GWID Chapter 47

Little Coal Ball’s strength was far greater than Little Phoenix had expected — Little Phoenix was nearly lifted clean off his feet by the nudging. Just as he was thinking this, he saw Little Coal Ball’s small black bead-like eyes flash, and then the ball pushed forward again. Two round balls bumped and jostled against each other, back and forth, until finally Little Phoenix truly left the ground. He flapped his snow-white little claws, tickled by the rubbing of Coal Ball’s feathers, and burst into a chorus of chirping laughter. “Put me down, Little Coal Ball! It tickles, hahaha, Little Coal Ball! Behave yourself.”

Once the commotion had gone on long enough, Xingyi took a step back, letting Little Phoenix tumble down from the tree with a soft thud into the snow. Little Phoenix spun in a circle, spread his small wings and shook the powdery snow from his feathers, and after resting for a moment, began to lecture Xingyi. “Little Coal Ball, you can’t do this. I am your senior, and seniors must feed junior birds who don’t know how to find food for themselves. When you grow up a little, you must also remember to look after others this way, understood? You can’t just say you’ll only ever feed one little bird. If everyone thought like that, what would become of all the other little birds? That I cannot agree to.”

Little Phoenix spread his wing and patted Coal Ball on the head, hoping for some sign that the lesson had been received — but there was none. His Little Coal Ball gazed at him in silence, and the expression in those small bead-like eyes was something he couldn’t quite read. Those eyes were very bright, yet hidden within them lay boundless depths and things that could not be put into words — nothing like the gaze of an ordinary little bird. Little Phoenix recalled that before coming to Fuli Palace, he had spent time with a group of little tits who had cultivated and attained spiritual awareness. The eyes of those birds had been different — impossibly clear.

Perhaps because Coal Ball had no family, a bird like him was prone to becoming burdened with thoughts too heavy for his size.

Little Phoenix studied his Little Coal Ball, and for just a moment he hesitated. He suddenly felt, in a puzzled sort of way, that he had seen eyes like these before — that he was even quite familiar with them… but where had he seen them?

Before he could work it out, however, he was nudged by Coal Ball again and went rolling entirely into the snow. The small plump black bird seemed to have finally discovered a way of playing that delighted him, scrabbling about with wings and little claws, nudging Little Phoenix to burrow and roll and squirm all through the snow. Little Phoenix felt a little stirring of excitement himself, and he cooperated with Little Coal Ball in rolling about in the snow. They rolled for quite a long while, until both plump birds were covered in a great swath of cold, clinging snow — only then did Little Phoenix remember his actual purpose. He poked Coal Ball with a small wing. “Did you hear what I said, Little Coal Ball?”

Xingyi glanced at him. “I heard.”

Little Phoenix said earnestly and gravely, “Unity and friendship, mutual help and cooperation — that is the way of survival for us little birds.”

Xingyi rolled alongside him in the snow, then held up his two little claws to air them out. He tilted his head and asked, “Aren’t you the same as me, without father or mother? Who told you all this wisdom about the way of survival for little birds?”

Little Phoenix was briefly stunned, then replied with cheerful pride. “I figured it out myself! And I’ve watched other birds’ fathers and mothers feed little birds this way — everyone feeds little birds like this.”

Xingyi was quiet for a moment, and after thinking it over, asked with a complicated expression. “So in all the time we’ve been playing together… have you been… treating me as a son?”

Little Phoenix was briefly stunned again. He also thought about it seriously. “Probably not, I suppose. Thinking it over, you’re my little brother — the generational gap doesn’t seem quite that large. And I’m a male phoenix, and in human form I’m also a man, and my husband is a man just like me, so we won’t be having any children in the future.”

Xingyi hadn’t given it much thought, but following this turn in the conversation, his attention shifted, and his expression became instantly even more complicated.

He recalled: phoenix, phoenix (鳳凰鳳凰)— in the ancient era, feng and huang were originally the male and female of the same divine bird species. After the ancient era, the huang birds, being far too rare, went extinct, and what remained were only the “feng” — the species that Little Phoenix belonged to.

