Once upon a time, there was a man who drove a hot air balloon. We don’t know his name, so we’ll just call him “Uncle Balloon”.One day his balloon blew up, and he fell out of the sky and was crushed to a pulp. …… Oops, that’s a sad ending, but don’t worry, the point of the story isn’t about him.
The point is that he also has a son, just two minutes before the balloon exploded, this father rushed to use a parachute to throw his son down.Luckily, the kid landed safely and wasn’t hurt at all.When this kid grew up, he was quite capable and could have been a good balloon pilot.Unfortunately, he didn’t have a balloon and couldn’t find a way to get one.
What should he do?He had to make a living.So he started performing magic, a very special kind of magic – he could talk with his stomach, a skill called “ventriloquism”.Doesn’t that sound cool?
He was young and handsome, and if he dressed up a little, like growing a moustache and wearing decent clothes, people would think he was a nobleman’s son.Many girls were attracted to him and found him particularly charming.One of them, a young girl, was simply mesmerized by him, and she even decided to follow him to perform in other countries.
When he got there, he called himself a “professor” – because he said he couldn’t be any lower than a professor.In fact, he wasn’t really a professor at all, just a young man who knew how to play magic.But at that time, people thought that the word “professor” was very powerful, so no one asked too many questions.
What was his biggest dream?To own a hot air balloon and take his beloved wife up to the sky with him.But there’s never been a chance.The two of them just kept working hard to make money, hoping that one day their wish would come true.
Once, he said to his wife, “There’s always a chance.”
The wife nodded and said, “I hope so too.”
He added, “We’re still young anyway, and I’m a ‘professor’ now.Even if it’s just breadcrumbs, it’s still bread.”
This statement means that although the conditions are not good now, at least we can still make ends meet and take our time.
His wife also supported him and often helped him sell tickets.In winter, she sat at the door collecting money, shivering in the cold.Sometimes she took part in shows, one of which involved hiding herself in a large drawer.She climbed in through the back drawer, and the audience could only see the front drawer but not her, so that it looked as if she had disappeared into thin air, which was quite amazing.
But one night, something happened.When he pulled open the drawer, he realized his wife was gone!There was no one in the front drawer, no one in the back, the whole house was searched and there was no sign of her.She just disappeared without a trace.
So yeah, she snuck off.She probably thought it was too boring to keep doing that and didn’t want to continue.The husband was also saddened, and from then on, he lost his motivation to live, stopped telling jokes, and stopped entertaining the audience.Slowly, fewer and fewer people came to see him perform, his income became less and less, and he couldn’t afford to replace his clothes with new ones when they were torn.
In the end, he had only one friend left – a flea.This flea was left behind by his former wife, so he treasured it especially.He trained the little guy every day, teaching him all kinds of performance moves, such as raising a gun in salute and firing a cannon (of course, it was just a very small cannon).I didn’t expect this flea to learn especially fast and perform great.
The flea also felt great because not only had it learned to perform, but it had traveled to many big cities, met princes and princesses, and appeared in newspapers and posters.He knew he was a star and could support not only himself but also his “master”, the man who used to be a magician.
Later, the flea and the professor become partners, traveling together by train to perform.The flea was so popular that the audience applauded and cheered every time he appeared on stage.They always took the cheapest seats on the train, but it didn’t matter, they could get to their destination anywhere.
They have a pact with each other: they will never be separated or married.Flea was going to be a bachelor for the rest of his life, and the professor was going to live alone all the time.Both of them felt that this relationship was just right, no one bothered anyone and they worked quite well together.
The professor often said, “A person who is too successful in one place shouldn’t go back a second time.”This statement sounds like it makes sense, but it’s actually a kind of self-congratulation.He knew how to read people’s character and knew when to leave and when to stay, which was a kind of survival wisdom.
They have traveled to many countries in this way, only the “savage country” has not been.I heard that the people there believe in cannibalism, but the professor was not afraid.He thought, “I’m not a real Christian, and fleas aren’t real people, so it should be okay.”
So they bought tickets and took a boat to Caveman Country.Along the way the flea put on a lot of shows, earned a lot of applause, and didn’t even have to pay for the boat ticket, so they went straight to their destination for nothing.
After arriving at the Savage Country, they met the ruler of the place – a little girl, only six years old, but already became the king.She had been particularly willful and a bit bad-tempered since she was a little girl, but was cute and smart-looking.
