Chapter 19: Tail

Sui Ziming and Shen Jiujiu were ushered out of the study by Pei Du.

He glanced down at the lively little bird cradled in his palm. “Did you get under his skin?”

The little bird, who had kept him warm and cozy all night long, chirped indignantly in rebuttal. It batted its wings against the back of Sui Ziming’s hand, urging him to get a move on and head outside.

“Hold your horses before we go—no, quit flapping around! If you tumble off, you can’t fly yet!”

Sui Ziming scooped up the wriggling Shen Jiujiu between both hands. “I haven’t even had breakfast!”

Shen Jiujiu poked his tiny bird head out from between Sui Ziming’s fingers. “Chirp chirp chirp.”

Sui Ziming knew the Pei Mansion inside out. Cupping the little bird securely, he marched straight toward the kitchen. “You’re such a tiny thing, chirping your head off. But us mortals can’t make heads or tails of chick chatter.”

Shen Jiujiu: “Chirp chirp chirp!”

Who’re you calling a chick?!

Sui Ziming: “Tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet~”

Shen Jiujiu dug his little claws in and snapped at Sui Ziming’s hand.

Time to throw down!

Sui Ziming was quicker on the draw, stuffing a small piece of jerky straight into Shen Jiujiu’s beak.

Shen Jiujiu went still.

The mouthwatering scent of meat—a flavor he’d missed for so long—brightened his beady eyes in an instant.

Dry and chewy for humans, but perfect for a bird. He pinned it under his claws, ripping and tearing away, savoring every fragrant bite.

Shen Jiujiu forgot all about bickering with Sui Ziming and dove headfirst into devouring the jerky.

“Tasty, right?” Sui Ziming bounced the pouch of jerky in his hand, arching a brow with smug satisfaction. “I had it cut extra small just for that little beak of yours.”

When it came to bird-keeping, he was the expert—his cousin didn’t stand a chance.

Taming one hot-tempered little chick? Easy as pie.

Hmph. After this little outing with him, Jiujiu would come back begging to take the Sui name.

Sui Ziming strode along with purpose, leaning into the kitchen from the doorway. He flashed a familiar grin at the head chef, hollered a greeting, then pocketed a few steaming meat buns wrapped in oiled paper and kept right on going.

Shen Jiujiu spotted Sui Ziming beelining for the main gate and paused mid-tear. He patted Sui Ziming’s wrist with a wing, pointing insistently toward the rear garden.

Sui Ziming gave the little bird’s head a vigorous ruffle. “Ow, you little pest—that’s my cousin’s private backyard. You think we can just stroll in?”

Shen Jiujiu shot Sui Ziming a withering side-eye.

Private backyard, huh.

Everyone knew Lord Pei’s rear garden stood empty. Well, except for the occasional bed-warmer at night.

—And that bed-warmer was perched right in Sui Ziming’s hands at the moment.

Sui Ziming had only been joking around at first, but Shen Jiujiu seemed dead set on it, so he followed the bird’s directions.

He hadn’t forgotten that look in Pei Du’s eyes when he’d shooed them out of the study. After all these years of seamless teamwork between the cousins, it was crystal clear: follow the little bird dumpling’s lead and report back later.

Sui Ziming knew his cousin Pei Du better than anyone.

Back in the day, before the Pei family had fallen on hard times, Pei Du had been a holy terror—a little demon king leading his few-years-younger cousin onto rooftops to rip off the tiles.

But every time mischief backfired, Pei Du would plant himself there with cool composure, not saying a word, and somehow Sui Ziming always ended up the one taking the heat. Slyer than a hornet’s nest, black-hearted through and through.

These days, the world praised Prime Minister Pei as refined and elegant, graceful and gentlemanly, modest and open-minded… Sui Ziming spat at every last one.

Pei Du was the type to nurse a grudge forever!

Take that time at their maternal grandfather’s house as kids. Some brat snatched Pei Du’s horseshoe cake and taunted him about having no mother. The adults waved it off and made them shake hands, and Pei Du—ever the good boy—said it was no big deal.

Two weeks later, that kid’s teeth ached from gorging on sweets. He choked down three bowls of the most godawful bitter heat-clearing draughts, bawling his eyes out the whole time.

Sui Ziming had watched Pei Du carefully tuck away the candy wrappers in a little box, and even his own teeth had hurt just witnessing it.

Lost in the memory, Sui Ziming blinked and realized he was standing by the rear garden pond, in the middle of a “friendly chat” with a raucous flock of sparrows.

