As he drew closer, the little white dumpling scooted to the edge of the cage. It tilted its head slightly and stared at him intently, radiating clear joy and affection.
His childhood friend had been right. Compared to the dead silence that used to greet him upon returning to his apartment, these soft, delicate chirps added a touch of lively cheer. The bird’s presence made him feel so eagerly anticipated and needed.
Such a small responsibility, yet it brought such delight.
Yan Tuo couldn’t resist extending a finger to stroke the soft, tender little tangyuan.
Afraid of startling the adorable creature, he approached slowly. He paused by the bars for a good while before gently slipping his finger inside to touch the fluffy bird head.
Tangyuan didn’t budge—either frozen in fear or genuinely comfortable with him. It simply stood obediently on its perch, letting him smooth down its feathers while shooting him shy, flickering glances.
Yan Tuo’s mood soared. With a grin, he praised it aloud. “What a good bird. Not scared of people at all. Was it always like this?”
“Chirp chirp.”
Of course, Yan Tuo wasn’t expecting a real answer. But as soon as the words left his mouth, Tangyuan let out two chirps, almost as if it were replying. The effect was magical, and he found himself chatting more.
“Your old owner is coming over tomorrow. He’s bringing you a little companion.”
“Chirp chirp chirp.”
“Does that mean you’re excited?”
“Chirp.”
“I’m pretty thrilled too. We’ll share the load together—we’re kindred spirits in this mess.”
“Chirp chirp?”
He smoothed the soft feathers atop the little cutie’s crested head even more neatly. Then Yan Tuo stopped teasing it. He checked the food and water dishes before turning to his desk. He opened his laptop, ready to go over the case report he’d left unfinished that afternoon.
Inside the cage, Bai Yiyi was over the moon. “Did it go up? Did it go up?”
The system’s voice brimmed with delight. “Yep, yep! Up by 5 points.”
Bai Yiyi let out a satisfied sigh. It wasn’t the massive surge of dozens of points he’d imagined, but it was still an excellent start, wasn’t it? For a total social recluse like him, letting this near-stranger of a new owner pet and stroke his head was no small victory.
As for all that talk of sharing the burden and being “kindred spirits,” he hadn’t quite followed.
No big deal, though. Brother this, brother that—it all pointed to closeness. If he took the initiative a dozen more times and traded on that intimacy for satisfaction points, wouldn’t he transform back into human form in no time?
Bai Yiyi welcomed the next day in high spirits.
It was the weekend, and his owner had dashed out early that morning for some errand or other. He didn’t return until around three in the afternoon—and trailing behind him was a handsome guy lugging a birdcage.
Bai Yiyi barely had time to process it before the system started whooping in his mind. “Ah, Yiyi! This is the one I picked out—your original owner!”
The bird owner with the highest Domineering CEO score within a thousand-kilometer radius?
Bai Yiyi eyed him curiously. The man wore a light blue casual suit of exquisite tailoring. His peach-blossom eyes sparkled with vigor, and he exuded an imposing aura—a dead ringer for the archetypal domineering president.
Unfortunately for him, Bai Yiyi had already been utterly conquered by his crush’s uniformed allure. There was no space left in his heart for anyone else. He even fretted that this so-called original owner might try to take him back, dooming him to never see his beloved owner again.
Before he could dwell on it, the man in the blue suit kicked off his shoes with the ease of someone right at home. He set his cage down nearby and called out proactively. “Bai… wait, no—my dear Tangyuan! Missed me these past few days?”
That oily sweet-talk—Bai Yiyi inwardly rolled his eyes. What a sleazy type. He refused to make a peep.
The blue suit started whistling to coax him…
Bai Yiyi’s impression plummeted further. The guy was a total player. He hung motionless from the swing, eyes vigilantly fixed outward.
Then his owner approached. Bai Yiyi’s eyes lit up. He darted to the perch and pressed against the cage bars, so hastily that he nearly twisted a leg. In a panic, he flapped his wings a couple times to steady himself.
At the sight of his owner’s reaching finger, Bai Yiyi proactively butted his crested head against it. He even waggled his little noggin back and forth in a rub.
This blatant play for cuteness had the social zero blushing furiously underneath his feathers—no one could see his scorching cheeks, at least. Bai Yiyi reassured himself that desperate times called for desperate measures. He let out a soft “Chirp chirp.”
Yan Tuo was utterly charmed. His heart melted into softness, and his touch grew even gentler. “Good bird,” he cooed.
Hua Hongqing watched enviously, a touch miffed. “Tch, what favoritism. You’ve only had him a few days, and he’s already this clingy? Ungrateful little punk—doesn’t even remember me.”
Yan Tuo’s lips quirked up in a rare tease. “Probably because you’re not as handsome as me, Hua Hongqing.”
Hua Hongqing snorted. “Handsome does jack squat. Just wait till my little beauty joins the party—see if he pays you any mind then.”
With that, he whisked off the cage cover. A goose-yellow crested canary sprang to life, hopping friskily about.
Yan Tuo glanced back and forth, eyeing the hen’s brown-flecked tail feathers with displeasure. “Kinda ugly. Nowhere near as snowy and cute as Tangyuan. Some beauty…”
Hua Hongqing unlatched the door, scooped up the bird with gentle fingers, and swiftly relocated it to Tangyuan’s cage. He shot back, “You’re no bird yourself—how would you know bird tastes? Long as our Tangyuan likes her, we’re golden.”
“But he might not. What’s her name?”
