Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

……

The copper bells in Yuanchu Building swayed gently in the wind, making tiny sounds, as if someone was shaking a string of silver beads in the distance.

When Mo Yun was crossing the stone arch bridge at the town entrance with Bai Tang in his arms, the chaotic mucus on the soles of his shoes was being evaporated into a light purple mist by the sunlight. Strands of it wrapped around the carvings on the bridge railings and were blown away by the wind.

The body of the kitten in his arms was already cold, and the bald part of its tail was like a withered leaf, swaying gently with his steps, brushing across Mo Yun's wrist with a touch of icy chips.

A Yuanchu gong hung under the eaves. The bronze surface of the gong was covered with a thin layer of dust, but the spiral patterns on the edge suddenly brightened when they approached.

"Om--" a low hum rolled out from the gong, like the water in a deep well being stirred, and blue-gold light patterns emerged in the rippling waves. Countless thin bands of light swam through the air, just entangled with the lingering rhythmic power at Mo Yun's waist, weaving into a translucent net.

He stopped at the stone steps in front of the building. Grains of rice that had fallen from last year's drying were still embedded in the cracks of the steps, shining from being stepped on.

When she looked down, Bai Tang's eyes were tightly closed, with some undried tear marks on her eyelashes, like grass leaves covered with morning dew. There was also a shallow scratch on the bridge of her nose, which was caused by the tip of the armor of the secret soldier.

When she pressed her fingertips on his chest, she couldn't feel any movement, only the bruise caused by the hidden soldier's kick, which glowed an ugly purple in the light, like an old cloth soaked in blood.

"Try it."

Mo Yun spoke softly, with a tremor in her voice that she herself didn't even notice, as if she was talking to herself, or to the silent gong.

He raised his hand to untie the knot around his waist, and the Yuanchu Luo fell into his palm. The light pattern on the surface of the gong suddenly expanded as he felt the cold metal. It followed his arm and wrapped around Bai Tang's body, then circled around the tip of the bald tail, leaving a faint golden mark.

At first it was just a faint warmth, like early spring snowmelt seeping into the frozen ground.

But when the gong sounded for the second time, the small Yunli bead hanging around Bai Tang's neck suddenly burst out with white light, and the Xingluoban mark engraved on the bead flashed, colliding with the green light of the gong surface - Mo Yun only felt a flash before his eyes, and when he opened his eyes again, the stone steps under his feet had turned into a chaotic gray fog, with broken candy wrappers and half a blood-stained cat hair floating in the fog.

This is the virtual world created by Yuan Chu Luo, exactly the same as what he saw last time he broke in.

But this time, the one standing in the fog was no longer the little white cat shivering under the rack.

The fog seemed to be pushed aside by someone's hand, and Mo Yun saw a familiar threshing ground.

The golden grains piled up into small hills, heated by the sun. Strings of red silk were hung on the old locust tree beside the field, and when the wind blew, they fluttered like a ball of dancing fire.

In the center of the field, Bai Tang was squatting on the ground with his back to him, holding a branch in his hand, drawing intently on the muddy ground, with the tip of his tail raised high, and a yellow leaf still stuck to it.

"Brother Mo Yun!"

Hearing the footsteps, the little guy turned around suddenly, his eyes were surprisingly bright, and he was holding half a piece of sesame candy in his hand, with the candy residue stuck to the corner of his mouth, like a little squirrel stealing food.

He jumped up with a smile, and the branches fell to the ground with a "clack", revealing the Xingluoban drawn on the mud ground - four crooked little men, Wusong's sword was drawn like a fire stick, Xiaoqing's braid dragged on the ground, and Dafei was holding a round object in his hand, probably a bun.

There was also a picture of a fish with its mouth open next to it, and the words "Fished with Sugar" were written crookedly on the fish's body.

"Look at what I drew! When Xiaoqing and the others get here, shall we go to the river and catch some fish? I saw some fish jumping out of the water yesterday!"

