Chapter 77: Playing by the Road on the Way to School

After the midday rest, Qiaozi’s boy Hong Shan came running over to call Xiao Cong to go with him to the schoolhouse in the neighboring village.

Xiao Cong was making clothes for Tuo Tuo. When he heard what Hong Shan said, he hurried back into the house to call Dou Ming.

Hong Shan was wearing new clothes without a single patch, and in his arms he held a brand-new book. It had a blue cover, and looked just like the books the little Daoist priests on Yunling Mountain used to have.

Ordinary humans studied scriptures too? Tuo Tuo asked curiously, “Do you learn scriptures at school too?”

“We go to learn characters.” Hong Shan lifted his little chin, looking rather pleased with himself.

“Right, you have to learn characters before you can read scriptures.” Tuo Tuo knew that much. He asked again, “After they finish teaching characters, do they teach scripture chanting?”

Hong Shan shook his head. “We have to listen to the teacher.”

Xiao Cong was going to the schoolhouse, so Dou Ming went along to see him off, and Tuo Tuo followed too.

Although Hua Qi had no intention of spending money to let Tuo Tuo attend school, he still wanted to go have a look around the schoolhouse and see the human children inside who knew how to sway their heads while reciting.

Starting from Dongwang Village, they walked one li east, then turned left. After another two li, they would reach Xilai Village.

Hong Shan walked at the very front, leading the way. Behind him came Tuo Tuo, hopping and skipping along.

Farther back were Dou Ming and Xiao Cong, walking side by side.

By the roadside, Tuo Tuo carefully plucked a dandelion. He turned around, puckered his lips toward Xiao Cong and Dou Ming, and went, “Whoosh—”

The white dandelion seeds drifted backward on the wind. Xiao Cong quickly narrowed his eyes.

Dou Ming fanned his hand back and forth in front of his face in disgust.

His disgusted expression made Tuo Tuo burst out laughing.

Tuo Tuo happily ran ahead, still wanting to find another dandelion by the roadside so he could blow it at Dou Ming.

A pale-yellow butterfly came fluttering over on gentle wings and gracefully landed on a small purplish-red flower.

Dou Ming crept closer on tiptoe, cupped both hands together, and pounced.

Startled, the pale-yellow butterfly floated back into the air.

Dou Ming chased after the butterfly, leaping up to catch it.

Perhaps sensing the danger, the butterfly flew higher and higher, then fluttered away.

“You won’t catch a butterfly like that. Butterflies are easiest to catch when they’ve landed on the grass,” Hong Shan said with great experience.

“He can’t catch butterflies,” Tuo Tuo exposed him. “I’ve never seen Dou Ming catch a butterfly.”

“I have caught one.” Dou Ming looked toward Xiao Cong beside him and said, “I showed Xiao Cong.”

“Mm. I saw the butterfly Dou Ming caught. One of them was very big, yellow with black spots,” Xiao Cong said with a nod.

“Croak—croak—”

“A little frog.” Tuo Tuo parted the grass and saw a little frog with green stripes quickly hop away.

Hong Shan said, “There’s a little puddle over here. There are really tiny little frogs in it. The day before yesterday, I was playing there with Baotian and the others. I’ll take you.”

Tuo Tuo said happily, “Let’s go!”

Dou Ming said excitedly, “Let’s go!”

Xiao Cong reminded them, “We still have to go to school.”

Hong Shan looked at the sun in the sky through the dense tree leaves, then decisively said, “It’s still early. We can play for a while first and still make it in time.”

“All right, then.” Since Hong Shan said there was enough time, they could go play for a bit. Xiao Cong agreed too.

Under Hong Shan’s lead, the four of them passed through a patch of weeds half as tall as a person and found the little puddle beside the farmland.

Hong Shan called it a little puddle, but it was not really that small. It was more like a tiny pond.

Many little gray toads were crouched at the edge of the pond.

Dou Ming approached softly and carefully, crouched down, and suddenly pounced forward.

The little toads at the edge of the pond were startled. Some hopped into the grass, while others turned around and jumped into the pond with plop after plop. The water surface was startled into rippling circle after circle.

