Chapter 67: Extra — The Mochi Family (5)
At first glance, it was really impossible to tell which one was Yanyan.
He followed behind his dad and older brothers, pecking at bird food. Seeing Si Jingce standing there watching for a long time with interest, he held back his mischief and didn’t say a word.
After spending so long together, there was no way Si Jingce truly couldn’t recognize him. He leaned closer, took a careful look, and accurately plucked out his own little chick. “Stop eating for now. I have something important to say.”
The prank failed.
Yanyan, still in bird form, nipped at his fingertip, flapped his little claws a few times, then slipped away into the room to turn back into a human and change clothes before coming out again.
“How did you recognize me? I clearly look exactly like my dad and brothers.” He circled around Si Jingce, chattering nonstop. “Do I have some obvious feature or something?”
Si Jingce smiled. “No obvious feature. I just… can find you.”
So mysterious.
Yanyan thought: next time, he’d mix himself into an even bigger group of pearl finches and see if Si Jingce could still pick him out.
He huffed, unconvinced. “What’s so impressive about that? Even if you changed your appearance, I could still recognize you as my brother.”
Just like his biological bird parents—no matter that he had turned human, they still recognized him as their fourth chick.
Avoiding the birds on the table, Si Jingce pulled Yanyan into the study and told him about his sister.
He hesitated before asking carefully, “Does your sister… have any physical defects?”
Yanyan answered without thinking, “How could she? No, she doesn’t.”
The day she was taken away, she had been perfectly lively.
“Not long after arriving at her new home, her owner noticed something was off. Later they felt she might have some kind of defect, so she was resold to someone else.”
Yanyan’s heart immediately tightened. “That’s impossible! My sister was always perfectly fine!”
She hadn’t lost any limbs, was the first in the nest to learn how to fly, and had no hidden illness.
Could something have happened on the way to her new home?
Si Jingce shook his head. “I didn’t have time to ask clearly. Every owner said something seemed wrong with her. She’s been resold many times, but now she’s finally with a good owner and has settled down.”
“Her new name is Momo.”
Yanyan tried to analyze the name to figure out what might be wrong with his sister.
…But got nowhere.
He didn’t tell the other birds and kept it to himself, then looked up at Si Jingce. “When will she be brought over?”
“Tomorrow.”
Yanyan patted his chest. “Just tell me straight—no missing limbs, right?”
“No.”
That was even worse.
Yanyan closed his eyes. If there were no missing limbs, then it must be something more serious!
After hearing the bad news, he was completely unsettled the whole afternoon, turning into a bird and perching under the ceiling, spacing out.
Meanwhile, Gui Yaying had heard that Si Jingce had brought Yanyan’s bird parents home, and she initiated a video call that evening.
“You’ve more or less gathered all of Yanyan’s family… I mean, family birds, right?” she corrected herself quickly. “When are we going to meet?”
She could already imagine the scene… a row of fluffy little balls lined up.
“Tomorrow evening,” Si Jingce replied. “His sister will arrive tomorrow.”
Gui Yaying nodded in satisfaction. “I wonder what gift I should prepare. It’s my first time meeting in-laws who are birds…”
“…Bird feed should be fine?” Si Jingce suggested.
She pondered seriously. “Then I’ll have to consult a nutritionist.”
Just then, a pearl finch suddenly flew into the camera frame and landed on the display cabinet behind Si Jingce.
From its chin down to its chubby belly, the feathers were spotless, pale brown on its back, and—most noticeably—no orange cheek patches.
“Oh!” Gui Yaying spotted it immediately. “Who’s this? Such a cute little bird!”
Si Jingce glanced back. “That’s Yanyan’s mom.”
Gui Yaying: …
So this is the mother-in-law.
At that moment, another male pearl finch flew over. The two birds leaned against each other, grooming feathers.
Gui Yaying smiled warmly. “Look at that—Yanyan standing with his mom is so adorable.”
The bird, who would normally rush at her, stayed still, tilting its head curiously at the phone.
Si Jingce paused. “…That’s Yanyan’s dad.”
“Sorry,” Gui Yaying blurted, faster than she could think. “Yanyan really looks like his dad.”
Not recognizing Yanyan was… a bit awkward.
Si Jingce rotated the camera, intending to find the real Yanyan, when two more identical pearl finches appeared on the table.
He was about to move the camera away when Gui Yaying shouted, “Wait.”
“Hold on.”
He pointed the camera at them again.
“Let me guess,” she said eagerly. “Yanyan must be one of these.”
She stared for a long time, almost burning a hole through the screen.
Finally, she announced her conclusion. “The one on the right must be Yanyan.”
Si Jingce opened his mouth to speak, but she continued with her reasoning: “Yanyan’s belly feathers are always clean, and I compared just now—the feather pattern and color distribution match exactly, even the size of the cheek patches is the same.”
Si Jingce: …
“That’s a very logical analysis,” he said quietly. “But that one is Yanyan’s older brother.”
Gui Yaying pointed at the other bird. “Then this one must be Yanyan, right?”
“That’s also his older brother.”
Gui Yaying: ?
Why does Yanyan have two older brothers?
Her guess failed completely, and she felt thoroughly defeated, not daring to guess again.
The camera moved to the last bird.
A pearl finch sat in its nest, snuggled tightly against a stone wearing tiny clothes with little eyes stuck on it. Startled by the sudden appearance of the phone, it flinched.
Then it saw Gui Yaying on the screen and gently rubbed its beak against it.
Gui Yaying’s voice trembled. “Then… who is this?”
“That’s Yanyan.”
Not even recognizing Yanyan anymore, she felt like she was no longer a competent mother.
