Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

"hiss……"

When Wu Song woke up in severe pain, his mother's tearful face flashed before his eyes.

The aroma of medicine mixed with the bitter smell of bandages penetrated his nose. He opened his dry lips and spoke in a hoarse voice like broken pottery:

"Father and mother, what's wrong with me?"

"..."

Wu Yan stood by the window with his hands behind his back. The setting sun lengthened his shadow, casting a distorted outline on the ground.

He was silent for a long time, his Adam's apple rolling with difficulty:

"You and Yunbai were having fun and fell off a cliff in the misty forest..."

Before he could finish his words, the wooden door creaked softly and Yun Bai walked in holding a medicine jar. His tail tightened unnaturally and curled into a stiff arc behind him.

"..."

Wu Song looked at his senior sister's pale face, but his consciousness seemed to be immersed in thick fog.

Yun Bai handed the medicine bowl to his lips, his fingertips trembling slightly:

"Be careful, this medicine is bitter..."

When she lowered her eyes, her eyelashes cast tiny shadows under her eyes, and her gentle smile concealed an indelible sadness.

"It's all my fault for not taking good care of you. Don't run around again next time."

……

Late at night, Wu Song fell into a chaotic dream.

From deep within the ancestral hall came the sound of dragging chains, cold talismans burning against the skin, and countless voices screamed in the darkness:

"The strange cat must be eradicated!"

"The rules of the clan cannot be questioned!"

When he wanted to grab something, he only touched nothingness. His gray amber eyes flickered in the mist, and were finally swallowed up in the endless darkness.

"Xiaosong, yes, I'm sorry..."

Yun Bai stood outside the door, listening to the intermittent mumblings from inside the house, his nails digging deep into his palms.

She remembered the cold smile that appeared on Elder Wu Gang's wrinkled face when the law enforcement team dragged the unconscious Wu Song into the secret room that day:

"Yun Bai, you are an adult and know the seriousness of the situation. But this child... must have his memory erased using forbidden techniques to prevent him from causing trouble in the future."

Before the barrier closed, the last thing she saw was the cinnabar curse seal lighting up on the back of Wu Song's neck, completely drowning out the last bit of stubbornness in the boy's eyes.

……

As the morning light streamed in through the window, Wu Song sat up, rubbing his aching temples.

His dazed face was reflected in the bronze mirror, and the faint golden seal on the back of his neck was rising and falling gently with his breathing.

This was the shackles that Da Zong had made for him, locking away all his sadness and anger, and also imprisoning the young man who had fought for the alien cats forever in the depths of his memory.

……

The scorching sun of midsummer baked the bluestone slabs hot, and the steaming heat wrapped in the chirping of cicadas wove an impenetrable net in the streets and alleys of Dazong.

"Um……"

"What's going on? Why is there crying?"

As Wu Song followed the patrol team around the corner, a shrill cry suddenly pierced the heat wave.

The cats rushed to the end of the alley like a tide. He was pushed forward, and his nose was suddenly hit by a pungent fishy smell - a stench mixed with chaos and rotten meat, which pierced his nostrils like a rusty dagger.

“Help! These monsters are trying to eat me!”

There was a tooth-grinding tremor in the hoarse scream.

Wu Song struggled to push the onlookers away, and the scene before him made his blood freeze instantly: three strange cats with tangled fur arched their backs, amber pupils surging with crazy red light, and the purple chaos wrapped around their claws twisted like living things.

"..."

The old woman in the corner was trembling all over, her gray hair was stuck with mud, the vegetable basket in her hand had fallen to the ground, and the leaves were covered with black mucus.

"Um?"

Wu Song's temples were throbbing. Just as his hand touched the whistle stick at his waist, he caught a glimpse of the metal collar around the strange cat's neck. The ring was made of fine iron and engraved with talismans, exactly the same as the standard equipment of the law enforcement team.

"Roar……"

Before this thought took shape, the leading strange cat let out an inhuman roar, and its sharp claws, accompanied by a chaotic scream, went straight for the old woman's throat!

"brute!"

Wu Song's roar shook off the broken tiles from the eaves.

As the whistle stick cut through the air with a sharp sound, the talisman burst out with dazzling golden light and hit the strange cat's shoulder heavily.

"Uh--"

The dull sound of flesh being torn mixed with the sound of bones breaking, the strange cat screamed and flew backwards, the purple saliva dripping from the corner of its mouth corroded a honeycomb-shaped deep pit on the ground.

