Therefore, according to old tradition, there is such a beautiful legend:
In the beginning, there were only moths in the world, no butterflies; and moths did not come out at night as they do now, they liked the sun, and the most important thing to do was to blend into the shadow of light and dance among the flowers. Later, a goddess of beauty felt that a group of gray and white moths, against the background of the purple and red group, was too contrasting and hurtful, so the goddess gathered the moths together and said to them: "I know that you want to become as beautiful as flowers, and now I will help you achieve your wishes." Tomorrow will be a good spring day, your wings will have the ability to adhere early tomorrow morning, you see something beautiful, just fly to it and roll, your wings will perfectly replicate the beauty you see. However, you can only have one adhesion opportunity, and once you have adhered to a certain pattern, you cannot change it. This adhesion will automatically disappear after the sun sets tomorrow night, so you should cherish the time and choose carefully. After the wings are glued to the pattern, you will no longer be called moths, but butterflies. Because the moth is a noun associated with ugliness, and the butterfly is a symbol of beauty. Tomorrow night after the sun goes down, you gather here, and I'll see which butterfly is the most beautiful. The most beautiful butterflies will receive my best wishes. After hearing this, the moths were naturally very excited, because they had long hoped that they could become as delicate as flowers, and they were all looking forward to the arrival of a new day.
Among the moths of this flock, there is an unassuming moth, let's call her ugly moth, who is particularly kind in heart, and who is born with a good voice, sings, and eclipses even the most beautiful flowers in comparison. She met the most beautiful bird in the world, Brother Phoenix, and often sang songs for Brother Phoenix. Brother Phoenix often sighed, "Your singing voice, with my feathers, will be the most beautiful scenery in the world." It's a pity that you are an ugly moth, what a fly in the ointment." Now that the goddess of beauty has given Ugly Xiao'e a chance to transform, how can she not be overjoyed? At this moment, all she was thinking was: Early tomorrow morning, I will fly to brother Phoenix, and he will generously let me roll on his feathers, so that I will become the most beautiful butterfly in the world, and the most beautiful butterfly in the world.
Early the next morning, the moths couldn't wait to go their separate ways. Some moths meet beautiful golden leopards, roll on the leopard's back, and become leopard butterfly; some moths meet mighty tigers, roll on the tiger's back, and become tiger butterflies; some moths meet pheasants, some encounter larks, and more fortunate moths meet golden peacocks... They all came true, completed their metamorphosis, and became beautiful butterflies!
The ugly moth is trying to fly Ah Fei, and she is going to fly to the side of Brother Phoenix, so that it will transform into the most beautiful butterfly in the world. But flying over a swamp, she saw uncle scalper accidentally sink into the mud and could not move, and it was sinking deeper and deeper. Ugly Xiao'e wanted to help Uncle Scalper, but she was too petite to pull the scalper, so she flew out of the swamp to find someone to help. Flying, shouting, shouting, her voice was hoarse, and finally found the elephant grandfather to help the scalper uncle, the elephant grandfather pulled hard, the ugly moth also pushed hard, the scalper uncle was finally saved! Only then did the ugly moth discover that her body was splashed with mud spots in the swamp! She became uglier than before! The ugly moth was very sad, but still held a glimmer of hope and flew to the side of the phoenix brother. Brother Phoenix is very generous, letting the ugly moth roll on his body, hoping that the ugly moth can complete the transformation of beauty, but to no avail: the wings of the ugly moth have adsorbed the pattern of mud spots, which can never be changed! And that's not all, the ugly moth shouted dumb in order to save uncle cattle, and the beautiful singing voice was forever with her...
At dusk, the goddess of beauty is surrounded by beautiful butterflies. They are all eagerly waiting for the goddess to announce the final pageant results, and they are all eager to receive the best blessings of the goddess. At this time, the ugly moth was late, her eyes were full of tears, and her body was covered with mud dots, making the butterflies present laugh loudly, and some butterflies laughed out of their tears. The appearance of the ugly ugly little girl has allowed those moths who did not absorb any beautiful patterns because of their choice and selection to find a psychological balance: although they missed a beautiful scenery and failed to transform into beautiful butterflies, at least they can continue to be their unattractive moths, and they are not ugly enough to get a mud spot.
