Andrew Lan's Twelve-Color Fairy Tale Series: Pink Fairy Tale Books

Chapter 18 The Ice Queen (1)
Once upon a time there was a wicked devil, and he was so wicked!One day, he was very happy because he made a magic mirror.Haha, any good and beautiful things will become smaller and darker in the magic mirror, and become very ugly!And all bad and ugly things will be very clear in the mirror, and they will look even uglier!The most beautiful scenery shines in the magic mirror, like boiled spinach!But obviously the most beautiful person looks disgustingly ugly, with no body visible, only a big face so deformed that you can't recognize it, and it's full of freckles!
"This is the greatest magical power of the magic mirror." The devil said proudly.

But one day, the magic mirror fell to the ground, and broke into a thousand million very small pieces.

This is terrible, it will bring great misfortune to people!Because these debris, which are only the size of a grain of sand, fly around the world, as long as you get a little in your eyes, everything you see will be deformed, and what you see will be ugly and dark.It turns out that any broken glass has the same magic power as the whole magic mirror!

And if glass shards get into your heart, it will be even more terrifying, because it will slowly turn your heart into a ball of ice, making you cold and emotionless.

Seeing the glass shards of the magic mirror flying around the world, the devil laughed so triumphantly that his stomach would burst from laughing!

Well, now let's listen to a story, which has something to do with the magic mirror!
There was a great city, and there were too many people and houses, and there was not enough space for all to have gardens.In this city, there lived two poor children.They are not brother and sister, but they love each other as deeply as brothers and sisters.They all lived with their parents in a small attic, separated by a passage between the two cabins.The two little friends planted two pots of flowers in the aisle, one pot of sweet peas and one pot of roses, and they bloomed beautifully!In summer, two children sit in front of the roses with a small bench and play games happily!

In winter, when they couldn’t play outside, they pressed hot coins on the frozen windowpane, which melted into a small transparent hole, and the two little friends passed through the small hole to see each other. We can see each other!
The boy's name is Kay and the girl's name is Gerda.

Now it's winter again, and it's snowing heavily outside.

"The snowflakes all over the sky are white bees flying in groups!" Grandma said.

"Do they have a queen?" asked the little boy, for he knew that all real bees have queens.

"Of course there are!" Grandma said, "Look at the places where the white bees are crowded the most, there are queen bees! They are bigger than other white bees, and they just fly and fly in the swarm, but never When they land, they will fly back to the dark clouds again and again. Usually in the middle of the night, they fly over the streets and look at the windows of every house, and then their beautiful figures freeze, looking like blossoming ice flowers Son, it's beautiful!"

"Yes, yes, we've all seen it!" said the two children.They think it's all true.

"Will the Snow Queen come into the house?" asked the little girl.

"Let her in!" cried the boy, "then I'll put her on the fire and roast her!"

Grandma patted his head and told another story.

At night, when it was time for little Kay to go to bed, he jumped on the chair by the window and looked out through the little round hole.There were still snowflakes outside, and one of the largest fell on the window sill.Suddenly, the snowflake became bigger and bigger, and turned into a girl with a very beautiful white gauze on her body!
How beautiful she is, how graceful she is!But she is a snowman, her whole body is covered with hard, crystal clear ice and snow!

She looked alive, her eyes blinked like two bright stars.She also nodded into the window and waved her hand!The little boy jumped out of the chair in fright.

The next day there was more snow and it was colder.

Then winter went to spring, and then came summer, and the roses the two boys had planted were in full bloom, prettier and more fragrant than ever!

One afternoon they were sitting together reading a picture book when the church clock struck five, five o'clock.Suddenly, Kay yelled in pain: "Ouch! Something has penetrated into my heart! Oh, my eyes, my eyes have also penetrated!"

The little girl hugged his head quickly, and the boy half-opened his eyes with difficulty.But, there is nothing, she looked into his eyes carefully, there is nothing!
"I feel like it's out now," the boy said.But the things in his eyes did not come out, they were the fragments of the magic mirror we mentioned earlier, and all the beautiful things would become extremely ugly after being illuminated by it!Poor Kay is also stuck in the magic mirror, and his heart is slowly turning to ice!Although he didn't feel any pain at all, the magic mirror will always be stuck in his heart!
"Why are you crying?" he asked the little girl. "It makes you look so ugly! I'm fine. Oh, look, the roses are eaten by worms, and this one is so small, these roses It's so ugly!"

Then he started pulling out the roses one by one and tearing them to pieces!
"Kay, what are you doing?" the little girl cried.

He saw that the little girl was terrified, but he pulled out a plant, and ran back into the house, leaving poor little Gerda standing there alone, bewildered!
When the girl came to read with him with a picture book again, he always said that it was only suitable for children.When grandma was telling them stories, he always interrupted her, and then ran behind grandma, put on her glasses, and talked like her.He learned so well that he made everyone laugh.Soon, he'll be talking and walking like everyone on the street!

Now he has a new way to play.When it snowed, he burned the glass so hot that the snowflakes fell on it.

"Look at the snowflakes on the glass, Gerda! How regular they are, how much more interesting they are than real flowers! Each of these snowflakes is so perfect and formed according to the rules. If they don't melt, they will be beautiful." All right!"

One morning, Kay came out the door, wearing warm gloves and carrying a small sled."I went to the market to play with other boys!" he called to Gerda, and he went away.

