Red and White
“Or is it that…” Ning Ning asked, “you’re actually here to kill me?”
Wen Yu looked down at her without speaking.
“Compared to Mr. Rabbit, I’m the better choice, right?” Ning Ning slowly looked up at him. “After all, Mr. Rabbit is only one of the masked people, but I’m the leader of all the masked people.”
Wen Yu did not admit it, but he didn’t retort either.
But with Ning Ning’s understanding, his silence in the moment meant an acknowledgement.
“But you can’t do it.” Ning Ning smiled at him.
As she finished saying that, her neck suddenly felt cold.
A dining knife was put up horizontally to her neck.
“If I kill you now, you won’t be the Ning Ning from my memory.” Wen Yu held the knife handle, he seemed to be explaining to Ning Ning, he also seemed to be talking to himself, “Then you won’t make so many mistakes, you would not become what you were like in the future.”
The dining knife being held up to her neck had a trace of coldness.
Ning Ning glanced down, that’s strange, how did she not feel any fear?
Thinking briefly about it, she understood now.
A trusting look was cast upon Wen Yu, Ning Ning said gently, “You can’t do it.”
Wen Yu, “…”
“I understand you, just like how I will never harm you, you will also never harm me.” Ning Ning raised her hand, “The proof is right here.”
Her gentle fingers were like the spring wind as it caressed his eyes.
“You can’t even see masked people even now.” Ning Ning laughed, “It proves that you still have hope in your heart.”
The slowly falling finger pressed down on his chest, she asked quietly, “…The belief that made you hold on till now, is it really to kill me?“
The heart that was silent to the point where it was like it stopped beating, in that moment it suddenly started to beat violently.
“A lot of people think that this is a type of flaw.” Wen Yu said blandly, “In the future, only children who are barely a few years old could not see masked people. Not being able to see masked people would mean not being able to deal with or escape from masked people, so their parents would force them to be able to see…I’m probably the last person who cannot see masked people…”
He looked down at his chest, looking at the hand that was pressing down on his chest, he suddenly let out a bitter laugh. He held Ning Ning’s hand with both hands, slowly shifting her hand to his own forehead.
“The reason is most probably as you said.” He bent over slightly, placing his forehead to her finger in an almost devout manner, like an angel shining a light on their believer, he closed his eyes and smiled bitterly. “The hope in my heart remains. I came here for you, I came here for the future of humans, I want to save you, I want to save everyone, so…”
He opened his eyes to look at Ning Ning as he said with an extremely imposing tone, “I have to find the reason you turned into a masked person!”
At the same time, at a certain road junction.
“Huff, huff, huff…”
Mr. Rabbit ran breathlessly, he stopped in his tracks halfway through and looked back.
Seeing that Wen Yu did not catch up, he breathed a sigh of relief. A piercing white light suddenly shone on the side of his face, he reflexively raised a hand to block it, in the next second…
“Bang!!”
A BMW stopped by the road, the car window was wound down. A head peeked out from the inside, looking out the window as they trembled in fear. “It’s over, it’s over, I think I knocked someone down.”
“No way?” The female passenger shouted out, then the doors on both sides opened. Both of them got off and circled around the car once. In the end, they breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, the female passenger gave a pat to the car owner. “Good thing there’s no one, you gave me such a fright!”
“There…there’s someone…” Mr. Rabbit who was knocked to the side of the road could not get up. He reached out with a trembling hand towards them as he shouted with his dying breath.
The BMW left him in the dust, the dust made him cough as they were kicked off.
“Help me…” After a few strips of black tape were coughed out, Mr. Rabbit continued to shout with his dying breath, “I’m about to die, help me…”
There were benefits to being a masked person—when they kill someone, no one would know or be able to see.
But there was also a downside—when they were getting killed, no one would know or be able to see either.
Mr. Rabbit wailed mournfully on the ground for half an hour or so, but it was in the middle of the night, there were not many pedestrians to begin with, those few pedestrians could not see him nor hear him.
One of them stepped on Mr. Rabbit’s hand. Mr. Rabbit whose hand was already heavily injured screamed, “Ah!”
“Ah!” The pedestrian also screamed. She jumped about and said, “Ew, it feels like I just stepped on something soft. Ah! So gross, so scary, we should leave quickly!”
Bitch, I have to kill you in the future…
The serial killer on his last breath swore in his heart. Then, bringing his hatred for this world along with his hatred for women, closed his eyes unwillingly…
“Wow…” A pleasant male voice rang out from the top of his head, “How did you end up in such a bad state?”
Mr. Rabbit opened his eyes.
Shi Zhong Tang squatted beside him. He tilted his head and looked at him, winking his right eye in a slightly playful manner. “Do you need help? If so, shout ‘one’.”
“One, one, one, one, one, one!!”
Shi Zhong Tang piggybacked him to a small clinic.
Mr. Rabbit took a look at the signboard—Compassion Veterinary Clinic.
“…I want to go to a regular hospital!” Mr. Rabbit said in rage, “You can’t bring me to a vet just because I’m wearing a rabbit mask!”
“You want the doctor of a regular hospital to operate on air?” Shi Zhong Tang shook his head, then started knocking on the door, “It’s me, Shi Zhong Tang, open up.”
Mr. Rabbit wanted to tell him not to waste his breath, he himself shouted for half an hour by the road to no avail.
In the next second, the door opened.
Mr. Rabbit, “…”
The person behind the door was also a masked person, a cry of surprise rang out from the cat mask that was very fitting for a vet, “Oh my, what a poor bunny, quickly bring him in here.”
