Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

"Uh……"

In the Forbidden Palace's blood pattern formation, the dark purple nails dug deep into the palm of his hand, but he could no longer feel the coolness of his brother's power rushing through his veins.

"Haha, it looks like today will be a very happy day..."

When the last wisp of the blue rhythmic energy was swallowed by the blood veins, she suddenly heard Xiaoqing's laughter in the festival square - the sound penetrated through the layers of stone walls, mixed with the sound of puppet show strings, like a blunt knife cutting her heart.

“Fake…”

She trembled and touched the empty space at her waist. The Frost Fan should have been inserted there, but now there was only a fake forged by the Chaos Creation flaunting itself on the stage.

"Xiaoqing..."

Blood beads appeared on her lips, and the name she called out was torn into pieces by the sound of the chains clashing.

When her brother passed away a few months ago, she made a vow to him to use this luck to protect her smile.

"..."

But now, she couldn't even see the new jade hairpin in her sister's hair. She could only see through the gaps in the formation that "herself" was using her fingertips covered in gray mist to help Xiaoqing tidy up her hair that was messed up by the wind.

"jump!"

The moment the ice pattern pendant on her wrist completely shattered, she suddenly remembered that it was the day after the war, and that her sister had personally carved it for her using her rhythmic power...

But now, the real her was locked up in the dark forbidden palace. She only had the title of elder sister, but she didn't even know whether the fish porridge in her sister's bowl was hot or cold.

Blood veins crawled up her spine and onto the back of her neck, weaving puppetry patterns on her skin. She could only stare at the gray mist gradually spreading in her palms, remembering Xiaoqing always saying that her hands

"Colder than ice, but more reassuring than a fireplace."

"boom!"

Torrential rain exploded overhead, and she heard the Sect Master chanting on the stage:

“The puppet has no heart, but it can speak for people.

"Mo Zi looked up suddenly and saw his reflection opening his mouth in the blood veins, but speaking the lines of the sect leader.

She wanted to shout "Don't come near her", but her throat was strangled by the formation and she couldn't make a sound.

"I am...my elder sister..."

She whispered to the darkness, her voice absorbed by the blood veins until only a whisper remained.

Moss crawled down her ankles to where her heart was, blooming pale flowers within the Chaos Sigil.

It turns out that the most despairing thing is not losing strength, but watching the fake one using her face to speak gentle words, while the real her can only rot in her blood-streaked throat with the words "Xiaoqing, danger".

"Do not……"

She whispered to the darkness, her voice absorbed by the blood veins until only a whisper remained.

Moss crawled down her ankles to where her heart was, blooming pale flowers within the Chaos Sigil.

Her brother's strength was disappearing along his spine like a stream of light. With every bit of loss, she heard Mo Zi's laughter in the distance more clearly.

The voice was mixed with the sect leader's sharp ending tone, like a silver needle stirring in the ear canal.

"No, I absolutely cannot give up!"

She stared at the last bit of faint blue energy in her palm, and remembered that Xiaoqing always said that this light was like broken stars, so she tried her best to gather it into fine fragments, letting them seep through the gaps in the iron chain to the ground - maybe, maybe someone could see it, maybe, it could send a warning to Xiaoqing.

Blood streaks suddenly crawled up his collarbone onto his cheek, weaving spider-web-like gray lines at the corners of his eyes.

She finally could no longer feel her legs, only the burning pain from the chains on her wrists was as clear as yesterday.

The rain stopped in the cracks in the dome, but a few rays of festive sunlight leaked in, making the ice blue hairpin in her hair transparent - the groove at the end of the hairpin where the pearl was missing was still stuck with the broken candy wrapper that Xiaoqing had stuck on her.

"elder sister?"

In a trance, she heard Xiaoqing's voice coming from above her head, mixed with the sound of the wooden axes of the puppet stage turning.

"loser……"

Mo Zi suddenly looked up, but only saw her own distorted reflection in the blood pattern array - "Mo Zi" was holding Xiao Qing's hand and walking towards the stage. When her sleeves swept across the runes on the corridor pillars, she saw the familiar ice pattern glow.

It turned out that the Chaos Creator had even copied the pendant that she never took off, but he didn't know that the inner layer of the pendant always contained candy cake crumbs stuffed by Xiao Qing.

