Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The fishing boat bobbed on the surface of the water.
The old skipper with a gap in his front teeth clambered out of the cabin, picked up the boat paddle, and rowed Lu Fan and the rest to Beiluo Lake Island.
Its wooden hull hit the blue tiled pavement of Beiluo Lake Island.
Lu Fan raised his head and looked up to see a large patch of peach trees before him. Its pink flowers were in full bloom, just like the ladies on the island.
An exquisite building was hidden deep in the peach tree forest and could vaguely be seen among the trees. The courtesans’ coquettish laughter floated over to them from the building.
The entire island was filled with the smell of peach blossoms.
The wind blew, and the peach trees swayed. The pink petals of the peach blossoms fluttered down, adding to the beauty of the scenery.
In the distance, behind the carved wooden door of Drunk Dust Court, there were dozens of gentle and graceful figures.
The sound of coquettish laughter was all around.
Under the guidance of the brothel’s madam, the courtesans in Drunk Dust Court all wore coy smiles and expressions on their faces as they held round paper fans. Their fair and soft skin could be seen through the thin fabric of their clothes, and their faces were painted in exquisite makeup. They all fought to be the first one to welcome their guest.
Lu Fan would be the new owner of Drunk Dust Court, and perhaps their owner too.
These courtesans were all women who had fallen straight to the bottom of society. If they were able to catch Young Master Lu’s eye, they wouldn’t have to worry about anything the rest of their lives.
They didn’t dare to dream of becoming the wife of the city’s Young Master, but if they could become his concubine, that would be enough to guarantee them a life of luxury.
As for those smelly scholar lovers they had…
They decided to let go of the past.
There was a somewhat strange look on Nie Changqing’s face, and he glanced Lu Fan, who was calm and collected.
He picked up his butcher knife and took a step forward to stand in front of Lu Fan. He raised the knife and swung it in front of the courtesans, who all looked like they had stories to tell.
Nie Changqing’s actions made the courtesans stop what they were doing. They stayed far away and didn’t dare to move forward.
“Sister Ning, push me over there,” Lu Fan said to Ning Zhao as he massaged his fingers and ignored the courtesans.
Ning Zhao bent her head slightly as she placed her pretty hands on the wheelchair and pushed it over to the building.
The wooden wheels of the wheelchair rolled over the fallen peach blossom petals as it made its way over to Drunk Dust Court.
Suddenly, Lu Fan turned to look at Ni Yu, who looked thin after puking so much from being seasick. “By the way, Ni, come over here.”
“There are ten seeds here. Find a place on the island and dig ten holes to plant them in.”
Lu Fan pulled out the ten Heaven Facing Spiritual Chrysanthemum seeds that the system had rewarded him with, and passed them to Ni Yu.
Ni Yu cupped her hands together to take the seeds from Lu Fan, and was stunned for a while as she held the ten seeds in her hands and looked at them. Each one of them was warm and shiny like a jade, and they had a sweet fragrance to them.
To Ni Yu, these looked just like… freshly fried broad beans.
Ni Yu had puked so much that there was nothing left in her stomach… so she couldn’t help but feel a little hungry.
“Young… Young Master!”
Ni Yu lifted her head, and there was desire written all over her pale face.
“Hmm?” Lu Fan paused.
“These broad beans… can they be eaten?” Ni Yu asked as a little saliva dribbled out of the corner of her mouth.
Lu Fan’s face immediately darkened. He nearly wanted to forget about his image and jump up from his wheelchair and give this gluttonous little girl a kick.
“Those are chrysanthemum seeds, not broad beans!”
Ni Yu’s face was filled with longing.
Lu Fan glanced at her and said threateningly, “Don’t eat them. Remember that! You must not eat them! If you eat them, you’ll regret it! If you dare to steal any, I’ll get the old skipper to take you on a boat ride around the island!”
These ten seeds were his key to transforming Beiluo Lake Island!
They were like the sunflowers in the Plants vs. Zombies game Lu Fan had played in his previous life, so they were extremely important!
Ni Yu’s heart constricted. If she had to go on a boat ride around the island, she would puke all her insides out.
There was fear on her face and a trace of regret. Holding the seeds in her hands, she had no choice but to carry the chessboard on her back and go dig some holes to plant the seeds in.
…
At the edge of Beiluo Lake Island, a small figure was carrying a huge chessboard and running under the sunlight among the swaying peach trees.
