□ Wang Shaoping

The other day I saw a picture of water chestnuts posted by a literary friend on WeChat Moments. They looked like dark green and black ingots, but they had a pair of curved ends. The familiar appearance of the "horns" can't help but bring back my distant memories.

When I was a child, I remembered that water chestnuts did not need to be planted. The small pond in my hometown was always full of uninvited water chestnuts. After a winter of dormancy, they began to sprout small buds under the call of the spring breeze, and gradually grew branches, spreading around and expanding their territory. Before long, the pond was covered with green water chestnut seedlings, like a pavement. A green carpet. Perhaps this pure green is too monotonous. The water chestnut vines will bloom with small white flowers in late spring and early summer. The wind blows across the pond, causing the blue waves to ripple and the water surface to sway.

In midsummer, most people hide in their houses to enjoy the cool air, and water chestnuts also quietly grow under the water. At that time, my friends and I could not resist the temptation and liked to plunge into the pond in the evening and pick up water chestnut seedlings. Those water chestnuts were shyly hidden among the seedlings. I like to eat the small green water chestnuts the most. They have thin skin and tender flesh. Peel off the thin skin and a complete water chestnut will appear in front of you, like a white ingot. With a slight bite, the sweet white flesh will be exposed. Once chewed, it is crisp, sweet and fragrant. I often eat until my belly is round and I go home wet. My body is inevitably stained, my arms are often scratched by water chestnut stems, and my little hands are often scarred by sharp water chestnuts. When my mother saw my embarrassment, she not only refused to comfort me, but also beat me hard and warned me not to go into the water, saying that the depth of the pond was unsafe. But even so, it couldn't resist my love for water chestnuts. I would still avoid my mother's sight one evening and get into the water chestnut pond. That was my secret paradise.

As spring passes and autumn comes, the water chestnut flowers in the water chestnut pond bloom and fall. Like the single cycle of the song of the years, I also grow taller under the nourishment of water chestnuts. After entering middle school, I began a stressful closed study life day after day, which left me no time to care about anything else. Going to Lingtang to pick water chestnuts every summer became a luxury dream.

It wasn’t until after the college entrance examination that I returned to my hometown, only to find that the water chestnut pond in my hometown had been filled in, and the rippling green water chestnut seedlings of the past had long disappeared. In just a few years, this area turned into an industrial area, which made me feel like the world has changed. Those memories about Lingtang, like those happy childhood days that passed away, are gone forever and have become my eternal memories.

However, their vines are like infinitely extending tentacles, covering the heart of my memory and remaining fresh over the long years...