347 The Time I Thought Happiness Came So Naturally (1/2)
Chapter 347: The Time I Thought Happiness Came So Naturally
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
It was just over half an hour before the plane landed.
The stylish lady with blonde hair and green eyes put out a small comb for her smooth blonde hair and the creaking static noises were heard. After putting her comb into her handbag, she fumbled out a bunch of jars and bottles filled with cosmetic products and started to refine her makeup elaborately in front of her small mirror. Richard couldn't help but think that maybe her boyfriend— or girlfriend! — was waiting for her at the Los Angeles International Airport?
Not only her, but other passengers were preparing to get off the plane. Walking back and forth down the aisles, they were waiting in queue for the bathrooms. Sometimes, one or two brats wanted to pull at Richard's tail, but it dodged their grabbing hands flexibly.
Not a fan of the scents of cosmetics or brats like Yi Le, Richard wanted to go to a quiet place close to the porthole.
Fina was taking a nap on her seat closest to the porthole, while Zhang Zian was sleeping with his mouth open in the middle seat. Richard decided to bully the weak one. It fluttered its wings and landed on Zhang Zian's shoulder, looking at the brown coastline beneath the skyline afar through the porthole.
Suddenly, it noticed its own figure in the reflection of the porthole—its whole body was covered with light grey feathers, and its dark red tail feathers appeared very perky.
It looked at its body carefully, lowered its head, and used its beak to comb through the disheveled feathers on its chest.
”Stop it.” Zhang Zian sensed its movement. Half asleep, he opened his eyes, wiped off his saliva, and muttered.
Richard didn't bother to care about this man, who was always at the bottom of the food chain of the pet shop.
It remembered the day when it looked in the mirror for the first time in its life.
At that time, it hadn't acquired the intelligence to know that it was a 'parrot', nor did it have the concept of how a parrot looked like in its head. When it saw its figure in the mirror for the first time, it thought another creature had intruded its body. It was so scared that it shivered in the corner.
”Oh, darling, don't be afraid, it is you.” Wearing her white coat, she was amused by its response and held it tightly in her arms, whispering to it softly.
”Alex, look, this is you, you are a parrot.”
With her tender words, it felt like it was not as frightened as before. It was being trained to identify colors, so it asked, ”What... color?”
”Oh! Alex, you always surprise me! This is grey, look, your feathers are grey.”
”Come on, cutie pie, you've got another name—'Grey'!”
That day was the first time it had looked in the mirror and it had remembered the color grey ever since. This gave it another nickname, ”Grey”, that she only addressed it with this when she was about to get angry.
For example, when it sat on the plane with humans for the first time, it took away her shrimp salad, for it detested the stale fruit salad provided by the flight and declined to eat it. After several attempts at patient yet futile persuasion, she snapped, ”Damn it! Grey! You must eat that fruit!”
It surrendered and finished the fruit salad sheepishly, not because of her angry tone, but because it noticed the worried and anxious looks that she cast on it.
Although overripe apples give off very disgusting smells, they could supplement the vitamins necessary for its body. After its infection to aspergillus, she was increasingly concerned for its health.
And Richard was not willing to see her eyes filled with any concern.
...
”Liǎng gè huánglí míng cuìliǔ, yì háng báilù shàng qíngtiān—”
”Two golden orioles sing amid the willows green; A flock of white egrets fly toward the blue sky—”
”No, no, baby, not qíngtiān, it’s qīngtiān. It’s pronounced in the first tone, not the second tone!”
In front of Richard’s left side was a family of four. The Chinese mother had been correcting her mixed-race son’s pronunciation numerous times.
”Mommy, I can recite too.” Her little daughter, who also had the facial features of a mixed-race was very active, ”Chūn mián bù jué xiǎo, chùchù wén zí yǎo…?”
”My God!” the mother, who was the only person with the facial features of a Chinese person, rested her fingers on her forehead, ”It’s ‘chùchù wén tí niǎo’ . You are even more impressive than your brother!”
The Chinese passengers around them burst into kind laughter. Though some foreign passengers didn’t understand what was going on, as joyfulness was contagious, they began to smile too.
Richard also smiled ear to ear.