Feeling something underneath his hand pushing against it, Dou Ming said happily, “I caught a little toad.”

He lifted his thumb slightly, and the little toad soon poked its head out through the gap. Dou Ming pinched the toad’s head with his left hand, loosened his right hand, and quickly grabbed one of the little toad’s legs.

The little toad struggled. Its other leg, the one he had not caught, kicked back and forth against Dou Ming’s fingers.

Hong Shan ran over and said, “That’s a little frog. Little frogs and little toads look the same.”

“They’re not the same.” Dou Ming refuted him. “Little toads are gray. Little frogs are yellow, and they have markings on their faces. These are all little toads.”

“Huh?” Tuo Tuo looked at the cute little toad in Dou Ming’s hand and could not for the life of him imagine how such an adorable little thing would grow up to have bumpy skin all over.

Xiao Cong called out, “There are little tadpoles in the water.”

Everyone stood together at the water’s edge and looked. Near the bottom of the water on the left side were some green fallen leaves, and above the leaves were clusters upon clusters of tiny black tadpoles.

“These are toad tadpoles too,” Dou Ming said with certainty. “Frog tadpoles are yellow.”

Dou Ming wanted to hand the little toad in his hand to Xiao Cong to hold for him, but Tuo Tuo reached out first.

“I’ll hold it.” Tuo Tuo stretched out his hand, and Dou Ming placed the little toad in his palm.

Tuo Tuo stretched out his short, chubby finger and pressed down on one of the little toad’s legs.

The instant Dou Ming let go, the little toad jumped hard and leaped straight out of Tuo Tuo’s hand. With a plop, it landed in the water.

Tuo Tuo had not even reacted yet. He stood there with a blank look on his face, and immediately took a smack to the head from Dou Ming.

“How did it run off? Weren’t you pressing it down?”

“I, I don’t know either.” Tuo Tuo looked into the water. How could he still find the little toad’s figure? Instead, he spotted another little toad crouching in the grass nearby.

With the little toad gone, Dou Ming rolled up his trouser legs, kicked off his shoes, and went down into the little pond, heading toward the left side.

Xiao Cong also hurriedly rolled up his trouser legs and followed behind Dou Ming.

“Wait for me.” Tuo Tuo, wearing only a bellyband, had no trouser legs to roll up. He kicked off his shoes in two motions, then jumped into the water with both legs, making a loud plop. Water splashed up high and hit Hong Shan, who was standing on the bank.

Hong Shan hugged his new book and dodged backward. “Haha, Tuo Tuo, you look like a big fat toad jumping into the water. Hahahahaha.”

“You’re the big fat toad.” Tuo Tuo turned back unhappily and glared at Hong Shan. “You’re a toad.” He was clearly a ginseng spirit. What a blind human!

Dou Ming scooped up a handful of black tadpoles, turned around, and asked Xiao Cong, “Where do we put the tadpoles?”

Xiao Cong looked all around, but did not find anything they could put tadpoles in. He could only reply, “I don’t know.”

Tuo Tuo stepped down and frightened a crowd of little tadpoles into darting all around in the water. He stomped back and forth in the water, watching the little tadpoles flee everywhere, so delighted that he kept laughing, “Hahahaha.”

“I know, I know,” Hong Shan said. “Across the road, then a little farther ahead, there’s a little pond with lotus leaves in it. We can use lotus leaves to hold tadpoles.”

“Let’s go find lotus leaves.” Dou Ming scattered the tadpoles in his hands back into the water, walked back to the bank, picked up his shoes, and, barefoot, passed back through the grass they had come through and went onto the road.

Xiao Cong and Tuo Tuo copied him, carrying their shoes in their hands as they followed Dou Ming straight across the road to look for the pond with lotus leaves.

Seeing that everyone was barefoot, Hong Shan thought for a moment, took off the shoes on his own feet too, and followed them barefoot. As he walked, he said to Dou Ming and the others, “There are little tadpoles and little toads in the little pond too, but not as many as over here. We all play over here.”

