Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 54 The Miracle of the Lotus (2)
The queen mother woke up at about three or four o'clock in the morning, and not long after, all the attendants, big and small, also got up.Everyone was busy for a while and made all preparations for the lake tour.Afterwards, we surrounded the Queen Mother and boarded the Royal Boat, which was still propelled by pennies.The Empress Dowager's throne is placed in the center of the bow, at a slightly higher position, so that it is convenient for Lafayette to watch the lotus.There are a few stools behind Lafayette's throne, which are for our female officials to rest.The penny pushed through the water, and we began to advance towards the north of Kunming Lake, where the lotus is most densely planted.The dense lotus leaves are connected together, like laying a green carpet on the lake.In the distance, we could already see the lotus. The queen mother ordered to stop the boat and said to us: "We will stop the boat here. You should watch and listen carefully." The scene at this time was mysterious and beautiful enough to Shake one's heart and soul.

The east side has turned pale, while the west side is still gray and black. With the expansion of the red domain, the domain dominated by the dark god in the west is gradually shrinking.Although a large part of the space to the east was dyed red, the sun's head was still unwilling to lift up.A few wisps of black clouds tenaciously stick to the field of night, but they are finally torn apart bit by bit by the sun's rays.There are many kingfishers above the lotus leaves. Their vigorous figures flit across the water from time to time, and some of their wings have already touched the water surface, drawing water lines.Right in front of us, countless lotus leaves swayed and danced in the breeze, and some of them were even driven into the bottom of the water by the waves. After a while, they struggled to stand up again.It is most wonderful when the wind blows, not only the fragrance of flowers, but also the pearl-like water drops on the lotus leaves, reminiscent of the color, luster and round shape of pearls.

Not everyone can understand the purpose of getting up this morning, and I only understand it roughly.I originally thought that the queen mother just wanted to see the lotus, but I didn't expect her to come so early.It was still dark at that time, and the entire Summer Palace was silent, and there were few lights, only our small boat floating in the huge Kunming Lake. People who didn’t know thought we were doing something secret.In fact, our purpose of coming here is very simple, just to relax with Lafayette, so as to save her from frowning all day long, and we are not at all interested.Many people had anxious expressions on their faces. It was difficult for them to understand the Queen Mother's true intentions, but the Queen Mother remained calm, as if she was very sure about what was going to happen.Seeing this situation, we had no choice but to imitate the appearance of the Queen Mother and keep our eyes on the lotus leaves.

"Everyone pay attention," the queen mother suddenly interrupted our thoughts, and said to us in a low voice, "when the sun rises, all the lotus flowers that have not yet bloomed will bloom in an instant." Only then did we understand the queen mother It turned out that I wanted to see the magic of nature.Everyone on board will not miss this opportunity, and we all want to see such a miracle.At this time, the sky in the east is getting brighter and brighter. Through the light, we can already vaguely see the blossoming lotus.There are indeed many unopened lotus flowers there, I am quite sure of that, because I see the buds every day I pass by here.In a way, I've watched them grow with my own eyes, and what's even better is that this morning I will witness the moment they bloom.The gray sky gradually faded away, everything seemed extraordinarily quiet, and Feng'er walked away tactfully.The morning light sprinkled on the lake, gradually revealing the color of our clothes.

At this moment, I took a sneak peek at the Empress Dowager's expression, and I could see that she had completely forgotten about the Guangdong governor.Her complexion was very rosy, and her expression seemed extraordinarily happy, her eyes were fixed on the lotus field, for fear of missing something.Not only the queen mother is like this, each of us is also engrossed in watching the rising sun in the east and those budding lotus flowers.Finally, a blood-red sun showed its top, and everyone couldn't help being extra excited.The queen mother said in a very low voice: "Look carefully, and there will be a miracle in a while." At this time, everyone's eyes were fixed on the lotus, especially me, with my eyes wide open, two The eyes widened desperately, which is similar to those lotus flowers.That's right, there are traces of lotus everywhere you can see, and they are constantly expanding.Although it hasn't bloomed yet, the gathering of hundreds and thousands of lotus flowers is a rare spectacle in itself.

The sun is gradually rising, and many lotus flowers have begun to bloom.The breeze blows, and the fragrance of flowers floats from time to time. The fragrance of flowers is so intoxicating that I have an illusion that everyone's breath is fragrant.This is the loveliness of the lotus, which not only gives people a visual impact, but also comforts your nostrils.