Sure, Sui Ziming raised birds, but he went for the fierce ones—the swift raptors like Haidongqing, a man’s kind of thrill. Not… this nonstop cacophony of little sparrows crammed wing-to-wing, heads bumping heads, a seething black mass at first glance.

Sui Ziming stared blankly at Shen Jiujiu and fished out the scrap of jerky left from his bracer.

Shen Jiujiu, mid-explanation to his sparrow buddies, caught the motion and frantically flapped a wing to stop him. Then he nudged the jerky back into the bracer with his claws.

What are you doing pulling that out!

No situational awareness at all!

With this many birds around, how was he supposed to rally them with incentives later?

The sparrow chorus left Sui Ziming’s head ringing.

Once Shen Jiujiu wrapped up his deal with the sparrow legion, he hopped onto Sui Ziming’s shoulder, utterly pleased. With a grand flap of his wings, he signaled: let’s roll.

The little sparrows—lured by Shen Jiujiu’s promised rewards—launched into the air as one, settling along the treetops and walls, all eyes on him.

Sui Ziming took in the sight of one bird commanding a hundred and let out a sudden chuckle. “Well, I haven’t even made general yet, and here I am playing mount for General Bird.”

Shen Jiujiu threw his head back proudly. “Chirp!”

Damn right you are!

~~~

The Pei Mansion’s old plaque had read “National Duke Mansion.” By rights, Pei Du had inherited the title, so there was no need to change it—but he’d insisted on taking it down and stowing it in the ancestral hall. Now it just bore the plain words “Pei Mansion.”

The Zhenguo Marquis Mansion had fallen from grace these days, but it still carried the weight of ancestral achievements. The two estates weren’t far apart, really—just a couple of streets over.

Shen Jiujiu couldn’t quite recall the route to the Marquis Mansion, though. So first things first: get the sparrows to memorize this poor sap Sui Ziming.

He called over a few sparrow balls to land right on Sui Ziming.

【This is the guy I want you to tail. The second he heads into the woods outside, fly back and let me know.】

The sparrow balls lined up one by one on Sui Ziming, giving him the full bird-style once-over to commit him to memory.

【Got it.】

【No problem.】

【He smells so good.】

【Bird likes.】

【Bird likes too.】

Sui Ziming fished a few sparrow balls out of his sleeve where they’d burrowed in. He twisted toward the long-tailed bird perched on his shoulder and squawked, “Shen Jiujiu! Rein in your troops! They’re getting fresh!”

Shen Jiujiu pointedly looked the other way, drawing out a cheeky chirp into a whistle.

Sui Ziming stared at him in utter disbelief at the hands-off attitude.

He let out a light hum, mumbling under his breath, “I set aside important business just to keep you company, you know…”

Shen Jiujiu reluctantly brushed the tip of his wing against Sui Ziming’s temple in what was a very half-hearted attempt at comfort.

Still, Shen Jiujiu could tell that Sui Ziming genuinely liked birds.

He might prefer the majestic and fierce sort like A Sa, but he showed remarkable patience even with little birds. When the sparrow balls kept diving headlong into his sleeves one after another, Sui Ziming fished them out with gentle motions and hung them from his hem rather than flinging them away.

Somehow, Shen Jiujiu’s humming tune took a detour and twisted into “I can tell he’s a princess~.”

Shen Jiujiu couldn’t quite recall what the song was about—the lyrics were pretty odd anyway—but it inexplicably suited the current bird enthusiast Sui Ziming.

The long-tailed little bird opened his beak in a massive yawn.

As he pondered how to guide the bird-tongue-deficient Sui Ziming to the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion so the sparrows could case the joint, he watched Sui Ziming draw the remnant jerky the little bird had left from his bracer. Sui Ziming tore it into fine threads and fed it to the sparrows one by one.

Shen Jiujiu: “?”

That was—Shen Jiujiu’s—!!

Sui Ziming raised a hand to fend off the little bird’s indignant food-guarding charge, drawling leisurely, “By the way, it’s not every day you get out. Nowhere you want to go?

“Or any old friends you want to see?”

Shen Jiujiu froze, his round little bird eyes locked on Sui Ziming.

Sui Ziming chuckled while feeding the sparrows. “Tch, you scholars always think in such twists and turns.”

“I’m not like Cousin. I can’t decipher your chirps. Just tell me straight where you want to head.”

“Shopping for snacks? Peck me once. Street performances and spectacles? Twice…” Sui Ziming rattled off a string of options for Shen Jiujiu until the bird’s talons stiffened again. Only then did he voice the final choice with exaggerated slowness. “The Zhenguo Marquis Mansion? Peck me—”

