The Blossoms of Youth: Selected Proses of Lin Qingxuan (for Adolescents)

Lin Qingxuan

Times Literature and Art Publishing House

January 2023

40.00 (CNY)

This book is mainly compiled for adolescents and falls into five parts. It tells the authors growth experiences, days with his family members, feelings about life, and encouragement for adolescents. Young readers will gain and experience growth from reading this book.

Lin Qingxuan

Lin Qingxuan used to be a journalist, a chief editor, and a chief writer, later specializing in writing. His prose is smooth and fresh and shows rich and romantic feelings. The simple words have the power to touch peoples hearts.

One year, I worked for Wuling Farm, collecting peaches and pears for fruit farmers. It was already winter. I must put on heavy cotton clothes in the morning. The air in the mountains was very chilly. When I took a deep breath, cold air would fill my chest.

I lived in a farmers warehouse. In the early morning, I picked up a large bamboo basket and went to the orchard. The mist was flowing among the fruit trees, which would disperse to the hillside when the sun came out. In the mist, through the sparse leaves between branches, I could see the ripe, plump fruits float out of the mist. These fruits with night dew were as fresh and clean as having bathed.

The mist swept over the fruit trees like a vast river. At this moment, the sunshine just sprinkled gold threads all over the ground, and the fruits exposed their colors. The pears seemed transparent as if you could see the juice inside the skin. Like crimson stones, the mature peaches had the flowing blood of a tree against the green background.

I loved the moment of the first morning light. People felt happy before a days work. After a nights bath, the fruits, which had been green when picked the day before, became mature. At this moment, I could deeply feel the vitality of life. I knew that every fruit tree has the power for fruits to grow. I carefully picked the peaches and filled the large bamboo basket with soft paper at the bottom. My hands could feel the weight of the peaches and the internal texture of syrup. The peach in my hands had left its branch, but it looked like the heart of a fruit tree.

It was not a harsh job to pick peaches and pears. At noon, however, I was almost covered in sweat, so I had to take off my cotton clothes under the warm sun in winter. Why did such slight work make one sweat? I thought of this sometimes. Later, I found the reason: Although peaches and pears are not heavy, they are vulnerable. So pickers must concentrate on the work, which can show our respect for fruits given by nature!

It took us only one month to pick all the fruits in the orchard. All the workers went back to the foot of the mountain. But I loved the landscape there. With the permission of the orchard owner, I was allowed to live in the warehouse till spring. I hadnt expected that I could spend the winter in the mountains. I had graduated from school. With nothing to do, I was almost relaxed. I borrowed a set of fishing tackle from someone nearby. In my spare time, I took a purring bus to Bihu Lake in Wushe, where I would wander for a day. Occasionally, I could catch a few small fish. But usually, I just enjoyed the scenery.

Sometimes, I took a bus to Lushan Mountain for a hot spring bath. Then, I would lie on a rock in the sunshine for a whole afternoon. Sometimes, I went to the nearby Lishan Mountain. I took a walk in the small street, watching tourists who came down from the mountain to enjoy the winter scenery. At night, I stayed alone in the warehouse. I lit a small coal stove and drank a bottle of liquor. Then I lay in bed and listened carefully to the mountain wind blowing the woods outside the window. At this moment, I felt I was a completely free person who had worked in nature and was waiting for spring.

The picked orchard was not on holiday for this reason. The owner still went to the orchard every day for some pruning and weeding work, especially pruning. This work required long-term experience and technique and would affect the next years harvest. My traveling around came to an end. One day, I went to the orchard to help when the scene shocked me. The orchard, full of fruits one month before, seemed to be withered. The fruits were gone, and the leaves on the ends of branches had all shriveled. Only a couple of fruit trees retained some yellow leaves, which fluttered in the wind and were about to fall to the ground at any time.

The orchard was almost covered by fallen leaves, which rustled when I walked on them. Every step would crack them into pieces in the soil. I understood that leaves fall in winter. But for a child who grew up in the south, trees are evergreen. Therefore, it was a bit unusual to see withered trees.

I stood quietly in the garden, looking around at those fruit trees. I had been moved by their lives and fruits. Now they were full of chill. I couldnt help sighing softly and secretly. The same sunshine and the same mist were sprinkled on different scenes.

The orchard owner who used to hire me couldnt understand my sadness. He came over and patted me on my shoulder, “Whats up? Is something on your mind?”

“I didnt expect all the leaves to fall off in a few days,” I said.

“Of course. If the leaves didnt fall off this year, new leaves wouldnt grow out next year. Without new leaves, where would the fruits grow?” said the orchard owner.

He led me through the garden with a pair of sharp scissors in his hand. He told me how to cut off the branches with no growing power. He said, “This is giving up. Branches that grow too densely will certainly bear many fruits next year. But a fruit trees strength doesnt change. If it bears too many fruits, none of them will grow well. Cutting off branches will control the number of fruits next year.” I thought that would harm the integrity of a tree, but a fruit tree is born for fruits, isnt it? The mother plant always has to make sacrifices for better fruits.

I saw some thumb-thick branches were cut off, with white juice flowing from them. I asked, “What if the branches were not cut off?”

The orchard owner said, “Did you see wild guavas in the mountain? Their fruits will get smaller and smaller every year and will have no fruits when the branches grow too strong.”

We were busy pruning and weeding in the orchard, making preparations for the next spring. In the cold wind in winter, spring seemed to be very distant. But when we pulled weeds, seeing those grasses struggling to sprout in winter, it seemed that spring was waiting to rise out of the deep soil at any time.