In the warehouse, the mice, hoping to win favor with the newly arrived calico cat, gathered a large quantity of fish and invited the cat to look after them in the future.
Looking at the pile of fish, the calico cat declared, "Mice, I desire; fish, I also desire. When both cannot be had, I abandon the mice and choose the fish!" With that, the cat walked off to enjoy the fish. The mice in the hole shouted "Long live!" and poured out in full force, flooding into the granary...
At the beginning of the month, the calico cat took an electric megaphone and repeatedly announced an urgent notice to all the mice in the warehouse: "Urgent Notice: By order of higher authorities, this month is designated as the 'Rat Extermination Competition Month.' Warehouses will be evaluated based on the number of rat tails submitted. For the honor of our warehouse, we kindly ask all mice to actively cooperate, make the painful sacrifice, and promptly hand in your tails."
At the beginning of the following month, the calico cat received an "Outstanding Contribution to Rat Extermination Award" from higher authorities: ten large carp. All the warehouse mice held a grand, unprecedented celebration dance party for the triumphant return of the calico cat. Sadly, the attending mice all had empty spaces behind them—tails completely missing.
Overnight, the warehouse walls were covered with striking slogans: "Severely crack down on lazy, freeloading rats!" "Eradicate rats, benefit the nation and its people!" "Tolerating rats is a crime against the people!" "Resolutely eliminating rats is the paramount political task in warehouse work!"—and so on. These slogans made the young mice tremble with fear. A little mouse said to its mother, "Mom, it seems the wind is changing. We should quickly retreat into our hole and hide!"
The older mouse, having weathered storms and seen the world, replied, "Child, you're too young to understand the principle: 'The louder they shout on the walls, the looser they grasp on the ground.' I've seen these slogans many times. Experience tells me the higher-ups are likely coming to inspect the warehouse again. These gimmicks Mr. Cat has created are meant solely for his superiors to see."
During the two years the calico cat governed the warehouse, Red-Tail, a poet among the mice, composed nearly a thousand poems in praise of the cat—an average of more than one per day. In his poems, the poet mouse lavishly sang of the cat's mercy, diligence, and integrity, passionately celebrating the "great friendship between cat and mouse." These verses filled the cat with delight. As a result, Red-Tail formed a "deep friendship" with the calico cat. Naturally, Red-Tail was also honored by the other mice as the "People's Artist of the Mice" and "Meritorious Poet Mouse."
By the end of the second year, during a nationwide surprise inspection, the warehouse managed by the calico cat was found to have suffered hundreds of tons of grain loss due to rat infestation. The cat was consequently dismissed and investigated, and reportedly would be brought to trial on charges of bribery and dereliction of duty. Upon hearing the news, Red-Tail's first reaction was to pick up his pen and write a poem, fiercely denouncing the cat for corruption, abuse of power, and wanton disregard for mouse lives. This critical poem, like his previous praises, quickly spread throughout the Mice Kingdom. Some mice questioned, "Didn't Red-Tail have a 'deep friendship' with the cat? How could he turn on him so suddenly?" Other mice replied, "You're such a fool! How could we mice ever truly be friends with a cat? If there was any 'friendship,' it could only have been exploitation!"