Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

"..."

The halo of Yuanchu Luo suddenly jumped violently, like a candle flame torn by a strong wind, and tiny sparks burst out from the cyan-gold light pattern, as if it would go out in the next second.

"What does this picture mean?"

Mo Yun's fingertips trembled slightly on the gong. He could feel the picture being torn apart by a brutal force, and then it suddenly switched to an empty square - this was once the market center of a town in Maotu, but now it has become a place of execution where secret soldiers show off their power.

The bluestone slabs in the square had been corroded black by the chaos, with dark purple slime seeping from the cracks. When you stepped on them, you could hear a "sizzling" sound, as if countless tiny insects were gnawing at the stone.

The torture rack in the center was made of melted dark matter. The shiny black frame was wrapped with rusty iron chains, and each link was stuck with dried blood. When the wind blew, it made a mournful "clang clang" sound.

"Has An already destroyed Mao Tu to this extent?"

Several stiff corpses hung on the top of the rack. There were cat people and warriors who had once resisted. Their fur was dyed gray-purple by the chaos, their limbs hung in twisted postures, and their dried tails swayed gently like broken reeds under the leaden sky.

There were scattered cat people hiding behind the broken walls surrounding the square. Most of them huddled in the shadows, only glancing at the execution ground with their empty eyes.

Some people hold hungry cubs crying in their arms, but can only cover the children's mouths tightly, and suppressed sobs escape through their fingers;

Some people were holding a piece of bark that they couldn't chew, their teeth were chattering, but there was no expression on their faces - fear had already ground their emotions into powder, leaving only numbness like stone.

"I don't want to go near here"

It was at this moment that the little white cat was pushed into this dead silence by three tall secret soldiers.

He had obviously been dragged here, the fur on the back of his neck was pulled into a mess, and the originally snow-white fur was stained with mud and grass debris, mixed with a few drops of dark red blood.

His frail body stumbled on the rough stone slabs, each step unsteady, as if a gust of wind could blow him over, his front paws tightly protecting his chest.

It seemed like he was hiding some treasure, until a hidden soldier kicked him hard in the knee and he fell to the ground with a "thump".

"hiss--"

The little white cat gasped in pain, and its ribs hit the hard stone slabs, causing a piercing pain.

The thing hidden in his arms also rolled out. It was half a dry and hard wheat cake with blackened edges and a few grains of sand on it. He found it after rummaging through the garbage dump for a whole afternoon yesterday. He had intended to keep it and secretly share it with the old cat with a broken leg in the alley at night.

"Humph!"

But before he could reach out to pick it up, a heavy military boot stepped on it hard.

With a "crack", the wheat cake was instantly crushed into powder, mixed with the mucus in the cracks of the stone slabs, and became a pool of black mud.

The little white cat's pupils suddenly contracted, as if it was stung by something. He subconsciously wanted to pounce, but another hidden soldier held his back with the shaft of a spear.

The cold metal pressed against his spine with such force that it seemed to crush his bones.

"What kind of wild thing dared to steal the tribute?"

The leading secret soldier took a step forward. He was two heads taller than the little white cat. The spikes on his armor flashed with a cold light, and the stubble on his chin pricked like steel needles. As he spoke, his saliva sprayed all over the little white cat's face.

The tip of the spear in his hand was against the tip of the little white cat's nose. There were still dried blood stains on it, and it emitted a fishy smell mixed with rust and chaos.

The little white cat trembled with fear and immediately curled up into a ball, digging its claws into the ground, its nails almost digging into the cracks in the stone. He wanted to explain that he had not stolen any tribute at all, and that the half piece of wheat cake was thrown away by someone else;

I wanted to tell them I was just passing by and just wanted to quickly hide back in the broken pottery jar in the alley;

But his throat seemed to be blocked by a ball of hot cotton, and he could only make tiny whimpers, which sounded weak and pitiful.

"Look at him, he's so cowardly,"

The dark soldier on the right sneered. His left eye was missing a piece, and the fur around the eye socket was tangled into a clump, revealing the dark red scar inside.

"How dare you hide food on Lord An's territory? Are you tired of living?"

