Chapter 58: Raincoat Man
It was almost ten o’clock when Vivian Lowell arrived at Tanya’s Pet Hospital.
She glanced at her phone and saw one missed call and several unread messages.
Opening them, Vivian found the missed call was from Julian Faulkner. Among the unread messages, Grandma Faulkner had texted to tell her to stay safe and go to bed early, while Julian had asked where she had gone.
Seeing the time, Vivian figured Grandma Faulkner was already asleep, so she didn’t reply to her. Instead, she explained her situation to Julian.
"There’s an emergency at the pet hospital. I had to come over."
"Okay."
Julian replied so quickly that Vivian was a little surprised.
She wondered if he was just sitting there playing on his phone.
It was still raining when she got out of the car.
The rain had started shortly after Vivian left the house, causing a bit of a traffic jam along the way. There also seemed to have been a traffic accident somewhere on the road. Vivian had been worried sick the whole way. By the time she arrived, Eleanor Rhodes was still busy inside.
"Tanya?"
Vivian pushed the door open and walked in. Eleanor, who had been discussing something with a few vets, immediately walked over. She looked upset and more than a little angry.
"Vivian, come with me."
Eleanor grabbed Vivian’s hand and pulled her to the hospital’s front desk.
The computer on the desk was paused on a surveillance frame. It showed a man wearing a raincoat with the hood pulled up, carrying a large cardboard box.
Seeing this image, Vivian immediately understood what was going on. It seemed this raincoat-clad man was the one who had dropped off the sick cats.
"Is he the one who brought the sick cats?" Vivian asked.
Eleanor nodded. She then played the full surveillance footage, pointing at the man in the raincoat. "Look, he came by during the day too."
She pointed to a daytime clip of the hospital for Vivian to see. It was early in the morning, shortly after dawn, before the pet hospital had even opened.
It hadn’t even been raining at the time, yet he was still wearing a raincoat.
"He must have come to scope the place out," Eleanor said, continuing to play the video. The footage then cut to the evening. The man in the raincoat walked over with the box, specifically choosing the time when the pet hospital staff had gone out for dinner.
The clinic was mostly empty, with only one on-call vet remaining in the office. From the vet’s angle, it would have been completely impossible to see the man in the raincoat arriving.
"He did it on purpose, leaving sick cats here to cause trouble for our pet hospital. Vivian, who do you think he is?"
Vivian scrutinized the man in the raincoat, shaking her head.
The surveillance footage was already quite blurry. Coupled with the man deliberately hiding his figure and the darkness of night, it was impossible to make out his face. All they could tell was that it was a man, probably less than 1.7 meters tall.
After a long moment of thought, Vivian asked, "Could it be a cat breeder who thinks your ’adopt, don’t shop’ slogan is hurting their bottom line?"
It looked exactly like a targeted act of revenge.
Eleanor frowned, unable to figure out if that was the case. She sighed and said, "I don’t know. Vivian, I’ve already called the police.
"The station accepted the case, but... since this raincoat guy snuck around like this, I’m not sure if they’ll be able to track down who he is."
Hearing this, Vivian let out a cold scoff.
She took out her phone, recorded the footage of the man deliberately leaving the cats, stitched it together with photos of the poor felines, and posted it on X.
"Don’t worry."
Vivian patted Eleanor on the shoulder and said, "Since he dared to do something so wicked, let him face the wrath of the internet!
"Rest assured, I have friends in the media. I’ll have them boost this post on X. If anyone living nearby recognizes him, they might be able to provide some clues.
"Right now, the trickier issue is what to do with these cats.
"Tanya, you opened this pet hospital and set the medical fees much lower than average clinics purely so that everyone could afford to care for and treat their cats.
"Can you afford the treatment costs for all these cats this time?"
Eleanor shook her head, biting her lip. "Vivian, you don’t understand. Before you arrived, I already had the vets examine them.
"These cats are essentially riddled with every disease in the book. Feline panleukopenia, herpes, calicivirus, stomatitis—they basically have all sorts of problems.
