Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

"Oh, I feel so good after the game!"

"Oh, what's even better is being able to eat after the competition. Hmm, how come we finished eating so quickly!"

In the twilight after the game, the cats from the Xingluo team walked back to the inn on the cobblestone road. Bai Tang had already finished the sugar-coated fruit in his hand.

I was peeking at Dafei's candied haws skewers:

"Da Fei, just try one! Look at this hawthorn, it's as red as the fire pattern of Wusong!"

"Hehe, forget it, the ones I've eaten are unhygienic~"

Dafei smiled and raised the candy string high:

"Bai Tang, I'll make you some sour plum soup back at the inn to soothe your greasy stomach."

Wu Song walked in front, holding the stick across his shoulders and standing with both hands supporting himself:

"Stop wandering around. We need to discuss serious matters tonight. We'll meet the Sect Master tomorrow, and we need to first understand the current situation of the Chang Sect."

"Sister...is the Sect Master really still as the rumors say?"

Xiaoqing followed with small steps, pinching her sleeves. The candlelight flickered in her eyes, casting tiny spots of light, like a scattering of uncondensed stars.

"When the old cat at the Yachang Festival was controlled by Chaos, the Sect Master didn't show up for a long time... Could it be..."

The end of the words was as light as a feather and was blown to pieces by the draft.

"Hmm~"

Mo Zi lowered his eyes and looked at the lanterns in the corridor, his fingertips stroking the edge of the championship medal - the gold-plated patterns glowed dark red in the twilight.

"Uh……"

Da Fei paused as he placed the teacup on the table. The bottom of the coarse porcelain bowl made a dull sound as it hit the wooden table.

"I heard from an old tea drinker at the market that there have been 'strange things' happening in the Chang Sect for the past six months. Strings have snapped for no apparent reason, music sheets have caught fire... The cracks in the strings look like they've been crushed by chaotic rhythmic energy."

Bai Tang suddenly slammed the rosary onto the table. The glass beads shimmered in the candlelight.

"Who cares! When I see the Sect Master, I'll just—"

"Sugar!"

Wu Song hit him on the back of his hand with a stick.

"Don't be rash! The changes in the Lu Sect also started with a 'small matter'..."

"Um?"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Mo Zi diagonally opposite him.

"..."

She was leaning against the window frame, stroking the medal, her fingertips repeatedly running across the lines, dark purple ripples surging in the depths of her pupils. The dark lines on her cuffs had crept up to her wrist at some point, strangely overlapping with the Changzong emblem on the medal.

"Sister, what do you think?"

Xiaoqing called her softly. Mo Zi suddenly looked up, his fingertips quickly moving away from the medal, but the dark lines on his wrist were faintly visible in the candlelight:

"...The Sect Master's technique has always been to control music with sound. If he were truly corrupted by Chaos... I'm afraid he could even shatter someone's meridians with his singing."

She suddenly stood up and walked towards the windowsill. The moonlight stretched her shadow out long, and the light reflected from the edge of the medal cast spider-web-like patterns on the wall.

"But there must be something fishy about the 'true teachings', and as the champion, leave it to me to face the Sect Master tomorrow!"

……

"Ah~"

The night watchman outside the inn rang the second watch. Bai Tang tossed and turned while hugging her pillow, and heard Mo Zi's low sigh coming from next door.

He quietly opened the curtains and saw Mo Zi, standing on the eaves, holding up a medal towards the moon. The pattern on it shone golden in the moonlight, and there was an unknown pattern on it, but it faintly emitted a dark glow!

"Hmm? Chaos? That's not right!"

Bai Tang rubbed his eyes and looked again. The medal had returned to normal. However, when Mo Zi turned around, a corner of dark red silk ribbon slipped out of his sleeve, like a drop of blood falling into an inky pool of water.

"Is that really Sister A Zi? What are you doing out so late?"

He bit the corner of the quilt and murmured. The shadows of the locust trees swayed outside the window, and the faint sound of trembling strings came from the strings. Listening carefully, it sounded like a fragment of "Autumn in the Forbidden Palace" - a requiem that only the direct descendants of the clan could understand.

