Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

"..."

At midnight, Mo Zi suddenly sat up, his eyes as empty as a puppet, and he spoke mechanically:

"I am coming."

She stood up and pushed the door open, the wooden door creaking slightly.

"Hmm—what's that sound!"

The sound woke Xiaoqing from her light sleep. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, frowning as she looked at the empty bed.

Moonlight leaked through the window, illuminating the dark purple ice fan beside the pillow with a cold glow, while the bedding was so flat that it seemed as if no cat had ever slept on it.

Xiaoqing tilted her head and murmured:

"Where's my sister?"

"This is my sister's!"

She stood up, put on her clothes, walked barefoot across the blue bricks, and when she opened the door, she caught a glimpse of half a piece of red silk hanging on the railing under the corridor - the piece that Mo Zi often tied.

"Hey, who is it?"

Turning around the corridor, I ran into Bai Tang, who was rubbing his sleepy eyes. He was holding a piece of steamed sugar cheese in his arms.

"Sister Xiaoqing? Did you hear the noise too?"

"My sister is missing."

Xiaoqing clutched the red silk fragments tightly,

"Go call Dafei and the others."

Five people gathered under the eaves, Wu Song lowered his voice:

"Where can we go so late at night?"

Dafei scratched his head:

"Maybe he went to the toilet?"

Before he finished speaking, Mingyue pointed at the red shadow swaying in the corner of the yard:

"Look over there!"

"Is that my sister? No, or are we seeing things?"

"That should be Sister A Zi, but why is she so strange today?"

The cats looked and saw only the dark purple silk flashing by at the end of the bamboo forest, but there was no sound of footsteps.

Xiaoqing clutched the hem of her skirt:

"The sect leader's sweet soup during the day... and my sister's fan, I always feel like something is wrong."

"Could it be because of Sister A Zi..."

The sugar chewed the cheese, and the crumbs fell down:

"Forget it, there's a festival tomorrow, let's stay away from the red silk..."

"..."

The night wind swept across the lotus pond, causing the lotus leaves in the pond to tremble slightly, but it could not cover up the sound of strings coming from the master's hall in the distance - it was still the song "Autumn in the Forbidden Palace", but it was a little more urgent than during the day, as if someone was urging the curtain to fall before dawn.

The cats looked at the red shadow disappearing at the end of the bamboo forest, and their sleepiness disappeared.

Wu Song gripped the whistle stick tightly, and the copper ring left a red mark on his palm:

"How about... go to the Sect Master's Hall and take a look?"

Just as he uttered the words, the sound of strings in the distance suddenly rose. The "clang" sound shook the floating leaves in the lotus pond and startled a few night birds, which fluttered over the eaves, their wings casting blue-grey afterimages in the moonlight.

"Squeak..."

"Uh~"

Da Fei swallowed and subconsciously reached for the cooking utensils at his waist. "Why does it sound like the tune of 'General's Order'? But shouldn't this tune be used when we break through the formation?"

White sugar crushed the last piece of cheese, the crumbs mixed with cold sweat stuck to the palm of my hand:

"Perhaps... the Chang Zong's 'festival' isn't a show for living cats at all."

"elder sister……"

Xiaoqing stared at the red silk fragments in her hand, and suddenly discovered that there were tiny gray powders embedded in the texture of the fabric, exactly the same as the debris that fell from the dark purple cuffs at the banquet in the daytime.

"Why does it smell like blood?"

Her fingertips trembled as she brought the fragment close to her nose. Sure enough, the sweet osmanthus fragrance was mixed with a faint smell of rust, like dried blood seeping into frosting.

"Do you remember..."

Mingyue suddenly spoke, her voice colder than the moonlight.

"When I passed by the piano room during the day, the red silk wrapped around the strings was made of the same material as the one used by the Sect Master and Miss Mo Zi..."

These words gave all the cats goose bumps on the back of their necks. Wu Song's whistle clanged to the ground, shattering the moonlight in the pond.

"Could it be that Sister A Zi has met the leader of the Chang Sect before?"

"No, that's absolutely impossible. My sister used to be with Mo Xie all the time!"

Deep in the lotus pond, a muffled "dong" sound came from under a lotus leaf, as if something was knocking on the stone slabs at the bottom of the pond with its knuckles.

"Um?"

Bai Tang turned around suddenly and saw that his shadow on the ground was elongated by the moonlight, and there was an extra dangling red silk end at the hem of his skirt - and he was clearly wearing trousers.

"Let's go back."

Xiao Qing suddenly grabbed the cat's wrist, her nails almost digging into Wu Song's flesh.

"Go back immediately and lock the doors and windows. No one should leave the room before dawn."

When she turned around, she caught a glimpse of the bronze lamppost at the end of the corridor, which was wrapped with fresh red silk. The silk made a rustling sound in the night wind, like countless people grinding their teeth at the same time.

"Sister, Qing'er believes you won't do anything stupid, but please ensure your own safety!"

"What happened to Sister Xiaoqing?"

The wooden doors of Linhexuan were closed one after another. Bai Tang slid down to sit on the ground against the door panel and heard Dafei's deliberately low humming coming from next door - it was the tune of "Clouds Covering the Moon", but it always changed into the melody of "Autumn in the Forbidden Palace" when the key was changed.

He reached into his pocket, and the bronze bell touched the red silk fragment, making a very light "ding" sound. In a trance, he seemed to hear Mo Zi's voice coming from far away underground, mixed with the murmur of strings and chains:

"...The puppet show is about to begin."

……

In the dark stone chamber, the ground was engraved with complex musical arrays, and the runes glowed dark red under the candlelight.

A scarlet figure knelt at the center of the formation, his fingertips dipped in blood ink to draw the final stroke, his sleeve swept across the guzheng beside him, the strings humming like a rusty knife scraping across bone.

"..."

She slowly stood up, and where the red silk fell, spider-web-like gray lines appeared on the edge of the magic circle.

"My work...is finally here."

She stroked the strings with her fingertips, and a broken string suddenly vibrated, producing a discordant note.

"..."

The stone door behind her creaked open a few inches, and the night wind blew in broken bamboo leaves, knocking the jade hairpin out of her hair - revealing a dark purple stain behind her ear, with chaotic lines as thin as a guitar string wrapped around the edge.

"Zheng..."

The zither sounded again, and this time it produced the same sound as the bronze bells that were produced when sugar was crushed at the banquet that day.

When she turned around, the red silk lifted up the dust of spells on the ground, revealing the densely packed wooden puppet carvings on the wall. The wrist of each puppet was wrapped with the same red silk as Mo Zi, and there were half-melted ice crystals embedded in the eye sockets, reflecting the movements in the direction of Linhexuan.

“It’s time to go on stage.”

She raised her hand and waved lightly, and the nearest puppet suddenly opened its eyes, with gray-black vortices in its pupils that were exactly the same as the dark purple pupils.