82. Parrot
Marquis Beiding frowned: "Speak slowly."
“First it was Yue’er…” Jiang Xiyue’s voice choked up, “That day at the palace banquet, Yue’er went to the palace. While she was playing in the garden, she was kidnapped and pushed into the pool.”
"What?!" Marquis Beiding jumped to his feet, the chair legs scraping against the floor with a screeching sound. "Is Yue'er alright? Who did this?!"
“Luckily, Xie’s younger brother came out to sober up and found Yue’er, immediately rescuing her,” Jiang Xiyue wiped her eyes. “Yue’er was frightened, but thankfully she’s alright and will be fine after a nap. As for the culprit… they haven’t been caught…”
Marquis Beiding's face darkened, and his fists clenched unconsciously: "Anything else?"
"Not long after Yue'er was rescued, Xie Xiaoshuzi was suddenly poisoned," Jiang Xiyue continued. "The imperial physician said that it was fortunate that it was discovered early and he didn't die, but he went blind and his body was ruined. Fortunately, our Yue'er is a lucky star and healed his eyes, but his body... he is still recuperating."
Marquis Beiding slammed his fist on the table: "These two things are no coincidence! What does His Majesty say?"
“I went to the palace immediately after the incident. The emperor said he would give us an explanation, but so far… there has been no news.”
A brief silence fell over the study.
"Are there any suspects?" Marquis Beiding asked in a deep voice.
Jiang Xiyue bit her lower lip: "Recently... there have been rumors that it's Consort Qi."
-
Jin Qizhi took Jin Lanyue's hand and led her to the veranda outside his house: "Yue'er, come and see, your mother's new treasure."
The little dumpling stood on tiptoe, its round eyes brimming with anticipation: "A talking bird! Is its name Yiwu?"
"It's called Parrot, but Yue'er wants to call it Yi Wu, so it will be called Yi Wu from now on." Jin Qizhi pushed open the door of the side room, and the silver-painted birdcage gleamed in the sunlight, with a parrot with emerald feathers and a golden crown standing inside.
"One five, let me say something auspicious." Jin Qizhi gently tapped the birdcage.
The parrot tilted its head, seemingly unsure who it was calling for.
However, parrots, whose brains are smaller than walnuts, don't care about such things.
It opened its beak and mimicked the auspicious words its former owner had taught it: "May your happiness be as boundless as the Eastern Sea—May your longevity be as enduring as the Southern Mountain—"
The little dumpling exclaimed softly, clutching its brother's clothes with its tiny hand: "It can really talk!"
Jin Qizhi took out melon seeds from his sleeve: "One five, here you go."
The parrot deftly caught the melon seed in its beak and said, "Thank you for the treat, young master—"
The little dumpling looked up at its brother and asked, "Can Yue'er feed it too, okay?"
"Of course you can, but Yue'er should be careful, it pecks really hard." Jin Qizhi gave her a few melon seeds.
The little dumpling mimicked his older brother, stretching out his hand: "One five, let's eat some melon seeds..."
Her palms were facing upwards, and she looked extremely well-behaved.
The parrot flapped its wings: "Good boy/girl!"
It was mimicking the tone of others praising it.
"Hehe, little moon, be good." The little dumpling didn't feel that anything was wrong at all.
Jin Qizhi, however, flicked the birdcage with his finger: "Unconventional Heavenly Gang, the parrot is praising its master for being obedient."
After playing for a while, the little dumpling felt a bit bored.
I want to go play in the garden, and I also want to play with the parrots.
Then she had a brilliant idea and came up with a compromise—to take the parrot to play in the garden!
"Brother, shall we go to the garden?" The little dumpling gently shook Jin Qizhi's arm. "Just for a little while."
Jin Qizhi had no reason to refuse: "Okay."
The brother and sister carried the birdcage quietly to the hexagonal pavilion in the garden.
As it happened, Little White was also playing in the garden.
