In spring, when the warm sun shines on the mountains and forests, and the gentle spring breeze blows the thatched grass on the thatched houses, many green shoots will emerge from the silt in the shallow water area of the stream in front of Dongmen Village, and the slender grass will burst out of the water.

Before you know it, the water is rising. The paddy field where the creek passed was still dry on the first day, and the soil in the field was very white from the sun, and we could still run and jump on the mud, but in a blink of an eye it was soaked in water. There were a few hills that were ploughed by an uncle, and the soil turned up, leaving traces of being plowed. If you look further, the withered and whitish grass pocket that has been boiling all winter has also spit out light green.

The row of jujube trees in front of our house was still unconscious, and the slender branches were still bare, but the peach tree next to the bronze tree was the first to report spring. The hundreds of buds seemed to bloom in an instant, so gorgeous and so warm.

Spring is coming.

Our little hands are no longer in our sleeves. We don't have to carry a small torch to school. In a blink of an eye, we have lost our heavy padded jackets, like to run, like to run. In the blink of an eye, there was a thick green everywhere, and a hundred flowers were blooming: on the ridges, beside the small ditches, in the meadows, on the hills, there were flowers everywhere, red, white, purple, as if there were any colors.

I took Hao Junqi's hand and went to the mountains to pick flowers.

It's something we do every spring. Haven't you seen the rhododendrons all over the mountains? In the corners, among the cedar forests, in the thatch, and even on the hills, everywhere, red, gorgeous, how gorgeous, how exaggerated.

We had breakfast and went down to the well under the big camphor tree at the door. In the soil there grew a grass with stems not much thicker than the needles used by some of the grandmothers in the village to mend sewing and mending, but it grew old and long. I broke it off from the bottom of it and used it to string rhododendrons. I folded a handful, there were twenty or thirty of them, and then went to the back mountain.

The sun shines on us warmly. The dew on the grass and leaves has been completely evaporated.

The rhododendrons in the fir forest were big and red, but we couldn't reach them. The rhododendrons on the grave were red and large, but we did not dare to move. There are still a lot of azaleas that are already in bloom, and even a little defeated, and we don't want them. We're going to pick the kind of flowers that have just bloomed, and the ones that are so tough that when we string them together, they look bony and don't shrink when we wear them on our heads or on our chests.

It took us a long time to collect a handful, and we saw the sun climb a pole high.

When we grasp a handful in both hands, it means that we have gathered enough, so we choose a field free of weeds and weeds and sit down to tend, and let the sun shine on us. We pluck the flowers one by one, tear off the whiskers inside, and use the grass stalks through the eyes of the flowers, one by one, and when they are grown into a bunch, we knot the two ends of the grass stalks together.

And so the garland did.

"Kiki, do you want it?" I say.

"Yes."

"Give."

"Brother, where do you say to wear it? Where do you like me to wear it? "Hao Junqi's eyes seem to be transparent, so beautiful.

"Put it on your head." I say.

"You put it on me."

"Okay." I put a wreath on Hao Junqi's head, "Haha, Kiki looks like a bride." ”

"I don't want to be a bride." Hao Junqi pursed her lips and shook her hands, but the smile was still on her face.

Then we'll do another string. This time, I put a wreath on Hao Junqi's chest. Hao Junqi was very happy.

On the way back, I kept eating azaleas. I removed the buds, blew them, and threw the whole flower into my mouth, chewing it in a big gulp.

"Is it delicious?" Hao Junqi asked.

"It was delicious. Grandpa Hao said that eating azaleas will not cause nosebleeds, so eat more. ”

"I want it too." Hao Junqi opened her mouth.

I'll throw one in.

Hao Junqi chewed it, and spit out a mouthful of "phew", "Brother deceives people, it's not delicious." She stamped her foot.

"It's really delicious." I munched on the azaleas again.

Sometimes we also take the azaleas home and sit in front of our house to play. After playing, you will see the red petals lying on the ground around the place where we are sitting cross-legged, and you will feel sorry for no reason.

I don't remember if I was 10 or 9 years old, except that in those years we would go up to the mountains every spring to collect rhododendrons and do the same thing.

……

If the temperature rises suddenly, if there are a few spring thunders in the quiet of the night, and if there is rain for several days, the water in the creek will rise sharply, overflowing the embankment by the stream, and it will be a little imposing. At this point, the fish are about to go into the water.

The fish swam desperately from the creek a mile away, and the fishing enthusiasts in the village began to weave bamboo cages.

They carry a few loach cages or a large water cage to walk on the ridge of the paddy field, find a gap in the flowing water, and then bury the cage in the gap, press it with soil, and the water will flow down from the bamboo cage, and the small fish and the small loaches will go upstream along the flowing water, and they will never get out again when they get into the bamboo cage.

Early the next morning, they carried a cylindrical basket that was also woven from small bamboo strips, walked to the place where they buried the cage, lifted the bamboo cage, and they could hear the panicked jumping sound of the small fish in the bamboo cage, and they knew that there was a delicious food at noon. They poured the fish in bamboo cages into a cylindrical basket and took them home.

In my last spring in the mountain village, I became very interested in it. I pestered my father to get me a cage like this. My father wouldn't do it, but he asked a big brother in the village for a small bamboo cage. I am very happy.

Zhu Jinshan also got one.

We went down to the paddy field to load the cage in the evening, and the next morning we went to the cage with us (that is, the cage buried in the water was brought out).

The spring is cold, warm and cold, the spring water is biting, but we don't care, what we are worried about is nothing, even if there is a fish, we will have a sense of achievement, but God does not care, we often get nothing.

