CH 5

“Eh?” Chen Ziqi said, squatting down in amazement. He picked up the little red ball of fluff in a practiced manner. “Why’s this chick so big?”

Typically, chicks with down feathers were those that just hatched, and were only about the size of Chen Ziqi’s child-sized fist. This little red chick was big enough that he needed to use two hands to hold it. It was covered with pale red down, looked like a little ball of fire in his hands. Two little feathers stood up on its head, one long and one short, and they swayed left and right with the chick’s movements, giving the chick a perky appearance.

Chen Ziqi had never seen such a fascinating looking chicken before, and couldn’t resist examining it. He flipped it over, tugged lightly at its half-grown wings, and prodded its little belly. The chick’s eyes sparkled like little round obsidians, its little wings had not grown wing feathers yet, and its belly was soft and fuzzy. The fluffy little thing had zero fear factor.  

A soft tummy, round eyes, and slow growth of wing feathers – in Chen Ziqi’s experience with chickens, this was likely to be a rooster.

“Tweet!” The chick was originally already angry that Chen Ziqi had kicked a rock it, and now he was adding insult to injury, poking and prodding it all over; the chick was now absolutely furious. He aimed for Chen Ziqi’s nose, and pecked him savagely.

“Hey – yo – trying a sneak attack?”

Chang Qi’s frequent interactions with chickens had trained his reflexes, and he dodged quick as lightning, entirely unscathed. He reached out to flick the chick’s head. “With a temper like this, you’re definitely a male.”

“Tweet! Tweet?” The little red chick was about to try pecking at Chen Ziqi again, but suddenly paused, sniffing the air carefully. It smelt blood, and this blood had an unusual smell. The chick’s eyes narrowed. Was this the royal blood of the Chen family? It cocked its head at Chen Ziqi, looking at him more closely. Not bad, his face was pretty pleasing. It was an unfamiliar face though, so he must have been recently brought back to the palace.

“Do they raise chickens in this garden?” Chen Ziqi was rather reluctant to let the chick go. Such a big chick would certainly grow up to be a good quality stud rooster. If he could raise a thousand of these red chickens, he would certainly make big bucks!

“No, I’ve never seen such a… erm… chicken before. And this Imperial garden… isn’t for raising chickens for sure…” the little eunuch said rather awkwardly. Looking at the colour of the chick, it definitely wasn’t going to grow up to be a regular chicken – it was more likely a rare breed of bird. But if Dianxia said it was a chicken, then he was certainly in no position to contradict him.

Chen Ziqi was blissfully unaware of the young eunuch’s internal conflict, and all he heard that this chicken was a chattel without an owner. He happily stuffed the little fluffball into his clothes with peace of mind.

“Cheeeeep—” Said fluffball was still deep in thought when he was unceremoniously shoved into Chen Ziqi’s clothes and squashed against the latter’s warm little body. The undershirt had to be made to measure, and Chen Ziqi had only just arrived in the palace, so he did not have an undershirt ready for him. The palace maids had simply foregone the undershirt entirely, and dressed him directly in the outer robes. As such, when the little bird was stuffed into Chen Ziqi’s clothes, it came into direct contact with his soft, tender skin.

The fat little chick froze in embarassment, and its light red down immediately puffed into a brilliant shade of scarlet. It lifted its skinny little bird legs and tried to curl itself up.

Chen Ziqi held on to the suddenly obedient little fluffball, and looked at this surroundings attentively as he walked back to Qingping Palace from Zhanghua Pavilion.

“What’s that?” Chen Ziqi asked, pointing at the tallest building nearby.

“To answer Dianxia’s question, that is Zichen Palace, where his Majesty the Emperor lives,” the young eunuch replied patiently. He continued to explain the other palace buildings to Chen Ziqi as they walked.

“What’s your name?” Chen Ziqi asked, looking at this intelligent little eunuch.

“This servant is called Fuxi,” the eunuch replied with a smile. He had two dimples when he smiled, and was very pleasant looking. He was actually only ten years old himself, and had only worked in the palace for a short time. He had previously always been assigned to do odd jobs and chores, and had only just started waiting on the Imperial nobility.

“Why did you start working in the palace?” Chen Ziqi asked, glancing surreptitiously at Fuxi’s crotch. He knew that eunuchs were boys who had their “little chickens” cut off. Just as Xiaoru had never dreamed of working in a brothel, he was certain that no one grew up aspiring to be an eunuch.

“My father died early, and my mother remarried. My stepfather said that he couldn’t maintain so many children, so he sold me into the palace,” Fuxi said with a wooden expression.

Chen Ziqi patted Fuxi’s shoulder sympathetically, then touched his intact crotch and heaved a sigh. Thankfully his little fairy didn’t marry anyone, or he might have also lost his little chicken.

Back at Qingping Palace, Chang Er was standing at the main entrance and peering anxiously out. When she saw Chen Ziqi return, she quickly went up to meet him.

“Why did you take so long?” she asked.

