The Entire Herb Garden Was Waiting, but Flabébé Only Looked at Three Plants

After the Basic Partnering Class ended, Yue Guan received an invitation from the Herb Garden.

The letter was written very politely, inviting Flabébé to the Herb Garden on the east side of Spirit Hall to help the last batch of medicinal flowers bloom as soon as possible this year. It specifically noted at the end that the entire Herb Garden had been cleared in advance so it could do as it pleased.

After reading it, Yue Guan first looked at Flabébé sitting in its blue flower.

"The whole place is yours," he said.

Flabébé poked its head out from the center of the flower and read through the invitation as well. It did not recognize every word, but it recognized the vast field of blooming flowers painted in one corner.

It hugged its blue flower tightly and shook its head.

"Don't want to go?"

Flabébé flew to the pot of pale yellow wildflowers by the window, touched the leaves, then returned to Yue Guan's shoulder. It was willing to look at flowers, but it had not agreed to make an entire Herb Garden bloom at once.

Xia Che lay behind the counter. "The invitation asked for too much."

"It's just going to take a look." Yue Guan folded up the letter. "Whether it does anything is up to it."

Only then did Flabébé nod.

The Herb Garden was not far from the Martial Arena and was divided into more than a dozen long plots. Late autumn was approaching, and not many medicinal herbs could still bloom at this time. Yet the garden steward had arranged a row of new flowerpots at the entrance, each planted with a valuable flower in brilliant colors.

"Elder Ju." He stepped forward to greet them. "I heard this Pokémon lives alongside flowers. Could you ask it to make the Herb Garden bloom tonight?"

Yue Guan looked at Flabébé.

Flabébé looked back at him.

"No," Yue Guan said.

The steward froze. "Half of it would be fine."

"It hasn't looked yet."

"Then let it look at the most valuable ones first."

The steward lifted the soft cloth covering the first flowerpot. Inside was a purple medicinal flower with layer upon layer of petals and a gold thread tied around its stem. He then pointed at the blue flower in Flabébé's arms. "If it likes it, this plant can be given to it."

Flabébé immediately turned around and hid its entire body behind its blue flower.

Yue Guan's smile faded slightly. "Its flower is not for trade."

"This one is rarer."

"This has nothing to do with rarity."

Not long after Flabébé was born, it found this blue flower. Since then, the two had lived together. Over nine years, it had changed flowerpots, soft bags, and supports, but the flower that stayed with it had always been the same one.

The steward finally took back the purple flowerpot. "I was presumptuous."

Flabébé did not approach the purple flower simply because he had apologized. It flew up from Yue Guan's shoulder and slowly moved along the first flower bed.

More than a dozen Herb Garden apprentices followed behind it, each carrying watering cans, scissors, and bloom-promoting powder. The group was too large, and their footsteps turned the once-quiet garden into a mess of noise.

Flabébé stopped in midair and did not move forward.

"Everyone, return to the entrance," Yue Guan said.

"Someone has to keep records," the steward said.

"Leave one."

In the end, only the youngest apprentice remained. He put his scissors back into their cloth case and set his watering can by the path, carrying only a thin notebook as he followed from afar.

Only then did Flabébé continue.

The first plant it chose was a cluster of short white flowers. The edges of their leaves had already yellowed, but the soil shone with moisture. The steward had assumed they lacked bloom-promoting powder, but after landing, Flabébé merely touched the soil with its tiny hand before immediately flying back up.

"Too much water?" the apprentice asked.

Flabébé nodded.

Yue Guan crouched down to inspect it. Several fallen leaves had blocked the drainage ditch beneath the flower bed, so all the water from last night's watering had pooled around the roots.

The apprentice used wooden tongs to remove the leaves, then loosened the soil along the mouth of the ditch. The standing water slowly drained away. The white flowers did not bloom immediately, but their yellowing leaves were no longer soaking in water.

"Should we cut off the yellow leaves?"

Flabébé flew around the leaves once and removed only one that had completely dried out. The rest still had some flexibility, so it left them where they were.

The second plant was a slender stem bent down by the wind. Its flower bud was intact, but the stem lay against the ground, and the old support beside it was half a head shorter.

Holding its blue flower, Flabébé moved closer and first used its flower stem to lift the thin branch.

Yue Guan brought over a taller bamboo stick. The apprentice wanted to tie it tightly with gold thread, but Yue Guan replaced it with a soft cloth strip and tied only two loose knots, one at the top and one at the bottom.

The thin stem stood upright again, yet it could still sway gently when the wind came.

"Can it bloom now?" the steward called from afar.

Flabébé turned back and shook its head.

The flower bud was not mature yet. Straightening it only allowed it to continue growing.

The third plant looked the healthiest. Its leaves were a rich green, the soil had the right amount of moisture, and its bud had already swelled. The steward thought they would surely see a flower bloom this time and had even prepared a jade box for holding it.

Flabébé landed on the tip of a leaf and waited quietly for a long time.

The afternoon sunlight slowly shifted across the flower bed. The outer layer of the bud loosened slightly, revealing a pale pink within, but it did not fully open.

Flabébé did not urge it. It sat back in its blue flower and basked in the sun with the plant for half a quarter of an hour.

