Chapter 48 Botanical Illustrated Guide

"Fly a bit higher, I can't reach it."
"Higher, a little higher."
Mr. Stone reluctantly lifted her up a bit more.
"Do we really have to do something like this?"
Chi Sui raised her hands high, struggling to pluck the banner hanging from the highest point of the plaza entrance.
They had set up a terribly tall ladder there in the afternoon, and taking it down now was proving just as difficult as expected.
"Of course. Higher still, I still can't reach."
Mr. Stone sighed and raised her up another fraction.
"Actually, you could just let me get it, there's no need to do it yourself."
"That won't do. Something this utterly mortifying has to be dealt with in person."
Chi Sui waved her hand in refusal, regardless of whether Mr. Stone could see it in the dark.
"Lift me higher, I'm almost there."
As the height increased further, Chi Sui finally managed to grab hold of the banner reading "Strive for Greater Brilliance."
"There's still one more, Mr. Stone, keep going, carry on."
Despite the afternoon's many maneuvers, Mayor Ella's two banners had ultimately been successfully hung up. Of course, Chi Sui was never going to let it rest; taking advantage of the dead of night, she had embarked on a mission of vandalism.
Finally, thanks to Mr. Stone's indulgence and Chi Sui's persistence, both banners were successfully captured.
The banners were so large, however, that Chi Sui was practically wrapped up inside them.
"Let's go, let's go, hurry home."
Being her first time committing such a crime, Chi Sui felt a bit flustered and wanted to run the moment she got her hands on them.
"So are you just going to leave that space empty?"
"Of course not leave it empty, I'll go back and prepare something."
On the way back, hugging the two banners, Chi Sui still felt a twinge of guilt, but the moment she recalled their contents, she was instantly filled with courage once more.
Although she felt sorry for Mayor Ella, something so agonizingly embarrassing could never be put on public display.
As soon as they arrived home, the two little ones, Luoluo and Momuo, ran out to greet them.
"Wow, piled up like this, the banners are taller than you are."
Luoluo stretched out her small hand to measure, exclaiming in sincere admiration.
Chi Sui tossed the banners onto the floor and collapsed entirely onto the bed.
She had been so tense just now that the sudden relaxation left her momentarily drained of strength.
"Who knows where Mayor Ella even custom-made banners this large."
Mr. Stone picked up the banners from the floor, began folding them, and replied:
"It must have been a collaborative effort. Bertha is very skilled with textiles and needlework, and that handwriting is clearly Ella's—she has always written exceptionally well. The pigment used for the letters is very special and won't fade from wind or rain; Darren must have mixed it."
"All of this takes a lot of time. It looks like it must have been prepared for quite a while."
Mr. Stone's words caused Chi Sui to slowly sit up straight, suddenly reminded of the welcoming ceremony the town residents had held for her when she returned from Windchime Town.
The banner they had been holding back then read:
Welcome to Fufeng Town.
Village Chief Ella had claimed they didn't make a new one just to save money.
Now it seemed they had simply wanted to prepare this grand "surprise" for her.
Looking at the neatly folded banners in Mr. Stone's hands, the guilt in Chi Sui's heart grew even stronger.
Yet asking her to hang those two banners back up was entirely out of the question.
"What are you planning to hang up there instead?"
"Actually, I haven't decided yet."
Mr. Stone's question instantly caused Chi Sui's face to wrinkle in distress.
Originally, she had only intended to remove the words from the banner and write something else over them, but after hearing what Mr. Stone said, she could no longer bring herself to ruin it.
However, finding another piece of fabric that large would be even more difficult.
Sensing Chi Sui's dilemma, the little cutie Luoluo immediately chimed in:
"Why not try piling it up with flowers? Every time there was an event at Windchime Pasture before, they would use lots and lots of flowers to pile up specific patterns."
With flowers?
That actually sounded like a good idea, but Chi Sui dismissed the thought nonetheless:
"Flowers wither too quickly, and I couldn't possibly find that many in a single night."
There was a large wooden blank plaque at the entrance of the plaza. It was usually left empty, and whenever a major event occurred, a banner would be hung across it.
Chi Sui had always felt that gateway looked somewhat empty and unattractive.
