In the evening of that day, Zhang Taiping had just watered the dilute space water on the laurel tree, and before he had time to eat, Wang Guilai, the eldest son of the village chief, invited him to eat and drink at home.

The old village chief is the same age as Zhang Taiping's father, but he has a noble son early. Now Wang Gui is thirty years old, six years older than Zhang Taiping, an authentic northern farmer, honest and honest. As the eldest in the family, he had to run for his livelihood early, and he was out in the early years, relying on a hard-working spirit, and he was tight on hand, and he really saved some money. In the past few years, as the old village chief has grown older, he has returned home to take care of the elderly, based on the knowledge accumulated outside, growing mushrooms at home, and riding a motorcycle tricycle to the town every day, which is more than enough to support his family.

It is said to be a small village, but it covers a large area, and the houses are not tightly clustered like towns, but scattered and scattered, even if the neighbors are more than ten meters away or dozens of meters away. The courtyard of Zhang Taiping's house is built on the mountain, hundreds of meters away from the center of the village.

After going out, Wang Gui gave Zhang Taiping a cigarette and lit another cigarette for himself. The two of them walked in the evening breezy night, Wang Gui was the kind of taciturn type of person, plus the two did not have a deep relationship, so they had nothing to say for a while, just smoked silently.

After a cigarette was finished, Zhang Taiping popped out the cigarette holder, and the scattered sparks crossed an arc and fell into the river on the side of the road. Zhang Taiping opened his mouth and asked, "I don't know what happened to Uncle Hanmin who asked me to go over?" ”

Wang Gui said with a smile when he heard this: "It's not about the wild boar coming down the mountain. ”

Zhang Taiping turned his head to look at the smile on Wang Gui's face, he looked honest and honest when he was silent, and the smile spread out on his ordinary face when he smiled made people feel like a spring breeze, but it gave people a feeling of trustworthiness. Zhang Taiping suddenly thought that this kind of person is either wise or foolish, or loyal to him.

After a pause, Zhang Taiping frowned and said, "Is it about the wild boar a few days ago?" ”

"That's not it, no one in our village dares to offend everyone, unless he doesn't want to mix up on this one-third of an acre. Tonight is mainly to discuss how to prevent wild boars, the bud valley is about to yellow, the wild boars have been moving down the mountain in the past two days, and a few acres of land have been harmed. It is not easy to plant a season, and it is not an option to go on like this, so the village is ready to form several patrol teams to take turns to watch over the cornfields. ”

Zhang Taiping nodded and did not speak again.

There are already more than a dozen people gathered in the village chief's house, and they are waiting for Zhang Taiping. Originally, Zhang Taiping would not have been notified of this kind of thing, and according to his previous style, he would not participate even if he knew about it. In view of his performance a few days ago, the village chief deliberately let his son go.

When the village chief saw him come in, he patted him on the shoulder and arranged a seat. Wang Peng's kid was also there, and when he saw Zhang Taiping coming in, he moved a chair and rubbed it over.

I simply prepared a few cold dishes, and a large pot of old hen stewed wild mountain mushrooms, plus home-brewed wine.

When he was full of wine and food, the old village chief pressed his hand and said, "I called everyone here tonight to take care of the bud valley, and the wild boar is a great scourge. In the past ten days before Baogu Huang, a group of people went to patrol the field every evening, and the wild boars only came out in the evening to harm people, so as long as they were subjected to ten o'clock. ”

As soon as the words fell, Wang Laoliu's loud voice came, "Brother, don't say anything else, just arrange people, I think everyone here is not a bag." ”

The old village chief saw that the following people were echoing, so he directly allocated manpower. Zhang Taiping became the captain of a five-person team unexpectedly, although he was young, no one objected, because the strong performance that day had already spread in the village.

When he went out, Zhang Taiping glanced back at Wang Gui, who was sitting in the corner smoking, and always felt that this person was not simple.

When I got home, I drank another bowl of polenta. I took a bath in the river, sat under the laurel tree, and told the girl a few stories, until she fell asleep in her arms.

