Mulberry

When the bell rang for the end of get out of class, the gate of the Municipal No. [-] Primary School was instantly crowded, and a group of little carrot heads yelled for their parents.

"Little Yezi!" Luo Xinyi shouted from a distance, and ran out of the school gate, "Let's go? Go for a swim."

Ye Li didn't look back, she grabbed the shoulder strap of her pink schoolbag and walked forward bumpily.

"No, I just went there a few days ago, and the water is so dirty." She curled her lips, not understanding, "It's not too hot today, why do you keep thinking about swimming, it's boring."

"Isn't it why I have nothing to do, and I have no homework... Hey, I heard that the water was changed on Monday, and it's not dirty."

"No, you don't mind Carrot."

Ye Moxin said that she was already tired of playing.If you go there, you can only go to the shallow water area, the pool with a big fart, what kind of swimming, and taking a bath is almost the same.

The old community is like this, with complete facilities and everything you can find, but I don’t know when it was built.

Along the way, we pass a small clinic that can only accommodate three people, a swimming pool between low buildings, a vegetable market with only one butcher shop, and the trendy Happiness Beauty Salon, which is small and crowded.

Ye Mo squeezed onto the sidewalk, happily stepping on the spots of light that fell from the gaps between the leaves, and the ponytail behind her head also swayed.

Autumn in the south is hot and dry, but a lot of leaves still fall, all over the road, creaking when you step on it.

The trees along the street are about the same age as the peeling residential buildings, and they have grown as tall as it, forming a green tunnel.The vegetable fields raked out privately downstairs and the short wires on the wooden piles are all covered in the shade of thick green trees.

They are all old places where grandpa and aunt love to live, but there is also a primary school with a high ranking in the city.

The parents who wanted their children to become a dragon called this broken land a school district house, and they opened up prosperously with cram schools.

"Then what are you talking about?" Luo Xinyi was dissatisfied with her constant rejection, "Ask more people to play with the mouse and steal oil?"

Children in the third and fourth grades play with this every day. After school, they run wildly to catch people, jump rubber bands, and misfortune flowers and plants, all the same.

Ye Mo was bored in the classroom for a whole day, when she was bored, she didn't want to do anything.

She had to go home before dark, the sun was slanting to the west, and she couldn't enjoy playing, so she thought it's better to go home and watch TV.

Accompanied by the corner of the street, there is a canteen on the opposite side, which is not strictly controlled. Sanwu products are its main selling point. The specialties around colleges and universities are cheap and delicious.

At the door, I can't wait to spread out all the products, and the colorful colors extend to the next door, like a wall painted with splashed paint.

Luo Xinyi stopped abruptly: "Then what kind of leaf mulberry, do you have any money, let's buy a black and white bag for a dollar."

"What are you doing, come again?"

Black and white are the new hot strips from street corner shops. The slices of the two colors are much larger than a normal pack, and they are already very luxurious snacks.

It's sweet and spicy, and Ye Li's mouth is watering just thinking about it.

She opened the middle layer of her schoolbag and searched, and it took a long time to find the crumpled red pentagon.

Carrot has already pulled her to the door.

"Buy it, buy it, and I'll eat a little bit of you. I really don't have any money this week. I'll treat you to bubble gum next time. I have Bibabu's. It's delicious. Just this time, please..." A series of dissatisfaction stop begging.

"It's gone, it's only fifty cents." Ye Mo clapped her hands, trying to flatten the paper money.

"what……"

"Come on, I managed to get it from the shoe cabinet at home, do you want Weilong?"

"Yes, yes!" Luobo smiled contentedly, pushing her flatteringly, "You are the best, thank you for your kindness."

Ye Chen rolled her eyes speechlessly, Luo Luo's family didn't give much pocket money, but she still wanted to eat snacks.So no matter what is in the class, she is there.

The two weighed and selected a pack of Weilong, and looked at the shelf with bright eyes when paying.

Luo Xinyi: "I looked at that, did I not taste it, what is it?"

"Don't think about it, I don't have any money." Ye Mo walked to the counter inside and was about to pay.

When I turned around, I was startled.

