◎Little Bird Says Early Early Early◎

Chun Zao had a dream.

In the dream, she found herself in a dense forest that blocked out the sky, surrounded by countless identical cedar trees. She wanted to get out, but discovered she couldn’t move. Looking down, her legs were no longer but had become thick tree trunks with roots buried in the ground, and her hands were no longer hands but branches clustered with green leaves.

Why had she turned into a tree?

Chun Zao was bewildered and anxious.

Suddenly, with rustling grass and trees, a tall, upright figure passed by directly in front of her. The person wore rich attire – a red and gold Western royal military uniform with a silver sword at the waist, but his movements were somewhat comical and eerie, like a wound-up tin soldier toy, marching straight ahead with eyes forward, not noticing her at all.

Chun Zao recognized him as Yuan Ye.

Trapped in the tree and unable to move, she could only call for help: “Yuan Ye! Help me – Yuan Ye…”

But he seemed not to hear, and just as he was about to walk out of view, the sweating and desperate Chun Zao had a flash of inspiration and changed her address: “King—”

As if a switch had been pressed, the boy’s handsome face turned back.

The two long ears on his head were particularly striking.

Chun Zao couldn’t help but think of the king with donkey ears.

But strangely, Yuan Ye’s two ears were pure white, standing very high, matching his flawless face perfectly. Rather than the king with donkey ears, he looked more like a rabbit prince.

Chun Zao pleaded with a bitter face: “Save me, I’m Chun Zao. I’m trapped in this tree.”

The boy changed direction, walking straight toward her, stopping in front of her, and studying her carefully.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

Chun Zao was so excited that her branches shook, scattering leaves all over the ground: “I don’t know why I turned into a tree. I can’t walk or leave here. Can you help me think of a solution?”

The boy held his chin in thought, his brow furrowed.

While thinking, his fluffy white long ears bounced slightly back and forth: “Do you need some kind of spell-breaking method?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the dense leaves above Chun Zao’s head rustled, and a palm-sized frog jumped from them to the ground. After croaking twice and looking at both Chun Zao and Yuan Ye, it began to repeat in a strange ventriloquist voice: “The king must kiss this tree! The king must kiss this tree!…”

Chun Zao instantly woke up.

Her first reaction was to touch her arms, confirming she was still human, then blink rapidly in the darkness.

The girl’s heartbeat was incredibly fast. Whether because the dream process was brief or its content was too shocking, all the details still played like a slideshow in her mind.

Chun Zao covered her face with both hands, feeling that her skin was warm.

What kind of ghost dream was that? So inexplicable and embarrassing that her whole face wrinkled up.

Fortunately, she woke up in time and didn’t let this dream develop in an even more bizarre direction…

Chun Zao felt both afraid and secretly relieved. After calming down for a few minutes, she turned over, closed her eyes again, and tried to cultivate sleepiness.

However, her brain was clearer than if she’d drunk ten cups of Nescafe.

Her chest was still pounding nonstop.

Chun Zao gave up collecting sleep bugs and reached for her phone under the pillow.

The moment she opened it, she understood the cause of this strange dream.

It must have been the profound influence of Yuan Ye’s fairy tale.

And his answer was also too penetrating.

At the time, she had only half-understood that statement, so she went to Baidu to read the complete story for analysis, then replied to him: Does being king mean it doesn’t matter if people know your secrets?

Yuan Ye said: It means even if I have flaws, I want to be the person standing at the highest place.

Chun Zao was stunned on the spot.

…How could he use such a light tone to say such arrogant and conceited words?

But she had to admit, Yuan Ye indeed had such capital.

At least at Yizhong, in this “kingdom” that belonged to them, if academic excellence were weapons and military power, he wasn’t just a pentagon warrior but the strongest one, without question.

She could only stubbornly complain: You’re so chuunibyou.

The boy replied with a cute, gentle smiley face: 😀

—

The conversation ended there.

Chun Zao exited the message interface and logged into QQ, wanting to browse her friends’ status updates.

The first post was a King of Glory match screenshot posted by Tong Yue, all blue, with the caption “My jungle king brother is so amazing~”

“…”

Without thinking, she gave her friend a like.

Unexpectedly, she was caught red-handed by the night owl champion Tong Yue.

Princess Zhenzhu:?

Because she had always set Tong Yue as a top contact, Chun Zao had never bothered to give her a nickname. Besides, witnessing and listening to her randomly changing show-off IDs and their origins like blind boxes every time she came online was one of Chun Zao’s leisure activities outside of schoolwork.

