Ryan Carter and Violet Grant, who were both working hard on their breakfast, stopped their chopsticks at the same time and looked together at Little Reed standing awkwardly at the door. The words “I don’t even have half a mouse in my house,” which someone had boasted with one hand on the wall and the other on their hip at a certain time and place last month, were remembered crystal clear by the two kids!

Seeing the looks from the two children, Little Reed became even more embarrassed. He coughed and said to Mrs. Carter, “I actually mentioned this to Carter just yesterday.”

Mrs. Carter didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. Having someone borrow their cat was a good thing—it meant their cat was capable, which gave Mrs. Carter a strange sense of pride.

So Mrs. Carter waved her hand grandly, “It’s no big deal. Just come and take the cat whenever you want to borrow it.”

Logan Bennett, Ryan Carter, Violet Grant: “……” Whenever Mr. Carter isn’t home, Mrs. Carter is always this dictatorial.

“Thank you so much, Ms. Grant! I’ll come over after dinner tonight to take Heitan. Ah, Ms. Grant, you have no idea, that mouse at my place is driving me to a nervous breakdown.” With permission granted, Little Reed instantly swept away his gloom and returned to his room in satisfaction.

A trumpet-flower-like smile bloomed on Mrs. Carter’s face. “That’s the good thing about having a cat!”

Ryan Carter lowered his head and poked at his little porcelain bowl with his chopsticks, mimicking Little Reed’s words from before in a muffled voice: “I don’t even have half a mouse in my house—”

Mrs. Carter lightly tapped Ryan Carter on the head. “Eat your noodles!”

Violet Grant pursed her lips, looking quite unhappy.

That evening, around eight o’clock, Little Reed came over to borrow the cat. Without Mrs. Carter needing to say anything, Logan Bennett walked across to the other side on his own. Sooner or later, it had to be dealt with—otherwise, wouldn’t all those white mice have been trained for nothing?

Ryan Carter was still cheering at the door: “Heitan, go for it! Show them what you’ve got!”

Mrs. Carter turned around, face stern: “Go do your homework! If you get even one wrong, your allowance is cut in half!”

Meanwhile, Logan Bennett followed Little Reed into the house.

The moment he entered, Logan Bennett felt a sense of familiarity—damn, what a mess! Just like his own place back in the day.

On his second glance, he saw some familiar creatures.

As soon as Logan Bennett walked in, he saw three cockroaches: one had just crawled into the bathroom, another crawled out from under the cabinet but, sensing someone’s presence, scurried back in, and the third—closest to Logan Bennett—froze when it saw him, twitched its long, threadlike antennae, then quickly darted into a pile of magazines.

As one of the oldest insects on Earth—appearing even before dinosaurs and living alongside dinosaurs and trilobites—with the freakish ability to survive nine days without a head, the nickname “Xiao Qiang” is truly fitting for cockroaches. It’s said their vitality keeps evolving; who knows what they’ll become in the future.

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[Fun Fact]: Cockroaches reproduce both sexually and asexually. Some female cockroaches, after mating once, become hermaphroditic and continue to lay eggs. So, if you don’t like cockroaches and find one at home, kill it immediately—otherwise, in one or two weeks, you might have a whole new batch of “Xiao Qiang” on your hands.

Chapter 5: Wild, Flashy, Cool, and Arrogant

Little Reed also saw those cockroaches at the door. At that moment, he was imagining the grand scene of a black cat pouncing on cockroaches. Unfortunately, the black cat in front of him merely glanced calmly, then jumped onto a relatively clean chair, curled up, and closed its eyes to rest—without even glancing at the still-warm taro pork ribs and sweet-and-sour pork on the dining table.

Little Reed instantly felt like he’d been choked. He looked again at Logan Bennett, who was lying on the chair with his eyes closed and clearly not planning to move, then at the uncovered food on the table. After thinking it over, he decided not to bother, turned off the living room light, and shuffled into his room.

After sitting down, Little Reed opened a community forum and found a post he’d made a few days ago, replying to a certain comment: “Nonsense, my mouse doesn’t eat cockroaches, and the cat I brought over ignores them too!”

Ever since he discovered there were mice at home and his mousetrap wasn’t working, Little Reed’s first thought was to post online for help. Buying mousetraps and glue boards were suggestions from netizens. One commenter even summarized why mice had gotten smarter: “Animals that survived SARS have much higher intelligence and vitality. Those without the smarts or survival skills were wiped out by humans during the SARS outbreak.”

So, after both glue boards and mousetraps failed, and not wanting to buy poison, the most common advice was to get a cat. That’s how Little Reed ended up borrowing a cat from the Jiao family.

Among the commenters supporting the cat idea, one person who liked to show off their pet cat had said, “Cats and mice are also natural enemies of cockroaches—they’ll hunt cockroaches too.” Little Reed was now arguing with this person.

“If you watch, you’ll see—even cockroaches are ignored. That cat definitely won’t catch mice either, and even if it wants to, it might not be able to.” That was the other commenter’s reply.

“We’ll just wait and see!” Little Reed pounded the keyboard, his fingers hitting the keys as if he wished he could poke the other person directly.

While Little Reed was busy arguing on the forum, Logan Bennett opened his eyes, curled his paw, and silently watched the sharp claws peeking out from between his toes.