There are some small transparent plastic boxes next to the counter, with white and green inside, still moving.

"Hey radish, come on, what is this?" Somewhat startled, she approached, only to see a few skinny white bugs lying on the leaves.

"This... Auntie, is this a silkworm?"

The proprietress behind the counter casually glanced at it, and blew away the nail caps, "It's silkworms, buy it or not, five yuan a box." After she finished speaking, she squinted her eyes, picked up her nails and rubbed her fingers.

Ye Mo's eyes are all bright.

I just entered the fourth grade. In the new nature class last week, the teacher talked about silkworms and mulberry leaves, and asked everyone to write a silkworm breeding diary.

She was not in a hurry to hand it in, and she hadn't seen anything to buy, so she forgot all about it.

I just remembered this box today.

"This is the only one that sells here. It's the earliest one this year, and there are too many pieces in one box. Do you want two boxes?"

The proprietress looks at the silkworms she buys in elementary school courses every year to earn a fortune, and she raises her head and sells them.

"Luoba, have you written your nature diary yet?"

"Of course not!"

"Oh, I really want to buy it..."

Ye Mo tapped the plastic box with her nails, watched a silkworm raise its thin head, and responded cutely, without any fear of insects.

"Let's go, let's go home first. For such a fair reason, my parents will definitely buy it."

Luo Xinyi grabbed her and pulled her out, to be precise, she grabbed the spicy stick in her hand, expressing that she didn't have a cold for bugs or anything.

People just want to eat more snacks.

Ye Chen didn't have any money in his hand, so she reluctantly turned back after being dragged away by her.

The little girl always seems to be very interested in life, and it would be even better if she could raise something by herself.

After sharing the spicy strips with Luo Xinyi, she was thinking about something, and didn't care what she wanted to do.Ye Chen said goodbye to herself, and hurried home with her bag on her back.

Finally, at night, I asked my father to accompany me to buy two boxes of silkworms.

"It's okay to buy it for you. You have to finish your homework carefully and clean up by yourself."

Ye Mo was holding a silkworm, nodding in a hurry, looking at the little creature shaking its head in novelty.

This was already the biggest one in it, and it was only half a finger long. It lifted its upper body feebly, trying to escape but couldn't tell the direction.

She hastily placed her hands on the leaves lightly, feeling the touch of a few little feet crawling, it was cool and itchy.

They are all bugs, but they don't have the disgusting feeling of centipedes and cockroaches at all.

Watching the baby silkworm gnaw the leaves bit by bit, making a half-circle gap, he bent his mouth unconsciously with a smile.After a while, more than half of the leaves under the cushion were lost.

I must raise them to be white and fat, and to spit out the most silk!

She touched the soft worm, raised her head and said triumphantly: "The teacher said that silkworms need to eat mulberry leaves. Let's go pick more leaves."

Hearing this, grandma led a big cardboard box, and while filling the silkworms for Ye Li, said cheerfully: "I know this well, I also raised it when I was young."

"Just go out to the other side of the community, go to skim some mulberry branches, and just plant them under the back window. The mulberry trees grow very fast, and the leaves can be picked in a few days."

The next day, grandma packed back a large plastic bag of branches, and called Ye Li to go outside the window to plant branches.

Dian Dian followed grandma to choose, grabbed a soft and green branch, and saw grandma picked out two out of seven or eight branches: "Grandma, don't you want these?"

"Hey, some are too tender and not long enough to live well."

Ye Mo let out an oh, feeling a little pity.She likes this one very much. After picking it for a long time, she fell in love with this one at a glance.

The light brown branches have a few small bud eyes, and there is a yellow-green tender leaf on the top.Although a little weak, she is playful and cute in her eyes.

Rubbing the branches, he decided to plant them too, maybe he could live too.

Ye Mo lives on the first floor, and the back window faces a dead end, so few people come.

The land here has always been left unattended and planted casually.Several families have set up vegetable fields, and onion, ginger and garlic are planted in the narrow two lanes.

Grandma took the big garden scissors and clicked to cut out an inclined plane, and Ye Mo followed suit. Holding the scissors in her small hands, she could hardly grasp them, and she had to use both hands together to cut them with a click.

