Sky-cracking Rider

"This egg was a freebie with a purchase, and they kept saying it was a Magical Beast Egg, so I believed them. Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I didn't do it on purpose, I was deceived too, damn those fraudulent merchants, they really deserve no peace. Little Chen, how about this, next time I'll find you a real Magical Beast Egg, no, a real Magical Beast? Old Piao's word is as good as gold."

Pu Aihua dramatically clutched his chest and stomped his feet, proclaiming himself a victim of deception while casually blaming it on the ambiguous "dishonest merchant."

As for "next time," who knows when that would be; at the moment it was just a way to stall.

Otherwise, if his reputation collapsed, it would be hard to keep doing his small trades at Aircrew Base.

"..."

Witnessing Pu Aihua's explosive acting, Chen Fei was stunned, and soon found it somewhat laughable.

He quickly waved his hands, interrupting Pu Aihua's impassioned denunciation of that "dishonest merchant" who had deceived him.

"Alright, alright, stop! How you deal with that merchant is your business, it has nothing to do with me. No need to get me any Magical Beast Eggs or Magical Beasts, I couldn't afford to raise them even if you did."

If he didn't intervene, who knows, the man might even end up offering snake eggs or insect larvae, which would be even scarier.

"Don't worry, leave it to me, I'll take care of it."

Pu Aihua patted his lean chest with vigor but secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

No need to bother, no need to fuss, saving him the effort of finding more bizarre items to continue bluffing his way through.

As for the market value of a Magical Beast Egg, if he had one, he wouldn't be acting as a shady merchant.

Pu Aihua's gaze landed on the bird nest wrapped in a T-shirt and the young birds inside. Just as he reached out his hand, Chen Fei stopped him.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"Er! I thought I'd deep fry it for a midnight snack, it looks quite tasty."

Watching the young birds chirp non-stop in the nest, Pu Aihua swallowed and poked with a stick; it was a ready-made grilled bird skewer!

"Stop, stop, stop, you can't do this. It's a life after all, how can you bear to?"

Chen Fei firmly prevented this cruel act of killing a young creature.

"Hehe, such a small bird, frying it would be delicious!"

Pu Aihua justified his actions with a straight face and chuckled, then added: "Otherwise, how should we deal with it?"

This gluttonous guy was actually pretending to consider Chen Fei's interests; fry it up, eat it in one bite, and out of sight, out of mind. Why didn't he just throw himself into the pot and fry up nicely, turn into a fried ghost, that would be fragrant too.

"Of course I will raise it, then release it!"

Chen Fei glared at him, speaking with moral fortitude.

He himself had never entertained such a malicious thought as dropping the young bird into the frying oil; he was truly a bit infuriated by this guy.

"Ah? Raise it? And then release it?"

Pu Aihua gaped, seemingly shocked by the other's inconceivable idea.

He instinctively touched Chen Fei's forehead, then touched his own, no fever!

How could such a tiny creature be raised?

That seemed not so easy!

"Exactly, I came to ask you, what does this little bird eat? Can it drink milk?"

Chen Fei finally clarified his purpose to prevent further misunderstandings.

Pu Aihua, hands on hips and scratching his cheek, looked perplexed and distressed.

"This...probably shouldn't drink milk, right!"

This was really urgent.

Based on his years of experience, birds should eat insects, but finding insects for the young bird right at this moment was a big challenge.

It might not last more than a couple of days.

It was too difficult!

Chen Fei asked with a puzzled expression, "You don't know?"

Pu Aihua continued to scratch his head, clearly still lacking any solid ideas.

"Wait, let me think, just let me think."

He didn't want this young man to think less of him; he quickly gestured and then continued to rack his brains.

"Feed the bird? If there are no insects, you can feed it some chick feed, and if there's no chick feed, then use egg yolk as a temporary measure; don't feed it grains, the nutrients in grains aren't enough."

Just at that moment, a voice interjected.

Pu Aihua jumped and quickly turned around, speaking in a frightened and respectful tone, "Chef Abel!"

"Hello, Chef!"

Chen Fei also greeted.

