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

  Pain.

  Its whole body was in smoldering pain.

  Especially in its lungs—every time it breathed, it felt like it was inhaling a vat of burning dust; every time it coughed, it felt like sparks were spurting out its throat.

  Its eyelids seemed to have become swollen, and as if there were lead blocks being attached upon them, it was difficult for Richard to open its eyes. It could only half-open its eyes and observe the world through its narrow visions.

  It heard some sounds buzzing near its ears. Sometimes, the sounds were so vague like they were from a far cry, but the next moment, they were roaring beside its ears, penetrating its brain like steel needles.

  Such painful feelings were familiar, for it had experienced them once. Since this time, its senses were more acute than before, it felt even more painful.

  Its consciousness ran into the state of confusion, as if it was back in the lab again.

  “Irene, please listen to me carefully. It’s got aspergillosis, and you know how terrible this disease is.”


  “My God! Are we going to lose it?”


  “No, we will not lose it, at least not now.”


  “What should we do?”


  “We have a cure for aspergillosis, but it’s designed for large raptorial birds like hawks, so we must explore carefully until we find the right dosage for it. Listen, Irene, I’ll do my best and then together let’s pray to God to not to take it away!”


  …


  “Irene, I’m sorry, but the drug therapy did not produce the effects I expected.”


  “No! No!”


  “Please calm down, Irene! We have not reached the point of despair. As your friend and as a veterinarian, I recommend performing a thoracotomy on it, to scrape off the aspergilli in its chest.”


  “Thoracotomy? Are you kidding me! It’s a bird weighing only one pound!”


  “Listen, Irene, this is our last resort. You don’t want to lose it, right?”


  “…Yes, you are right. Are you going to operate on it, my friend?”


  “No, I have contacted the best veterinarians in the country for it. They are all the experts in microsurgery treatment, and they will cure it. I promise!”


  …


  “Irene, I have good news for you—the operation was very successful!”


  “Great! I’ve been waiting for your call… I…”


  “Irene, are you crying?”


  “No, I’m not…not crying. They have cleaned up the damn aspergilli, right? It will be fine, right? Please tell me it will!”


  “Yes, Irene, their operation was very successful, and soon it will be back by your side—there may be some side effects, but it will be all right.”


  “Thank God!”


  …


  “Doctor…” murmured Richard.

  “Richard, are you awake?”


  A hand was gently stroking its back. The hand was warm, with the special alkaline flavor of a sterile soft soap.

  Dizzy.

  It struggled to open its heavy eyelids, trying to identify the person in front of it.

  Its vision was somewhat vague at first, and it really thought it was looking at the person in its memory—regrettably, though the dispositions were similar, it was not the same person. Sun Xiaomeng had the same short hair as she did, had an Oriental face and looked younger than her, but the caring sparkling in their eyes was exactly the same.

  It turned its pupils, not as flexible as ever, but it could identify the furnishings around it—it was not in a lab, but in a very common living room, located on the second floor of an ordinary pet shop.

  Richard didn’t know for how long it had been unconscious, but it was dark outside the window. The construction noises downstairs had disappeared, probably because the workers worried about disturbing the residents in the neighborhood, and had stopped for the day.

  “Doctor…” It staggered to stand up.

  Sun Xiaomeng buttressed it by letting it rest most of its weight on her hand. It was not until this moment that she found it was surprisingly light, its weight was even less than half the weight of a human brain. Its body was so delicate, yet its intelligence and wisdom were comparable to those of humans, so it was already a miracle of nature.

  And now, such a miracle was gradually fading away, as if nature was trying to fix a small mistake in the evolutionary chain.

  “Don’t move, Richard, come and take some medicine.”


  Sun Xiaomeng extended two capsules to the bird’s beak.

  “What are these?” it asked.

  “Do you really want to know? Well, I discarded the original medicines in the cold capsules and stuffed in the medicines prepared by myself, including nystatin, ciprofloxacin, and compound vitamins. Take them, you will feel better”


  Acute aspergillosis had a very high mortality rate because it took only about three hours from the onset of symptoms to death. If the disease occurred at night, pets would have been dead before their owners could detect such an illness—even if some owners did find their pets sick, it would be too late to send them to see doctor, and that’s why acute aspergillosis was so horrible.

  Richard was unfortunate, but it was also fortunate, for when the symptoms occurred, Wang Qian and Li Kun were also in the living room, and they called Zhang Zian immediately and gained precious time for it. After that, whether it was Wang Qian and Li Kun’s who were running errands back and forth, or Sun Xiaomeng who was decisive on diagnosis and giving prescription, or Jin Er who was speeding in his car, all of them were racing against its death, and it was really hard to tell whether they could defeat death in this round of racing.

  Richard stared at the two capsules for several seconds before it opened its beak to swallow them.

  “Don’t bite, just swallow them,” reminded Sun Xiaomeng.

  Richard listened to her and swallowed the two capsules.

  “Great.” She exhaled in relief. She was worried that it would refuse to swallow the capsules because of its instincts as a bird, but it was so helpful that Richard can understand people’s words so well.

  These tablets were made by Sun Xiaomeng. She borrowed the chopping board and rolling pin in Zhang Zian’s house, carefully ground the tablets into powder, and then filled them into the cold capsules so that Richard could take them more easily. If she followed the conventional way by mixing the medicines into its food, the effect would appear slower, and she was afraid it would be too late for Richard.

  “Here. Drink some water.” She fetched a porcelain shot glass, which was used by Zhang Zian’s father when he had an alcoholic drink, and such a glass can only contain 25ml of liquor.

  Right now, the shot glass was not filled with liquor, but with a clear liquid with a touch of blue.

  “This is copper sulfate solution with 0.5% concentration level. It is poisonous, but it can cure your illness, which is called ‘fighting poison with poison’ in China.”


  Seeing that Richard was staring at the liquid, Sun Xiaomeng thought it didn’t dare to drink it, so she explained to Richard.

  “Doctor, I will drink it, but these will not save me.”


  Richard said plainly, lowering its head to sip the copper sulfate solution in its mouth.

  It understood that the nightmares of the past had not been completely eradicated. Instead, they had been quietly gathering up. Last time, these medicines failed to save it, it was carried to a place that was thousands of miles away to receive the microsurgery. This time, these medicines wouldn’t be able to save it either. And it didn’t think that such a simple pet shop would have the equipment required for performing a microsurgery.

  Unexpectedly, Sun Xiaomeng nodded, agreeing to what it said.

  “You’re right, these medicines alone won’t save you.”


  Despite this, she was still filled with firm confidence. Even the prestigious veterinarians across the oceans were not as confident as she was when encountering aspergillosis. Richard was stunned and was moved by her great faith.

  She smiled and reached out one arm towards Richard, signaling it to stand up on her arm.

  “Come on, let’s go out for a walk.”