4.把铁路修到拉萨去

Lesson Four

Soul of Plum Blossom

1. The plum blossoms in my hometown are blooming again.

2. Every year, the blossoming plum blossoms always remind me of my grandfather who drifted away from home and died in a foreign country.

3. I was born in Singapore in Southeast Asia and lived with my grandfather since childhood.

4. When my grandfather was young, he read a lot of classics, history, poems and words, and was good at writing and painting, which made him famous in Singaporean literary world.

5. When I was very young, my grandfather used to hold me in his arms and sit on the chair of pear blossom wood, teaching me to read Tang poetry and Song poetry over and over again.

6. Whenever I read such sentences as “Alone, a lonely stranger in a foreign land, I doubly pine for kinsfolk on a holiday, “When in next spring the grass turn green again, Would you, my lord, return, too, from the plain”, “Falling petals, leisurely, carefree, as in a dream; The endless rain, sad as my grief at parting”, there were often cold tears falling on my cheeks and back.

At this time, I would clap my hands and laugh, “Grandpa cried!

7. Grandpa cried!”

8. The old man always shakes his head, sighs with a long sigh and says, “Hey, you are still young, you don’t understand!”

9. There are many antiques in my grandfather’s home. I play with them occasionally, and he doesn’t care much.

10. Only that Lao Gan Qiu Zhi Mo Mei Tu in the study, he cherishes it extremely, and nobody else is allowed to touch it.

11. When I was five years old, I accidentally left a dirty handprint on it when I was playing in the study, and my grandfather immediately pulled down his face.

12. For the first time in my life, I heard him reprimand my mother, “Children should be disciplined. Is this innocent plum blossom defiled?”

13. After I was lectured, he gently scraped off the stains with a safety knife and wiped them off slowly with fine silk.

14. Seeing my kind grandfather lose his temper, I was afraid and surprised: What’s so rare about a plum painting?

15. One day, my mother suddenly said to me, “Hey, we are going back to China!”

16. “Why?”

17. “That’s our motherland!”

18. Oh!

19. Is the motherland the place with the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Great Wall?

20. I cheered, and my little heart was full of joy.

21. However, I immediately remembered my grandfather, my dear grandfather.

22. I asked my mother, “Is Grandpa leaving?”

23. “Grandpa is too old…”

24. I ran into my grandfather’s study, and the old man was lying on the rattan sofa.

25. I said, “Grandpa, you should also go back to the motherland!”

26. Unexpectedly, my grandfather cried like a child...

27. On the morning before parting, my grandfather got up early, called me to the study, and solemnly handed me a roll of things wrapped with white Hangzhou silk.

28. When I opened it, it turned out to be the ink plum. I said, “Grandpa, isn’t this your most precious painting?”

29. “Yes, it is. So you should keep it well!

30. This plum blossom is the most famous flower in China.

31. Other flowers usually bloom in spring, but she is different. The colder the weather is, the more the wind deceives the snow, and the more vigorous and delicate it is.

32. She is the most character, soul and backbone!

33. For thousands of years, there have been many people with integrity in our Chinese nation. No matter how many hardships they have gone through, no matter what bullying they are subjected to, they are always indomitable and refuse to bend their heads.

34. They are just like this plum blossom.

35. No matter what kind of situation a Chinese is in, it is necessary to have the nature of plum blossom!”

36. The day of returning home was New Year’s Day. Although there was no such thing as deep winter in the tropics, the weather in the twelfth lunar month was cool after all.

37. Grandfather sent us to the dock.

38. The wind messed up the old man’s silver hair, which was neatly combed on weekdays. I think my grandfather suddenly aged a lot.

39. As the ship was about to leave, my mother had to pull me to board the big passenger ship.

40. Unexpectedly, my teary-eyed grandfather got into the boat and handed me a handkerchief, which was embroidered with bloody plum blossoms on fine white linen.

41. At that time, I was too immature to understand. What I took away was more than a painting and a few snow plums collected by my loving of grandfather.

42. What I took away was the overseas Chinese old man who was in a foreign country, who was deeply attached to the motherland!