Chapter 14 Jazz Dance

After the selection was complete, white light converged in the glass column, ultimately presenting a pair of football shoes that looked quite old.

【Name: Jazz Dance】
【Type: Armor】
【Quality: Fine】
【Defense: Weak】
【Attribute: None】
【Effect: Increases the limit of running speed and significantly reduces the consumption of stamina when walking or running for long periods】
【Remarks: These shoes belonged to an unprecedented winger, the first European Footballer of the Year, an outstanding dribbling master. In his more than thirty-year career, he was never shown a red or yellow card. Another athlete known as the King of Football once commented: "He is the one who taught us how to play football."】

"Not bad... and there are no equipment requirements," Feng Bujue muttered. "Even if I get stronger foot armor later, I can sell this for a good price."

When he directly equipped the shoes, he heard a system notification: 【When the equipped part contains "fashion peripherals", you can select your preferred appearance in the menu】

Feng Bujue checked it out. The meaning of this function was that players could choose to display the system's own shoe appearance or display the equipped shoes. When the store opens in the future, there will be many fashion peripherals on the shelves. He believed that by then, there would be many players who would be wrapped from head to toe in RMB-bought exotic costumes, not showing the equipment, but showing their preferred style.

But in the closed beta, before the store opened, more people chose to display the equipment. This was also a kind of vanity. People always like to show off things they have that others don't, and the envious, jealous, and hateful eyes of others can bring a considerable degree of satisfaction.

After tidying up his space, Feng Bujue disconnected his neural connection.

Coming out of the game pod, about two hours had passed in real time. At this time, the night was deep, the wind was howling outside the window, and the stars could not be seen in the city's sky. Of course, Feng Bujue rarely looked up anyway.

Young people in big cities rarely go to sleep before midnight, regardless of whether they have to get up early the next day. They would rather doze off on crowded subways or buses at six in the morning than sacrifice the time after work that belongs to them. Feng Bujue was a typical night owl. He got up at noon every day and usually didn't sleep until nearly four in the morning. He considered the early hours of the morning to be the time when his inspiration was at its peak.

But today, although it was still two or three hours before midnight, Feng Bujue suddenly felt the urge to create. He brewed a whole pot of coffee, sat down at his computer, and began to type on the keyboard.

His pen name was "Bujue," and the novel he was serializing for the magazine was called *Second-Rate Detective and Cat*. In fact, he originally just wanted to write a story about a first-rate detective. But in his time, commercial novels had to have some gimmicks, just like many comics used female characters to attract attention. The novel industry also had to follow market rules. No matter how many years passed, people's curiosity and desire for beauty would always be a breakthrough.

When Feng Bujue was poor and destitute, he had also considered writing some erotic novels. As a guy who claimed to be an artist, he could easily find characters who seemed to resonate with him in spirit, such as Millet (a French painter who once had to exchange sketches for shoes and oil paintings for a bed due to financial constraints, and also painted some sensual works to cater to the sensory stimulation of the bourgeoisie) or Titian (well, this one was out of interest).

In short, Feng Bujue finally compromised and added gimmicks so that he could write the detective stories that he liked and was good at writing. The setting of this book, *Second-Rate Detective and Cat*, was just to split one protagonist into two characters. Originally, the protagonist of this book should have been a shrewd guy, but now, he had become a kind but incompetent second-rate detective, until one day, he discovered that his cat could talk, and only he could understand it, and that cat happened to have god-like reasoning abilities...

The editor of the magazine even praised Feng Bujue, saying that his setting was well done, and the humorous interactions between the protagonist and the cat in the novel could dilute the overall dark style of the detective novel. Feng Bujue also gradually discovered the benefits of writing this way: first, it could buffer the tense plot, and second, it could increase the word count...

In addition to this serial, Feng Bujue was also writing a long story, the kind of published novel that could really earn him some money, which he mentioned earlier. Originally, the creation of that book had almost completely stalled, and he hadn't written a word for a month, but tonight, Feng Bujue had inspiration again and began to continue piecing together the story called *Nightmare at Both Ends*.

…………

The night passed without incident. The next morning, as dawn was about to break, Feng Bujue saved the document and finally stood up from his computer desk. He stretched and yawned, glancing at the time. It was already 4:40 in the morning. Feng Bujue then remembered that yesterday was Qingming Festival... Dream Inc. had specially chosen such a day to start the Thriller Paradise closed beta, which could be considered a promotional method used by an online game that sells horror.

Since it was already this late, the breakfast stalls outside the neighborhood should be set up. Feng Bujue's mind was still filled with various plots from the novel, and he was not tired at all. He decided to go out for something to eat before coming back to sleep.

He grabbed his keys and some change (he only had change left) and went downstairs. Fifteen minutes later, he was walking home with a scallion pancake and fried dough sticks in hand.

When he returned to the neighborhood, he could already see some elderly residents coming out for their morning exercises, or rushing early to line up in front of the community hospital.

Feng Bujue rarely had contact with his neighbors. At this time of day, he was usually fast asleep. For him, the day began at noon.

"Meow~" A black and white calico cat on the side of the road meowed at him as he passed by.

Feng Bujue stopped and stared at the cat for a few seconds, confirming that, indeed... its eyes were fixed on the breakfast in his hand.

"I say..." Feng Bujue came to the cat and squatted down, looking at the stray cat without a collar and said softly, "You eat fried dough too?"

"Meow." This cat didn't seem to be afraid of strangers at all, and this sound seemed to be answering "Yes."

"These days, I only have clear soup noodles to eat," Feng Bujue said, breaking off a small piece of scallion pancake and handing it to the cat's mouth. "This is the only greasy thing I could buy with my last few bucks."

