures who had been waiting for a long time.

"Hmm..." This time, Feng Bujue really didn't speak. It was fine to say a few words outside, the sound would dissipate, but not inside. "Hmm hmm..."

He winked and hummed a few times, signaling Xiao Tan and Xiong Ji to come inside.

When the three of them were all standing inside, Brother Jue used a very light and slow method... to close the front door again.