The next morning, the swordsman arrived at the Heavenly Palace on time and took Wodi to the puppeteer's castle.
Her expression was cold and empty, just like usual. She only reminded Wodi one sentence before leaving: "You can make as much trouble as you want here. I can take care of it for you, but there is only one thing, you must not hurt any puppets."
Woody nodded obediently.
He knew how much the puppeteer treasured his puppets, so he would not commit suicide over such a thing. That would not be called maintaining the little white cat's character, but simply a brain cramp.
The swordsman was relieved at this point, his white robe fluttered slightly, and he suddenly disappeared from the spot.
"Huh?" Woody lunged forward, but missed. He looked around in a daze. "Leaving now? But where should I go?"
There was no one in the huge hall, even the two white porcelain rabbits placed on the dining table that day were nowhere to be seen. A cold wind came from nowhere and blew across the gauze hanging from the edge of the table. The rustling sound was clearly audible, making this magnificent castle look like a ghost town.
The leopard cat blinked its eyes, with an almost innocent confusion on its face. It didn't look afraid, but rather a mixture of confusion and curiosity. Its pink nose twitched to confirm safety, as if it had seen fresh food.
[Don't look back, keep pretending.]
The cat toy waved a small flag to cheer him on.
...
...
[There are several puppets on the side of the arch, peeking at you. They must be responsible for surveillance. The puppet master probably doesn't believe the swordsman's words and deliberately left you here to test your strength.]
Woody acted even more vigorously. He stretched out his two cat paws and yawned in a formal manner. He didn't even look at the brown papers on the table that looked like confidential information. He looked around and symbolically called out a few times, "Is anyone there?" But when he got no answer, he jumped onto the wooden railing, wagging his tail, and curled up to take a nap.
He counted the useful items in the warehouse last night, and put them into a hidden space together with the treasures given by the swordsman. With the introduction and guidance of Cat Toys, he understood the functions of those treasures, made a plan for consumption and training, and strived to achieve the greatest improvement in strength. Finally, he arranged Yan Anqing's affairs. It was already dawn when everything was completed.
Unlike the tabby cat who stayed up late all night, the leopard cat had a very regular schedule. He was a little sleepy after staying up all night. Plus, he didn't know if the puppeteer had the ability to tell if he was pretending to sleep, so he simply didn't take any defensive measures. After closing his eyes for a while, he really fell into a deep sleep, even snoring in comfort.
It was noon when I woke up again.
[No movement at all. This puppeteer is indeed very secretive and patient.]
Cat toys are amazing.
[What should we do? Should we pretend to have seen those puppets and go get some information?]
Woody thought for a moment and decisively rejected the cat toy proposal.
"That would be too deliberate, and it would make people wonder if I was just putting on a show," he said. "Unless the puppets start making a noise, we have to wait and see. Now that we have had enough sleep, the next thing a cat should do is eat."
He took out two descendants of the spirit fish from the hidden space and cleaned them skillfully. Then, he looked around, jumped onto the dining table, randomly pulled out a few sheets of kraft paper from the most conspicuous stack of paper, lit them directly, and used them as fuel to roast the fish.
The roasted fish smelled delicious, and he ate until his mouth was full of oil. He cleaned his claws, but still saw no one coming, so he simply jumped to the ground and strolled towards the corridor.
There were no windows in the corridor, but it was still as bright as day. Woody looked for a long time but couldn't figure out where the light came from. He could only shake his head in doubt, and look up at the paintings hanging all over the corridor as he walked.
Having a childhood friend who loves painting, Woody also knows a lot about paintings. At least he can see that these carefully framed and hung paintings are not works of famous artists. At first glance, they look like graffiti by kindergarten children, mostly drawn with crayons and colored pencils. Occasionally, there are a few outstanding oil paintings, but also many corrections and omissions can be seen.
The elements that appear most frequently in all the paintings are puppeteers, puppets of various colors and red roses. Combined with the many drawings found in the home of the puppeteer captured by the Twenty-Eight Mansions, it is not difficult to guess that these paintings are also the works of the puppets.
"The puppeteer himself is gorgeous and enchanting, and he obviously cares a lot about his appearance, but he allows these paintings of him in grotesque shapes to be hung in the corridor," Woody sighed quietly in his heart, "He really loves his puppets."
[But why didn't he rescue the puppets who were still in the Twenty-Eight Mansions?]
Cat toys don't understand.
[It can't be that because the puppet is still happily experimenting with the twenty-eight people, he thinks the puppet is having a good time, right?]
Moreover, when Daju and Kong Xiuwen found the puppet, it had been damaged in several places due to years of disrepair, and even its throat could not make any sound. If the puppeteer had paid more attention, how could this happen?
"Maybe the puppeteer has some difficulties?" Wodi had no idea the reason. He scratched his ears and silently made a few question marks on the notebook in his mind. Then he continued to walk in the corridor like a cat, swaying unsteadily. When he reached the end, he saw a burly stone man facing him.
The leopard cat suddenly perked up.
He jumped over, waved his paws, and happily talked to the stone man: "Hello, meow! Do you know where the puppeteer is?"
Stoneman: “?”
Its round stone head tilted and looked at Wodi, its entire body forming a vivid question mark.
Woody flicked his tail and repeated, "Do you know where the puppet master is?"
Stone Man: “…”
The stone head tilted back, and it stayed there for a moment, as if it was thinking. Halfway through, it forgot what it was thinking, so it raised its foot to leave. Before it could leave, it saw the cat blocking its way. The cat looked quite familiar, so it began another round of deep thinking.