They crossed the little path, passed through a patch of small grass, then parted a patch of reeds. What entered their eyes was a little pond full of lotus flowers and lotus leaves.

“Fresh flowers.” Looking at the big lotus flowers, Tuo Tuo immediately thought of Yun Shan, who liked fresh flowers. “I want to pick one for Yun Shan and bring it back.”

As he spoke, he ran to the riverbank and went into the water.

“Tuo Tuo!” Hong Shan said anxiously. “The water is deep here. Don’t go in. We can stand on the bank and pick them. Stretch your hand hard and you can reach the flowers.”

“It’s fine. I can swim.” Tuo Tuo snapped off a lotus flower with a crack, then looked it up and down, muttering to himself, “Yun Shan will definitely like it. This flower is so big. It’s bigger than his face.” As he spoke, he even held the flower against his own face to compare, then lowered his head to look at his reflection in the water. This flower was actually bigger than his face too!

Dou Ming reached out from the bank, but could not grab any lotus leaves, so he went into the water too and swiftly snapped off one emerald-green lotus leaf after another.

Hong Shan picked a leaf with a smaller blade from the lotus leaves Dou Ming had broken off, tugged off the overly long green stem beneath it, and flipped it over onto his head like a green hat.

“Look at me.” Hong Shan proudly pointed at the top of his head. “I have a hat.”

“I have a hat too.” Tuo Tuo casually snapped off a lotus leaf beside him and wedged it on his head. The oversized lotus leaf not only covered his head, it hid his entire head.

“My hat is so big.” Tuo Tuo took down the large lotus leaf, tore off the excess parts, and wedged it back onto his head. This time, it was just right. It could shade him from the sun overhead without getting in the way of seeing the road.

Hong Shan quickly scooped up a handful of water and sprinkled it into the lotus leaf.

The instant the water touched the lotus leaf, it divided into several large droplets and slid down along the leaf, gathering at the bottom of the lotus leaf.

Hong Shan shook the lotus leaf, and the big droplet that had formed rolled along the edge of the leaf with it.

Tuo Tuo, who had just climbed back onto the bank, saw this and put down the lotus flower in his hand, then played the rolling-water-droplet game together with Hong Shan.

Dou Ming cupped up a handful of water and poured it into a lotus leaf. It did not split into many droplets. Instead, it all slid straight down to the bottom of the leaf. He copied Xiao Cong’s example and shook the big lotus leaf in his hands.

The puddle of water at the bottom of the lotus leaf seemed as if it were deliberately going against him. It moved along with him in one neat mass, refusing no matter what to separate into rolling, slippery droplets.

Dou Ming shook it faster and faster. The water spun inside the lotus leaf, and when he was not paying attention, it flew out and splashed across Tuo Tuo’s face.

Tuo Tuo wiped the water from his face with the back of his hand and demanded, “What are you doing?”

Dou Ming said, “I’m rolling water droplets.”

Tuo Tuo stood on tiptoe and saw that there really was one big droplet left in Dou Ming’s lotus leaf. He kept shaking his own lotus leaf and asked, “Then roll it.”

“Roll it, then roll it.” Dou Ming shook the lotus leaf in his hands and was surprised to discover that it really was a big water droplet rolling back and forth across the lotus leaf.

After playing with rolling water droplets by the pond for a while, Dou Ming remembered the tadpoles in the little pond. “Let’s go. Let’s catch tadpoles again.”

Tuo Tuo picked up the lotus flower from the ground, grabbed his lotus leaf, and followed behind Xiao Cong through the reed bed and back to the little road.

“You absolutely mustn’t go into the water.” Fifth Uncle happened to be returning from town. Seeing the lotus leaves in their hands, he knew they must have gone to the little pond. “The water there is deep. You can’t go there.”

“We know, we know.” Hong Shan agreed very quickly.

Fifth Uncle saw them pass through the grass and play by the little pond, then called out, “Just play there. Don’t go back to the pool.” The water in the little pond was not deep. At its deepest, it only reached their thighs. The ground there was low-lying, and the little pond was formed by rainwater that had fallen and collected there on rainy days.

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