Richard was confronting the two red-headed lovebirds in the cage — it wasn’t accurate to say they were being confronted, because Richard was just like a big devil from a comic book that was bullying both of them...
Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake wanted to escape from Richard. They flapped their wings in the cage, trying to fly away, but Richard’s huge body was blocking the cage door, and they simply had nowhere to go. During their attempt to flee, they crashed onto the cage, hit the grab bar, fell into the water basin and looked like two drowned rats. Zhang Zian was so sorry to see that at least a dozen feathers had fallen off. Failing to escape, they began to wail in more woeful and louder voices.
Every time they cried, Richard responded with an even louder "Quack" sound.
"What is happening?"
Shortly after Galaxy went onto the second floor, Fina came downstairs yawning. Having heard the whining, Fina looked at the three birds tossing about in the cage and asked doubtfully.
Snowy Lionet followed closely behind Fina. Perhaps because in its dream, Snowy Lionet had licked Fina’s fur, it seemed very excited. Although it hadn’t figured out the situation either, it replied confidently, "Your Majesty, it must be this dick who’s pulling the strings!"
"I don’t know what’s happening either," Zhang Zian ignored Snowy Lionet and said to Fina. "Richard seems to be training them to speak, but is it really necessary for it to be this way…?"
Fina looked at the cage raptly for a while, and said, "I don’t think there’s anything wrong with its method."
Zhang Zian doubted whether he had heard her right. Richard was making such loud noises in Fina’s shrine, and Fina was actually not angry?
Fina jumped easily onto the top rack of the cat tree. Without a clue, Fina said, "That’s why you're just a mortal." And then she closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
Zhang Zian did not understand what she meant by that. Indeed, he was just a mortal, but why did that fact have anything to do with Richard's practice?
Fina had been in contact with a lot of people in the past, and many of them were big shots whose names had been remembered for centuries. These so-called great men, no matter what they looked like, would definitely become hard-hearted, to others and to themselves, at important moments. They would give everything it took to achieve great accomplishments. Fina reconfirmed that he was a soft-hearted mortal who was unable to remain silent and indifferent to the suffering of others.
However, Fina did not detest him, even though he was only a mortal.
Neither Fina nor Old Time Tea tried to interfere with Richard’s teaching, so Zhang Zian started to question whether he had ignored something important.
He temporarily put aside his sympathy for the two red-headed lovebirds, and carefully observed the interaction between Richard and them.
Knowing that they could not escape, Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake gradually accepted their destinies. They stood timidly with their claws grasping the grab bar, facing Richard like they were pupils being punished.
Hm?
Zhang Zian suddenly found that since Fina had come down onto the first floor, he no longer heard Richard’s hoarse "Quack, quack" sound. Instead, Richard's beak was swiftly opening and closing like it was still speaking.
After a while, he finally realized that Richard was imitating the red-headed lovebirds’ voices. And its imitation was so real that he couldn’t tell the difference at all!
He recalled that these red-headed lovebirds seldom tweeted, and since they were put in the cage covered with cotton cloth, they remained quiet almost all the time. Was Richard deliberately scaring them and forcing them to tweet so it could learn their language?
Zhang Zian did not understand the languages of birds, but it seemed that Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake started to calm down, chirping with Richard in front of them, though clearly, they were still in disadvantageous positions.
If Richard wanted to teach them how to speak, it needed to learn their language first!
A few more minutes later, he noticed that Richard had become silent, and only Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake were still chirping. Richard was listening to them attentively, with its small black eyes staring at them alternately.
Zhang Zian was intrigued by them, but he couldn’t understand a word. While they were talking lively, he felt bored. After standing there and waiting for a while, he turned back and walked towards the second floor.
An American Shorthair was meowing and went past him, slipping into the kitchen with a swish. It was the cat that had ran away from Aunt Liu’s house. Zhang Zian had been keeping it on the second floor, and hadn’t sent it over to Sun Xiaomeng’s clinic. Galaxy’s voice could be heard vaguely from the living room, "Meow, quickly hide yourself, Galaxy is coming for you!"
Zhang Zian walked into the living room and saw that Galaxy was facing against the wall and counting down seriously.
"Galaxy, you are playing hide and seek so early."
"Meow, hide and seek is fun! Zian, you want to join us?" Galaxy didn’t want to cheat in game, so it turned around its head with its eyes closed.
"Perhaps later. I need to tidy things up. Guo Dongyue will come over within two days to renovate the shop, so I’m going to clean up this place and throw away the useless things."
"Meow, Galaxy will start playing without Zian!" Galaxy finally finished its countdown. It opened its eyes excitedly and began to search for the American Shorthair.
"Ah, wait a moment." A question suddenly crossed his mind, and he stopped Galaxy, "Galaxy..."
"What's wrong, Zian?" Galaxy stopped and looked at him curiously.
Zhang Zian didn’t know how to ask. What he was worrying about was whether this endeavor, ever close to ridiculousness, was meaningful and if it was too late.
Guo Dongyue wanted to wake up past memories for his mother, so Zhang Zian decided to help him. However, after seeing Guo’s mom’s condition, Zhang Zian was frustrated and wondered if he was on a fool’s errand.
Galaxy comforted him as if it had read his mind, "Don’t worry, Zian. Richard is amazing."
Zhang Zian smiled. He was not looking down on Richard. The Apprehensive Bird was quite powerful, but even if they had obtained temporary success, their efforts would eventually be in vain with the deterioration of Guo’s mother’s disease.
"Galaxy did not lie," Galaxy said seriously. "Richard is great, but it needs the help of Zian."
Zhang Zian was stunned for a moment. Then he asked, "Needs my help? But I don’t understand the languages of birds, and Richard speaks Chinese better than I do... Why does it need my help? Wait, Galaxy, did you look into the future again?
Squatting on the floor, Galaxy lifted one claw to cover its head embarrassingly, "Meow, because the two birds were crying so miserably..."
Zhang Zian was speechless.
He should have thought about that. He had a hunch that Galaxy, with such a pure and flawless soul, would not let Richard bully the two red-headed lovebirds and do nothing. That’s why he asked Galaxy to play on the second floor — he was worried that Galaxy would use its ability.
There was no harm in just peeping into the future, but he was worried that Galaxy might change the future, and depending on the scope of the influence caused by the alteration, Galaxy might hurt its own body.
He stopped Galaxy just now to ask it to look at the future. But he immediately realized that if it was a bad future, Galaxy certainly would do something about it, so he held back. However, Galaxy had already observed the future, even before he asked.
Galaxy opened up its claw and revealed its silver-gray eyes. Galaxy looked at him nervously, worried that it would be blamed.
Zhang Zian gently sighed. He could only accept what had happened. Most importantly, he could not blame Galaxy for doing good things.
"Well, Galaxy, what did you see?"