After Losing My Memory, I Became My Rival's Palm-Sized Chirper - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: I’ll Be the Heavenly Queen

Yu Baixi bowed toward the cave entrance.

After a long silence, a primitive, aged voice echoed from deep within: “The Heavenly Emperor has arrived.”

Yu Baixi nodded slightly. He had no intention of entering the cave and spoke directly: “I apologize for the unannounced visit. It is just that he… Feng Yan is currently staying with me.”

“This old man knows,” the aged voice from within said.

Yu Baixi’s brow furrowed slightly, his handsome face solemn and upright. “You should not have let him leave this place. Especially since he has amnesia.”

“This old man could not keep him; no one can obstruct him. You know his nature.”

Yu Baixi: “…”

The Emperor fell silent.

The aged voice continued: “Your Dragon Breath is upon him. It was inevitable that he would seek you out.”

“Precisely because he has lost his memories, his true nature is fully revealed. If you were to restrain him against his will now, who knows what trouble he would stir up? He might be even less safe here on Budu Mountain.”

“While here, he refused to even take the spirit-replenishing pills. You know better than I how stubborn he is.”

The Emperor’s eyelids drooped heavily. He murmured: “He has indeed always possessed a resilient character, difficult to sway.”

A moment later, Yu Baixi looked up again: “Senior is correct. For the time being, I will keep him in the Heavenly Realm. I thank Senior for the care you provided him previously.”

“Mhm,” the aged voice said. “He goes by the name Qi Jia now.”

“I am aware.”

Then it seems you two are getting along well.”

This time, the voice inside paused for a moment, and its tone softened considerably: “Treat him well. He is with child; things will be more difficult for him in the future.”

He is not pregnant.”

The Emperor’s expression stiffened. “You know that trace of Dragon Breath is merely…”

“I do know that the Dragon Breath was merely injected into him by Your Majesty back then.” The voice in the cave paused again, then added: “But I also do not know everything that transpired between you two juniors. Speaking of which, back then, you two seemed like a very well-matched pair.”

Yu Baixi: “…”

Feeling that explanations were becoming increasingly futile, Yu Baixi attempted a rare defense: “But you know we have not met for a very long time. No one can be pregnant for that long.”

The aged voice within the cave was dismissive: “The universe is vast and full of wonders. Furthermore, Your Majesty is a dragon. I recall that while your mother’s pregnancy was not exceptionally long, you yourself stayed inside the dragon egg for nearly twenty thousand years before hatching.”

The Heavenly Emperor: “…………”

This time, Yu Baixi remained completely silent.

“Take good care of him.” The aged voice rang out once more, sounding uncontrollably weary. “He needs you. And you… need him even more.”

With that, the voice in the cave faded away.

Yu Baixi bowed once more. Then, the Emperor turned. Logically, he should have returned his spirit directly to the Heavenly Palace.

However, having just left the peak and before reaching the foot of the mountain, Yu Baixi heard an extremely familiar, crisp voice from a distance: “No, no, the Heavenly Emperor hasn’t restricted me. Besides, since I said I’d come back, here I am—I specifically came back to tell you all I’m safe.”

Yu Baixi: “…?”

With a thought, the Emperor flashed to the source of the voice. There, he saw a perfectly round, neon-yellow fat bird… the bird that was supposed to be in the Hongmeng Palace of Yujing was currently hovering in mid-air, chirping away at the spirits of Budu Mountain.

As he drew closer, Yu Baixi happened to hear the bird say: “No way! I haven’t shown my human form to that big scumbag dragon at all!…”

Qi Jia had rushed all the way back to Budu Mountain primarily to let Qi Shaoxu and the others know he was safe.

Naturally, Qi Shaoxu and the rest were fascinated by his experience of breaking through the Heavenly Gate. Qi Jia didn’t hold back in telling them the story, and he distributed the fruits, berries, and various spirit cakes he had packed.

Upon hearing that Qi Jia intended to stay in Yujing for the foreseeable future, the Five Mochi of Budu Mountain showed their reluctance to let him go. Qi Shaoxu asked with great concern: “You haven’t shown your original form to that person, have you?”

Qi Jia replied that he hadn’t.

At this moment, the little fat bird’s voice was full of smugness: “Senior Brother, don’t worry. I remember your words at all times. I won’t easily reveal my form to outsiders, especially that scumbag dragon…”

As he spoke, he transformed in mid-air. The neon-yellow, rounded bird body vanished, replaced by the tall, slender, and breathtakingly beautiful body of a young man.

Vibrant, colorful robes wrapped around his lean frame. The youth’s style of dress was very casual—his belt was only half-tied, and he wore no shoes. His black hair cascaded down like a waterfall to his waist, half-veiling his cheeks. He was as beautiful as a crown of jade, unrestrained and elegant.

