Chapter 24: Excuse me, can two kestrels arguing be featured on a mediation show? (Part 1)

“Yes, you are the most handsome.”

Wen You Ning pressed her fingertip against the upright feathers on the falcon’s head and pushed them back.

“So, what happened to the red falcon whose food you stole?”

The red falcon jumped back to avoid Wen You Ning’s hand.

‘Not my problem.’

It can do whatever it wants.

Not familiar with it.

They only met once during a robbery.

“Alright, I just hope it’s not injured.”

After all, surviving in the wild as an injured animal is extremely difficult.

Wen You Ning reminded, “If it’s hurt, remember to tell me.”

“Coo.”

‘It won’t be!’

‘I was careful!’

Wen You Ning chuckled.

She hoped that was true.

She got up and said, “Come eat breakfast, everyone.”

She didn’t have to go out just yet.

She was waiting for the pigeon’s owner to contact her so she could return it.

Even though the wound was deep, it wasn’t too serious.

The owner could take it back and care for it.

She mixed some homemade pet food with kibble for the little tabby cat, while the red falcon got a plate of freshly cut meat.

After being busy all night, their hunted food was still inside the house, meaning these two fluffballs hadn’t eaten anything yet.

So, where is Wen Ge? Why hasn’t he responded?

No idea.

Does anyone have a way to contact him? Send him a WeChat message to tell him the pigeon has been found.

Bad falcon! The man was proudly showing off his training results, and you just swooped in and grabbed his pigeon.

So mean!

…

“It wasn’t this falcon that caught the pigeon.”

Wen You Ning poured a bowl of water.

Seeing that the chat was condemning the red falcon, she explained, “It stole the pigeon from another red falcon.

Technically, it saved the pigeon’s life.”

“Male and female red falcons have distinct differences in their appearance.

Male falcons have brighter colors.

If you zoom in on the livestream recording and compare it to this one, you’ll see it’s clearly not the same falcon.”

Wen You Ning moved the camera closer, bringing it near the red falcon that was focused on eating.

The red falcon, which had just grabbed a piece of meat, noticed the human approaching and lifted one claw to block the phone’s camera.

Even while standing on one leg, it ate steadily.

“No blocking.

I’m proving your innocence.”

Wen You Ning ran the camera over the falcon’s body, carefully holding its wingtip and gently spreading it.

“Look, the patterns are different.”

She rotated the camera 180 degrees, making sure to capture every angle besides its belly.

At first, the red falcon resisted, but eventually, it gave up.

Since it didn’t interfere with eating, it decided to just let her do whatever she wanted.

Oh, they really do look different.

So… where exactly is Wen Ge chasing that red falcon to?

Could it be that Wen Ge didn’t realize his pigeon was taken by a different red falcon, and he’s still chasing the original one?

The chat, piecing together clues from earlier, started to analyze the situation in detail.

The red falcon in Wen You Ning’s house had a blue-gray neck and nape.

The one in the video that caught the pigeon had a reddish-brown back.

Because it was filmed against the backdrop of the early morning sky, the colors weren’t very clear.

Now, with a side-by-side screenshot comparison, the differences were obvious at a glance.

“Meow!”

‘Get lost!’

Wen You Ning was still chatting with the viewers when her fingers suddenly froze on the keyboard.

She looked up and saw the two fluffballs, who had been peacefully eating on opposite sides of the table, suddenly getting close about to fight.

“No fighting.”

Before anything could happen, Wen You Ning quickly placed her hand between them.

The little tabby immediately tilted left, bared its teeth, and hissed, “Hiss !”

The red falcon refused to back down, tilting its head left as well and letting out a sharp, “Coo !”

The two fluffballs faced each other, both tilting left.

Their exposed angles weren’t even aligned, and they completely missed each other’s gaze.

They glared into empty air, both momentarily frozen in confusion.

“Pfft… hahaha.”

Wen You Ning laughed at the sight of their big, question-mark-like expressions.

Hearing her laugh, the two fluffballs instantly turned to glare at her in sync.

“Alright.”

Wen You Ning soothed them, stroking their fur.

“Just eat your own food.”

She opened the fridge and checked the remaining ingredients, thinking about what to make for herself.

“Meow!”

“Coo!”

She turned away for one second, and they were fighting again.

Wen You Ning: “…You two…”

‘Mine! It’s all mine!’

‘The falcon eats whatever it wants! Don’t touch my meat!’

Wen You Ning was puzzled.

“Do red falcons eat cooked meat?”

It looked like the red falcon had taken a liking to the little tabby cat’s pet food.

