Chapter 331: Not Publicly Displaying Affection
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Guo Dongyue was here because Zhang Zian told the last decoration worker that left his shop to leave him a message: the training of the two red-headed lovebirds had been completed, and he could take them home at any time.
Guo Dongyue felt incredible. The female Tuhao who invited him to build a glass greenhouse had also hired experts to train her parrots, but the training lasted for quite a long time. Zhang Zian had only trained the red-headed lovebirds for merely over ten days and the task had already been completed? Guo Dongyue would never believe such speed was possible if it was done by other people, but he trusted Zhang Zian, especially after witnessing the magical speaking ability of his African grey parrot.
“Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake, they have learned to speak?” He tried to confirm with Zhang Zian.
Zhang Zian pouted his lips towards his shop, “Come inside to have a talk.”
He led Guo Dongyue to the living room on the second floor. When the door was open, Guo Dongyue saw Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake standing in front of the grey parrot, as if they had been waiting for him to come.
“Close the door behind you!”
A hoarse, vague yet audible voice sounded from Little Purple’s beak.
Guo Dongyue froze there.
“It… what did it say?” He pointed to Little Purple with his hand. His fingers that were usually extremely steady during writing and painting were trembling slightly right now.
“It said, ‘Close the door behind you.'” Zhang Zian closed the living room door.
Was it a coincidence? It must be a coincidence! Guo Dongyue had never been so overwhelmed before. He stared at Little Purple, then turned around and looked at the door behind him, trying to make sense of the scene with his powerful logical thinking ability.
Following Little Purple, Yellow Pea Cake tilted its head towards him, “Hello, Huang Ying!”
Oriole? Guo Dongyue was stunned. So, in its eyes, he was a bird?
Richard hopped towards Yellow Pea Cake, raised a wing and patted its head, “It’s ‘Welcome, Huang Ying!”
“Huang Yin?” Yellow Pea Cake retreated a few steps back as if it were scared, uttering another inaccurate pronunciation. To protect its girlfriend, Little Purple jumped in front of Yellow Pea Cake to block Richard.
“It’s ‘Welcome, Huan Ying’!” yelled Richard angrily.
“Huan Ying!” Yellow Pea Cake finally pronounced it right.
Guo Dongyue rubbed his eyes, as if he still couldn’t believe what he had just seen.
“This…” he said, pointing to Richard and the two red-headed lovebirds. For a moment, he didn’t know what to ask, though obviously he had a lot of questions.
Zhang Zian said in a reserved manner, “In fact, Richard and I trained these red-headed lovebirds together.”
There were mainly two reasons for the accomplishment of completing training in such a short period of time. Firstly, Richard’s former owner had spent over thirty years summarizing a set of systematic training methods to teach bird languages, and such methods had been applied to Richard, who was well-aware of the effectiveness of these methods. It could improve and refine them over time according to its own feelings. Secondly, as a parrot itself, Richard had acquired the languages of the two red-headed lovebirds. Instructing them in their own languages, the teaching process had been accelerated.
Even so, the training process was still very tiring. Since it had recovered from its illness, Richard had been working hard on this task, and it was hard to tell whether it was enjoying the process or was reminiscing on old times…
According to Richard, in the languages of the two red-headed lovebirds, at least 60—70% of their expressions were used to display their love for each other, and disregarding a few meaningless modal particles, the expressions that were truly helpful for training and speaking took up only 20-30% or less.
Zhang Zian felt very fortunate that he didn’t understand their words. These lovey-dovey birds were hurting damn single like him!
“Please sit,” Little Purple said again.
Most male creatures in nature relied on their own glamour, such as bright feathers, loud voices, or even outright muscles and violence, to win the favor of the opposite sex. Therefore, most male creatures in nature had more distinctive characteristics in appearance and voice than their female counterparts. Similar phenomena existed in human society too, where males needed to show off what other males didn’t have in order to attract the opposite sex.
As a male red-headed lovebird, Little Purple usually needed to use its tweeting to express its affection, and compared to Yellow Pea Cake, it was more talented in learning language, and was able to learn faster, with more accurate pronunciation.
Seeing that Guo Dongyue didn’t move, Little Purple repeated, “Please sit.”
