Chapter 11 Huaxiang Lake

It rained heavily when I got off work. I held an umbrella and came to the school gate. There was a tall magnolia tree in the open space here, and the gardener's hut was under the magnolia tree.Remembering that the gardener said some time ago that he wanted to give me some peacock grass seeds, I put away my umbrella and walked into the gardener's hut.The door of the hut is open, but the gardener is not there. There are a lot of freshly picked white magnolia flowers on the low wooden table. The vague fragrance mixed with the cool rain smell is very good.I took a deep breath, letting the fragrance of the flowers penetrate deep into my heart, and wash away the exhaustion from working all day.Then I walked to the back door of the hut. The gardener planted lush flowers and plants behind the house. On the left are wind and rain flowers, and on the right are peacock grass. The plants are blooming, like many small blue and orange lights on the ground.

Between the wind and rain flowers and peacock grass, there is a path paved with cobblestones. In the middle of the path, the gardener's little daughter is wearing a red skirt and holding a flower umbrella, picking wind and rain flowers. "Sister, where are you coming to see?" The little girl suddenly raised her hand to greet me. She was only about six or seven years old, and her voice was soft and sweet. I walked over and saw a bullfrog with the size of a fist lying under Fengyuhua. The little girl touched its head with Fengyuhua, and it bulged its belly and yelled: "Moo—"

This bullfrog was smaller than a normal frog, but its voice was louder than a buffalo. The girl giggled.This smile frightened the little guy away, and he jumped up slowly, one after another, and walked forward gracefully along the path between the wind and rain flowers and the peacock grass. "Where are you going?" The little girl followed closely and stretched out her hands to catch it, but the bullfrog jumped without any confusion. As soon as the little girl ran behind it, it took another big step forward.Every time the girl took a step, a branch of the wind and rain flower in her hand fell off. Repeated failures seemed to increase the child's competitive spirit. She chased the bullfrog closely and went further and further.I followed behind the girl and walked to the end of the peacock grass.

At the end of the peacock grass is a dwarf magnolia grove. The newly grown magnolia saplings are neatly lined up, and the branches are shyly full of pure white flowers.The fragrance of flowers permeated the rain, gradually wetting my clothes, hair, eyebrows and eyes.Step by step, I walked into the depths of the woods, feeling that I was soaked in the incomparable fragrance of rain and flowers from my hair to my toes. What a magnolia field.I was in the office all day and never knew that the school had such a wonderful place to go! The rainwater merged into thousands of thin streams under the forest, rushing among the grass blades.The bullfrog jumped into the water and moved forward along the trend of the water. When it reached the end of the forest, it jumped up and jumped into the small lake with a "boom". There was a beautiful water splash at the place where it fell into the water, and the ripples rippled for a long time. Can't flatten.The bullfrog dived into the dense aquatic grass and disappeared.

The girl threw away the flower umbrella, walked to the grass in the shallow water, lifted the red skirt with one hand, and reached into the depths of the water grass with the other hand, looking for the missing bullfrog. Walking along the lake, I saw thousands of fragrant water streams coming from all directions, the water level slowly rose, and the small lake became a big lake.On the surface of the lake, there are blue grass leaves and milky white magnolia petals floating. The raindrops fall on the lake one by one, hitting water nails one by one, and immediately turning into small round water waves, spreading out in circles and colliding with each other. When they intersect each other, my mind expands with the water waves, and my body seems to stretch and relax with the ripples.As a result, the long-term tension and boredom melted in the fragrant rain and gradually disappeared.

"Sister, where are you coming to see?" The girl raised her hand and called me, holding a colorful pebble in her hand.It turned out that instead of finding the bullfrog, she found small colorful stones at the bottom of the lake.She didn't care about her red skirt, she just bent down deeply, and the skirt floated on the water like a big red lotus flower.After a while, she cried out excitedly - she touched another colored stone! "Sister, come and look for it too, gather enough seven colored stones, and let's go back and play the 'Seven Sons' game with Dandan."

I pushed aside the water plants, walked into the lake, bent down, and reached the bottom of the lake with my hands to feel for it. After pushing aside the water plants, the bottom of the lake was full of fine sand.I touched it for a while, and sure enough, I touched a pebble smaller than a pigeon egg!When I picked it up, the small stones were densely covered with small stars, green, yellow, red, and purple. The brilliance of the stars flashed in the rain, like many small eyes blinking at me.I put it next to my ear and shook it gently, and the little stars rang like little bells, so light and crisp, like a group of very small elves laughing ecstatically.I put it in front of my nose, took a deep breath, and the aromatic breath penetrated into the depths of my soul, as if the fragrance of the entire magnolia grove had been condensed into the core of this stone.

"There are three, and there are still four." The girl clapped her hands excitedly, so I reluctantly handed the colored stones to her, and continued to bend down and reach out to explore the bottom of the lake. After a while, we finally gathered enough seven colored stones. The girl put the small stones on the grass by the lake, counted them several times, and finally confirmed that the number was correct, so she greeted me happily: "Sister, come, we Play the game of 'seven sons'." I haven't played seven sons after graduating from elementary school. At this moment, my hands are already rusty-I want to push this boring game away, but seeing girls With a happy look on my face, I changed my mind again, walked across from her, and sat on the wet grass with her.

