Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

The late spring tide, wrapped in a salty and fishy smell, flowed over the white jade steps, startling flocks of egrets under the eaves.

Xiaoqing supported Mo Zi as they stumbled through the glazed corridor, their wooden clogs making a crackling sound as they stepped on the wet bluestone slabs.

In the distance, by the lotus pond, Mo Lan was trimming the remaining lotus leaves with silver scissors. Her wide, moon-white sleeves hung down like flowing clouds, and the jade hairpin in her hair swayed gently with her movements.

"Mother!"

Xiaoqing's cries came with the sea breeze, accompanied by an uncontrollable trembling.

"!"

The silver scissors in Molan's hand fell to the ground with a clang, and the blades pierced the floating lotus leaves, scaring the koi in the pond away.

"Am I hallucinating again?"

She stepped over the falling lotus petals and rushed forward. The hem of her skirt embroidered with water patterns swept across the crystal dewdrops, leaving wet marks on the stone road.

"!"

However, the moment she saw her little daughter clearly, Molan's steps suddenly froze.

"Azi, how could it become like this?"

Mo Zi tilted his head, staring blankly into space, saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth onto his mud-stained clothes. The dark purple chaotic lines on his neck spread like thorns, rising and falling strangely with his breathing.

"..."

The once lively almond-shaped eyes were now covered with a layer of gray. They blinked blankly at the mother and suddenly let out an indistinct babbling sound.

"boom!"

The teacup on the jade table suddenly exploded, and the boiling hot tea splashed on the back of Molan's hand, but she was completely unaware.

"..."

Molan reached out her hand tremblingly, trying to touch her daughter, her fingertips trembling violently half an inch away from the ends of Mo Zi's hair.

"Um……

Mo Zi suddenly let out a sharp cry and huddled into Xiao Qing's arms like a frightened cub, digging her nails deep into her sister's shoulders.

"Mother, the chaos of Dazong has corroded her heart veins..."

Xiaoqing's voice was torn apart by the sound of the waves, and black blood oozed from the unhealed wound on her wrist.

She thought of the three months that Xingluo Ban had spent traveling around the country seeking medical treatment, the rainy nights when she watched Mo Zi with a high fever, and the despair of watching her sister gradually lose consciousness but being powerless to do anything. Her eyes suddenly became sore.

"Sister...can't recognize cats anymore..."

"..."

The water around Mo Lan surged like a raging tide, and ice spikes exploded on the surface of the lotus pond.

The late lotus flowers blooming by the pond all withered under the invisible pressure, and the petals swirled into the air.

The instructions I gave my daughters when I saw them go three months ago, the torment of waiting through countless nights, and the worry I suppressed when I received the letter that they were safe, all turned into scarlet bloodshot in my eyes.

“Who did it?”

Her voice was so cold that it could freeze the waves, and her nails dug deep into her palms, causing blood to seep out.

"If you dare to harm my bloodline, even if you chase me to the underworld..."

Molan's roar made the copper bells in the corridor ring wildly, and the startled egrets circled and wailed in the air.

"..."

At this moment, Mo Zi suddenly grabbed Xiao Qing's sleeve and let out a vague laugh.

This familiar movement brought the surging rhythmic energy to an abrupt halt. Molan staggered and held onto the corridor pillar, and the water blades at her fingertips dissipated into starlight.

She looked at her daughter's pupils which were dyed gray by chaos, remembered the way Mo Zi stood on tiptoe to pin flowers on her hair, remembered her jumping and vowing to become the most powerful Peking Opera cat, and her throat felt like it was tightly entangled by barnacles on the seabed.

After a long while, Molan finally squatted down slowly, her voice even hoarser than the beach after the tide receded:

“It’s good to be home… It’s good to be home.”

She trembled as she held Mo Zi in her arms, ignoring her daughter's unconscious pushing.

Mo Zi twisted a few times in his mother's arms, then gradually calmed down and murmured vaguely.

"..."

