After eating durian, Aunty Liu Jing and the others started making actual breakfast. Wen Zhihao, Sun Fuyu and Old Tang went to collect some more vegetables from the sect’s farms.

Old Tang eagerly told the farmers about the fruit they were going to plant. The farmers were interested and didn’t mind giving Wen Zhihao some of their dirt and fertilizer, which was put into Sun Fuyu’s spatial storage because Wen Zhihao’s was too full of random things he had hoarded collected.

“I’ll go back with you,” one of the female farmers named Wang Aimei said. “I have some knowledge of growing these kinds of fruits.” Wang Aimei had studied agriculture down in the south previously before settling into a permanent job at the Golden Sun Sect.

Wang Aimei returned with them to the kitchens. After eating fulfilling bowls of spicy and flavourful rice noodles, Wen Zhihao and his trusty assistant Sun Fuyu got down to work.

Aunty Liu Jing let them have some space in the open area outside the kitchens. With Old Tang’s direction, the two cultivators cleared the area and moved the clay pots over. Sun Fuyu filled them with dirt and fertilizer.

With Wang Aimei’s help, they planted some of the seeds from the fruit that they had eaten. If it weren’t for Wang Aimei, they wouldn’t have known to remove the outer husk from the mango seeds first, or that many seeds needed to be planted at a certain depth. She also told them how often each of these should be watered, which Wen Zhihao scribbled down and handed to Aunty Liu Jing for safe keeping.

Liu Jing upon receiving the instructions: ….

Instead of a greenhouse to mimic the tropical conditions, Wen Zhihao stuck a couple of talismans on the pots to help regulate temperature, humidity, and sunlight.

“This is quite amazing,” Wang Aimei said in admiration. She could literally feel the warm bubble surrounding the pots. Glass greenhouses were very expensive and spatial growing spaces were reserved for the most special of magical herbs. “These talismans must be expensive—”

“Here, have some,” Wen Zhihao gave her a stack of them.

Wang Aimei blinked as she suddenly became the owner of special talismans. Ah? What? Huh?

“Look, you can read, yes? I wrote down the name of each talisman in the corner.”

Wang Aimei’s face grew excited as she read the different names. Extra sunshine: five sichen, Rain: 1 sichen, Warm-air filter: 1 week…

“Just apply it onto a surface and it will activate,” Wen Zhihao continued. “Pull it off it and it will pause. You can save it to use the rest later.”

Sun Fuyu puffed up his chest. “Wen-ge is amazing! No one made talismans like this before!”

Wen Zhihao smiled sheepishly.

Actually, he only worked out the “pause” mechanism because he felt like he was a bit too poor to go wasting paper writing talismans, even if he used both sides of the paper. After all, he didn’t lack the qi for these little talismans. He just lacked physical resources because he couldn’t be bothered taking any work missions...

“Now, you simply need to wait and water them when necessary,” Wang Aimei said once she recovered her composure.

“There is one more thing,” Wen Zhihao said. He passed his hand over the seeds. Rather than injecting sun qi into flowers to make them glow, Wen Zhihao pulled some qi from the surrounding alive plants and sprinkled a little on the seeds to kick start their growing process.

The soil on some pots seemed to shift a tiny bit as some of the seeds germinated and extended down roots. One even sprouted a little leaf.

Wen Zhihao withdrew his qi. According to the spiritual herb cultivation manuals, one needed to wait for the plants to absorb most of the injected qi before continuing, or else mutant growth could occur.

“There, we just saved about two weeks.”

Wang Aiwei had seen cultivators speed up the growth of plants before...but she just hadn’t seen someone spend so much effort on growing common fruit. Perhaps young cultivators liked to have a fresh and unrestrained style?

“Everyone, look forward to the future fruits of our labour,” Wen Zhihao said, his eyes already seeing the delicious future.

Many people nodded. They could also see the delicious future.

“And then you can have as many mangoes as you want, Xiao Yu,” Wen Zhihao said.

