While Zhang Zian was thinking about the problem, Little Celery had been looking up at the larva of the swallowtail butterfly. From her expression, he could tell that she was both curious and afraid of the caterpillar. The two different emotions were mixed together.
"Brother Store Manager, why is this insect not moving? Is it dying? "she asked.
"Hmm?"
Zhang Zian came back to his senses and walked to the door next to the shop. He stood next to Little Celery and watched with her.
Caterpillars moved very slowly. After all, they moved forward by wriggling. If they could run as fast as a rabbit, it would be terrifying.
This swallowtail butterfly larva was still crawling slowly on the wall yesterday. Today, it seemed to be frozen, almost motionless. It took almost a whole day for it to crawl from a conspicuous position in the glass door to a corner. It used this corner to avoid the strong sunlight from the south at noon, but the morning sun from the east could still shine on it.
Without touching it with his fingers, he could see that its body was not as soft as it was yesterday. It seemed to have lost a little water and become stiff.
Zhang Zian looked at it and said, "It's not dead. It's just ready to enter the next stage of its life."
Little Celery blinked her eyes. "Is it … like a silkworm spinning a cocoon?"
"No."
He shook his head. "You are confusing butterflies and moths. Only moth larvae can spin cocoons, but this is only the larva of the swallowtail butterfly. It can only use a few threads to fix itself in the shade, such as the corner of the wall or the back of a leaf. Then its body slowly hardens and forms a pupa. In other words, a moth wraps a layer of shell outside its body, and a butterfly turns its body into a shell. In the simplest words, a moth spins a cocoon, and a butterfly metamorphoses into a pupa. "
Little Celery didn't really understand. She tried to imagine the appearance of a cocoon and a pupa in her mind.
"It doesn't matter. I guess this swallowtail butterfly is planning to settle down here and prepare to metamorphose. You can observe it every day when you go to school. Observe the process of its change. Maybe one day a butterfly will come out of the pupa," he said.
If it wasn't for the utilitarian purpose of completing homework, the observation effect would definitely be better.
"Yes!" Little Celery nodded vigorously.
"There's a phrase that's often mentioned in daily life and novels — cocooning to become a butterfly. It's actually wrong. Only moths can transform into cocoons, and only moths can come out, not butterflies. If it's' cocooning to become a butterfly, 'it's more like it, but it doesn't sound as smooth as' cocooning. ' Not all moths were covered in dust. Some moths were even more gorgeous and beautiful than butterflies, causing people to mistake them for butterflies that had broken out of their cocoons. We can be lenient in literature, but in science, one is one, two is two. There is no room for ambiguity. "
"Oh... it seems that I can write this knowledge into my essay?" Little Celery suddenly had an idea.
"Sure, you can definitely get a good score if you include it in your essay." He laughed and said, "Your language teacher might not even know about this … Ah, your final exams are coming up, right? If you're allowed to write freely in the language essay for the final exam, for example, 'An Interesting Thing' or something like that, you can write the wrong allusion of 'Metamorphosis from a cocoon to a butterfly'. That would definitely be refreshing to the marking teacher. "
At the end of June, the primary school final exams would be held. Little Celery had always been bad at writing essays, and she was far behind the straight-A student, Wang Yaning. Every time Wang Yaning's essays were read aloud by the teacher, Little Celery was very envious. Hearing Zhang Zian's suggestion, she was simply overjoyed. Now she was already thinking about how to write the essay.
Wang Yaning's essay excelled in literary talent and rhetoric. To put it bluntly, it was common for primary and secondary school students. Although it looked good and was quite smooth to read, it was easy to forget after reading it. If Little Celery wrote the wrong allusion of 'cocooning to become a butterfly,' she could at least beat Wang Yaning in terms of novelty.
Anyway, there was nothing to do in the store. The staff had just come out to see Xu Zhuang Zhuang and had not returned yet. Wang Qian sighed and said, "If I were reborn in primary school, even if I wrote this essay, the teacher would definitely suspect me of plagiarism …"
Li Kun agreed. "It really doesn't look like something written by a child who ranks last in the class."
