166: Never Lonely
Someone claimed that the movie <<Phantom of the Theater>> was most probably cursed, or maybe it was Director Chen who was cursed.
It led to death both times.
Moreover it was even more supernatural this time.
The murderer this time was actually an invisible person.
The police came over to investigate, the crew had to stop work for a day. Ning Ning and Wen Yu took this chance to visit a place together—Compassion Veterinary Clinic.
"Although there are many wanted masked people in the future, there are not many worth mentioning." Wen Yu said from behind Ning Ning, "I call the one in here Madam Cat, she is the doctor in your team, your best friend, and brain trust at the same time."
Ning Ning looked at the veterinary shop in front of her and felt a little intrigued.
She had 'friends', most of them were business friends, she did not have many friends in life.
Due to the fact that she was too busy with work, even if she had a few friends, they would not be in contact frequently, so their relationships gradually faded.
The person behind the door was her future best friend?
"You call her Madam Cat because she wears a cat mask?" Ning Ning asked curiously, "What kind of person is she? Why did she become my best friend? Oh that's right, she works at a veterinary shop, is there no one else among the masked people? Why did they let a vet become the doctor of the team?"
"She was a doctor all along, she had an outstanding contribution to biological evolution." Wen Yu said, "The reason she quit her original job to open a veterinary shop...was because she likes cats."
They opened the door and entered, the wind chime above the door rang out crisply.
"Welcome."
The parrot on the shelf shouted welcome repeatedly, but no staff came to greet them all the while.
That was strange. Was no one around? The door clearly had an open sign.
"Hello, is anyone there?" Ning Ning shouted as she walked in.
She walked up to the operating room. The door in front of her was unlocked, there were several sounds from the inside, it sounded like someone was operating on an animal.
She knocked on the door, "Hello?"
The unlocked door opened a little from her knocking. Through the widening gap of the doorway, Ning Ning saw a man and woman still in shock. They were hugging each other, curling up in the corner of the room, their eyes were directed at the operating table.
What was over there?
Ning Ning poked her head in and looked at the operating table as well.
A scalpel was dancing in the air, a woman wearing a cat mask was performing a surgery on the leg of a cat on the operating table.
"Come here," she said without looking up, "give me a hand."
Ning Ning was stunned for a moment before she walked over.
"First, change your clothes, the first drawer behind me, don't forget the gloves."
Ning Ning pulled out the first drawer. She took out the scrubs and the face mask to change into, then wore the rubber gloves as she asked, "What's next?"
"Take this," Madam Cat gave the bloodied scalpel to her, "give me a pair of scissors."
The bloody scalpel and the bloody cat made Ning Ning feel a little faint. She took the scalpel as she hypnotised herself in her heart: acting, acting, I'm a nurse, I'm in a medical show...
She picked up the scissors and handed it to the other party.
This scene became the straw that broke the camel's back. The man and woman curling up in the corner seemed to lose their nerves, they screamed, "Ah!!!"
Ning Ning's hand flinched from their screams, the scissors fell to the floor.
"Be careful." Madam Cat complained.
"I'm sorry." Ning Ning quickly picked up the scissors then switched to another pair in a hurry.
The man and woman screamed as they rushed out of the room. Wen Yu, who was about to enter the room, frantically turned his body sideways so that he wouldn't bump into the two of them.
After watching the two of them escape, Wen Yu looked back and was taken aback. "What are you doing?"
"I'm helping." Ning Ning moved frantically. "I cannot do this alone, come and help out too. That's right, the clothes are in the first drawer."
Wen Yu walked over and pulled out the first drawer, he looked down at the blue and white scrubs along with the surgical masks in the drawer, then slowly looked back. He looked at Ning Ning with a complicated expression, "Are you helping Madam Cat?"
Ning Ning was taken aback. She looked over and stared at the cat mask beside her.
"We can talk later," Madam Cat continued to look down, "save the cat first."
The three of them worked together to finally finish the surgery.
"Alright," Madam Cat sat on a chair and sat with one leg crossed over the other, "what business do you two have with me?"
Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter.
Ning Ning looked down.
A row of bowls was by her feet, snow white goat milk filled the bowls.
A row of kittens in an assortment of colours were burying their faces in the bowls, their tongues curled as they licked the milk.
...Wen Yu was not wrong, she really liked cats a lot...
"You two still have half an hour." Madam Cat took a look at the clock. "Half an hour later, I have to go feed Xiao Bai some medicine."
"Is it the one that just had a surgery?" Ning Ning asked.
"Yes," Madam Cat had a gentle expression, "It is an old cat, these are its children."
Ning Ning thought about it before she asked, "Were the people who just escaped the owners of this shop? You scared them."
"So what?" Madam cat bent down and touched a kitten's neck.
"They will return." Ning Ning sighed, "How are they going to react to these cats at your feet?"
