I live in the provincial capital, but my hometown is located in a small mountain village, a suburb of that city. Every year I go back there to visit my grandparents but the best part of the trip is that I'm able to appreciate the amazingly beautiful red flower called Rhododendron simsii Planch. For a very long time, the place has been famous for the plant. I feel very proud of it, too, so last month I persuaded my best friend Max to accompany me there on a trip. 

You can never imagine how hot that day was! Although it was just April, I sweated profusely. There was no cloud, no wind, and the sunlight was really dazzling. What's more, the water in the reservoir had evaporated totally, and there was just weeds growing wildly at the bottom. The two main streams flowing by a house just contained some shallow water without even a single fish. I also saw a buffalo having a hard time drinking. The whole atmosphere seemed so bizarre.

But what shocked me most was that, as we climbed the mountain, we couldn't find any flowers. “No!” I screamed with utter disappointment when Max found that many small newly grown leaves even turned yellow.  All these weird scenes threw me at a total loss; what's wrong with it? All this has never happened before in April. It should have been blooming all over the mountain at that time of the year! The mountain should have been covered with red flowers completely!  So, I went to my grandmother who lives at the foot of the mountain for an answer. She told me that it hadn't rained for a whole year, and it was this severe lack of water that caused the absence of the flowers.

On our way back to the city, we saw a couple driving their car towards the mountains. They stopped their car to ask us whether it was the right place to appreciate that red flowers. Max replied sadly, “Yes, but it's just that you are not going to find any flowers. There are no flowers at all. You'd better give it up."

I really hope that my fiery flowers come back. I plan to invite Max there again next year, wishing the flowers will be there about that time, as it they usual are.