To Raise A Soul

"So…We really did have a past life?"

His heart began to race. Yu Zhen looked at Yin Yan with a sense of antic.i.p.ation and fear.

However, Yin Yan just controlled his expression and looked away. As he turned to head upstairs, he said, "Since you have reincarnated, you should sever the connections to the past. Treasure the present. Yu Zhen, you should spend some time cultivating." 

The cold voice faded out as he turned at the corner of the stairs. Yu Zhen looked up dumbly for a few moments, suddenly feeling a sense of deja vu. As if, on a different day, he had also stood far away and watched Yin Yan"s back disappear into the distance. Again, they were drifting away. While he knows everything, I"m still left in the dark.

"Meow~." Xu Wu abruptly jumped out and climbed up his body with practiced ease.

Returning to his senses, Yu Zhen gathered Xu Wu into his arms. He automatically pet the kitten"s head and asked, "Xiao Wu, is there really a past life?"

Xu Wu turned over in his arms and looked at him blankly.

"… Nevermind." Yu Zhen scratched his belly fondly and smiled once again. "Grandpa used to say, the most fortunate thing for a person is to not be muddleheaded. I can"t even remember anything from before I was six, so, there"s no need for me to worry about a previous life. Let"s go. I"ll continue to teach you how to tend to the flowers."

After three days of not laying eyes on the Heaven and Earth Flower Pot, the lotuses within the pot gave him another big surprise.  

The aquatic plants that had originally only taken up a small area in the middle of the pond had completely covered up the pond. Large lotus flowers were in bloom. In the Heaven and Earth Flower Pot, the lotus fragrance was so thick, it was practically ready to condense into liquid. However, it didn"t overwhelm Yu Zhen"s sense of smell. Instead, it made him feel relaxed and carefree.

According to Yin Yan, the bodhi lotus is a very willful plant. If someone had good affinity with the plant, it would easily remain in bloom for a hundred years. Inversely, if someone had poor affinity with it, it wouldn"t produce a single flower bud, even after a hundred years of care. Having a flower bloom was already a difficult task, let alone obtaining a lotus pod! If there was no affinity, even if a person was to smother it with merits, it wouldn"t produce even a single seed!

In short, Yu Zhen was extremely lucky that the bodhi lotus plant really liked him. It liked him so much that, with only a small amount of merits, it had produced such a large lotus seed pod especially for him. 

However, luck was still limited. When Yu Zhen once again fed some merits to the flower, it swayed to express its joy but showed no signs of producing another pod.

“Sure enough, people shouldn"t be greedy.”

Yu Zhen withdrew his merits. He gave a parting touch to the flower then went to check up on the orchids. Seeing no signs of sprouts, he sighed regretfully. However, he didn"t give up. He retrieved the bottle of boundless water from Xu Wu and carefully dripped a single pure, undiluted drop of it onto the soil.

"You need to strive hard to survive. Good luck."

He patted the soil then stood up. Observing the remaining empty area around him, he sighed and recalled his similarly empty bank account. After leaving the Heaven and Earth Flower Pot, he glanced in the direction of the staircase and hesitated briefly. Then he yelled, "Yin Yan, I"m going out to buy flower seeds. I"ll be back soon." 

He stood there for a short while but received no reply. Pursing his lips, he put on his coat and scarf. He tried to leave Xu Wu at home, but the kitten nimbly dove into a coat pocket and refused to leave.

Mood improved by the cuteness, he patted Xu Wu"s head and said, "Okay, I"ll take you out to play."

Xu Wu sweetly rubbed against his hand and meowed in reply.

Shangdu was located at the heart of the commercial area and thus had a very comprehensive shopping mall nearby. Using the navigation feature on his phone, Yu Zhen made his way there before finding a gardening store. He bought a few rose sprouts, and the seeds of quick-growing plants and some common flowers.

Heaven and Earth Flower Pot. Sacred Soil. Boundless water. The combination of these three items cuts down the plants" growth time and also allows them to grow well regardless of environmental conditions.

Yu Zhen was unsure of the limitation of the Heaven and Earth Flower Pot, so he prepared a collection of different plants to experiment.

After his purchase, he wandered around, scouring the nearby flower shops. He observed the types of flowers that were most commonly seen in B City and inquired about their prices. After he gained a reasonable understanding, he concluded his impromptu "market research" and returned to the apartment. 

Back at the apartment, he noticed Yin Yan was still upstairs. Unsure of what that man was doing, Yu Zhen hesitated for a moment before deciding not to disturb him. He reported his return in a raised voice then entered the Heaven and Earth Flower Pot to start planting the newly acquired seeds.