"F * ck! You're the second last, and you have the right to look down on me? "Wang Qian retorted.
"You two, hurry up and get back into the store. Don't embarrass me outside." Zhang Zian drove the two idiots back into the store. Listening to their conversation, it was simply damaging the store's image.
They were still reluctant to go back, claiming that the store was too stuffy, and Zhang Zian did not allow them to turn on the air conditioner, so they might as well come out to get some fresh air.
Little Celery was thinking about the essay. She stared at the larva of the swallowtail butterfly and said, "It's amazing! An ugly caterpillar turns itself into a pupa. After shedding its shell, it becomes a beautiful butterfly, just like an ugly duckling turning into a white swan! "
Zhang Zian's lips moved. He wanted to say something, but he still swallowed his words.
"Ah! I'm going to be late! Brother Store Manager, I'm going to school first! See you tomorrow! " Little Celery looked down at the children's watch on her wrist and exclaimed. She waved her hands and ran away happily.
"See you tomorrow! Don't run too fast. Be careful not to fall and break your knees. "Zhang Zian also waved goodbye.
The lively Little Celery had changed into a short-sleeved sweatshirt and shorts. If it weren't for her two trembling little braids, she would look like a tomboy from behind.
"Master, what did you want to say just now?" Li Kun observed Zhang Zian's expression and keenly noticed that Zhang Zian had not finished his sentence.
"You have sharp eyes!"
Zhang Zian glared at him.
"Say it, Master. I also want to hear it! I want to broaden my horizons! "Wang Qian also begged shamelessly.
Zhang Zian could not dissuade them and said, "Little Celery said something wrong just now. She said that when a caterpillar turns into a pupa and breaks out of its shell, it becomes a butterfly, just like an ugly duckling turning into a white swan. In fact, this is not right. "
"What's wrong?"
Wang Qian and Li Kun looked confused.
Zhang Zian's face was slightly serious as he explained, "After a caterpillar turns into a pupa, there will be earth-shaking changes inside. Almost all the organs in the caterpillar's body will be digested into cytoplasm by enzymes. Then, a tissue called the 'adult disc' will use the cytoplasm as a source of nutrients to regenerate the various organs of the butterfly."
Wang Qian and Li Kun were still confused. They did not understand at all.
"For example, in a sci-fi movie like 'Alien,' a person is unknowingly injected with the egg of an alien creature, and then he enters a hibernation cabin to cope with the long journey through the universe. During his hibernation, the egg quietly hatches in his body, feeding on his flesh and organs … When the hibernation cabin opens again, what comes out is not a human, but an alien monster. This can be seen as the transformation process between a caterpillar and a butterfly. "
Zhang Zian pointed to the larva of the swallowtail butterfly that was about to turn into a pupa. "You think that this caterpillar will turn into a butterfly, but in fact, it will not. It is just a feeding machine responsible for collecting nutrients. The real butterfly is still parasitic in the form of an egg, waiting for the caterpillar to fatten itself before feeding on it. The one that goes in is a human, and the one that comes out is an alien monster. The one that goes in is a caterpillar, and the one that comes out is a butterfly. How can this be compared to the transformation between an ugly duckling and a white swan? "
Wang Qian and Li Kun finally understood. They looked at each other and their faces changed. It was obviously summer, but they felt a chill down their spine and a layer of goosebumps all over their bodies.
"There is no poetry or beauty at all, is there? But the truth is so cruel, "Zhang Zian said with a bitter smile. "The phrase 'metamorphosis from a cocoon to a butterfly' is fundamentally untenable. Even if it is changed to 'metamorphosis from a pupa to a butterfly,' it is still untenable. After the caterpillar turns into a pupa, its body and soul are already destroyed."
Wang Qian understood. "So, you didn't tell Little Celery about this …"
"Yes, because these truths are too dark and too cruel. At Little Celery's age, there is no need for her to know these things. Let her think that a caterpillar can really transform into a butterfly."
Wang Qian and Li Kun sighed.
Zhang Zian stared at the swallowtail butterfly larva. What kind of butterfly was hidden in its body?
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