CYCGS 03

Chapter – 03

Back Stepping

Drawing closer, the little white ball also moved to the edge of the cage, tilting its head slightly as it stared fixedly at him, clearly radiating joy and a desire for closeness.

His childhood friend was right—compared to the deathly silence of returning to his apartment in the past, this soft, delicate chirping added a bit of lively commotion. Its presence meant that he was so anticipated and needed.

Such a small responsibility, yet so pleasurable.

Yan Tuo couldn’t help but reach out a finger, wanting to touch this tender, white little glutinous rice ball.

Afraid of startling his little cutie, Yan Tuo moved slowly, pausing by the cage bars for a good while before gently slipping his finger in to touch the fluffy little bird head.

Tangyuan didn’t move at all. Whether stunned by fear or genuinely comfortable with him, it just stayed obediently on its perch, letting him smooth its feathers, occasionally stealing shy glances at him.

Yan Tuo was instantly in high spirits, praising, “So well-behaved. Not afraid of people at all. Was it always like this?”

“Chirp chirp—”

Yan Tuo naturally didn’t expect an answer, but as soon as he finished speaking, Tangyuan let out two chirps, as if actually responding to him. It felt quite magical, and he couldn’t help but talk a little more.

“Your original owner is coming over tomorrow, and they’ll bring you a little companion too.”

“Chirp chirp chirp—”

“Is that saying you’re happy?”

“Chirp—”

“I’m pretty happy too. So we’ll share the burden together—we’re really comrades in misery, aren’t we?”

“Chirp chirp?”

The soft feathers on the little cutie’s bowl-cut head were smoothed even neater. Yan Tuo stopped teasing it, checked the food and water containers, then turned to walk over to the desk, opened his laptop, and prepared to review the case report he hadn’t finished that afternoon.

Inside the cage, White Yiyi was in a great mood and eagerly asked, “Did it go up? Did it go up?”

The system’s voice carried a hint of delight: “Mmhm, it went up, up by 5 points.”

White Yiyi sighed in satisfaction. It wasn’t the explosive jump of several dozen points he’d imagined, but it was still a good start, right? It wasn’t easy for a socially anxious little bottom like him to let this near-stranger new owner rub his head and belly.

As for that talk about sharing the burden and being comrades in misery—he didn’t quite understand it.

But that didn’t matter. “Brother” this and “brother” that—it probably meant closeness, right? If he took the initiative a bit more, after a dozen or so exchanges of intimacy for satisfaction points, he’d be back to human form in no time.

White Yiyi welcomed the next day in a cheerful mood.

On the weekend, his feeder was busy with who-knows-what and had gone out early in the morning. He didn’t return until around 3 in the afternoon, and behind him followed a handsome man carrying a birdcage.

Before White Yiyi could react, the system was already squealing in his head: “Ah, Yiyi, this is the one I picked! Your original owner!”

The one with the highest “tycoon” value among bird owners within a thousand kilometers?

White Yiyi sized him up curiously. The man wore a light blue casual suit with exceptionally fine tailoring, and his peach blossom eyes sparkled with flair—definitely carrying the air of a domineering CEO.

Unfortunately, White Yiyi had already been completely won over by his male god’s uniformed image, leaving no room in his eyes for anyone else. He even started worrying—what if this so-called original owner had come to take him back, and he’d never see his male god again?

Before he could overthink it, Blue Suit had already changed into slippers with practiced ease, carried the cage over, and greeted him cheerfully, “White—ah, no, my dear Tangyuan, it’s been a few days. Did you miss me?”

This smooth-talking scoundrel didn’t look like a decent sort at all. White Yiyi complained inwardly and couldn’t be bothered to respond.

Blue Suit started whistling and teasing him…

White Yiyi’s impression worsened. He found this person utterly vulgar and didn’t want to give any reaction at all. He hung motionless on the swing, watching warily from the outside.

Then his feeder walked over too. White Yiyi’s eyes lit up, and he quickly flew to the perch, moving toward the edge of the cage. In his eagerness, he nearly slipped and stumbled, flapping his wings in panic a couple of times before steadying himself.

Watching his feeder’s finger reach in, White Yiyi willingly bumped his bowl-cut head against it and even wobbled his little head left and right to nuzzle it.

This deliberate act of playing cute embarrassed the little bottom so much that his face burned—but fortunately, his entire body was covered in feathers, hiding his flushed cheeks. White Yiyi consoled himself that this was a necessary move for survival, and chirped weakly, “Chirp chirp—”

Yan Tuo was completely charmed. His heart softened, and his touch grew even gentler as he coaxed, “Good boy.”

Flower Hongqing watched enviously, a little indignant. “Damn, what a difference in treatment. I only gave you away a few days ago, and you’re already this clingy? You little ungrateful thing—you don’t recognize me at all anymore.”

Yan Tuo’s lips curved slightly, and he rarely joked, “Probably because you, Flower Hongqing, aren’t as handsome as me.”

Flower Hongqing snorted. “What good is being handsome? Once my little beauty comes out, let’s see if she still pays you any attention.”

With that, he removed the dark cage cover from the birdcage in his hand, and a goose-yellow crested canary immediately began hopping about energetically.

Yan Tuo looked back and forth between the two birds, rather dissatisfied with the brownish mottled feathers on the female’s tail. “A bit ugly, isn’t she? Nothing like Tangyuan’s snow-white, jade-like cuteness. And you call her a beauty…”

Flower Hongqing opened the cage door, gently held the little bird, and swiftly moved it into Tangyuan’s cage, then retorted, “You’re not a bird, so how would you know what birds find attractive? All that matters is that our Tangyuan likes her.”

“But he might not like her. What’s this one’s name?”

