In the work "Flowers", the first chapter subtly sketches an intoxicating picture. It was a sunny afternoon, and 10-year-old Po and 6-year-old Betty stepped onto the tiled roof. It seems to be their little world, quiet and warm. The scenery of Luwan District is in full view, and the wide view is refreshing.
With the southeast wind blowing, Betty held Po's hand tightly, as if she had found a sense of security in the wind. Her hair danced in the breeze like a moving picture. On the Huangpu River, the sound of boats' horns and the sound of horns in the distance are intertwined, like a piece of music that soothes the hearts of the two teenagers.
This scene was staged on the roof of Gaolan Road. It's not just a simple scene, it's an unforgettable page in the whole story. This moment seems to be frozen in the depths of Po's memory, and has become one of the most precious memories of his childhood.
And Betty, the innocent girl, is not only Po's childhood playmate, but also the eternal white moonlight in his heart. Whenever I think back to the time on that rooftop, Po's heart will spring up with a warm current, which is a beautiful memory about youth, friendship, and love for the first time.
Po, born in a family of capitalists, has been immersed in a carefree life since childhood. Betty's family, who became neighbors with Po, also had superior living conditions. In those three rooms, the big room is equipped with a four-legged piano, and Grandma Shaoxing is their helper. Betty, the girl full of youth, is delicate in appearance and smart. Her love for fairy tales, her love for bunnies, and her passion for collecting movie manuals all stem from her inner pursuit of beautiful things. Influenced by her parents, her thinking is avant-garde, which makes the little girl Betty specially ask him to write "Miss Betty, Merry Christmas" on the card when she receives the Christmas card presented by Po, and the word "Miss" is exactly what she expects of herself.
Betty loves movies, and Po always queues up to buy tickets just to take her into the theater. So, in every corner of the Cathay Pacific Cinema, there was a laughter of the two of them. Stamps were also a small episode between them. I remember that time, the two of them chatted leisurely on the rooftop. Betty asks Po what he would choose if he could design his own stamps. Po's poetic answer compares women to flowers, arguing that any flower can be the design of a stamp.
They discuss the names of flowers, from Betty's beloved gardenias to her less popular peonies. Interestingly, although there are many flowers mentioned in the book, in Bao's heart, there is always the flower that wears a floral dress, a blue bow, and a piano, but finally disappears from his life. Even after Po grew up and met all kinds of women, that flower was still the deepest secret in his heart.
In that particular time, Betty and her family suffered misfortune. As a result of someone's report, Betty's parents were taken away, leaving her and her elderly grandmother to live together. Po is just an ordinary young man.
One night in 1966, Betty and Grandma had the same dream that they had turned into fish. This wonderful dream made Grandma uneasy, and she decided to go back to her hometown in Shaoxing to worship her ancestors, hoping that her ancestors would give her protection. Betty, despite her young age, is very dependent on Grandma. When she learned that Grandma was going to leave for a few days, she panicked and could only hug Grandma tightly and cry. Seeing this, Ah Bao immediately comforted Betty: "When you have a holiday, I will accompany you to Shaoxing to see Grandma." Hearing this, Betty's tears stopped, and a long-lost smile appeared on her face.
Since Betty's parents were taken away, the home has been raided several times. Thanks to the help and care of Bao, Lusheng, Shuhua and others, Betty and Grandma were able to barely survive. However, the doom did not end there. Someone has set their sights on their house in an attempt to drive the old and the young away. Even more heart-wrenching is that Betty's beloved piano has been moved. Po is determined to help Betty find the piano, and even if it has a small fish on it, he has searched for it in many thrift markets, but he has never found it.
The hardships of life have exhausted Betty and Grandma with no glimmer of hope. Grandma even sighed: "I really wish we could turn into fish and swim into the water." Betty immediately agreed: "If I could, I would become a goldfish." And the day Po got the piano back was also the last time he and Betty met. By the time he left, the sky had completely darkened. He looked back and saw Grandma combing Betty's hair, and Shuhua standing in the doorway. When he turned around again, two rays of light disappeared into the pool in an instant. Po rubbed his eyes, and everything seemed to be calm again.
A few days later, Po receives a letter from Shuhua and learns that Betty and Grandma are missing. This also became the reason why Po has been looking for them since then. ** mentions that Shuhua accidentally witnessed what happened to them when she was visiting Betty. Since then, she has been suffering from hysteria, always saying that Betty has become a goldfish and Grandma has become a crucian carp, and they are taken by wild cats and eventually sent to the Huangpu River.