"Chirp chirp chirp!" The fat bird was furious. It kicked its legs and twisted its body frantically, and even tried to bite Ye Xu's hand by turning its neck in various ways.
The bird's neck is very flexible, and its head can bend at many degrees, making it very easy for it to bite a person's hand. Ye Xu was initially startled and almost let go, but then he realized that no matter how hard the fat bird tried, it couldn't hurt him, so he became more energetic.
Dragons have thick skin and tough flesh! Even if their claws don't have scales, they're not easily injured.
The phoenix cub's beak is still too weak; if we replaced it with an adult phoenix, Ye Xu would be more likely to bite it and draw blood. Fortunately, they are about the same age. By the time Mo Bei reaches adulthood, Ye Xu will also be an adult with stronger claws, so there will never be any risk of him being bitten.
Unfortunately, Ye Xu's smugness didn't last long, because the phoenix cub's frantic cries were too penetrating. Even through the space, the babies in the pet park heard the commotion and came out one by one to watch.
Luna was the first to rush out. Having been a baby nurser for many years, she was extremely sensitive to the cries of chicks. Hearing the chicks' cries, which sounded as if they were being killed, she was terrified and quickly flew out to try and stop them.
Instead of seeing the bird killed, they saw the shop manager leisurely circling a fat bird and examining it.
In a short time, Ye Xu had mastered the art of catching birds. The plump bird lay in his palm, his index finger and thumb encircling its neck, while his other fingers were tucked in to prevent the bird's wings from flapping. Once the bird's neck was trapped, it lost the ability to resist biting. No matter how much its cervical spine could twist, with its head lowered slightly by his fingers, its beak could not even touch its skin.
At this point, having lost all means of counterattack, the bird was left with only its sonic attack. However, sonic attacks were not very effective against the dragons. After leaving the cultivation world and arriving in the modern era, their supernatural abilities had been weakened by more than ten percent, so everyone could only hear the mournful bird cries and did not feel any shock to their souls or ears.
"Chirp chirp chirp!" Mo Bei chirped loudly, trying to get Ye Xu to let him go.
Ye Xu didn't know why he could understand bird language; perhaps it was the self-cultivation of dragon-phoenix sworn enemies. He snorted, "I won't let go. Go ahead and bite me if you dare!"
Mo Bei was furious and began calling out to his father, begging him to come and avenge him. However, his father was far away in the cultivation world and could not possibly come to his rescue.
Luna: "..."
In Luna's eyes, this scene looked like two cubs having a childish argument, and her "kindergarten principal" DNA couldn't help but kick in.
"Don't fight." Luna flew over with a stern face and reached out to pry Ye Xu's hand off. "You can't grab other kids, it's very impolite."
Mo Bei thought a kind person had come to help him and looked over with gratitude.
Then Luna said, "If this baby bird is naughty, just put it in the cage. It'll behave after a while." Her solution was very much in the style of a headmaster.
Mo Bei: "??" Is this something a human would say?
"No." Ye Xu refused, "I can pet you while you're holding me, but I can't do that once I'm locked up."
As he spoke, Ye Xu actually used his other hand to touch Mo Bei's head and belly, omitting the back since it was inconvenient to rub it with his palm pressed against it. Besides that, the phoenix cub also had a little tuft of hair on its head and a beautiful long tail, all of which were very fun, and Ye Xu was having a great time playing with them.
Mo Bei was furious; the bird puffed up into a ball. And it wasn't just the fake fluffiness of its feathers; its entire body had genuinely inflated and swelled up.
So the bird race had this ability? Ye Xu was extremely curious.
Finally, Sister Xuan, who rushed over after receiving the news, saved the poor little bird, Mo. She caught the bird but didn't trap it. She would sometimes spread its wings to examine it, and sometimes grab its claws to test their sharpness.
The fat bird, which had been struggling in Ye Xu's hands, became incredibly docile in Jiang Yuexuan's, as if Jiang Yuexuan were some kind of natural enemy, not daring to move an inch. Once released, it hurriedly flew away, transforming into human form without a word to avoid being caught and bullied again.
Faced with such a large, imposing man, these terrifying guys probably wouldn't dare to lay a hand on him, right?
