Chapter 15: The Real Heir in a Fake Young Master Heartthrob Novel

Jiujiu sat there and began contemplating life. Why did Dad dislike cilantro when Jiujiu loved eating it?

“When we go back, I’ll have Dad plant some for me, so I won’t have to wait until later.”

Jiujiu, who thought he had come up with a good solution, lifted his head eagerly seeking his dad’s approval, preferably with Dad praising him as a clever little one.

Shen Yijing thought about cilantro’s strange taste, then looked at Jiujiu’s expectant expression.

“No, Dad needs to work hard at school so he can become super capable later and spend money on his baby.”

“Oh, that’s fine too.”

The little fat bird, who considered himself easy to please, soon started planning the future with his dad again.

“When Dad becomes capable later, can you buy Jiujiu a giant panda cub to play with? Jiujiu promises not to peck its feathers.”

Shen Yijing, who thought he had escaped the curse of growing cilantro, suddenly heard Jiujiu mention this and fell silent for a long while before answering:

“I see prison time, lots of prison time.”

“Yay, Jiujiu can do it too~”

Jiujiu became so smug he started wiggling his bottom, as if he could already see his successful bird life of building phoenix nests for himself in the future.

“Then remember to visit me every month.”

“Huh? Where is Dad going? Not taking Jiujiu?”

“To prison. Privately keeping giant pandas is illegal. I’d only have to stay in prison for a few years before getting out.”

“Never mind then, Jiujiu won’t keep one anymore.”

Jiujiu shook his head. He didn’t want to go so long without seeing his dad.

Mother Gu knew her son didn’t like cilantro—it was Jiujiu who loved it—but she still nodded and agreed.

Jiujiu lay in front of the restaurant’s glass fish tank. When Grandma told him to choose one, he looked for a long time before pointing his wing at a very fat fish.

The server held a fishing net and scooped up that fish. When the fish was flopping around, Jiujiu backed away a bit.

“Sir, please go to your private room first. The dishes will be served shortly. If the little one is curious, he can stay here to watch the fish being prepared.”

Shen Yijing hadn’t thought of himself as the “little one” at all. He turned to glance at Jiujiu, who tilted his head back and used his eyes to signal his dad—why even ask such an obvious question?

For Jiujiu, he didn’t want to watch birds being killed because they were his own kind, and he definitely didn’t want to watch people being killed because they were his dad’s kind.

Ever since having Jiujiu around, Mother Gu had never again had anyone stew pigeon soup or other bird soups at home.

Fish were meant to be on the dinner table anyway, so how they killed it and turned it into food made Jiujiu somewhat curious.

Mother Gu and Father Gu were tired after mountain climbing, so they went to the private room to rest, leaving Shen Yijing and Jiujiu to watch.

When he saw the club come down and knock the lively fish motionless, Jiujiu instinctively shrank his head and urged his dad to leave quickly.

“What’s wrong?”

“He didn’t grip it firmly. What if it hits Jiujiu’s head? Dad, let’s go quickly.”

When they pushed open the private room door, Mother Gu was puzzled to see them return so quickly and couldn’t help asking:

“Weren’t you going to watch how they prepare the fish?”

“Too many people watching there, it was a bit crowded.”

After finding a seat, Shen Yijing took out a cup from his bag, poured warm water, and fed it to Jiujiu’s mouth.

He didn’t mind sharing with his baby—they used the same water cup.

Worried that others might think Jiujiu was just a bird and that utensils he used weren’t clean, and also worried that Jiujiu, the little germaphobe bird, wouldn’t like using things many others had used, Shen Yijing always brought his own utensils for Jiujiu.

This restaurant’s business was quite booming, and their serving speed was fast enough. When Jiujiu saw the fish he had personally chosen being brought up, he immediately leaned forward to look.

Mother Gu had chosen a larger one for the three of them to share, plus a smaller one just for Jiujiu—they were easy to distinguish by size.