Ocelot collapsed and bit its tail.
No longer in a stalemate with the stone man, he stretched out his claws to dig into his hidden space, took out a small windmill from the dazzling array of rare treasures, and handed it to the stone man.
A super weapon that can be stored in a hidden space is certainly not as simple as a windmill for children to play with. However, triggering that kind of weapon requires very delicate operation, which the stone man obviously cannot do. To it, this is indeed an ordinary but novel little toy.
The stone man took it slowly and fiddled with it twice. Seeing the windmill spinning rapidly, even the stone eyes decorated with ink pens lit up. "I still have something to ask the puppeteer. You can play by yourself." The leopard cat waved its paw at him and walked forward over the stone man. As it walked, it muttered to the cat toy in its mind, "What exactly does the puppeteer want to do? Is he using the stone man to test my patience?"
[If he really loves puppets so much, he may want to make sure that you will also take good care of the puppets. He will definitely not allow you to abuse the puppets after you learn the technology to make puppets.]
Cat Toy guessed.
[Anyway, you acted very well. Keep it up and the puppeteer should be able to come out soon.]
"That's right. We can't take it lightly. Maybe this is also a test," said Woody nervously. He passed by several doors and knocked on them with his claws. No one answered, so he had to keep going. "Besides, it would be strange if the special skill of making puppets was taught to me so easily."
I wandered around aimlessly for nearly half an hour. Most of the doors I passed by were locked. The few that could be opened were filled with various paint buckets, wooden blocks and scraps for making puppets.
Apart from that, the only puppets that Wodi saw were the stone man and two wind chime dolls hanging on a door frame that could only say "hello" and "goodbye" - even the doll at the entrance of the supermarket could say "welcome" - in short, he didn't find a single guy who could communicate.
Woody gradually became a little anxious. He suppressed his anxiety and took a deep breath. "Is the puppet master testing my patience, or is he waiting for me to behave in a way that is not in line with my status in order to determine my other purpose?"
No matter what the situation is, he can't just walk around like this. If he makes too many small movements over time, he will inevitably omit something. Besides, the puppeteer is a hell creature who has lived for thousands of years. Wodie doesn't think he can compete with a guy of that level in terms of IQ.
More importantly, the kitten was really tired.
All the movements have to be carefully calculated, even the eyes and expressions have to be performed well. One also has to think about the puppeteer's purpose and one's own response methods. One lives like an actor who is always under the spotlight and could die without a burial place if one makes the slightest mistake - even the ragdoll cat in the Cat God sect didn't suffer so much!
So he decisively retracted his claws, turned around and walked back, deciding to go back to the hall to sleep, so as to remain unchanged in the face of any changes. He didn't believe that the puppeteer could really leave him in the hall and ignore him for several days.
Unlike the cautious way he came, he went back very quickly. In a few minutes, he reached the corridor full of paintings and met the silly stone man again. The stone man was still holding the windmill in his hand, and slowly lowered his head to look at him. His ink-spotted eyes blinked, and he tilted his head, making a question mark gesture again.
"Hello again, Stoneman meow," Wodi talked to him patiently, "I'm going back to eat, why did you come and eat some fish?"
The stone man stared at him stupidly, as if he didn't understand the meaning of his words, but he responded to the word "eat". He raised his hand, and his fist was stuck in the groove of the gold-patterned vase in the corridor. With a click, the path that Woody had just walked on disappeared instantly, and the fragrant smell of meat mixed with the aroma of food and the oily aroma of potato wedges came to his nose.
What came into view was a magnificent European-style restaurant, like a banquet hall for medieval kings. The huge long table was filled with sumptuous delicacies. The puppeteer sat in the middle, with a dozen puppets, rag dolls and various stuffed toys beside him. There was even a 12-point beautiful BJD doll running around on the table holding an orange.
The puppeteer smiled as he watched everyone chatting and talking animatedly. From time to time he would raise his left hand to let the little bjd doll scoop up his fingers and swing on the swing.
When the restaurant door suddenly opened, all the puppets on the table fell silent and turned their heads in unison to look out the door. A strange light flashed in the inorganic black eyes, and a human-like expression appeared on the stiff face, like a gloomy and bloody horror movie.
Woody swallowed silently, then mustered up the courage to take a few steps forward.
"Wodie? Why are you here?" The puppeteer opened his eyes wide in surprise. After thinking for a moment, he simply turned his head to look at the puppet on his right.
The puppeteer took out a small wooden board from his bosom, stared at it for a long time, handed it to the puppeteer, and ticked the third item with a pencil, saying seriously: "Yes, there is indeed an item on the schedule today that the swordsman will bring the cat demon to visit - between getting up at 11:30 in the morning and playing hide-and-seek with the tumbler at 2:30 in the afternoon."
Woody: “?”
Half past eleven? In the morning?
The hard-working high school student and the cat with a regular schedule both put up a huge question mark, bigger than the stone man behind him.
[Wait, so we were just competing with the air?]
Cat toy collapses with a sound.
[What’s wrong with this puppeteer! Will he really not be fired for slacking off like this?]
Woody: “…”
They were not just battling wits and courage with the air, they were battling wits and courage with the air for the entire whole day!
This matter must not be told to anyone, it's too embarrassing! He wants to delete this memory, and then share it with the original memory and not leak it!
The author has something to say:
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution during 2022-09-27 16:31:26～2022-09-28 11:01:06~
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Yiyu 10 bottles; Xiao Xiaoxiao 1 bottle; Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
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