The girl put seven small stones into my palm, and I held them tightly in my fist. The warm and smooth feeling of the small stones went from the palm of my hand to the depths of my memory. My favorite plaything—the little rock I played with in my childhood, where is it lying quietly now?What about those paper airplanes made out of homework practice paper?What about those "water ghosts" made of numb bones, glued paper, and mud?Friends who played together in childhood, what kind of life are they living now? "Come on, let's start." The girl urged me. When I came back to my senses, I scattered the stones on the ground, and the small stones formed a fan shape on the ground. Which one should I pick first?The first level and the second level are not a problem, but when it comes to the third level, I will inevitably have to take care of one thing and lose another.I hesitated, not knowing which stone I should pick up as my bargaining chip.

"Sister, pick this up." The girl pointed to the stones that fell at her feet. I walked past her and changed the angle, and the situation suddenly became clear.The girl moved and let me sit in her place.I picked up the stone, threw it up, and in this short gap, grabbed a small stone on the ground, and turned back to catch the one in the air. Fortunately, the first level passed smoothly. The second level was also successfully passed. Immediately afterwards, the third level... Facing the small stones that spread out into right triangles on the grass, as if I was facing a major proposition in my life, I hesitated to throw the stones in my hand.Since when did I become so anxious about gains and losses?As I get older, I am less and less able to bear the blow of failure, even if it is a small failure in the game...

I lingered for a long time, and finally, I threw a stone, but when I picked up the remaining three colored stones, the chips in the air had already landed on the grass.I can't pass the third level... The girl didn't pay attention to my melancholy, she put the small stones in her hands, scattered them skillfully on the grass, and skillfully passed one level, two levels, and three levels.Then she threw seven stones, turned over the back of her hand, and bought three points. We played round after round, and gradually, I became fully involved in this simple game. In the joy of passing through one level after another, I bought more and more points, and my finger movements gradually became proficient. The feeling of joy gradually rose like a lake, as if something in my heart was revived all of a sudden. At some point, all the big and small bullfrogs jumped out of the lake. They sat next to us, forming a circle and surrounding us. "Moo—welcome to Huaxiang Lake." The biggest bullfrog opened and closed his mouth and started talking! "Moo—welcome!" said all the bullfrogs in unison. "Wow, so you can talk!" The girl put down the pebble in her hand, grabbed the smallest one, and kissed it vigorously, "From now on, when you are free, come and talk to me." "Moo - please teach us how to play the game of 'Seven Sons'." The biggest bullfrog jumped up to us respectfully and bowed to us. "Moo - please teach us how to play the game!" All the bullfrogs bowed to us neatly! Such a group of broken bullfrogs, how do they learn to play games? If they are obsessed with games, they may miss catching bugs... I was just about to explain the truth to them and drive them back to the pond one by one, but my little female partner has already Gladly granted Bullfrog's request: "'Seven sons'? It's easy, not difficult at all. You first find seven pebbles, like this, throw them on the ground, then pick up one as a chip, throw it up, like this..." Enthusiasm The little teacher explained and demonstrated at the same time.The bullfrogs nodded again and again, their solemn appearance was really ridiculous.However, the girl said it once, and the bullfrogs have all learned it... "Moo - thank you, thank you so much." The biggest bullfrog bowed to us again. "Moo - thank you so much!" All the bullfrogs bowed to us again.As a tuition fee, each bullfrog gave us a colored stone. "You're welcome, I already have seven stones." The girl quickly waved her hands, "As long as you come to my backyard to play with me." But I was not polite at all, so I took all the stones and picked seven of the most exquisite and beautiful small stones. The bullfrogs got together in twos and threes, sat on the grass, and played the "seven sons" game.The colored pebbles flew up happily, and after a while, the bullfrogs played very well. "Moo-haha!" "Haha! Moo—" They laughed happily, and the girl left me to join the bullfrogs in their game.I looked up at the sky, the rain had stopped, the sky was getting dark slowly, it was going to be dark, we should go back. "Moo—have a cup of tea before you go!" said the Bullfrog. Two beautiful little bullfrogs handed us two cups of tea.The girl took the cup and drank it down, but I was still hesitating. Who knows what the bullfrog's tea is made of... " "Drink, drink!It is the most wonderful scented tea.Moo—” the bullfrogs urged in unison, I was too embarrassed to push back, so I had to take the cup and take a sip slowly. Where the tea touched, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, and the throat suddenly became extremely light and pure, This is not tea, it is clearly the fragrance of flowers. Could it be that the streams flowing from all directions are not rainwater, but the fragrance of flowers? Then, what gathers in this Fragrance Lake is not the lake water, but a lake full of fragrance of flowers. ! "Moo-bye-" Saying goodbye to the bullfrog, I took the girl's hand and walked out of the magnolia grove with her, and returned to the gardener's hut along the wind and rain flowers that fell on the ground when we came. The gardener's supper was ready, and I said goodbye to them and went back to the house above the tall building.I put seven colored stones in a small dish on the desk and kept them in clear water, and the fragrance of magnolia filled the whole room.The fragrance of colored stones persists for many years.When friends come to my house, they always ask me what perfume I use. I tell them that I have been to Huaxiang Lake, and show them colored stones.However, no one believed my words. They always laughed at me kindly: "Your imagination is so rich!" A dear friend even said to me: "It's a pity that you don't want to be a fairy tale writer!" In order to prove the existence of Huaxiang Lake, I went to the gardener's hut many times.However, the youngest daughter of the gardener has been sent back to the country to attend elementary school. Behind the gardener's house, although the peacock grass and the wind and rain are blooming well, the magnolia forest can no longer be found. Although the bullfrogs often appear , but none of them can speak.