Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

"boom……"

The heavy rain poured down, turning the Wu family ancestral hall into a blood-red cage.

Wu Song knelt on the blood-soaked bluestone slab, digging his nails deep into the cracks of the stone, watching the gray body disintegrate bit by bit in the red light of the evil-killing talisman.

"Why is this happening..."

The three tails that had playfully wrapped up the osmanthus cake were now like spider webs engulfed by flames, turning into powder amid the fanatical shouts of the law enforcement officers.

"Stop!"

Yun Bai suddenly broke free from the grip of the two law enforcement officers, and his tail feathers exploded with a dazzling green light, protecting Wu Song like broken wings.

Her jade flute was placed across her chest, and the rhythmic patterns on the flute collided violently with the red light of the talisman.

"You keep saying you're upholding the rules, but this is clearly a massacre!"

Before she could finish her words, three whistle sticks engraved with evil-killing curses slammed into her back. Cyan blood dripped down her tail feathers, forming strange patterns on the ground.

"what--"

Wu Song's whole body was shocked - at the last moment when the gray dissipated, the corners of his mouth actually raised a little arc, and his figure was reflected in his amber eyes, as if he wanted to engrave this warmth into his soul forever.

With a final, faint "meow," a purple blood mist rose into the sky, colliding with the rainstorm and creating a strange flower above everyone's heads.

"Why?!"

Wu Song rushed towards the execution platform like a madman, but was swept to the ground by the clan leader's coiled dragon whistle stick.

Amidst the sound of metal collision, his forehead hit the stone steps hard, and blood dripped down the bridge of his nose onto the gray scales that remained.

"He taught me to draw stars with rhyme! He used his tail to keep me warm when I was punished to kneel! Why should such a life be destroyed?!"

"Because the Strange Cats are the bastards of Chaos!"

The clan leader's roar shook the beams and pillars of the ancestral hall, and the talisman on the dragon head whistle stick burst into a dazzling golden light.

"The rules of the Dazong sect cannot tolerate any violation!"

The law enforcement officers' batons wrapped around Yun Bai like poisonous snakes, dragging her to the edge of the execution platform, while she continued to scream:

"Rules shouldn't be an excuse for killing! The Wu family's integrity shouldn't be like this!"

"No, don't do this—"

Wu Song curled up in the mud, watching Yun Bai being pressed to the place where Huihui disappeared. Her stubborn eyes overlapped with Huihui's last smile.

"what--"

The rain washed away the blood and tears on his face, and the broken wisteria flowers at his waist hurt his ribs, but none of these could compare to the huge void in his heart - everything he regarded as truth collapsed, and the so-called "justice" was nothing but a butcher's knife wrapped in prejudice.

……

When the last piece of gray hair was washed away by the rain, Wu Song finally understood: what is more terrifying than chaos is the fire of paranoia burning in the eyes of the Da Zong people.

"Ha, is this Da Zong..."

They had woven a cage out of millennia-old rules, viewing all "difference" as heresy, unaware that by slaying the strange cats, they were also slaying the compassion and kindness in their own hearts. His and Yun Bai's futile resistance was like two withered leaves destined to break in the waves, plummeting to the brink of the abyss, into a bottomless darkness.

……

On the seventh day after the dust dissipated, when Wu Song was dragged into the martial arts training ground, his feet were still stained with blood from in front of the ancestral hall.

The elders of the tribe sat around the martial arts viewing platform, and the sound of the dragon head whistle stick hitting the stone slab was like a death warrant.

When his hand gripping the whistle stick trembled and loosened for the third time, Elder Wu Gang's furious roar shook the accumulated rain off the corridor:

"You can't even use the most basic moves. You've brought shame upon the Wu family!"

"Stop it!"

Yunbai rushed into the field, and his tail feathers wrapped around the punishment whistle that was about to hit Wusong.

Her back was still wrapped in a blood-oozing bandage, but she stood in front of the young man and said proudly:

“He needs time!”

Before she could finish her words, Wu Gang's dragon head whistle stick had already hit her shoulder hard, and blue blood splashed on Wu Song's pale face.

"what……"

"Yun Bai, you disappoint me so much, get out of here too..."

……

In the woodshed late at night, Wu Song curled up in a pile of musty grass, tightly clutching the fragments of the glass beads left by Huihui in his arms.

Moonlight shone on him through the broken window, revealing the whip marks on his neck that had not yet healed - that was the punishment he received yesterday when he secretly flipped through the ancestral hall books, looking for records about strange cats.

He buried his face in the old cloak that smelled of gray, and whimpered like a trapped animal in his throat:

"It turns out that even the evidence of our existence will be erased..."

"Xiao Song..."

Yunbai would always sneak into the woodshed at midnight and bring rice balls mixed with herbs.

