Chapter 41: Gong's Mother

  "The sun shines on the grassy slope, and white smoke is born. From a distance, I see a waterfall hanging from the mountain cliff. The flying stream falls straight down eight or nine feet, as if it were saliva dripping from the lips."

  Dew has not dispersed, like jade beads falling among the grass, everywhere. When sunlight shines, it turns into mist and rises, like clouds and smoke at the edge of the sky.

  Song Wenden held a cup of milk, walked out while drinking, and saw the scene in front of him, couldn't help but burst into poetry. He only took Li Bai's good poem "Looking at Lushan Waterfall" and changed it beyond recognition, I don't know if he knew underground, would he jump out and scold his nose.

  But according to Song Wen's idea, it shouldn't be like this.

  Li Bai is a carefree person, how could he do something so uncarefree? Moreover, didn't he not have the conditions for it? If he had the conditions, he wouldn't have recited such a good poem in this way.

  For example, "the sun shines on the incense burner and produces purple smoke", isn't there no incense burner here? Moreover, under the sunlight, the dew vaporizes into a white mist, he can't force it to be purple smoke! He must respect the facts, isn't seeking truth from facts what he should do? Also, that "distant view of the waterfall hanging in front of the river", the water flow rushing down from the cliff is already quite a stretch to call it a waterfall, if he says it's hanging in front of the river, he really doesn't have the face for it; also, that "the flying stream falls straight down three thousand feet", measuring by one foot and three tenths, how can he measure this small waterfall to be so many feet? Even if he dies trying, it's only about 40 or 50 feet, but saying it like that doesn't sound good, so he just uses eight or nine feet instead; again, that "it seems to be the Milky Way falling from the ninth heaven", he doesn't know how big the Milky Way is, but knows this so-called waterfall is just a slightly larger stream of saliva, so he says it like that. No choice, who made him not have the conditions? If he had them, he would say it like that too, can't create conditions out of thin air, right? Isn't that cheating people? He will never do something that harms the great people's emotions.

  After reciting the poem, Song Wen felt that this scene and this poem were a perfect match, and he couldn't help but take a sip of milk with satisfaction. He happily sang one of his favorite songs, "The Lantern of Longing".

  "Since ancient times, beautiful women have had short lives. Beautiful women have had short lives. Beautiful women have short lives. Ruan also has a short life."

  Good dreams are the easiest to wake up from. Good dreams are the easiest to wake up from. Good dreams are easy to wake up from. Only Ruan's dream has not woken up, the emotions in my heart have not stopped rolling, and I have not stopped rolling. The emotions in my heart have not stopped rolling, and I have not stopped rolling. When will my good man return? Tonight, I'm alone facing the longing lamp. Facing the longing lamp. Broken-hearted, facing the longing lamp.

  The lantern of longing originally referred to a woman's longing for a man, singing with a sorrowful tone, every sentence heartbreaking, gentle and affectionate, with emotions entwined, making listeners shed tears.

  But at this time, Song Wen shook his head and sang with a few happy notes, turning a good love song into a playful tango dance tune, it's really like a cow's head doesn't match a horse's mouth.

  Song Wen was drinking milk and singing a song as he came under the old Osmanthus tree.

  The new buds on the old Osmanthus tree have grown to about an inch long, and it feels like they're growing really fast. He didn't expect the spring water from the Ruyi fan to have such a huge promotional effect on the growth of trees. It's just like when he planted sweet potatoes before, the vines grew extremely quickly, and at that time, he didn't know why, but now it seems that it was all thanks to the spring water.

  He took a look at the old Osmanthus tree and didn't know if its internal functions had recovered, so he took out the copper mirror to take a look. He found that the inside of the old Osmanthus tree was full of vitality, it seemed to have recovered. After looking at the old Osmanthus tree, he didn't put away the copper mirror, but instead shone it on the ground beside him, wanting to see if there were any treasures underground.

