"The ginseng's gone?"
Zhang Xiao thought he had misheard, until the young Hufflepuff wizard repeated himself.
Even as he followed the young wizard toward the castle, Zhang Xiao was still bewildered.
Wait, how could the ginseng have disappeared?
True, ginseng spirits did exist in Daoist Order legends, and there were records of ginseng dolls, too.
But how long ago had that been? The most recent sighting was centuries ago. What era were they living in now?
This was the age of New China!
Besides, what he had given Professor Sprout was an ordinary Changbai Mountain Ginseng less than a hundred years old.
England had different coordinates, a different climate, and different soil. Keeping it alive at all was already a miracle of magic.
How could that ginseng possibly have become a spirit?
The young Hufflepuff wizard led Zhang Xiao all the way to the Herbology classroom.
It was an enormous greenhouse divided into several sections, with all sorts of plants grown in separate categories.
The greenhouse used for regular classes was on the first floor to the left. A crowd of young Hufflepuff wizards had already gathered around the classroom, and the student who had brought Zhang Xiao shouted:
"Zhang's here!"
That announcement made Zhang Xiao a little nervous. The boy made it sound as though his arrival meant the problem was solved. The trouble was, he still knew absolutely nothing.
The Hufflepuff students immediately parted to make a path.
As he walked through, the young wizards watched him with hopeful eyes. At the center of the crowd was Professor Pomona Sprout.
The plump, exceptionally gentle professor had buried her head in Professor McGonagall's arms and was sobbing softly. She looked utterly heartbroken.
Along with Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout was known as one of the school's most good-natured professors. Her