As if knowing his own grace was unique, the youth slowly turned in the air, showing off to his surroundings. He curled his lips and said: “I feel like Senior Brother is right—that scumbag dragon must have been attracted to my beauty back then before he betrayed me. So, I will definitely not let him see my true body!”

“To keep him from seeing it, I even stayed in my bird form while I was eating just now…”

Thinking about how small a bird’s beak is and how much more effort it took to chirp-chirp-chirp his way through a meal, Qi Jia felt aggrieved for himself. The beauty in mid-air wore a lonely, sorrowful expression.

“…” Seeing Qi Jia reveal his human form without hesitation, Qi Shaoxu instinctively lowered his dog head.

While Qi Shaoxu felt gratified that his junior brother remembered his words and had a sense of self-protection—meaning he likely wouldn’t be “plucked” by someone as easily as a pig devours a cabbage—the thoughts of the Five Mochi were much simpler.

The five fat birds were still huddled tightly on a tree branch, nearly bending it. They didn’t care, only squatting there and chirping: “To be honest, Qi Jia, your human form is 尊嘟 (really) beautiful!”

“It’s the best-looking human form I’ve ever seen!”

“Senior Brother is right, Qi Jia, you must never show your human body outside. I’m afraid you’ll be kidnapped…”

“Let’s talk business.” Qi Shaoxu coughed, interrupting the Five Mochi, and looked at the slender, gorgeous figure floating in the air: “You really intend to stay in the Heavenly Realm?”

As the long-time Senior Brother, Qi Shaoxu was worried: “But you have amnesia now and lack all sorts of common sense. Furthermore, Yujing in the Ninth Heaven is a place of complex politics. To stay beside that temperamental Heavenly Emperor… I truly worry you’ll be bullied.”

“I won’t be,” Qi Jia said.

His voice was still crisp and pleasant, identical to when he was a fat bird, but spoken in this tall human form, even a casual sentence sounded extraordinary—like an orchid in a deserted valley, noble and untouchable.

The beauty in bright clothes and long hair curled his lips into a smile again: “Yujing isn’t as terrifying as you all say. The Heavenly Emperor is currently being very polite to me, and the Immortal sister beside him is a very good person…”

“I also think it’s good, at least there are so many delicious fruits!” The mochi balls on the branch chirped while eating sweet, juicy, spirit-filled fruits.

“The items in the Heavenly Realm are naturally superior.” At this time, the Second Senior Brother Hu Lang arrived upon hearing the news. The fiery red fox instantly transformed into a young man wearing similar red robes.

Hu Lang: “But Qi Jia, surely you won’t be tricked into the Heavenly Realm by a few fruits? You say the Emperor treats you well, but have you considered he might only want the Dragon child in your belly?”

Qi Jia: “?”

The youth floating in the air tilted his head slightly. His phoenix eyes widened a little, his gaze shimmering like shifting stars.

Hu Lang was so struck by this gaze that he averted his eyes, saying unnaturally: “Cough… haven’t you all heard the secret rumor? They say His Majesty was injured in the great war ten thousand years ago. Although his spiritual power wasn’t damaged, physically…”

When he said this, Qi Jia remembered the blood-stained bandages on Yu Baixi’s neck.

But Hu Lang clearly meant something else: “So when he abandoned you originally, he probably didn’t expect you to… conceive. Now that he found out he has an heir, he naturally wants to keep you there and provide you with good food and drink. But once Qi Jia gives birth to the cub, it’s hard to say what that man will do!”

Hearing Hu Lang’s analysis, Qi Shaoxu’s dog face turned solemn. Even the five lumps of mochi on the branch froze and stopped chirping. Everyone was stunned, feeling that the Second Senior Brother might actually be right!

Only Qi Jia was out of the loop—he had zoned out, not understanding what Yu Baixi’s “glass-cannon” constitution (bleeding easily) had to do with whether he was pregnant: “Eh?”

Over the past three months, due to his spiritual depletion, Qi Jia often zoned out or suddenly fell asleep. The spirits were used to it and didn’t think much of it.

One of the mochi balls on the branch was the first to react: “Second Senior Brother, why didn’t you say this earlier? If we knew, we wouldn’t have let Qi Jia go to Yujing!”

“I only just thought of it.” Hu Lang’s expression was half-smiling—it was only because Qi Jia was being treated so well in the Heavenly Realm that he thought of this layer. Originally, he thought Qi Jia would be struck back down to the lower realm by that eccentric Emperor.

Thinking of this, Hu Lang’s voice became quite strange: “Besides, even if we tried to stop him, who among us could actually stop Qi Jia?”