As soon as the flea appears, the little girl is captivated.She was overjoyed to watch the flea perform lifting guns and firing cannons.She said, “I don’t want anyone but this flea!”She fell in love with the little bug all at once, and was mad even before she fell in love with it.
Her father, who was an old king, laughed at this, and said, “My dear, can’t we make it human first?”
When the little girl heard this, she immediately got angry and said, “That’s my business!”Although this statement was a little less than polite to her elders, she was already completely absorbed in love.
She put the flea in her own little hand and said gently, “You’re my person now, rule the country with me.But you will do as I say, or I will kill you and eat that professor of yours in the process.”
The professor was made to live in a very large house, the walls of which were made of sweet cane, which he could always lick.He didn’t have much of a sweet tooth though, so he didn’t touch it much.He slept in a hammock, which felt a little like lying in that hot air balloon he had dreamed of.
The flea, on the other hand, spent all day with the little princess, either sitting on her hand or lying on her neck.The princess loved it so much that she even pulled a piece of hair from her own head and had the professor tie it to the flea’s leg so she could hang it from a coral earring in her ear.
For the little princess, it was one of her happiest times.She thought the flea must be happy too.But the professor was a little uneasy in his mind.He was a man who liked to travel around, to go from city to city, and to see the newspapers write about how clever and capable he was.
He lay in his hammock napping during the day and ate hearty meals at night: fresh bird s eggs, elephant s eyes, giraffe schnitzel …… Doesn t all this sound a little scary?In fact, although people here eat people, they also eat other things; after all, human flesh is only an occasional delicacy.
The Mother said at one point, “The flesh of a child’s shoulder is most delicious with the spiciest of sauces.”When the professor heard this, his heart reeled and he just wanted to get out of this place.
While he thought about how to escape, he had to take the flea with him.For he knew that the flea was his baby, his only hope of survival.
He racked his brain and finally came up with an idea, “There!I can pretend to help them train their army so they can learn to raise their guns in salute, and that will give me a reason to make a bigger balloon.”
So he said to the princess’s father, “I want to train your whole country to learn to raise their guns in salute, which is called ‘culture’ in some big countries.”
Curious, the old king asked, “What can you teach us?”
The professor replied, “What I am best at is firing cannons that can make the earth shake and roast birds and drop them from the sky with just a boom!”
The old king was interested: “Then bring the cannon!”
But the problem came, there was no cannon here at all, only the small one that the flea had brought.Obviously not enough.
The professor said, “That’s okay, I can build a cannon myself.I’ll need some materials, such as silk cloth for making a hot air balloon, needle and thread, thick and thin rope, and the kind of spiritual water that can make the balloon inflate.”
The things he asked for were soon delivered.The whole country came to see him make the cannon, and there was a great deal of excitement.
Flea, too, sat on the princess’s hand and watched the professor carefully as he operated it.The balloon inflated slowly, growing bigger and bigger and more and more bulging, and it looked as if it would fly.
The professor said, “I’m going to put this balloon into the air to cool down.”After saying this, he got into the basket hanging under the balloon.
But he immediately added, “I can’t control it alone, I need an assistant to help.No one here can do it but a flea.”
The princess was anxious at this, but gave him the flea.
The professor shouted, “Please loosen the ropes and strings!The light balloon is about to take off!”
Everyone misheard him and thought he was shouting “fire”, so they all stood still and waited to see the result.
The balloon rose higher and higher, passed through the clouds, and left the land of the savages.
The little princess and her parents and all the people stood on the ground looking up at the sky, waiting for them to come back.To this day, they are still waiting.If you don’t believe me, you can go and see for yourself in the Savage Country, where every little child tells this story about the flea and the professor.
Everyone believes that when that cannon gets cold, they’ll be back.But they actually came back a long time ago, and they’re doing fine in their own country.They’re in first class now, not fourth class anymore.They’ve made a lot of money off of the flea’s fame and have become rich.The flea and the professor, both became figures of status.
This is a story about dreams, perseverance and strange encounters.The protagonist is an ordinary man who lost his family and career due to an accident, but instead of giving up, he relies on a flea and changes his fate step by step.
Although it seems a bit absurd at the beginning, it is this exaggerated plot that shows us how an ordinary man finds hope in adversity, seizes the opportunity, and eventually becomes successful.
This story tells us: even if the starting point is low, as long as you are willing to work hard and try new things, maybe someday you can be like this flea and become a miracle for others.
