The Birds Keep Ringing Chapter 11
byChapter 11 Turmoil in Bed
“I’ll do it!” Yun Zhen gritted his teeth, throwing caution to the wind. “But I have conditions!”
“Good disciple!” Master was overjoyed. “Speak quickly. As long as it’s not too excessive, your Master will agree.”
“I want to talk!” Being silent these past few days had nearly driven him crazy. “Chirping ‘cheep cheep cheep’ every day, I’m starting to forget how to speak human language.”
Master considered it. “Fine. Every morning and evening, one hour each. That should be enough time for you to chatter.”
“And!” Yun Zhen continued. “When we get back, the food has to improve! I need meat at every meal! I don’t want tofu, cabbage, or radishes. I want braised pork and sweet and sour ribs!”
Master’s face twitched, and he said with a pained expression, “Deal.”
“Furthermore, training time is cut in half!” Yun Zhen pressed his advantage. “And you have to buy me limited edition storybooks.”
“You…” Master ground his teeth. “You are taking advantage of the situation!”
“That’s right!” Yun Zhen was righteous, puffing out his chest. “I am risking my life! Are these demands excessive? Not at all! Besides, Master, think about it. If I succeed, our Flowing Cloud Sect will become famous. People will surely flock here to become disciples, and money will pour in. This is called investment—you can’t catch a wolf without sacrificing a child.”
Master sighed deeply. “Fine. But let me be clear: if you don’t train properly when we return, and you slack off, I will still punish you.”
“Deal!” Yun Zhen grinned from ear to ear.
“Zhen’er, remember,” Master looked at his smug expression and became serious. “At tomorrow’s martial arts convention, no matter what happens, you must listen to your Master.”
“Also…” Master’s voice grew distant, and his figure began to fade. “Don’t be impulsive. If you encounter danger, run. Fly as fast as you can. Your life is more important than anything, understand?”
“Master…” Yun Zhen still wanted to ask something.
“Oh, right, one more thing.” Master’s voice was already ethereal, sounding as if it came from far away. “Your Second Senior Brother is injured. Keep an eye on him. The Lu Family people are venomous, and that boy is stubborn and loves to show off. Although he doesn’t like to talk to you, in reality…”
Master paused. “Think about it yourself. Anyway, I’ll just say this: if you truly treat him as an enemy, you are making a huge mistake.”
With that, Master completely vanished. The surrounding mist also dissipated, leaving only Yun Zhen standing in the void.
It was still dark outside the window, the sky dim, with only a few distant rooster crows audible.
Yun Zhen felt very comfortable, warm all over, and soft beneath him. He seemed to be hugging something, and he groggily rubbed against it.
It was solid, warm, and had a regular rise and fall, just like… just like…
Then he opened his eyes.
An expressionless, handsome face was calmly looking at him.
Yun Zhen’s gaze shifted downward. He saw his own hand resting on the person’s body.
It was a human hand, not a bird claw.
He lifted the quilt further down.
…
“Aaaahhhhh—!”
The instant Yun Zhen opened his mouth, Jiang Zhi reached out and covered it.
“Mmmph mmmph mmmph!” Yun Zhen struggled desperately, his face flushed crimson. He pointed frantically beneath the quilt, where it was empty—he wasn’t wearing anything.
Only after Jiang Zhi was certain he wouldn’t wail again did he release his hand.
Yun Zhen shot up, fumbling to pull the quilt around himself, trying to wrap up. But in his panic, he yanked off most of the quilt, exposing more areas that shouldn’t be exposed.
Finally, he snatched the entire quilt, wrapping himself into a cocoon, leaving only his head poking out. His hair was messy, and his cheeks were bright red.
Jiang Zhi, startled by the shout, also sat up.
Yun Zhen’s face was so red it looked like it might bleed. “Why are you in my bed?!”
“…”
“This is my bed.”
Yun Zhen froze.
It seemed… that was right.
“Then why aren’t you wearing clothes?!”
In response to this accusation, Jiang Zhi looked down at the inner garment he was properly wearing.
Yun Zhen looked at himself. Fine, he was the one not wearing clothes. So he retracted his head into the quilt, leaving only a pair of bright, annoyed eyes visible.
“Turn around!”
Jiang Zhi cooperated fully, turning his back to him.
Yun Zhen, wrapped in the quilt, wiggled on the bed, trying to find his clothes. But he had been a bird last night, where would his clothes be?
“Um…” Yun Zhen blushed and poked Jiang Zhi’s back. “Second Senior Brother, do you have any spare clothes?”
Jiang Zhi retrieved a set of clothes from the bundle at the foot of the bed and tossed them backward.
Yun Zhen clumsily caught them. The clothes carried Jiang Zhi’s scent, and he felt like the whole world smelled like this now. It was so annoying.
“You…”
Jiang Zhi seemed about to ask something. Yun Zhen, who was wrestling with the clothes, stiffened when he heard the voice and said anxiously, “I don’t know what’s going on either! Master just said I can change back for one hour every morning and evening!”
Only after Yun Zhen finally managed to put on the clothes did Jiang Zhi slowly turn back around.
He looked at Yun Zhen. Yun Zhen looked back at him.
The atmosphere was momentarily awkward; neither knew where to start.
Yun Zhen suddenly remembered the incident where he had pecked Jiang Zhi. He instinctively looked at Jiang Zhi’s lips, where there was indeed a small, scabbed wound.
“That…” Yun Zhen tried to explain.
“What?”
“Nothing!” Yun Zhen jumped off the bed, ran to the table to grab the medicine bottle, and ran back.
“I’ll help you apply the medicine!”
Without waiting for Jiang Zhi’s consent, he climbed onto the bed and began clumsily unwrapping the bandage on his arm. The skin around the wound was slightly red and swollen, but it didn’t look infected. He carefully sprinkled some medicinal powder onto it.
