Jun was meditating on the chair in the hall for quite some time.
With a creaking sound, the courtyard gate was slowly pushed open.
Jun's ears twitched involuntarily; she could tell that the person opening the gate was being extremely cautious, as if afraid of being noticed by others from outside.
Footsteps echoed from the entrance to the centre of the courtyard, then stopped. After taking a deep breath, a voice exclaimed, "Hey, you there! Come out and take a look at this. What could this be?"
Yan's voice was filled with excitement. Jun decided not to dampen his enthusiasm and got up, making her way to the courtyard.
Yan held a parrot in his arms, its feathers pure white without a hint of colour. The curvature of its beak and claws indicated that it had once been robust, but the little creature seemed a bit under the weather, with its head hanging loosely on Yan's arm, and its bean-like eyes half-open.
"Where did this come from?" Jun asked with a hint of surprise.
"I, um, found it. Found it in the courtyard," Yan replied.
"Found it?" Jun played along, not revealing that she knew the truth. "Well, it seems your place here is truly a lucky spot. You can even find birds. Maybe I'll find one myself one of these days."
"You don't have to wait till later, you can have this one right now." Yan hurriedly handed the parrot over to Jun. "Let it accompany you, so you won't get idle."
Jun took the parrot and gently stroked its feathers. "Poor little thing, what happened to you? Did you fly into a tree? People usually wait by the stump for rabbits, but someone here seems to be waiting for birds."
Yan caught on to Jun's playful tone; she was teasing him in response to his earlier remark about the Machu clan enjoying bird keeping.
The parrot seemed uninterested in the verbal sparring between the two individuals before it. After Jun had caressed it for a short while, it tilted its head, closed its eyes, and its breath became so faint that it was barely detectable.
"Oh no, little thing, what's wrong with you? You wouldn't... Please don't scare me..." Jun held the parrot, feeling at a loss.
Yan hurriedly stepped forward to examine the parrot. After a brief inspection, he informed Jun that the bird had passed away. "But don't worry, just wait a few hours, and it can still keep you company."
"I won't wait. I'd rather not have it accompany me if it means being alive. How wonderful it would be to have a companion to sing with, to argue with, to find little fat insects to eat, to bask in the sun and groom its feathers."
Yan helplessly looked at the emotionally charged Jun.
"Feel it, it's still warm, and its chest is still moving. Save it, please, save it!"
"I'm not heartless, but I don't know how..."
"Then find a doctor."
"I've told you, there's no doctor here. Even if there were, after a cup of tea, he would forget everything," Yan sighed even more helplessly.
"Please try to think of a way to save it. If you can save it, I'm willing to give you my life."
Yan was moved by Jun's determination.
"I have a plan. You stay here, find a warm cloth to wrap the parrot in, to maintain its body temperature..."
Yan's words trailed off as he rushed off to put the plan into action.
Jun had no choice but to trust Yan. She carefully wrapped the parrot in a cloth and cradled it in her arms, her gaze fixed on it without daring to look away.
As the light in the parrot's eyes grew dimmer and dimmer, flickering like a candle in the wind, just as it was about to fade away.
"It seems to be dehydrated…" Yan said in a weak voice, "this parrot hasn't been well taken care of for a long time, so its body is quite weak."
"Dehydrated?" Jun was unfamiliar with the modern terminology used by Yan.
"Oh, it's thirsty. Quickly give it some water."
Looking around, Jun spotted a grapevine and suddenly had an idea. She reached out and plucked a grape, then brought it to the parrot's beak.
The parrot smelled the grape's aroma, and its small, bean-like eyes gradually brightened. It leaned in, trying to peck at the grape, but perhaps due to its weakness, it couldn't break through the skin no matter how hard it tried.
Seeing this, Jun squeezed the grape, and juice gushed out, providing the parrot with a refreshing drink. The parrot eagerly sucked and nibbled, quickly reducing the grape to just a peel.
"Don't rush, little thing. There are plenty of grapes, you'll have enough," Jun said, as she plucked another grape and offered it to the parrot.
Yan chuckled, but it seemed somewhat vague, "You're still calling it 'little thing.' Do you even know how old it is?"
"How old? Probably only two or three years old," Jun replied while continuing to feed the parrot.
"Two or three years old? Let me tell you, this bird is older than you; it's almost forty," Yan remarked.
"No way," Jun reevaluated the parrot in her arms.
"Look at its feather colours, its beak, and its claws. They're all in their prime condition. Large parrots like this usually live to be around seventy or eighty years old. It's, well, middle-aged for a bird."
"Oh, who is the Machu clay now ?"
Yan recognized this as another mockery from Jun, but he remained silent, seemingly uninterested in engaging in verbal sparring with Jun.
