ji xianlin
There are several acres of clear ponds in front of the building. I remember that when I first moved here more than 30 years ago, there seemed to be lotus flowers in the pond, and there were still some broken shadows of green leaves and safflower in my memory. Later, things changed, and the years passed, but the pond became "half an acre of square pond opened, the sky was high and the clouds were light", and the lotus was never seen again.
I keep a lot of old ideas in my mind. Every time I look at an empty pond, I always feel as if something is missing. This is not in line with my aesthetic concept. There should be something green in the pond, even reeds are better than nothing. The best and most ideal is of course the lotus. In China's old poems, there are simply too many descriptions of lotus flowers. Zhou Dunyi's On Ailian is probably unique. His famous phrase "everyone knows that the fragrance disappears and the jade dies." It can almost be said that there is no one in China who doesn't love lotus flowers. But the pond in front of our building is the only one lacking lotus flowers. Every time I see or think about it, I always feel that I am a heart disease.
Someone came from Hubei and brought some lotus seeds from Honghu Lake. The shell is black and hard. It is said that if buried in mud, it can be preserved for thousands of years. So, I used a hammer to crack a crack in the lotus seed, so that the shower head would break out of its shell and never be buried in the mud. These are subjective wishes, and it is a big unknown whether the lotus buds can grow. Anyway, I finally tried my best to put five or six broken lotus seeds into the pond. The following is resignation.
In this way, I have one more job every day: go to the pond several times more. I always hope that one day, suddenly, "Xiao He shows sharp corners" and green lotus leaves grow out of the water. However, contrary to expectations, in the first year of throwing, nothing appeared on the water until the autumn leaves fell. After a lonely winter day, the next year, the pond was full of spring water, green willows and weeping willows, and there was a beautiful scene. However, there is still no lotus leaf in the water I expected. At this time, I was completely disheartened, thinking about those hard-shell lotus seeds brought by Hubei, probably because of unexplained reasons, there is no hope of planting lotus seeds anymore. My eyes can't suck lotus leaves out of the mud.
However, in the third year, a miracle suddenly happened. One day, I suddenly found some round green leaves growing where I threw lotus seeds. Although the color is extremely pleasing, it is thin and thin, lying on the water like the leaves of water hyacinth. Only five or six leaves grew at first. I always feel a little too little, and I always hope to grow a few more pieces. So, I look forward to the stars and the moon, and go to the pond every day. There are farmers outside the school to catch aquatic plants. I always ask them to be merciful and not to break the leaves. But after a long summer, sad autumn came to the world again, leaving only five or six lonely leaves floating in the pond. For me, this is another hopeful but still depressing year.
The real miracle appeared in the fourth year. After the severe winter, the pond overflowed with springs. When the lotus grows leaves, a large green leaf suddenly grows in the place where there were five or six leaves last year. However, it seems that the lotus has not stopped its activities under the severe winter ice, because leaves have also grown in the middle of the pond far from the original base of five or six leaves. The speed and range of blade expansion are amazing. Within a few days, a large part of the pond has been covered with green leaves. Moreover, the leaves that used to lie flat on the water like water lilies gathered strength from somewhere, and some actually jumped out of the water and grew into slender lotus leaves. It turned out that I had been suspicious for a long time, fearing that water lilies were growing in the pool, not real lotus flowers. In this way, the doubts in my heart were swept away; What grows in the pond is really the descendant of Honghu lotus. I was ecstatic, and these years have finally not been in vain.
Everything in the world comes into being. Animals, plants and other creatures, including people, are always endowed with an extremely amazing survival force and an extremely amazing expansion and diffusion force, which is irresistible. As long as you are willing to take the trouble to observe, you will certainly admit it. What is in front of me now is the lotus in the pond in front of my building. As several brave blades jumped out of the water, many blades followed. Overnight, dozens of branches appeared, and they spread quickly. In less than ten days, lotus leaves have covered half the pond. From where I planted my seeds, I spread to the east, west, north and south. I can't know how the lotus moves in the mud in deep water. Anyway, judging from the lotus leaves above the water, it takes at least half a foot to form this situation.
Planting lotus leaves is definitely not enough. Lotus flowers come one after another. According to experts who know lotus flowers, the lotus flowers in the pond in front of my house are different from those in other ponds in Yanyuan. The color of lotus flowers in other places is light red; And my lotus here is not only red, but also has many petals. Each flower can produce sixteen compound petals, which certainly looks different. These dazzling red lotus flowers, hanging high above the lotus leaves, pose in the wind as if dazzling everything. When I was a child, I read an old poem: "After all, in mid-June, the scenery of the West Lake was different from that at four o'clock. The next day, the lotus leaf is infinitely blue, and the lotus color is different. " I love the beauty of his poems and deeply regret that I can't go to Hangzhou West Lake to enjoy them in person. Now the pond in front of my house is the scenery of the West Lake. It was I who moved the West Lake from Hangzhou to Yanyuan. Isn't it great and satisfying? Mr. Zhou Yiliang just moved to Longrun Garden a few years ago and was named "Jihe". I find it interesting and grateful. Shall I pass the lotus?
The year before and last year, when the lotus flowers were in full bloom in Xiayuetan, I walked around the pond at least several times every day, sitting on a stone and quietly sucking the fragrance of lotus flowers and lotus leaves. "The quieter the forest, the quieter Tonamiyama." I really feel quiet around. I sat there silently, and what I saw on the water was the green manure and red manure of the lotus. The reflection is reflected in the water. When the wind blows, a lotus petal falls into the water and falls from above, while the reflection in the water falls from bottom to top, and finally touches the water surface. The two become one and float there like a boat. I once read two sentences in a poem: "The pond flowers fall in shadow, and the sand birds fly with the sound." The author deeply regrets that the second sentence is no good. No wonder, how many people can understand the realm of "a pool of flowers falling into a shadow"?
In the evening, my family often sits on the stones by the pond to enjoy the cool. One night, the moon in the sky was bright and bright, and a piece of silver light was sprinkled on the lotus. Suddenly I heard a plop. Mao Mao, my little white Persian cat, jumped into the water. She probably thought there was a white jade plate in the water and wanted to jump on it and catch it. As soon as she entered the water, she probably felt something was wrong. She quickly returned to the shore and broke the reflection of the moon. It took her a long time to get back to her original shape.
This summer, the weather is extremely sultry, but the lotus flowers are in full bloom. Green covers the sky, red flowers reflect the sun, and a pond that is not too small is so full that even the water surface can hardly be seen. A neighbor who loves lotus flowers counts the number of lotus flowers cheerfully every day. Tell me today that there are four or five hundred flowers; Tell me tomorrow that there are six or seven hundred flowers. However, although I know he is meticulous, I don't believe he can really count the exact number of flowers. There are many corners under the lotus leaf and in the cracks of the stone, and I don't know how many are hidden, so it is difficult to see them on the shore.
These days, the weather has suddenly turned cold. Although the lotus leaf in the pond is still green, it seems that the day of becoming a residual lotus will not be too far away. In a month or two, the water will freeze and even the remaining lotus will disappear without a trace. At that time, the lotus will probably hibernate under the ice and dream of spring. Their dreams will surely come true. "Winter has come, can spring be far behind?"