"Are we just waiting like this?" the apprentice asked softly.

"That is what it chose to do today," Yue Guan said.

The steward walked over from the entrance and looked at the drained white flowers, the newly supported thin stem, and the pink flower bud that still had not opened. The entire Herb Garden had not bloomed overnight, and the promise in the invitation to make the flowers bloom as soon as possible had not been fulfilled.

"It only looked at three plants?" he asked.

Flabébé had already flown back to Yue Guan's shoulder. It raised a hand to wipe its face, then lowered its head to check a petal on its blue flower that the wind had ruffled. It was clearly ready to rest.

"Three plants were enough to keep it busy for half a day," Yue Guan said.

The steward was still somewhat unwilling to accept this. He brought over the Herb Garden record book, which contained eight wooden tags requesting help. Some said flower buds would not open, some said leaves had turned pale, and one simply said the plants had not grown as well as last year.

"Could it look at all of these?"

Yue Guan did not take the record book. He merely spread the wooden tags across a low table.

Flabébé drank some water first, then brought several drops of clear water to the roots of its blue flower. Once it had rested enough, it flew above the tags and inspected the shapes of the flowers drawn in their corners one by one.

It picked out three. One was placed beside the white flowers being drained today, one beside the thin stem, and the last was left for the pink flower that would bloom naturally. It pushed the other five back in front of the steward.

"It will only take responsibility for the follow-up care of these three plants," Yue Guan said.

"What about the others?"

"Check the soil, water, sunlight, and pests first. If you still cannot figure it out after checking, bring specific records and ask again."

The steward lowered his head to look at the five wooden tags that recorded only results. At last, he realized he could not even answer how many times each area had been watered yesterday.

He called over several apprentices and redistributed the wooden tags among the flower beds. No one waited for Flabébé to handle matters while holding up the words "entire Herb Garden" anymore.

After eating a small piece of sweet Berry, Flabébé flew around the three plants once each. Once it confirmed that the drainage ditch had not been blocked again and the cloth strip had not slipped, it landed on Yue Guan's shoulder and voluntarily ended today's care.

Bibi Dong happened to come over from the Martial Arena. She looked over the invitation, then glanced at the row of precious flowerpots at the entrance that had been prepared to win Flabébé's favor.

"Who wrote 'the entire Herb Garden'?"

The steward lowered his head. "I did."

"Tomorrow, change it to specific plants that need care. No more than three."

"Yes."

"Check the drainage and supports yourselves first."

The steward answered again.

She did not question Flabébé's abilities because it had not made the Herb Garden bloom, nor did she expand three plants into thirty.

Back at the shop, Indeedee first prepared fresh water for Flabébé. Yue Guan removed the old support from its blue flower and found that one cloth strip beneath it was slightly too tight, so he loosened it by half a finger's width. Flabébé watched beside him the entire time and would not sit down until its blue flower was standing steadily again.

Rotom updated its growth record.

"Flabébé, level eighteen. It is very close to the usual condition for evolving into Floette at level nineteen, Roto."

Yue Guan looked at it. "Do you want to evolve?"

Flabébé raised its face, then lowered its head and hugged its blue flower.

Floette on the screen was still accompanied by a flower, only its body was larger and it could care for its own flower more actively. Flabébé watched for a long time before gently nudging its blue flower toward the screen.

Yue Guan asked, "After evolving, will it still be this flower?"

"Floette will continue living with the flower it has chosen. The blue flower's form will not change into another color through natural evolution, Roto."

"Does it need an Evolution Stone?"

"Flabébé can naturally evolve into Floette upon reaching level nineteen. Only if Floette wishes to evolve into Florges in the future will it need a Shiny Stone, Roto."

After hearing this, Flabébé first checked every petal of its blue flower. The question it cared about most had been answered, yet it still did not make a decision immediately.

It neither nodded nor shook its head.

Yue Guan had Rotom turn off the display. "Wait until you choose for yourself."

The temperature fell quickly in the evening. The Herb Garden apprentices sent over three more slips of paper, recording the moisture around the white flowers' roots, the tightness of the thin stem's cloth strip, and the time when the pink flower closed its petals.

Yue Guan placed the slips before Flabébé. "If you want to go look again tomorrow morning, take the blue wooden tag. If you do not want to go, we will stay in the shop."

Two wooden tags lay on the table. One was painted blue, representing the Herb Garden; the other depicted the pale yellow wildflowers by the window, representing the shop.

Flabébé did not choose in a hurry. It first took a short nap in its blue flower. Only after dinner did it fly up and carry both wooden tags to Yue Guan's hand.

"Look after the shop first, then go to the Herb Garden?"

It nodded.

This was not a duty assigned by the Herb Garden. Whether it would go the next day, and which place it would visit first, was still entirely its own arrangement.

Outside the window, a Herb Garden apprentice delivered a new record. The third pink medicinal flower had naturally bloomed a quarter of an hour after they left, its petals intact and its stem undamaged.

After Flabébé read it, it merely raised one tiny hand from its blue flower and waved at the paper.

It had not made the flower bloom early today.

It had simply stayed with it until the time when the flower was willing to bloom.