“Can you explain why I had to come back to meet you again?” asked uncle Huai to uncle Hei. This was one of the times I was happy I was a 10 year old kid.
Uncle Hei, being his usual truthful self, started with “We stopped here because master Bai was too sick due to his hungover” Uncle Huai looked at me. Nope, not happy that I was a kid anymore.
Luckily, there were more important things to deal with so uncle Huai quickly moved on.
“We let him rest there,” uncle Hei pointed toward the area where I took a nap. There was two guards collecting more samples
“He soon fell asleep. Attendant Wen covered him then…I felt cold, found myself kneeling and master Bai laughing. He pointed toward a big plant in front of me and said ‘Siren plant. Pheromones. Watch out for tentacles’ ”
He explained the investigation efforts and samples taken so far. Bla bla bla, it was a boring speech for me as I already lived through that.
“We found the carriage on the other side of the road on a ditch that seemed to have more broken carriages. The horse beasts disappeared” finished uncle Hei.
“Any idea Xiao Shin?” asked uncle Huai
“I did not move from here. I did not check the ditch” How could I have ideas if I did not see the other side of the road?
“Not the ditch. The whole story”
Why was he asking me? It was not like I puked my guts three time just to stop here
“Did you read any book that had information about this plant? Any information would help” asked uncle Huai when he saw I was still confused.
“Nope. Never heard of it or seen it until today. The analyzer told me its name but official Hei seemed to know it attracted male beings” I answered
Uncle Huai looked at uncle Hei “When I was young, I saw it once. That plant was much smaller than this one though. At that time, we were a group of friends, the females in our group saved us. They burned it to wake us up so no samples were taken. I did not know it was called a Siren Plant until today as no herbalist could tell us what it was based on our description”
“Lucky for you I bought all the books I could find in the library that talks about plants. There are 132 books. You and everyone who came with you have to read them until you find something” ordered uncle Huai.
I wanted to complain but refrained as he was angry… 132 books was too much. It was my stomach that started to protest first. I ignored it for too long. Grrrrrll. GGGRRRRLLLL
I used puppy eyes on uncle Huai and it luckily worked “Fine all of you go eat first. I will ask a team to set up a makeshift shed, table and chairs for reading”
After I hungrily decimated 4 steamed buns, I took the first book ‘Introduction to common plants in Xia continent’ and set it aside. I had already read it. The next 3 books were the same. Great, only 128 to go.
There were 30 people in total. When they finished a book, I finished 10. It took the rest of the day and part of the night. Uncle Huai left after the chief of the special operation and his team arrived. When I was done reading I resumed it to everyone else.
“There was mention of Siren Plants but the description stated the maximum height was 1 chi1about 1/3 of a meter. Feeds on male insect prey. Would release an aphrodisiac at dusk and start eating bugs at midnight. A plant can eat up to 10 times its volume in a night. Roots are short and they could easily be killed by bigger animals or heavy rain. Thrive in a hot and humid climate around waterways” I took a sip of tea
“Can you work for us? The pay is good” offered AnYi the current big boss
“Pay better than a medium level mine?” I asked
“Just forget I asked” he mumbled. He was funny.
“I am not done. In the diary of master herbalist Ji, there was a mention of plants of different species that bound together to hunt prey. Those plants were not related to the Siren Plant specifically but we could make the assumption that it had help... Fine, I will stop with this but let me put forward my theory. If I was a Siren Plant that loved male prey and ate like a pig, I would not want to share my food. The only reason I could accept a partnership would be if the partner was female and accepted to eat female prey”
“The carriage’s beast horses were all female. If the plant had a partner, it should be big enough to eat them” said uncle Hei
“The Siren Plant cannot move or use its tentacle before midnight so we should look for a plant that can move and is strong enough to destroy carriages” I continued
“It is also smart enough to hide the evidence… and it does not need to be a plant. It could be a beast or something else. Did anyone check the carriage for any damage, we could analyze it to see what type of object moved it”
“We checked, it was too damaged to find out much” said a guard
“A good quality carriage damaged beyond recognition just by being thrown into a ditch? Are you sure it was not crushed by whatever helped the Siren Plant?” I asked
“Then it should be big enough to surround it to crash it. The trees are too dense to have a big being move around the other side” Said uncle Hei
“And if it is one of the trees?” asked a guard.
“That is possible. I could go analyze the trees there” I suggested
“Too dangerous!” AnYi, AnEr, uncle Hei and brother Wen said as the same time
“Then how about a bait. Do you have any female guards here?”
“There are no guards that are female in any team of the city” responded AnYi
“What discrimination! Anyway we do not need a female guard as bait, just some female beast” I said. I would suggest uncle Huai hiring female cultivators.