Sun Fuyu’s lips curved. “Thank you, Wen-ge!” Sun Fuyu could see that Wen-ge had dedicated more pots to mango trees than any other fruit. Wen-ge was so good to him...What could Sun Fuyu do to show that he liked him too?

“Wen-ge, when is your birthday?” Sun Fuyu asked sneakily.

The corner of Wen Zhihao’s lips quirked up. He told Sun Fuyu the date, which was in less than a month.

Sun Fuyu’s eyes widened. “So soon,” he whispered. In a louder voice, he said, “Wen-ge, I need to go now! I might go away on some short missions...”

How could Wen Zhihao not see his ‘machinations’? He rubbed Sun Fuyu’s head. “En, work hard, but remember to sleep, okay, Xiao Yu?”

Sun Fuyu tilted his head up so that it pressed more into Wen-ge’s hand. “Um,” he agreed.

 

---

 

Elder Liu Ru frowned when Senior Cultivator Zhao Chunfeng scowled at her as she was passing by the Herbalist Hall.

“Fellow Daoist Zhao, is there a problem?” she asked calmly.

“One of your disciples thinks it’s funny to mess around!” Zhao Chunfeng snorted. “He was dressed like an outer sect disciple, with a sloppy appearance. What kind of disciples are you accepting these days?”

A certain name and face appeared in her mind: Wen Zhihao.

Elder Liu Ru’s calm expression did not change. “Please speak clearly, Fellow Daoist Zhao.”

“That disciple of yours came to pester me about growing magical herbs! Does it look like I have time to chat? These herbs need extremely diligent care!” Zhao Chunfeng continued to ramble on.

Elder Liu Ru thought to herself. Some advanced techniques of talisman writing involved using herbs, but none of the manuals she had given Wen Zhihao contained such techniques. When Zhao Chunfeng paused for air, Elder Liu Ru bade him farewell and continued on her way.

Later, Elder Liu Ru visited the librarians of the Golden Sun Sect, she idly asked them about whether a disciple named Wen Zhihao had come by. It turned out that he had, and his reading list was quite varied, from various talisman cultivation manuals to spiritual herb cultivation manuals.

“What is on the mind of young cultivators these days?” Elder Liu Ru lamented in bed that night. In her private abode on her mountain peak above the clouds, moonlight filtered through the gauze covered window, producing enough light for her to see clearly.

Senior Cultivator Liu Zhongmin idly combed the bottom half of her wife’s hair. She smiled. “Are you sad that you don’t have a lovely disciple like my Sun Fuyu?”

“Wen Zhihao is not my disciple,” Liu Ru said. “Qian Jiarui will be my successor.”

Liu Zhongmin hummed. “Just ask this not-disciple of yours if you’re worried.”

“Ah, but he keeps up his monthly quota, always on time. You haven’t been acting inappropriate to Disciple Sun, have you?”

Liu Zhongmin pouted. “How can you accuse your own wife like that? I’m still sad that adoption isn’t allowed in the sect, even though my wife is one of the five Elders with the power to change the rules...I’m sure I could convince him to change his family name to yours, just like I did—”

Liu Ru was not amused. Liu Zhongmin hastily solved the problem by selling meng and kissing the corner of Liu Ru’s mouth. “Let’s dual cultivate?” she whispered.

As always, as the older woman, Liu Ru pretended that Liu Zhongmin’s actions were cute and agreed.

 

 

 

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Liu Zhongmin’s backstory is that she didn’t like her father and so changed her family name to her wife’s (Elder Liu Ru)...I didn’t know how to squeeze that in so I’m just telling you _(:3」∠)_

 

Looking for more things to read? Many of us BL writers here on Scribble Hub have come together to organise the BL Spring Anthology, which is a collection of short stories around the theme of spring. Look out for stories from your favourite authors, and pick up new favourite authors 🥰🥰🥰

If you want to see delicious asian food in the present… you can check out Farm to Banquet Table that my friend wrote, and/or eat a mango, gift a garden that I and my friend co-wrote.

And to drop two danmei recommendations, Accidental Mark and Very Happy...I even wrote fanfic for Very Happy called Double Happiness! (with the exclamation mark) 😆😆