Jiang Yuexuan ignored him and turned to Ye Xu, saying, "He looks to be in his early twenties, no more than twenty-five. Phoenix cubs of this age are usually quite immature, but they already have the bad habits of a phoenix."
"What kind of bad habit is that?" Ye Xu asked curiously.
"Vanity, narcissism, arrogance..."
Before he could finish listing his shortcomings, Mo Bei stormed over and interrupted him in a fit of rage. Even though he was there to settle scores, he didn't forget to tidy his clothes and hair while rushing, making sure his perfect image wasn't messed up. He certainly looked quite vain.
Ye Xu was a little worried that Sister Xuan would be beaten. After all, Mo Bei was a phoenix, and his physical strength was beyond that of ordinary people. He was about to stop him, but Jiang Yuexuan acted faster and subdued him in a few moves.
Impressive skills!
Ye Xu looked at Sister Xuan with sparkling eyes: "Sister, you've practiced this before?"
"More or less." Jiang Yuexuan didn't explain further. "Xiao Xu, you go ahead and do your thing. I'll take him in and give him a talking-to."
The initial show of force wasn't enough; it looks like we need to teach this stupid bird a lesson first.
Putting everything else aside, this bird is undeniably good-looking, perfectly suited for the influencer route. With such great looks, there's no harm in not using him; his personality is also a perfect fit for stardom. Jiang Yuexuan plans to carefully devise a strategy to squeeze every last drop of value out of Mo Bei.
But the most important thing now is to get Mo Bei to cooperate with the store's arrangements and correct some of his bad habits. For example, arrogance. Looking down on people is unacceptable; everyone is equal. Don't bring the class antagonism of ancient times into this world.
Fortunately, this phoenix had only been brainwashed by the phoenix clan for about twenty years, so it was still easy to turn it back. Birds this age are a bit immature, so dealing with them is very simple.
Ye Xu watched as Sister Xuan dragged the boy into the room to discipline him. He didn't know how she did it, but after Mo Bei came out again, he had learned to get along with people properly. Ye Xu strongly suspected that he was afraid of being beaten, the evidence being that he always shrank back whenever he saw Sister Xuan, wishing he could disappear into the ground.
After they started spending time together, Ye Xu discovered that Mo Bei wasn't actually that annoying. He was just spoiled by his clan since childhood, which gave him a spoiled attitude. But he was also very realistic; if he realized he couldn't win, he would immediately back down and do whatever he was told.
According to Sister Xuan's strategy for gaining popularity, Mo Bei needs to become a shop assistant in a store and then try to win fans with her good looks.
Actually, the robot waiters provided by the system are already quite good-looking, and they have a small following online. However, compared to Mo Bei, they immediately look like chickens. Phoenixes truly deserve to be called one of the most beautiful species.
Mo Bei had never tried to gain fans. Growing up in the Phoenix Clan, where beauties were everywhere, he had absolutely no opportunity to develop a fanbase. Fortunately, the Phoenix Clan was inherently proud and arrogant, and Mo Bei was extremely narcissistic, so he didn't think this request was difficult at all.
So what if he makes mortals obsessed with his good looks? No big deal.
The silly phoenix, dressed in a black robe, swaggered downstairs. He decided to inspect several shops and choose the one that was the least busy.
Ye Xu followed curiously to see what was going on, deliberately not reminding him that he needed to change his clothes. Ancient costumes didn't really match the mall's style, but it didn't matter; this outfit would be eye-catching and facilitate the implementation of the plan.
After finishing up Mo Bei, Jiang Yuexuan felt that the shop would not need her care for in the short term, so she went back to seclusion to write, leaving the rest of the arrangements to Ye Xu.
Ye Xu was still a little uneasy that he had already obtained the operating rights of the entire shopping mall before he had even accumulated enough points. He felt that he hadn't even finished his apprenticeship yet, and Sister Xuan had given up too quickly.
Forget it, it's better to rely on yourself than on others.
Ye Xu called over filming director Luna and new streamer Han Yingchen, and set up his camera to follow Mo Bei. He pretended that he originally came to film a food broadcast, but ended up encountering fellow Hanfu enthusiasts and couldn't help but take some extra photos to post on his account as everyday behind-the-scenes footage.
