Flower Picking (short novel)

There is a tree high on the mountain beam. It is an osmanthus tree.

The osmanthus tree is huge. As a result, the two slate houses behind the trees, whose walls had been eroded and peeled off by the wind and rain, became more and more short.

There lived a woman, a single woman, in the slate room.

The osmanthus blossomed, thanks; Thanks, it's on again. The woman is still alone. At that time, when the woman had finished her day's work, she sat down under the osmanthus tree, holding the old cat that accompanied her in her arms, watching over the osmanthus tree and passing the rest of the day. The night is getting darker, the cats don't bark, and the people don't speak. The rope-like path stretches in the vastness, the mountains are silent, and the woman's heart is empty.

The woman's name is Osmanthus, and she has a white face. The small and delicate waist is soft, and even a stone-hearted man will have many thoughts when he sees it. Osmanthus's maiden family is in a ravine that is even poorer than this place. Because she has

With such a beautiful and charming waist, because she has such a face that loves the dead, she married into this place ten times better than her mother's family.

Here's the myriad benefits of being a girl: wherever a boy is born, he is like this osmanthus tree, which can never be moved. Girls, on the other hand, can choose a place and a person to marry. What's more, osmanthus is such an outstanding and beautiful woman?

When Osmanthus got married here, it was August. The beige osmanthus is blooming vigorously, and the thick and faint fragrance wafts out far and wide. On that day, the ravines and ravines in the mountains suddenly appeared many people, they walked ten miles and eight miles, rushed here, looked at the osmanthus as a bride, and sighed that there are such beautiful women in the world! The man with the osmanthus on his back and the bear's waist, hugging the osmanthus flower, was very proud, and moved out of the house the old osmanthus wine hidden in the red cellar, and drank the villagers who had never been in contact with each other.

However, in the spring of the second year, the man with the tiger's back of the osmanthus could not escape the raid of a big stone when he was repairing the road leading from the mountain to the outside of the mountain, and lost her, the two stone houses, and the osmanthus tree. The man went, and he didn't even leave her a cub seed, but what he left for her was the bad name of "disaster star" and "nemesis". There were few people in the village, but now that I see her, it is more like escaping from the plague god, hiding far away.

The highway was opened, and the mountains were lively, and the osmanthus was guarding the osmanthus tree, which was even more deserted. Later, when she got used to being lonely, she no longer felt lonely, so she got a cat. She sat under the osmanthus tree with the old cat in her arms every day, and watched the people in the mountains go out of the mountain along the road, and watch the people outside the mountain go into the mountains along the road.

It's August again. One day, a visitor from outside the mountain passed by her door and found the osmanthus tree she was leaning against with her back. The man approached her and said, "Sister-in-law, sell me a few branches of your osmanthus tree!" She said, "What does such a big tree sell?" You can fold it as you like! The man climbed the tree with a ladder, folded his arms, and then stuck it in the front of the cart and rode away. As he got into the car, the man turned around and smiled gratefully at her. Over the years, she had barely seen what it was like to laugh. She was so excited, and she nodded gratefully to the man.

In the days that followed, the life of osmanthus changed greatly, like a calm pool, many fish came at once, and many colorful waves were stirred up in the water.

On the second day after the person who folded the osmanthus left, the osmanthus ate breakfast, tied the old cat on the kang railing, and was waiting to go uphill to collect pumpkins when he suddenly found that many people came from the road. The old, the young, the girls, and the young men poured down to the osmanthus tree. The courtyard of the osmanthus field suddenly became lively. Wave after wave of laughter overshadowed the birds in the trees, and took away the dead silence that had shrouded the yard for many years. Osmanthus knew that they were all here to buy osmanthus, so she hurriedly put down the basket in her hand and brought the ladder: "What to buy!" Break which branch you want. Then, busy and busy, he made cups of fragrant osmanthus tea, so that the people who folded the flowers drank it with great relish.

The number of people folding flowers is increasing day by day. Osmanthus watched people fold away the osmanthus one by one, and many happy feelings sprouted in the bottom of their hearts. She suddenly felt much younger. She ran to the back beam, picked wild honey locusts, washed her hair black and shiny, smeared small ash on her sideburns, and twisted off the fluff with silk threads. When she put on the clothes that had been pressed at the bottom of the box for many years and were still worn by the newlyweds, it was as if the sun in the mountains was much brighter. After finishing the work in the field, the osmanthus no longer sat under the osmanthus tree with the old cat in her arms. After all the osmanthus flowers on the tree had withered, she dug a big hole under the tree, picked up a few loads of dung with all her might, and poured it on the roots. She wants to make next year's osmanthus bloom denser and more fragrant, and let more people share the fragrance of osmanthus.

Sure enough, the next year the osmanthus bloomed more than any other year, densely layered with a tree. Flower pickers flock to the city. They had come to the tree full of osmanthus flowers, but when they hurried to the bottom of the tree to pick the branches, their eyes were involuntarily glued to the hostess. They never expected this woman to be so beautiful. It's really hidden in the mountains! The delicate and moving body, the charming charm of the soul, simply made them fascinated.

For a time, all kinds of rumors about osmanthus spread in the small town outside the mountain. Some of the descendants who didn't pick osmanthus couldn't hold it back, picked up the profits, and rushed to the osmanthus tree to please the osmanthus in various ways. If you get a smile from the osmanthus, you will be drunk and happy. Before leaving, he did not pick any osmanthus in his hand, but picked the most charming charm of the hostess osmanthus in his heart. Osmanthus tweed quickly understood all this, and a desire that had been buried in the bottom of my heart for many years was sprouting. Osmanthus knew that her osmanthus was picked away, her charm was picked away, and her heart was also picked away.

After the autumn of this year, the villagers suddenly discovered that the osmanthus was missing.

Some people speculate that osmanthus will not leave here. Because her man has been dead for so many years, Osmanthus has never had any thoughts; Some people say that osmanthus is leaving here. Because people seem to remember that one cloudy morning, the osmanthus carried a burden in the crook of the osmanthus arm, and carried an osmanthus sapling in his hand, and walked out of the mountain along the road..... But no matter what conjectures the villagers make, the truth is: the osmanthus is gone.

The osmanthus is gone. Only one tree was left on the high mountain beam, and the low and collapsed stone house behind the tree.

Author: Lu Fuhui