She normally fed the tabby some raw meat, but she didn’t serve only raw meat it was always mixed with other foods.

Could it be that the tabby saw the falcon eating and decided to try raw meat too?

Whatever the reason, Wen You Ning prepared an extra portion and separated the food into two plates.

“Here, eat.”

The two fighting fluffballs paused, looked at the plates… then turned their heads away and continued fighting.

Wen You Ning: “…”

Alright.

They were just fighting for the sake of fighting.

But… neither was actually getting hurt.

The red falcon had pecked at the tabby for ages without plucking a single hair.

The tabby had swiped at the falcon but never pulled out a feather.

Rather than a fight, it looked more like playful roughhousing.

Wen You Ning let them be but warned, “If you two break anything, I’m deducting your food rations.”

She went to the kitchen and made a simple sandwich two slices of bread, some lettuce, a slice of ham, done.

Paired with milk, that was breakfast.

After half an hour of wrestling, the tabby and the falcon finally took a break and resumed eating.

Wen You Ning squeezed the empty milk carton before setting it aside.

Then, her phone on the table buzzed.

‘Beep, beep.’

It was a message from Wen Ge.

To avoid missing his reply, she had set his messages to a special alert.

Wen Ge: [Hello, streamer.

I know this is a bit abrupt, but I have no other options.

I’m with the red falcon now, and I’ve run into some trouble.

Can you come over? Also, please bring Dan Nuo with you.

I’ll pay double triple, even.

Or name your price, I won’t negotiate.]

Red falcon?

The red falcon he was chasing the same one her red falcon fought and stole the pigeon from?

From his message, it sounded like that red falcon was in bad shape.

Wen You Ning: [Send me the address.]

Wen Ge: [Thanks.

(Attached map location)]

…

The pigeon wasn’t very big, so she simply slipped it into her pocket.

“Stay at home and behave until I get back.”

After saying that, Wen You Ning still felt uneasy, so she double-checked the repaired window grid.

“No running off again, or I’ll be really mad.”

“Meow…”

The little tabby jumped up and rubbed against her wrist.

‘Come back soon, meow.’

“Mm.”

She scratched the tabby’s chin before making sure the window was locked.

Then, she turned around only to see the red falcon waiting at the door.

It had been eating just a moment ago, but now it stood there, clearly expecting her to open the door for it.

Since it wasn’t a pet, it was likely ready to leave after eating.

Wen You Ning opened the door.

“And you don’t peck at my metal grid again.

If it completely breaks, it’ll be really expensive to replace.”

The red falcon turned its head away.

‘I am a falcon.’

‘The falcon doesn’t understand what humans are saying.’

It practically had the word “rebellious” written all over its face.

Hahaha, don’t make things difficult for the red falcon. Whatever it costs, I’ll pay for it!

So what if the child likes to sharpen its beak on the metal grid? If it doesn’t keep its beak sharp, how will it catch mice for you?

“You understand.”

Wen You Ning tapped the back of its head.

The red falcon ignored her.

As soon as the door opened, it flew straight out.

After a full night’s rest, its wounds from yesterday had mostly healed.

If you didn’t part its feathers to check inside, you wouldn’t even notice it had been injured.

The red falcon quickly flew out through a vent left open for ventilation in the hallway.

Wen You Ning checked the address on her phone.

It wasn’t too far, but to save time, she decided to take a taxi.

The location showed as Sanhua Park.

Wen You Ning figured it must be the park where Wen Ge trained his pigeon for flight practice.

On a weekday morning, around seven or eight, the park was still quite crowded.

Elderly men and women occupied different areas, dancing in their own sections without interfering with each other.

The only issue was that their speakers blasted different songs, making the atmosphere a bit chaotic.

Following the map navigation, Wen You Ning walked down a smaller path.

The number of people gradually decreased, and the noise from the speakers faded behind her.

From a distance, she didn’t see the red falcon, but she did notice a few men squatting on the ground.

One of them was flipping through his phone, searching for something.

The only man standing was on the phone, speaking in a tense tone.

“Yes, yes, it’s hey, no, we didn’t hit it.

It was already like this when we found it.

Seriously, it wasn’t us.

What? This could lead to a sentence?

Are you kidding me, bro… No, I’m not joking.”

Is he… asking about a potential prison sentence?

Uh… Wen Ge didn’t get mad and take out the red falcon, did he…?

That’s a nationally protected Class II animal. Does he have no education and no common sense?

The man squatting in the center, dressed in a black suit, heard movement.

When he saw Wen You Ning, he immediately stood up.

