Chapter 25: The Film Emperor Dad Who Was Sacrificed in the Entertainment Industry

When Father Shen came back and couldn’t find the bird, he got quite the scare. He even started to wonder if someone had secretly taken it to play with for a while.

He searched all around and asked everyone—he was just about to check the surveillance footage and was contacting the teacher in charge when he suddenly heard a noise from his cup.

Father Shen’s cup was an old thermos he’d used for who knew how many years. It still had excellent insulation.

Luckily, he had sharp ears. Just as he was sitting down, he faintly heard a beak tapping against the inside of the cup.

Peeking over for a look, he saw a soaked little bird inside, chewing on the tapioca pearls from his milk tea, cheeks puffed as it chewed away.

“You’re eating that stuff too?”

Father Shen had just finished grading all his papers. Now in a panic, he quickly greeted a colleague and dashed home.

He had to take the bird to the pet hospital right away—what if it died from eating something wrong? His son had only just returned after all these years; it would be awful if the bird he’d raised died because he’d taken it out to show off.

Jiujiu, dangling by one claw, was struggling wildly. He only ate a few pearls! Was this grandpa stingy or what? Did he really need to hold him up like this and shake him?

When Shen Yijing saw his father rush home in a panic, he was startled, thinking something serious had happened. Only after asking did he find out Jiujiu had snuck some pearls from the milk tea.

“Dad, you have high blood sugar. You shouldn’t be drinking that stuff.”

“Ai, I won’t next time, alright? Just don’t tell your mom, or she’ll start nagging again.”

After being shaken all the way home, Jiujiu finally threw up all the pearls he hadn’t digested yet.

Seeing him vomit, Father Shen actually let out a long sigh of relief.

“Good, better out than in.”

Shen Yijing offered to take Jiujiu to the hospital himself, which put Father Shen at ease. He returned to school to supervise evening study and had dinner there.

“Daddy, I need a bath,” Jiujiu said.

Eating that stuff hadn’t harmed him at all. He’d even stolen spicy strips from the assistant before. But soaking in milk tea? That was just uncomfortable.

“Can you bear with it for now at home?” Shen Yijing asked, crouching down by the street to speak with him gently.

He knew this little guy was a glutton—always curious to taste whatever food was around. Back on set, once he ate a piece of fruit and a staff member muttered that a chick didn’t need such expensive food. Jiujiu had been so angry he cursed “mind your own damn business” all day.

Even while sleeping on his pillow at night, he’d raise his wings and grumble “mind your own damn business.”

But home was different. These were his parents—the ones he hadn’t seen in a long time due to his own impulsiveness.

“Okay.”

Jiujiu nodded, deciding that once Dad took him back to work, he’d have him buy two cups of milk tea to make up for it.

Jiujiu didn’t care about irrelevant people, but Grandpa in this world really knew birds. He had no choice but to put up with it for now and eat the same bird feed as that parrot.

“Daddy, when it’s bedtime tonight, bring me some snacks.”

“Sure. As long as you don’t pull this kind of stunt when we’re out.”

Jiujiu extended a wing to shake on it.

When school went on break, the teachers still had to mark final exams. Meanwhile, Shen Mama began preparing for the Lunar New Year at home.

After getting familiar with the cockatiel, Jiujiu got lazy—so lazy he wouldn’t even lift a claw. Wherever he wanted to go, he’d ride on the cockatiel’s back.

Every time Father Shen saw this, he found it amusing. Once he couldn’t resist and reached out to pet them, only to get pecked by his own bird.

“Hey! You’re still so aggressive with me, but him? Just because he’s young, you don’t bully him? So now you bully me, the old guy?”

The parrot didn’t reply—just carried Jiujiu off to sunbathe. The rare winter sun was warm and bright, and Jiujiu could bask in it for ages.

That Spring Festival, Shen Yijing reconciled with his parents. Their relationship grew much closer, and Shen Mama quietly told him:

Though Father Shen had always acted displeased about him entering the entertainment industry, he couldn’t help showing off a little at gatherings with old friends from the marketplace.

After a few drinks, he’d point to characters Shen Yijing played and proudly talk about how amazing his son had become.

He’d done all these things, just never admitted to them.