“Alright, stop arguing.” Qi Shaoxu pawed his dog head, worried: “…Master just sent a message through my divine sense, saying to let Qi Jia return with the Heavenly Emperor…”

Qi Shaoxu’s voice made the surroundings fall silent again. The Five Mochi tilted their heads in unison toward Senior Brother: “The Patriarch said it’s okay?”

Even Hu Lang hadn’t expected the Master to let Qi Jia go to the Heavenly Realm so readily; the Master had always cared a great deal about Qi Jia…

Qi Shaoxu shook his head, indicating he didn’t understand either.

“Actually, I think it’s fine.” A little mochi on the branch “chirped” and said: “If the Emperor really is doing it for the Dragon heir… well, it is a Dragon heir. Even if Qi Jia doesn’t go to the Heavenly Realm, the heavens and earth will likely herald the birth when the cub is born; no one could hide it. Why not let Qi Jia stay in Yujing during this time? Eat well, drink well—why worry so much?”

“True.” Another bird beside him nodded vigorously: “Some spirits carry their young for thousands of years. Thousands of years! That’s so exhausting, how could our Jia-Jia handle it alone? Better to let the Emperor take care of him…”

“Exactly!” Mochi Number Three chimed in: “But I don’t think that’s enough. Jia-Jia, you have to make the Emperor marry you and give you an official status! That way, even after thousands of years, it’ll be impossible for him to dump you!”

“That’s a great idea!” The other four mochi instantly started chirping, agreeing that demanding an official status was a great move. As long as Qi Jia married the Emperor and made it official before the four realms, the Emperor wouldn’t be so cold-blooded as to “keep the child and discard the parent” once the cub was born!

Even Qi Shaoxu felt this move was feasible.

Discard the parent?” Qi Jia finally understood their suggestion and their words. “Keep the child and discard the parent.” He had seen this plot in several storybooks; he acknowledged that everyone’s concern wasn’t without merit.

However.

“But why can’t I marry him?” The slender figure in the air expressed deep confusion.

The spirits opposite him: “…”

For an amnesiac Qi Jia, who had only three months of knowledge about this world, much of the common sense was still foreign to him. This destined him to ask questions no one could anticipate… and destined those questions to be difficult to answer.

The Five Mochi were deeply stunned, tilting their heads in unison again, looking at Qi Jia with identical postures:

Because you’re the one who is pregnant?” “Because that person is the Heavenly Emperor who unified the four realms!” “Because… it’s very obvious your build is more like the one on the bottom?”

Qi Jia: “?”

Finally, Qi Shaoxu used plain, unadorned language to successfully convince Qi Jia: “Because our Budu Mountain can’t afford the dowry. You can only marry into his family.”

Qi Jia had a sudden realization: “Oh!…”

Well, that made sense. Just the fact that the Heavenly Realm had endless spirit food meant he couldn’t afford the dowry. He didn’t have a single valuable item on him! Much less enough to “buy” a Yu Baixi. Even the bandages the man used looked expensive…

Qi Jia tucked his thin outer robe (conjured by magic) tighter around himself and continued listening to the spirits chirping: “In short, you have to make the Emperor marry you! A proper, official marriage!”

“Yes, not just marry, you have to become the Heavenly Queen!”

“Heavenly Queen?” The handsome youth in red tilted his head again, several strands of black hair sliding past his ear—a soul-stirringly beautiful sight.

“Yeah! The Heavenly Queen is the Emperor’s primary wife! The highest person in Yujing besides the Emperor!” a quick-witted mochi explained.

Another mochi nodded vigorously: “Haha, Heavenly Queen! Be the Heavenly Queen! That’s a great idea! Jia-Jia, I’m telling you, once you’re the Queen, you’ll be ‘below one person but above ten thousand.’ You can eat whatever you want, have whatever you want!…”

“Eat whatever I want?” Qi Jia’s beautiful eyes widened again, his face clearly written with temptation.

“You guys are dreaming too much.” On the ground, Hu Lang expressed that he couldn’t listen anymore: “Be the Heavenly Queen? How could it be that easy! The Heavenly Realm has so many rules. What background does Qi Jia have? Even if he rose through the ranks one by one, he’d have to wait tens of thousands of years before it was his turn!”

As soon as he spoke, the Five Mochi—who had been immersed in the “Qi Jia as Heavenly Queen” hypothesis—fell silent and went blank, starting to feel that the Second Senior Brother had a point.

Hu Lang gave a dark smile and continued: “Not to mention His Majesty hasn’t taken a wife in ten thousand years! Why would he marry you? …Qi Jia, it’s not that Second Senior Brother is being mean, but does the Emperor know you came down here? And how are you going to get back? You aren’t going to break through the Heavenly Gate again, are you…”

“Qi Jia.”

Before Hu Lang could finish, a cold voice without any fluctuation suddenly rang out.