In the market place, bold boys used to hitch their little sledges to the peasants' wagons, so that the wagons would pull and slide faster!
They were having fun when a big white sleigh came, and the driver was wearing a white fur coat and a white fur hat.

The big white sled made two turns there, and then Kay strapped his own little sled to it and went with it!But the white sled ran out, faster and faster, and soon reached the next street.The sledgeman also turned his head and gave Kay a friendly nod, as if they had known each other before.And every time Kay tried to untie the rope, the sledgeman would turn his head and nod to him, and Kay had to sit still again.Then they were out of town, and the snow was falling so hard that the little boy could hardly see the hand in front of him.They just kept speeding forward in the heavy snow.Later, Kay tried several times to untie the rope tied to the big sled, but all failed. The little sled was tied tightly and ran as fast as the big sled!
Kay shouted for help, but no one heard, the poor child was terrified!

The snow fell even more heavily, and the huge flakes seemed to be flying in the air like countless big white birds.Suddenly the sledge stopped, and the sledger stood up, his fur coat and hat covered with snow.Only then did Kay see clearly that it was a lady, tall and slender, with a shining light all over her body!She is the Snow Queen!
"We're fast enough," she said, "but you're freezing. Come, come under my coat!"

She made Kay sit with her in the sleigh and pulled her fur coat up over him.Kay felt as if he had fallen into a hole in the ice!
"Is it still cold?" she asked, kissing his forehead.Her kisses were as cold as ice, right down to Kay's frozen heart!

"My sledge! Don't forget my sledge!" He thought first of his little sledge.A big snow-white bird flew behind them, with a little sled on its back!
The Snow Queen kisses Kay again, and he forgets about little Gerda, Granny, and everyone in the family!
"I can't kiss you now," said the Snow Queen. "If I kiss you again, you will die!"

Then they flew on and on, over forests and lakes, over seas and over land.Kay could only hear the howling of the cold wind, the howling of wild wolves and the hissing of heavy snow.Flocks of croaking black crows flew over their heads.High in the sky, the big moon is extraordinarily bright.In this way, Kay passed the long winter night.

What would happen to little Gerda if Kai didn't come home?

What happened to him?Nobody knows.The other boys told her they had seen Kay hitch his little sledge to a big sledge, and the big sledge took him out of town!
Gerda kept crying sadly.That winter was so long and so dark for her!

Spring is here, and the warm sun shines on the earth. "I'm going to Kay!" said little Gerda.

So she came to the river, where a boat stood, and Gerda got into it, and the boat immediately carried her down the river.

"Perhaps the river will carry me to Kay!" thought Gerda.The boat took her through woods and fields on both banks, and came to a large garden full of cherry trees.There was a little house in the garden with strange red and blue windows and a strange thatched roof.At the door of the small house stood two wooden guards with weapons on their shoulders.

Gerda greeted the guards, but of course they would not answer.

Gerda asked more loudly if anyone was in the room.At this time, a very old grandmother came out. She was leaning on a cane and wearing a big sun hat with beautiful flowers!

"Poor boy!" said the old woman.

She stepped into the water, drew the boat close to her with the cane, and lifted little Gerda out.

"Come here, child, tell me who you are and how you got here," she said.

So Gerda told the old woman everything, and asked her if she had seen Kay.The old man said he hadn't passed through here yet, but he would be here soon.

The old woman told Gerda not to be sad, but told her to stay and take care of the cherry trees and flowers with her. "They're better than any picture book," she said, "because every tree and every flower tells a story."

Then she took Gerda by the hand, led her into the cabin, and closed the door.

The windows of the small house are very high, and the window panes are red, blue and yellow. The light from outside shines in, and the colors look strange.There were many delicious cherries on the table, and the grandmother told Gerda to eat as much as she could.While Gerda ate the cherries, the old man combed her hair with a golden comb.

Gerda's blond curly hair hung down her shoulders, wave-like, shining with a moving luster, and her lovely little face was so gentle and sweet! "I've always hoped to have a cute little girl like you, and you'll know how happy we are together!" said the old man.

She kept brushing Gerda's hair, and the little girl thought less and less of Kay.Because of this old lady, she is a witch, but she is not the kind of witch with a bad heart!She does a little magic now and then, just to make herself happy!And this time, it was because she really wanted little Gerda to stay!

She came to the garden and waved her stick, and all the roses there sank into the ground and disappeared without a trace!

She was afraid that when Gerda saw these roses, she would think of her own roses, of Kay, and she would run away.

Then she brought Gerda to the garden.Wow, it's so beautiful, it's full of all kinds of flowers, and the air is filled with the refreshing fragrance of flowers, how intoxicating it is!Also, the flowers here will not wither, they are blooming all year round!
Gerda jumped up for joy, and she played and had a great time in the garden until the sun went down behind the cherry trees.At night, she slept on a very beautiful red silk pillow filled with tulips. The little girl slept soundly and dreamed that she was a queen and was having a wedding with her sweetheart!
The next day, she still played with the flowers all day in the warm sunshine, and in this way, many days passed.Gerda was familiar with every flower in the garden.Although there were so many kinds of flowers there, she still felt as if something was missing, but she couldn't remember what was missing.

One day, Gerda was looking at the old woman's sun hat full of flowers, when she suddenly noticed the roses on it!
(End of this chapter)