A brocade carp was lounging inside a porcelain jar.
It seemed as if it was bored to death, not wanting to even move. The window in the inner chamber was open, and three or four specks of snowflakes drifted in from outside. It swished its tail and swam around in a circle, then touched the snowflake with its mouth. Stunned by the cold, it suddenly sank into the water, shaking its head in surprise. It played alone for a while, but it was still lonely, so it floated up again and looked up at the man on the wooden couch who was sleeping with his clothes on.
This brocade carp had never seen another person, so it did not know how to appraise the beauty and ugliness of this world. But it often gazed upon this person in fascination, as if its entire day of fun was all concentrated on this moment. With a wanton gaze, it sized up the man's eyebrows, eyes, mouth, and nose, catching a glimpse of sentimentality and tenderness among those facial features. Yet when this person woke up, his face would take on a very different kind of frostiness, becoming extremely estranged and distant like looking at a handful of tantalizing blossoms submerged under a layer of ice. Fortunately, the man seemed to be injured and spent most of his day sleeping.
The brocade carp watched him for a while before it saw that the snow was getting heavier outside and much of the snow was leaking in through the window. This man was still oblivious as a snowflake laid down upon his forehead and gradually melted.
The brocade carp watched and felt crossed. It had been with this person for so many months, and it had never gotten this close to him. Yet today, this audacious snowflake had beaten the brocade carp to it. On what grounds?!
The brocade carp swatted at the porcelain wall loudly, stirred up the water, and leaped in and out, splashing water everywhere. The din it created made the man frowned lightly before he opened his eyes. After a slight moment of delay, the man's gaze turned towards the white porcelain jar. Right at that exact moment, the brocade carp "plopped" into the water, splashing a puddle of water onto the small table.
It thought the man should get up to comfort it now, but who would expect that he would only look askance at it, then raised a finger and pointed at it before he closed his eyes again to sleep. That one move fixed the brocade carp in position; it did not even have the time to flick its tail and could only float stiffly on the water. It opened its mouth, wanting to call out, but it could only blow bubbles. It grew angry and thought, I'm going to ignore him these few days; no matter how he is going to coax and persuade me, I'm going to ignore him!
The man slept until the next morning. When he got up to get dressed, he still looked tired and exhausted. The brocade carp had been stuck in the same position for the whole night, and its "I'm going to ignore him" had become "farewell, once and for all; from now on, we are strangers". Unfortunately, the man could neither hear nor understand it. He placed some food in his palm. The brocade carp felt its body lightened, and it began to move again. As soon as it could move, it forgot everything it had just thought and chased after the food to gobble it up. When it was done, it even rubbed itself against the man's fingertip and pretended to be docile.
The man's complexion was fair. When the brocade carp circled around his fingertip, it felt as if the man would melt at a touch. That was because the man looked as if his heart was not in the moment, but then again, he seemed like he had no "heart" in the first place. It was like he might never wake up from his sleep one of these days. The brocade carp was afraid that he would really melt, so it nibbled on his fingertip with its mouth, wanting to feel him. Unexpectedly, his flesh was cold to the touch, and yet he also felt soft and moist. The brocade carp was astounded and nibbled a few more times until the man returned to his senses by the slight itch on his fingertip and looked down.