And the big brothers in the village will put the cage above the pond at the entrance of the village, and they will harvest every day, not to mention loaches, not to mention small crucian carp two or three fingers wide, and even crucian carp with the size of a palm, and sometimes they can also load red carp and mullet.

"It's their cage." Zhu Jinshan suddenly realized this.

"Oh?" I say.

"Their cages are big and thick, and ours are too small."

"Our cage is small, so the amount of water flowing is not large." I seem to understand a little.

"The amount of water is not large, and the current is not fast, so we can't attract fish to swim in our direction." I added.

"Yes. So we're going to get a cage like this. Zhu Jinshan said.

"Get one? How? ”

Zhu Jinshan leaned into my ear and said a few words.

"Say what? Say what? Hao Junqi, who was standing on the side, was anxious. I hurriedly told her what Zhu Jinshan said.

"Is that okay?" I looked at Zhu Jinshan.

"Yes." Zhu Jinshan said affirmatively.

"When to act? Just tonight? ”

"Just tonight."

We went home separately.

Hao Junqi tugged at my hand, "Brother, I'll go too." ”

"Nope."

"Why?"

"No why."

"No, no, no." Hao Junqi was very aggrieved.

"At night, it was dark. Will wrestle. ”

"I'm not afraid. With my brother here, I'm not afraid. Hao Junqi pouted.

"Good. Don't tell our mom and dad, though. ”

That night, we deceived our parents and walked along the bluestone road in front of the village to the outside of the village. The moonlight was very faint, and the shadows of the pear or jujube trees planted by some people on the side of the road fell on the path, and it was dark. Our hearts beat suddenly. Hao Junqi held my hand tightly.

After a while, they arrived at the entrance of the village. We looked out of the village and saw a large field. It's watery everywhere. The moon hung in the sky like a boat, and silver ash sprinkled all over the land.

Zhu Jinshan led the way in front. He had already explored the terrain. He led us onto the field path.

The muddy roads in the fields forced us to go barefoot.

We took off our shoes in the grass on the side of the bluestone road, gritted our teeth, and stepped barefoot in the mud. Hao Junqi walked forward almost on tiptoe, her brows furrowed tightly, but she didn't cry. If it's just mud, it's nothing, I'm most afraid of small gravel in the mud, you step on the gravel, it hurts, it's useless to scold your mother, let the tears roll in your eyes.

Fortunately, the distance is short, and it will arrive in a short time. That large body of water is a pond. It turned out that the creek had broken here. We found that a bamboo cage was buried in each gap.

I asked Hao Junqi to stand aside. Zhu Jinshan and I each chose two bamboo cages and lifted them out of the water, and suddenly, you heard the small fish jumping in the cage, and you couldn't help but feel overjoyed.

"Are you alright, brother?" Hao Junqi urged me.

"Alright. Kiki, there are so many fish. ”

Let's go back to Hao Junqi. I shook the cage and the fish inside began to bounce again. Hao Junqi clapped her hands happily.

Back on the bluestone road, we found a place with water to wash our feet, put on our shoes and walked back. I remember that instead of going back to the village along the bluestone road, we took another mountain road back to the village.

I don't know where we got that daring. There are graves on both sides of the mountain road. We also squatted on the mountain road and broke a small branch, and skewered the fish in the cage on the small branch, so that a long string of fish could grow and carry it heavily in our hands.

Back in the paddy fields in front of our homes, we put the stolen bamboo cages in the gaps between the ridges before going home.

I woke up early the next morning. The movement of me getting up alarmed Hao Junqi in the next room. She got up too. Let's go together to call Zhu Jinshan, and then go to the cage. We walked to our cage with great excitement, because everyone had a big expectation in their hearts.

I got up a cage with excitement, hell, the cage was quiet. Looking through the gap in the bamboo cage, I didn't see a single fish. My heart was half cold.

Hao Junqi, who was standing next to the well, looked at me expectantly.

"Are there any fish, brother?"

"Nope." I said dejectedly.

"Brother Zhu Jinshan, are there any fish?"

"Nope." I heard Zhu Jinshan say.

I walked to another cage. I held the cage in my hand, and it still didn't move, but it seemed to be a lot heavier. I looked. Wow, there's a very thick yellow eel lying in the cage.

"Hey Kiki, I've got a fish!" I shouted excitedly.

"Really?"

"It's a yellow eel. What a thick yellow eel! ”

"Do you have a yellow eel?" Zhu Jinshan also heard it.

"Yes."

"You're amazing, set sail." Zhu Jinshan ran to me with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

We carried the cage across the creek to the shore. There was an open space next to the well, and we decided to pour out the yellow eels in the cage there. I took out the buckle at the tail of the cage, and then forcefully broke the stalk wrapped in one place out, but the stalk was wrapped too tightly and I couldn't break it, and Zhu Jinshan couldn't break it, so we grabbed the cage and shook it hard. After throwing it off several times, the yellow eel finally came out partially.

"No, set sail, it doesn't seem to be a yellow eel." Zhu Jinshan said suddenly.

"Impossible." I took a closer look.

"It's a snake, a water snake! Throw it away! Zhu Jinshan suddenly shouted.

"Throw it away, brother!" Hao Junqi also understood.

"Ahh I threw the cage out with all my might. I felt my face turn white and my heart pounded. "Oh my god. Mom-Mom-"

I ran straight back, calling my mother as I ran. I didn't even hear Hao Junqi's cry because I was too scared. Hao Junqi also cried in fright.

But I didn't run a few steps before I bumped into a man - a thin man.