Guo Dongyue didn’t come back to himself until Zhang Zian gave him a push. He sat onto the sofa.
“Please drink tea,” Yellow Pea Cake said again.
Zhang Zian waved his hands and said, “Skip this step, he’s leaving soon.”
Guo Dongyue stared at Zhang Zian speechlessly, thinking why would someone be so lazy…
Richard said a few words to the red-headed lovebirds in their voices. It seemed that Little Purple had understood. “Please wait, our master will be here in a moment.”
Zhang Zian said, “Raise your arm and then stand up.”
Guo Dongyue did as he was told. Richard flew onto his arm, followed by the two red-headed lovebirds side by side, as if they were sparrows on a wire.
“Let’s go to the kitchen.”
Zhang Zian gestured Guo Dongyue to go with him.
In the kitchen, Zhang Zian turned on the gas stove, and then placed a kettle filled with cold water onto it.
Staring at the orange flames, Little Purple yelled, “The fire is still on! The fire is still on!”
As if receiving instruction, Yellow Pea Cake yelled, “Be careful! Very hot!”
When visiting Guo Dongyue’s house last time, Zhang Zian learned that Aunt Bai, who was hired to take care of Guo’s mom, was not a very responsible person. Sometimes, when she went to throw out garbage, she would leave the gas stove on. Guo’s mom didn’t know she was a patient herself, and she insisted on doing everything by herself. Guo Dongyue worried that his mother would break down during cooking or boiling water, thus putting herself in danger. Therefore, Zhang Zian especially reminded Richard to teach the red-headed lovebirds to identify the orange flames so that they could give out warnings frequently.
Guo Dongyue concentrated on looking at the two red-headed lovebirds on his arm. Not only would they accompany his mother to divert her from boredom, but they would also become essential helpers in her life to remind her about her routines and avoid dangers.
“So? Are you satisfied with the result?” Zhang Zian asked.
“Yes! Very! Thank you!” Guo Dongyue thanked him sincerely, “I didn’t expect you would be so considerate in helping my mother.”
“I’m glad that I live up to your expectations,” Zhang Zian smiled. “I’ve only just done some trivial little things. Richard is the one you should really be grateful for.”
Richard fluttered its wings and flew back onto Zhang Zian’s shoulder from Guo Dongyue’s arm. “Quack! Aren’t you expressing gratitude to me?”
“Thank you, Richard,” said Guo Dongyue somewhat awkwardly. He was not used to conversing with a parrot.
Zhang Zian fetched him a bird cage, which was the one Guo Dongyue had brought here the first time, covered by a cotton cloth. He opened the cage door, and without giving any command, the two red-headed lovebirds flew into the cage. Consuming the little amount of food in the food bowl and the water in the water basin, they flew onto the wooden rail in the cage, expressing their love towards each other again.
Its throat moving a little bit, Little Purple suddenly spit out something round and greyish-white. It approached Yellow Pea Cake, and fed that to it, mouth-to-mouth. Yellow Pea Cake pleasantly opened its beak and swallowed the greyish-white ball. The two of them looked very intimate.
Zhang Zian said, “This is the habit of a male lovebird. When food is insufficient, it would rather starve itself and will spit out the food that it swallowed, which was that grey-white stuff, and feed the female lovebird. Though it seemed like they were publicly displaying affection, in fact, they were not! It’s only a habit! Habit!”
Guo Dongyue thought, whom was he explaining to?
“Why did you only give them so little food?” He looked at the empty food bowl and asked in puzzlement. He felt sorry to see that the food was gone after only a few bites.
Zhang Zian explained, “Because you will need to take a taxi soon. It’s better if they are not too full on a bumpy ride. When you are home, do not feed them today. Feed them tomorrow when they have adapted to the environment.”
“Oh, I see.” Guo Dongyue understood.
Zhang Zian solemnly reminded him, “It’s really difficult to raise red-headed lovebirds. You have to be extra careful… since your mother raised two red-headed lovebirds for a long time, she should have experience in this, and seeing them will probably arouse parts of her memory.”
“It’s getting late.I should go now.” Guo Dongyue closed the cage door and said goodbye, “Thanks again!”
Zhang Zian sent him downstairs, watched him leave and returned to his shop.