“I will send someone to buy a cow or ewe at the nearest village. You should sleep in the meanwhile” said AnYi
“Can you explain why I had to come back to meet you again?” asked uncle Huai to uncle Hei. This was one of the times I was happy I was a 10 year old kid.
Uncle Hei, being his usual truthful self, started with “We stopped here because master Bai was too sick due to his hungover” Uncle Huai looked at me. Nope, not happy that I was a kid anymore.
Luckily, there were more important things to deal with so uncle Huai quickly moved on.
“We let him rest there,” uncle Hei pointed toward the area where I took a nap. There was two guards collecting more samples
“He soon fell asleep. Attendant Wen covered him then…I felt cold, found myself kneeling and master Bai laughing. He pointed toward a big plant in front of me and said ‘Siren plant. Pheromones. Watch out for tentacles’ ”
He explained the investigation efforts and samples taken so far. Bla bla bla, it was a boring speech for me as I already lived through that.
“We found the carriage on the other side of the road on a ditch that seemed to have more broken carriages. The horse beasts disappeared” finished uncle Hei.
“Any idea Xiao Shin?” asked uncle Huai
“I did not move from here. I did not check the ditch” How could I have ideas if I did not see the other side of the road?
“Not the ditch. The whole story”
Why was he asking me? It was not like I puked my guts three time just to stop here
“Did you read any book that had information about this plant? Any information would help” asked uncle Huai when he saw I was still confused.
“Nope. Never heard of it or seen it until today. The analyzer told me its name but official Hei seemed to know it attracted male beings” I answered
Uncle Huai looked at uncle Hei “When I was young, I saw it once. That plant was much smaller than this one though. At that time, we were a group of friends, the females in our group saved us. They burned it to wake us up so no samples were taken. I did not know it was called a Siren Plant until today as no herbalist could tell us what it was based on our description”
“Lucky for you I bought all the books I could find in the library that talks about plants. There are 132 books. You and everyone who came with you have to read them until you find something” ordered uncle Huai.
I wanted to complain but refrained as he was angry… 132 books was too much. It was my stomach that started to protest first. I ignored it for too long. Grrrrrll. GGGRRRRLLLL
I used puppy eyes on uncle Huai and it luckily worked “Fine all of you go eat first. I will ask a team to set up a makeshift shed, table and chairs for reading”
After I hungrily decimated 4 steamed buns, I took the first book ‘Introduction to common plants in Xia continent’ and set it aside. I had already read it. The next 3 books were the same. Great, only 128 to go.
There were 30 people in total. When they finished a book, I finished 10. It took the rest of the day and part of the night. Uncle Huai left after the chief of the special operation and his team arrived. When I was done reading I resumed it to everyone else.
“There was mention of Siren Plants but the description stated the maximum height was 1 chi1about 1/3 of a meter. Feeds on male insect prey. Would release an aphrodisiac at dusk and start eating bugs at midnight. A plant can eat up to 10 times its volume in a night. Roots are short and they could easily be killed by bigger animals or heavy rain. Thrive in a hot and humid climate around waterways” I took a sip of tea
“Can you work for us? The pay is good” offered AnYi the current big boss
“Pay better than a medium level mine?” I asked
“Just forget I asked” he mumbled. He was funny.
“I am not done. In the diary of master herbalist Ji, there was a mention of plants of different species that bound together to hunt prey. Those plants were not related to the Siren Plant specifically but we could make the assumption that it had help... Fine, I will stop with this but let me put forward my theory. If I was a Siren Plant that loved male prey and ate like a pig, I would not want to share my food. The only reason I could accept a partnership would be if the partner was female and accepted to eat female prey”
“The carriage’s beast horses were all female. If the plant had a partner, it should be big enough to eat them” said uncle Hei
“The Siren Plant cannot move or use its tentacle before midnight so we should look for a plant that can move and is strong enough to destroy carriages” I continued
“It is also smart enough to hide the evidence… and it does not need to be a plant. It could be a beast or something else. Did anyone check the carriage for any damage, we could analyze it to see what type of object moved it”
“We checked, it was too damaged to find out much” said a guard
“A good quality carriage damaged beyond recognition just by being thrown into a ditch? Are you sure it was not crushed by whatever helped the Siren Plant?” I asked
“Then it should be big enough to surround it to crash it. The trees are too dense to have a big being move around the other side” Said uncle Hei
“And if it is one of the trees?” asked a guard.
“That is possible. I could go analyze the trees there” I suggested
“Too dangerous!” AnYi, AnEr, uncle Hei and brother Wen said as the same time
“Then how about a bait. Do you have any female guards here?”
“There are no guards that are female in any team of the city” responded AnYi
“What discrimination! Anyway we do not need a female guard as bait, just some female beast” I said. I would suggest uncle Huai hiring female cultivators.
“I will send someone to buy a cow or ewe at the nearest village. You should sleep in the meanwhile” said AnYi