Ni Yu was in a pretty good mood as she held the ten Heaven Facing Spiritual Chrysanthemum seeds in her hands and looked for a suitable place to plant them.
She could plant them today, then harvest a whole mountain of chrysanthemums another day.
Ni Yu liked this sort of work that was stress-free and relaxing.
Young Master doted on her after all. He never called her when it came to fighting or killing.
After finding a place between two large peach trees, Ni Yu picked up a peach tree branch and stuck her butt out as she started digging a hole in the ground.
After she finished digging the hole, she took one Heaven Facing Spiritual Chrysanthemum seed and carefully placed it inside.
She covered it up with soil, then stepped on the mound of dirt with both feet. She then picked up a small container to water it, and used a small knife to carve the words “Chrysanthemum 1” into the bark of the peach tree next to it to mark that the first Heaven Facing Spiritual Chrysanthemum was planted here.
Then she continued on, running along the shore of the lake for quite a distance.
There were ten seeds, so she planted one after she’d gone some distance from the previous one, planting Chrysanthemum 1 all the way to Chrysanthemum 10 and perfectly gauging a good distance between them.
After she finished planting Chrysanthemum 10, her head was covered with sweat and her little face was all red. She put her hands on her hips. This exercise had really worn her out.
She then turned around to look at what she’d accomplished and claim credit from Young Master.
But the moment she turned around… her chubby little face suddenly trembled.
The smile on her face… disappeared.
Peach trees covered half of Beiluo Lake Island, and whenever the wind blew through the trees, there would be a rustling sound, and the fragrance of peach blossoms would fill the air as the blossoms fell to the ground like rain.
The scene was extremely beautiful and mesmerizing.
But now…
Ni Yu was carrying the chessboard and standing under a peach tree in a daze.
The little island was originally filled with pink peach blossoms and filled the place with beauty and life.
But all of a sudden…
It all changed.
The peach tree she carved “Chrysanthemum 1” into dried up, as if the water in it were being sucked away, and the life was cleanly wrung out of it.
Its branches were full of peach blossoms, but each one dried up and faded, as if they’d been scorched by the hot sun all day.
In an instant, this place went from heaven on earth to hell.
From Chrysanthemum 1 to Chrysanthemum 10, it was as if each tree were a light bulb that had been switched off.
The entire patch of peach trees were drying up and fading and dying in sequential order…
Her long eyelashes fluttered as she looked at the place where she’d planted the ten chrysanthemum seeds.
And what she saw…
The seeds she had just sown started breaking through the ground in the order that they’d been planted in, extending their branches to meet the wind as if they had come alive. They swayed slightly, and their green jade-like stems sparkled like azurite in the sunshine.
Ni Yu’s legs trembled, and the expression on her face changed.
She was still standing in the peach tree forest.
But the next moment, the entire forest started making a rustling sound.
The wind from the lake blew through the trees.
And it rippled through each of the peach trees like a shockwave.
Boom…
All the peach blossoms on the trees were like pieces of burnt paper, and turned to powder from the wind.
The entire forest was filled with fallen and faded peach blossoms.
It was like a deadly, heavy snowfall.
Ni Yu was shocked by what she’d just witnessed.
And she wasn’t the only one.
The courtesans that had been frightened off by Nie Changqing on Beiluo Lake Island looked as if they’d just seen a ghost. They all fell to the ground in fear.
They were naturally very familiar with the peach blossoms that covered half of Beiluo Lake Island.
But…
In an instant, all the peach blossoms had dried up.
It was as if a demon were living on the island, and they were suddenly filled with fear from head to toe.
Humans are always fearful of the unknown.
Ni Yu looked at the ten gleaming green chrysanthemum saplings swaying in the wind, waiting to bloom. She could make out a flow of Qi moving along the surface of the ground and converging from all directions to flow into the young chrysanthemum trees.
It was as if… the chrysanthemum seeds had sucked the life out of the peach trees and took their nutrients for their own growth!
Ni Yu felt her legs go weak, and her face went pale.
Young Master hadn’t lied to her. Those chrysanthemum seeds… really weren’t safe to eat!
Ni Yu’s flat chest suddenly heaved violently, and she breathed a huge sigh of relief.
She was so glad… that she hadn’t thought the chrysanthemum seeds were broad beans and eaten them.