The scabs on her tail feathers fell off as she changed the dressing, but she still smiled and used her flute to dispel Wu Song's nightmares:

"I found fragments of ancient books in the Repair Pavilion. A hundred years ago, Da Zong once had a strange cat guest..."

Before he could finish his words, he was rudely interrupted by Wu Song:

“So what? You can’t even mention it now!”

The boy grabbed the broken porcelain pieces and slashed them against the wall.

"They killed Huihui, using rules as a blade and prejudice as a shield!"

……

Three months later, at the clan examination ceremony, Wusong's whistle stick drew a messy arc in the martial arts field.

When he suddenly dropped his bat and knelt down during the duel, the whole audience was shocked.

Elder Wu Gang slammed his dragon-headed whistle stick down on the table:

"The heir of the Wu family is so cowardly!"

The clan leader raised his hand to stop the punishment, his cloudy eyes swept across the boy's empty eyes:

"Let him go. A cat with a dead heart is nothing but an empty shell."

When the show was over, Yun Bai chased the distraught boy through the rainy alley.

She tugged at Wu Song's muddy sleeve, and her tail feathers brushed across his hollow eyes:

"Do you think Huihui wants to see you like this?"

The boy suddenly trembled violently, buried his head in her shoulder and cried loudly, his tears soaking her newly changed bandages.

Rain mixed with salty tears washed away the numb expression on Wu Song's face. He finally understood that Da Zong's so-called "righteousness" was nothing more than a cage built with thousands of years of rules, and he had forever lost the warm light that was willing to illuminate the darkness.

……

On the thirty-seventh day that Wu Song was wandering aimlessly in the streets of Dazong, the copper bells on the eaves suddenly made a shrill buzzing sound.

He looked up blankly and saw the law enforcement team ready to go - twelve whistle sticks tempered with talismans to kill evil gleamed coldly in the twilight, and the glass beads hanging around the leader's waist made a tiny creaking sound, just like the toys that Huihui once cherished.

"Today, 3:30 AM, on the northern slope of the Misty Forest."

Elder Wu Gang passed by him, leaning on his dragon-headed whistle stick. His deliberately lowered voice still fell clearly into his ears.

"It's time to get rid of those sneaky alien cat cubs."

The old man's cloudy eyes swept across Wu Song's suddenly tensed back, and a meaningful smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"You, what's wrong with you?"

"..."

"Don't scare Senior Sister!"

When Yun Bai climbed over the wall and entered the house late at night, he saw Wu Song standing in the moonlight, clutching half a moldy rice ball.

A strange light burned in the boy's pupils, and his knuckles turned white from excessive force:

"They're going to kill the Strange Cats tomorrow."

He suddenly turned around and smashed the fragments of the glass beads left by Huihui against the wall.

"It turns out I'm not even qualified to be a bystander!"

The morning mist at the hour of Mao had not yet dissipated. Wu Song hid in the bushes behind the cliff and witnessed a scene that he would never forget.

The law enforcement officer's whistle wrapped around a curled up alien cat cub like a poisonous snake. The cub's tail was only as thick as a thumb, but it was twisted into a terrifying shape under the burning of the talisman.

"Remember, the blood of the strange cat must be drained to prevent it from causing trouble!"

The leader grinned and stabbed the whistle into the cub's abdomen. Warm purple blood splashed on Wu Song's face, colder than the rain in the ancestral hall that day.

"what--"

When the cub's last whimper dissipated in the morning mist, Wu Song suddenly rushed out of his hiding place.

He grabbed the still-bleeding whistle stick with his bare hands, unaware that his nails were scorched black by the spell.

"Enough! How many more do you want to kill..."

Before he could finish his words, a heavy punch hit him in the face, knocking him over onto the steep, gravel-covered slope.

"As the heir apparent, you actually defy the laws of your own sect!"

"You guys are looking for death!"

Yun Bai's exclamation came from behind.

Wu Song vaguely saw his senior sister's figure flying up and down surrounded by the law enforcement team, but the green light on her tail feathers was always protecting him.

"The Wu family actually raised such a rebellious son!"

Elder Wu Gang's dragon head whistle club brushed against Wu Song's ear and smashed down.

"Open your cat eyes and see, this is the fate of the strange cat!"

As he rolled down the cliff, Wu Song heard the crisp sound of his ribs breaking in his chest.

He looked at the figures of the law enforcement officers holding torches and walking away on the cliff top, and finally understood completely - in the deep-rooted prejudice of the Dazong sect, any cry for compassion and equality is nothing more than an ant trying to shake a tree.

"Maybe this way I can leave this cat land..."

And his despair had already turned into an abyss in his heart that could never be healed the moment the gray dissipated.

……

……

……

(Look, look! Isn’t this what you asked me to make before? Now I’ve made it, you can make it yourself! Skirt!)