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

  Richard was lying on the desk with its head tilted and the feathers on its chest disheveled. It must have been pecking at them boringly at one moment and then suddenly fell over the next second. Its eyelids were semi-closed, and its small black pupils that usually looked smart and sly were dull and lifeless now. Its eyes weren’t focusing at any place, its dark red tail feathers that were always perking upward pretentiously were drooping listlessly now…if its chest and abdomen weren’t rising up and down rapidly with its wings twitching from time to time, Zhang Zian would have really thought it was dead.

  Even if Zhang Zian didn’t know anything about the medical field, through his common sense, he knew that Richard’s conditions were very serious, which could be life-threatening. He could only gaze at Sun Xiaomeng’s face in the hope of learning something from her expression.

  Sun Xiaomeng’s face looked stern. It was well known that birds were very vulnerable among pets. They might appear well the previous day, but without any indication, they might die the next day. Since the body language of birds was far less abundant than that of cats and dogs, even if they was ill, it was hard for their owners to perceive their illness.

  The sky was getting darker and the only light that was on in the living room was one low wattage atmosphere lamp for watching television. She looked up at the ceiling, “It’s too dark in here, turn on all the lights.”


  Zhang Zian suddenly became aware of his carelessness. He quickly turned on the ceiling lamp, and switched his phone flashlight on to help her with the lighting.

  After checking the symptoms of Richard, Sun Xiaomeng was about to further measure its vital signs and habitually put her hands into her pocket when her expression changed. “My stethoscope…”


  She had been accustomed to waiting for clients in her well-equipped clinic, which could receive emergency clients, but generally there were few walk-in emergencies. She was so concerned about Richard that she was panicking, and not until now did she find that she had no equipment on herself.

  In the afternoon, when she heard Richard cough, she had been thinking about running a diagnosis for it, but left the idea behind since she didn’t bring the stethoscope with her. She thought it wouldn’t be too late if she went back to her clinic and brought the stethoscope over, but her plan was delayed by Jin Er and his Husky that walked into her clinic, seeking treatment.

  Before she finished her sentence, Zhang Zian had thrown her white coat to her, “There is a stethoscope in the pocket.”


  Having been trained by Old Time Tea for a long time now, Zhang Zian had more or less acquired its Kung Fu cultivation of Qi, which enabled him to keep his composure and think clearly in emergency circumstances. That’s why he had made his way back to the clinic—one can’t make bricks without straws, and since Richard could go nowhere, he must bring Sun Xiaomeng’s regular diagnostic equipment to his pet shop.

  Sun Xiaomeng took over the stethoscope and put it on, placing the stethoscope chest piece onto Richard’s chest, moving from side to side in small ranges and carefully listened to its internal respiratory conditions.

  Zhang Zian closed his mouth tightly, and didn’t dare to speak or swallow his saliva in fear of interfering with her diagnosis.

  Its abnormally dull breathing sounds were conducted from the stethoscope. (Parrots’ breathing should be kind of like a bellow, but also like a spring with lots of bubbles gurgling out of the earth, which were typical moist rales.) Combined with the phenomena that when pressing at Richard’s chest, there seemed to be edema…


  Sun Xiaomeng’s forehead was oozing sweat, so it looked like a crystal, shiny and lit by the cellphone. The electric heater in the living room was working properly, and the temperature in the room was rising. She didn’t take off her coat when she came into the room, and she even was wearing a scarf. But most importantly, she had initially identified Richard’s illness, and a terrible notion had struck her, making her a bit dizzy.

  She took off the stethoscope, raised her hand to stop Zhang Zian from asking questions, and pressed her forehead with her finger to help her sort things out.

  A few seconds later, she appeared pale and gazed at Zhang Zian’s face. Biting her lower lip and squeezing a few words through her teeth, she said, “It may have acute aspergillosis.”


  Zhang Zian was completely lost. Whether it was acute or chronic aspergillosis, he did not understand nor care about that. Instead, he asked eagerly, “Is it curable?”


  That was the question that lots of pet owners would ask when their pets got sick, and Zhang Zian, who usually didn’t follow the conventional path, was no exception. At that moment, Sun Xiaomeng felt that he was just an ordinary person with all kinds of emotions of ordinary people. She did not answer immediately because there was no easy answer to that question: no one could guarantee whether a serious illness was curable. What if she gave her word to cure the illness recklessly, yet failed in the end?

  She lowered her head to contemplate for another few seconds, and pulled out her phone and dialed the number of Long Xian.

  …


  After Sun Xiaomeng and Zhang Zian left in a hurry, Jin Er asked Long Xian with surprise, “What’s so urgent with the two of them? Why did they leave after taking a phone call without saying anything?”


  Long Xian shook her head, “I don’t know…”


  “You don’t know?” Jin Er was confused, “Aren’t you the nurse here?”


  Although he could still see the cats with the cat trainer gone, he felt something was missing.

  “I just got here, I’m still an intern!” Long Xian felt she was wronged. “Sister Xiaomeng is the boss here, and she doesn’t need to inform me about everything in her life, does she?”


  Jin Er silently looked at this young lady, who was about the same age of Snowy, and felt like he was bullying her, so he sighed, “Well, just take me to see the cats that can do stunts. Come here, Good-for-Nothing!”


  Wearing the Elizabeth collar, Good-for-Nothing had completely lost its spirits, lying on the ground without any movement and glancing at its owners with desperate looks. Not only did it refuse to go to its owner, but it also turned itself over with its back on the ground, as if it was making a scene deliberately.

  Jin Er thought to himself, you are still embarrassing me!

  He knew what this dork was thinking: it was trying to gain his sympathy so that he would take Elizabeth collar off of it.

  No way would he take the Elizabeth collar off in the next few days, for he had tried so hard to put it on its neck. Besides, wearing that collar was for its own benefit, otherwise, judging from this Husky’s extreme greediness, it wouldn’t take long before this dork destroyed the splint on its leg.

  “Okay, just leave it lying here, you take me inside to see the cats,” said Jin Er.

  Long Xian had heard about cats that could do stunts from Wang Qian and Li Kun. She had never seen such cats before. There were many cats and dogs that were sick in the clinic, and Sun Xiaomeng worried that Zhang Zian’s pets would get cross-infected, so she forbade Long Xian to visit his pets. Sun Xiaomeng didn’t enter the ward herself; she only asked Wang Qian and Li Kun to go in there for cleaning and disinfecting every day before the clinic opened. Today, Long Xian finally got the chance to see the cats, so she excitedly led Jin Er into the ward where Zhang Zian’s pets were residing.

  Just when she opened the ward door, her cell phone rang.

  Seeing that it was Sun Xiaomeng’s number, Long Xian knew something huge was happening! Otherwise, she wouldn’t be calling Long Xian after leaving the clinic for only a moment.

  “Hello? Sister Xiaomeng, what’s up?” she answered the phone.

  Sun Xiaomeng said briefly on the other side of the phone, “Put everything aside. Prepare the following medicines from the drug cabinet at your fastest speed. I will immediately send Wang Qian and Li Kun over to take them!”