Mo Yun's heart felt like it was being gripped by something, and a sour feeling flowed up through his blood vessels.

This is Bai Tang's most vivid appearance, and it is the thought hidden in the deepest part of his soul when he was chained and kicked by secret soldiers in the chaos.

He could even smell the sweet aroma of half a piece of sesame candy, mixed with the aroma of wheat from the threshing floor, a unique smell of Dongqiang Town.

But the next second, the threshing ground suddenly began to shake.

The ground beneath my feet looked like it had been hit by a huge hammer, cracking into spider-web-like cracks. Golden grains rolled into the cracks and instantly turned into dark purple slime. The bubbling sound made my scalp tingle.

The leaves of the old locust tree fell off one by one, revealing the iron chains wrapped around the bare branches, which looked exactly like the torture racks in the Land of Chaos.

The smile on Bai Tang's face froze, and the sesame candy in his hand fell to the ground with a "pop". It melted with a "sizzle" as soon as it touched the mucus, leaving only a finger covered with sugar residue.

"Sugar...my sugar..."

He panicked and reached out to grab it, but only got a handful of cold ashes.

When he turned around and tried to run, the ground beneath his feet suddenly collapsed, and countless hands of hidden soldiers stretched out from the cracks. Their blue-gray nails scraped across his ankles and dragged him deeper.

"Brother Mo Yun! Save me!"

Bai Tang's voice was tinged with that heartbreaking cry, mixed with the rattling of iron chains.

"I don't want to stay here... I want to go back... Wusong still owes me half a piece of cake!"

Mo Yun suddenly drew out his green spear, and the light from the spear tip pierced through the chaos of the virtual world with a "swish", and the wind it brought swept away a few fallen locust leaves:

"Don't be afraid, I'm here!"

The moment he rushed over, the scenes in the virtual world suddenly overlapped - on one side was the sweet illusion of a threshing ground, with the sun shining warmly and Xiaoqing's laughter like a silver bell;

On one side was the cold reality of the torture rack, the whip of the secret soldier hit the stone slab, and Bai Tang's whimpering was very low.

Bai Tang was trapped in the middle, his small body being pulled repeatedly between the two images. The bones under his fur were almost torn out, but he still gritted his teeth and refused to let go of the claw that was holding the air.

"Use the power of rhythm to stabilize his soul core!"

The sound of the Yuanchu gong suddenly rang in my mind, carrying the unique heaviness of an ancient artifact, like striking a bronze tripod.

"His obsession is guarding the last glimmer of hope. What you need to do is not to pull him out, but to pull out that glimmer of hope!"

Mo Yun understood instantly.

The last time he could only watch Bai Tang suffer in the virtual world was because he only thought about "saving" her, but forgot that Bai Tang was never a child who just waited to be rescued.

This little guy has more tenacity in his bones than anyone else.

He put away the gun and let the cyan-gold rhythmic energy flow out from his palm, wrapping around Bai Tang's body like a soft silk ribbon and gently tying a knot on the bruise.

"Look at me, Bai Tang." His voice cut through the noise of the illusion and fell clearly into the little guy's ears, with the certainty of a gun barrel hitting the bluestone.

"Remember what we agreed on? We were going to use guns to hack our way home together, and we were going to make sure all the cats had plenty of sesame candy."

The vibration in the virtual world suddenly stopped.

The hands of the hidden soldier melted in the rhythmic force like snow in the heat, and the illusion of the threshing ground became clear again, but this time, there was a figure in a green shirt holding a gun in the painting on the ground. At the feet of the figure, there was a kitten with a bald tail, holding a branch and painting patterns on Wusong's "fire stick".

Bai Tang stared at him blankly, then suddenly seemed to remember something and pulled out a crumpled candy wrapper from her pocket. The edges of the wrapper were worn, and inside was half a melted and hardened candy, shaped as ugly as a small stone.