Shen Jiujiu didn’t wait for the number. He seized Sui Ziming’s dangling hair ribbon, clambered onto his hair crown, and hammered Sui Ziming’s skull with a relentless barrage: bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang.

His wings even threw off sparks from the frenzy.

Sui Ziming roared with laughter, festooned with a flock of little sparrows and Shen Jiujiu crowning his head. He took deliberate detours down back alleys, dodging passersby and looping around a few times before pulling up across from the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion’s gates.

Sui Ziming’s timing was impeccable. A carriage had just halted at the mansion entrance. A youth clad in opulent brocade robes disembarked with haughty arrogance. He tossed his fan to a fawning servant at his side and strode into the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion, his back radiating smug triumph.

A tail feather from behind Shen Jiujiu had poked into Sui Ziming’s hair crown, its tip peeking out the other side.

That was Shen Xinian’s stepmother Madam Zhou’s son, Shen Yuan.

By convention, Shen Xinian’s name should have been two characters with a courtesy name upon manhood. But he was born frail, so his mother Xie Jingtang had journeyed to Jiuhua Temple. There, a master bestowed the name Xinian to shield her son from calamity.

Meeting water, it becomes a stream—for health and long life.

Shen Xinian had indeed evaded the water peril, yet he never lived to see spring return year after year.

Sui Ziming tore off a strip of jerky and held it aloft beside his head. “Shen Yuan’s been thick as thieves with Heir Zheng Min of Prince Wu lately. That heir grew up on his fief and only just returned to the capital. But cozying up to a wastrel like Shen Yuan? He’s probably also a—ow!”

Sui Ziming hadn’t finished before Shen Jiujiu savagely pecked his scalp.

Don’t you dare write off the Long Aotian male lead so lightly!

You cannon-fodder jinx!

Yes, Prince Wu’s heir was the protagonist of that Long Aotian harem novel.

Zheng Min was a name that sounded humble and approachable enough. But this male lead bore a courtesy name handpicked by his father Prince Wu, one dripping with ruthless ambition.

Zheng Zhaolin.

Sun and moon shine clear, sovereign over all beneath heaven.

That was the triumphant finale the male lead claimed in this male-oriented tale.

Shen Xinian’s plain silk had distilled from the start the male lead’s identity, his camp, his beloved confidante, and his endgame—elements utterly vital to survival.

Back then, Shen Xinian hadn’t met Pei Du yet. His options boiled down to steering clear of the male lead entirely or scheming to glom onto that golden thigh. Either way, male-lead-related intel was non-negotiable.

—After all, the original novel’s viewpoint centered on the male lead, which made logging details all the easier.

In that dream, Shen Xinian had uncovered entries on Sui Ziming but never spotted Pei Du’s name amid the plain silk’s threads.

Good news and bad.

The good: Pei Du likely wasn’t some disposable extra primed to butt heads early with Long Aotian and hand him a cheat.

The bad: Pei Du’s lofty station and iron grip on power positioned him squarely as the grand villain destined for toppling by the Long Aotian male lead.

In any novel—especially a male power fantasy—the hero stood for justice, while villains gleamed with their own vicious charms.

But Shen Jiujiu couldn’t fathom it.

How could someone as fine as Pei Du turn antagonist?

Merely clashing camps?

If not, then how did this patient, gentle Pei Du—who tolerated even little birds—morph into the archetypal baddie of a male fantasy yarn?

If Pei Du darkened, what lit the fuse?

Shen Jiujiu dipped his head and pawed at the hair before him, drawing an exaggerated wail of mock agony from Sui Ziming meant to tease him.

—Was it Sui Ziming’s death?

“Chirp chirp. Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp. Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp.”

【I need everyone to help me watch that mansion across the way. Report back home if anything big gets hauled in or out, or if any strangers show up.】

【Messenger birds get meat and fruit. Millet to your fill.】

Sui Ziming heard the sudden chirps from the Shen Jiujiu atop his head—calm on the surface, yet laced with an eerie echo of Pei Du.

Hiss. A few days with Cousin, and the little bird dumpling was already steeped in his essence.

He was still mulling that over when the sparrow balls draped on him burst into a chorus of eager replies.

Sui Ziming: “…Hey, we left together. Mind looping me into the chat?”

Shen Jiujiu soothed Sui Ziming’s locks with a gentle stroke of his little bird claw.

Relax, little jinx. Jiujiu’s got your back.