Chapter – 01
Birdman
Exhausted, Bai Yiyi slumped half-reclined against the bottom of the cage, mentally cursing the designer of the anti-escape door for the Nth time.
It was clearly a simple hook mechanism that anyone could see throughâa basic latch that could be opened by just pulling both sides simultaneously. Yet, for his current self, it had become a mission impossible.
Him? Or rather, it?
Bai Yiyi looked at his pink dual claws, trembling slightly from overexertion, and then at his belly wrapped in pure white feathers, recalling the bizarre events of the past three days.
All he did was read a popular Danmei (BL) novel before bed. Admiring the luxurious life of a “canary” being pampered by a domineering CEOâwhere food and clothing were handed to him without lifting a fingerâhe was suddenly bound by something called the “Starry Legend Dream-Come-True Wishing System.” And just like that, he turned into this.
Yep, a caged canary. The real deal.
Closing his eyes, Bai Yiyi called out in his mind, “Hey, System, is there really no built-in mall where I can exchange points for items?”
The system replied in a slightly aggrieved, childlike voice, “There really isn’t. I… I was just born! Turning you into this canary used up all my energy. Do you have any idea how hard that was? Filtering suitable avian hosts, collapsing your physical body, and ensuring your consciousness entered without damage… the steps in betweenâ”
“Stop, stop right there. Thank you and your whole family, okay?”
Bai Yiyi didn’t care to know the process of turning into a bird because it defied all logic and science, and the result was already obvious and miserable enough. So, he snapped back with a sarcastic retort.
The system, however, sounded a bit happy, yet hesitant. “I don’t have a family. Thank you for your thanks… but how come your satisfaction rating didn’t go up at all after thanking me?”
Because the Chinese language is deep and profound, and you’re just an incompetent foreign import. Deciding it wasn’t worth arguing, Bai Yiyi faced his current predicament. Looking at the empty food and water dishes, he sighed. “What do we do now then? I’m about to starve to death, and I can’t get out.”
Turning his head to look through the bars of the birdcage, he could see the entire studio apartment of less than 40 square meters at a single glance. For days, the scene hadn’t changed at allâit was completely devoid of life and messy as hell.
Anger flared up again. He tried to hold it in but ultimately couldn’t resist complaining, “When you bound me, your goal was to fulfill my dream of being a canary pampered by a CEO, right? Fine, your reading comprehension sucks, so you actually turned me into a literal bird. I’ll let that slide. But where’s the CEO? Where is my giant, domineering Top?”
The system asked, “What’s a Top? Isn’t a CEO just a Chief Executive Officer?”
As a naturally gay guy who lacked the courage to come out of the closet and could only satisfy his cravings through web novels, Bai Yiyi didn’t bother explaining that a “CEO” in Danmei novels meant far more than just a corporate title. He deflected, “Same difference. I’m just asking, where is the guy?”
The system refused to take the blame for this. “The original owner of ‘Snow Prince’ really was a CEO. Based on human CEO quotes, I used big data to calculate that he had the highest CEO metric among all bird owners within a thousand-kilometer radius.”
“…What a trash name. Okay, and then?”
The system sounded even more wronged. “And then, who… who knew you humans are so hypocritical? You claim they’re your beloved pets, but you can just give them away on a whim. While you were still adapting and unconscious right after arriving, he happened to gift you to your current owner.”
Bai Yiyi felt a wave of despair. Getting stuck with an unreliable, incompetent system, a cold-hearted original owner, and now an irresponsible current ownerâwhat kind of godforsaken luck was this?
The system softly reported the numbers, “It’s at minus 85 now. If it hits minus 100, I…”
Bai Yiyi quickly reined in the resentment in his heart. The values reported by the system represented his internal satisfaction rating toward it.
Ever since he found out he had turned into a bird, the rating had plummeted past zero. When he discovered it could actually go into negative numbers, it instantly dropped to minus 50. Discovering the food shortage brought it to minus 70, and realizing he couldn’t escape brought it to minus 80. In short, it hadn’t gone up once over the past three days. If it dropped any lower…
Forcing himself to maintain his composure, he replied, “I know. If the satisfaction rating drops below minus 100, you’ll fade away, and I’ll be stuck as a birdman forever. By the way, once it rises to the passing line, I can temporarily change back into a human, right?”
