"Xiuying, it's time to get up for breakfast." The voice of an old man came from the small bedroom.
A red parrot was perched on the wardrobe, calling towards the white-haired old lady lying in bed. Every morning, this was how the parrot woke the old lady. It had become an everyday occurrence for them over the past two years. The old lady's surname was Chen and her name was Xiuying.
Today, Xiuying did not obediently get up like usual. Her vision still blurry. She opened her eyes slowly and then smiled at the parrot.
The parrot stopped calling, and just quietly perched atop the wardrobe. Its eyes met with Xiuying's.
Xiuying had no children. Twenty years ago, a car accident had taken her daughter's whole family away from her.
From that point onwards, the lonely elderly couple could only depend on each other. They lived right in that very house that was not too large.
After the car accident, they had gotten a large sum of money as compensation, but they never got a new house. They had already grown far too used to this old house of theirs.
Sometime after, they began to raise a parrot.
The parrot was intelligent. It could speak and also imitate sounds, and it often brought laughter to the elderly couple.
The elderly couple found a companion within the parrot. They taught it how to speak, and it also learned how to imitate their voices. It brought an extra sliver of warmth to the cold house.
In the past, the old man would wake Xiuying up every day. After losing their daughter, Xiuying had become a lot less mentally alert, and a lot sleepier. Without the old man to wake her up, she would often miss breakfast, and that was bad for her stomach.
This carried on up until two years ago. The old man passed away.
To Xiuying, it was undoubtedly as though the sky had fallen down on her. It was a long and dark night for her. She had no idea how she actually made it through. But the next day at dawn, just as the sun began to rise…
Just the very next day after the old man passed away, their parrot had stood by Xiuying's bedside…
And in an imitation of the old man's voice, gently spoke to her. "Xiuying, it's time to get up for breakfast."
Xiuying opened her eyes and looked at the parrot by the bedside. The pair of eyes that met hers were familiar, and just as warm as she remembered.
The parrot pruned its feathers, then raised its head to look at her again.
Tears welled up in Xiuying's eyes. She got out of bed and prepared breakfast for herself and for the parrot as well. She prepared her partner's favorite dumplings.
The parrot did not eat. It merely pecked at the dumplings once, then stopped.
From then on, every morning, the parrot would perch by Xiuying's bedside and wake her up using that familiar voice.
Today Xiuying did not get out of bed like usual. Instead, she was curled up in bed like a little girl, smiling cheekily at the parrot.
That smile seemed to have brought her back to 60 years ago.
Back when she was still a young girl; that was the exact day that she was married, and the day she spent her first night with her newlywed husband.
Suddenly, Xiuying felt increasingly tired. She found it hard to keep her eyes open.
Actually, she should have already left last night. She was already too old. Loneliness had been eating away at her all this while for far too long.
But she just wanted to hear it once more. Just once more.
To hear the old man's voice.
To hear the old man say, "Xiuying, it's time to get up for breakfast."
My love, you're about to leave on a long journey, far away from me.
I count down the days to your return. When will you be back?
You said,
When I hear your voice once more time, that will be the day we reunite.
Suddenly, Xiuying could see the old man. He was standing by her bed, holding on to her hand.
He said to her, "I'm back, my dear, I've made you wait."
The next day, Gao Peng could hear the neighbors buzzing in conversation as he went downstairs.
Granny Chen, who lived a floor below him, had passed away. When the rest had entered her house, they saw Granny Chen lying on her bed with a peaceful look on her face.
Her fingers were gently curled, and they were interlocked with small little claws. On the other end of her fingers was the cold body of a parrot.
Granny Chen had no direct relatives, so according to government regulations, her body would be collected by the morgue, which would then contact her distant relatives.
If no one came for her still, then her body would be cremated and placed in the public cemetery.
"Aiya!"
"It's a ghost!"
Shouts of alarm came from the crowd, and many of them were running away.
Deep within the crowd, Gao Peng could see that specks of light had suddenly appeared. These specks of light gradually floated up into the sky.
Amongst the specks of light, Gao Peng could faintly see a pale blue semi-transparent parrot flying up into the heavens. The specks of light seemed to be dancing around it.
[Monster Name]: Guardian of the Soul
[Monster Level]: 25
[Monster Grade]: Perfect
[Monster Attribute]: Soul
[Monster Description]: A strong obsession with the soul keeps this monster in the mortal realm. It can take numerous forms. When the obsession ends, it will return to the underworld.
The pale blue parrot circled around the third floor window thrice, and with a sudden flutter of its wings, vanished into the sky.
"I saw it, they started flying! The two dead bodies on the metal rack became specks of light and flew away! The parrot and the person were definitely dead!" One of the workers from the morgue was in utter panic. He had definitely been scared out of his wits.
The world had changed after the cataclysm, one could say; but corpses had stayed the same.
No matter how terrifying the monster or human, they all became the same after they died.
No matter what, they became cold and incapable of moving.
But now, even the corpses weren't following the rules!
The workers from the morgue were definitely scared out of their wits.
With the passing away of Granny Chen, Gao Peng was shocked.
When he heard the news, his heart became heavy. After all, she was a familiar face that he saw all the time.
He recalled that other than the Striped Gray Plate Spider, Granny Chen had another pet, which was the parrot she kept at home.
Now that Granny Chen and the parrot were both gone, what would happen to the Striped Gray Plate Spider?
There were previous incidents within the city where the Familiar was left behind after its owner had passed away. Without the control of their masters, some Familiars chose to enter the mountains, returning to the wild.
Others experienced a huge change in their nature, become highly offensive and attacking other humans.
Gao Peng was intending to head out to buy the materials needed for Silly's evolution. Other than the Wood Space Heart, Gao Peng had heard of the other materials. They were not particularly rare or expensive. But with what just happened, Gao Peng decided to back upstairs to take a look instead.
He was still rather familiar with that little spider that liked to hang around in the stairwell.
Walking up the stairs, he found the little spider on the ceiling of the fifth floor stairwell.
Its eight clawed limbs were hooked onto the ceiling, and its blood red eyes were constantly shimmering with a hint of madness. It was letting out a low hiss as well.
In Gao Peng's vision he could see that the Striped Gray Plate Spider's condition was currently in a state of sorrow.
Seeing that someone had come, the Striped Gray Plate Spider turned its face away and hid in a corner of the ceiling, as though it were embarrassed to be seen in such a state.
After a few minutes, seeing that Gao Peng was still there, the spider's embarrassment turned into rage. It began to shriek loudly at Gao Peng.
Hiss? Da Zi casually made a sound as it lazily climbed up onto Gao Peng's shoulder.
The Striped Gray Plate Spider froze, then unhappily curled up into a ball in resignation.
It just lost its master, and now a vicious tyrant of a centipede was bullying it. A spider's life was really tough.
Having lost its hopes and dreams, it reduced itself to a hairy ball.
With a pachi sound, it fell down from the ceiling and stayed on the ground without even moving.
"You must be very sad, aren't you?" said Gao Peng as he squatted down next to the spider and gently patted it on the head.
The Striped Gray Plate Spider could sense the kind intentions from Gao Peng's voice and trembled slightly.
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