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There was no way out; due to Mo Xiaohui's persistent pleading, Li Nan could only reluctantly agree, as getting rid of that parrot was proving to be too difficult.
When Li Nan saw that the flowers in the vases in the living room had been nearly devoured, he understood why the parrot had insisted on staying for three days.
This parrot had quite a temper. No matter how Li Nan tried to tempt it with food, it refused to come down. Eventually, Li Nan ran out of ideas and said to Mo Xiaohui, "Our survival is already a problem; why are we keeping this bird? Isn't that just asking for trouble?"
Mo Xiaohui shook his head, "Talking to you is so dull. Keeping a parrot is fine; it can help alleviate boredom!"
Thinking about how the parrot could mimic speech energized him. If he could manage to get this parrot, Mo Xiaohui would probably stop bothering him like this.
With a clear motivation, Li Nan became quite enthusiastic about the task. He wasn't sure whether the parrot ate meat or vegetables, but it must have been tough for it over the past three days, so tempting it with food should work.
With this thought in mind, Li Nan asked Mo Xiaohui to block the doorway while he prepared to engage in a fierce battle with the parrot.
After more than ten minutes of wits and courage, Li Nan finally captured the large parrot in his hands. Mo Xiaohui looked surprised and exclaimed, "Why did you take off your clothes!"
Li Nan smiled, "I really couldn't handle it without taking off my clothes!"
Once the parrot was caught, it stopped struggling. It seemed this fellow was quite intelligent; since it had been captured, it likely had no choice but to submit. However, Li Nan didn't fully trust the parrot; he figured that if he loosened his grip even slightly, it would surely make a run for it.
Mo Xiaohui carried a bag of belongings while Li Nan struggled under the weight of rice in one hand and a bucket of water in the other, with a bird tucked under one arm and a cardboard box under the other—he was having quite a hard time!
Thus, they both descended the stairs with their arms full. Li Nan was fairly satisfied with the results of their scavenging mission and decided to call it a day.
In fact, Li Nan really liked the large room on the eighth floor. Clearly, it was somewhat awkward for both him and Mo Xiaohui to squeeze into less than thirty square meters of space. So he thought about finding another room. However, the door to that eighth-floor room had already been damaged by Li Nan and could no longer guarantee safety. Therefore, he had no choice but to return to his small home.
After tossing over a hundred pounds of supplies into the house, there wasn't much space left. Li Nan comfortably collapsed onto the floor; today's haul would allow them both to last for another week or so.
Holding onto the parrot's wings tightly, he didn't dare relax his grip. Although this guy was just a bird, its body was about the size of an adult cat and it had a sharp hooked beak—he definitely didn't want to get pecked again.
Mo Xiaohui's big eyes were fixed on the parrot in Li Nan's hand, and she was smitten. "This bird's feathers are so beautiful, all colorful!"
Li Nan, lacking in romantic understanding, replied, "If you like its feathers so much, I can pluck them all off for you to stick on your head!"
Mo Xiaohui feigned anger and said, "How can you be so inconsiderate? You would actually do something like that?"
Li Nan was speechless. "You think its feathers are pretty, so you want to cage it and keep it locked up? You're restricting its freedom for your own enjoyment. Isn't that cruel?"
Mo Xiaohui thought Li Nan was serious and replied sternly, "So what do you think we should do, let it go?"
Having enough trouble with the women around him, Li Nan didn't want to deal with a bird as well. Although the bird could distract Mo Xiaohui, keeping a pet required food, and in this apocalyptic world, even feeding people was a problem. He remained firm in his stance. "We can't take care of it; it will die soon!"
Mo Xiaohui gently stroked the soft feathers on the parrot's neck and reluctantly said, "So you mean we should let it go?"
Li Nan shook his head. "I mean we should eat it. It's still a bird; it probably tastes similar to chicken and should be quite tasty!"
The parrot seemed to understand something and immediately struggled free, pecking wildly at Li Nan's hand with its beak.
"Ah!" Li Nan winced in pain and released his grip on the parrot's wings. As it flapped away, the parrot circled above Mo Xiaohui's head.
Seeing the bird's unusual behavior, Li Nan couldn't help but wonder, "Could this creature really understand human speech?"
Mo Xiaohui exclaimed angrily, "We can't eat it; let's just let it go!"
Li Nan covered his injured hand and pretended to be bitter. "Then let it go!"
Mo Xiaohui opened the window and reluctantly said to the parrot, "Hurry up and leave! That nasty man wants to eat you; run for your life!"
Outside the window, the rain fell incessantly, with large raindrops forming dense lines that seemed to entangle the entire world.
The parrot circled around the room a few times before landing at the window, but it did not fly away. Instead, it settled on Mo Xiaohui's shoulder and rubbed its head against her face.
Mo Xiaohui couldn't stop giggling, while Li Nan thought to himself, "It's still a flirtatious bird!"
Mo Xiaohui turned to Li Nan and said, "It likes me; it doesn't want to fly outside!"
