Among the morning mist, under the wisterias, a woman in green clothes motionlessly let the wisteria fell on her. She smiled quietly.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Jin Luo and who are you?”
Who?
Every night, the little monk will suddenly open his eyes. An empty look.
The bright moonlight spilled through the window into the room, making the little monk’s face seem a little pale. He rolled over and shrunk in the quilt. It’s that dream again. It’s that girl again. Every time he woke up, he would not be able to remember her name or her appearance. But in his heart there’s always an inexplicable familiar feeling as if he knew her.
“Well……Wu Nian1, did you dream again,” the senior sleeping in the same bed as him asked. “Don’t pull my quilt.”
Wu Nian muffled: “Sorry, senior.”
He has a dreaming illness. He can’t sleep well. Sometimes, he’ll wake up while shouting. His family thought he was possessed. Since his childhood, they took him to temple on the mountain to let him live there.
Every day after reciting the dharma, his illness will get a lot better. But occasionally, he’ll still wake up at night and can’t remember the things he dreamed off. Just his heart will feel empty.
Early in the morning, after the morning classes finished, Fang Zhang called Wu Nian away. He commanded Wu Nian to go live at the back mountain and to help the elderly monk take care of the back mountain. Wu Nian nicely complied and in the afternoon, he picked up his things and went to the back mountain.
Outside of the house on the back mountain, there’s a huge wisteria tree. No one knows which predecessor planted it. Kong Dao monk is already old and couldn’t do many things anymore. All the things that needed to be done to take care of the back mountain have been handed over to Wu Nian.
Wu Nian got this job, but he didn’t work as sincere and good as before. Always lost in thoughts while looking at the wisterias. For this reason, he doesn’t know how many slaps he has suffered.
Year after years, he observed the wisterias blooming and falling. Unconsciously ten years has passed. Kong Dao monk passed away. He now lives alone at the back mountain. He slowly became from a little monk to a big monk.
That day, the wind was breezing and it was sunny. The wisterias were just blooming. A string of flowers poured down like waterfall. In the sunlight, it turned the yard in a dream like purple.
As usual, Wu Nian was holding a broom and looking up at the wisterias in blankly absence. Suddenly he heard a girl’s stunning praise: “What beautiful wisterias!”
Wu Nian turned around to look. A girl dressed in light yellow skirts walked from that side of the mountain and stood not far away from the wisteria tree. She looked up at the wisteria and forgot to close her mouth in amazement. The girl stood for a long moment before she saw Wu Nian at the side. She was shocked again and exclaimed: “What a beautiful monk!”
Wu Nian lowered his eyes, turned and began to slowly cleaning.
That girl covered her mouth and seemed to know that those words were somewhat out of line. She blushed and rushed to explain: “Sorry, sorry, dashi2, , don’t mind me. I didn’t want to offend you…..I just have a loose tongue.”
Since the other party has said that, Wu Nian thought it wouldn’t be good to fuss over it anymore. He bowed and said: “Emituofo3, shizu4, help yourself.
The girl scratched her head while smiling: “It’s good if you just don’t blame for being out of line.”
The girl’s words hardly left, suddenly Fang Zhang came from the small road.
“Nushizu (female version of shizu) walks too fast. It’s difficult for this old monk to catch up.”
The girl stuck her tongue out. Fang Zhang turned to look at Wu Nian and commanded: “It’s good that Wu Nian is also here. This is the Miss from Shi fu down the mountain. Her body isn’t well. She needs to come live in the mountains for some days. The back mountain is a quiet place. In the future, Wu Nian, take care of Miss Shi.”
Wu Nian hesitated. He didn’t even find ground for refusal when he heard the girl’s hearty chuckle: “Wu Nian dashi, this little girl, Shi Qian, will be in dashi’s care.”
Wu Nian opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say.
After Shi Qian came to live at the back mountain, the time of Wu Nian staring in daze at the wisteria tree has become less and less. This girl who has a straightforward temperament and who loves to laugh is always in some kind of situation that made him helpless. Always saying many things that made him speechless. Always doing a lot of things that made him didn’t know if he should cry or laugh.
Every day, she can make the quiet back mountain into a very noisy place. At day time, Wu Nian is endless fatigue. At night, the moment he touch the pillow and closes his eyes, he’ll immediately fall asleep. There is no time to dream about that dream.
Day after day, he became accustomed to the noisy Shi Qian beside him. When looking at her, he no longer can see something else.
The wisteria bloomed a lifetime beside them. One day, Shi Qian has been taken down the mountain by the people of her fu to celebrate her father’s birthday.
In Wu Nian’s eyes he can finally look at the waterfall of the wisterias.
On a day where the sky is blue, his mind suddenly flashed a scene. A green dressed girl standing below the wisteria tree, looking at them motionlessly. Her side profile is so beautiful, making people afraid to touch it.