I Became Famous After I Became a Parrot in the Movie Star's House - Chapter 54

The performance is short but wonderful.

The actress who plays the empress also portrays two characters. In the plot, the female lead hears the parrot mimic voices. After gathering evidence, she brings the emperor to Changning Palace to question the maid. The maid stammers, but the empress’s pet parrot reveals the conspiracy.

The queen is cold and proud one moment, and the next, the maid, with red eyes, says, “The queen, she—”

As if a switch is flipped, the parrot’s large head begins speaking: “The empress said, tonight, at the hour of the rat, at the lotus pond, if no one is there, she will… ga!”

Bai Gaoxing is stunned. The lines are exactly the same, but this time, he misses a word.

So why is it always ga?

Curious, he pokes his head up and tries to listen to whether this “kind” speaks bird language.

Huang Shaqing sighs in defeat beside him. “Director Sun, you see it, right?”

Director Sun also sighs, rubbing his temples, and says to Li Pu, “This is the current situation. As long as Dabai can remember those lines quickly, Big Head can be replaced.”

He pauses for a moment. “Dabai is still new here and isn’t familiar with the environment. I’m not sure if he can manage it… So, your scene will be postponed to tomorrow. When Xiaoyi takes it, you can watch it next to him to feel reassured.”

Li Pu lowers his head slightly. In the cage, the snow-white parrot seems oblivious to its heavy responsibility, its curiosity piqued by another of its kind.

After watching for a while, Li Pu withdraws his gaze. “Okay.”

Afterward, Bai Gaoxing is carried by Li Pu and follows the trainer as they walk around Changning Palace and the surrounding area.

The trainer emphasizes that Bai Gaoxing needs to become familiar with the gates of Changning Palace and the nearby flowers—this will be where he is hung high. He also mentions the nearby doors and roads, saying that it’s just in case, so that if Bai Gaoxing flies, he will still recognize the surrounding area.

Soon, Bai Gaoxing is carried back to the bird room.

The first thing done is to release him. He stretches his wings and listens openly to the conversation between his owner and the trainer.

“That’s right.” Trainer Xiao Yi speaks seriously. “During filming, Dabai won’t be locked in this kind of cage. He’ll be on a rack without rails, like the one Big Head stood on today.”

Xiao Yi demonstrates with a sample—a golden hanging stand with one horizontal bar and two vertical bars, suspended by a golden chain of the same material. The ends are wrapped in gold wire, and a jade cup rests inside.

“Dabai is used to being caged at home, so we need to get him accustomed to this quickly. Otherwise, if he’s suddenly placed on it, he’ll be restless and fly around.”

“It’s free-range at home,” Li Pu suddenly says.

“Ah?” Xiao Yi is stunned, repeating in disbelief, “Free range? You let a wutong parrot roam freely?”

Li Pu finds his reaction a bit strange. “Is there a problem?”

“Well…” Xiao Yi’s expression becomes conflicted. “The wutong is a parrot with the same destructive potential as a sunflower parrot. And because wutongs are social birds, especially during mating season, they exhibit nesting behavior, which could result in them making a huge mess of the house.” He tentatively asks: “Is your house okay?”

He had expected to see Li Pu looking frazzled, but instead, the man simply glances at him indifferently, with a hint of confusion in his eyes. “It’s fine, Dabai has never caused any trouble at home.”

Except for the time when the electricity bill inexplicably increased, Li Pu adds in his mind.

“That Dabai is simply an angel!” Xiao Yi is very surprised and exclaims at Bai Gaoxing.

His voice is so loud! Bai Gaoxing is startled and feels his face flush from the description.

The next second, he hears Li Pu’s laughing voice: “You can say that.”

Bai Gaoxing turns his head away and shakes his feather crown.

After that, Li Pu brings the golden bird perch over. “Just let him get on it?”

“Yes, let Dabai get familiar with this perch first, then take him to walk around the house. After he’s comfortable with the chain and won’t fly around, you can take him outside for a stroll,” Xiao Yi says.

Bai Gaoxing glances at the perch, extends his claws tentatively, and then stands on it.

He mainly wants to know if it’s made of real gold…

Bai Gaoxing pecks at the perch experimentally. At that moment, a pair of long, strong hands reaches out and attaches the golden ring of the chain to the leg that doesn’t have anything on it.

Bai Gaoxing: “…”

He lowers his head.

It’s perfectly symmetrical! Just like with the orange!

Li Pu seems quite pleased, rubbing Bai Gaoxing’s head, leaving behind a little warmth.

Then he hears Li Pu telling Xiao Yi, “It should be fine. We’ve taken him downstairs before, and he’s never flown around recklessly.”

As if to prove his point, Bai Gaoxing stays still after landing on the perch. Li Pu carries him around the room a few times.

Even when he opens the door and walks into the yard, the parrot doesn’t panic and still stands there quietly.

The trainer, who has been watching the whole process, is thoughtful. “This progress… I feel like we can take him outside directly.” He tentatively suggests, “Brother Li, should we push it a bit? Use this to take Dabai out for another round?”