Chun Zao’s finger paused on the screen.

Another question from Princess Zhenzhu had already come over: Is this you?

Chun Zao could no longer play dead: Yeah.

The other side asked: You scared me to death, why are you online at this hour? I thought your account was hacked.

I’m the one who was almost scared to death by a dream, okay?

Chun Zao muttered internally while typing: Had a nightmare and woke up.

Tong Yue asked again: Are you back home?

Chun Zao said: No.

Tong Yue: Then, where did you get the internet?

Chun Zao came to her senses.

After hesitating for a moment, she shared the truth with her friend: I have a phone card now.

Tong Yue was incredulous: ?? Ms. Chun suddenly came to her senses and granted a general amnesty.

Her finger curled slightly, but Chun Zao still chose to tell the truth: Yuan Ye lent me the card.

Tong Yue’s reaction was as if she had jumped up on the other end of the phone: Holy shit?

She repeated her answer: Yuan Ye lent you a card?

Yuan Ye lent you a card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chun Zao was dazzled by her exclamation marks: What…

Tong Yue: How did you two hook up?

Staring at the words “hook up,” Chun Zao felt some discomfort and took a long breath in – breath out – before telling Tong Yue the whole story from beginning to end.

Tong Yue sent a Sa Beining oxygen-inhaling meme, as excited as if she had experienced it herself: Ahhhhh, this guy is too good.

She added: Last time buying water at the convenience store too.

Chun Zao agreed with her: Yeah, he’s quite nice.

After two weeks of interaction, Yuan Ye indeed gave a very good impression, measured in his approach, friendly, and thoughtful.

The chat box went silent for a few seconds.

Tong Yue said: Quick, look at my new username!

Chun Zao refreshed and found she had changed from “Princess Zhenzhu” to “CP Scholar.”

Chun Zao frowned: What does that mean?

Tong Yue said: From now on, I’m transferring the noble title of Princess Zhenzhu to you and retiring to the second line to ship CPs.

Chun Zao couldn’t understand these fancy terms: Speak human language.

Tong Yue sent N different types of auntie smile memes: I’m shipping you and Yuan Ye’s CP to the death.

Chun Zao: ………………………………………………………………

Staring at these words, the dream scenes inappropriately popped up again, and the frog’s strange cries echoed endlessly.

With a tomato-red face, Chun Zao retorted: You’re bored.

Tong Yue gave a strange relationship chain: Damn it, can you have some ambition? You’re now the woman sharing a card with the school grass.

She asked curiously: Have you two chatted?

Chun Zao fanned herself to cool her face. Sent a few text messages.

Tong Yue made another fuss: You didn’t add QQ? Chatting via text messages? Even my grandparents don’t chat via text anymore.

Chun Zao: …

Chun Zao defended: I only got the card today, okay?

Tong Yue: Go ask for his QQ, so I can analyze Yuan Ye’s attributes.

Tong Yue always loved studying and categorizing male personalities through their avatars and profile pages. Chun Zao was well aware of this hobby.

Chun Zao replied: There’s nothing curious about that.

Tong Yue’s tone was like she was wasting precious resources: If you’re not curious, can I be curious? I’m dying of curiosity! That’s Yuan Ye’s personal information!

Finding this path blocked, she took another route: The problem is text messages have limits too. Are you comfortable letting Yuan Ye pay more phone bills?

This stumped Chun Zao.

She flipped her phone over, staring at the back.

Indeed, she didn’t know the card’s plan details or whether a text package was included. Maybe tonight’s few chat messages would cost Yuan Ye extra money.

Thanks to Tong Yue for hitting the nail on the head.

She hurriedly opened the message interface, counted her sent messages, and decided to compose a message asking about the plan and suggesting adding QQ.

Or WeChat would work too.

Noticing the time in the upper left corner was already 1:46 AM, Chun Zao immediately stopped.

Better to send it tomorrow morning.

Late at night, she might wake him up.

After chatting with Tong Yue for a bit, Chun Zao finally escaped from this enthusiastic “CP shipper” who had instantly fallen into the pit and kept asking questions, turned off her phone, and fell asleep drowsily.

—

As a high school student who rarely got eight hours of standard sleep, Yuan Ye never wasted weekend mornings.

However, not for the principle that the day’s plan starts in the morning, but to sleep until late morning, recharge his batteries, and save energy to slowly consume during school days.

Near noon, Yuan Ye gradually awakened.