“Does it hurt?”
“No.”
“Liar,” Yun Zhen muttered. “How could a cut this deep not hurt?”
He remembered how his mother used to apply medicine for him. When he was little, he was always getting scrapes and bruises from playing. His mother would gently apply the medicine and then blow on the wound, saying the blowing would make the pain go away.
Although he knew it was just to comfort a child, at the time, it really did feel less painful.
Yun Zhen hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and gently blew on the wound.
The warm breath tickled.
After blowing, he realized something was wrong. Their current position… seemed a little too intimate.
He was practically leaning against Jiang Zhi, head lowered, his lips only an inch from the skin. He could feel Jiang Zhi’s body instantly tense. The atmosphere became even more subtle, filled with an indescribable tension.
Yun Zhen forced himself to look up, meeting those deep, bottomless eyes. He couldn’t tell what kind of look it was, but he felt his heart skip a beat.
“I…” Yun Zhen nearly bit his tongue. “I just… my mother used to blow on my wounds like that too… she said it makes the pain go away.”
He frantically picked up the bandage, rewrapped it, and tied a tight knot. Only after tying it did he realize he had tied it wrong, so he untied it and started over, fumbling several times.
Jiang Zhi watched him struggle, completely motionless.
Yun Zhen felt he had to say something to break the strange atmosphere, or he would suffocate.
“Second Senior Brother, talk to me quickly,” Yun Zhen’s dark eyes darted around. “I’m dying of boredom, I really can’t stand it.”
It was like opening a floodgate; once he started talking, he couldn’t stop.
“Do you think Master has gone crazy? Turning me into a bird is one thing, but making me an undercover agent! And that Lu Feng, he looks decent, but he uses living creatures to refine pills! That’s disgusting…”
Yun Zhen paused, his voice suddenly dropping. “And you, why did you block that sword? You clearly could have dodged it. Your martial arts are so good, why did you…”
He didn’t finish, unsure how to phrase it.
Jiang Zhi didn’t answer, just watched him quietly.
“Yes, I did peck you that day!” Yun Zhen shouted, giving up. “But I didn’t mean to! I was having a nightmare, dreaming a big bug was trying to bite me, so I pecked it. I really didn’t mean it. Although I usually do want to peck you, that’s because you always bully me! You always wear that sour face! You always ignore me!”
“Mm.”
“Mm?” Yun Zhen was taken aback. “What does ‘Mm’ mean? Are you even listening to me? Don’t just say ‘Mm’! Talk! If you want to be angry, be angry. If you want to fight, fight. Don’t just keep staring at me, it’s creepy.”
“Yun Zhen.”
Jiang Zhi suddenly called his name. The voice was soft, but it instantly silenced Yun Zhen.
Jiang Zhi rarely addressed Yun Zhen by his full name so formally, usually just saying “you” or “come here.”
“Why are you calling me?” Yun Zhen answered instinctively, staring at him wide-eyed.
Jiang Zhi was silent for a few seconds, but in the end, he only said five words: “You talk too much.”
Yun Zhen: “…”
Well, he knew it. He knew Jiang Zhi would say that.
This person was always like this, always so insensitive, always so infuriating!
Yun Zhen pouted. “I don’t care! I’m going to talk for fifty more minutes! You have to listen even if you don’t want to!”
He hadn’t fully realized he was human again. He leaned closer, looking at Jiang Zhi with a puffed-up face and wide, round eyes. “I’ve been holding it in for days. If I don’t talk, I’ll turn into a mute. Just listen to me. I only have this one hour to speak…”
Yun Zhen began to chatter incessantly, moving from his miserable experience as a bird to Master’s unreliability, and then to various martial arts gossip. His topics jumped so fast it was impossible to predict where he would land next.
The sky outside the window gradually brightened. Morning light streamed through the window, falling on Yun Zhen’s face.
Jiang Zhi watched him, suddenly wondering how many eyelashes Yun Zhen had.
He counted them.
Three hundred and eighty.
One hundred and ninety-one on the left eye, one hundred and eighty-nine on the right eye. Asymmetrical.
The youth he first met had shed his childishness. His features were now more lively, his lips curved in a smile, and he spoke with animated expressions, looking vibrant and charming. He was as bright as the morning glow, and as radiant as a lotus flower.
He was quite different from the little junior brother who used to desperately try to get his attention, only to constantly mess things up.
As Yun Zhen spoke, he realized Jiang Zhi was staring at him. The intensity of the gaze made him uncomfortable.
“Why are you staring at me?” Yun Zhen asked. “Do I have something on my face?”
He raised a hand to touch his face, suspecting some dirt.
Jiang Zhi shifted his gaze to the window and said faintly, “No.”
“Oh.” Yun Zhen sighed in relief.
“Oh no!” Yun Zhen suddenly remembered something and jumped up. “I forgot to talk about the important stuff! What should I do? What if I really get thrown into the pill furnace?”
His voice gradually faded. The hour was almost up, and Yun Zhen’s body began to change. He was shrinking.
“I’m changing back,” Yun Zhen said with some reluctance. “Talk to you next time, okay?”
“Yun Zhen.” Jiang Zhi called him again. “Don’t be afraid.”
Just two short words. But for some reason, Yun Zhen felt much of his tension and fear dissipate.
The moment the words fell, his clothes slipped off, and feathers began to sprout from beneath his skin. Finally, a small, plump bird appeared on the bed.
“Cheep,” it chirped, sounding a little wronged.
Jiang Zhi extended his hand. The little bird hopped onto his palm, bounced a few times in his hand, and then looked at him with its black-bean eyes. It seemed unhappy, its feathers drooping.