He might have been brought to Zhanghua Pavilion on a palanquin, but he had to walk the considerable distance back, so of course he had taken a long time. Chen Ziqi pursed his lips and tugged at his clothes, revealing the head of a small scarlet bird.

“I went to catch a bird,” he said.

“Wow, what a large chick!” Chang Er said. She extended a finger and poked the chick’s plump little body.

“Tweet!” The little red bird voiced its disapproval, and made to peck her.

“It’s too small – we can’t eat it,” Chang Er said. She pulled her son into the house, took the chick out and placed it on the table. There was a teacup on the table. Looking at the chick’s size relative to the teacup, it was clear that even if they made soup with the chick, they’d only get about a cup of soup.

“Eat it? No way, this is a stud rooster. It will be more useful if we raise it,” Chen Ziqi said. He put his face close to the little fluffball, and promptly received a hard peck on his nose. “Ow!”

“A stud rooster…? You’re still thinking of opening a chicken farm? You silly boy!” Chang Er poked her son with a finger.

“What, were you expecting me to become the Emperor?” Chen Ziqi said. He supported his chin with a hand and stared at the little red bird, thinking about the beautiful palace buildings he saw while walking back today, particularly Zichen Palace. Actually, being the Emperor also didn’t seem too bad.

If you want to be the Emperor, you have to first win my favour. The little red bird raised his round head and tweeted proudly.

Chen Ziqi obviously had no idea what the bird was saying. He turned to Chang Er and started telling her what happened earlier – the mysterious High Priest, the strange Dragonstone, and his change of name to Chen Ziqi. Both he and his mother agreed that this new name was much nicer than his old one, and so said they’d use it moving forward.

They talked until sunset. Chang Er got up to cook dinner, and then realized that Qingping Palace didn’t have a kitchen. The only place with a stove was the small tearoom, and the stove was actually only used for boiling water. There were no condiments or food to be found.

“Looks like we have no choice but to eat this chicken,” Chang Er said, eyeing the little red chick, which was nodding off on the table.

“Niangniang, your dinner is here. Should we serve it now?” At that critical moment, Biyun walked in, trailed by two eunuchs carrying food.

Ah, so this place comes with a meal plan… Chang Er breathed a sigh of relief, then raised her chin slightly. “Yes,” she said in a dignified tone.

Chang Er still had not been assigned any rank, so the dishes that were served were the most basic set. Even so, her and Chen Ziqi’s eyes lit up with excitement. There were two meat dishes, two types of vegetable dishes, plus a soup, and of the two meat dishes, one consisted of a whole fish!

It was not as if they hadn’t eaten well prior to this – on the way to the palace, Di Yeqing had ensured that they ate decently, but there was no way those meals could compare to dishes prepared by the Imperial chefs. Even the stir-fried vegetables were done to perfection, crunchy and fragrant, and they both couldn’t get enough.

Biyun and Fuxi stood attentively at the side, serving them the dishes in elegant little portions, much to the mother and son’s frustration.

“You can take your leave – we don’t need to be served,” Chen Ziqi said, gesturing impatiently.

Chen Ziqi and his mother waited for the two servants to leave, and the moment the carved wooden door closed, they exchanged a glance, rolled up their sleeves, and got to eating. They attacked the food like ravenous beasts, and the food was finished in a trice. When the last morsel of fish was polished off, they finally set down their chopsticks, sat back in their chairs and rubbed their bellies in satisfaction.

The little red bird observed the two from an ornamental bird perch and was completely confounded by this scene. How long had these two not eaten?

The servants entered to clear up, and then served a plate of dessert with a pot of tea. The dessert wasn’t anything fancy, just some green bean cake and osmanthus pastry.

Chen Ziqi drank some tea, then realized that his little stud rooster had not had anything to eat. He carried the small fluffball onto the table, and crumbled some green bean cake for it to eat. However, the bird was completely disinterested in the cake crumbs. It tilted its little head back and gave Chen Ziqi a look of distaste.

“What’s wrong? You don’t like this?” Chen Ziqi asked, furrowing his brows. Why was this chicken so picky?

The little red bird looked at the whole, uncrumbled piece of green bean cake in Chen Ziqi’s hand, hopped two steps forward, and took a bite of that cake, the two long feathers on its head waving as it did so.

“Haha, the bird wants you to hand feed it,” Chang Er said, unable to hold back her laughter. “Things in the palace are really on a different level – even a chicken is this spoiled!”

Just as she said this, the little red bird swallowed its mouthful of cake, then hopped to Chen Ziqi’s teacup, stuck its pastel yellow beak in, and took a sip.

Chen Ziqi was speechless.

—

Author’s note: Mini-scene

Qiqi: What a great stud rooster

Birdie gong: Who do you think you’re calling a stud rooster? I’m going to remember this

[A thousand years later]

Qiqi: Are you done… Nngh…

Birdie gong: I’m a stud rooster, I never tire (⊙v⊙)

Qiqi: QAQ *sobs*