When he saw there was no cilantro on that fish, Jiujiu instinctively turned to look at his dad.

“Chirp chirp chirp? Where’s the cilantro?”

“Waiter, where’s the cilantro on this small fish?”

Mother Gu had specifically instructed this when ordering. The waiter was startled to hear this but quickly recovered, answering with a polite smile:

“Sorry, the kitchen might have been too busy. I’ll bring some over right away.”

The waiter glanced at Jiujiu, thinking the customer wanted cilantro to feed the bird.

He specially used disposable tableware to place chopped cilantro in front of Jiujiu, then bowed slightly after setting it down.

“Please enjoy.”

Both cilantro-loving Jiujiu and cilantro-hating Shen Yijing fell silent for a moment seeing the cilantro placed directly in front of them.

Shen Yijing poured the cilantro into the small portion of fish. After the waiter realized his misunderstanding, he quickly brought over a heating stove to help prepare it properly before leaving.

Before the small portion of fish was ready, Jiujiu first went to try some of what his dad was eating.

Jiujiu liked brightly colored things, so he had his dad include some chopped peppers when picking up fish meat. It tasted fine at first, but after chewing twice, Jiujiu felt like his head was about to catch fire.

Shen Yijing quickly handed him milk and smoothed his feathers.

“Can’t eat spicy food but still want peppers?”

“No, Jiujiu can eat it.”

He said he could eat it, but when Shen Yijing placed a piece of fish in his exclusive small plate, the little head leaning over was clearly trembling slightly.

Just as he was about to lean in, he lifted his head and stared at his dad in disbelief—when he said he could eat it, Dad was really going to make him eat it?

“Woo, Dad doesn’t love Jiujiu at all. You can’t see through Jiujiu’s stubborn facade, and you don’t know how the prickly Jiujiu restrains himself for you, woo woo.”

Shen Yijing’s body trembled at what his baby said. He pinched Jiujiu’s wing with his thumb and index finger and pulled it, asking coldly:

“What have you been watching again?”

Mother Gu and her husband exchanged knowing smiles. They had long grown used to their son often talking to Jiujiu, guessing they might have some special way of communicating.

“Jiujiu saw it on TV. Dad, you might just lose your baby, but Jiujiu actually got burned by the spice.”

Shen Yijing picked up fish from the cilantro pot and fed it to Jiujiu’s mouth, then stuffed in another bite while he was chewing.

Keeping his mouth busy so he wouldn’t say more nonsense.

Shen Yijing didn’t understand why Jiujiu loved watching those weird TV dramas so much, often pretending to cough up blood and lying on the bed twitching.

On the way back after dinner, Shen Yijing was disgusted by his baby’s cilantro smell and refused to let him come close, forcing him to stay in his little basket.

Knowing Dad was disgusted with him and didn’t want to be close to him, Jiujiu was somewhat angry.

In the hotel room, after taking a bath, Shen Yijing thought things should quiet down, but before bedtime, Jiujiu again pretended to cough up blood, twitching his body while staring at him pitifully.

“Dad, if Jiujiu became a cilantro plant, would you still love your baby?”

Shen Yijing sat on the bedside, accompanying Jiujiu in seriously contemplating this childish topic.

“Then I’d plant you in the ground and carry you everywhere I go.”

“But doesn’t Dad dislike the smell of cilantro?”

Jiujiu moved to sit on his dad’s lap, curiously lifting his head to stare at his dad. Shen Yijing happened to bend down and kiss his cheek.

“But Dad would love Jiujiu.”

“Ah, Dad, you’re so cheesy.”

Just as Jiujiu, satisfied with this answer, was about to slip away, he suddenly thought of something else and quickly ran back to sit in the same spot, making sure it was still warm before asking:

“Then Dad, what if another baby exactly like Jiujiu appeared?”

“I wouldn’t mistake Jiujiu for anyone else.”

A germaphobe chick—in all his years, Shen Yijing had only seen this one in his family. Only his one baby could eat himself so round. He wasn’t worried about mistaking him at all.

