Eight-year-old Lily was a shy little girl who had just moved to a new city and hadn't made any friends yet. Every day after school, she walked home alone.
One afternoon, Lily accidentally wandered into an alley she had never noticed before. At the end of the alley was an old wooden door. Curiosity drove her to gently push it open, and before her appeared a beautiful garden.
This garden was special. It was filled with flowers of various colors, but strangely, some flowers looked dim and lifeless, as if waiting for something.
"Hello, little one," a gentle voice said. Lily turned around to see a kind garden keeper grandmother.
"Why don't these flowers have any glow?" Lily asked curiously.
Grandma smiled and said: "These are friendship flowers. They only bloom with light when two sincere friends are together. Would you like to help these flowers?"
Lily nodded. Grandma gave her a special seed: "Plant this seed in the garden, then sincerely share your story and listen to others' stories too."
The next day, Lily gathered courage to talk to her desk mate, Rain, at school. She discovered that Rain also loved drawing, just like her. When they talked about drawing together, Lily remembered the garden and brought Rain there after school.
A miracle happened! A pink flower suddenly bloomed with warm light.
"The first step of friendship is sharing," Grandma explained. "When you share common interests, the flower of friendship begins to bloom."
In the following days, Lily learned more secrets about friendship. When she comforted crying Tommy on the playground, a blue flower lit up—that was the flower of compassion. When she and Rain completed math homework together, the yellow flower of cooperation also bloomed.
Most magical of all, when Lily bravely stood up for Sam, who was being bullied, all the flowers in the garden glowed brilliantly.
"You've learned the most important secret of friendship," Grandma said with relief. "True friendship isn't just about playing together, but about caring for each other, helping each other, and understanding each other."
From then on, Lily was no longer lonely. She had many good friends, and more importantly, she learned how to be a good friend to others. Whenever she missed that magical garden, she could always see the light of friendship flowers in her friends' smiles.
Later, Lily told more classmates about the friendship garden's secret. She discovered that when everyone put their hearts into nurturing friendship, the whole class became as warm and beautiful as a garden.