Vollständiges Metamorphose-Handbuch

Kapitel 13

I always felt that the colors of its feathers were strange; the red was too red, the blue too blue, and the green too green. When combined, they seemed a bit ominous...

They say you can't see the sun in your dreams at night, but I did.

The sunlight was so bright that I couldn't open my eyes.

Ahead lay an endless meadow, covered in wildflowers of incredibly vibrant colors, almost unnaturally so.

The terrifying parrot (3)

Ya Jie was chasing a butterfly, which was flying up and down among the flowers and grass.

Ya Jie is an ordinary employee in our company, working as a receptionist. She wears a plain white short-sleeved shirt and a long black skirt. Her eyes are small, her nose is small, her mouth is small, and she is not pretty at all, but her face is very fair.

She didn't come with me, and I didn't come with her. I don't know why we met here.

I gazed at her; she was like a shadow in my eyes.

Butterflies are the most pitiful creatures. They frolic in pairs among the flowers and grasses all day long, leading people to believe that their lives consist only of love. In reality, they chase each other, never catching up, until their fleeting, ephemeral lives turn to dust.

Mandarin ducks are the most detestable. They swim and play in the water, staying together day and night, seemingly loving and loyal. In reality, their pairings are the most unstable, constantly changing partners, merely maintaining a male and female pair, not much better than humans.

Swans are most admirable. They are not always inseparable, but if one dies, the other will never seek a new mate. It will mourn day and night by the water until its death...

The butterfly's body is so thin and delicate, which foreshadows a tragic fate.

The mandarin ducks' bodies were incredibly ornate, revealing a frivolous lifestyle.

The swan's body is incredibly pure, signifying a noble emotion.

Finally, she walked towards me. She was holding the white butterfly in her hand.

"A butterfly." She handed it to me with a smile.

I carefully pinched the butterfly's four wings together with my fingers and took it.

I immediately sensed something was wrong, because as I twirled my fingers, I felt that the butterfly's wings were made of paper. I looked down and confirmed it.

The paper butterfly is still struggling.

I looked at the flowers and plants in front of me in surprise.

The overwhelming flowers and plants all looked like they were made of paper. The most obvious thing was that, although their colors were very bright, they were very dry—paper flowers could not possibly have dew on them.

I turned my head and looked at Ya Jie.

She was already sitting beside me, quietly gazing ahead, and exclaimed, "Such beautiful flowers..."

I shivered and woke up.

I know I didn't wake up naturally; I was woken up by some sound.

But the room was completely silent, and the bedroom door was closed. I listened quietly for a while, and finally a hoarse voice rang out in the darkness: "Such beautiful flowers!"

It's that parrot!

Not only could it speak, but it spoke extremely clearly, in a tone like that of an old man. However, I never expected its voice to be so unpleasant.

I wasn't surprised, but I got goosebumps all over.

I got up, quietly got out of bed, and silently opened the bedroom door a crack to look inside.

It remained firmly perched on the perch in the cage, motionless, and I could only see its blurry image.

My house is quite luxurious, furnished with all sorts of high-end furniture, but there are no flowers. Yet, it seems to see a room full of vibrant, blooming flowers in the darkness…

I waited, but it never spoke again, as if it had noticed one of my eyes peeking through the crack in the door.

I felt its pair of red eyes staring straight at me.

I stared at it in the darkness.

Finally, I closed the door silently.

Lying in bed, I couldn't fall asleep anymore. I thought of the endless paper flowers in my dream, so vibrant under the scorching sun.

Cinderella

It's already late autumn, and the weather is getting colder and colder.

Ever since that parrot uttered that incredibly eerie phrase in the darkness, it hasn't spoken again. I'm increasingly convinced that I was dreaming that night.

I am a very dedicated person. I often work from dawn till dusk, sometimes forgetting to eat or sleep. That night, I got home very late again.

In the middle of the night, it rained out of nowhere.

I was asleep when I vaguely heard a hoarse voice say, "A cold."

I opened my eyes abruptly and listened intently, but the room was deathly silent; there was no sound at all.

I started to doubt if I was dreaming.

The next morning, the rain stopped, but the sky was overcast. I got up and turned on my phone.

A bunch of messages that I'd been waiting for half the night to pop up on my phone eagerly, all from girls in the company who were either among the most beautiful or who I thought were among the most beautiful, all full of warm concern.

My wife went to America, and God knows if she'll ever come back.

She left everything behind, and she left nothing behind.

I live alone.

My company employs thirty or forty people, most of whom are pretty girls.

Almost every weekend after get off work, someone invites me to dinner, but I always decline.

Some of them are my personal assistants, and some are department managers.

I have a principle: I will never turn the women under my control into women in my possession. However, this is merely my personal principle, and it cannot stop those beautiful girls from buzzing around me every day.

Just as people involved in pyramid schemes often practice hypnotic language techniques, these pretty girls frequently practice simulating charming smiles and alluring eyes in front of the mirror.