The system immediately dangled a carrot. “Yes, yes! Just 2 satisfaction points can unlock human form for 1 hour!”
Bai Yiyi looked forward to it for a moment, then confirmed once more, “And at 100 points, I can permanently change back into a human?”
The system stated firmly, “Of course. Once I complete the mission and gather enough energy, I will definitely send you back immediately.”
Bai Yiyi’s mind started spinning. From shock to acceptance, he had spent the last few days solely focusing on adapting to a bird’s body, learning how to walk and fly, and forcing himself to eat hard, unpalatable birdseed. Why hadn’t he started thinking of a solution from the root of the problem?
Summoning every ounce of his lifelong acting skills, Bai Yiyi tried saying, “These past few days have been absolutely amazing! I can actually fly now! System, I couldn’t be more satisfied with you. Seriously, a hundred percent satisfied!”
“…”
This time, the system didn’t call out the numbers. Instead, a bright red “-85” flashed before Bai Yiyi’s eyes. Then, he watched helplessly as the single digit began to tick down, finally freezing at “-87.”
Dammit, why did it drop again?!
The system timidly offered an analysis: “Because I am soul-bound to you, we can’t use lies to deceive each other. Did that cause your satisfaction to drop further?”
It really couldn’t afford to drop any lower. Bai Yiyi abandoned all wishful thinking, stood up, and waddled over to the food dish. Stretching out his thin little bird tongue, he licked the remaining crumbs completely clean. Then, he leaned half-reclined against the cage wall to save up some strength for his next prison break attempt.
After a long while, feeling like he had recovered some energy, Bai Yiyi walked to the edge of the cage. He stared at the door in the center of the structure to study it once more. Psyching himself up, he spread his wings and flapped his way up, hanging onto it.
Left claw, right clawâhe firmly gripped the mechanisms on both sides of the door. Then, using his beak bit by bit, he began to hoist the cage door upward. Each time, he could only raise it by the height of a head-lift before he had to let go. He then pressed his body tightly against the frame to hold it in place and prevent it from falling, searching again for a good spot to bite down and continue pulling it up.
He had no idea how much time had passed, but the cage door was finally halfway open. Now came the hardest part: Let go of the claws first? The door would drop. Let go of the beak first? The door would drop. Release his body first? The door would drop.
After numerous calculations and attempts, his conclusion was to puff out his belly as much as possible. While letting go with his claws and beak would cause the door to fall, his belly could slightly hinder its descent, allowing him to squeeze out the door in one breath.
If he didn’t succeed this time, Bai Yiyi felt he wouldn’t have the strength to try again.
Prepared to do or die, he held his breath and puffed out his little belly. His beak and claws cautiously began to loosen. Success was right before his eyes…
Click.
A crisp sound echoed. Bai Yiyi was startled, feeling a bit dazed. Did I use too much force and snap a part of the cage?
A moment later, reality hit him, and he mocked himself for growing stupider since becoming a bird. This was clearly an iron craft cage; how could it possibly snap?
Then, he stared blankly at the person who had suddenly appeared in front of him. At first glance, it was a man whose stubbly face and exhausted look couldn’t hide his handsome features. Belatedly, it clicked in his mind: Oh, that was the sound of the front door unlocking. The current owner who had been missing for three days is back…
Yan Tuo stared at the canary hanging onto the cage door with all four limbs splayed wide out, its little white belly desperately puffed out, and its beak still clamping onto the half-open door. He instantly clocked the situation.
Well, he had caught a little dumb bird trying to escape.
He wasn’t sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but at the moment their eyes met, he clearly saw a whole sequence of emotions play out in the little bird’s eyes: from shock, to dejection, and finally to pure fury.
The scene was quite amusing. This white fluffball with a bowl-cut hairstyle was hanging tooth and nail on the cage door, looking terrified and indignant after being caughtâclumsily stupid, yet pathetic.
“Heh.”
Yan Tuo couldn’t help but chuckle softly. Alright, it clearly wasn’t dumb. It actually knew how to crack the mechanism to open the door, and it looked like it was right on the verge of success.
After days of working non-stop, a major case had finally been wrapped up. His relaxed mindset grew even more cheerful, and Yan Tuo, for once, felt like teasing.
Extending his index finger, he gently poked and rubbed the puffed-out little white belly. Hmm, soft and warm. Feels pretty good.