So, within half a day, they head out again.

Unlike the casual way he was carried the first time, Bai Gaoxing can sense that Li Pu is now being very careful, even slightly raising his arm to keep the perch from swaying too much.

The man seems quite afraid of him flying away, probably spooked by the trainer’s warning about how a bird had once been frightened and injured its leg from trying to fly after being startled by a crew member.

Bai Gaoxing wants to tell him not to worry, but unfortunately, he has a history of misbehaving.

He remembers the time he secretly followed Li Pu up and down the stairs, feeling the man’s panic, which had made him hesitate to fly freely afterward.

At this thought, Bai Gaoxing can’t help but raise his claw, feeling the weight of the chain. It’s definitely real, and it feels heavy on his leg.

They haven’t walked more than a few dozen meters when the trainer, who has been following them, suddenly answers a phone call and then comes over to say he needs to leave.

“Sorry, Brother Li, the director has something to ask me. I’ll go first.” He looks at Bai Gaoxing and says, “Dabai has adapted well. You should take him to crowded places. In addition to the scenes with lines, he needs to shoot a few more shots. There will be a lot of people in those shots, so let him get familiar with them in advance. Then I’ll teach him the lines in the afternoon!”

Now, only the two of them are left.

Bai Gaoxing stretches his wings, looks up at the man, and says straightforwardly, “Let’s go out and play?”

This is something he used to say often. He hasn’t said it in a while, and it still feels a bit awkward.

Here, one person and one bird live a peaceful life. Meanwhile, trainer Xiao Yi and the director discuss how to help Dabai memorize the lines quickly.

“The shortest learning record for this group of parrots is three days, set by Big Head. I estimate that Dabai will need at least two or three days,” Xiao Yi says.

“If that doesn’t work, we can reduce the lines,” Director Sun frowns seriously. “Try to get Dabai into filming within three days. As long as he can say the lines, that will be considered a success. Fluency can be worked on later.”

“Okay, I’ll try my best to teach it.”

Xiao Yi nods and continues to discuss the teaching plan for Dabai with Director Sun. Before leaving, he can’t help but offer some reassurance. “Dabai is very smart and adapts quickly. He might even learn faster than Big Head. Two days might be possible.”

“I’m relieved to leave it to you.” After responding like this, Director Sun sighs deeply as he watches the trainer leave.

To be honest, after calming down, he doesn’t dare to have too high expectations.

Inviting Dabai here is just because he wants to seize the opportunity and try his best.

The crew has borrowed many parrot actors, most of whom have acting experience. Even so, only a few parrots manage to say all the lines, and the training takes a long time.

When he first learns that Big Head memorized the lines in just three days and stood out among the parrots, he’s surprised and even assigns an extra trainer to help.

But when Big Head starts shooting, there are constant accidents, as if the bird is malfunctioning—one moment it squawks here, and the next moment there.

If it’s just squawking, it’s fine. At least the lines would be memorized, and there would still be some sense of authenticity. But Big Head’s squawking is different—after the squawk, the bird stops speaking and stands there in a daze.

Since then, whenever he thinks about the feeling of his expectations falling flat, he becomes a bit anxious.

Director Sun takes a deep breath and removes his hat, tugging at his hair in frustration.

He just hopes this time will work out.

…

At 2:00 in the afternoon, the lines training begins on time.

“Generally speaking, breeds that are good at learning to talk can quickly learn a word. The difficulty here is that Dabai needs to say full sentences, not just a few simple words,” the trainer says, holding up the script and pointing to Li Pu. “For example, the sentence that Dabotou says is, ‘The Queen Mother said that if there is no one in the lotus pond at midnight tonight, he will be in trouble!'”

Bai Gaoxing is stunned for a moment. There are only two words at the end?

The trainer smiles. “It was originally ‘not a good death,’ but Director Sun was worried that the parrot wouldn’t be able to pronounce it well, so he changed it.”

“…” That makes sense. Which owner wants to hear their parrot whispering ‘die a horrible death’ in their ear every day? Bai Gaoxing instinctively glances at Li Pu.

The man sitting on the sofa nods and gestures for the trainer to continue.

“Then, when we teach, we repeat the entire sentence many times to the parrot so that it develops an awareness of ‘listening.’ We must be careful not to interrupt here, because they don’t understand order. If they’re interrupted, they can easily speak it out of order,” the trainer continues. “When Dabai starts consciously trying to learn the pronunciation and begins to utter vague sounds, the first goal is achieved.”

Li Pu ponders for a moment. “How long does it take for him to start speaking clearly?”

“Brother Li, you don’t know?” Xiao Yi is surprised. “How long did it take Dabai to speak clearly at home? Don’t you remember?”

Before Dabai joined the crew, Xiao Yi, as the trainer, had already learned about the parrot’s speech capabilities. He had to admit that as soon as he heard it, he could tell Dabai was quite skilled at speaking. He couldn’t help but wonder how much effort the person who trained him had put in.

“No,” Li Pu answers lightly, “Every time he opens his mouth, he speaks very fluently.”

