A Heart the Color of a Blue Lotus in This World

Before long, Cao Jianjia led a familiar figure into the courtyard.

The man walked behind Cao Jianjia with his eyes lowered, saying nothing. He carried a sword in one hand and held up a candleholder in the other.

It really was an old acquaintance.

Xie Linchuan folded his fan and went up to greet him with a smile.

Yu Tunzhou had guessed right. The "slave" Cao Jianjia had gone to fetch was Zhang Qinghe.

"Let's begin," Cao Jianjia said bluntly. "Where do you want to start burning?"

Yu Tunzhou glanced at Zhang Qinghe, who remained expressionless and stared straight ahead, seemingly acting as though he hadn't seen him at all.

Just then, a paper fan appeared across Zhang Qinghe's path. Xie Linchuan slowly drew it back, tapping its ribs against his palm as he spoke in a familiar tone:

"Brother Qinghe, we're old acquaintances who haven't seen each other in years. Aren't you going to say hello?"

After looking at Xie Linchuan, Zhang Qinghe's face showed clear wariness. He said gravely:

"You're keeping company with this fellow. Aren't you afraid the young disciples of the town's households will band together and attack you someday? No matter how renowned the Northern Plains Xie Household is, it isn't invincible here."

Xie Linchuan's smile widened. He struck his palm hard with the paper fan and said coolly:

"Don't you know that's exactly what I want?"

Zhang Qinghe fell silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "You're still so... arrogant!"

Cao Jianjia frowned impatiently. "Is this the time to catch up? What are you dawdling for?"

Yu Tunzhou took up the subject at just the right moment. "Using the water channels as boundaries, first clear the edges between each section, leaving half a foot of bare ground as a firebreak to stop the flames from spreading. Then burn each section one at a time."

Without another word, Cao Jianjia drew the sword from its sheath in Zhang Qinghe's hand. A sharp flash of cold light swept past Yu Tunzhou's face.

The girl gave a cold snort and began cutting the grass in the areas Yu Tunzhou had indicated. Swish, swish-she worked with great efficiency.

Once the boundaries were mostly clear, Yu Tunzhou started the fire. As soon as the sparks landed, flames rose and devoured the wild grass in the courtyard.

Xie Linchuan found buckets and filled them with water. The four each guarded one side and let the fire burn, stepping in to stop it whenever it reached an edge.

The water channels divided the courtyard into more than ten sections. They burned them one by one; though it was slower, it kept the fire under control.

The once-thick wild grass gradually turned to black and gray ash in the fierce flames.

About half an hour later, the weeds in the last section had burned away. After the black smoke dispersed, Yu Tunzhou handed the three of them the shovels he had found earlier and told them to turn the plant ash into the soil.

Cao Jianjia gripped her iron shovel, her frown deepening.

"This is called burning grass to retain the ash. The ashes left by burned weeds are a kind of fertilizer too. Born from this soil, they can nourish it in return after death. It's another way for fallen leaves to return to their roots."

Yu Tunzhou explained to Cao Jianjia in a calm voice.

Surprise and doubt flickered in Cao Jianjia's eyes. Could this grass ash be used to make fertilizer too?

She turned her head and gave Zhang Qinghe a look, signaling him to find something and take some back.

For the moment, he was in a position where he had to accept every task without complaint.

"What other ways are there to make fertilizer?" Cao Jianjia's tone grew a little more serious. "Tell me more of what you know."

Yu Tunzhou spoke frankly:

"Raw manure... well, if you apply that stuff directly to the field, it'll burn the roots-that is, damage the roots of the vegetable seedlings. You can mix in more water to dilute it."

"If that still doesn't work, I suggest you find something and take some of this plant ash back."

"Then dig a shallow pit, scatter a layer of plant ash in it, add slops, liquid manure and the like, and cover it with soil. Let it ferment, and you can open it up in about a week. Mix it with water and it'll be just right for watering the vegetables. Its effect will be gentler."

"Oh, right. I remember there's a deep pond at your residence too. You can dig up some of the silt from the bottom."

Cao Jianjia's ears twitched, and some color gradually returned to her formerly cold little face. She couldn't help pressing him:

"Silt works too?"