After ending the call, she demanded Si Jingce list out distinguishing features for every bird, so she wouldn’t embarrass herself tomorrow.
The next morning, before the birds woke up, Si Jingce took Yanyan to the station to pick up his sister.
Her current owner was a young woman who drove over personally.
Wearing a mask and cap, she was extremely cautious and asked to check their IDs first.
After confirming they weren’t suspicious, she handed over the cage. “Momo is inside.”
“She’s afraid of crowded places, so the cage is covered with black cloth,” she explained.
Yanyan tried peeking through the ventilation holes, but it was pitch black—he couldn’t see anything.
After hesitating for a moment, he asked carefully, “We contacted Momo’s previous owners… they all said she had some kind of problem. Could you tell us what it is?”
“What problem could there be?” The girl hesitated, then said slowly, “I think she’s fine?”
Yanyan pressed, “She’s not missing any limbs, right?”
“No, she’s perfectly healthy.”
“She can still fly?”
“She can.”
Yanyan grew even more worried. “Then… could it be some kind of incurable hidden illness?”
The girl frowned. “It’s not that serious.”
Yanyan asked for a long time, but still couldn’t get anything concrete out of her.
Si Jingce stared at the birdcage, sensing something off.
Pearl finches were usually chatterboxes. Even if they got tired of talking, they would still occasionally squeeze out a “chirp.”
But from the moment they met until now, Momo hadn’t made a single sound.
Could she be asleep?
Seeing Yanyan still happily holding the cage, Si Jingce said goodbye to the girl, agreed on a time to return the bird, and took Yanyan and his sister home.
As soon as they got back, Yanyan grabbed a pair of scissors, cut open the rope around the cage, and peeked inside.
A little bird like a glutinous rice ball dusted with cocoa powder was curled up in the corner, completely still.
“Sister?”
Yanyan called out. The pearl finch in the corner moved her head, then boldly flew out and landed in front of him.
Before she could reunite properly with her younger brother, she was picked up, her wings spread open, turned this way and that for inspection.
“There’s nothing wrong at all?” Yanyan muttered in confusion.
What kind of eyesight did those humans have? His sister was clearly perfectly healthy!
He set her back down on the table.
Momo’s feathers were now completely ruffled by him.
She shook herself, tilted her little head, and calmly smoothed her feathers back into place.
“See? Nothing wrong,” Yanyan said. “What kind of eyes did those people have, reselling my sister like that!”
The female pearl finch on the table understood him and nodded.
But Si Jingce still felt something was strange.
After confirming his sister was fine, Yanyan smiled and let out a sigh of relief.
He went to the balcony, brought in all the other cages, and released the rest of the birds.
In that instant, Si Jingce experienced what it meant for his eardrums to explode.
Five pearl finches plus one Yanyan—the entire house instantly became extremely lively.
Bird mom was pressing Momo down to groom her feathers. Tangyuan and Zhima had probably started arguing again over who was the “big brother,” and as they argued, they began pecking each other, furiously yanking out tail feathers. Then bird dad loudly chirped and squeezed between the two sons, pecking each of them once.
Si Jingce: …
Yanyan: “Wow, it really feels like back when our whole family was still together.”
Watching the noisy flock, Si Jingce finally realized what was wrong.
Back when they first met, the silence in the cage could be explained by Momo sleeping.
But now, after so long, she still hadn’t made a single chirp.
He thought he understood the issue.
Si Jingce tugged at Yanyan’s sleeve and asked seriously, “Have you noticed… your sister doesn’t talk?”
There was no offense in his tone—just careful concern.
But Yanyan still got upset.
“What are you saying, brother?” he frowned. “My sister can talk.”
Momo looked up at them. “Chirp.”
Si Jingce faltered. “…She suddenly can talk again.”
“Prejudice, all prejudice!” Yanyan put his hands on his hips angrily. “Who says pearl finches are born chatterboxes? My sister doesn’t not talk—she just doesn’t like talking.”
Si Jingce: …
So the “mo” in Momo meant silence.
He wanted to argue, but found himself unable to.
A pearl finch that didn’t chatter really did seem… suspicious.
No wonder her current owner didn’t mind the “defect”—turns out they liked a quiet bird.
Realizing he had mistakenly thought his sister was mute, Si Jingce quickly apologized. Then he glanced over and saw two nearly identical female pearl finches standing together.
Oh no—now which one was the sister?
The one on the right looked especially cool and aloof. “Chirp.”
Alright, the one on the right was the sister.
Great—now he had to start recognizing birds all over again.
…
Hearing that Si Jingce and Yanyan had gathered all the birds, Gui Yaying unusually arrived early—half an hour before Si De.
She could already picture it—
A bunch of tiny, round pearl finches huddled together, soft and fluffy to the touch, chirping sweetly.
As soon as Si Jingce brought her inside, she spotted a very cute little bird.
The bird was dozing on the table, claws and wings tucked in, like a perfectly round ball.
No cheek patches.
After studying bird photos all night, Gui Yaying was fully prepared to impress today.
This was the easiest one to recognize among them.
Just as Si Jingce was about to introduce it, she raised a hand to stop him.
“I know who this is.”
She stepped forward, smiling sincerely. “This is Yanyan’s mom, right? So cute.”
As she spoke, she secretly reached out and gently stroked the bird’s head.
So soft!
Then she looked around for the other birds and suddenly noticed another identical female pearl finch by the cup.
Gui Yaying: …?
Why is there another one?
Yanyan passed by and reminded her, “Mom, that one is my sister…”
Gui Yaying: “Oh :(”
