Chapter 677: January 14th: Recalling a Little Story About Spring

January 14th: Recalling a Little Story About Spring

January 14th: Recalling a Little Story About Spring

Speaking of spring, this is a season everyone longs for. Look, spring is near. That beautiful scene of "green plums like beans, willow leaves like eyebrows; days long, butterflies fly. Flower dew heavy, grass mist low," is about to unfold before our eyes.

Spring, what can I do for you? Be your gardener in the garden? Let me gather those wasted times and work busily for spring, without asking for any reward. As long as I put in my effort. If it can make the flowers in my garden red and the leaves green, that's enough.

I also hope that my life, like a bud, will pour all the fragrance in my heart onto the surrounding world.

"This is what I have already learned?"

At the moment spring draws near, I recalled a little story that Kaomen Lady once told.

The gist of this story is: there was a gardener who, one morning, went to his garden to tend it; as soon as he entered the garden, seeing the scene, he couldn't help but be startled: all the flowers, grasses, and trees in the garden had withered.

This is spring, a time when all trees vie for glory and all flowers bloom; why does this garden present a desolate scene?

The gardener was very surprised and puzzled. He then went to the oak tree at the garden gate.

The oak tree said: "Ah, never mind, I've always tried hard, thinking of the pine tree beside me. No matter how hard I try, I can't be as tall and upright as the pine. I'm pessimistic and world-weary, so I'm not interested in spring either. Isn't it the same old 'year after year, the flowers are alike'?"

After hearing the oak tree's statement, the gardener went to ask the pine tree: "You are so tall and upright, evergreen. With spring arriving, why aren't you full of vigor? Strive upward!"

Who would have thought the pine tree's reply would be even more surprising: "Although I am tall and upright, evergreen, I cannot bear sweet fruit like grapes. So what good is spring to me?"

After hearing the pine tree's reply, the gardener went to ask the grapevine. The grapevine said it spends all day crawling on the ground, relying on others' fences, making wedding dresses and clothes for others, feeling wronged, unable to bloom beautiful fragrant flowers like peach and plum to earn praise; thus, when spring comes, it also droops its head in dejection.

The gardener asked every plant in his garden, and their answers were all so disheartening: pessimistic and world-weary, resenting themselves for being inferior to others; they even complained that fate was unfair.

Finally, the gardener, in an inconspicuous corner of the garden, saw a plant called Heartpeace Grass. It was still striving day by day, exhaling fragrance and beauty.

The gardener couldn't help feeling delighted and asked the Heartpeace Grass: "Other plants aren't interested in spring; they're pessimistic and world-weary, drooping, lamenting, saying they're inferior to others—why are you so enthusiastic about spring?"

The Heartpeace Grass answered the gardener: "Although I am not as tall as an oak tree, nor as upright as a pine tree; I cannot bear sweet fruit like grapes, nor bloom beautiful flowers like peach and plum. But I never lose heart, never despair, never lose ambition. For I am a Heartpeace Grass; as long as I possess life, possessing the sunshine and rain in life, I am content. I will then reveal the beauty and fragrance hidden within my life to the world."