His Canary Flew Away

Two men sat in a restaurant.

One said, “You’re not as good at raising birds as I am. If it goes on a hunger strike, let it go hungry. It’ll eat when it’s hungry enough. If it likes to peck people, discipline it a few times and teach it that it’s a bad habit. You spoiled it too much and ruined a perfectly good-looking bird. That’s your fault.”

The other said, “If it learns to peck at its own food, one day it’ll long for the world outside. If it finds out that it can be punished at home, it’ll immediately yearn for the wide-open sky. I’ve made its wings so soft that it can’t fly without me. Once it’s outside, nobody will coax it into eating grain, and it won’t know how to hunt. It’s grown attached to home. No matter how far it flies, it’ll come back.”

Someone posted that a certain young actor was such a terrible performer, and they wondered who was backing him. He never had to do night shoots past ten, and whenever the conditions got rough, they built temporary sets instead. They absolutely refused to let him suffer.

The comments were full of guesses, with people naming every top-tier star. The original poster replied with a “Y,” but before anyone could continue playing the guessing game, the post was deleted for violating community rules.

A certain spoiled rich kid saw it and tipped off Mr. Lu. “That little lover of yours has been exposed again.”

He couldn't help teasing him, either. “Let's not talk about his acting. He's got natural talent, sure. But if ninety percent of his scenes are shot on soundstages or temporary sets, he really can't handle hardship. Everyone else gets rained on, treks into the mountains, and goes to the countryside. The most he's done for his art is show up on time and not leave early.”

Lu Zhiwei didn't take it to heart.

The little bird he had so carefully raised wasn't meant to be sent out into the rain. It was fine that the bird wanted a career of its own. There was nothing wrong with pursuing art, either.

But if he really let it roll around in the mud and come back covered in dirt, that would make Lu Zhiwei look like an idiot.

After arriving in Beijing, Yu Xuecun gradually began to notice all sorts of differences.

Once winter came and the heating was turned on, the whole place grew hazy. The warmth was certainly pleasant, but not being able to see the road ahead through the thick fog always made him uneasy.

Lu Zhiwei asked him, “What do you have to be unhappy about? Isn't it nice being a caged bird? Who else would cater to your every whim and give you everything you want? That night, with all that snow, you begged me to show you a way to survive.”

Yu Xuecun couldn't think of anything to say in response, so he thought that maybe there was nothing wrong with being a caged bird after all.

What other path could he take without Lu Zhiwei?

And so, he didn't exactly accept this life of living off someone else and waiting to die, but he didn't strongly resist it either. He tried to spend his life acting as though he didn't care.

That is, until the morning news. In her sweet voice, the anchor read the day's headlines: “A happy occasion is near for so-and-so from the Lu Group and so-and-so from the Jiang Group...” Words like “family alliance” and “a powerful union” filled the trending searches.

Lu Zhiwei didn't seem to think he needed to hide it from him.

What was the conflict between keeping a little bird and getting married? His marriage partner didn't mind that he had a pet.

Lu Zhiwei was troubled.

#Diary

The little bird I've raised for years flew away on its own. Should I blame the family for not putting screens on the windows?

It'll fly back eventually, though.

(If it doesn't come back, it must be stupid and have forgotten the way.)

Yu is the pursuer; Lu is the pursued.

[Chapter 24] VIP release Wednesday. Thanks for your support.

[Happy ending] [The arranged-marriage partner has no role, will not appear, and the marriage will not happen] [The world has always allowed same-sex marriage; the only divide is social status] [Does not explore whether a sugar daddy and his kept lover have an employment relationship; this is purely a romance]

Character art by @Five-Yuan-Buys-One-Dog-and-One-Goldfish

Theme: When his halo shines brighter than the whole world, even matches seem dim. The story follows a character rediscovering himself through life and explores how love can give birth to a new self, rekindling the desire to explore the world.