The Little Duck 4

Chapter 4

Yan Lu changed her clothes, grabbed her phone and the car keys from the shoe cabinet by the door, and hurried out.

Since this matter most likely concerned her, Jian Xin subconsciously wanted to follow, but before her two little orange webbed feet could even patter to the door, Yan Lu shut it with a “bang,” locking her inside.

The little duck tilted its head and quacked a few times at the dark brown door.

“Quack quack quack quack quack?”

I’m very likely the person involved, are you sure you don’t want to bring me along?

A duck’s worries cannot quack their way into human ears.

No matter, there are always more solutions than problems.

A human locked the duck up, but the duck will find its own way out!

She couldn’t help but ponder a question.

A door was holding her back. Was this really right?

In her past dreams, whether good or bad, she had always been in a “fluid” state, never staying in one place for too long.

Dreams, after all, were just that unreasonable.

As far as she was concerned, she could skip class or work, escape an apocalypse, and in special moments, even leap over rooftops and scale walls.

If this really was a dream, how could she be stopped by a single door?

“Dong!”

A sudden sound, carrying a somewhat ethereal echo in the dead of night, made Jian Xin jump.

After a brief daze, Jian Xin unconsciously ducked her head, turned, and glanced in the direction of the sound.

“Quack~”

The little duck let out a sigh of relief.

Oh, it was just the old-fashioned grandfather clock in the living room!

Her family used to have one just like it, chiming once every hour on the hour. The sound just now was the clock striking four in the morning.

She hadn’t been home much since graduating from university. A few years ago, her family had renovated, and the old clock was discarded along with the old decor.

It had been so long since she’d heard that sound that it had actually startled her.

She hadn’t been so easily frightened before. It must be all the overtime that had worn her nerves thin!

If it weren’t for that wretched overtime every day, how could she have drunk so much and ended up in such a bizarre lucid dream?

Forget it, there’s no point complaining. I should first figure out if it’s possible to leave this house. Maybe the dream will end once I get out.

With this thought, the little duck nodded in self-affirmation.

She turned her head to look at the main door behind her, then, with her wings behind her back, she held her head high and began to patrol the area like a little teacher.

This house, let’s just call it Yan Lu’s place for now.

For such a popular author, Yan Lu’s home wasn’t as large as she had imagined—two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a study, with a small balcony connected to the study.

There were plenty of windows, but unfortunately, every room had security bars, and the balcony was also enclosed. As a small, delicate duck, she had no chance of a secret “prison break” while the owner was away.

Jian Xin circled Yan Lu’s home once, and finally ended up back at the front door. She flapped her wings and jumped up a few times, trying to reach the doorknob.

Ducks, it turned out, had wings for a reason. Her jumping ability was higher than she had imagined, but her body was simply too small. There was still a significant distance to the doorknob.

She tilted her head up, staring at the doorknob with her rather intelligent-looking beady eyes for a moment, and suddenly had a flash of inspiration!

After being a beast of burden for so long, her ability to take action was always strong.

Jian Xin glanced over her shoulder, then backed up step by step until her butt hit the wall. Only then did she stand up straight, flap her little wings furiously, and charge towards the shoe cabinet with a flurry of “pfft-pfft” sounds!

It had to be said, although a duck’s feet weren’t very useful, sometimes they couldn’t even walk straight, this pair of wings was something else. Flapping them made her whole person—ah, no, her whole duck—feel much lighter, as if she could take flight at any second. She couldn’t even stop if she wanted to!

Perhaps it was the instinct of this body. After that short sprint, Jian Xin successfully took flight just as she was about to crash into the door!

That pair of small wings “pfft-pfft-pfft-pfft”-ed her round little body up onto the shoe cabinet!

The next second, the little duck performed an emergency chest-brake. She managed to stop, but not before knocking over the decorations on the cabinet, sending them clattering and crashing to the floor with a loud racket.

Jian Xin stood up, shook her slightly dizzy head, and looked down at the mess on the floor, “quack-quacking” an apology: “My apologies, my apologies, it was not intentional!”

But then she had another thought. This is just a dream. I’ve been well-behaved my whole life, why do I have to be so orderly in a dream?

This thought immediately put her at ease. She spread her wings and, using the height of the shoe cabinet, leaped onto the doorknob.

The doorknob was flush against the door. Although the duck wasn’t large, it couldn’t get a foothold.

Despite Jian Xin’s efforts to stay on by flapping her wings, her large belly ended up sliding down the cool surface of the door with a “quack.”

It’s no use, there’s no chance to use my claws to open the door!

Jian Xin stomped her feet at the door, gave herself a mental pep talk, and once again backed up to repeat the same maneuver.

After several consecutive failures, she couldn’t help but let out a couple of complaining “quacks.”

Just as the quacks faded, a sound that didn’t belong to the night came from behind her.

The little duck timidly turned around.

Behind her stood a very large Corgi, its head tilted, its tongue hanging out—staring at the duck, and at the mess on the floor by the door.

The duck’s neck instantly stiffened. She backed up towards the door until she could back up no further.

Why does a dog in a dream also have such a realistic sense of pressure…

Jian Xin took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

The dream should be ending!

The dream should be ending!!

The dream should be ending!!!

Jian Xin, don’t be afraid. As an adult, you must be scientific.

There are no ghosts or gods in this world, no soul transmigration, and certainly no dream you can’t wake up from!

You can rest assured, a human, even if they work like a beast of burden their whole life, can never truly become a duck!

Deep breaths, don’t be nervous.

When you open your eyes again, you’ll be at home!

