CHAPTER 465: CHAPTER 19: THE CONSEQUENCES OF EATING RANDOM THINGS (PART 2)

Xuerou and Xiao Xian hesitated but chose to remain silent.

After Zhang Yiyi wringed out her clothes, the three of them returned to their room. Zhang Yiyi put on Xiao Xian’s long T-shirt and went straight to sleep, snoring within moments.

"Hey, maybe you should talk to her in the morning," Xuerou whispered.

"Talk about what? That she accidentally swallowed the lizard that bit her? By tomorrow morning, I bet the lizard will be digested. You know Yiyi, she’s a carnivore lover; her stomach digests meat really well." Thinking about that thing sliding from the throat all the way down to her stomach made Xiao Xian feel the grass mat underneath was suddenly very cold.

"How about we don’t mention it and just take her straight to the hospital to get her stomach pumped once we descend the mountain?" The two of them discussed and planned to leave first thing in the morning.

The next early morning, Xiao Xian and her companions were woken up by a loud wailing.

"Is that a monk? Why is he weeping instead of chanting sutras at this early hour?" Zhang Yiyi was quick this time. She jumped out of bed, opened the window, and prepared to deliver a tirade of her most fluent "specialty English."

"Who the hell destroyed my Night Lotus? And my precious, where have you gone?" The monk, whose hair was already a mess, now looked like a bird’s nest, with tears and snot mixed in with his beard and hair.

A few lotus petals drifted on the pond, visibly noticeable.

Zhang Yiyi instinctively touched her head; she remembered seeing that lotus last night.

Closing the window, she scurried back to bed, covered herself with the quilt, and continued to play dead—her actions were impressively smooth and coherent.

After a while, the wailing continued.

As if nothing had happened, Xuerou opened the window, "Master, good morning."

"Where’s my Night Lotus? And my colorful gecko?" The monk sat beside the pond, caressing the retrieved lotus petals and touching the corner of his eye.

"Master, we’re hungry. Is there breakfast? We’ll be leaving after eating," Zeng Xuerou said, glancing at Zhang Yiyi buried under the quilt, feigning calm.

"All you think about is eating. Don’t you see I’m heartbroken here? What are they teaching you at schools these days? Seeing someone cry, you don’t even try to comfort or care, at least you could ask me why I’m crying," the monk quieted his sobbing and started to complain.

"Right, why are you crying? It’s just a lotus flower isn’t it? If you like lotus flowers, you can go to the manor to see them. There, the lotus flowers are premium and bloom from July to September," Xuerou began to comfort the monk after realizing he didn’t suspect them.

"You know nothing! Can the lotus I, Monk Tianya, grow be compared with those rotten lotuses outside? This lotus was brought from a very significant place... it serves a great purpose. I’ve gone to great lengths to grow it since Lao Kang was still in split pants. Without a pollinating bee, I used the colorful gecko to give it Spiritual Energy and fertilized the soil with Phoenix Luhua Chicken’s excrement. It only started to show signs of blooming recently. Now, the gecko that provided it with Spiritual Energy is gone. Just thinking about where to find another gecko that grew up eating colorful stones gives me a headache, body aches, loss of appetite, and insomnia. Look, I even started growing white hairs," Monk Tianya, finding someone to confide in, hurriedly fished out a white hair from the mix of beard and hair.

"What, you said your name is Tianya? The same Tianya Senior mentioned by Senior Mei Xiang? Shouldn’t you be in the South Sea?" According to Xiao Xian’s textbook knowledge from school, isn’t the South Sea at the very southern tip of China, adjacent to Hainan Island? Upon hearing the frenzied elder mention his title, she quickly joined in.

Senior Mei Xiang had once reminded Xiao Xian that if she encountered any difficulties in her cultivation, she could seek advice from Monk Tianya in the "South Sea."

The trio’s blunders from last night, missing the flowering period and Zhang Yiyi swallowing the colorful gecko, were truly major mistakes.

"Isn’t this the South Sea?" Monk Tianya glanced at the dilapidated plaque hanging at the temple entrance, where the traces of writing were completely corroded by wind and rain.

Xiao Xian and Xuerou strained their necks to make out the first character on the temple plaque as "South."

"So, are you the ones who ruined my Night Lotus and the one who swallowed my colorful gecko alive?" Two guilty female students, along with a "cultivating with hair" monk, sat in the temple hall, devoid of incense but smelling of mosquito coils, facing the compassionate Guanyin Bodhisattva, looking at each other unsure what to do.

Xiao Xian hadn’t imagined she’d encounter the Tianya mentioned by Senior Mei Xiang in such a peculiar temple. She had always thought Tianya would be an eminent monk of otherworldly character—at least someone whose hair was hair and whose beard was a beard. To her surprise, he turned out to be a wild monk with a disheveled appearance.

However, since Mei Nian had specifically arranged for Xiao Xian to come here, there must be a reason.

"The Mei Family’s twins are indeed no easy charges. Helping one after another, when could it possibly end? Hmph, you’ve messed up my plans and still expect my help. Leave the temple now, if I see you again, don’t blame me for being rude," Monk Tianya stood up to expel them.

"Wait, Tianya Senior, do you want the Night Lotus to bloom? Alright, I’ll find a way to make your Night Lotus bloom, just give me a few days," Xiao Xian said, dragging Zeng Xuerou out to find Zhang Yiyi.

"Easy to say, if you can make the Night Lotus bloom again, this old monk will give you three a hand. But come to think of it, these three little girls really are predestined with me," Monk Tianya peered through the door gap as Xiao Xian’s trio passed through the dense grass and down the mountain path, unsure if they heard his words. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to cast recommendation tickets, monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)