Being poked right in a vital spot, Bai Yiyiâwho had a human heart in a bird’s bodyâshuddered all over. The strange sensation sent a jolt of electricity straight to his scalp. His instinctive reaction was to dodge.
But he immediately realized: I’m just a bird right now, not my original body. What’s there to be afraid of from a little touch?
And so, his belly retracted for a split second before pushing right back out, starting a battle of wills against that finger.
Bai Yiyi was clearly acting out of pure stubbornness. Handsome guy or not, the brief moment of awe couldn’t erase the stomach full of anger he was harboring.
This guy vanished for days, completely forgetting there was a living soul at home that needed care. Fine, vanish then! But just as he had worked hard and was about to escape the cage to run toward freedom, he was thwarted at the final second by a single finger.
Now that the guy was back, strictly speaking, he didn’t need to risk his life escaping for a bite of food anymore. Yet, he just couldn’t swallow his anger. Bai Yiyi stubbornly refused to let go with his beak and claws, using his belly to push hard, still trying to squeeze out of the cage door.
In response, that finger began to trace larger circles, tickling and poking, applying pressure gently but firmly.
After a tense standoff, Bai Yiyi finally couldn’t hold on anymore.
Even if it was just a bird’s body, he couldn’t handle someone drawing circles and teasing him all over. It was both ticklish and humiliating. His claws were also growing numb from overexertion. With a pathetic “Ying,” he gave up his resistance.
He tumbled down to the bottom of the cage, wrapping his wings around himself as he shivered. His small eyes darted death glares at the man outside the cage, and a few stray feathers on his bowl-cut head stood straight up from sheer rage.
Yan Tuo stifled a laugh at the puffed-up, miserable little thing. Then, his eyes swept over the empty food and water dishes, and a wave of guilt immediately washed over him. The bird must have been starving out of its mind to try and escape.
Sigh. I knew long ago that I’m not cut out for raising any living creature. Yet, that guy Hong Qing insisted on sending over such a delicate, high-maintenance thing. Getting too busy and forgetting about it had almost cost this little life.
Yan Tuo planned to find an opportunity to send this pet back, but for now, he needed to fill up its food and water immediately.
He filled a large dish with a mix of fresh grains and bone meal, then poured a bottle of mineral water. Seeing the miserable little thing burying its head and eating like crazy from starvation, Yan Tuo’s heart softened. He decided to add a little feast to supplement his temporary pet’s meal.
Bai Yiyi pecked at the millet grains, swallowing rapidly. The hunger burning in his stomach made it so he couldn’t care less about complaining how hard and dry this stuff tasted. He also completely failed to notice his owner walking away with a small trowel and coming back toward the door.
The cage door opened, and a lump of brown “mud” was placed into the food dish, right in front of Bai Yiyi’s eyes.
His beak still busy, Bai Yiyi casually turned his head to glance at it. What… what the hell? This “mud” is moving?!
Taking a closer look…
“Chirp… CHIRP CHIRP!”
Feathers exploding, screaming, and fleeing to the furthest corner, he once again wrapped his wings tightly around himself and shuddered violentlyâthis time out of sheer terror.
That was no “mud.” Those were Earthworms. Two or three of them were tangled up together, squirming and writhing right on top of his pile of birdseed.
Bai Yiyi wasn’t actually afraid of earthworms. When he was a kid, he used to go fishing with his maternal grandfather and had handled plenty of them. But scaled down to his current proportions, seen through tiny bird eyes, it was a horror movie. Those were clearly two giant snakes longer than his entire body!
The man outside the cage said, “Fresh and alive. Tastes way better than dry birdseed, right? I was too busy and forgot about you before, so consider this big feast my apology.”
A moment later, as if realizing something, another sentence came: “Ah, are they too big for you to eat? Sorry, no experience. Wait right there, I’ll snip them up for you.”
No need, thank you very much! I thank your ancestors back eight generations!
Cursing internally, Bai Yiyi desperately scrambled even further back, his eyes glued to the man outside the cage, his terror mingled with a pleading look.
But it was futile. After a few sharp snips, the two long earthworms were severed into a dozen segments. Like thick, bloated pieces of deep-fried dough sticks that had somehow come to life, they wriggled frantically in all directions. Two or three segments even popped out of the food dish and began crawling toward his corner.
Before passing out from sheer fright, Bai Yiyi swore he would never eat deep-fried dough sticks again for the rest of his life.