Molan could no longer hold on and buried her face in her daughter's hair. Warm tears dripped onto her neck, which was covered with chaotic lines, leaving dark marks on the jade floor.

A low roar of the tide came from afar, as if responding to this reunion after surviving the disaster.

Xiaoqing looked at the mother and daughter hugging each other, and tightened her grip on the jade flute at her waist - this time, the moonlight from the Shenzong would surely dispel all the haze.

……

Mo Lan dug her nails deep into her palms, staring into Mo Zi's dilated pupils. Her voice seemed to float up from the frozen seabed:

"Tell me clearly, what's going on?"

Xiaoqing slammed her knees hard on the green jade bricks, causing the copper bells in the corridor to ring softly.

She ripped open her bloodstained cuffs, revealing the dark purple lines wrapped around her arms:

"The original Chaos... set a trap in Dazong. My sister blocked the Chaos Ray for me..."

A fishy-sweet taste rose in her throat, and she pointed to her dark purple neck, where the twisted dark lines were wriggling strangely with her breathing.

Those lines surged under the skin like living things, and every rise and fall seemed to devour Mo Zi's vitality.

Ice spikes suddenly exploded on the surface of the lotus pond, and the water energy around Mo Lan condensed into sharp water blades.

The late lotus flowers blooming by the pond all withered under the invisible pressure, and the petals swirled into the air.

At this moment, Xiaoqing suddenly grabbed her mother's wrist, with a strange light in her eyes:

"But my brother is here! When he appears, the whole world is shrouded in inky icy mist!"

Memories came flooding back like a tide - on the chaotic battlefield of Dazong, thick and impenetrable black fog obscured the sky, and the ground was covered with the wreckage of buildings that had been corroded and riddled with holes.

Just when Xiaoqing and Mo Zi were forced into a desperate situation and chaos was about to swallow them up, a crack suddenly appeared in the sky and inky light poured down.

An inky figure came through the air riding on a hundred-foot-long ice dragon. The ice crystals wrapped around the dragon's body reflected a cold light. The air condensed into frost wherever it passed, and even the chaotic black fog made a sizzling sound.

"The thousand-foot demonic shadow formed by the original chaos crumbled inch by inch under Brother Mo Yun's ice dragon claws!"

Xiaoqing's voice was filled with trembling excitement, and her hair trembled slightly with excitement.

The thrilling battle kept flashing through her mind: Mo Yun's spear shone with an inky light, and every swing was accompanied by the sound of a dragon's roar. The ice dragon he controlled breathed out inky cold air, shattering the chaotic black mist at the touch;

As the spear swept across, thousands of ice dragons roared out from the void. The chaotic waves swept by the dragon's tail instantly condensed into ice cones hundreds of meters long. The sharp ice edges flashed in the chaos, cutting the black fog into countless fragments.

"..."

Molan's silver bell hair accessories shook violently, and she recalled her son practicing his rhythm by the lotus pond when he was young.

At that time, the little figure always waved her sleeves in the morning light, her eyes full of desire for power. And now, Xiaoqing's tears dripped onto the back of her hand:

"But that was just my brother's clone! The original body was still a little short of condensing its rhythmic energy. Even so, when the clone exhausted its last bit of strength to send us back, the outline of the ice dragon had shattered into pieces, and he disappeared in the light of the teleportation array..."

Xiaoqing choked with sobs, her voice getting lower and lower.

"Before he disappeared, he forced a smile for us and said he would be back soon..."

"Sorry……"

The jade floor suddenly cracked into spider-web-like ice patterns, and Molan suddenly pulled her two daughters into her arms.

She hugged Mo Zi tightly, who had a dazed look in her eyes, feeling her daughter's faint body temperature, and the roar of the ice dragon seemed to still echo in her ears.

Molan gently stroked Mo Zi's hair, remembering how she always loved to pester herself to tell stories when she was a child, but now she couldn't even respond to her mother's call.

Molan's eyes burned with rage, and the water mark on her forehead emitted a dazzling light:

"Original Chaos, I will make you pay for your blood debt with blood!"