“Maggie.”

Yan Tuo chose not to comment on his childhood friend’s naming skills, and simply watched curiously to see how the two canaries would react after being caged together.

Tangyuan flew back to the swing and hung there quietly, while Maggie, unafraid, strolled over to the food tray and leisurely nibbled on some millet.

After a long while, Yan Tuo asked, “So they’re not interested in each other? Just ignoring one another?”

Flower Hongqing explained, “It’s never that fast. They need some time to ease into it, to get to know each other.”

No sooner had he spoken than Maggie made the first move. She fluttered her wings and flew onto the swing, landing right next to Tangyuan, deliberately pressing close and rubbing against him.

Tangyuan seemed uncomfortable. He turned his head to look, then moved to the other end of the swing, keeping his distance.

Maggie pursued him immediately, pecking gently at the white feathers on his shoulder in a fawning manner. Tangyuan let out two rapid “chirps,” almost like a scold, and flicked his head away before flying off to perch on the branch, leaving the little hen to sway alone on the swing.

Undeterred, Maggie followed and landed on the other end of the perch. This time more cautious, she inched sideways toward him—three steps forward, two steps pause—slowly closing the gap.

Closer and closer, until she had Tangyuan pressed against the cage bars, looking utterly weak, helpless, and pitifully foolish.

Yan Tuo laughed a little. “See? I told you he doesn’t like her.”

Tangyuan seemed genuinely annoyed now. He threw his whole head and shoulder into shoving Maggie aside, then fluttered back to his coconut-shell nest, even turning his tail outward to block the entrance completely—clearly in a “leave me alone” posture.

Maggie chirped a few times, followed him to the nest, and relentlessly began pecking at Tangyuan’s back, then bumping him with her head.

In no time, Tangyuan let out a loud “chirp,” popped out of the nest, and started tussling with Maggie.

The two little birds pecked at each other, bumped heads and shoulders, and chased each other up and down the cage. They tumbled to the bottom, and Tangyuan pounced, pinning Maggie under his claws.

Flower Hongqing laughed, “See? How can you say he doesn’t like her? Fighting means affection, right? And look—he’s already mounting her!”

Yan Tuo was baffled. “That’s called *back stepping*? That’s clearly just fighting…”

Flower Hongqing put on his pet-expert face. “Oh, you don’t get it. What other position can birds use for mating? The male always gets on the female’s back and does his thing. What, you think they’re like humans, with seventy-two acrobatic sex positions?”

M—mating?

White Yiyi, who had just achieved a temporary victory by beating back that incessantly harassing hen until she submitted, completely cracked.

He’d thought that this Flower-what’s-his-name original owner had brought a companion over so he wouldn’t be lonely, just to chat or something—but the guy was actually scheming for him to mate?

No wonder that ugly bird was acting all coquettish and flirtatious—she was just like her owner, that peach-blossom-eyed Casanova, dripping with promiscuous energy.

He hadn’t even held it against her that she helped herself to his food without asking, and she still had the nerve to sidle up and rub against him, impossible to shake off. He’d gotten angry and told her to stay away several times, but she wouldn’t listen. In the end, he’d had no choice but to hide in his nest—and she *still* wouldn’t leave him alone, even shamelessly pecking at his rear. That was when he’d lost his temper and started fighting back.

Never in a million years did he expect that this desperate act of self-defense would be mistaken for mating—and worst of all, his beloved male god had watched the whole thing from the outside. How was he supposed to live this down?

White Yiyi instantly wanted to die.

The system wailed helplessly, “Yiyi, it’s dropped back to negative 30. You’ve got to hang in there.”

This was a double blow of sheer undeserved misfortune.

White Yiyi’s spirits plummeted. Furiously, he said, “Don’t think just because you’re female that I won’t really hurt you if you keep annoying me!”

He kicked his claws threateningly, then quickly flew away and burrowed back into his old nest. This time, he made sure not to leave his back exposed. He held his sharp beak out like a blade—if that ugly bird dared come near again, he’d stab her straight through.

Maggie lay at the bottom of the cage, chirping pitifully. “I’m so beautiful—how can you not like me? Wouldn’t it be nice to have babies with me?”

“No. How can we fall in love when we’re different species?”

“We’re both crested canaries—how are we different? Just the color. You’re white, I’m yellow—our babies would be yellow-and-white mottled, how lovely would that be?”

Yellow-and-white mottled? White Yiyi’s mind immediately conjured up an image of a fried egg with a bowl-cut hairdo—so ugly he couldn’t bear to think about it.

“No way. You stay down there. If you dare fly up again, I’ll beat you every single time.”

White Yiyi threatened without any grace, while his ears caught his feeder asking tirelessly, “That’s it? Did it work?”

Flower Hongqing replied, “Should… should be fine, I think. These small pet birds only take a few seconds anyway. But they recover fast too—usually they’ll go at it many times in a row. Tsk, little Tangyuan’s not very impressive, huh.”

*You’re* the one who takes only a few seconds. Your whole family isn’t impressive.

Feeling deeply insulted and completely helpless, White Yiyi could neither explain himself nor prove anything. He just lay sideways in his nest, stewing in silent frustration, retreating into his own little shell.

Flower Hongqing stopped paying attention to the two birds in the cage. He wiped his finger along the edge of the desk, frowned at the thick layer of dust he’d picked up, and clicked his tongue in disgust.

“Speaking of which, with all those blind dates my sister set up for you, not a single one caught your eye? You really need someone to look after you. Captain Yan, just look at how much of a pigsty your place has become! If those junior girls who used to chase after you back in school knew that their once elegant, refined male god had turned into this kind of rough man, they’d be heartbroken all over the floor.”