After accumulating followers over a period of time, this account already has hundreds of thousands of followers, and the newly introduced Mo Bei quickly attracted everyone's attention. People are initially drawn to food and handsome men, and now with the addition of another handsome guy, even if he doesn't do food vlogs, a large number of people who appreciate good looks are willing to pay more attention.
Two days later, Ye Xu filmed another video of Mo Bei, telling everyone that the handsome Hanfu-clad guy from last time had started a live stream, and that everyone could search for the corresponding streamer's name to watch.
Unlike Han Yingchen's taciturn nature, Mo Bei is a bit of a social butterfly. He's not awkward at all when he's livestreaming; in fact, he seems quite pleased with himself. When Ye Xu isn't filming his mukbang, he'll bring Luna over to help out, since he can't always be the one holding the selfie stick and livestreaming alone.
This round of assisting directly led to a mutual appreciation between Mo Bei and Luna. Ye Xu was surprised to find that Mo Bei had a remarkable grasp of beauty. He might not have much artistic talent, but when it came to taking photos, he could take even better pictures than Luna could.
At first, Luna thought she had met her soulmate, until... she was so angry at Mo Bei's complete ignorance of painting and literature that she almost vomited blood.
Mo Bei is a phoenix cub with a very uneven talent. He is very good at music, and occasionally he sings in harmony with Luna, allowing everyone to enjoy the beauty of phoenix cries and elven words. However, once he leaves music, it would be an insult to talent to say that he has no talent. His handwriting is so terrible that it is unbearable to look at, forming a stark contrast with his handsome face.
"You haven't practiced writing before, have you? That's normal," Shuangshuang said, trying to smooth things over.
Mo Bei, however, failed to grasp that she was trying to save face, and instead retorted smugly, "How could I not practice calligraphy? I am the phoenix with the most beautiful handwriting in our Phoenix Clan!"
That's it? This is the best-looking one?
Ye Xu almost couldn't help but mock him, saying that even kindergarten children who are just learning to write can't write this badly.
Han Yingchen felt something was off and asked, "Is it because the Phoenix Clan's writing system is special?"
He remembered seeing some cuneiform script, which was similar to Mo Bei's scribbles. Perhaps the Phoenix Clan's script looked like this, so when Mo Bei learned to write other scripts, he brought in his old habits.
Han Yingchen himself was like that. The Transi Continent used a script similar to the English alphabet, and those letters were mostly very rounded, even more so than English letters. Therefore, when Han Yingchen learned to write Chinese characters, he subconsciously wrote each character in a round and chubby way, which was very cute and extremely inconsistent with his cool appearance.
“The Phoenix Clan’s characters are certainly special.” Mo Bei became even more excited after hearing this question. “I’ll write a few for you to see.”
Everyone is watching with bated breath.
Mo Bei turned his hand into a claw and started scratching at the paper. After scratching it, he realized he had torn it and couldn't see clearly. He paused for a moment, then said unhappily, "This won't do. We used to write directly on bamboo or jade slips."
That's pretty primitive.
Ye Xu was unusually good-tempered today, not yet dominated by his dragon nature. He didn't mind Mo Bei's troublesome nature, bought a wooden board from the mall and tossed it to Mo Bei, telling him to hurry up and write.
Now that he could finally show off properly, Mo Bei happily scratched around, filling everyone's ears with the sound of claws scratching wood. Luckily, it wasn't scratching the blackboard, so Ye Xu could tolerate it. But he saw that Luna seemed unable to stand it; the elf's ears couldn't bear this noise pollution, and she had already moved far away.
After paddling for a while, Mo Bei wasn't satisfied, so he suddenly turned into a chubby little dumpling and hopped onto the wooden board. He started running from one end to the other, leaving all sorts of messy claw marks on the board, and even from those claw marks, everyone could clearly tell just how ugly the writing was.
Everyone:"……"
Ye Xu finally couldn't hold back and voiced his doubts: "Does the Phoenix Clan really have its own writing system? Such an ugly script is worse than having none at all."
Mo Bei flew into a rage, feeling that his people had been slighted. Forgetting his previous lesson, he pounced on Ye Xu, trying to scratch her face. Ye Xu, not to be outdone, retaliated.