In the first lunar month, Shen Yijing had to return to work. When he left with Jiujiu, Father Shen was reluctant and personally saw them off to the car, gently patting Jiujiu’s head.

“Take care raising this bird. Since you’ve taken him in, you need to be responsible. Make sure he doesn’t eat anything he shouldn’t—he might get sick, and since you don’t know his species, he’ll be hard to treat.”

Jiujiu nodded obediently—appearing to be the picture of a well-behaved little darling.

But once the car started moving, he scrambled up to Dad’s shoulder and began listing off his dinner order: he wanted crayfish, spicy strips, and at least two cups of the milk tea he missed out on last time.

Shen Yijing agreed to everything. Once Jiujiu fell asleep, he gently stroked the little belly.

How could someone this tiny eat so much? Even when stuffed, he could still flap his wings and fly a bit if pushed.

Once work began, Shen Yijing joined a new production. Since Jiujiu was low-maintenance, the director turned a blind eye to him being on set.

Sometimes, he’d even let Jiujiu do a cameo.

When the previous series aired, to everyone’s surprise, the character that blew up wasn’t the lead, but Shen Yijing’s.

Many viewers were baffled by the female lead’s actions—especially the scene where she and the male lead got intimate on the villain’s bed. Even fans of the protagonists didn’t understand why it had to be that bed.

Shen Yijing’s character, the villainous Emperor, seemed cruel and temperamental, even murderous. But when bored, he raised chickens—and his little chick was heartbreakingly adorable.

This tied into a post Shen Yijing had made on Weibo, and Jiujiu quickly became the new face of memes and exploded in popularity.

So much so that even the little yellow chicks sold outside kindergartens and primary schools went up by one yuan—and still sold out every time.

The director, after seeing the results, sat down with the screenwriter to review it seriously.

Once a script is adapted into a show, the director felt, he no longer had full control. Everyone sees something different in a story, and their interpretations made the series a whole new world.

After reviewing the footage with the assistant directors, they realized it might have been an acting issue.

Shen Yijing’s appeal came from the contrast: he could slaughter a beloved traitor without hesitation, but then turn around and gently pet his chick with blood-washed, sandalwood-scented hands.

When his most trusted eunuch betrayed him, he smiled as he killed him over a single ink drop on a decree. Yet moments later, his chick was stomping claw marks across the same decree and kissing his head in praise.

The screenwriter had initially intended to craft an irredeemable villain—one who, even in the end, felt no remorse, even when the heroine overthrew him.

If the “tyrant” role had five points of charm, Shen Yijing’s explosive acting bumped it up to ten. After the tyrant exited, viewership halved.

Meanwhile, the male and female leads, whom the writer had given eight points of charm, ended up with only three—thanks to their awful acting.

When the director was filming, he felt he had already done his best to coach the actor within his abilities, and looking at it alone, the performance was barely passable. But placed next to Shen Yijing for comparison, it was completely overshadowed.

Shen Yijing didn’t pay much attention to the scripts he had already finished shooting. He habitually focused most of his energy on things yet to be done.

Whether the past was good or bad—it was the past.

“Why don’t you ever grow up?”

As Shen Yijing groomed Jiujiu’s feathers, he thought about how this little guy had been with him for so long. If no one else was around, his appetite was even bigger than Shen Yijing’s own. Yet he still looked like he could be held with just one hand.

Jiujiu rolled over, stretching out a claw, gesturing for his dad to fix the feathers on the other side too.

In the past, he would’ve been upset about this kind of thing—yeah, why didn’t he grow up? But now he had already learned to let it go.

Yeah, so what if he grows slowly?

“Say one thing and you get upset?”

Jiujiu nodded and stared at his dad with his beady little eyes. Yeah, just say one thing and he gets upset. What, he’s not allowed to be protective of his own kid?

After Shen Yijing wrapped up filming and planned to take a break, the first chance he had to sleep in was ruined by a call from his agent. He glanced at the caller ID, then checked the time.

“Hey, what is it?”

Jiujiu, startled awake by his dad’s voice, gave a little jump and burrowed back under the blanket.

“Your new show stirred up a new scandal again. What were you doing last night?”