◎Wu Minglun
◎Wu Minglun
In the Japanese-style dormitory complex in Kitamachi 3-chome, each household looks similar at first glance, but each has its own personality. Some have traces of raising children, and some have been properly maintained and will look like new for a long time. The most eye-catching one is the one with bougainvillea: its branches lie along the fence and past the gate. The purple flowers are bright and unrestrained, which is very un-Japanese – but it was chosen as a fence because of its thorns. , the thorns of bougainvillea are deformations of branches. After setting the nutritional conditions, the underdeveloped branches can be made to grow into thorns. A few years ago, the color of the bougainvillea had been suppressed, as if it was in a state of hibernation, with only thorns and no flowers. It had never been so full of glory.
The wooden building that was originally mysterious because of the thorn blockage has not been inhabited for a long time, and there is no way to know what it was originally intended to defend. The neighborhood children nearby told ghost stories while pretending to be drinking wine, like bougainvillea. Spread along the end of the story.
Please read on…
―Mom, what’s new in the yard?
―Dad, please touch and see.
―Ouch, mom, I was stabbed by it.
―Dad, only with the blood of the master on the tattoo can we protect our family. I’ll bandage it for you.
―Mom, you are so gentle.
―Dad, the Taiwanese call it Cizaihua, which is so straightforward.
―After all, we are tropical people. So what do they call roses?
——A rose is not called a rose, but it is still fragrant. This kind of seed can prevent you from having an affair at home.
―Mom, I won’t have an affair.
I also heard that during the courage test, a child climbed into the house through the gap between the branches of the bougainvillea and the door. You have to take a token out of the house to be considered successful.
The layout of the house was similar to that of his house. He walked around in a familiar way. There were no other people’s footprints in the thick dust on the porch. He followed the purple bracts that should not be in the house and picked up a bag to use as a gift. Prove it, and then came to a closed sliding door, and opened it without much thinking.
As expected of the most daring child, he was not immediately intimidated by the twisted branches of the bougainvillea in front of him, as if he were sitting on his knees to welcome visitors. He looked up and down at the human-shaped bougainvillea, which was also blooming and seemed to have entered the room from the ground through the floor and tatami mats.
Or is it the other way around? Maybe the bougainvillea outside is growing out of here.
Based on intuition or instinct or tutoring, the child also knelt down and politely said loudly: “I’m sorry for bothering you.” He closed the sliding door, walked backwards and left along the original road at a pious speed, and soon stepped on the door. There was a hard thorn on it. Fortunately, it didn’t go deep, but it was still dripping with blood. He turned around and saw with his own eyes the hard thorns of bougainvillea suddenly emerging from the floor. “Sorry for bothering you,” he said again. I was afraid I had to put the flowers back in my pocket, but when I grabbed them, they were empty. There was a “swish” sound from behind, and he could only start running desperately…●
■【Twenty Beginnings】published every other Tuesday.
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Source: China