My Gorgeous Top Won't Stop Acting Cute - Chapter 2

Out of guilt, I treated the little bird as well as I knew how.

I knew the gulf between our stations was enormous and that, sooner or later, we would part.

I simply hadn’t expected that day to arrive so soon.

It was an ordinary morning. I had gone early to the market for supplies when I overheard two powerful spirits passing by.

“The phoenix clan’s young lord has been missing for a year. Still no word?”

“There is, actually. I heard the Phoenix Emperor caught a spirit trafficker. The trafficker admitted he’d once sold a phoenix who might have been the young lord.”

“One dared to sell him and another dared to buy him. Both must have a death wish, provoking the phoenix clan.”

“Tell me about it.”

They shook their heads and walked past me.

I felt as though I had fallen into an ice cave.

My little bird wasn’t merely a noble phoenix.

He was the phoenix clan’s young lord.

I had truly offended someone terrifying.

At that moment, a flock of messenger crows flew overhead. Without thinking, I ran home.

The courtyard gate stood open.

So did the front door.

Had the phoenix clan come?

Then… where was my little bird?

Did he know now that he wasn’t a chick?

Did he… hate this deceitful, wicked fish?

Was I going to live alone again?

Miserable, I pushed open the door.

In the middle of the room, the little bird stood on the short piece of parasol wood I had saved for ages to buy. He waved his wings at me excitedly.

“Gege! Look at my feathers!”

He rubbed his wings together and asked shyly, “Am I beautiful?”

I cried until he became a pearl bird again.

The more I cried, the more I felt like a wicked fish. I had taken advantage of an ignorant little bird.

At last, looking into his clear, innocent eyes, I signed gloomily, *Stay right here and don’t move.*

*…You can move if you want.*

*I’m going to wash the bamboo seeds.*

…

The moment the door closed, Shen Kongqing’s smile vanished.

He lowered his head. A small crimson dragon slithered up and coiled around the parasol wood.

“Ge, are you still not coming home?”

Before the dragon finished speaking, Shen Kongqing kicked him off. “My wife bought this for me. Go coil around something else.”

The little dragon rolled his eyes so hard they nearly reached the sky. “Ge, you’re a hundred-year-old bird pretending to be a chick. Do you honestly think that’s going to work? Is he really going to marry you?”

“You don’t understand. He said he likes beautiful chicks best.” Shen Kongqing patted his chest, full of confidence. “Of course he will. He’s already captivated by me. He hugs me of his own accord, preens my feathers, and feeds me. Those are all things only married couples do.”

“Our love is mutual.”

The little dragon fell silent for a long time.

He wanted to say, *He’s raising you as a pet.*

He did not dare.

Shen Kongqing had a terrible temper. If provoked, he would tie the dragon into a bow and toss him out.

Besides, watching Shen Kongqing make a fool of himself sounded fun.

“Tonight, I’m giving him my tail feather and asking him to marry me,” Shen Kongqing said.

The little dragon rubbed his front claws together and snickered. “All right. I’ll wait for the good news.”

I crouched beside the stream, absently stirring the bamboo seeds in my basket.

After thinking for a long time, I decided that what I had done was wrong.

The little phoenix and I were different.

He might once have ended up at the black market, but he was still different from me.

He had parents who loved him and a noble identity.

A beautiful bird ought to soar through the heavens. He should see every mountain and river and learn how vast the world was—not waste his life with a sickly, mute merman like me.

I could not hide the dazzling sun inside my home for selfish reasons.

I stared blankly at the water. Only when my tears sent rings rippling over its surface did I hurriedly wipe my face.

It was all right.

I had lived alone for more than ten years.

I was an excellent little fish.

Excellent little fish were not afraid of loneliness.

I comforted myself for a long time and did not drag my feet home until night had fallen.

The room was completely dark.

The little bird waited for me at the door. Like a blaze of magnificent fire, he made the room warm and bright.

I poked his fluffy chest. *What’s wrong?*

“Um.” The bird squirmed. “I want to tell you something.”

I tilted my head. *Yes?*

His feathers grew redder by the second. “Do you… want to watch me dance?”

Dance?

I did not understand his train of thought, but I nodded anyway.

If the child wanted to dance, let him dance.

His eyes lit up. In an instant, dozens of radiant tail feathers fanned out behind him.

He danced around me again and again. When he finally stopped, he held the most beautiful, rainbow-colored tail feather in his beak and offered it to me.

“This is my prettiest feather. It even has my name on it. Will you accept it?” he asked shyly.

I took the feather and traced the name engraved upon it.

*Shen Kongqing.*

The feather dissolved into light and wound around my finger.

The little bird leaped three feet into the air, chirping wildly. “You took my feather! Now you’re mine!”

He was so gentle.

Even though I was a selfish liar, he still gave me a beautiful gift. His openness only made my gloom and insecurity seem uglier by comparison.

But that was precisely why I finally made up my mind.

I would send him home.

He deserved a better life.