The cat stretched its head forward a little, sniffed the food Feng Bujue offered, and then ate the piece of scallion pancake in one bite. It licked its tongue and then meowed again, as if that one bite wasn't enough.

Feng Bujue broke off another small piece of pancake for it. "You don't look cute at all, and you don't look like a valuable breed. How dare you directly beg for food from a strange human, and you're even asking for more..." He mocked, but still instinctively broke off the next piece of scallion pancake and quickly handed it over. "Go search the trash cans properly, you bastard!"

Speaking of trash cans, Feng Bujue couldn't help but glance at the three classified trash cans in front of the apartment building. Those cup-shaped trash cans with four sides were very tall, about 1.4 meters high, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. If a cat wanted to jump in to find things, it had to take advantage of when the trash can was relatively full, otherwise it might jump in but not be able to climb out. If it was dumped into the garbage truck together, it would basically become a dead cat.

"Sigh..." Feng Bujue sighed and simply tore up half a pancake, sprinkled it on his palm, and stretched it out in front of the cat. "Actually, it's not easy for you stray cats either. I heard that in winter, in our neighborhood, a cat hid under a car to keep warm with the residual heat of the engine. In the morning, when the unsuspecting car owner started the car, it was crushed to death." He touched the little cat's head. There were some things he preferred to say to cats. He couldn't say them to humans. "You stray cats only live an average of three years. As for me, I might die suddenly at any time due to an unknown brain disease. Today, we have a chance..." He took the remaining half of the pancake, took a bite, and then said vaguely, "...we can share a pancake, maybe, in the next life, we can be brothers..."

"Xiao Feng, is that you?" A familiar voice sounded from behind.

Feng Bujue turned his face and saw his landlady, Aunt Liu. Aunt Liu's surname was Liu, and she had retired five years ago. Her old partner's surname was He, and he was a retired cadre. Although Aunt Liu usually spoke a little bluntly, she was actually a nice person.

This Aunt Liu lived in the same building as Feng Bujue. She had three apartments under her name, one on the other side of the neighborhood, which was also rented out. Of the two apartments in this building, Aunt Liu thought the thirteenth floor was unlucky, so she lived on the eighth floor herself, and the other room was rented to Feng Bujue long-term.

"It really is you. I was worried I had mistaken you," Aunt Liu said, holding a vegetable basket in her hand, presumably just back from the market. "Today, the sun must have risen in the west. I can actually see you downstairs so early in the morning?" She turned her gaze to the little calico cat, and the topic also turned to it. "I'm telling you, Xiao Feng, not that I'm saying, but how can you feed stray cats? If you feed it once today, five or six squatters will pop up here tomorrow. Aren't you causing trouble for the other neighbors?"

"That makes sense," Feng Bujue thought for a few seconds and replied, "Looks like there's only one way..." He held the breakfast in one hand and picked up the dirty stray cat with the other. "Take it home and raise it."

Aunt Liu was stunned: "You kid really know how to make your own decisions, huh? Did you ask me?"

"Look... in our neighborhood, we can raise dogs. This cat doesn't even go outside..." Feng Bujue squeezed out a smile, trying to act cute.

"You really want to raise it?" Aunt Liu originally thought Feng Bujue was just saying it casually. Suddenly, her expression changed slightly, and she looked at Feng Bujue's face, then at the cat. "Hey... don't mention it, but you two really look alike." Her gaze shifted down a bit. "And this cat is male too."

Feng Bujue's mouth twitched: "Auntie, the 'too' you used in that sentence is problematic... I'm 'male'..."

"Auntie isn't going to argue with you about words. You're a cultured person, but I'm not," Aunt Liu said. "Let's make it clear first. It's okay if you really want to raise this cat, but your den is already messy enough. You have to pay more attention to hygiene if you raise a cat. Most of the people in this building are elderly. If anyone comes to me and says your place smells..."

"Then I'll cook it and eat it," Feng Bujue interjected.

"Meow!" The little calico cat seemed to understand and meowed unhappily in Feng Bujue's arms.

"Cook your head! You can't cook it even if you cook it." Aunt Liu started walking while saying, "Let's go, let's go..."

"Where to?" Feng Bujue said.

"To the neighborhood's pet clinic to get it vaccinated," Aunt Liu said. "What if it has feline distemper?"

"Uh..." Feng Bujue hesitated for a few seconds. "It's like this... I'm a little short on money lately..."

"When aren't you short on money, you kid?" Aunt Liu interrupted. "Alright, alright, Auntie will help you pay for it first, and you can pay me back when you pay the rent." She had just started walking when she stopped again. "Look at my brain, let me go upstairs and put down the vegetables first."

…………

When Feng Bujue returned home, it was already seven in the morning. He not only brought back a cat, but also a sandbox, cat food, plastic bowls, toys, and a bunch of other things...

"Let's not be brothers in the next life," Feng Bujue held the little calico cat up to his eyes. "You should reincarnate as a woman and repay my kindness with your body."

"Meow." The little calico cat yawned lazily, its expression as if it was looking down on Feng Bujue.

As Feng Bujue tidied up, he pressed the answering machine button. The recording started: "You have, 1, message."

After the dull voice was a beep, and then Wang Tanzhi's voice came from inside: "Jue-ge, you're not answering the phone again? Today's a day off, I'll come to your house in the afternoon and bring you some meat to eat. You'll be there anyway, so it's settled."

At this moment, the little calico cat jumped onto the phone, scratched the phone's buttons with its paw, and sniffed it with its nose. Then, it seemed to lose interest and jumped onto the sofa and lay down.

"Sounds like I'm always holed up at home with nothing to do," Feng Bujue muttered unhappily, but in fact... he was very free.