Future Pet Shop-Chapter 55: I Thought Animals Weren’t Allowed to Become Spirits?

"This parrot’s attained sentience! It’s holding a concert on the street! If this isn’t good, I’ll livestream myself humping an electric fan!" Tai Zhi wrote an incredibly clickbaity description, then sent the stream’s link to every live-streaming chat group he was in. A stream this epic had to be shared!

Tai Zhi was pretty well-known in these chat groups, and soon, many people entered the stream. They were quickly captivated by Cheeky’s singing. Then, just like Tai Zhi, they sent the link to other chat groups. The lucky streamer rapidly gained an unprecedented number of viewers and donations.

"DAMN, DAMN, DAMN, this parrot is seriously next-level! Streamer, get it to sing *Chasing Dreams with a Red Heart*, and I’ll send you ten Rockets." Even the whales were drawn in by Cheeky, and some were even making massive offers.

Ten Rockets! The streamer was floored by the whale’s huge offer. ’A single Rocket is five hundred bucks, so ten is five thousand. After the platform’s fifty-fifty cut, I’ll get twenty-five hundred! That’s more than I’ve made in donations for the past three months combined!’ The floundering streamer couldn’t help but swallow hard. ’Damn it. For that much money, I’m going all in.’

"Master Cheeky, would you be able to sing *Chasing Dreams with a Red Heart*?" he yelled hurriedly the moment a song ended. The streamer had completely cast aside his dignity, addressing Cheeky as "Master."

"No-problem!" Being called ’Master’ was extremely satisfying for Cheeky. It gave a suave flap of its wings, dropped a bit of English, and then continued to sing, "Where is that world full of flowers? If it truly exists, then I will surely go. I want to stand atop its highest mountain peak, not caring if it’s a cliff or a precipice..."

Its voice started low and deep, gradually rising to a crescendo, and finally culminating in a raw scream. It perfectly captured the original singer’s determination to chase a dream. Whether on the street or in front of the live stream, countless audience members were captivated by the performance and couldn’t help but start singing along.

"I’m a man of my word. Here are the Rockets!" Before the song was even finished, the whale started to make good on his promise. A long stream of Rockets flashed across the screen, dazzling countless eyes.

More importantly, whenever someone donated Rockets, a notification would appear on the screens of all live streams on the platform. When fans in other streams saw an unknown streamer they’d never heard of receive so many Rockets, their interest was instantly piqued. They quickly followed the on-screen information to the "One Bird Concert" stream, and then... and then, just like Tai Zhi, they were all completely floored by Cheeky.

This also attracted more whales to the lucky streamer’s channel. "For a parrot this ridiculously talented, how could ten Rockets be enough for one song? Streamer, as long as you can get this parrot to sing *Miss Dong*, I’ll donate twenty Rockets."

"*Confession Balloon*. Thirty Rockets." This whale was a man of few words, but his offer was much larger than the previous two.

"You guys donate more Rockets than this to those busty streamers, don’t you? And you’re being this cheap today for a parrot this phenomenal? Shame on you. Streamer, I request *Lotus Pond Moonlight*. Fifty Rockets." These whales were also familiar with each other, and soon someone had raised the donation amount to an even higher level.

But this wasn’t the end. After a bit of a bidding war, the ultimate whale appeared. "Friends on the platform, you all know I’m a fan of MJ. We’ve just heard so many Chinese songs, I wonder if Mr. Parrot here can sing in English? If it can sing a rendition of MJ’s ’Billie Jean,’ I’ll send you two hundred Rockets."

Two hundred Rockets was a hundred thousand bucks. This offer temporarily silenced the other whales. Perhaps they also wanted to see if Cheeky could actually sing in English, so they stopped the bidding war and quietly waited for the streamer’s reply.

’Two hundred Rockets? Meaning I get fifty thousand?!’ The streamer’s brain completely short-circuited. This was more than he earned in a year from his regular job. But getting a parrot to sing in English... that seemed a bit impossible, didn’t it? Still, for fifty thousand bucks, the streamer mustered his courage and shouted, "Master Cheeky? Do you happen to know ’Billie Jean’?"

"Uh, never heard of it. But you can play it for me a couple of times. Master Cheeky guarantees he can learn it," Cheeky said, holding its head high with pride. It had a pretty good impression of this lucky fellow.

"No problem, right away!" the streamer said anxiously, immediately starting to search online to play the song. But his old phone was already struggling just to run the streaming app; it wouldn’t be easy to get it to play smoothly.

Fortunately, other audience members on site also wanted to hear Cheeky sing in English. It wasn’t that they were just obsessed with foreign things; they had already heard so many Chinese songs that a change of pace would be nice. Besides, getting to see a parrot speak English would be quite a spectacle.

Soon, MJ’s voice rang out. Cheeky cocked its head, listening for a moment, then ruffled its feathers. "Huh, I think I’ve heard this guy’s music before, just not this particular song." With that, Cheeky began to sing "Beat It," "...So Beat It, Just Beat It, You Better Run, You Better Do What You Can..."

Just like its performance in the shop, Cheeky not only began to perfectly imitate MJ’s vocal tone, but it even started doing the moonwalk on the tree branch. The audiences on the street and in front of their computers all went wild simultaneously.

"DAMN, DAMN, DAMN! My knees have turned to dust!"

"I don’t even use my hands when I piss, but I’ve got to hand it to Master Cheeky."

"Mom asked me why I’m watching the live stream on my knees. I told her I’m watching the performance of the greatest singer of the century!"

The number of viewers in the "One Bird Concert" stream quickly surpassed one million and was rapidly heading toward breaking the platform’s all-time record. The website reacted promptly, giving the stream maximum exposure.

"I’m on my knees. Even though it wasn’t ’Billie Jean,’ my promise still stands." The whale immediately started spamming the streamer with Rockets. The series of Rocket animations directly caused the streamer’s crappy phone to freeze.

"One hundred thousand bucks to hear the greatest singer of the century perform ’Beat It,’ plus we got to see such a mesmerizing moonwalk? That’s an absolute bargain!" Normally, seeing a whale make such a huge donation would fill the audience with envy and jealousy, but today, almost everyone agreed that a hundred thousand was nowhere near enough to reward Master Cheeky’s incredible performance.

"Five hundred Rockets! Streamer, ask Master Cheeky if he knows any Cantonese songs? I’d like to request *Under Mount Fuji*!"

"Six hundred Rockets! Streamer, ask Master Cheeky if he can learn a Japanese song? I’m requesting the opening theme from *One Piece*, ’We Are!’"

The whales’ requests were becoming more and more challenging, and the donation amounts were skyrocketing. The audience was watching with breathless excitement, until one whale spoke up, "Hey, streamer, I think I see a pet shop sign next to you, right? This parrot must belong to the shop? Could you do me a favor and ask the owner if the parrot is for sale?"