However, I always felt that their smiles were strikingly similar, as if they had been taught by the same teacher. Later, I also discovered that they looked more and more alike, as if they had been painted by the same beautician.

I changed the parrot's rice and water.

There was still a lot of rice and water in the little flower bowl, but it didn't eat much.

I no longer expect it to be as eloquent as Asi's budgie. I still keep it, simply because it is a living being, and I can't let it starve.

It stared at me blankly, then suddenly sneezed, looking just like a human—it was so cute. It immediately straightened its posture and continued looking at me.

The terrifying parrot (4)

I observed it closely and noticed that its red eyes looked a little listless, its feathers were fluffy, and clear liquid was flowing from its nostrils.

On my way to work, I called Axi and told him about the symptoms my parrot was showing.

He said, "Your parrot must have rhinitis, which is an upper respiratory tract disease caused by exposure to cold, similar to a cold in humans."

He told me to use ephedrine hydrochloride nasal drops, or to give it some mulberry leaves and mint.

As soon as I hung up the phone, I sneezed loudly.

A huge movie poster hangs outside the window; it's for the Korean film "My Sassy Girl".

I've never understood what's so appealing about the sassy girlfriend "Jun Ji-hyun," but it seems like men all over Asia have fallen for her, causing the movie to rake in a lot of RMB from our country; it also led to at least five comic book versions of "My Sassy Girl" being released, making a fortune; and it made "sassy" a key entertainment word in 2002.

That Korean girl is indeed very pretty, that's all. It's precisely because she's so pretty that she's so domineering and unreasonable.

There are a few scenes we will never forget:

1. She was an alcoholic, staggering on the subway, yelling at male passengers to give her their seats, then suddenly vomiting like a faucet onto another male passenger. (Why didn't she vomit on female passengers? It seems that women's drunkenness, like men's, has an element of performance.)

2. She asked her boyfriend, "How deep is the river? Jump in and try!" When her boyfriend wouldn't listen, she simply pushed him into the river.

3. In the coffee shop, she asked the boy, "What would you like to drink?" Her boyfriend said, "Coke." So she told the waiter, "Two coffees, please."

4. If her boyfriend chooses any snacks other than snails to go with his drinks at a hotel, she'll immediately slap him, leaving five finger marks on his face...

As for Wang Jing, although his girlfriend didn't treat him like a human being, he acted like a masochist, enjoying the pleasures of love amidst the scolding and beatings. Both of them had mental issues; one had sadistic tendencies, and the other had masochistic tendencies.

Furthermore, in the recently released film "The Lion Roars," the character Yue'e, a fierce woman from the Song Dynasty, is also a beautiful woman, and also a tigress.

Imagine you work at the same company as a group of girls, and from the beginning, all of them wear masks. You've never seen any of their faces. After working with them for a while, you secretly rank them according to your likes and dislikes. Finally, when you remove their masks, you'll find that the girl you like the most is the least pretty, while the girl with the prettiest face is the one you dislike the most.

This experiment is interesting, but impossible to implement, so we are always blinded by glamorous appearances.

A few days ago, the company held a press conference, and I was extremely busy.

Unexpectedly, a huge loophole appeared at the press conference, caused by an advertisement the company had recently published on the back cover of a best-selling magazine. It was a fatal flaw that was exposed by a sharp-eyed and shrewd reporter.

I was stunned in front of the reporters, and my staff were also staring at me blankly, not knowing how to make amends. The room was completely silent.

At this moment, a girl gracefully walked onto the stage, picked up the microphone, and quietly said a few words, naturally salvaging the situation. Although it wasn't perfect, she managed to cover up the loophole with a blanket.

She is Ya Jie.

Whether in terms of appearance or position, she was the most inconspicuous girl in the company.

It was late after the press conference ended. I went back to the company and sat alone in the empty office, lost in thought.

Most of the employees went straight home, but those pretty girls, seeing me return to the company, tactfully followed me back one by one. They came into my office, chattering excitedly about today's press conference. Perhaps they were trying to cheer me up; according to their descriptions, the press conference seemed to have been a great success.

I didn't say anything; I felt very tired.

Later, my gaze passed through the half-open office door and I saw that Ya Jie had also returned. She sat quietly at her desk, seemingly tidying up something.

I said to the girls, "You can all go home if you have nothing else to do. I want to sit alone for a while."

They looked at each other, unsure of my feelings, and then walked out one by one.

After they all left, I went outside to Ya Jie's desk and said, "Ya Jie, thank you."

She was a little flattered, smiled, lowered her head, and continued tidying up.

I said again, "Look, I haven't eaten yet. Shall we go get something to eat together?"

Ya-Jie said shyly, "I ate on the way back... I'll go out and buy you something."

I thought for a moment and said, "Okay."

After Ya Jie went out, she quickly bought a hot boxed lunch.

I smelled it and said, "Great!" Then I reached into my pocket and asked, "How much?"

Ya Jie smiled, this time a genuine smile: "This is my treat."

I stopped insisting, pulled up a chair and sat next to Ya Jie, opened my lunchbox, and asked again, "How much is your monthly salary?"