Li Nan poured cold water on her enthusiasm, saying, "It's raining outside right now; it definitely won't fly out. Wait until the weather clears up and see if it flies away."
The parrot seemed to understand Li Nan's words. It suddenly jumped up and landed directly on Li Nan's face, pecking him once.
Li Nan cursed, "Are you a woodpecker? If you can't mimic speech, at least don't peck people!"
After successfully pecking him, the parrot flew back to Mo Xiaohui's shoulder. She laughed heartily, "Looks like someone can finally deal with you!"
The parrot seemed unwilling to be outdone and immediately opened its beak, saying, "Who are you?"
Mo Xiaohui pouted and replied, "My name is Mo Xiaohui; from now on, I will be your master!"
"I am Mo Xiaohui; I am Mo Xiaohui..." The parrot mimicked Mo Xiaohui's words, and she was astonished, "What a clever parrot!"
Li Nan also exclaimed, "Wow, this guy must be from Mars! I thought it could only say that one line!"
Mo Xiaohui smiled brightly and said, "I am Mo Xiaohui. If you also call yourself Mo Xiaohui, that would be ambiguous. How about I call you Hui Xiaomo from now on? It’s just my name reversed!"
Li Nan couldn't help but chuckle; in less than ten minutes, he had truly accepted this parrot as his pet!
However, Mo Xiaohui didn't mind Li Nan's sarcastic remarks and enjoyed playing with the parrot very much!
Li Nan watched from the side and clearly thought she was quite the silly girl!
After the joke, Li Nan remembered something serious. The supplies scavenged from the eighth floor needed to be organized. There was no need to worry about the rice, but the piece of pork tenderloin and some vegetables were prone to spoilage, so they had to be dealt with first.
Li Nan asked Mo Xiaohui, "Do you know how to make Cured Meat?"
Mo Xiaohui shook her head, and Li Nan took it as a sign that he had asked the wrong person. How could a television hostess possibly know how to do such things? He would have to figure it out himself.
The piece of pork tenderloin weighed over ten pounds, and there was no way he and Mo Xiaohui could finish it today, so it needed to be processed to extend its shelf life.
Li Nan found a large jar of salt in a cardboard box, also scavenged from the eighth floor. He thought about curing the pork with salt, but he didn't know the specific process, so he could only act based on his assumptions.
Li Nan first got a stainless steel basin, then cut the pork tenderloin into several small pieces, placing them upside down in the basin. He sprinkled half a jar of salt over it and stirred it around; that was his version of completing the task.
Li Nan wasn't sure if this method would actually produce Cured Meat, but it would definitely result in salty meat!
Mo Xiaohui pulled out a women's t-shirt from her bag and put it on. It fit perfectly, but since she wasn't wearing a bra, her two prominent points were quite noticeable.
Li Nan set the rice bag aside and picked out some vegetables, preparing to make vegetable noodles for dinner.
When Mo Xiaohui heard they were having noodles for dinner, she was the first to protest. "Didn't we find meat? Why aren't we eating meat?"
Li Nan smiled wryly. "I forgot to save some when I was making the salted meat earlier. But we can eat it now if you're not afraid of getting sick!"
Mo Xiaohui glanced at the stainless steel basin behind Li Nan and saw half a basin of meat mixed with half a basin of salt. Just looking at it made her throat feel salty!
"Alright! I'm scared of you!" Mo Xiaohui turned to Hui Xiaomo and said, "This person is torturing us; he's a bad guy!"
"He's a bad guy! He's a bad guy!" Hui Xiaomo quickly picked up on this and immediately started scolding the person who had initially grabbed her.
Li Nan didn't bother with the two women; he just turned his gaze toward the window. The rain not only hadn't stopped but showed no signs of letting up either.
At this moment, Li Nan found himself in a difficult situation. "It's rare to have heavy rain in late autumn, and I've never seen it last for a whole day and night. Could it be that the weather is unusual?"
Meanwhile, Mo Xiaohui had found a small notebook by the bedside and a water-based pen. She began to write: "Day three of the apocalypse, the heavy rain continues. Li Nan and I are trapped in his house with scarce supplies. Fortunately, our scavenging plan has yielded some results, so we are temporarily safe. We also found a particularly clever parrot..."
Seeing Mo Xiaohui writing, Li Nan asked, "You aren't keeping a diary, are you? I didn't expect someone like you, a star from the television station, to have such a hobby!"
Mo Xiaohui turned her head and replied, "I have a habit of keeping a diary. At least after we're gone, someone will be able to see our experiences and stories!"
Li Nan was taken aback. "I have an older brother who likes to keep a diary too, but he ended up writing something else. I wonder how your prose is?"
Mo Xiaohui smiled, "My level is not inferior to Mo Yan's!"
Li Nan chuckled, "When it comes to prose, I don't really like Mo Yan; I prefer Jia Pingwa!"
Mo Xiaohui didn't want to discuss who was the best Chinese writer with Li Nan. She suddenly asked, "You have an older brother?"
Li Nan stared out the window and silently nodded.
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