Chapter 13 Chapter 13 Dinner Talk

Quan Zhi quickly dressed and walked upstairs along a creaking wooden staircase.The room he came to was smaller than the one downstairs, but much more comfortable.Two half-circular windows with beautiful curtains looked out onto the street.Between the windows is the door to the balcony.In the middle of the room stood a table covered with little jars, bowls, and plates of all kinds of jams, biscuits, pastries, sweetbreads and biscuits with poppy seeds, triangles of sugar, and other foodstuffs.It can be seen that the girls want to treat Quan Wushu well.I don't know how to see such a rich food, my eyes are not enough.

Girls with bows and pigtails were already pouring tea.The curly-haired girl was taking jelly apples from the pantry. Blue Eyes introduces his girlfriend to Omniscient.The girl with braids is called Little Squirrel, the girl with bowknot is called Little White Rabbit, and the girl with curly hair is called Little Dragonfly.Quan Wu wanted to be seated as soon as possible, but at this moment the door opened and four more girls entered the room.Blue Eyes introduced to Omniscience, "This is our neighbor: little jackdaw, little fir tree, little daisy, and weed." The girls surrounded Omniscient.

"Did you come to us by balloon?" asked the little jackdaw with black eyes. "Yes, it's the balloon you're sitting on." Quan Bu looked at the table and replied reservedly. "It's scary to fly in a balloon, isn't it?" said the chubby Pinpencao. "That's really afraid of death!... Ah, no, I'm not afraid of people at all!" I didn't wake up at all. "How brave you are! I will not ride in a balloon," said the little Fir Tree. "Where did you fly from?" Little Daisy asked. "From Flower City." "Where is this city?"

"It's over there," Quan Zhi waved his hand vaguely, "by the Cucumber River." "Here, take a seat, or the tea will be cold." Blue Eyes invited the guests to take their seats. It's useless to know nothing about it.In an instant he was sitting at the table and was filling his mouth with pastries, sweet rolls, fudge, and jam.The girls ate almost nothing, for they were very eager to ask the unknown about the balloons.Finally, the little dragonfly couldn't help asking: "Please tell me, who came up with the idea of ​​flying in a balloon?" "It's me," Quan Zhi replied while chewing hard on the food, trying to swallow a piece of snack as quickly as possible.

"Really? It's you!" There were admiration sounds from all directions. "It's really me. It's not human to lie!" Quan Zhi swore, almost choking his snacks down his trachea. "That's very interesting: tell me, please," Pingpengcao begged. "Well, what's the point of this..." Quan Zhi spread his hands and said, "Our boys have long been begging me to come up with something. They said: 'Think of something, brother, think of something Come on.' I said, 'Brothers, I'm tired of thinking about stuff. Think for yourself.' They said, 'What are we? We're stupid, you're smart. What's that to you? Think of one!' I said, 'Okay then, I can't help you, I'll think of one.' So I started thinking."

I don't know how to chew a snack with a contemplative air.The girls looked at him impatiently.Seeing nothing, the little squirrel stretched out her hand for some snacks, and finally made up her mind to break the long silence. She said, "You're starting to think about it." "Yes!" Quan Zhi raised his voice as if he had woken up, and knocked the snack on the table. "I thought about it for three days and three nights, and guess what? I finally figured it out! I said, 'Brothers, I've come up with a balloon for you!' So we made a ball. The little flower of the poet...we There's this poet out there... who wrote me a poem, 'Our ignorance conceived a balloon...' Ah, no: 'It was our ignorance that conceived the balloon...' Ah, no,' Our balloon came out of nowhere..." No, I forgot!You know, people write a lot about me, you can't remember it all. "

I didn't know that I had some snacks again. "How do you make the ball?" Blue Eyes asked. "Oh, that's a huge job! Our boys worked day and night. Some glued, some pumped up, and I just walked around and whistled... oh, it wasn't whistling, it was Instruct everyone what to do. Without me, no one would understand anything. I will explain and demonstrate. This is a big responsibility, because the balloon may burst at any time. I have two assistants, a small screw and Little chisels are skillful craftsmen. Both of them can do anything, but their brains are missing. Everything has to be explained and demonstrated to them. I also told them how to cook the pot. So the work started: the pot opened Now, the water is splashing and the steam is hissing, that's really amazing!"

The girls listened with bated breath. "What happened later? How was it later?" As soon as the words of Quan Bu's words fell, everyone began to talk. "At last the day of take-off has come," went on Unknowing, "all the dwarfs have gathered—thousands! Some say the balloon can fly, and some say it can't. There's even a fight. Talk about the balloon." Those who can fly fight those who say balloons can't fly, and those who say balloons can't fly fight those who say balloons can fly. Oh, no...it seems to be the opposite: those who say they can fly fight those who say they can't fly...Oh, no, just the opposite... …In a word, you don’t know who hits whom. Everyone hits each other.”

