The immortal is beside me

Chapter 66: Raising Birds
Liangzhou City, Jianguo Road Community.

Zhou Qing carried the thrush cage and walked slowly along the path, heading towards the place where he usually basked in the sun.

Today, the fortune teller, or the Yishu practitioner Liu Guishan, came again and attracted everyone's attention as usual.

The entire road was filled with people queuing up to have their fortunes told. The hustle and bustle and the almost pious gazes reminded him of the prayer lines in front of the statues in temples in the past.

Faced with a force beyond common sense, people always choose to support it. Hundreds and thousands of years ago, many witnesses of his presence gathered at his feet, many of whom even wanted to erect statues and monuments in his honor to publicize his deeds.

At first he was quite interested in this, but as it happened more and more often, he found it boring. Not to mention that some local dignitaries had to recruit people from all over the place to build a statue for him, and in the end the people suffered.

For this reason, he subsequently rejected similar requests. These superficial things were of no use to him, but the people would miss out on farming because of this labor. Matters concerning their livelihood were of course more important than formal worship.

He walked around the crowd waiting in front of the fortune-telling stall and headed towards the locust tree covered in blossoms. Suddenly, he found someone sitting under the tree.

The man looked to be in his forties, wearing a faded tweed suit and shirt, with a jujube wood cane at his side and a foreign book in his hand. At first glance, he looked like an intellectual from the last century.

On the tree branch beside him, there were four bird cages hanging. Each bird cage had a different shape, but they were all extremely exquisite. The birds in the cages were larks, munias, canaries and starlings. All of them were smooth and plump, and it was obvious that they were raised with great care.

This man's name is Shen Muqian. He used to be a professor at Liangzhou University in this city. After retirement, he lived in this Jianguo Road community. His main hobby is raising and walking birds.

Professor Shen has been engaged in academic research all his life, and now he has brought this academic spirit to his interests, forming a set of effective theories. He is an expert in the community bird-raising circle.

When Zhou Qing first arrived here a few months ago, he heard about various bird-walking theories from him and started to join in. At least in the field of bird-walking, Shen Muqian's attainments were much higher than his.

"Oh, it's Xiao Zhou? Walking your thrush again?"

Noticing his arrival, Shen Muqian, who was reading a book, raised his head, pushed his reading glasses, and moved his eyes from him to the cage in his hand.

"Let me see, your thrush has been doing really well lately. It's quite clever."

Shen Muqian looked at the thrush in his cage and reached out to tease it. "This thrush is getting angry very quickly. It's only been out for a few months, but its performance is comparable to others who have been out for years. It's really a good bird."

"However, judging by the color of its fur, the nutrition in your feed is still a little lacking. This is common among novice bird keepers. If you feed it too little, the bird won't get enough nutrition and might get sick later."

"In addition to millet, you can also give it some fruits, such as apples. People need a balanced diet, and so do birds."

Shen Muqian was talking over there. He had been a professor all his life and was used to instructing students. Whenever he saw someone else's bird, he would comment on it.

Zhou Qing nodded slightly. Although Shen Muqian was a bit of a know-it-all, he did give him a lot of experience.

As Shen Muqian had said, he was indeed a novice when it came to birdkeeping. Although he had been with the phoenix for a long time, it was already a mature creature when he first picked it up, having learned to fend for itself. For hundreds of years, he had barely taken care of it, let alone "raised" it.

After all, he had no intention of taking in a monster at first, and he only agreed reluctantly after the Phoenix pleaded with him repeatedly. Who would have thought that the bird would follow him for nearly a thousand years.

In his memory, the phoenix was originally very timid. After it followed him back to the Immortal Alliance, several monks who practiced the art of controlling demons brought their own demons to see what was new. Some of the demons were even less powerful than it, but they could always scare it into trembling.

But such a timid bird always stayed by his side for the next thousand years, from plains to mountains, from forests to cities, from sects to battlefields. There were many dangerous places where he was likely to die, but as long as he was there, the bird would always follow him.

For a period of time, he secluded himself in the mountains for hundreds of years, never seeing anyone. His only contact was with the phoenix. To entertain him, the bird even learned human opera without any instruction and performed it for him from time to time, bringing a rare touch of warmth to his lonely days.

During these years in the secular world, he discovered that many people held similar ideas.

In today's era, many people do not like socializing or falling in love, but instead like to be with cats, dogs or other animals.

These animals aren't spirits, and they can't even speak, yet they bring comfort that even humans can't match. Their company has lifted many people out of depression, and their passing can bring grief no less than the loss of a loved one.

All things have spirits, and all things are worldly. This is his understanding of this.

The so-called mortal world refers to the joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness of the human world, but these joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness are not exclusive to humans. In some ways, the bonds formed by these non-human beings are deeper than those of humans, and their existence is also mortal.

That's why he kept this thrush. Habits are a wonderful thing, and he got used to having a bird by his side.

"By the way, Xiao Zhou, tomorrow is the weekend again, do you have any plans?"

Zhou Qing hesitated for a moment and said, "Let's go to Qishan for a tour."

When he went to see Yuan Tiangang a few days ago, he heard the whereabouts of the phoenix from his old friend. The little red bird that followed him timidly at the beginning has now become the Demon King who is unrivaled in the demon world and has created his own kingdom.

The purpose of life is to live in the mortal world. Outside the human world, Phoenix has created a unique mortal world, which is conducive to the concentration of his soul. He is also interested in visiting the demon kingdom.

According to what Yuan Tiangang told him, tomorrow, which is the 24th day of the ninth lunar month, is the day when the Demon Kingdom holds its annual flower viewing conference. He plans to take this opportunity to go there to see what the Demon Kingdom under the bird's command looks like and to see this different world.

"Qishan? The Qishan in the east? That's a nice place." Shen Muqian nodded. "The scenery is beautiful and there are not many people. It's just a little far away. Are you planning to sign up for a short tour group?"

"That's not necessary."

Zhou Qing picked up the birdcage beside him and said with a smile, "I happen to have an 'old friend' over there."

(End of this chapter)