"Hmm? Sister Azi's health..."

The night wind lifted the window paper, and he suddenly saw that the dark lines on Mo Zi's wrist had deepened a little, winding into the shape of a chain under the moonlight, and in her palm, half a grain of gold powder peeled off from the medal was lying, exuding a strong chaotic atmosphere.

As moonlight leaked in through the carved window lattices of the inn, Bai Tang was struggling with his pillow.

"Tsk, I must be dazzled. Even if Sister A Zi doesn't rest, how could she be infected by Chaos? Just keep sleeping..."

He turned over, his nose brushing against the scent of locust flowers that seeped in through the cracks in the window paper, and muttered, "Da Fei's sour plum soup is too thick."

Suddenly, I heard very light footsteps coming from the roof - like the ending sound of a guitar string plucked by the wind, with the unique rhythmic feeling of the Chang sect.

"Why is there still sound?"

He rubbed his eyes and stood up, his chin resting on the window sill:

"Hmm...what's going on..."

The moonlight streamed across the blue bricks and tiles, casting a silhouette on the window paper.

Mo Zi stood on the roof, the medal burning in his palm, and a broken whisper escaped uncontrollably from his throat:

"...with blood as the key...under the red silk...brother..."

The ending tone was mixed with sobs, which scared the sparrows under the eaves so much that they flew away.

"What's going on? You suddenly mentioned Brother Mo Yun!"

Bai Tang rubbed his eyes while leaning against the window frame, his rosary beads spinning rapidly between his fingers - the word "brother" made his heart suddenly tighten.

"Wow, it smells so good all of a sudden, eh, that's not right..."

The moment the mist wrapped in the fragrance of osmanthus came, he suddenly smelled something wrong - this sweet smell was mixed with the smell of rotten wood when Lu Zong turned into a demon!

"Uh……"

When I wanted to open my mouth to remind him, my limbs suddenly felt as heavy as lead, and my eyelids were so bleary that only a thin glimmer of light remained.

"Humph……"

In the dim light, I saw Mo Zi suddenly turn around, the gray and black swirling in the depths of her pupils like a whirlpool, and the medal pattern and the dark pattern on her wrist connected to form a hideous curse mark.

"Go to sleep...little trouble..."

Her voice seemed to come from a very far distance, and also seemed to explode directly in my mind.

"Wong..."

Bai Tang's rosary fell on his chest as he fell. The last time he saw it, he saw Mo Zi's fingertips condensed with purple rhythm - but it was not an attack, but a light tap on his brow, blocking the last trace of chaos erosion for him.

"..."

When the mist cleared, only half a medal fragment remained on the roof, gleaming coldly in the moonlight. A line from an ancient Changzong proverb was engraved on the edge of the fragment:

All that is spread must be false, and all that is forbidden must be broken.

"Brother...it's my turn to trick you this time."

She opened her palms towards the moon, and red silk flew out from her sleeves, weaving a giant net in the night sky to cover the forbidden area.

As the silk ribbon passed over Baitang's windowsill, it swept the rosary beads beside his pillow—the beads vaguely reflected the image of the patriarch being imprisoned.

Mo Zi's figure was standing in the center of the Chaos Altar, holding the blood-stained medal and smiling.

……

"hiss……"

Bai Tang sat up suddenly and hit the back of his head hard on the headboard, making him grimace in pain.

"What's going on? My head hurts so much after waking up."

He rubbed his dazed head and looked around. The morning light shone through the window paper, casting slanted grids on the green bricks. The rosary beads that had rolled down beside the pillow were still shaking slightly, as if he had just woken up from a chaotic dream.

"What happened last night?

He muttered to himself, his fingertips brushing across his eyelids, as if the dampness of the mist still lingered.

"Sister Azi..."

His throat tightened, and fragments of memory suddenly pierced his mind:

The silhouette on the roof, the black mist seeping from the medal, and the word "brother" distorted by chaos.

He suddenly threw off the quilt, climbed up, jumped out of the window, and landed on the eaves where Mo Zi was yesterday.

"Why? Why is there no trace? Was everything last night fake?"