(TL: 鳳凰 (fènghuáng) = phoenix)

Because the females had gone extinct, the feng birds gradually developed the capacity for both birth and reproduction. In the ancient era when very few people could ever catch sight of a phoenix, no one knew that the huang birds had in fact already vanished from the world. People relied only on the legends passed down from generation to generation by those who had glimpsed a phoenix, and assumed the species was still thriving and growing. Having called them “phoenix, phoenix” for so long, the feng truly had become fenghuang. Among the phoenix clan of today, they intermarried among themselves, being both male and female: within female birds lay a seed that could transform into maleness at any time, and whenever they wished they could command male power and rise above all other forces; within male birds slept a dormant womb, and if two male phoenixes took a liking to each other, one of them could conceive and bear offspring.

The small pitch-black Coal Ball spoke up. “I think someone needs to give you a proper lesson on the normal physiology of phoenixes.”

Little Phoenix looked at him and ruffled his feathers. “Little Coal Ball, are you doubting my word? I have been a phoenix for three hundred years. Little Coal Ball, you should recognize that I am your big brother, and nothing I say can possibly be wrong.”

Xingyi blinked. “Alright, it’s not too late to tell you later.”

Little Phoenix craned his neck. “Hm? What did you say, Little Coal Ball?”

Xingyi shook his head, then suddenly tilted his head and studied him, his eyes flickering again. “Well then, big brother, I saw some birds doing a very strange thing the other day. Do you know what that was?”

Little Phoenix, upon hearing this rebellious Coal Ball finally call him “big brother” in a proper and obedient manner, was so inwardly pleased that he forgot entirely what Xingyi had asked, and only said reflexively, “Ah, what, what did you say?”

Xingyi said, “I’ve only seen it once. I think it’s probably similar to what you described — feeding a bird beak to beak. Let me demonstrate.”

Little Phoenix nodded, still rather muddled.

Xingyi, without a word, flapped his wings, flew up a little, and then brought one claw down to smack Little Phoenix flat into the snow. Little Phoenix was dazed by the blow, and when he raised his head he found Little Coal Ball had him firmly pinned beneath him, then, without any hesitation, scrabbled about with his claws a few times and nimbly clambered up onto Little Phoenix’s back.

Little Phoenix found it somewhat hard to breathe under the weight of this black round ball. He said in a muffled, stuffy voice, “Little Coal Ball, shouldn’t you go on a diet? Are you still doing the weight-loss exercises I taught you? You have to stick with it.”

Xingyi perched on Little Phoenix’s back and gave his little head a quick peck. “Don’t talk. Stand steady. Don’t let me fall.”

Little Phoenix was a bit indignant. “I’m your big brother — you can’t talk to me like that, Little Coal Ball. And this isn’t a behavior unique to birds. What you’re demonstrating is just carrying someone on your back. People and animals alike do this, like if you can’t walk anymore, I can carry you on my back.”

Xingyi said, “Oh? But what I saw that day wasn’t only that.”

He shuffled back a few more steps, carefully tucking in his claws, and slid half a step back on Little Phoenix’s round and soft bird-back, nearly hanging off Little Phoenix’s tail. Little Phoenix felt it — the whole bird was being dragged downward by Xingyi’s weight — and struggled to maintain balance while complaining. “Little Coal Ball, even when birds carry birds, it isn’t like this. Move up a little, or you’re going to slide off.”

Xingyi ignored him, settled himself into that position, and then a flash of rather mischievous amusement crossed his eyes. He leaned close to Little Phoenix’s ear and said, “You know nothing. Remember this well now — it’s exactly like this. Only I can do this to you. In the future, don’t let any other bird do this to you.”

Little Phoenix’s confused little chirp hadn’t yet made it out before it caught in his throat.

Xingyi turned back and took Little Phoenix’s tail feathers in his beak, pressing their tail feathers together, and then began to rub vigorously and rapidly. The two round balls stacked atop each other, rubbing away until Little Phoenix was at a complete loss — and by the time he came to his senses and cried out, “Little Coal Ball! Coal Ball! Stop, stop!” — before the round ball on top of him could even fly off, he himself went splat and rolled into the snow, taking Xingyi along for several rolls, until half a bird was buried in the snow.

Little Phoenix was in an absolute daze. It was Xingyi who took his wing in his beak and dragged him out of the snow, his eyes perfectly limpid and clear. “What’s the matter? I saw a pair of newly-wed tits by the roadside doing exactly this the other day. I don’t know what they were doing. Big brother — can you tell me, what were they doing?”