“Manyu.”
Yan Tuo passed no judgment on his friend’s naming skills. Instead, he watched intently for the birds’ reactions now that their cages were joined.
Tangyuan fluttered back to the swing and hung there quietly. Manyu, undaunted, strutted to the food dish and leisurely pecked at the millet grains.
After a good while, Yan Tuo spoke up. “No chemistry? They’re totally ignoring each other.”
Hua Hongqing explained, “It doesn’t happen overnight. They need time to warm up and get acquainted.”
No sooner had he spoken than Manyu made her move. With a flap of wings, she zipped to the swing and plopped down right beside Tangyuan, deliberately nuzzling close.
Tangyuan seemed ill at ease. He turned his head for a look, then scooted to the far end of the swing.
Manyu pursued, gently pecking at his snowy shoulder feathers in a placating bid. Tangyuan let out two sharp “Chirps!”—sounding for all the world like a scolding. With a flick of his head, he simply flew off to the perch, leaving the little hen to swing solo.
Manyu didn’t give up. She fluttered to the other end of the perch and landed, proceeding with extra caution: three steps, pause; two steps, pause—sidling closer inch by inch.
She drew nearer and nearer until she’d pinned Tangyuan against the cage wall, leaving him looking small, helpless, and utterly pitiful.
Yan Tuo couldn’t help chuckling. “See? Told you he doesn’t like her.”
Tangyuan appeared genuinely irked. He rammed his head and shoulder into Manyu, shoving her aside. With a flap, he retreated to his coconut-shell nest, even turning tail-out to barricade the entrance—a clear snub.
Manyu chirped plaintively a few times, then trailed him to the nest. Undeterred, she began pecking at his back or butting it with her head.
It took only moments for a loud “Chirp!” to erupt from Tangyuan. He burst from the nest and tangled with Manyu in a proper scrap.
Peck here, peck there; head-butts and shoulder-checks. They chased each other up and down the cage until they tumbled to the bottom. There, Tangyuan pounced and pinned Manyu beneath his claws.
Hua Hongqing burst out laughing. “What’s that about not liking her? Fighting’s just flirting, and look—he’s already mounting her back!”
Yan Tuo was floored. “That’s back-stepping? That’s a straight-up brawl…”
Hua Hongqing struck a know-it-all pose. “You wouldn’t get it. What poses do birds even use for mating? Males just mount the female’s back like this or that. You think it’s humans pulling out some Kama Sutra 72?”
Mating…?
Bai Yiyi, fresh off his hard-won victory in beating down the persistent hen, felt his entire world crack.
He’d figured his original owner—that Hua-whatever—must have brought a companion to keep a lonely bird company. Instead, the guy had designs on breeding?
No wonder the ugly thing had been striking all those provocative poses. Like owner, like bird—dripping with flirtation.
He hadn’t even griped about her helping herself to his food, or the constant rubbing-up, the unshakable clinginess. He’d scolded her to back off plenty of times to no avail. When hiding in his nest failed, she’d had the nerve to peck at his rear. Only then had he snapped and fought back.
To think his reluctant self-defense was being mistaken for mating—with his heartthrob watching the whole spectacle. How was he supposed to live this down?
Bai Yiyi wanted to die on the spot.
The system wailed in despair. “Yiyi, you’re back down to negative thirty. Hang in there!”
What an utter miscarriage of justice. Double devastation.
Bai Yiyi’s mood plummeted, fury boiling over. “Don’t think being female makes you safe. Bug me again, and I’ll go all out!”
He kicked out warningly with his claws, then flew off and dove back into his nest. This time, he didn’t expose his back. Instead, he thrust his sharp beak forward like a dagger. If that ugly mutt dared approach again, he’d just impale her and be done with it.
Manyu lay at the cage bottom, calling out plaintively. “I’m so pretty—why don’t you like me? Wouldn’t it be great to have a chick with me?”
“No thanks. How’s romance supposed to work between different breeds?”
“We’re both crested finches—what difference? Just color. One white, one yellow—we’d have the cutest yellow-and-white speckled babies.”
Yellow-and-white speckled? Bai Yiyi instantly pictured a crested fried egg. The ugliness was too much to contemplate.
“No dice. Stay down there like a good girl. Fly up once, and I’ll whack you once.”
Bai Yiyi issued his threats without a shred of grace, all while his ears caught the voice of his master earnestly seeking guidance. “Is that it? Does that count as a success?”
The man in the blue suit replied, “It should be… I guess so. Small pet birds like these only last a few seconds anyway. They recover quickly, though, and usually end up tangled together multiple times. Tsk tsk, Little Tangyuan isn’t much good at this.”
You only lasted a few seconds—your whole family sucks!
Feeling deeply insulted, Bai Yiyi was powerless to respond. He couldn’t explain himself, nor could he prove anything otherwise. All he could do was flop onto his side in the nest and fume inwardly until he felt like shutting down completely.
Hua Hongqing paid no more attention to the antics of the two pet birds in the cage. He stretched out a finger, swiped it along the edge of the table, and frowned as he rubbed away a finger’s worth of thick dust, clucking his tongue in disgust the whole time.
“You know, with all the blind dates our sister lined up for you, there really wasn’t a single one that caught your eye? It’s about time someone reined you in, Captain Yan. Take a look at this doghouse you’ve got here—what a sty! If those schoolgirls who used to trail after you back in the day found out that the elegant male god they idolized has turned into this rugged slob, their hearts would shatter into pieces all over the floor.”