"You still dare to resist!"

The pupils of the other two strange cats suddenly contracted, and chaos surged around them, turning into ferocious bone spurs and pouncing forward. However, the moment they touched the corner of Wu Song's clothes, they were accurately suppressed by the law enforcement team's whistle formation.

"It's really the strange cat that's causing trouble!"

Elder Wu Gang's dragon-headed whistle stick slammed heavily on the stone slab, and cracks spread like a spider web.

A morbid excitement ignited in the old man's cloudy eyes.

"These bastards of Chaos, even breathing is a blasphemy against the power of rhythm!"

He placed his calloused hand on Wu Song's shoulder, the warmth of his palm burning painfully.

"As expected of a direct descendant of the Wu family, this courage makes him a future pillar of the clan!"

"Yes, yes, it's all thanks to this little hero!"

"..."

The cheers flooded the entire street like a tide.

Wu Song looked at the strange cat twitching on the ground, but his ears were buzzing.

The image of the metal collar just now kept replaying in his mind, but when he turned around and saw the old woman trembling and grabbing the corner of his clothes, her cloudy eyes filled with fear and gratitude;

Hearing the constant shouts of "Young Master Wu is wise" around him; smelling the pungent smell of chaos in the air, the doubts in his heart suddenly became ridiculous - if these monsters were not born evil, how could they hurt people in broad daylight?

"hypocritical……"

Yun Bai hid deep in the crowd, tightly wrapping his arms around the trembling wrist.

She clearly saw that when the old woman stood up, she secretly put the blood-stained cloth back into her sleeve, while the law enforcement officers on the roof in the dark were retrieving the rhythmic silk thread wrapped around the alien cat's collar.

The senior sister looked at Wu Song's jaw, which was tense with anger, and at the light in the boy's eyes that had been rekindled but as cold as frost. She suddenly remembered that on the day when Huihui disappeared, the boy had clenched his fists in the same way. However, now, this anger had long been distorted by prejudice and turned into a sharp blade that hurt people.

……

From that day on, Wu Song was always taken by the law enforcement team through the streets of the city.

“Is this their daily routine?”

He followed silently at the end of the patrol team, watching the dust raised by law enforcement officers using whistle sticks to drive away street vendors, listening to the trembling voices of the elderly as they bowed, and gradually got used to this condescending perspective.

One day at noon, Wu Song stood on a high platform in the market, looking at the bustling crowd below.

Two stray cats started fighting over half a moldy biscuit. The surrounding cats pointed and talked, but no one stepped forward to stop them.

"Hey, you guys..."

"do not move!"

Seeing this, the law enforcement officers were about to step forward, but Wu Song raised his hand to stop them.

"Humph……"

He looked down at the two dirty stray cats with a look of scrutiny and distance in his eyes.

The two cats noticed the gazes from above and shrank back to a stop.

Wu Song walked down the platform slowly, each step carefully taken with composure.

He bent down, picked up the dusty cake from the ground, and handed it to one of the stray cats.

"Thank you, thank you..."

The cat looked at him flattered, hesitated for a long time before carefully taking the food, and made a flattering whimper in its throat.

"..."

Wu Song straightened up, brushed off the non-existent dust on his sleeves, and glanced at the group of cats watching around him.

He didn't say anything, but just raised his chin slightly, his eyes revealing unquestionable majesty.

"..."

The cats seemed to understand what he meant, lowered their heads, and dispersed silently.

When passing by a teahouse on the street, several old men were discussing the recent unusual movements on the border.

One of the cats just said "Could it be a strange cat causing trouble?", but then he noticed Wu Song's gaze and stopped talking.

Wu Song stopped outside the teahouse for a moment, his calm gaze sweeping over each cat's face until they all lowered their heads to avoid his sight, then he continued on his way.

……

As night fell, Wu Song stood on the corridor of the Wu family mansion, looking at the civilian area with scattered lights in the distance.

The evening breeze blew across the corners of his clothes, carrying with it a faint hint of chaos.

He gripped the whistle at his waist, his eyes flickering in the darkness.

No words are needed. The arrogance and aloofness hidden in the eyes, and the sense of superiority revealed inadvertently, are worth more than a thousand words.

As he was influenced day after day, prejudice grew quietly in his heart like a vine, slowly wrapping the once kind and simple boy into a cocoon called "noble blood".