The voice appeared abruptly, like frost condensing in a polar land, catching everyone off guard and freezing them to their core.

Hearing this voice, Qi Shaoxu snapped his head up. The spine-chilling feeling made him transform into his human form immediately, adopting a defensive stance. His spiritual power was already quite high, at least on Budu Mountain. Plus, his sense of smell was keen… yet before this voice appeared, he hadn’t sensed any other living being nearby!

The moment Qi Shaoxu turned into a burly but handsome young man, a white figure appeared before everyone.

Tall and slender, dressed in robes as white as frost. He was taller than even the burly Qi Shaoxu but much leaner. An exceptionally long sword hung at his waist, appearing as if forged specifically for him. His entire being was steeped in coldness. Simultaneously, a faint medicinal scent drifted out, though it didn’t detract from everyone’s scrutiny—he was handsome, elegant as a jade tree.

Everyone: “?”

Everyone was startled by the sudden appearance, including Qi Jia, whose name had been called.

Qi Jia, still floating in the air without shoes or socks, looked at the newcomer in shock: “Why are you here?”

Didn’t Immortal Shuoling say His Majesty went to handle official business!

The Five Mochi on the branch, including Hu Lang on the ground, all turned their heads in unison toward Qi Jia, silently asking: Who is this?!

Instead, the honest-looking Qi Shaoxu had already guessed the newcomer’s identity—aside from his total lack of awareness of the man’s arrival, it was because he had just been pondering a question… Master said to let Qi Jia return with the Heavenly Emperor. For him to return with the Emperor, it meant the Emperor must at least be here…

And now, the sudden voice and the coldness exploding in his heart seemed to answer his question.

Qi Shaoxu bowed directly to the newcomer: “Greetings, Your Majesty the Heavenly Emperor.”

The others: ???

Yu Baixi glanced toward Qi Shaoxu. He said nothing but nodded slightly in acknowledgement: “Mhm.”

Then, he turned his gaze directly to the youth with red clothes and black hair. He didn’t answer Qi Jia’s question, only saying: “Come back with me.”

His voice was cold, devoid of any other emotion.

Qi Jia didn’t move. He remembered his Senior Brother’s warning about not showing his human form to this person and felt a bit lost for a moment. So, the immediate question was: “When did you get here? What did you hear?”

While asking, Qi Jia transformed back into his neon-yellow, rounded parrot form.

Yu Baixi: “…”

After observing the neon-yellow bird for a moment, his thin eyelids drooped. He didn’t answer Qi Jia’s question, simply repeating: “Come back with me.”

The tone was moderate, not overly forceful. But such a voice made everyone else—who now knew his identity—feel a chill down their spines.

The Heavenly Emperor was supposed to be such a cold and solemn person. Otherwise, why would he be called the Evil Heavenly Emperor…

Thinking that such a cold, solitary person who had killed countless people had heard who-knows-how-much of their conversation, the once-lively clearing became deathly silent. Everyone looked at Qi Jia, their expressions extremely complex.

But the neon-yellow bird, fluttering right in front of the Emperor’s face, seemed not to feel any coldness or stiffness.

Under the trembling gazes of his friends, he not only leisurely folded his wings and used spiritual power to hover, but also spoke in a particularly relaxed tone: “I’ll go back, but, I want to be the Heavenly Queen!”

This time, Qi Shaoxu and the Five Mochi were completely fossilized, as if frozen in place. It was one thing for their plan to be overheard by the Emperor—the Emperor probably wouldn’t want to admit he was eavesdropping on ordinary spirits, so if they didn’t mention it, the matter might just blow over.

But Qi Jia actually… directly said he wanted to be the Heavenly Queen???

S-so direct… is that really okay?!

Hu Lang, in his red clothes, was so shocked his mouth hung open. He never understood Qi Jia and looked down on his style. But this time, Hu Lang truly felt that this outsider of Budu Mountain—this “top-tier beauty” everyone praised—was truly lacking a brain!

Hu Lang deeply regretted coming to join the fun. He began to wonder: last time the Emperor purged the neighboring Demon race and killed thousands of demons with his own hands, how many sword strikes did he use… was it one, or two? Speaking of which, were they few “noobs” even worth the Emperor drawing his sword once?

Just as everyone’s expressions were a mess and no one dared to speak, who would have thought that the tall, cold Emperor wouldn’t get angry?

Not only was there no trace of violence—the Emperor actually nodded quite calmly and said: “You can.”

The spirits: ???

Amidst the fossilized gazes of the spirits, Qi Jia remained relaxed, as if deciding what to eat for dinner, asking casually: “Really?”

Yu Baixi directly tossed a golden token to him: “From this day forward, you are the Heavenly Queen.”

That was the Emperor’s answer.