“Teacher Wen, you’re here.”

“Yeah.”

“I was just rewatching parts of your livestream and talking about when you might arrive.

Didn’t expect you to get here so fast.”

Wen Ge picked up a bird’s nest from the ground, carrying the unconscious bird inside, and brought it over to Wen You Ning.

Feeling unsure, Wen Ge fidgeted with a twig sticking out from the nest and asked, “Uh… Can it still be saved?”

Wen You Ning was taken aback.

“You…?”

“No, no, it wasn’t me!”

Before she even finished speaking, Wen Ge had already understood what she was implying and hurriedly denied it.

“I swear, I didn’t do anything.

When we tracked it here, it was already like this.”

If he wasn’t holding the bird’s nest with both hands, he would’ve raised three fingers over his head to swear it.

“It was still dark when this happened.

We nearly lost track of it multiple times while chasing it on foot.

We searched every single tree around here.

By the time we found this nest, it had already fainted.”

Heaven and earth bear witness.

He was just trying to get his pigeon back.

Who knew he’d end up dealing with a protected species passing out on him?

This felt like a setup!

He hadn’t even caught the red falcon while it was still conscious.

Wen You Ning handed him his pigeon and put on gloves to check the bird.

“I gave it some pain relief, so it’s still sleeping.

If you’re worried, you can take it to a pet hospital for a full examination.”

“Dan Nuo!”

The “father” nearly teared up at the sight of his lost pigeon.

“You scared me to death!”

As they spoke, a familiar shadow passed overhead.

Wen Ge instinctively clutched his pigeon to his chest, gripping it tightly.

But the bird that landed wasn’t after the pigeon this time.

Instead, it gracefully descended onto Wen You Ning’s shoulder.

Wen Ge had already heard about what happened last night how his pigeon had been taken.

Originally, he had planned to report it to the police and check surveillance footage.

But before he could, he got tagged by a flood of people.

After piecing everything together, he realized that if this red falcon hadn’t interfered and stolen his pigeon, his beloved pet would have been eaten down to the last feather.

After all, it was originally taken by another red falcon.

And it happened in a park full of surveillance cameras.

Even if they had rushed over immediately, they wouldn’t have been able to rescue the pigeon without hesitation.

If they accidentally injured a red falcon while trying to save the pigeon, the legal consequences would’ve been serious.

Luckily, it had been stolen.

Even luckier it was stolen and brought to Wen You Ning.

Thinking about it, his pigeon truly had nine lives.

If any single step had gone wrong, it would’ve been dead by now.

“Thanks.

How about I buy some meat for your falcon?

Red falcons eat meat, right?”

Wen Ge wanted to offer something as a reward.

Of course, the falcon didn’t lack anything, but it was the thought that counted.

The red falcon didn’t even glance at him.

It kept adjusting itself on Wen You Ning’s shoulder until it found a comfortable spot to perch.

“Coo…”

‘Dead.’

“It’s not dead.”

Wen You Ning checked the other falcon.

“It just passed out.

No visible injuries.

It’ll wake up on its own soon.”

Wen Ge finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as it wasn’t dead that’s all that mattered.

“That scared the hell out of me.

Teacher Wen, do you know what happened?

We climbed up the tree thinking we’d find my pigeon.

But when we got there, we only saw an unconscious red falcon nothing else.

We were so shocked our hairs stood on end.

Then we jumped down and saw security cameras nearby.”

Wen Ge clapped his hands together and sighed.

“I thought, ‘That’s it.

We’re done.

We can’t explain this.’”

“If I hadn’t seen your video before calling the cops, I might’ve actually reported myself.”

When you find a wild animal unconscious, you either call the police or contact a wildlife protection organization.

But finding an unconscious protected species, right under a security camera, right after climbing a tree?

Yeah.

That’d be impossible to explain.

They were lucky to still be standing here freely.

Hahaha, imagining this situation, my soul would’ve left my body.

Who wouldn’t have a heart attack after chasing something all night and then finding a “dead” protected animal?

“Life in prison, bird edition.”

With Wen You Ning’s treatment, the unconscious red falcon slowly opened its eyes.

At first, it looked dazed.

Then, realizing there were humans nearby, it instantly fluffed up in fear.

It flapped its wings frantically until it spotted the other red falcon perched on Wen You Ning’s shoulder.

Immediately, it started cursing.

It was cursing so fast that Wen You Ning couldn’t even catch all of it.

But judging by the reaction of the red falcon on her shoulder, it was definitely foul language.

No way, girl, is this still even in our country?