It’s So Noisy, A Friend Gave Me a Pearl Bird – CH44

Chapter 44

Luo Huoxi broke out in a cold sweat.

His lips trembled slightly, yet he couldn’t utter a single word.

What leverage did lcberg still have on him?

He racked his brain, going through everything he had done in the past few years, but couldn’t think of anything.

This kind of slow, inch-by-inch torment was especially unbearable. Luo Huoxi stared wide-eyed, filled with fear and despair, then glanced back at Si Jingce and Yanyan.

The two of them didn’t even spare him a glance. The shorter boy kept muttering something non-stop, while Si Jingce listened attentively. Afterward, he reached out and gently tidied Yanyan’s slightly messy hair.

Dazed, Luo Huoxi turned around—bang—and slammed straight into the glass in front of him.

A sharp pain spread from his forehead through his whole body, and he nearly collapsed onto the ground.

“Sir, are you alright?” The hotel staff was startled and hurried forward to steady him.

He gritted his teeth, taking quite a while before recovering.

“Damn.” Luo Huoxi shoved her impatiently. “Why did you clean the glass so spotless?!”

To prevent guests from bumping into it, there were clearly visible anti-collision strips stuck on it.

He cursed his bad luck, but as he turned, he twisted his ankle again. His sorry state was witnessed by everyone present.

The commotion was too loud. Yanyan looked over, then turned back to Si Jingce.

“Brother,” Yanyan had seen everything just now. “Did you say something to him?”

“Have you already figured out how to deal with him?”

Si Jingce raised an eyebrow. “Not yet. I just wanted to scare him a bit.”

Yanyan: …

It certainly looked like Luo Huoxi had been thoroughly frightened.

Yanyan asked suspiciously, “You really haven’t thought of how to deal with him?”

“Really haven’t.” Si Jingce chuckled.

After a brief silence, he explained, “Luo Huoxi is considered a veteran of Gemstone TV. If we want to get rid of him, we still have to see what my second uncle thinks.”

Yanyan knew that Gemstone TV was half-owned by the Si family, but after hearing this explanation, he felt even more confused.

“It’s not that my second uncle is siding with outsiders,” Si Jingce carefully chose his words. “Gemstone TV wasn’t originally founded by him. The founder was quite capable—he seized the livestreaming boom and built Gemstone TV into something impressive.”

“He just wasn’t good at management.”

Back then, Gemstone TV didn’t use big data for recommendations. It relied on the most primitive manual promotion, leaving plenty of room for internal manipulation.

By boosting exposure, they pushed someone like Luo Huoxi to fame. After tasting success, Luo Huoxi and those people repeated the same trick—developing their own faction and pulling in one streamer after another.

During that period, Gemstone TV was practically Luo Huoxi’s personal kingdom.

After listening, Yanyan was stunned for a long while.

He pursed his lips and asked carefully, “Brother, was it very hard for you back then?”

It was during that time that Si Jingce had argued with Si De, signed with Gemstone TV, and became a streamer there.

Trying to rise through layers of suppression—one could imagine just how difficult it was.

Si Jingce thought about it. When he first started streaming, it really had been tough for a while.

Si De had hoped he would continue his studies—get a master’s, then a doctorate, and eventually become a university professor. But Si Jingce didn’t like such a rigid, conventional life… so father and son had a big argument. His living expenses were cut off, and he quietly began streaming on his own.

He wasn’t as eloquent as Luo Huoxi. For the first two months, he could only rely on the platform’s base salary to get by. Later on…

“It was alright. I was lucky,” Si Jingce said. “I went viral by accident.”

At the time, a new horror game needed promotion from Gemstone TV’s streamers. It was extremely difficult, with intense and terrifying visuals. Si Jingce stood out during that period.

He remained calm throughout the entire playthrough and even set a new speedrun record. The video was widely shared across domestic and overseas platforms, and even now, people still try to challenge his completion time.

“Then a few years later, the former boss realized something was wrong. The leadership directly isolated him. On the surface, Gemstone TV looked like it was thriving, but in reality, it had already begun rotting from the roots.”

Si Jingce said softly, “He didn’t know how to deal with it, so he hurriedly sold it off and took the money abroad to enjoy life… Meanwhile, my second uncle happened to be interested in the livestreaming industry. My dad may be stubborn, but he’s soft-hearted—he felt I had suffered enough outside and wanted to find a way to make me come back home properly.”

“The two of them hit it off immediately and bought Gemstone TV from the former boss at a high price.” He smiled and shook his head. “My second uncle thought he’d picked up a treasure, but later realized he’d taken over a complete mess. Over the past year, although a lot of the rot has been cut out, there are still remnants left inside.”

So Luo Huoxi had to be used as bait to clean up the company once and for all.

Yanyan suddenly understood.

Then it had nothing to do with them anymore.

Si Jingce just needed to occasionally scare Luo Huoxi, force him to reveal his final cards, and then let his second uncle wipe everything out in one sweep.

Hearing this, Yanyan finally relaxed.

The two returned to the hotel, changed clothes, and went out for dinner.

This was something Si Jingce had promised him—a date!

Neither of them liked going out. Ever since they got together, they either worked side by side in the study or lazed around sleeping in the bedroom.

So when Yanyan received the invitation, he had been excited and nervous for three days straight, and even now his emotions hadn’t settled.

There was a bit of traffic on the way to the restaurant, but it didn’t affect his mood at all.

The moment he stepped inside, the young man’s face flushed red, his heart beating even faster.

Warm yellow lights blended with soft jazz music. The waiter led them to a private room, where Yanyan immediately spotted the bouquet of roses on the table.

