Qilian's Floral Hem

As the morning breeze lifts the snowy veil of the Qilian Mountains, the entire sand date forest is busy fastening belts for the wildflowers. Blue-tailed irises, freshly bathed in dew, twist their petals into satin ribbons, inserting them at an angle into the crevices of the gravel beach. The golden stamens of sand date flowers, like scattered stardust, fall onto the lace skirts of wild roses. A reddish-brown butterfly flits past, its wingtips gilded with nectar, trailing a thin line of liquid amber in the rock crevices. The ripples of the Taolai River are the flower's printmakers. On the riverbank, camel thorns hold out bell-shaped purple flowers, pressing their reflections into the folds of the water, each ripple imprinted with a pale purple fingerprint. The golden powder of sand date flowers, plundered by the wind, floats in the eddies stirred by sheepskin rafts, solidifying into a spiral galaxy of diamond dust. When the midday sun is at its strongest, the wolfbane flowers in the cracks of the riverbed suddenly burst into scarlet crowns, like the cinnabar blood dripping from ancient rock paintings, staining the hoofprints of three ibexes drawing water. Twilight forges flower shadows into bronzes. The ears of achnatherum splendens on both sides of the boardwalk, coated with the pale purple pollen of wild alfalfa, strike a chime-like rhythm in the evening breeze. A girl in a reddish gown fetches water with a clay pot. Where her skirt sweeps, sand date flowers shed their golden foil, falling into the crevices of the silver comb in her hair. These petals sprout anew in the moonlight, climbing the vines of the Milky Way, growing into a rainbow bridge connecting the ribbons of the Dunhuang flying apsaras. The midnight bloom carries the subtle intoxication of a wine cellar. The remnants of wine from nightglow cups are secretly brewed into a hidden fragrance by the roots of sea buckthorn bushes. On the rock walls, dried wild roses have a tryst with the moonlight, transforming withered petals into phosphorescent fire. The moment a naked carp leaps from the lake, it fastens a Milky Way sash adorned with flower remains around the entire Qilian Mountain range.