The better Madam Cat treated cats, the more the couple who owned the shop got mad at these cats. They even thought that the cats were the ones that lured Madam Cat into their house. For the sake of chasing Madam Cat out, they might even chase these cats out.
"You're talking about them?" Madam Cat let out a cold laugh. "That dumb woman, she actually gave her leftover milk from breakfast for the kittens. How could the kittens drink that? They would have diarrhoea after drinking that. The man is also dumb. He had only been my assistant for a few months, he didn't have any experience of doing surgeries on his own, but for the sake of saving cost on hiring a vet, he took it upon himself to do the surgeries, he really was treating their lives like dirt."
...This was most probably the legendary cat slave, she really could not stop talking about cats.
"But, you want to return to the movie theater, right?" Ning Ning asked.
"Who said that I want to go back there?" Madam Cat said with a smile, she picked up all the kittens into her arms as she gently said, "I have thought about it very carefully. Besides me, no one else can give them happiness... You tell me, why should I leave them to that pair of idiots?"
Her smile gradually turned cold, "Even if I were to leave, I will bring them along with me!"
The kitten meowed in her arms, struggling as it tried to leave, but she hugged it firmly, she would not let it go no matter what. A paranoid laughter rang out from behind the cat mask, "Compared to those two idiots, I...masked people are more splendid! Masked people are definitely the evolution of humans! We don't need to eat, don't need to sleep, the time saved can be used for scientific research, self-improvement, it can also be used to accompany my lovable cats... Even if my most beloved Xiao Bai dies, I can accompany its children, they will never be lonely, I will also never be lonely..."
As she said that, she suddenly shot a strange look at Ning Ning, asking with a smile, "That's right, last night, did Shi Zhong Tang go fetch you?"
Life Theater.
Although it was the day, the inside of the theater was still shrouded in darkness.
A person sat among the audience seats, he was bent over, both his hands were on his face, like a tired person pretending to sleep.
"What time is it?" He suddenly asked.
Whispers rang out from the darkness, one of the voices answered, "It's four in the afternoon."
After a moment of silence, that person stood up from the chair, he murmured to himself, "I should go back, she would go around looking for me."
He started walking towards the entrance. Behind him, countless figures spoke from within the darkness, men and women, old and young, their voices undulated as they tried to persuade him.
"Shi Zhong Tang, stop."
"You cannot go out."
"Come back quickly."
"Be careful..."
Shi Zhong Tang's footsteps were heavy, they were that of a person walking in a desert, little by little trudging towards the entrance.
He had finally trudged up to the entrance, looking up and seeing a masked person from across the street running towards the theater with all his might.
That was a masked person with a ponytail that had already lost half his head of hair, he was wearing a book boy mask and dressed up as a person from the Qing dynasty.
The traffic light at the junction suddenly turned green, cars immediately drove by like the ocean, separating the street and Life Theater.
The Qing Dynasty person retreated in fear from the cars. He looked at the traffic lights anxiously, the ponytail behind him gradually turned from black to white.
There was no time left!
Without waiting for the traffic light to turn red, the Qing Dynasty person ran rapidly towards the movie theater. He was almost knocked down by a car a few times, he was so scared that he was covered in sweat and his legs were jelly. Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and looked at the big truck that was driving towards him at breakneck speed...
Boom...
The big truck sounded like thunder as it drove over the spot the Qing Dynasty person was standing on.
"Huff...huff..." Beside the truck, Shi Zhong Tang held the Qing Dynasty person tightly, sweat rolling off his forehead. He said with lingering fear, "That was close...are you alright?"
He looked down at the masked person he saved.
He did not get any response for a long time.
The white ponytail, the hand that was full of wrinkles, the smell of a decadent old man...
He died of old age.
Shi Zhong Tang looked at the masked person in his arms who had died of old age. He was speechless for a very long time, until the other party's body slowly rotted into a pile of black tape on the ground, with a clank, the book boy mask fell on the ground.
"You will turn old as well if you don't come back." A voice that was taking pleasure in his misfortune rang out behind him.
Shi Zhong Tang slowly looked back.
A meter away from him, Mr. Rabbit stood at the doorway of Life Theater, looking at him with a slightly mocking expression as he said, "Although the theater restricts your freedom, it stops your aging, otherwise..."
He started laughing viciously. He pointed at the book boy mask on the ground, along with the white ponytail that had not fully rotted away. "You think she will still like you when you have turned this old, you think she will still look forward to your return?"
Shi Zhong Tang fell silent for a moment, he picked up the book boy mask then slowly walked back into the theater.
In the quiet theater, without light or warmth, a darkness with only masks floating about, pale and cold.
"Ha..." Shi Zhong Tang looked at his surroundings and let out a laugh at himself, "I originally thought that this place was a prison, it is actually a freezer."
My love for you did not ail, but my body had started to.
Ning Ning...