"Well," said Blue Eyes, "you talk about the balloons, not the fights." "Well," agreed All I knew, "that is, they fought for a while, and we climbed into the basket. I spoke and said: Brothers, I say, we're going to fly. Good-bye: we're going to fly." We flew into the sky and saw that the earth below was not as big as this bun.” "Impossible!" the girls exclaimed. "It's not human to lie!" Quan Zhi swore. "Don't interrupt!" Blue Eyes said angrily. "Don't get in his way. He won't lie."

"Yes, don't get in the way of my lying . "Speak, speak!" they all shouted together. "That's it," Goon continued, "we flew up. Suddenly—boom! We couldn't fly up. When we saw it, we hit a cloud. What to do? We took the ax and chopped a cloud Holes. We flew up again. Suddenly we saw—it was flying upside down, the sky was below, and the earth was above." "Why is that?" the girls asked strangely. "Natural law," explained Quan Zhi, "when flying above the clouds, the head is always upside down. We flew to the very top, where it was -1000.1 degrees. Everyone was freezing. The balloon was cold." I'm so smart, I asked them to put some sand bags in the basket beforehand. We threw the bag down. Throw it, throw it, the bag is gone. What to do? We have a man The child, named Wanshitong. But he was timid. When he saw the balloon falling, he burst into tears. Later, he jumped down with a parachute - and went home. The balloon immediately became lighter and flew up again. Later Suddenly it flew down again, one hit the ground, another jumped up, and another hit again... I fell out of the basket—with a bang, my head hit the ground!..."

Don't know what to say, he was fascinated, and he knocked his fist on the table, just hitting the steamed stuffed bun.The bun stuffing splattered all over the place. The girls trembled all over.I was so scared that I almost fell off the chair. "What happened then?" they asked when they came to their senses. "I don't remember after that." There was a silence.All the girls looked on in amazement, and even with some degree of respect.In their eyes he was a true hero. Blue Eyes finally said: "Your balloon really gave us a big jump. We were drinking tea on the balcony yesterday evening. Suddenly, we saw a big round ball flying close to our house and hitting the fence... Suddenly there was a snap! The ball broke. When we ran up to it, we saw only a birch bark basket. "You lie there like a dead man!" interjected the Little White Rabbit. "It's terrible!" "You have a shoe on one foot, and the other foot is on the fence. The hat is on the tree," added the little squirrel. "The coat has a sleeve torn off, and we only found it this morning," said Little Dragonfly, "so we had to sew the sleeve to the coat quickly." "How did I get into this house?" Quan Wu asked. "We picked you up. You can't be left out overnight!" said the blue eyes. "You were almost dead at that time," the little white rabbit interjected again, "but the little lung grass said that you could still live, because your... this body is very strong." "Yes, my body is strong, and my head is even stronger." "If others were in my position, they would have to be concussed." "You probably meant 'concussion'?" said the blue eye. "That's right, that's right, a concussion." Quan Buzhi corrected. "You said you weren't the only one flying in the balloon?" Blue Eyes asked. "Not alone, of course. We're sixteen. Well, that coward who knew it all jumped with a parachute, so there's still fifteen left." "Where are the others?" asked the little Jackdaw. "I don't know," Quan Zhi shrugged and said, "Is there no one else in the basket besides me?" "All we found in the basket were some paint colors and a medicine chest." "The colors are made of tin tubes, and the medicine box is made of little pills," Quan Mo said. At this time the door opened, and Xiao Xuehua ran into the room. "Have you heard the news?" she cried. "New news! Another balloon has come and burst. There are fourteen boys flying in the balloon. They fell outside the town yesterday evening. This morning, at dawn, our girls found them and helped them into the hospital." "So they all broke?" asked the little squirrel. "It doesn't matter," Xiaoxuehua waved her hand, "Little Lungcao said it can cure them." "Probably this is them, my companions," said Quan Zhi. "I'm going to the hospital right away to find out the situation." "I'll take you there," Blue Eyes suggested. "I'll go with you too." Little Snow Flower said. That's when she noticed the round plaster on the blue-eyed forehead, and she exclaimed, "Aha, my dear, what a charming little round spot on your forehead! It suits you very well. Why, wearing a round spot on your forehead is The trendiest one? Looks like I'll have to make one too." "No," replied the blue eyes. "I'm a plaster. I accidentally knocked my forehead against the door." "Ah, that's it..." Xiaoxuehua dragged her voice in disappointment. She ran to the mirror to put on her hat. In the blink of an eye, the room was empty.Everyone ran out to tell the neighbors the news.