"Even if I only charge the cost price for the medication and equipment, I can’t afford to cure them all.
"Besides, I still have to pay my staff’s salaries."
As Eleanor spoke, she glanced at the two busy vets near the door.
They were wiping the kittens’ eyes. Several of the little cats had severe inflammation and ear mites, which needed to be cleaned out quickly.
Hearing Eleanor’s words, the two vets exchanged a look before looking up. "Boss, we can waive our fees for treating these cats.
"They really are pitiful."
Eleanor fell silent, looking visibly moved. Seeing this, a pang of sorrow flashed through Vivian’s heart. She turned to Eleanor and said, "Tanya, I can help cover whatever you’re short on.
"Rescuing, protecting, and adopting out kittens is our shared responsibility. However, after this incident is exposed online, you need to be prepared for the fallout.
"There might be others who hold a grudge against you and drop off more cats. What are you going to do with those cats?"
Eleanor listened, a hint of hesitation flashing in her eyes. "Our pet hospital has limited cage space. I want to help the stray kittens out on the streets.
"I don’t want our kindness to be exploited by people trying to make us pay for their own irresponsible actions.
"Rest assured, Vivian, if anyone else drops off cats in the future, I won’t take them in. At most, I’ll provide water and food for a few days. If no one claims them, I’ll release them back into the wild."
She wouldn’t give anyone else the opportunity to guilt-trip her again.
This was the first and last time.
If someone was deliberately trying to sabotage her, she would find out who it was!
She, Eleanor Rhodes, was not just an ordinary pet hospital director or a girl who rescued cats; she was the eldest daughter of the Rhodes Family. Her family’s network would be able to help her track down this despicable man in the raincoat!
Seeing this determination in Eleanor, Vivian breathed a sigh of relief.
She knew her best friend had always been kind-hearted, and she was afraid Tanya would be taken advantage of. Now that Tanya had thought things through, Vivian felt incredibly gratified.
"As long as you’ve made up your mind," Vivian said.
She walked out to the front with Eleanor, picked up a towel nearby, and helped wipe the kittens’ eyes and apply deworming medicine.
All of these cats also needed to be placed in separate cages for observation. With just the four of them at the pet hospital tonight, they were going to be busy until very late.
In the blink of an eye, it was midnight.
Vivian yawned sleepily. After laying down a pee pad and preparing food and a litter box for the last kitten, she finally stepped outside.
The two vets were already getting ready to leave. Their usual off-work time was ten o’clock, so they had already worked two hours of overtime.
Eleanor walked them to the door and called a cab for one of them. "I’ll pay you triple your hourly wage for the two hours of overtime today. Don’t worry!
"The car is on its way. Go home and get some rest. You can come in an hour later tomorrow."
The two vets thanked her profusely. One got into the cab, while the other rode off on his electric scooter.
"Tanya, everything is settled."
Vivian came over to update Eleanor on the cats. Eleanor nodded, thoroughly exhausted, and prepared to lock up and head home.
"Vivian, do you want me to give you a ride?" Eleanor had barely finished asking when a car horn honked behind them.
Had a car come all the way out here?
Vivian was a little surprised. She initially thought it was just someone driving by, but then she realized the car had stopped right behind her with its high beams on.
The high beams illuminated the wall opposite Vivian, glaringly bright.
Vivian instinctively turned around, only to see the high beams switch off as Julian Faulkner stepped out of the vehicle.
He was wearing a very casual, cozy turtleneck sweater.
Seeing Julian dressed like this caught Vivian slightly off guard. She hadn’t expected that without his suit, he actually gave off the vibe of a good family man.
But what was he doing here?
"Jul—"
"Are you done? Get in."
Before Vivian could even finish her question, Julian dropped those words, turned, and opened the passenger door, gesturing for her to get in.
"What a domineering CEO," Vivian muttered under her breath. Giving it no further thought, she had no choice but to follow Julian and get into the car.