The bedroom curtains didn’t block light well, and sunlight brazenly squeezed into the room. The boy on the bed arched his body, raised his hand to cover his eyes, then lowered it after a moment, picked up his phone by the pillow to check the current time, and his gaze then slid to the message notification below.

His fingertip swiped up and clicked open.

The boy’s thick eyebrows raised slightly.

It was actually from the girl next door, as long as a short essay, sent at 7:47 AM.

“Sorry to bother you.

Last night before bed, I suddenly thought about whether there might be quantity limits on text messages. I don’t know if you’ve set up a text package for this card, so I’m a bit worried you might have to pay extra… Would it be better to contact via QQ or WeChat in the future? If convenient, could we add each other on QQ/WeChat?”

After roughly skimming through once, Yuan Ye read it word by word again.

Every word was like fruit-flavored Christmas candy canes, lifting the corners of his mouth bit by bit.

Yuan Ye casually tousled his messy bangs, sat up against the wall, and typed:

-Sure.

And entered several digits.

Leaning against the wall, waiting for a few minutes, the aroma of food drifted into the room. Yuan Ye glanced at the door and understood, got off the bed, and pulled open the curtains.

The room immediately became as transparent as an acrylic box with its film removed.

Yuan Ye opened the door and went out. Sure enough, the girl was having lunch with her mother. Seeing him come out, she quickly looked up, her eyes under her bangs bright and sparkling.

Yuan Ye instinctively smiled at her, the silent version.

Chun Zao froze, chopsticks still between her teeth.

Chun Chuzhen was serving food with her back to him. Hearing the movement, she turned back too. Seeing the boy’s just-woken appearance, she couldn’t help teasing: “Did little Yuan go stealing last night?”

“Mm,” he smiled even more broadly, not denying it: “Yeah.”

Chun Chuzhen was infected by the young man’s vibrant smile and laughed along: “What good stuff did you steal?”

Yuan Ye didn’t answer, only showing an “unspeakable” expression.

What? This was getting more and more wrong.

Chun Zao frowned.

Especially after Mom finished joking with Yuan Ye, the boy looked over again and raised his arm, using his thumb to gesture toward the room twice.

What did that mean?

He replied to the message?

Could he transmit a more accurate body language signal?

As the boy passed behind her and headed to the bathroom, Chun Zao also felt a tight, elevated feeling in her heart.

She quickly finished the rice in her bowl and returned to her bedroom.

Chun Zao alternated between reading and watching the door, anxiously waiting for half an hour until Mom finally finished cleaning the kitchen and dining table and returned to her room for an afternoon nap.

She even closed Chun Zao’s door for her as she passed, telling her to rest quickly since there was evening self-study that night.

Chun Zao closed her history notes, used the lightest, slowest force to lock the door, and crawled back under the blanket.

She opened her phone.

Yuan Ye had indeed replied to her message.

Chun Zao quickly copied those numbers and searched for the user.

The other side accepted very quickly.

Finally added.

Chun Zao sighed in relief.

Yuan Ye’s username was very simple, just: X.

His avatar was also the typical anime male head that boys his age commonly used.

Just as she was pondering what kind of opening line to give, the boy inexplicably asked a question:

“Do you like going to school that much?”

Chun Zao paused, puzzled: Huh?

He pointed out: Your username.

Only then did Chun Zao notice her ID: “Little Bird Says Early Early Early.”

Taken from a famous nursery rhyme:

The sun shines bright, flowers smile at me

Little bird says early, early, early, why do you carry a little schoolbag

I go to school, never late

天天不迟到

No wonder.

But…

Chun Zao pressed her lips together and decided to tell him the cruel truth: Is there a possibility that it has another version?

At that moment, Yuan Ye was eating at a noodle shop in the alley, an extremely tiny storefront with only four low wooden tables, serving only the neighboring residents.

The handsome boy was suddenly choked by the noodle soup.

To be precise, he was amused by the girl’s answer, which caused him to choke.

He put down his phone, switched to drinking water from a cup, and before his throat discomfort completely subsided, he raised his phone again to open the screenshot of spoofed lyrics that the girl had thoughtfully attached, fearing he wouldn’t understand, and read it again:

The sun shines bright, flowers smile at me

Little bird says early, early, early, why do you carry explosives

I go to blow up school, the teacher doesn’t know

I pull the string and run away, boom! The school flies to the sky~

Author’s Note: So cute? Not sure, let me read it again

This adapted nursery rhyme is probably first-generation punk school-aversion haha (smile)