As he spoke, he raised his foot and kicked the little white cat in the lower back.

The iron palm of the military boots fell with the sound of wind, and with a dull "bang" sound, the little white cat instantly curled up into a ball in pain, like a squashed shrimp.

His vision went dark, his ears were buzzing, and the skin on his lower back felt like it was being torn apart, causing him to twitch all over in pain.

He could sense subtle movements from the cat people hiding around him. Some of them were breathing faster, and some of their shadows were swaying slightly behind the broken wall. However, no cat dared to stand out, and no one even dared to look up - just like last time in the alley.

Just like when the little black cat was picked up and flew away by the secret soldiers to save him, everyone just lowered their heads, pretending not to see anything, pretending that there was no bleeding life on the stone slabs under their feet.

Why...why is this happening?

Fear was like an icy river, pouring from his head to his feet, freezing his limbs numb.

The little white cat curled up on the ground, shaking like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind, his mind a mess.

Where on earth is this place? The sky is always leaden grey, the air is always filled with a fishy stench, the cat people are always trembling, and the secret soldiers are always beating people...

Why did I come to this place? Where did the world with sunshine, the smell of sugar, and my fellow Xingluo teammates go?

I wasn’t like this before.

He vaguely remembered that he once dared to stand in front of Chaos Beast, holding up the Bell of Justice and shouting "I am the White Sugar of the Star Luo Class";

I remember Wu Song always loved to snatch candies from me, but would always protect me when I was in danger.

I remember Xiaoqing would joke with him, and her sleeves would carry a faint lotus fragrance when brushing against his cheeks;

I remember that Master Tang Ming would touch his head with a smile. Didn’t you say that?

"As long as you have faith, there are no difficulties that cannot be overcome"...

But those memories are like being separated by a thick layer of frosted glass. You can see the outline but you can’t feel the temperature. The more you try to grasp them, the farther they run away.

Now I am just a trembling little white cat that can’t even protect half a piece of wheat cake.

"I want to go home..."

He finally squeezed out a mosquito-like sentence from his throat, and tears mixed with the mud on his face flowed down, gathering into water beads at the tip of his chin, and hitting the stone slab with a "pa" sound.

His voice was heavily nasal, and there was a hint of grievance that he himself was not aware of.

"I don't want to stay here...it hurts..."

"go home?"

The leading soldier seemed to have heard a huge joke. He suddenly bent down, grabbed the fur on the back of the little white cat with his rough claws, and lifted him up.

The little white cat's fur was pulled so hard that it felt like its neck was about to be strangled. Its limbs kicked in the air in vain, but it couldn't even touch the other party's arms.

His sight swayed back and forth, the corpse on the rack, the cat people behind the broken wall, the grinning faces of the secret soldiers... all the scenes were spinning, like a nightmare from which he could not wake up.

"In this cat land, Lord An is the sky!"

The dark soldier's face was very close, the fishy smell from his mouth sprayed on the little white cat's face, and the malice in his eyes was like a poisoned ice cone.

"Want to go home? Unless you become a dried corpse on the rack! Then the wind will blow and you'll float back to your crappy alley!"

As he spoke, he suddenly loosened his claws and dragged the little white cat towards the rack by its tail.

The little white cat felt a tearing pain at the base of its tail and screamed in pain, but its voice was as weak as a mouse that was stepped on.

His claws scratched long bloody marks on the stone slabs, and blood oozed from the broken nails, but the pain was nothing compared to the fear in his heart.

The rack was getting closer, and the stench of corpses and chaos was getting stronger.

The little white cat saw a broken cat claw stuck on the bottom chain, and a small piece of blue cloth embedded in the crack of the nail - the color was very similar to Xiaoqing's sleeves.

His heart suddenly felt like it was being tightly gripped, causing him to feel so painful that he couldn't breathe.

Maybe... maybe it's time to give up.

He even began to hate himself:

Why struggle? Why hide that half a wheat cake? Why remember that vague warmth? If I close my eyes and harden my heart like the other cat people, will it not hurt so much? Will I be able to survive in this mud like a stone?