Fortunately, Ye Xu failed to remain calm this time and instinctively transformed into a dragon to deal with the phoenix attack; otherwise, Mo Bei would have been captured and unable to move again.
Everyone watched as the two cubs fought from one end to the other, and then back again. The things on the table were knocked over and scattered all over the floor, leaving the entire living room in a mess.
This time, there was no one like Sister Xuan to stop them, and the others weren't big enough to stop them. Only Han Yingchen was left, frantically trying to catch the two cubs.
Unfortunately, even a top-tier assassin from Western Fantasy couldn't match the speed of a naturally born divine beast, and his attempts over half a day yielded no results. In the end, he could only run to pick up the scattered items, at least clearing an open space for the two to fight freely.
The fight raged on until almost lunchtime, when everyone was getting ready to go downstairs to eat. The two kids were forced to call a truce because they were hungry. They each perched on one of Han Yingchen's shoulders, glaring at each other, neither giving an inch.
Han Yingchen had a terrible headache: "We definitely can't go downstairs to eat like this. Let the robot bring it up."
Ye Xu: "Eek!"
Mo Bei: "Chirp!"
Han Yingchen: "..." Oh no, he doesn't understand.
A note from the author:
We recently got two budgies, they're so cute! I can catch them every time I turn off the lights at night. Once they're caught and can't struggle, they start screaming desperately, as if I've done something to them.
Chapter 35 Sweet
After their usual fight, the dragon and phoenix ceased their battle and began to eat.
Originally, the shop only had two dragon cubs, Ye Xu and Fei Fei, who had enormous appetites. Now, with the addition of a phoenix cub that was also growing, the cost of their food was becoming increasingly staggering. Fortunately, the dimensional supply channels offered mostly high-quality and inexpensive ingredients; otherwise, raising so many voracious eaters would have been extremely difficult.
After finishing his meal, Ye Xu fell asleep immediately. The young dragon's body was completely out of control; he would get sleepy whenever he was tired, and willpower alone couldn't overcome it. However, waking up wasn't without its advantages; at least he could turn back into a human.
Ye Xu wasn't quite sure how he had gained the ability to transform back into human form after waking up one night. He guessed that the sleep in his dragon form might have accelerated the awakening of his talent. It was a pity that he couldn't transform into a dragon on his own yet, otherwise he could try it every night before going to sleep.
So far, Ye Xu's transformation into a dragon has always been triggered by Mo Bei, a subconscious act driven by the desire to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Ye Xu considered deliberately seeking out Mo Bei for a fight before going to sleep, but then thought it was a risky idea, and besides, it would be too annoying to do so.
Ye Xu regretfully abandoned the plan.
After transforming back into human form, Ye Xu recalled some small details. The one that bothered him the most was that when he and Mo Bei fought before, Han Yingchen couldn't catch either of them.
That shouldn't be! Sister Xuan always catches them perfectly. Han Yingchen is a top assassin from the magic plane, known for his agility. How come he's not as quick-witted and nimble as Sister Xuan?
Some things just can't stand up to close scrutiny. The more you think about them, the clearer the loopholes that were previously overlooked become, and they all surface one by one.
Han Yingchen is definitely innocent; his performance is completely consistent with his character and background. Moreover, he was personally recruited by Ye Xu, so there's no possibility of him faking it. But Jiang Yuexuan is different; many things are only her side of the story.
Jiang Yuexuan didn't seem to be particularly careful in hiding her problems, which Ye Xu couldn't quite understand. He felt that this shouldn't be a mistake that Sister Xuan would make.
This was certainly not Jiang Yuexuan's level of expertise. The reason she didn't go to great lengths to craft a flawless explanation was simply because she felt it unnecessary. Ye Xu would find out everything sooner or later, but she personally felt it wasn't good to reveal it too early, so she didn't intend to keep it a secret for too long.
If Ye Xu were perceptive enough to discover the problem early on, Jiang Yuexuan felt there was nothing wrong with simply revealing the truth. This proved that Ye Xu was intelligent; such a smart person wouldn't have a mental breakdown even if they knew everything beforehand.
Ye Xu didn't understand Sister Xuan's concerns, nor did he need to. He only needed to uncover the problems Jiang Yuexuan had revealed and then go to her to inquire about them.