Becoming the Cold Little Bird's White Moonlight - Chapter 4

According to the System, taking human form was a deadly ordeal for a demon.

The process was like smashing every bone in a human body, pulverizing every meridian, then forcing the broken bones to regrow and the meridians to remake themselves.

The mortality rate was as high as seventy percent. Many extraordinarily gifted young demons had died at this very hurdle.

But once a demon crossed it, they could shift at will into human, demon, half-human half-demon, or half-demon half-human forms.

Tongtong said the villain should not have begun transforming this early and had no idea what shock might have triggered it.

As the person who played with the bird every day, I stood quietly to the side, guilty as charged.

Tongtong also told me that other young demons had parents who prepared heavenly treasures for them in advance, not to mention miracle medicines gifted by every aunt, uncle, and distant relative. Only then did they dare begin the transformation.

Ummmm.

My demon bird, on the other hand, had one soft bed, one bowl of clean water, and one dish of millet… Whichever way you looked at it, the setup was pitifully shabby.

But that was all right. Ling Xiao was the great villain of this world.

By the laws governing villains, only the protagonist could kill him. A mere transformation wasn’t going to claim his life.

Or so I reassured myself.

Still, just to be safe, I went to an apothecary and bought a mountain of medicine for Ling Xiao’s symptoms.

There were powerful tonics for total depletion of qi and blood, pain powders for falls and injuries, resuscitation drugs for convulsions and delirium, emergency formulas for collapsing true qi… I bought everything I could.

The apothecary’s shopkeeper tried to speak several times. In the end, as I was leaving, he said gravely, “My condolences.”

…

That shopkeeper really didn’t know how to talk to people.

Blocked.

Throughout the seven days and nights of Ling Xiao’s transformation, I never once left his side.

I couldn’t help it.

Ling Xiao whimpered, “It hurts…”

The little bird who was so stubborn his mouth would hold up the sky if it fell could actually admit that he was in pain.

Mostly, I was afraid that if I missed this chance, I would never get to see him look so pitiful again.

Ahem, ahem…

Also, while I couldn’t share Ling Xiao’s pain, I could still do something to help.

I could give him water, wipe down his body, and sew and sew.

Sewing was my favorite. As I made miniature clothes for Ling Xiao, I even rediscovered the skills I had once used to make outfits for Barbie dolls.

I had no choice. If I ever went out to buy miniature clothes and let the public imagination run wild, by the next day the entire capital would probably be spreading rumors like these:

“Hey, did you hear? That appallingly ill-mannered second daughter of the prime minister secretly had a child with some man.”

“I saw it myself. She was sneaking around buying children’s clothes, and she bought several outfits for her secret lover too. Shameless!”

Ling Xiao cried out in pain. I sewed and sewed.

Ling Xiao cursed someone’s mother. I sewed and sewed.

Ling Xiao fell unconscious. I sewed and sewed.

After sewing day and night, I finally produced several passable miniature outfits and took them to show off to Tongtong.

“What are these?”

The System sounded baffled.

“Clothes for Ling Xiao.”

“Is there something wrong with them?”

I was baffled too. My needlework was quite good. Could it really not tell these were miniature clothes?

“No, nothing…”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

The System’s voice was infuriatingly mysterious.

I pestered it for ages, but it refused to tell me what I would soon find out!

I was mad!

That night, I was too exhausted to go on and decided to crawl into bed.

Even half-dead with sleep, I remembered to move Ling Xiao’s little nest to one side.

…I was genuinely afraid that I might toss and turn in my sleep, roll over, and crush the bird to death.

I had always been an excellent sleeper.

But for some reason, my sleep was especially restless that night.

I even had a terrifying nightmare.

One moment, I was a charcoal-grilled chicken wing roasting over a fire. The next, I was a filled ice pop freezing in a cooler.

As if turning into a chicken wing and an ice pop wasn’t bad enough, I dreamed that a gigantic bird pinned me in its embrace and then ate me…

In the middle of the night, hovering between sleep and wakefulness, I felt trapped between ice and fire.

In front of me was a freezing wall. Behind me was a blazing furnace.

Fuck!

Something was wrong.

I snapped awake.

A burning-hot body was pressed tightly against mine.

Scorching breath washed over the back of my ear.

Fuck! It was a man!

Before I could wonder why a naked man had appeared in my bed, my misandry flared up.

I pulled the hairpin I had hidden under my pillow and swung it backward to stab him—

The System instantly leaped out to stop me.

“Host, stay your hand! That’s the villain!”

Huh?

Who?

The irate little bird?

“…Woman, you’re so annoying,” the young man muttered in his sleep.

It was Ling Xiao’s voice.

But it sounded different from usual. There was a new roughness to it, along with something I couldn’t quite name.

As if he had grown into a man overnight.

I hurriedly rolled over and sat up.

By the moonlight, I saw what he looked like now.

Black hair, skin like snow, crimson lips—his beauty was breathtaking.

He was not sleeping peacefully. His brows were tightly furrowed, as though he were enduring unbearable torment even in his dreams.

It softened the sharpness of those beautiful features and made him look almost heartbreakingly vulnerable.

Fuck…

Did all demons become this beautiful when they took human form?

I had barely seen any men in my life.

Much less one this handsome. My heart couldn’t take it.

“No. Turn back right now!”

I grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake him awake.