The ugly moth is not eye-catching, but against the background of the beautiful butterflies, her ugliness becomes particularly prominent, and the goddess of beauty sees her at a glance. The goddess wondered why the ugly moth would use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to absorb the ugly mud spots? When she asked about the situation, the goddess's eyes were also moist, and there was no doubt that the ugly moth was rated as the most beautiful butterfly by the goddess of beauty and received the most beautiful blessing from the goddess. After hearing the story of the ugly moth, the butterflies were so ashamed that they put up their wings and hid the beautiful patterns on their wings, because they knew that no amount of beautiful appearance could be compared with a beautiful heart. Those moths that wasted the opportunity to transform because of their choice, because they were ashamed of themselves and did not dare to appear in the daytime, had to come out quietly at night, and because of endless remorse, they gradually had a psychological shadow, as soon as they saw the fire, they pounced on it, and wanted to roll on the beautiful flame to complete the transformation, which is the origin of "moth fighting fire".
This beautiful story did not make me change my mind about moths as a child. In my eyes, the moth is an ugly thing that must be removed quickly. How nice it would be if all the moths in the world were wiped out, if there were only beautiful butterflies in the world! My mother told me that the powder on the moth is poisonous, as long as a little bit enters the mouth, I will become dumb, my mother said this originally to tell me not to climb high to catch the moth in the corner of the wall, so as not to cause danger, but it backfired, making me even more disgusted with the moth, whenever I saw a moth desperately throwing itself into the flame of the oil lamp, I could not say the pain in my heart. But for butterflies, I can't say how much I like, every time I see dragonflies catching butterflies, I want to help with righteousness, but unfortunately dragonflies come and go without a trace, so that my hero's wish to save the United States has not been realized. Later, when we went to school, the teacher taught us to make butterfly specimens in nature class and showed us her elaborate butterfly specimen book. To be fair, the butterfly specimens collected by the teacher were exquisite, but I didn't like them. I always felt that a beautiful butterfly can only be called beautiful in a flower bush, and the butterfly carcass against the pale paper can only be said to be beautiful, but not beautiful. These butterflies that became specimens, these butterflies that were nailed to the herbarium like the crucified Jesus, and it was their beauty that brought them the misfortune of killing, and the ugly moths were much luckier, and their ugliness allowed them to escape the fate of being made into specimens—of course, because there was no suffering, so they could not complete the transformation of beauty.
As I grew older, I still loved beautiful butterflies, but I no longer hated ugly moths. I already knew that the so-called moth phosphorus powder can make people dumb is a joke to scare children, so I will not be as excited as seeing butterflies, but I can ignore it. Seeing the article in the book teaching people to distinguish between butterflies and moths, a thousand words, I think in fact, one sentence is enough: the beautiful is the butterfly, and the ugly is the moth. The truth is also the case, in this world there are only people who collect butterfly specimens, but there are no people who collect moth specimens; you can buy a picture album such as "The World's Most Beautiful Butterfly Appreciation", but you can't buy a picture album of "The World's Ugliest Moth Appreciation", even if you change the title of the book to "The World's Most Beautiful Moth Appreciation", it is not OK, because "beautiful" to modify "moth", although it does not violate the grammar of any language, but it violates the common sense of life of any nation, just like you can't use "piping hot" Go embellish "ice cream" the same.
But then I found out I was wrong.
That was when I was an armed police soldier. We are responsible for the perimeter vigilance of the detention center, which is built deep in the mountains and is a deserted place. One summer dawn, I came to change the guard, and in the glimmer of the morning light, beside the unreachable cliff, I saw a beautiful moth. The moth rested quietly next to a few green leaves, surrounded by a sacred emerald green halo, its wings flattened, symmetrical on the left and right, a beautiful landscape pattern painted with a brush, what kind of scenery was painted? I don't know, but I can conclude directly that it is by no means a beautiful scenery on earth, and there is no such beautiful scenery in the world. I watched stunned, and the moth remained motionless, silently showing me her beauty, in the glimmer of the morning light, beside the unreachable cliffs. I think she is spiritual, she must be deliberately showing me her beauty, she must be trying to completely subvert my worldview of moths, it is a beautiful, sacred, fairy moth that does not eat human fireworks, she must be disdainful of appearing in the bustling earthly world, because the vulgar gaze of the world will desecrate her sacred beauty, and the greedy butterfly collector will catch her and nail her in her own taxidermy book... Then let the butterflies show off their impetuous beauty! At that moment, I firmly believed that she was a holy relic from the immortal world; at that moment, I believed that beauty could be so thrilling; at that moment, I remembered the ugly moth and her legend. I believe that the wordless fairy moth in front of me is the ugly moth with a kind heart, she has already shaken off the mud spots on her body, waved off her hoarse singing voice, and together with her beloved phoenix brother, she has completed the most beautiful nirvana.