There stood a middle-aged Caucasian man wearing a white chef's uniform not far away, his gaze falling on the T-shirt in Chen Fei's hand, precisely on the bird nest wrapped in it.

He asked with a puzzled expression, "Where did you get this young bird from, don't you know that the correct thing to do is to leave it to its parents to care for?"

Chef Abel's gaze was very stern; he was very annoyed by those who unnecessarily troubled wild animals in nature.

Although Abel wasn't an animal rights activist, he couldn't stand such reckless behavior.

Chen Fei looked toward Pu Aihua; he surely wasn't going to take the blame for this.

"I'm very sorry, this was my fault!"

Pu Aihua glanced at Chen Fei, then at the displeased Chef, and could only force a dry laugh and admit fault.

A single word from the other party could kick him out of Aircrew Base; how could he not be careful in serving them?

Besides, behind one lie often lies the need for a hundred more to cover it up; he had just claimed that the egg came from a different crook, he surely couldn't now say that he had picked it up in the wilderness, could he?

It was like swallowing blood along with one's teeth; Pu Aihua was simultaneously bearing the scorn and blame from both Chen Fei and Chef Abel, and his entire demeanor seemed much diminished.

"How about we try feeding it some egg yolk first?"

Without a better idea, Chen Fei decided to accept Chef Abel's suggestion.

Birds rely on the nutrition from the egg yolk to develop and hatch, and then continue feeding on egg yolk, so it seemed feasible.

"Wait a moment, Pu Aihua, come with me!" Abel gave a stern glare at the man, then turned to leave.

Pu Aihua followed him a couple of steps, then turned back, patting his chest, "Leave the chick feed to me; I'll make sure to get it soon."

It was just chick feed; asking a few people around ought to do the trick easily.

Chef Abel, without turning back, said, "You better also get some live mealworms, and get some bran for breeding them ourselves; just feed won't be enough."

"Ah! Got it, got it!"

Pu Aihua bowed and nodded in agreement.

After all, it was his mess, and he had the responsibility and obligation to help solve it.

Getting some egg yolk for the chick was hardly an issue for a kitchen that boasted abundant ingredients.

Casually take a Hailan white egg, steam it over water, simmer for five minutes on low heat, then a high flame for another five, and insulate it for five more; fifteen minutes should do it. Crack the eggshell, split the already solid egg white, take an ear scoop, scoop out an amount of yolk no much larger than a sesame seed, smash it into the bird's mouth, and done.

After smashing about a dozen scoops, adding up to about the size of a soybean, the chick was content and stopped chirping, snuggling in the nest dozing off, only occasionally chirping softly.

Chen Fei finally breathed a sigh of relief.

...

Error!

Error!

Unidentified valid CPU type

Memory self-test failed

No input/output device found

No memory found

Loading BIOS failed

Illegal operation or incorrect command

Illegal operation or incorrect command

Illegal operation or incorrect command

...

"Shut down, aaaaagh!"

Drenched in sweat, Chen Fei sat up in bed, shaking his head vigorously; he seemed to have had a bizarre, wild dream.

What a bunch of nonsensical stuff, over and over again, utterly annoying.

"Chirp! Chirp!"

Following the sound, he looked in astonishment; it turned out to be the little bird in the nest by his bed calling out, mistaking it for the alarm sound of a computer error, as they were strikingly similar.

Sounds like it's hungry, right?

Chen Fei finally understood the hardships of a bird mother; he was about to go grab the feeding egg yolk and ear scoop but then froze.

The visuals of "phantosmia" before his eyes were no longer just a small, easily ignored bit of characters "A:\\>_", there were several more lines of text now.

"Illegal operation or incorrect command

Illegal operation or incorrect command

Illegal operation or incorrect command

Illegal operation or incorrect command

..."

Wasn't this just something from his wild dream?

And now it was even scrolling across his vision, absolutely ridiculous.

Since he had just woken up and still clearly remembered everything from the dream, Chen Fei felt that his previous dream was no ordinary dream but was connected to the aftereffects of his "phantosmia," which seemed to have changed anew.

-

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