"If only I could find some kind of climbing plant, it could just cover the pillars on both sides as well."
Chi Sui rubbed her head, deeply troubled.
Not a single one of the seeds in her possession would grow into vines.
Mr. Stone stretched out a finger to point at the item Chi Sui had placed on her bedside table, saying:
"What kind of plant are you looking for? Why don't you take a look at that?"
Chi Sui looked in the direction Mr. Stone was pointing.
It was a book with a purple cover.
There were no books on the pasture, and this single one was a thank-you gift sent by Chia.
"Illustrated Guide to Strange Plants of Purple Island"
After receiving it, Chi Sui had gone off to busy herself with other things, leaving the book resting by her bedside.
Had Mr. Stone not reminded her, she wouldn't even have noticed the title of the book.
Picking up the book, Chi Sui opened to the first page.
[Flying grass, fire-breathing flowers, mushrooms that shed tears, vines that spew foul odors upon encountering danger—you might think this is a dream, but it is precisely these bizarre plants that make up the wondrous ecology of Purple Island.
Fish-tasting flying grass, flowers that chill your entire body if swallowed, mushrooms that make you cry uncontrollably when eaten, vines that smell foul yet taste delicious—yes, that's right, most of these magical plants are edible, so if you encounter them, please don't let them slip away...]
With a "snap," Chi Sui closed the book.
"I don't think this book is going to contain the kind of thing I'm looking for."
True to the nature of sky island residents, they wanted to eat and taste whatever plant they came across.
What a commendable courage to taste a hundred herbs.
"You've only read the preface, why not look further inside?"
Chi Sui felt somewhat puzzled.
"Isn't this just a food guide? Besides, even if I found the plant I wanted in the book, where on earth am I supposed to find it right away? And figuring out how to make it grow the way I want is another problem entirely."
Mr. Stone took the book directly from her hands, flipped through a few pages, and pointed to one of the illustrations, saying:
"I remember there is a vine that grows extremely fast; even if you cut it down, it quickly grows back anew, and there are some right down in the underground. Didn't you see any the last time you went down there?"
Chi Sui looked at the illustration in the book, finding it very familiar.
She had definitely seen it somewhere before.
...
The passage leading to the underground remained open to Chi Sui within the specified time limit.
Finding the desired vine required no effort at all; it was right there on the first level.
Once a section of it was harvested, the rest of the work could be entirely entrusted to Green Tooth.
As a light began to glow on Green Tooth's forehead, the vines on the ground quickly began to spread, winding in circles upward along the wooden pillars on both sides of the gateway.
The sky gradually turned pale, and the plaque above the gateway finally took shape just before the residents woke up.
Dark green vines paired with small beige flowers formed a large line of characters across the plaque:
[Fufeng Town Welcomes Wanderers Home]
Ever since the decline of Fufeng Town, its residents had gradually left to work in other towns or cities—such as Mayor Ella's son, Aunt Bertha's daughter, Xin's older sister, and Dr. Tina's older brother.
The residents who chose to stay behind all harbored an unbreakable emotional attachment to Fufeng Town.
Chi Sui had actually asked every single one of them why they stayed here.
Ella said she had lived here since she was born, and every house and plot of land here held her memories.
Darren said that because she met someone, whatever he cherished became her persistence.
Bertha said she had ventured out into the world when she was young, but only here felt like home and true belonging.
Tina said that when she was little, her mother fell ill. At first it wasn't serious, but there wasn't a single doctor to be found in all of Fufeng Town, and a minor ailment was dragged out into a severe illness. From that moment on, she decided to become a doctor and stay right here.
Every resident of Fufeng Town held a different story, yet shared the same regret.
The decline of the town, the distant departure of their loved ones.
"Well, do you have the confidence to develop it now?"
Looking at the banner formed by the vines, Mr. Stone spoke with implied meaning.
Chi Sui nodded. Although she had stayed up all night again, it did not diminish her high spirits at that moment.
"Of course I do! As soon as we get back, I'm having Green Tooth plant all the remaining fields!"
Green Tooth, having exhausted its energy to urge the vines to grow: ?
Did it somehow sign some kind of soul-selling indenture to the devil?