“…What do you mean by bunny, this man is already forty! Also, this man does not want to visit a vet!”
Although Mr. Rabbit tried his best to protest, he was tranquilised and put on a pet hospital bed…
Either he was not fated to die, or Cat Mask had amazing skills. After the rescue attempt, his injuries actually gradually stabilised.
When Mr. Rabbit opened his eyes once again, his body and fingers were all bandaged up, his wounds were not bleeding the limited black tape anymore.
“Tell me.” A voice rang out from the bedside. He looked over and saw Shi Zhong Tang standing by the bed, the cat masked person sitting on the chair by the bed, gently petting a white cat that was lying on their knees.
“What happened to you?” Shi Zhong Tang asked. “It’s one thing to be knocked down by a car, how did your hands get slashed? Who did it?”
Mr. Rabbit stared at him, he did not dare to tell the truth.
“This fellow is helping me now because he doesn’t know I targeted his girlfriend. Once he finds out…” Mr. Rabbit thought, “Hold on, does he know something? Otherwise, why did he bring me to the vet?”
He speculated about Shi Zhong Tang’s intentions maliciously, him being a bad guy made him believe that the other party must also be a bad guy.
“…I accidentally knocked over the shelf that was holding knives when I was stealing food.” Mr. Rabbit found a random excuse. “When it rains, it pours. Later on, I was knocked down by a car as well. Neither heaven nor earth was answering my pleas, if not for you passing by, sigh…”
“Count your lucky stars. My girlfriend has to work overtime tonight, I am here to fetch her home.” Shi Zhong Tang smiled as he asked, “That’s right, how are things between you and your wife?”
Mr. Rabbit fell silent for a moment before he smiled. “Same old. She lives her life, I live mine. How can I compare to you? Your girlfriend knows that you are a masked person, yet she insists on being with you… Seriously, I’m so envious of you.”
Rather than envy, it would be more accurate to call it jealousy.
He was so jealous that he wanted to swap life with him.
Shi Zhong Tang could not help but let out a laugh, just as he was about to say something, footsteps rang out from the floor above.
The three of them looked up at the same time. The footsteps stopped at the top of the stairs, but no one came down.
But the voices of a man and a woman rang out.
“How is it, dear? Is there anyone downstairs?”
“There’s no one…”
“Then why are the lights on? Did you forget to switch them off when you closed the shop today?”
“Impossible…”
A man and a woman walked down the stairs, the woman hid behind the man, he was even holding a golf club to give himself courage.
The ears of the cat on Cat Mask’s lap moved. She opened her eyes to take a look, abruptly jumping off the legs and running towards the couple as it meowed.
“Little Cutie, are you hungry?” The woman stepped out from behind the man, bending down to pick the cat up. Her fingers stroked its chin, causing the cat to close its eyes in comfort. She teased the cat as she ordered the man by her side, “Go, go, make something for Little Cutie to eat.”
The cat mask sighed faintly as she looked towards the cat. “My man has a new owner, my cat also has a new owner.”
That was the famous cat slave in Life Theater.
Compared to men, she cared about cats more.
She quit her job for cats, she opened a veterinarian clinic for cats, she married very late in life for cats, she refused to give birth to children for cats, and finally, she turned into a famous masked person for saving her cat from under the wheels. After she escaped from the movie theater, she hurried home without stopping to look for her cat.
It didn’t matter that her man had a change of heart, what made her feel downhearted was that her cat had a change of heart.
“They are all the same.” Mr. Rabbit related to her, patting her shoulders as consolation, his voice had a trace of grievance, “No matter if it’s a man, a woman or a cat, they are all the same. Just because we have a mask on our faces, they would not treat us as a person. To put it frankly, they are all giving themselves an excuse for their change of heart.”
Shi Zhong Tang looked back at him, “Not everyone is like that.”
Mr. Rabbit burned with anger. He hated normal people, he hated a blissful masked person like Shi Zhong Tang even more. Shi Zhong Tang did not need to do anything besides stand there to make him feel ashamed of his own unseemliness.
He could not help as his shame turned into anger, he shouted, “Stop being sarcastic! You think everyone is as lucky as you? Most of the masked people are living their lives like me, lonely and helpless, no one cares about us. I gave her my everything, she instead fed my everything to the dogs…”
“Alright, alright, this is someone else’s house, what are you getting so agitated for?” Shi Zhong Tang could not be bothered to argue with him, he waved to Cat Mask. “I’ll go ahead and fetch my girlfriend, if you can’t stay here I can introduce a place for you.”
His disregard made Mr. Rabbit even more annoyed. Just as he was about to continue scolding him, he was suddenly taken aback and started laughing.
Shi Zhong Tang did not care about his scoldings, he was curious to why he was laughing instead. He tilted his head and asked, “What are you laughing about?”
“Haha, hahahaha…” Mr. Rabbit was tearing up from laughter, it even flared up his injury. He trembled from the pain, but even so, he was still laughing, he was laughing for Shi Zhong Tang to see.
“Life Theater is still quite fair it seems, you’re not so lucky.” Mr. Rabbit pointed to what was behind Shi Zhong Tang. “Look.”
Shi Zhong Tang raised his eyebrows before he looked back.
Behind him was a mirror.
Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Shi Zhong Tang murmured, “How is this possible…”
He gave the top of his head a tug.
Then he slowly opened up his hand.
On it, was a handful of black and white hair.
So, SZT is aging unlike other masked people?
shit