PeachCh5 - A Stud Rooster

“Eh?” Chen Ziqi said, squatting down and looking at the bird in amazement. He picked up the little red ball of fluff with expert hands. “Why’s this chick so big?”

Typically, chicks with down feathers were those that had just hatched, and they 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 and 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 jaunty look. biApaV

Chen Ziqi had never seen such a fascinating looking chicken before. He couldn’t resist examining it. He flipped it over, tugged lightly at its half-grown wings, and prodded its little belly. The chick’s black eyes sparkled like little round obsidians. Its tiny wings hadn’t 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. Chen Ziqi had extensive experience with chickens, and he was certain this chick would grow up to be a rooster.

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

“Hey – yo – trying a sneak attack?” cksfoJ

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

“Tweet! Tweet?” The little red chick was about to try pecking at Chen Ziqi again, but it 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 rear chickens in this garden?” Chen Ziqi asked. He 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 rear a thousand of these big red chickens, he would certainly make big bucks!

“No, I’ve never seen such a… erm… chicken before. And this Imperial garden… definitely isn’t for rearing chickens…” 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 who was he, a lowly eunuch, to contradict him?

Chen Ziqi was blissfully unaware of the young eunuch’s internal conflict. All he heard was that this chicken was an ownerless chattel. 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. Undershirts 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. In the circumstances, 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 plump little chick froze in embarrassment, 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 observed his surroundings attentively as he walked back to Qingping Palace from Zhanghua Pavilion. Nbps82

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

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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

“Qtja’r sbeg cjwf?” Jtfc Ildl jrxfv, ibbxlcu ja atlr lcafiilufca ilaaif fecemt.

“Ktlr rfgnjca lr mjiifv Mezl,” atf fecemt gfqilfv klat j rwlif. Lf tjv akb vlwqifr ktfc tf rwlifv jcv kjr nfgs qifjrjca ibbxlcu. Lf kjr jmaejiis bcis afc sfjgr biv tlwrfio jcv tjv rajgafv kbgxlcu lc atf qjijmf delaf gfmfcais. Lf tjv qgfnlberis jikjsr yffc jrrlucfv ab vb bvv pbyr jcv mtbgfr jcv tjv bcis pera rajgafv kjlalcu bc atf Pwqfglji cbylilas. DHWhjr

“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 a 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 the Qingping Palace, Chang E was standing at the main entrance and peering out anxiously. When she saw Chen Ziqi return, she sighed with relief and hurried out to meet him. xSCPTG

“What took you so long?” she asked.

He might have been brought to Zhanghua Pavilion on a palanquin, but he had to walk a 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.

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“I went to catch a bird,” he said.

“Wow, what a large chick!” Chang E exclaimed. She extended a finger and poked the chick’s plump little body. ct hHY

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

“It’s too small – we can’t eat it,” Chang E said, looking at the chick appraisingly. She pulled her son into the house, took the chick out and placed it on the table. There was a teacup on the table. Judging from the chick’s size relative to the teacup, it was clear that even if they cooked 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 starting a chicken farm? You silly boy!” Chang E said, poking her son with a finger. eAaZ1g

“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 the Zichen Palace. Actually, being the Emperor 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 E 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 decided that they would use it moving forward.

They talked until sunset. Chang E got up to cook dinner, and then realized that the Qingping Palace didn’t have a kitchen. The only place with a stove was the small tearoom, and the stove there was actually only used for boiling water. There were no condiments or food to be found. ehX7Uz

“Looks like we have no choice but to eat this chicken,” Chang E 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 E breathed a sigh of relief, then raised her chin slightly. “Yes,” she said in a dignified tone. z0ZOhM

Chang E 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 on seeing the food. 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 skilled Imperial chefs. Even the simple-looking stir-fried vegetables were perfectly crunchy and fragrant, and they both couldn’t get enough.

Biyun and Fuxi stood attentively at the side, serving them the food 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. 1RGx0O

Chen Ziqi and his mother waited for the two servants to leave. 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 those two not eaten?

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The servants entered to clear up, 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. HPIL5b

“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 E 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. MyJvUW

Chen Ziqi was speechless.

—

Author’s note: Mini-theatre

Qiqi: What a great stud rooster 7gz cI

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⊙) O5DpRU

Qiqi: QAQ *sobs*