The red field in the east has gradually expanded and has gradually invaded the west, but everyone didn't pay attention to this matter, and everyone's eyes were attracted by the lotus.Those lotus flowers that are about to bloom are like children's fists, white and tender, and the outer petals are like fingers clenched together, but now for some unknown reason, this hand is about to open slowly.The opening of the lotus is very similar to the situation when a child wakes up.The Empress Dowager told us not only to look carefully, but also to listen carefully, so I held my breath to hear something.Perhaps due to psychological effects, I really seemed to hear it in a trance. The sound was like drizzle on the grass leaves, and like spring silkworms chewing mulberry leaves.

The sun is getting higher and higher, and the fragrance of flowers is getting stronger. Not only our Yuzhou, but even the whole Kunming Lake may be immersed in the fragrance of flowers at this moment.The birds smelled the fragrance of the flowers, flew over from afar, landed on the lotus and flapped their wings.As the birds kept beating the air, the fragrance of the flowers was intensified, and I even felt that my clothes were covered with the fragrance of the lotus.The sun's light gradually became stronger, and everything on the lake was gradually revealed under the sunlight.Now, we can already see the pink stamen in the middle of the lotus.But the lotus has not fully opened until now, they seem to be waiting for something, just try to release the fragrance, regardless of the speed of the flowers blooming.

Seeing such a beautiful scenery, I don't know what Lafayette thought, but I heard her whispering to herself: "This scenery is so beautiful, I really should come and see it in advance. The beauty of the lotus is not only in its shape, but more importantly, its beauty. Vitality. Only in this situation can people appreciate the loveliness and admiration of nature. It allows us to understand that all living things are interlinked, and we cannot regard human beings as the only masters on top..." Behind I didn't hear what she said clearly, and the queen mother just said it vaguely. Maybe she realized that what she said was unreasonable, so she stopped in time.In fact, the queen mother didn't need to pay attention to the people around her. Few of them were listening to what she had to say. Due to the influence of her previous words, they were all attentively listening to the sound on the lake.Since the eyes are full of lotus flowers blooming, of course everyone thinks that they can hear the sound of flowers blooming.The half-bloomed lotus flowers stopped blooming. They seemed to be gathering strength and waiting for the next impact.The half-opened flowers are never fully opened, and the pink stamens are never fully revealed.At this time, the sun had risen a little, and it crossed the high and low roof ridges in the city of Beijing, and directly sprinkled the sunlight on the sky in the northwest direction, and the darkness seemed to be washed away in an instant.After that, the rising speed of the sun accelerated, jumping up almost inch by inch, and the entire lake water in the Summer Palace was dyed a layer of gold.

After another period of time, the sun was completely revealed in the sky, and the wonder scene that the queen mother talked about really appeared at this moment.Almost at the same time as the rising of the sun, the thousands of unopened buds on the lake bloomed at the same time, and the petals stretched out flat, almost sticking to the green leaves.The amazing thing is more than that, I found that those half-opened lotus flowers all opened up in an instant, and my eyes didn't even have time to capture the moment when they opened.Seeing this scene, I can't help sighing again that nature is really a miracle, and it is also creating miracles by itself.Most lotus flowers are pink, and there are many white ones, but other colors are rare.This is the Summer Palace, not a pond for ordinary people, so it is naturally different from other places.In Kunming Lake, many species that are rare outside are planted.The queen mother must have known about this situation, so she became the first one of us to find lotus of other colors today.They were two slightly green lotus flowers, she hurriedly pointed them out to me, I was really surprised at that time, this was the first time I saw such lotus flowers.When the Empress Dowager pointed it out to me, her hands were shaking all the time. People are inevitably nervous when they are happy. It can be seen that the Empress Dowager is very excited.The Queen Mother ordered a little eunuch to pick off the two lotus flowers, and said to us: "Before we eat breakfast, these two flowers should be put in a clean bottle. We can't enjoy such a beautiful flower by ourselves, we should take it as an offering first." Buddha."

The Empress Dowager is a believer in Buddhism, and she is very respectful to Bodhisattvas. When she has any good things, she always sacrifices them to Bodhisattvas first.I believe in Bodhisattva very much, but at that time I didn't know what was going on, and the incident of the governor being punished kept popping up, so I couldn't observe the expression of the Queen Mother carefully.

After I let go of my troubles, the little eunuch who was sailing to pick lotus caught my attention.From time to time, the queen mother sent someone to send a message to instruct him to pick this and that.When we returned to the palace, the little eunuch not only picked the two green lotus flowers, but also picked a lot of ordinary pink lotus flowers. The queen mother looked very proud.Seeing the queen mother like this, we secretly rejoiced, today is indeed a good weather.

(End of this chapter)