The parrot had eaten and drank to its satisfaction. It wriggled out of Jun's embrace and flew to the grapevine, focused on preening its feathers. Jun watched it with joy filling her heart.
"Alright, the emergency is over, I'll…"
"What happened to you just now?" Jun interrupted Yan.
Yan made a bewildered expression.
"Just now, the way you looked, so pale, sweating on your forehead, unable to stand steadily, are you sick again?"
Yan remained noncommittal.
"And also, how do you know so much about parrots? How did you know it was dehydrated? How did you know it was an adult parrot? How…"
Yan raised both hands, a gesture of surrender or pause. "Um, considering I saved this parrot, can I make a request to you?"
"Go ahead," Jun responded quite readily.
"Could you please let me have a little secret?"
Jun was left speechless.
"Now you have a significant responsibility ahead. Taking care of a parrot here is not easy, and its diet alone is a challenge. By the way, do you know what parrots eat?"
Jun naturally shake her head.
"They generally eat millet, but looking at your parrot, it doesn't seem to be the obedient type..."Yan extended his arm toward the parrot, and surprisingly, it hopped onto his arm as if understanding his intention. "See, this bird clearly belongs to a valuable breed. It's intelligent and quite feisty..."
Yan suddenly stopped talking and gestured for Jun to look at the leg ring on the parrot's left foot.
Jun realized that the leg ring appeared to be made of brass, but the dull darkness concealed its true nature as pure gold.
Yan removed the leg ring and examined it under the light. "There are inscriptions on it. 'Ling,' bestowed by Empress Dowager Cixi. And there's more on the inner ring, something about 'Imperial Household Department forgery.' Oh, this is a piece of cultural relic..."
Jun's mind buzzed for a moment. In a flash, she seemed to envision a group of elegantly dressed women surrounding an arrogant large white bird, engaging in playful banter. However, the identity of these women, whether she was among them, where they were, and what they were doing, all became a throbbing headache, impossible for her to recall.
"I never expected that what I brought back would turn out to be the pet of that disastrous old hag," a cold voice cut through the air.
Simultaneously, Jun was frustrated with Yan for referring to Empress Dowager Cixi as a "disastrous old hag." That was too disrespectful – was it fair to label an elderly lady with such a heavy derogatory term?
"Mr. Zou, it's just a parrot, there's no need to exaggerate things," Jun intentionally referred to Yan as Mr. Zou, and the previously intimate atmosphere vanished instantly.
"You think you know everything? Do you know the origin of this parrot? Do you?" Yan became indignant, "It was a gift from Li Hongzhang to Empress Dowager Cixi on her sixtieth birthday."
"Sending a bird for a sixtieth birthday, that doesn't really..."
Jun's words were cut short as she met Yan's intense gaze, and she quickly swallowed the "matter" she was about to say.
"Yes, just a bird for a sixtieth birthday. It might not sound like much, but do you know in what context? Do you understand the critical state China was in at that time?" Yan's voice carried a weight of significance.
Jun shook her head in response.
"With nations sharpening their swords, particularly Japan, that puny little country actually aimed to devour our mighty China. At such a crucial juncture of life and death for the Chinese nation, what was that old lady doing? She diverted funds meant for building a navy to construct the Summer Palace! And what about that renowned statesman? Instead of advising against it, he not only celebrated with a bird but also supported tyranny."
Yan was so impassioned that his face turned crimson. He leaned against the grapevine, gasping for breath.
Jun's heart was in turmoil.
Yan's explanation of the "context" finally helped her make sense of the fleeting images in her mind. That group of elegantly dressed women must have been the imperial concubines of Empress Dowager Cixi. Among them were Empress Longyu, Consort Jin, Princess Rongshou and the two imperial attendants Rongling and Deling. And she was the little girl standing diagonally across from the parrot perch, holding the hand of another girl. The two of them watched everything before them with shyness and curiosity.
"Ling is hungry, Ling wants to eat," the parrot perched on the grapevine suddenly exclaimed.
Jun snapped back to the present and playfully bantered with the parrot, "You just ate, five grapes, and now you're hungry again? Are you a starving ghost reborn?"
"Well," Yan, who had remained silent for a long time, finally spoke up, "grapes can't hold off hunger, they're just to satisfy its mouth."
Before Jun could respond, the parrot flapped its wings, as if delighted to find a kindred spirit.
"I'll figure out its food. Millet, right?"
Jun nodded.
"I'll take care of that. You stay home and wait, and remember, don't go out."
Without allowing Jun to argue, Yan turned and left.
As Yan's figure disappeared, Ling, the parrot watched him go. When the man's back was out of sight, the parrot looked at Jun, pondered for a moment, and suddenly chirped, "Little Zou and Second Niu, hand in hand wherever go."