The next day, as soon as I opened the door of the middle courtyard, a faint sweet fragrance hit me. Zhang Taiping was stunned for a moment, raised his head, and the laurel tree, which had not bloomed for several years, was full of dense clusters of small pale white flowers.

Jumped up and picked a bunch of osmanthus flowers, put them under your nose and sniffed them, and the four yellow-white petals could not block the overflowing fragrance.

Osmanthus is a rare and precious thing. Not to mention the beauty and aroma, it can also be used as a spice, drink, or ingredient.

The rich floral fragrance of osmanthus will not easily dissipate, the aroma is elegant and outstanding, will not irritate people's nose, has the effect of refreshing fragrance, can eliminate a variety of odors in the air, and is easy to store and apply, only need to be dried and rolled in the bottle or package with white sugar to collapse up, it can be stored for a long time, so it is widely used as a spice. Osmanthus can also be made into osmanthus tea, which is made in a simple way, just put the freshly picked petals in the boiling water and dry them. When drinking osmanthus tea, the tea leaves are pleasing to the eye, the aroma of the tea is overflowing, drink a sip in the mouth, the rich sweet fragrance goes straight to the brain, making people feel refreshed and happy. Osmanthus wine was also famous all over the world, but now most of the secret recipes have been lost, and there are very few people who can brew it. Osmanthus is also a kind of ingredient, boiling soup, cooking porridge can be, the most famous is osmanthus cake, and osmanthus Lantern Festival.

Osmanthus can also be used in medicine, which has the effect of dispersing cold and breaking knots, dissolving phlegm and generating Jin. It is matched with the green back osmanthus horse osmanthus mountain osmanthus flower and osmanthus dew osmanthus seeds to form a formula, mainly to disperse cold and break knots, dissolve phlegm and relieve cough, mostly used for toothache, cough and wheezing, and abdominal pain.

There are many kinds of osmanthus trees, and the common ones are red cinnamon, golden cinnamon, silver cinnamon and four seasons cinnamon. The silver osmanthus flowers are whiter in color, slightly yellowish, the leaves are thinner than other osmanthus trees, and the floral fragrance is similar to that of golden osmanthus and is not very strong. Silver cinnamon blooms and autumn, the flower color is mainly white, pure white, milky white and yellowish white, and very few special ones will be light yellow. Silver cinnamon is divided into jade Linglong, willow leaf silver cinnamon, long leaf early silver cinnamon, seed silver cinnamon, white jie, early silver cinnamon, late silver cinnamon and nine dragon laurel and so on.

Judging from the flower shape and the leaves of the tree, this one at home is the nine dragon laurel in the silver cinnamon. 'Jiulonggui' grows fast and takes shape early, which is closely related to its strong branching force and large growth of new shoots. It is more resistant to water and humidity, and has a stronger ability to resist drought, but it is less resistant to disease and is prone to leaf loss. The young trees of 'Kowloon Gui' have three new shoots every year, namely spring, summer and autumn. Each time the new shoots set off, they are purple-red and can last for 10 days to half a month, and can play the role of a color-leaved tree species during these periods. 'Jiulong Gui' begins to bloom late, generally 8 years after the flower can be seen, the corolla is silvery-white, the flower stalk is slender, like a string of white silver bells hanging branches, very cute.

The biggest highlight of the Nine Dragons Laurel Tree is the natural twisting growth of the branches. According to the fixed-point observation in 2004, the early spring shoots and late autumn shoots grew straight, and there was no curved growth. The late spring, summer and early autumn shoots must naturally bend and grow to form the shape of a "dragon". This may be the three types of young shoots in late spring, summer and early autumn, under the direct sunlight of about 30 °C, once soft and drooping, when the temperature drops, and then resume upward growth due to the extreme surname, and finally form a twisted shape of the branch.

