CHAPTER 466: CHAPTER 20: PLANTING LOTUS FLOWERS IS A TECHNICAL SKILL

What Monk Tianya didn’t expect was that three people left in the morning, but two came back in the afternoon.

Zhang Yiyi was taken to the hospital for an examination and stayed there. The two who came back were Xiao Xian and Zeng Xuerou. Along with them, they brought a pile of tools, shovels, buckets, hoses, and two pairs of rain boots and two sets of plastic raincoats for the rain.

"Why did you come back when I told you to scram?" Monk Tianya saw the two returning, tied the monastery’s gate shut tightly, and roared at them through the door.

"Senior Tianya, we damaged your flowers, so we should help you replant them," Zeng Xuerou inferred from Monk Tianya’s description that the Night Lotus must be a treasure. She initially planned to compensate him with money, but Xiao Xian persuaded her against it.

Not long after leaving the "South Sea," Xiao Xian’s actions confused Xuerou.

She first had Xuerou go to the city to buy the tools they brought from a local flower shop. That wasn’t all; she also rented a Mongolian Tent at a local resort and brought along several bags of food, a flashlight, and an alcohol lamp for heating.

All the items together were quite a lot. Although Xuerou didn’t know what Xiao Xian was up to, they did as they had discussed earlier, and for the sake of secrecy, they even bribed the ticket seller at the Summer Villa.

After moving the tools and equipment in, Xuerou waited for Xiao Xian to have lunch at the entrance.

It wasn’t until before noon that Xiao Xian contentedly returned. When asked where she had been in the morning, she only mentioned that she had strolled around the lake area in Chengde Summer Villa.

During lunch, Xiao Xian opened her hand to reveal several dozen lotus seeds rolling round and round in her palm.

"The Red Lotus from the lakeside of Ruyi Lake, Red Rhythm, treasure, Fireworks. This is the White Lotus found near the arched bridge of the lower lake, White Crane Spreading Wings, Auspicious Snow. This is the Purple Lotus Purple Mist, Buddha Light found on Zhijing Yun Dam, and these are from Cailing Ferry, accumulated in the silt, mandarins, Shao Hua." Xiao Xian placed the black-shelled lotus seeds on the dinner table.

Zeng Xuerou didn’t understand what Xiao Xian was doing with so many lotus seeds. The lotus flowers in the Summer Villa blossomed beautifully, vibrant and fragrant during the day, and swaying gracefully at night, but what could lotus seeds do, especially those old, diseased seeds that had fallen into the pond mud and not bloomed?

When asked again, Xiao Xian became coy and refused to elaborate.

After arriving at the "South Sea" temple, Xiao Xian set the tools by the pond and crisply called out to Monk Tianya behind the door: "Senior Tianya, didn’t you say we damaged your Night Lotus? I will give you a pond full of pink, yellow, and purple in seven days."

Monk Tianya, separated by the door plank, could not hear clearly but grumbled in his heart, "Blowing hot air, as if a little kid like you could grow Night Lotus. Anyway, I’m not opening the door, let’s see how long you can last outside."

It was past four in the afternoon, the hottest part of the day had passed.

Monk Tianya was sitting in the hall, chanting the Heart Sutra, when the sound of water came from outside; the two girls seemed to be up to something.

Monk Tianya continued chanting the Sutra, paying them no heed.

Xuerou put on her rain boots and raincoat and, dressed in the same gear as Xiao Xian, jumped into the pond.

"Xiao Xian, are we really doing this? Digging out all the mud from the pond?" Xuerou wasn’t very enthusiastic about planting, but seeing the fat stems and leaves of the lotus in the pond, she guessed the silt inside must be very fertile. Using the good pond mud seemed logical, but emptying the pond didn’t, it felt like a nonsensical way to plant lotuses. If it weren’t for knowing that Xiao Xian had some methods beyond ordinary people, Xuerou really wouldn’t bother with this foolish activity.

"Xuerou, let me tell you," Xiao Xian said loudly, ensuring the Monk inside chanting the Heart Sutra could hear every word, "To plant lotus flowers, you need silt and unpolluted soil..."

"I already know that," Monk Tianya, chanting the Heart Sutra, glared at the Bodhisattva in the hall, "I’m a literate monk, I’ve researched that already."

"But, you know, always throwing leftover food like fish bones and chicken bones makes the soil over-fertilized... Soil that’s too rich in nutrients harms the plants by causing them to grow leaves but not bloom." Xiao Xian said while effortlessly scooping a shovel of pond silt and placing it on the shore.

"Oh, so that’s why," with much slower motions than Xiao Xian, Xuerou had never done farm work; by the afternoon, her shoulders were sore and swollen.