The crowds selling green lotus on the street are particularly lively: the freshly picked lotus pods are so fresh and cost 16 yuan per catty, and the lotus pods with handles cost 2 yuan each. I bought 3 pounds for 48 yuan, hoping for a good omen.

Memory of Lotus Picking

Text/Su Liya

The shouts of people selling green lotus on the street are particularly lively: the newly picked lotus pods are so fresh, they cost 16 yuan per catty, and the lotus pods with handles cost 2 yuan each.

I bought 3 pounds for 48 yuan, hoping for a good omen. I bought 6 lotus flowers with handles, and the vases that had been neglected for several years came in handy.

Pour in sugar and salt water, and the lotus pods can last for several days in a bottle! Just looking at them makes you feel happy. Only I am neither humble nor arrogant, and I don’t care so much. I have my own reasons for being silent. The look in my mother’s eyes brought my thoughts back to my boyhood.

Grandpa and grandma are hard-working people. They had been doing silk and satin business in Changsha before liberation. Everyone knows that hard work can lead to wealth.

In 1948, my grandparents saved enough money to buy land and build a courtyard house in Shaxi, Miluo, their hometown.

During the liberation in 1949, a landlord component was established. Because of his strong class status, my father was implicated in the Cultural Revolution in 1968 and was expelled and returned to his hometown for labor reform.

I am 11 years old and my 6-year-old brother is not very sensible. It is good to go to the countryside. It’s fun and you can make new friends. Mom said that Li'er ran very fast when she was born and lost her "handle" when she ran away. Her personality was like that of a man.

Children always have too much energy. In July, when we have to plant rice seedlings, we must get up at five o'clock in the morning to pull out the rice seedlings. Dandi is too young to be of any use.

I was the only one who secretly went on a date to pick lotus flowers at noon.

Dandi is a smart bird, so he followed suit quietly. There are two bathtubs in my house. Friends laughed at how Dandi could hold up a female basin? Dandi didn't understand the men's and women's basins, so he thought that the younger one would be lighter, while his older sister would bear the burden.

The bathtub is our lotus boat, our hands are our oars, and the lotus leaves are our sun hat. The world of flowers, the ocean of joy! We are like the owners of the lotus pond.

As soon as we got down to the pond, we didn’t pick lotus flowers, but had a water fight first. They were all so young that they couldn't tell the difference between male and female even when they were soaked all over.

The captain blew the work whistle and we arrived at the construction site on time.

The female friends grabbed my arms and looked at me, "Ah! It's so scary! The skin is so smooth that it doesn't touch the water anymore, like black bonito."

"Isn't it too exaggerated? Black is good! That's the true nature of workers and peasants. My mother told me. "

Dandi stretched out his hand to show it to his mother. She said that the ten fingers looked like loaches. The younger brother was so happy that he asked what Hehua Loach meant.

His mother told him that this loach grew up eating grass flowers. The younger brother's eyes flashed, "The loach is so lucky, we don't get the grass flowers to eat."

Mom hit the younger brother and said, "All the grass flowers have been eaten, where is the rice." The younger brother picked his head embarrassedly. .

My younger brother didn't go to work, so he processed the lotus pods he picked properly: the lotus flesh was divided into two parts, the lotus heart was green and put in a rice bowl.

My mother asked my brother, "This lotus heart is bitter, why don't you throw it away?"

"My sister said that this thing has been poisoned by poison."

The bitterness of this lotus heart is the same as the bitterness of bitter melon. Some people like this bitter taste. Soft spot. Yes, I soaked the lotus hearts in water and drank them when I was away from work, and distributed the sweet lotus meat to my friends and family who didn’t go to pick lotus.

I asked my parents to taste a piece of it, but they refused to eat it. It was useless for me to get angry.

The second time we set off quietly.

Huihui is one year older than me, but she grew up in a rural area, so she knows many things very well. "Look, there is a hanging cloud today, I'm afraid there will be heavy rain. Let's go back early."

I said, "Even if it's Mo Li, just put the lotus pod in your bag and hold the foot basin on your head. It'll be fine." "

Huihui really hit the mark. It was pouring rain and windy, making it impossible to walk. Isn’t that shocking?! My friends cried and screamed...

has turned the tables now. The captain found out about our secret lotus picking.

The rain stopped, and the captain asked us to stand in a row in the Hetangping of the team house.

"Don't you understand that lotus pods are collective property? How many days have you been collecting them?"

No one dared to say anything.

"Hui Hui, you are the eldest child, please confess."

"I picked them at noon yesterday, and today is the second day. It rained heavily before I picked one today."

"Where is the lotus pod from yesterday? "

"Everyone in our Wujiazui house ate, but the amount we ate was different. "

I couldn't help but vomit: "My parents didn't eat it, and I didn't eat it either. "

Dandi is also the most talkative I have ever seen. He raised his voice an octave: "I saw that the whole family didn't eat and I didn't eat either, but I swallowed my saliva. "Captain

said: "You can't tell lies, you really haven't eaten. If your whole family doesn't eat, why are you going to pick lotuses? "

" It's fun, picking lotus is really fun. There is also a fish hiding under the lotus leaf. When we touch it, it will do somersaults. It is really clever. Uncle Su, will you go picking lotus with us next time? "

The captain couldn't help but chuckle:

"You guys, you can go play in the pond. Next time, don't pick lotus flowers and pick water chestnuts. They are wild, and picking water chestnuts is also fun.

You should remember: collective things, especially beautiful water plants like lotus, are for everyone to enjoy. When the lotus seeds are ripe, every family will share them; during the Chinese New Year, wouldn’t it be a happy thing for every family to share the lotus roots? Everyone should remember what I said. "

We all said remember it. Don't be sneaky next time! It's natural for children to like to play with water in summer. In fact, you don't have to pick water chestnuts.

The lotus in my heart will always be the most beautiful flower in my heart! Sheng Ru What a beautiful life the blooming summer flowers are...

(About the author: Su Liya, a senior teacher at Xiangyin No. 1 Middle School, a member of the Xiangyin Folk Literature and Art Research Association, and a fan of Peking Opera.)