“Ah Hong, Epiphyllum will blossom tonight.” I saw a wrapped bud with a little white inside shoot out in the edge of the leafy branches, and like a bee surrounding the pot. I was so excited and moved the pot into the room.

The fresh, fragrant smell filling in the air, a pure white flower, bowl sized, blossomed like a firework,glittering in the dark, and then disappeared. It took four to five hours to fully bloom. My knees bent, my head lowered, I took a close up photograph of it.

The next morning,I picked up the blossom, with its long stem from the straight leaves. It was still fresh, lying softly in my palm, I wondered if it would blossom again, or if had not blossomed yet. I soaked the white bud in the water to clean it.

It is easy to make Epiphyllum soup, a natural medicine: Add rock sugar to water and steam it. After cooking five minutes, I sipped a spoon of the sticky soup. Let it slip pasts my throat, down my esophagus and into my stomach. I felt coolness in my lungs.

Thirty years ago, Mrs. Tang, our old neighbor, who lived on the second floor, had always asked my mom to keep the Epiphyllum blossoms to ease her husband’s asthma.

The Epiphyllum always blossoms at midnight. People say “曇花一現tan hua yi xian”, meaning it blossoms as a flash in the pan. The saying advises: Do not let any sudden opportunity slip away.