Don’t forget, the task Director Niu assigned is due on Monday. You can’t even rest tomorrow, hahahaha!

—Okay, okay, you can open your eyes now. Go bravely face the cruel reality of having to work overtime on the weekend!

With a long exhale, Jian Xin slowly cracked her eyes open.

Before her was still the unfamiliar living room, and at her feet was still the mess she had created.

Even the Corgi named “Xin Xin” was still sticking out its pink tongue, staring at her with its big, dark, round eyes.

Haha, haha, hahaha.

The Trisolarans haven’t shown up, and the laws of physics still exist, but it seems her worldview has collapsed first!

After a rapid but not necessarily rational analysis, Jian Xin concluded that there were three possibilities.

First, she was in a lucid dream but was trapped by something like sleep paralysis.

Second, she was killed by the car and her soul had transmigrated into a duck.

Third, she had already gone insane, hahahaha!

Marvelous, simply marvelous!

This world has finally become deranged in a way she can no longer comprehend!

Perhaps her mental state was too beautiful, for the little duck couldn’t help but let out a burst of crazed “quack-quack” laughter.

The laughter was meant to be self-deprecating, but it sounded more like a provocation, stirring up a strange competitive spirit in the Corgi’s heart.

Xin Xin: “Woof!!”

Jian Xin: “Quack?”

What, what-what-what does it want to do?

Xin Xin: “Awoo!”

The Corgi barked again, wagged its fluffy, upright tail, and suddenly sprang up on its four short legs, pouncing towards the little duck.

Jian Xin was terrified by the pounce, her mind filled with images of a drooling Corgi gnawing on a duck. How could she possibly have time for her own sorrow?

She almost instantly flapped her unfamiliar wings, darted to the side, brushed past the dog, and then desperately fled!

The clock struck five in the morning.

A panicked duck, amidst a series of sharp barks, was chased by a Corgi, stumbling and scrambling all over the house.

Before today, Jian Xin would never have imagined, not even in her wildest dreams, that the vitality that had faded with her youth would one day be miraculously revived.

If ducks could track their steps on WeChat, she would definitely be number one on her friends’ list today!

But, if she had a choice, she would rather not have this kind of vitality, ahhh!!!

***

When Yan Lu received her cousin’s call, she had just finished writing a chapter and was about to coax the duck to sleep before getting some rest herself.

But her cousin was young and had suddenly hit someone with her car. With all her relatives in another province, she was now at the hospital watching over the injured person, crying nonstop in fear. Yan Lu couldn’t rest easy without going to comfort her.

By the time she drove to the hospital in the middle of the night, the injured person had just been moved out of the operating room and into a regular ward.

The good news was, the person wasn’t dead. The fractures and cracks in her bones weren’t severe and would all heal.

The bad news was, the patient had symptoms of intracranial bleeding and was still unconscious. Although the doctor said it wasn’t serious, it was hard to say if there would be any long-term effects, such as a small chance of consciousness disorders.

Yao Wenqian had only graduated from university a little over a year ago. She had never encountered such a tricky situation and was so scared she didn’t dare to leave the hospital, clutching her nearly dead phone and worrying in the ward.

Now, hearing that Yan Lu had arrived at the hospital, she naturally hurried downstairs to meet her. The moment they met at the elevator, she started pouring out her story with red-rimmed eyes.

Faced with this situation, Yan Lu could only comfort her by saying—at least the person was okay. They could talk about compensation after the person woke up. It would depend on who was at fault; they shouldn’t suffer losses they didn’t deserve.

Yao Wenqian nodded, then, as if remembering something, she poked Yan Lu’s arm with her index finger and bit her lip. “Um, Cousin, can you… not tell my parents about this?”

“You’re going to handle this on your own?”

“My grandma fell a few days ago and has been in the ICU. The family is already spending a lot of money. I can’t let them send me money to help out.” Yao Wenqian’s voice grew quieter. “I can take on more freelance work. I want to try to solve this myself…”

“Forget it,” Yan Lu sighed. “If it really comes to it, you still have me. Don’t try to bear it all on your own if you can’t.”

“Thank you, Cousin. It’s fine as long as you don’t tell my parents…” Yao Wenqian muttered as she led Yan Lu into the ward. “The person I hit is a girl. She looks clean and neat. If I have a good attitude, she probably won’t try to latch onto me for the rest of her life, right…”

“That’s not certain. Didn’t you say she reeked of alcohol?” Yan Lu said. “Don’t be too easygoing. Pay what you should, but not a penny more for what you shouldn’t.”

“Huh?” Yao Wenqian started to panic again.

By the light of the bedside lamp, Yan Lu glanced at the person on the hospital bed.

Her steps towards the bed suddenly halted.

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze.

After a long while, she finally took a deep breath.

Yao Wenqian: “Cousin? What’s wrong?”

Yan Lu frowned. “Have you contacted her family?”

Yao Wenqian: “She only had a phone on her, but the screen is locked. I don’t know who to contact…”

Yan Lu: “Where’s the phone?”

Yao Wenqian quickly took a phone with a large crack on the screen from her bag and handed it to Yan Lu.

Yan Lu took the phone and glanced at it. The screen could still light up.

After a moment of thought, she tried entering a password, and the screen instantly unlocked.

Yan Lu couldn’t help but freeze for a second.

Yao Wenqian’s eyes widened instantly. “Cousin! You, you you you… how, why can you…”

“An old acquaintance,” Yan Lu said, opening the contacts list and unable to resist a jab. “Is she brainless? After so many years, she hasn’t even bothered to change her password.”

Did this woman who dumped me back then plan to use my birthday as her password for the rest of her life?