After loosening the soil, cutting branches, cultivating the soil and watering, I was sweating from exhaustion in the crisp autumn weather.

After finally finishing everything, grandma clapped her hands and went back to pack things first.

Looking at a row of three sky-high branches, Ye Mo squatted on the ground and laughed silly, wiping the sweat with her hands, and accidentally touched the mud from between her fingernails on her face.

Compared with grandma's neat and straight branches, the crooked and wilted ones at the very edge seem a bit ugly, so I won't dislike them.

She touched the only leaf on the top, and it blossomed with a smile. She loved it very much, and felt that it was her duty to take good care of it.On the side, she said like a big sister: "Grow up quickly, grow more leaves."

After admiring it for a long time, I braced my knees and prepared to go home and wash my hands.

As soon as I stood up straight, my legs were so weak that I fell back and squatted back. I kept my balance by supporting the ground with my hands.

Maybe the blood flow was not smooth after squatting for too long, and she got up too fast, and she suddenly became dizzy, had difficulty breathing, and her eyes turned black.

Even squinting the light coming in feels very bright.

Squatting down next to the mulberry branch, Ye Li couldn't help closing her eyes to take a rest, but she seemed to see something in her dizzy eyes.

green... what...

"Here! This is for you." A girl who seemed to be as old as her jumped down from a tall tree, and the green coarse cloth fluttered along with her.

Walking up to her, he passed a branch in his hand.

for me?

How did you jump from such a tall tree...

With countless doubts in her heart, Ye Li raised her head involuntarily, and in front of her eyes was a big tree with a height of three or four stories.

The main branch is thick and shaped, thick enough to be surrounded by a person.The bark is rough, the branches are strong, the canopy is lush, and the leaves can't even see the sky when standing underneath.

She heard the girl babbling non-stop, and she felt dizzy when she listened carefully, and faintly heard giggling laughter.

"This is for you," she said again.

Ye Mo looked at "herself" reaching out to take the branch, but she couldn't control it at all, as light as if she was dreaming.

"Hey, I don't want it, it's ugly and small, hum!" He said unforgivingly.

"No, no, it's a new branch of this mulberry tree, and it's a gift for you." The strange girl retorted.

The two of them were laughing happily without knowing what they were laughing, bouncing around the mulberry tree.

Ye Mo also turned around, saw the iconic jagged leaves of the mulberry tree, and looked up in a daze, thinking that the mulberry tree can grow so tall and so big, and wonder if the one I planted can grow so big...

"I'm back, bye."

"Well, then I'm going home too!" She waved her hands and walked out, as if she was getting farther and farther away, the mulberry trees were already blurred, and the green group of girls seemed to be blurred into light balls, blending into one.

"I'll grow up, I'll grow up." A voice I've never heard before entered my mind, softly like catkins blowing by in the spring breeze, seemingly absent.

Ye Mo was pulled farther and farther away, and her vision became blurred.She wanted to look back in surprise, her eyelids were so heavy that she couldn't control it, leaving her mind full of confusion.

……what sound……

Involuntarily returning to the darkness, I managed to open my eyes, the dizziness slowly dissipated, and my memory became blurred.

Ye Mo fixed her eyes on the things in front of her eyes, they were the young leaves she had planted, and her strength flowed back little by little.

What's going on here……

Ye Li was a little dazed, vaguely remembered that someone gave her a tree branch, did she faint just now?Or was it a dream when she had it? I can't remember it at all.

She clapped her hands helplessly, thinking about going home and washing her hands first, but found that her right foot was still very numb, like a nest of ants stuck to it, so she could only walk and stamp her feet, walking away in a rather funny way.

Thinking about strange things in his heart, he turned his head to look at the weak and innocent Sang Zhi, his face full of bewilderment.

After thinking about it, she suddenly remembered something, touched the red string around her neck with her clean palm, and pulled out a piece of clear jade, moist and flawless.

After looking at the light for a while, she didn't find anything wrong, so she had to put the jade back into her arms.

I didn't care anymore in a blink of an eye, and ran home to wash my hands and eat.