Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Zhang Zian listened very patiently to Guo Dongyue’s story, and making sure that Guo Dongyue had finished the story, he began to ask, “What can I do to help you?”


  Guo Dongyue remained silent and absorbed in his thoughts, then he spoke slowly. “When I was in elementary school, my family kept two parrots.”


  Zhang Zian turned around and looked at Richard, and he didn’t know what to do—if Guo Dongyue wanted to borrow Richard, how was he going to say no?

  “Not grey parrots.” Guo Dongyue seemed to have read Zhang Zian’s mind. “They were a pair of peach-faced lovebirds.”


  “Oh, I see.” Zhang Zian rested assured, but he felt guilty about the fact that he felt relieved. If Richard was just an ordinary grey parrot, he wouldn’t mind lending it to Guo Dongyue, but Richard was not just an ordinary parrot.

  Peach-faced lovebirds were known for their fidelity and faithfulness to true love. And a couple of lovebirds were better when kept and raised together, otherwise one of them would end up in very low spirits.

  In urban areas, many people kept birds as pets, and among birds, parrots were quite popular.

  Zhang Zian was curious to know what happened to Guo Dongyue’s parrots. “Your parrots, have they died? Or have they flown away?”


  Guo Dongyue shook his head, “No, they are not dead nor have they flown away. They were given to another family as a gift.”


  Many people impulsively decided to have pets, and when they did have pets, they found that they did not really like the pets, or their house was not suitable for pet keeping, so they decided to give them away as gifts. Such scenarios should not be advocated, but they were very common.

  “That pair of lovebirds were given by others to my mother as a gift, and my mother loved them so much, she often taught them how to talk. But…” he touched his throat gently, “but something went wrong with her respiratory tract…”


  Zhang Zian didn’t understand how these two things were related.

  Just then, someone walked into the pet shop at a brisk pace.

  “Was it psittacosis or PBL?” said a familiar voice.

  It was Sun Xiaomeng. She hadn’t changed her clothes; she was wearing a doctor’s white gown, with her hands in her pockets, and a mask hung at one of her ears. She looked weary, and seemed like she was taking a walk away from the clinic.

  Guo Dongyue was surprised by her appearance, and he looked at Zhang Zian, waiting for his introduction.

  “Wait a minute! What is psittacosis? And what the hell is PBL? Can you say something that us ordinary people can understand? And say it in Chinese!” Zhang Zian wanted to satisfy his curiosity first.

  “You are a pet shop owner, yet you don’t know about this common knowledge?” Sun Xiaomeng sat down on the square head steel tube chair on which Guo Dongyue sat before. She pulled down her mask and put it into the pocket in her white gown, and murmured to herself, “I’m so exhausted.”


  “What common knowledge?” Zhang Zian tried very hard to recall, but he still couldn’t remember if he had learned anything about psittacosis or PBL.

  Guo Dongyue silently sized up Sun Xiaomeng, and he was not planning to explain it to Zhang Zian either.

  Zhang Zian decided to find the answers by himself.

  He searched the three characters “PBL” on his phone, thinking that they might be the abbreviations of some words. But there was nothing. He could tell that the results provided by the search engine were wrong.

  Sun Xiaomeng chuckled, “Stop it. PBL is a professional medical term. It’s hard to find it on ordinary search engines. It means ‘pigeon-breeders’ lung’.”


  Guo Dongyue nodded slightly.

  “Pigeon what?” Zhang Zian was still confused.

  “Pigeon-breeders’ lung, also known as bird-breeders’ lung,” Sun Xiaomeng explained, “It’s easily understandable when written out: an allergic reaction in the human respiratory system resulted from the breeding of birds.”


  Sun Xiaomeng couldn’t help talking when the topic involved her professional area.

  No one stopped her, and she continued, “Psittacosis is parrot fever, which is an epidemic pneumonia. This disease often occurs at bird breeders’ houses. Adults have a stronger immunity to it, while growing children have much higher possibility of getting infected. Though it is called parrot fever, actually both house pigeons and parrots might cause this pneumonia…”


  “Quack!” Sun Xiaomeng was surprised by the bird sound.

  Richard interrupted her, “Quack! Quack! Is it true?”


  Sun Xiaomeng had just done two procedures consecutively and she was so tired. That’s why she came out for a walk, and decided to visit Zhang Zian’s Pet Shop while she was nearby. She heard about Guo Dongyue’s experience while she was outside the door, and since the topic involved her expertise, she wanted to show off what she knew. After entering the pet shop, she was too busy recalling her knowledge and explaining the terms to Zhang Zian to notice that there was a new parrot in the pet shop, and that the parrot could speak very clearly, but in a frivolous tone.

  Sun Xiaomeng looked at Richard, who was jumping around at the cash register. She asked Zhang Zian with great surprise, “Is this your parrot?”


  “Kind of,” Zhang Zian answered cautiously. “Just ignore it. This parrot just likes talking nonsense, let’s talk about it after we hear you out.”


  “Okay.” With all that said, Sun Xiaomeng kept staring at Richard, for it talked just like a human.

  Guo Dongyue had seen Richard do similar things before, so he was not surprised. He just raised his eyebrows without making any comment.

  “What was I talking about?” She had clearly been influenced by Richard.

  “Pigeons and parrots might cause pneumonia,” Zhang Zian reminded her.

  “Right. So, was it psittacosis or PBL?” she asked Guo Dongyue, like a doctor would.

  Guo Dongyue nodded, and spoke for the first time after Sun Xiaomeng came in, “It was psittacosis.”


  “Speak Chinese! I don’t understand a word you are talking about.”


  Zhang Zian was furious. Guo Dongyue was a designer who had studied abroad, and Sun Xiaomeng was an elite licensed veterinarian. Both of them understood English very well, but Zhang Zian’s English was not good. Especially since he started working, he had almost forgotten the English he learned back in school. Speaking the word “psittacosis” was like being tormented by a tongue twister, and he almost bit his tongue.

  Sun Xiaomeng couldn’t help but glance at Richard again, “Parrot fever… When people spend a long time in close contact with their pet birds, especially pigeons and parrots, they might get affected—though the infection rate is not high. Healthy adults will be fine, only people with low immunity and teenagers and children are susceptible to infection. Bird feces might be a source of infection. Apart from that, because pigeons and parrots like moving up and down, they like pecking their chest feathers when they feel bored. When they do that, large amounts of feather-dust invisible to naked eyes will be floating in the air. So, children should not be left with pet birds in enclosed space for long term.”


  Richard put its beak into its chest and started to peck its feathers, as if confirming Sun’s words.

  Zhang Zian felt so embarrassed.