"This... I hid it in a crevice. I was planning to share it with everyone when I got back. Wu Song would definitely snatch it up, but I can give it to Xiao Qing and Da Fei..."

Mo Yun's rhythmic power seeped into the candy, and that half candy suddenly gave off a sweet fragrance, even stronger than the sesame candy just now.

He knew that this was a response from Bai Tang's obsession - the longing for his friends, the desire for home, and the hope that refused to be extinguished no matter how hard it was beaten. It was like a seed buried in the frozen soil, waiting for this ray of light to make it germinate.

"Come with me."

Mo Yun stretched out his hand, and the edge of the virtual world began to glow, like clouds illuminated by the morning sun. It was the light of Yuanchu Gong in the real world calling out.

"Go home and eat hot candy. Xiaoqing will definitely make sweet soup with lots of rock sugar. Dafei will roast sweet potatoes, which are so sweet that they're dripping with oil. Wusong..."

He paused, thinking of that guy's awkward look, and couldn't help but curl his lips.

"He'll probably awkwardly give you half a piece of his hidden maltose, and then insist he can't finish it all."

Bai Tang looked at his hand, then looked at the half candy in his hand, and suddenly smiled.

Like the sun after the rain, it dispelled some of the chaos in the virtual world, revealing the vague eaves behind. The red silk hanging on the eaves was exactly the same as the one in Dongqiang Town.

He put the candy into his mouth, the sweetness spreading along the tip of his tongue, and then he held Mo Yun's hand tightly:

"it is good."

The moment he grasped it, the virtual world shattered like a glass cup falling to the ground.

Mo Yun suddenly opened his eyes and found himself still standing downstairs of Yuanchu Building. The Yuanchu Gong in his palm was incredibly hot, and there was a bit of cat hair like white sugar in the patterns on the gong surface.

Bai Tang's chest in his arms suddenly rose and fell slightly, like a stranded fish finally taking its first breath of air.

He quickly lowered his head and saw the little guy's eyelashes trembled, like a butterfly's wings tentatively breaking out of its cocoon, shaking off the tear marks on them.

Then, the pair of amber eyes slowly opened, with the confusion of just waking up, and some red bloodshot on the whites of the eyes, but they were no longer dead gray. The green light of Yuanchu Luo was reflected in them, like two fallen stars.

"Brother Mo Yun?"

Bai Tang's voice was very hoarse, as if it had been rubbed by sandpaper, but it rang out clearly, with a hint of nasal sound from just waking up.

"My candy...seems to have melted in my mouth. It's a little sticky."

The Yuanchu Gong made a clear humming sound, and a wave of cyan-gold light spread across the entire Dongqiang Town. The eyes of the stone lion at the entrance of the town lit up, as if it was yawning.

The copper bells under the eaves rang cheerfully, and a familiar cry came from the distance.

"Sugar!"

"Where are you, brat!"

——It was Wusong’s loud voice, followed by Xiaoqing’s crying voice.

"Sugar! Did you hear that?"

Mo Yun held him up and stood up. The sunlight fell on Bai Tang's face, making his cheeks slowly turn red, like a frozen red apple.

He lowered his head and smiled, then reached out to wipe the sugar stains off the little guy's mouth. The skin his fingertips touched finally felt a little warm.

"It's okay, we'll go home and ask them to make you a jar of it, either sticky or non-sticky."

Bai Tang blinked, and suddenly reached out to grab his sleeve, gently rubbing the old scar with her fingertips, just like she had done countless times when she was a child.

"Just now... I seemed to have touched your gun, in that dream-like place."

He whispered, the tip of his tail brushing lightly across Mo Yun's arms, with a tremor of relief.

"It's not a dream."

Mo Yun said, looking up at the town entrance, three familiar figures were stumbling towards them, Wu Song's sword tassel was flying in the air, Xiao Qing's braid was swinging like a small snake, and Da Fei was holding a bulging cloth bag in his arms, probably food he had collected on the road.

"From now on, you can touch it every day."