"Of course." Yu Tunzhou sounded certain. "Remember to dry it in the sun and get rid of some of the moisture. Once it's more or less like a half-dried mud cake, you can break it up, scatter it over the ridges and vegetable beds, and till it into the soil."

The girl's expression seemed to brighten considerably all at once.

Although she couldn't accept silt either, it was a thousand times better than liquid manure!

Besides, she could order Zhang Qinghe to dig up the mud, so she wouldn't have to do it herself...

"Cao Jianjia, let me give you a reminder." Yu Tunzhou suddenly stopped working and spoke. "If that senior doesn't want you to, you can forget about ever taking good care of that plot of land in this lifetime."

The girl's expression changed abruptly, and she glared viciously at Yu Tunzhou.

"Are you cursing me?!"

Yu Tunzhou said calmly, "You should know what I'm saying is true. When that senior told you to farm and make fertilizer, was it really just about farming?"

Cao Jianjia took a deep breath, the words in her throat catching again and again. Yu Tunzhou's words had struck at the answer she had guessed long ago, yet still held out hope against.

Yu Tunzhou bent down and picked up a little soil mixed with plant ash between two fingers. He said sincerely:

"Over the years, I've learned a few things from books too. For instance, in a person's life, the one thing they should never despise is the soil."

"People are born upon the earth, eat its five grains, and clothe themselves in mulberry silk and hemp. In the end, dust returns to dust, earth to earth; we all return to this land."

"Never mind that you're a sword immortal seed and a noble scion of an Aristocratic Clan-even immortals and arhats still stand upon this same earth and eat what grows from its soil."

"You may scorn the soil, but the soil never scorns people for being filthy. You give it dung and filth, and it repays you with the five grains. Such profound virtue, such forbearance-I think even a sage should show it a measure of reverence."

Cao Jianjia's breath caught, and her chest rose and fell slightly.

She instinctively wanted to rebuke the young man. How dare he presume to pass judgment on sages?!

But Yu Tunzhou's words held her back.

Yu Tunzhou looked at her, not a trace of mockery in his eyes, only a measure of calm.

"The reason I'm telling you this is that I think Senior Qingzhi is a very good elder."

"I can understand why women love beauty, cherish their skin and hair, and dislike dust and mud. Senior Qingzhi can naturally understand that too. Yet she still did this, so she clearly wants you to understand certain things, rather than simply punishing you for punishment's sake."

Cao Jianjia sneered. She very much wanted to ask this fellow how he had concluded that her martial aunt was a "good elder"!

But she didn't dare say it aloud.

Yu Tunzhou paused, then suddenly smiled.

"I remember a book saying that a woman need not be too beautiful, nor must her clothes be too splendid. If her heart is the color of a blue lotus in this world, she is a peerless beauty."

"Perhaps that's what Senior Qingzhi wants to see."

The wind blew past a corner of the courtyard, lifting fine flecks of plant ash. They swirled in the air and drifted gently down onto the shoulders and into the hair of those present.

The girl stood in a daze for a long time, the last sentence echoing in her mind again and again, impossible to shake.

A heart the color of... a blue lotus in this world?

A short distance away.

Xie Linchuan looked at Yu Tunzhou and finally felt the doubts in his heart lift.

So that's how it is.

No wonder he and Brother Yu had hit it off so well.

We're the same kind of person!

Meanwhile, Zhang Qinghe, who was turning the soil not far away, looked at his older female cousin in utter bewilderment.

Why is she standing there without moving?

This fellow just called you ugly and vicious at heart in a roundabout way. Aren't you going to draw your sword and cut him down?

At the residence on the westernmost edge of town.

"That boy certainly has a way with words," Daoist Qingzhi said to herself as she stood beneath the covered walkway. "But a love of beauty?"

The female Daoist, who had killed countless times in the first half of her life and now lived here to cultivate her character, gave a cold, scornful laugh.

"I don't understand that. All I know is that in a life-or-death fight, the prettier you are, the more miserable your death!"

Her gaze passed through the streets and alleys and settled on Cao Jianjia in the distance, cold and cruel.

If you weren't a daughter of the Cao Household, I'd have slashed up that pretty face of yours long ago. So you'd best take some of what that young man said to heart and form the beginnings of a pure sword heart sooner.

Heed advice, and you won't starve.