576. Lemon
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“Let’s call it Lemon from now on!”
The interview didn’t go well, but Lin Nan was still super excited, hugging a small box as she rushed back to her rental apartment.
Chen Yao followed her inside, lugging a big bag, his expression a mix of helplessness and disbelief. “I told you to get a parrot, not a baby one! Why do you have to cuddle a parrot that’s still on the bottle?”
“Parrots raised from a young age are more affectionate! Look at the birds in their cages—they freak out when someone approaches!” Lin Nan carefully opened the box, peering inside.
Inside was a scruffy yellow parrot with most of its feathers not fully formed, looking grimey and adorable. It had a tuft of silly hair on its head and rosy cheeks that screamed cuteness. This parrot hit all of Lin Nan’s “adorable” buttons.
That tuft of hair was straight out of an anime girl’s look, and the rosy cheeks were obviously a nod to Pikachu. Lin Nan even suspected Pikachu’s design drew inspiration from this parrot!
According to the boss, this type of parrot was called the Xuanfeng Parrot, nicknamed the Ground Chicken, a breed that walked instead of flapping its wings.
Right now, Lemon was huddled in one corner of the box, looking up at Lin Nan with a tense posture, gently swaying from side to side.
Even without knowing much about parrots, Lin Nan could feel Lemon’s anxiety.
The boss had already demonstrated how to feed a parrot, but it wasn’t with milk or formula; it was a white powder made from various grains, mixed with some probiotics to aid digestion.
Lemon was only twenty days old—most of its feathers hadn’t grown in, revealing its pink skin, making it look adorably scruffy but still cute, topped off with a little yellow feather crest.
“The boss said to feed it every five hours, day or night,” Chen Yao grumbled, not seeing the cuteness in the dirty bird at all. He was worried about how to take care of it. “You’ll probably be sleep-deprived tonight.”
“Don’t worry, we can stagger our sleep schedules! Anyway, I don’t have classes right now,” Lin Nan had it all planned out. “I’ll feed it once before I go to sleep at nine, then you can do a midnight feeding at two, and when I wake up around six or seven, we can feed it again.”
Lin Nan gazed happily at Lemon in the box, unable to resist a playful poke. But Lemon was frightened and immediately pecked at her finger.
A twenty-day-old parrot’s peck wasn’t painful, but Lin Nan was worried that too much teasing would scare Lemon, so she covered the box.
They say a large parrot can bite through bone, but Lemon probably wouldn’t have that ability—at worst, it would just nibble until it drew a little bl**d.
“Parrots can’t carry rabies, right?”
“There’s something called parrot fever,” Chen Yao leaned back, crossing his legs. “It’s a contagious disease, but it’s only in wild birds. This one was bred by the boss, so it should be fine.”
Lin Nan nodded and dashed off to fetch the parrot supplies she had bought on a whim alongside Lemon.
There was no rush for a cage, but she did get a small incubator meant for reptiles, which could also work for keeping the little parrot warm.
She bought two boxes of parrot formula, little scoop spoons, wood shavings, various medications, and some chew toys… After sorting through the whole bag, she carefully placed Lemon in the incubator.
The weather was hot, but Lin Nan worried about Lemon getting cold at night. Plus, one side of the incubator was glass, allowing Lemon to see her and bond.
“So cute… Lemon~ I’m your mommy~”
Now that she had a new pet, Lin Nan practically squatted in front of the coffee table, resting her chin on it, staring at the parrot with a face full of delight and a vibe oozing maternal love.
“Mom, huh? That makes me its dad?” Chen Yao chuckled at the absurdity, “Let’s hope you don’t accidentally let it d*e and end up crying over it.”
“Like I’d let it d*e?” Lin Nan shot him a glare. “Not a word of sense from you! Didn’t the boss say these parrots live for over ten years? Longer than cats or dogs!”
Chen Yao remembered how Lin Nan was overflowing with maternal love when she had Cola, back when he still thought Lin Nan was male. Now, seeing her like this again, he smiled, imagining Lin Nan with a real baby in a few years, glowing with motherly affection.
“Do you think it can talk?” Lin Nan said, leaning back on the coffee table, eyeing the fluffball that was Lemon, muttering, “Male or female? The boss said if it’s male, we can teach it to whistle.”
“The boss also said you can’t tell when they’re young,” Chen Yao stretched and got up. “What are you going to do with the bird if you go back home for the summer?”
“I’ll just ship it or something!”
“I checked, shipping requires health and vaccination certificates, which have nothing to do with parrots; it’s not happening.”
“Then we can hitch a ride? Or I can take it in my uncle’s car back home.”
With plenty of ideas, Lin Nan didn’t feel like dwelling too much on it.
She had successfully cared for a kitten before, so she was confident with a half-grown parrot this time. The boss had fed Lemon before she brought it home, so all she had to do was place it in the incubator and wait for it to digest.
After staring at Lemon for a while, increasingly finding it adorable, she eventually turned to tackle her own tasks.
The disappointment from her interview made Lin Nan lose her eagerness to job hunt, but she still tentatively sent out a few more resumes, grabbed her textbooks, flipped through what she hadn’t memorized for the final exam, and then headed to the computer to work on her final design.
As the sky darkened, the scorching sun vanished without a trace.
The resumes she sent out in the afternoon seemed to have sunk like stones—no one was interested in hiring a clueless college student with no teaching certificate whatsoever.
Lin Nan started feeling hopeless about her summer, originally looking forward to an internship, but now it seemed she would have to involve some connections in the county to find something.
It was one thing for relationships in the county to yield less-than-ideal work opportunities, but the real kicker was running into middle and high school classmates after living there too long, like when she bumped into Li Ya last time.
“If I see classmates, I’ll just avoid revealing my identity… There are plenty of girls with the same name as me,” she mumbled to herself as she ordered two takeout meals, then returned to the living room to check on Lemon.
A few hours had passed; perhaps Lemon had grown used to Lin Nan’s presence because it wasn’t panicking anymore. Instead, every time it saw Lin Nan, it opened its beak wide, stretched its neck, and let out a series of noisy squawks that sounded like a dying pig, driving everyone nuts.
“Ugh, so loud.” Chen Yao peeked his head out from the bedroom at the commotion. “Probably hungry. You better feed it.”
“Help me get the measuring cup and the formula. I’ll boil some water,” Lin Nan jumped up, grabbing a pot and racing to fill it.
They didn’t have an electric kettle, and usually, they just drank bottled water, so they had to make do with a pot.
Although Chen Yao didn’t like parrots, he had read some information and reminded Lin Nan, “You need to use warm water for the formula.”
“I’ll just mix the hot water with a bit of bottled water then.”
After a flurry of activity, Lin Nan held Lemon in one hand and brought the spoonful of yogurt-like parrot formula to its beak with the other.
Impatient, Lemon opened its beak and stretched its neck, biting the spoon head and happily gobbled down a whole spoonful of the formula. Then it continued squawking “ah ah ah” like a siren, urging Lin Nan to hurry.
“This is way too noisy…”
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Yes! That’s right! I’m biased! My Lemon is the cutest!