The dragon is the symbol of the Chinese nation, throughout the 5,000-year history of civilization in our country, whether it is handed down, paintings and sculptures, or folk customs among the masses, the image of the dragon abounds. The shape of the branches of 'Jiulonggui' is peculiar, and its arc-shaped twisted branches are purely natural formation, without the slightest human processing, which is a highlight of its cultivation and ornamentation. Coupled with its purple-red new shoots and pleasantly fragrant silver-white corolla, it makes it an excellent osmanthus variety integrating greening, beautification and fragrance. It is suitable for cultivation and ornamentation of civic squares and public green spaces, and can also be used as high-end ornaments and potted flowers in living rooms, hotels, conference halls, etc.

Osmanthus tree is a symbol of nobility, chastity, honor, friendship and auspiciousness. The myth of "Moon Palace Immortal Gui" gives the world endless reverie. After the Tang and Song dynasties, osmanthus has been widely used for cultivation and ornamentation in gardens. Song Zhiwen's "Lingyin Temple" poem has the famous poem "Guizi falls in the middle of the moon, and the heavenly fragrance clouds float outside", so later generations also call osmanthus "heavenly fragrance". Li Bai in the poem "Yonggui" has "Anzhi Nanshan Gui, green leaves and fragrant roots." Qingyin can also be trusted, why not plant the monarch garden". It shows that the poet wants to plant in the garden, which can be both watched and encouraged from time to time. This need has led to the increasing popularity of osmanthus cultivation in gardens. For example, Mei Yaochen's "Linxuan Gui" in the Song Dynasty: "There is no evil wood in the jawand, but there are green cinnamon bushes." Ouyang Xiu's "Xie Ren Sends Double Laurel Trees" in "Xiaolu Autumn Hui Floating, Qingyin Medicine Column Song" implies that osmanthus has been transplanted to the peony railing in the poet's courtyard. In the Song Dynasty Mao Peng's "Osmanthus Song", "Jade Steps, Guiying, Autumn Appointment" indicates that cinnamon is planted in front of the jade-colored steps. In the poem "Osmanthus" by Ni Zan of the Yuan Dynasty, "Osmanthus leaves the evening color, and the curtain shadow is pale in autumn", it is pointed out that the osmanthus is planted in front of the window.

In the long-term historical development process, osmanthus has formed a profound cultural connotation and distinctive national characteristics.

Therefore, now a "laurel stream" has formed in the market, and people love laurel trees and have planted them. Many osmanthus bonsai came into being, most of these bonsai are grafted, which are famous for their peculiar shape and long flowering period, and sell well in the market, forming their unique cultural trend.

Zhang Taiping was stunned with a bunch of osmanthus flowers, his mind was open-minded, and he was very promising in appreciating flowers and trees, and he could cultivate some bonsai trees with strong ornamental surnames in the future, and he could also participate in a flower expo if he was interested.

When he came to the front room, he skewered the osmanthus in front of his wife and raised it, but his wife didn't understand what it meant. Zhang Taiping put the osmanthus in the palm of his wife's hand and said.

"The osmanthus bloomed last night."

Cai Yazhi is holding this string of osmanthus flowers like holding a peerless treasure, cautiously. There is no woman who doesn't love flowers, not to mention that this is the first gift given by Zhang Taiping in the real sense.

Looking at his wife's radiant eyes, Zhang Taiping involuntarily lowered his voice, for fear of disturbing this charming shyness.

"Do you know how to make osmanthus cakes?"

The wife shook her head, her face was full of curiosity as if she had applied a thin powder, and asked, can flowers make tea or pastries?

Zhang Taiping replied: "I don't know if other flowers can be made into cakes, but the osmanthus cakes made of osmanthus are fragrant and delicious." I remember when my grandmother was still there, I could eat osmanthus cake every year, and I was the most in my mouth at that time, after having osmanthus cake, I didn't eat anything else for a few days, and took osmanthus cake as a punctual point. ”

Cai Yazhi gestured and asked, will you do it?

Zhang Taiping nodded and said jokingly: "When the time comes, I will teach you the method, this is a secret recipe for the family, and it must not be leaked out." ”

The wife nodded fiercely as seriously as a little girl.