  The image in the copper mirror penetrated layer by layer, all the way to the bottom of the earth. One meter, two meters, three meters... it was already very difficult to see any further, seemingly at the limit of his ability. But Song Wen didn't give up, wanting to continue looking down, so he concentrated his spirit and looked downwards again, finally managing to advance another meter with great difficulty, almost reaching five meters, before stopping, unable to see any further no matter how hard he tried.

  At this time, another dizziness came over him, he hastily stopped, put away the copper mirror, and closed his eyes to rest under the old osmanthus tree.

  After a while, that dizzy feeling slowly dissipated, but the head was still a bit dizzy and heavy. It seems that this copper mirror cannot be used for a long time.

  This thing, I reckon it's just good for looking at trees, if you use it to find treasure underground, it's probably not enough. At a distance of four or five meters, you can't even see the bottom of that wild boar trap he dug, let alone anything else. Maybe you can peek through walls and watch someone's wife take a bath, but this kind of boring thing, this honest old man obviously wouldn't do it.

  As the dizzy feeling subsided, Song Wencai opened his eyes, blinked a few times, and continued drinking milk. He felt that drinking a cup of freshly squeezed milk in the morning was truly blissful.

  Drinking this milk is not easy, he spent a lot of effort to squeeze the milk, and even ran to the village's cattle-raising household to ask for advice, finally managed to learn it, really really not easy!

  Drinking milk, looking at the old Osmanthus tree, he felt that the new buds growing on the old Osmanthus tree and the withered branches were not very harmonious. He drank the milk in one gulp and went inside to take out the newly bought pruning shears and started pruning.

  In the bamboo forest path, dew drops turned into misty clouds that wrapped around it, sometimes gathering and sometimes dispersing, drifting aimlessly.

  A Hummer slowly drove up from the foot of the mountain to the Bamboo Forest Road, with Huang Xiaojun and a woman in professional attire sitting inside.

  The woman looked at the drifting clouds and mist outside the car window, and the quiet bamboo forest, and asked Huang Xiaojun, who was driving, with a suspicious tone: "Xiaojun, you're not thinking of selling me to someone in this mountain village as a wife, are you?"

  Huang Xiaojun turned around, looked her up and down, left and right, front and back, and said with disdain: "You think you're worthy of their attention?"

  "What? I have a good figure and a pretty face, how can it be that no one wants me?" The woman cried out as if she had been greatly insulted.

  "It's only your family that would hang themselves on this crooked tree of yours, if it were someone else, they might not even bother."

  "That's also my specialty."

  The woman proudly said with her head held high and chest out, then seriously said: "But to be honest, the business you introduced me to is on this side, it's too remote, isn't it for installing lights in someone's tomb?"

  "Nonsense, he has a house inside. He thinks it's too dark at night and wants to install streetlights on this side. He's my friend, so give him a friendly price, don't rip him off."

  "Friends, what friends? Those who are neither good-looking nor young, if they're ugly as a lopsided melon, it's best to get rid of them early. The atmosphere here is gloomy, that person lives here, must be mentally ill."

  Huang Xiaojun had long known about her friend's sharp tongue and didn't care, simply driving the car forward.

  Through the bamboo forest, suddenly a bright spot appears in front of me. A small courtyard with a traditional quadrangle layout stands quietly at the bottom of a bamboo forest, surrounded by green fields and dotted with flowers, grasses and trees.

  The golden light of the morning sun shines down, dyeing the small courtyard with a different color. Beside it, the misty clouds drift over the lake, and from time to time, water birds can be seen flying over the lake. Being in this environment, I feel as if I have shed all sorts of worldly troubles, having a feeling of being detached from the world and transcending the mundane.

  The woman in the career dress looked over and couldn't help but feel a sense of longing.

  Hummer arrived at the creek and didn't stop, driving directly onto the creek.

  That woman looked and shouted loudly, "Huang Xiaojun, even if you want to die, don't drag me down with you."

  But Huang Xiaojun didn't care about her, just smiled and stepped on the accelerator, rushing towards the creek.

  The car arrived at the creek, and the woman only discovered that there was a flat boulder below. She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but then she couldn't resist complaining to Huang Xiaojun beside her: "You didn't even tell me beforehand, scaring my heart into jumping nonstop, how annoying."