???

Xiao Yi stares at the white parrot on the stand, stunned. Could it really be? Is it just the owner’s bias?

But he decides to trust Li Pu’s words. “It depends on the parrot’s talent. Every parrot is different. The smarter ones take about three to seven days.” He pauses. “I’ll start now.”

“Okay.” Li Pu nods.

Bai Gaoxing watches as the young trainer slowly walks up to him, squats down, and looks at him with the gentlest tone possible. “Dabai, listen carefully to the class later.”

Well… I’ll try to cooperate within a less terrifying range.

Bai Gaoxing scratches his chin, thinking about how many days it would take to learn normally.

Three days? Five days? A week? Or maybe I should wait a little longer to avoid scaring people.

But the trainer encourages him. “Come on, you can only try shooting after you’ve memorized it, otherwise, you won’t get the chance to see the camera.”

So strict!?

Bai Gaoxing’s feather crown trembles. He decides to finish it within three days.

The trainer teaches with great seriousness. Bai Gaoxing occasionally teases him with unrelated words, but soon enough, he utters the four words, “Empress,” very considerately.

“Much faster than expected.” The trainer exhales. “Next…”

“What!!!”

Li Pu is looking down at the script when he suddenly hears a heart-wrenching creaking sound, followed by a very clear shout.

He quickly looks up to see a shocking scene: the trainer, who has been fine just moments ago, now has his hands raised in embarrassment, while the big white parrot flaps its wings wildly, trying to flutter upwards, but its claws are pulling his hair.

In the room, bird feathers and hair tumble down together.

Li Pu quickly stands up, rushes to the trainer, and calls out, “Dabai,” while reaching to grab him and pulling him into his arms. After managing to calm him down, Li Pu looks up and asks, “What’s wrong?”

Xiao Yi rubs his burning scalp with a grin, but there is no blood. “It’s okay, maybe Dabai is just still scared.”

How dare you say that!

Bai Gaoxing nestles in Li Pu’s arms and glares at Xiao Yi.

God knows how horrible it is for him to see the man talking to him one second, then hugging and kissing him the next!

Pervert!?

Seeing Li Pu’s confused expression, Xiao Yi presses his lips tightly together and explains, “I originally want Dabai to experience the feeling of pronouncing words. The vibration of the vocal cords can also help stimulate the parrot’s speech, but he starts kicking me. But,” he adds with a thumbs-up, “the word ‘what’ you just said was really good.”

“… Dabai may not be very accustomed to contact with strangers,” Li Pu says after listening to the explanation.

“That’s right. After all, it’s only the first day,” Xiao Yi says, giving up on this approach for now. “I’ll get familiar with Dabai in the future.”

Li Pu thinks about it for a moment, then holds the snow-white parrot in his arms and looks at it, feeling a wave of pity for the pair of wet eyes staring back at him.

He glances over at the trainer, who is tidying up the bird’s feathers, then gently strokes the parrot’s slightly ruffled feathers and speaks up, “Let me try.”

“That’s okay…” The trainer is stunned. It’s the first time he’s seen a star willing to teach in person. He sighs, realizing that this might be the difference between a tool bird and a bird that’s truly raised with care. He proceeds to show Li Pu how to do it.

“Put your mouth near its beak so it can feel the breath and the vibration of your throat,” Xiao Yi explains, pointing to his own Adam’s apple to indicate where Li Pu should position himself.

Before Bai Gaoxing can react, he sees Li Pu moving closer and closer.

That face, coming so close, is truly shocking. Bai Gaoxing’s breath catches in his throat. He freezes, unable to struggle, and even loses the instinct to resist.

Then something soft brushes against his side face.

“Like this?”

A low voice, accompanied by… a warm breath.

A soft touch grazes his face, and his head presses against something slightly hard and protruding.

Ah…ah…!

Bai Gaoxing presses against Li Pu’s Adam’s apple, feeling the man’s body heat, the vibrations, and his pulse. His mind goes completely blank.

His thoughts begin to clear out, his body stiffens little by little, and soon, he no longer knows what he’s doing. He can only respond subconsciously…

…

Evening.

Director Sun sits in front of the monitor, flipping through the annotated script. After a busy day, he finally has some time to go over the scene with Dabai and, at the same time, can’t help but wonder whether the trainer has made any progress today.

Turning around, he sees Xiao Yi hurriedly entering through the door.

He is startled, and an uneasy premonition rises inexplicably. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Dabai… it…” Xiao Yi struggles to find the words. It’s indescribable.

Sure enough. Director Sun’s mood sinks, and the light in his eyes slowly dims.

He sighs, memories of too many failed attempts flooding his mind. His spirits plummet, and he slumps back into his chair.

He slowly picks up the thermos cup and glances at the trainer, his expression strange. “Just say it.”

Whether the parrot hasn’t said a word or refuses to cooperate, he is mentally prepared for bad news.

Xiao Yi, still stunned and overwhelmed, struggles to collect his thoughts. After a moment, he stammers, “Dabai has… memorized all the lines.”