Jiujiu didn’t know what his dad used to determine he could recognize him, thinking Dad wouldn’t mistake his baby because of his deep feelings for Jiujiu.

He nuzzled his head against Dad, so happy he wanted to pluck a feather as a gift for his dad.

“Can we sleep now?”

After a day of mountain climbing, even with Shen Yijing’s good stamina, he wanted to rest. Satisfied Jiujiu lay on the pillow, kicked his little legs once, and closed his eyes.

Seeing him sleep so soundly, Shen Yijing couldn’t help reaching out to poke his belly.

Jiujiu squinted his eyes, and seeing it was his dad, spread his wings to make it more convenient for Dad to poke.

As long as it wasn’t touching Jiujiu’s bottom, everything was fine.

After the trip ended, there were about two weeks left before school started. Mother Gu helped buy many things needed for the new school year.

In middle school, Shen Yijing chose to commute, but high school required dormitory living. Inconvenience of coming home was just one reason.

This day Mother Gu came back from shopping and heard violin music coming from their house while still outside. Walking in, she saw Shen Yijing playing violin in the small pavilion.

Elegant music filled the air, and looking closer, there was a little Jiujiu dancing on the stone table.

It was called dancing, but because he was so round, it looked more like spinning in circles, yet he was completely absorbed in his spinning.

When he got tired of spinning, he would sit there chirping a few times, which perfectly harmonized with the violin’s rhythm.

“Mom, what did you buy this time? Didn’t we say before that I’m just going to school and don’t need so many things?”

Mother Gu usually had stores deliver her purchases. Today she only carried a paper bag, from which she took out a baseball cap and put it on Shen Yijing’s head.

“My son is so handsome.”

“Chirp chirp chirp, chirp chirp chirp chirp.”

Jiujiu’s sounds attracted Mother Gu’s attention to him. She casually took out a tiny baseball cap from the paper bag and put it on Jiujiu’s head.

Jiujiu placed one wing on his chest and bowed slightly, as if thanking Mother Gu.

“How could I forget you? Your hat even has a little Jiujiu on it.”

Hearing this, Jiujiu instinctively flew away, wanting to go to the mirror to see if the Jiujiu on the hat was as good-looking as the real Jiujiu.

After Jiujiu left, Mother Gu sat down on the bench beside the stone table, her smile fading considerably.

“When do you plan to tell Jiujiu?”

After all these years, watching Jiujiu spend over ten years with her son, Mother Gu knew exactly how big that little fat bird’s temper could be.

And he was impossibly clingy to Yijing. Back in middle school, he often had the driver bring him along to pick up Yijing from school.

There was once when Yijing went to participate in a competition and had to take a plane, so he couldn’t bring Jiujiu along.

The competition lasted a whole week, and Jiujiu waited at the front gate mailbox for the entire week, not eating or drinking, just staring pitifully.

High school only had one day off on weekends—six days without seeing each other. Without giving him advance notice, they might anger Jiujiu into running away. After all, though that bird was fat, he could still fly.

“About this, I still don’t know how to tell him.”

Hearing his mom’s words, Shen Yijing also began to worry.

“School’s starting soon. If you don’t tell Jiujiu now, there won’t be time to comfort him.”

Mother Gu was even more anxious than Shen Yijing. After all, when her son went to school, she would be the one taking care of Jiujiu. If she couldn’t comfort him properly, she’d be the one with the headache.

“Mom, do you think Jiujiu will be angry?”

“You might as well ask Mom how angry Jiujiu will be.”

After thinking for a while, Shen Yijing answered in a low voice:

“Mom, what if… I don’t tell Jiujiu?”

Having finished admiring his own beauty wearing the hat and preparing to fly back to let his dad admire him too, Jiujiu arrived in the courtyard just in time to hear this sentence. He quickly flew in front of his dad.

“Chirp chirp? What can’t you tell Jiujiu? Let me, Shen Jiujiu, listen.”