He picked up the flowers and took a deep breath. The faint fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose, refusing to fade.

“Sir,” the waiter asked Si Jingce after they were seated, “may we serve the dishes now?”

Si Jingce nodded.

“What are we eating today?” Yanyan carefully placed the roses to the side. “It won’t be some fake eel made from radish again, right?”

Si Jingce: “…No.”

Yanyan snorted lightly, unconvinced. “Other birds can eat so well during their mutation period, but I can only eat vegetarian food.”

The little bird held grudges—he had been brooding over this for several days already.

Fortunately, this time there was nothing on the table pretending to be meat. Everything was what Yanyan had been craving for a long time, including his favorite French lobster cream soup.

The creamy aroma was rich, the bowl filled with thick soup, with chunks of lobster meat placed in the center and decorated with lobster antennae.

As Yanyan enjoyed the tender, springy lobster meat, he suddenly noticed that the window beside them was tightly covered by curtains.

“It should be snowing outside, right?” Yanyan asked. “It would be more romantic to eat while watching the snow. Why not open the curtains?”

Si Jingce’s gaze paused slightly. The waiter beside them stepped forward with a smile to explain, “Outside is the plaza, and the privacy is not very good, so we’ve kept the curtains drawn.”

Yanyan frowned, feeling that something was a bit off.

A notification sound quickly drew his attention away. When he opened his phone, he saw that Xiao Li had created a three-person group chat.

[Xiao Li changed the group name to: Bird Team Makes Great Contributions]

[Xiao Li]: There’s still one more bird—we’ll add him after he passes his mutation period. From now on, this will be our exclusive contact group.

[Xiao Li]: After deep reflection, we still can’t give up the online publicity front. So next, we’ll focus on promotion. Any task assignments will be announced in the group.

Yanyan blinked and typed a reply: [Okay~ What kind of tasks specifically? I need to tell brother. If it’s too dangerous, brother probably won’t let me do it.]

[Xiao Li]: It won’t be dangerous, don’t worry. I’ll explain it clearly to both of your partners.

Pineapple Sweet Donut: Mm-hmm, that’s good. I’m going on a date with brother now, you guys chat.

Fish: I’m leaving too.

The two members of the Bird Team who knew how to use phones were busy dating. Xiao Li choked up for a moment, then silently uploaded a video of himself and the crow on their return trip to the group.

Yanyan opened it and saw that the crow was still nervous, sticking tightly to the little white sparrow.

After Xiao Li fed them some water, the crow would take a sip, then glance up at Xiao Li. The big black bird immediately looked sneaky and cautious.

He exited the chat and scrolled through Weibo for a while, unexpectedly discovering that Luo Huoxi had also posted a video.

[Luo Huoxi: Thank you everyone for your concern. I was also deceived this time. Luckily the crow is fine, and it has now been brought back.]

In the video, there was also a crow drinking water.

Yanyan: ?

He replayed the two videos repeatedly for comparison, confirming that they were not the same crow.

Luo Huoxi actually thought of using this method to muddle through?

Netizens saw through his trick at a glance and refused to buy it. The comment section was full of scolding.

[A light “I was deceived” and you think you can gloss it over? How many pet owners trusted you and let that black-hearted doctor treat their pets—doesn’t your conscience hurt at all?]

[Wait, you even forgot what your own crow looks like? It has a small white square on its beak. The one in the video doesn’t. Do you think we’re all blind?]

The comments directly posted comparison photos, mercilessly exposing Luo Huoxi’s lie.

[Instead of thinking about how to make amends, you try to fool your fans with a new crow. Luo Huoxi, you’re really finished.]

[Isn’t Gemstone TV going to ban him?]

[Damn it, already reported.]

The lie was far too clumsy. This plan clearly hadn’t gone through any thought—it not only failed to salvage his reputation but made things even worse.

After refreshing again, Luo Huoxi had already deleted the post.

A slender hand reached over and covered Yanyan’s phone screen.

Yanyan looked up to see Si Jingce pressing his lips together, gazing down at him.

He had accidentally neglected his boyfriend!

Yanyan quickly leaned forward and kissed Si Jingce on the lips. A smile immediately spread across his face. “I didn’t mean to ignore you.”

Si Jingce froze slightly.

His other hand remained stiff in midair, still holding an exquisitely wrapped gift box.

Yanyan’s eyes widened. “Is this for me?”

Si Jingce: “Mm.”

He eagerly took the gift box from the man’s hand and slowly unwrapped it.

The moment he saw what was inside, Yanyan was completely stunned.

It was a crocheted Java sparrow Yanyan doll.

Every stitch was tightly woven. The light camel-colored yarn delicately recreated the bird’s soft texture. Its small orange-yellow beak was slightly open, and its thin legs steadily supported its chubby body.

Some time ago, Si Jingce’s crocheting skills weren’t very good, and he had made a rough, clumsy doll to accompany the little bird.

But after Yanyan turned human, that doll became too small for him, so he had pestered Si Jingce to make another one.

Yanyan tightly hugged the doll. The cotton-filled body was soft and comfortable to hold.

He looked at Si Jingce and murmured, “Thank you, brother…”

“I promised to give you a surprise,” Si Jingce said. “Of course it’s not just this one doll.”

He stepped forward and pulled open the curtains.

The scene in the plaza outside made Yanyan hold his breath—

Lights shone onto the ice sculpture, refracting dreamlike brilliance. Every feather was carved with exquisite detail, its lively form perfectly sealed within the ice.

Such… such a huge Java sparrow ice sculpture!

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