"Ha ha……"

The last bit of his brother's strength turned into ice crystals and shattered in his palm, and Mo Zi suddenly smiled.

Her laughter shook off the blood scabs in her hair. She looked at the paper butterfly crawling to the corner of the altar - its wings were covered with bean paste, which was exactly the magic trick of Baitang.

The paper butterfly landed on her fingertips, its wings fluttering. She saw the "black purple" Frost Fan on the stage suddenly jam, and the ice patterns on the fan surface cracked into spider-web-like gaps.

"So... you're afraid too..."

She murmured to the paper butterfly, letting the blood streaks flow across her eyelids.

The bean paste filling on the paper butterfly's wings was dyed dark red by the blood, and the dark purple vision gradually blurred into a blood-red spider web.

"Sorry……"

She could feel her brother's power transforming into millions of points of light along her spine, each of which looked very much like the candy beans her brother had secretly given her that year - but now they had become phosphorescent flames on the altar, floating up to the cracks in the dome, illuminating the swaying red silk patterns on the "ink purple" earrings.

"What are you looking at, sister?"

Xiaoqing's voice suddenly became clear, mixed with the creaking sounds of the puppet stage.

Mo Zi's eyes widened suddenly, and he saw a double picture reflected in the blood pattern array:

On the ground, "Mo Zi" was adjusting the ice blue hairpin in Xiao Qing's hair, and the gray mist seeping from the tip of the hairpin had already climbed up behind Xiao Qing's ear;

In the Forbidden Palace, she dug her nails deep into the blood lines on her palms, but she could no longer squeeze out any rhythm.

As the last ray of blue light slipped through her fingers, she heard the sect leader's laughter explode above her head:

"The ceremony begins--" The blood pattern formation suddenly boiled over, and the iron chains made a "crackling" sound as they could not bear the heavy burden.

Mo Zi looked at his own shadow cast on the stone platform. The shadow's limbs were being pulled by invisible threads, and it raised its arms at the same time as the twenty-four puppets on the stage.

"So... you want me to see it with my own eyes..."

A sweet and fishy taste rose in her throat, but she laughed out loud.

The icy blue hairpin finally fell from her hair and rolled deep into the moss, revealing the gray lines that had spread from the back of her neck at some unknown time - exactly the same as the spider silk on the "ink purple" temples.

Bai Tang exclaimed in the distance:

"That hairpin is oozing gray mist!"

But her voice was swallowed by the formation, and only faint ripples were caused in the blood veins.

When the curtain of the puppet stage suddenly opened, the twenty-four puppets turned their blood-red eyes at the same time, and Mo Zi felt something collapse inside his body.

The fragments of her brother's wristband shattered into powder, and the fragments of the ice-patterned pendant pierced into her palm, but she didn't even have the strength to frown.

Blood streaks crawled along her nasal cavity into her throat, weaving puppet strings at her vocal cords. She knew that the next moment, when "Mo Zi" opened her mouth to recite, the sound that would come out would be her crushed voice.

"Xiaoqing..."

She called out in her heart for the last time, letting the blood streaks spread across her pupils.

A slight sound of breaking chains came from deep within the altar. It was not hers, but the Frost Fan on the waist of "Mo Zi" on the stage in the distance. The ice pattern on the fan handle completely shattered into gray mist, revealing the chaotic tentacles entwined underneath.

Her Frost Fan was lying in the corner of the Forbidden Palace, stained with her blood that had not dried for seven days.

In the moment before darkness fell, she saw Xiaoqing staggering back a step, her eyes fixed on the "black purple" earrings - the red silk patterns there suddenly came alive and turned into the shadow of the sect leader's bloody hand.

Mo Zi wanted to laugh and tell her sister, "Don't be afraid, I'm here," but the blood in her throat had turned into ice, freezing all the words into broken ice that she could never utter.

"after all……"

When the first string sound of the puppet show pierced the sky, Mo Zi's fingertips finally dropped.

The bloodstains on her wrist and the "ink purple" patterns on the stage lit up at the same time, weaving a net that enveloped Xiaoqing in the sunlight of the festival square.

And she finally fell into a darkness colder than the Arctic glacier in the lingering warmth of her brother's power. Even her tears froze into blood beads, stuck in the corners of her eyes, reflecting her sister's terrified face in the distance.