Every time I recall the fun of catching cicadas in my childhood, my heart fills with infinite beauty and joy.
When I was a child, I lived in a small village in the south of the Yangtze River. There were several mottled and vigorous poplar trees growing in front of the old house. Every year at the height of summer, through the dense green leaves, I can hear the high-pitched and loud chirping of cicadas, one after another, melodious and far-reaching, letting me walk into the coolness without realizing it. Nowadays, I live in a busy city, with many buildings and no trees, and it is hard to hear the sound of cicadas. I occasionally go to the park under the shade of the trees and listen to the summer symphony of cicadas. The unforgettable and rich nostalgia comes to the bottom of my heart, and I can't shake it off.
Cicadas are wild creatures. It takes four or five years for a cicada to grow from an egg to a larvae. After a long period of self-cultivation, resting, and waiting underground, it emerges from the cocoon and emerges as a cicada. Whenever the end of summer comes, the cicada can no longer maintain its loneliness. It climbs up the high branches little by little with a new attitude, exploring the unfamiliar world with its abrupt and round eyes.
When I was a child, I formed a deep "feeling" with cicadas. Whenever the long cicada chirping "Cicada, cicada" sounds in the summer, I can no longer sit still and look up to look for the black elves hiding on the tree trunks. The cicadas are very clever and will "hiss" at the slightest movement. "Slip" and fly away like an arrow.
Later, Uncle Fulgen next door taught us the method: grab a handful of wheat flour, put it into a bowl and mix it with water until it is not hard or rotten, then put it in clean water and knead it repeatedly with your hands until the white slurry of the flour is kneaded out. Only the gluten remains. Drain the water and shake it dry. The gluten at this time is very sticky. Wrap it around the top of a long bamboo pole and use it as a magic weapon to catch cicadas. In the hot summer, when the sun shines through the gaps between the leaves, those cicadas are greedy and sucking the sap from the trees desperately. Their chirping is extremely loud. Their light and transparent wings flash and shine, and they are extremely beautiful. We identified the target, slowly stretched out the bamboo pole, and touched the cicada's wings as quickly as possible. The cicada was stuck to the gluten and made a sharp chirping sound of "ji, ji, ji". Put the captured cicadas into bamboo cages, tie some with ropes, and tie them to branches, let them flutter their wings, or listen to their singing.
At night, my friends and I were reluctant to leave the cicadas to rest, so we put them under the mosquito net. Early the next morning, a clear chirping of cicada woke the sleeping child from his sweet dream. In the blink of an eye, a new happy day began again...
I heard from adults that the skin unearthed from the cicada is called "chanyi" , yellow in color and brittle in texture, it can be used as traditional Chinese medicine. It is everywhere in the woods in the countryside and can be purchased in pharmacies. So, my friends and I went to the forest every morning to pick up cicadas , and we actually picked up a lot. I used them in exchange for a lot of pocket money, and went to the bookstore to buy my favorite little book...
When I grew up, I worked in the countryside. After lunch in the summer, several shirtless young men would go to the tall at the entrance of the village. In the shade of the camphor tree , I spread a straw mat, lie down and let the cicadas hypnotize me, and gradually fall asleep in the cool world...
Time flies, more than thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye, the past is long, and every time I recall the fun of catching cicadas in my childhood, my heart It brings infinite beauty and joy. Thinking of the poem by the scholar Luo Binwang "The cicadas sing in the west, and the guests in the south are deep in thought", I also have extravagant hopes: If the city is surrounded by beautiful buildings and jade buildings, the sound of cicadas can be heard one after another, the old people are taking a nap under the trees, and the children are watching The cicada sighed, how beautiful it must be! (Yan Zhiming)
