The silver-gray snakeskin lay quietly beneath a clump of grass, like a discarded strip of burlap. Its fine scales shimmered with mysterious colors in the cat's eyes.
Perhaps because it was near the lake and the air was heavy with moisture, the snakeskin was somewhat slick. That was why the black cat had failed to plant his paw firmly and slipped to the ground just now.
The black-and-white cats, who had been fooling around moments ago, both froze the instant they saw the snakeskin.
There was no other reason. This snakeskin was precisely the trace left behind by Liu Feifei's pet snake, which they had been searching for so long. Zheng Qing, Jiang Yu, and the others had seen that snake more than once, and its scent matched exactly. There was no way they could mistake it.
The two cats fell silent for several seconds. Then the Little White Cat let out a shriek and bolted, vanishing into the bushes in the blink of an eye.
It took Zheng Qing a while to realize that the Little White Cat had run away.
"It's just a snakeskin, not an actual snake. How could she be scared that badly?!" The black cat twitched his whiskers and muttered to himself. He assumed the Little White Cat had been frightened off by the snakeskin. That was hardly surprising. To a Little White Cat barely a foot tall, Liu Feifei's pet snake, as thick as an arm, was naturally terrifying. Even the scent lingering on its shed skin was enough to frighten away most insects and small animals by the lake.
Maybe next time, I should wrap a snakeskin around my neck and see whether that lawless Little White Cat still dares lay a paw on me. The thought drifted through Zheng Qing's mind.
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