Fantasy Story Masterpieces Introduction

Author: Editor-in-Chief: Xing Ruhui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-08-01
Features: Excerpt: They felt at home here. But the poor little duck felt very sad because he was ugly and became the laughingstock of all the chickens and ducks. This was the situation on the first day. Later, it got worse. Everyone wanted to drive him away, even his own siblings grew angry with him. His mother also said, "I wish you would go far away!" Even the maid who fed the chickens and ducks kicked him with her feet. So he flew away in despair, rushing all the way to a swamp where many wild ducks lived. At dawn, wild ducks came to see him, and he greeted them respectfully. The wild ducks said, "It doesn’t matter to us as long as you don’t marry someone from our tribe." The ugly duckling never thought about getting married. He lay there for two whole days. Later, two male geese said he was "cute in his ugliness" and encouraged him to find a female goose to try his luck. Suddenly, they were shot dead by hunters. A terrifying dog walked past him, scaring him badly. He sighed with relief and said, "I’m so ugly that even the dog won’t bite me!" He lay quietly, and the sound of gunfire still echoed in the reeds. As dusk approached, the little duck hurriedly ran out of that swamp. At night, he arrived at a simple. The cottage was so dilapidated that it couldn’t even decide which way to collapse. There lived an old woman with her cat and hens in the cottage. She called the cat her little son and the hen her short-legged chicken. The next morning, they noticed the little duck. The old woman thought the duck was a fat duck and said, "Now I can have duck eggs." The duck underwent a three-week test, but he didn’t lay any eggs. So the hen and the cat questioned him separately: "Can you lay eggs?" "Can you make the sound 'meow'?" The duck said he couldn’t, and they said, "Then don’t speak nonsense." The duck sat in the corner, feeling down. He thought about swimming in the water and told the hen about his thoughts. The hen said, "You’re completely crazy. Go ask the cat if he likes swimming in the water. Go ask the old woman if she wants the water to cover her head." "You don’t understand me," the duck said. "You don’t understand me? You’ll never be smarter than the cat or the mistress! You’re a waste of space. Please learn to lay eggs or make the sound 'meow'!" The duck still insisted on going to the "vast world," and the hen said, "Alright, go!" So the duck left. Autumn arrived. One evening, a group of beautiful giant birds flew out of the bushes. The little duck had never seen anything so beautiful. They were swans. They spread their beautiful wings and flew toward the warm country. He could never forget these beautiful birds and felt incredibly excited. He loved them but didn’t envy them. Winter grew colder, and the little duck’s area of water shrank day by day. Finally, he fainted and froze with the ice. A farmer passed by and picked him up. The children wanted to play with him, but the duck thought they were going to hurt him and jumped into a milk tray, a butter tray, and a flour barrel one after another, and finally escaped into the bushes. A beautiful spring came, and he flapped his stronger wings and flew into a large garden. Three beautiful swans walked up to him, and the duck recognized them. "I’ll fly to them, fly to these noble birds!" So he flew into the water and was surprised to see his reflection—it wasn’t the clumsy ugly duck anymore, but a swan! If you’re an egg of a swan, it doesn’t matter where you’re born. He now clearly realized that happiness and beauty were reaching out to him. Many swans swam around him, nuzzling him with their beaks. A child shouted, "Look at that new swan!" The children threw bread and cakes into the water, and everyone said, "This new one is so beautiful! So young, so lovely!" He felt very embarrassed. He felt so happy, but he wasn’t proud at all, because a good heart never feels proud. He raised his feathers, stretched his long neck, and from the bottom of his heart, he exclaimed, "When I was an ugly duckling, I never dreamed I would be this happy!"