As soon as Xiaobai saw Jin Lanyue, it happily pounced on her, its tail wagging like a little windmill, whimpering and circling around her.
"Little White, Little White, let's play together!"
Jin Qizhi placed the cage on the stone table, and the two children sat down. Xiaobai raised one of its front paws and placed it on Xiaotuanzi's leg.
"Ouch—your paws are so heavy," the little dumpling looked at the fluffy little white creature and had to admit one thing, "Little white, you really need to lose weight."
Jin Qizhi smiled, turned his head to continue teasing the parrot, and suddenly had a whimsical thought: "I heard that parrots can imitate cat meows."
"Really?" The little dumpling's eyes lit up. "One five cats, meow meow meow~"
The parrot tilted its head and actually made a very lifelike meow.
The little dumpling was amused and kept laughing. Seeing that its little master's attention had been stolen by a bird, the little white bird refused to be outdone and started barking and hopping around, trying to jump onto its little master's lap.
"Ouch, heavy, Little White, heavy!" The little dumpling tried its best to dodge.
While they were playing, the little dumpling accidentally bumped into the birdcage.
The cage door swayed open a crack, and Yiwu suddenly darted out, spreading its wings and flying into the sky.
"Oh no!" Jin Qizhi's expression changed, but when he reached out, he missed.
The little dumpling was also stunned.
Seeing her older brother take off after him, the little dumpling quickly followed with Little White.
Unfortunately, both of them have short legs, and even together they are not as long as their brother's legs.
She shuffled around so fast she was practically smoking, but she still couldn't catch up with her brother.
The little dumpling was too exhausted to run any further and stopped panting by the koi pond. Watching its brother's retreating figure, it said sadly, "Little White, we seem to have done something wrong... Huh? Little White?"
When she turned around, she found that the chubby little white ball of yarn had already collapsed from exhaustion behind her, panting heavily with its tongue lolling out.
"Little Bai is so silly... Yue'er is silly too..." The little dumpling sadly began to think about how to apologize to her brother.
Just then, I suddenly saw a cook walking towards me from a distance.
"Why is the young lady here all alone?" The cook also noticed her. "Why is there no one around? If I hadn't been passing by on my way back from buying seasonings, I'm afraid no one would have noticed that the young lady is here."
She had just returned from buying fresh garlic powder and was trying to take a shortcut back to the kitchen when she unexpectedly ran into their young mistress. Seeing her looking dejected, she quickly went up to ask her what was wrong.
"Moon made a mistake, brother ran away, brother chased, but Moon couldn't catch up." The little dumpling sniffed.
"What is 'one five'?" The cook was taken aback.
"One and five is a little bird."
"Oh, '15' is a little bird... is it a parrot?"
"Yes, you're so smart." The little dumpling praised her while wiping away her tears.
The cook wanted to laugh, but seeing the girl's teary eyes, she quickly comforted her: "Don't cry, young lady. I'll put down these seasonings and go help the young master get them."
After saying that, she quickly put down the cloth bag and went in the direction the little dumpling pointed.
The cloth bag on the table wasn't wrapped tightly and accidentally came undone, revealing the yellowish-white garlic powder inside.
[Task triggered]
---
The little dumpling and the little prince have something to say:
Little dumpling: (pouring) (pouring) (pouring) Yay! So many words came out!
Little Prince: (Takes the draft box and shakes it) Why don't you pour it all out?
Little Dumpling: Because we need to give positive reviews and urge you to update and unlock more content, let's all come together, Little Prince!
Little Prince: Okay. (bowing) Aunties, oh—
Little dumpling: (Jumps up and pats her head) It's the older sister! All the pretty ones are older sisters!
Little Dumpling: (Hands clasped together) (Looking forward to it) Beautiful sisters, please give me good reviews and urge me to update more.
Little Prince: (rubbing his head) Um, sisters, I'm counting on you for the good reviews and requests for more updates. Please help me unload all the content from my drafts!
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