369 Ten Years After Its Death (1/2)

Chapter 369: Ten Years After Its Death

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

On the return trip to China, Fina took the initiative to request to go to sleep in the game. Since she knew the flight would not fly over Egypt, she would not waste time waiting anymore. Besides, the airplane seat was uncomfortable, and the bumping during taking off and landing was a bit frightening.

Zhang Zian was so happy because this helped him save money. Apart from himself, he only needed to buy one extra ticket for Richard.

On the flight to the United States, Richard's seat was close to the aisle. This time, it was clever enough to demand that it should sit by the window and Zhang Zian would sit beside it.

Once on the plane, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the stewardesses were good-looking, young, and slender. He wondered if it was the Thanksgiving compliments from United Airlines… he kept gazing at the stewardesses after he boarded the plane.

Jumping to its own seat, Richard looked out through the porthole at the misty Los Angeles International Airport.

Plenty of silver-grey giant birds were parked on the runway, and from time to time, there were planes taking off or landing. The airport shuttle buses carrying travelers were driving among various terminals. Even on this rainy day, the third-largest airport in the United States was still very busy.

The surrounding passengers were talking ​​in various languages whether the rainy day would affect the normal take-off of this flight, but so far, no broadcast of delayed departure had been received from the captain.

Richard felt bored. Zhang Zian had made great progress in his spoken English during the trip to the United States, and was able to engage in ordinary conversations without its help. And he didn’t need to speak at all right now, for his eyes were busier than the airport shuttle buses.

If Richard knew this would be the case, it would also have required taking a nap in the game so that when they arrived home, Richard would have the energy to disturb Zhang Zian while he was sleeping.

...

She was sitting on a seat next to a window, quietly waiting for the plane's take-off. To her right-hand side was sitting a rude middle-aged man, looking at her from time to time with a discerning and shrewd gaze, as if sizing up something for sale—a gaze that reminded her of her ex-husband. She was certain that at some point after the plane took off, he would certainly find an opportunity to approach her and talk to her.

So, she took the laptop out of her suitcase, opened it, and put it on her lap, launching a document and acting like she was very busy. She had no plans to start her next romantic relationship, at least not for now.

The document was a roughly completed speech. She just needed to improve some of the details.

In recent years, she had become accustomed to writing such speeches for raising funds for the Alex Foundation, having been doing so even more frequently than writing her academic reports. On the contents of her speeches, some people could understand, but others couldn’t, and the accusation of her being too radical was heard oftentimes. Even nowadays, some people thought that Alex was just another joke, a parrot version of the horse named ”Clever Hans”, relying on unintended cues from others to answer questions. Some people even said that her insights into the animals’ brains were ungrounded.

Yes, there was no evidence to support her insights because the only ”proof” had left the world forever.

There were several other excellent African grey parrots in her institute, but none of them were as good as Alex. Alex was a genius—she was increasingly sure of that after it was gone.

With Alex's deeds, she gained her fame, the funds for her laboratories had increased, and the hardships she encountered many years ago were tackled. Back in those days, she, Alex, and two other parrots were stuffed in a small room less than 6 square meters wide. Alex had left behind so many legacies, but it wasn’t able to enjoy these anymore.

She turned her head slightly, staring at her face reflected by the porthole. She wore a grey-black suit with a turtleneck sweater inside. Today's Los Angeles was a bit cold, and she was older, with more wrinkles on her face than a decade ago, and her skin had become flabby.

It had been ten years since Alex died, and she still couldn’t let it go.

Why did you choose grey parrots?

Many people had asked her this question, so she had to put the answer to this sentence in the first paragraphs of her speeches.

African grey parrots were one of the most popular pets. As early as 4,000 years ago, they had been depicted as pets in the murals in ancient Egypt. Among all pets, African grey parrots could learn and articulate human languages most easily.

Staring at the hazy Los Angeles International Airport, she could not help but recall her first encounter with Alex. She met it at a pet shop near Chicago O'Hare International Airport when it was one year old and was crouching with eight other birds in a cage waiting to be adopted. She chose it. A one in nine probability.

Not far from the runway parked a huge Boeing 787 passenger aircraft. Such a gigantic thing was generally flying international routes. She could not help but guess where the plane would fly to. Russia? China? Australia? Or another distant country? The airport passenger stairs had been withdrawn and the cabin doors had been closed. The 787 was listening to the instructions from the control tower, and would take off at any moment to vacate the runway.