As he busied away with his work, Yu Zhen forgot about everything else. He used the powerful boundless water to turn the seeds into seedlings. Then he planted all the seedlings. By the time he was done, he noticed the outside sky was dark and the kitchen and living room lights had been switched on. The delicious aroma of food filled the living room. 

“Wash your hands and come eat.”

Yin Yan entered the room with dishes in hand. His expression was calm, giving no indication of their earlier conversation about their past life.

Lit by a warm light, Yin Yan"s expression appeared gentle to Yu Zhen"s eyes. After the moment of distraction, Yu Zhen made a sound in reply and perfunctorily headed to the washroom. In the bathroom mirror, he saw that he, once again, had mud stains on his face. The lips of his reflection turned up into a slight smile.

It"s alright this way. There"s no need to ask questions. There"s no need to think about it. Living is already difficult. I"m already very lucky to have someone accompanying me. 

Yu Zhen happily ate the appetizing dinner. As he ate, he didn"t hold back on praising Yin Yan"s culinary skills.  

"Since you like it, I"ll cook for you again tomorrow. We can stay here for a couple of days. I"ve already mentioned it to Mom." Yin Yan accepted Yu Zhen"s praises and naturally offered many chopsticks of food into Yu Zhen"s bowl.

Rabbit meat. It"s my favorite and it"s mildly spicy. I can eat a lot of this.

There was no rabbit meat in the fridge earlier so Yin Yan must have gone out to buy this in the afternoon.

Yu Zhen peeked at Yin Yan"s ever expressionless face. He mindlessly poked at the rabbit meat in his bowl. With an unexpected improvement in his mood and a swell of courage, he said, "You"re definitely much older than I am. It"s not good for me to address you by name. How about I change the way I address you?"

Yin Yan"s chopsticks paused in midair and he looked up.

"You look after me so much, like a dad. How about I – "

Yin Yan abruptly stood up and headed upstairs with quick steps.

"Huh???"

Yu Zhen was stumped, his smile frozen in place.

He-he"s so weak to teasing? He ran away?

Knock-knock.

Yu Zhen knocked on the closed door. He put on his best innocent and "I know I"m wrong" voice then coaxed, "I"m sorry. I said the wrong thing. Come out and eat. The food will be cold soon."

Click. The door opened. 

Yu Zhen had thought it would take a long time to coax Yin Yan based on his understanding of the man"s temper. Surprised by the quick response, he froze for a moment before looking up and meeting Yin Yan"s gaze. He smiled sweetly in a manner designed to win over Yin Yan. However, Yin Yan raised a hand in front of Yu Zhen"s face, blocking the words that were yet to be spoken.

"Lotus seed pod."

"What?"

Yin Yan didn"t reply, he simply continued to look at Yu Zhen.

Yu Zhen compromised and called for Xu Wu. He asked for the kitten to take out the lotus seed pod, then handed it over and said, "If you want to eat some, you can get them from Xu Wu. You don"t need to ask me… "

Yin Yan accepted the lotus seed pod and, in front of Yu Zhen, picked out all the lotus seeds and stored them in a brocade drawstring pouch. He extended another hand and said, "Xu Wu said you had also collected the petals."

“…”

Xu Wu! You little traitor!

Yu Zhen searched for the petals as he explained, "Mom said she likes this fragrance so I was thinking of making a bottle of perfume using the petals."

"You know how to make perfume?"

"I only know how to make simple plant perfumes. I learned it at university. It"s actually not too difficult," Yu Zhen explained. When the petals were halfway to their destination, Yu Zhen retracted his hands a little. Cautiously, he asked, "Could you leave half for me? Only half. If that"s not possible, one third is also okay…"

With his tone and expression, it could be said he was earnestly compromising.

Yin Yan s.n.a.t.c.hed away the petals and asked, "You"re scared of me?"

Yu Zhen stared wide-eyed at his emptied hands. The name "Zhou Bapi" rose to his mind, but he swallowed down the words. Contrary to his thoughts, he shook his head.

It"s not fear. It-It"s the kind of respect and reservation people use to face their elders. That"s right. It"s respect. It"s not fear.

"I don"t believe you." Yin Yan put away the flower petals and the pouch. He stuffed a wooden box into Yu Zhen"s hands then, with a hand on the door, he said, "When ordinary people use bodhi lotus seeds, they will bring them a streak of good luck. However, they will also shorten their lifespan. For now, I"ll hold on to these for you. Once you have entered the Way, I"ll return them."

After he finished talking, he shut the door. It was obvious that he was still offended.

“…”

In the wooden box, there were a total of five seeds. Each seed was different. After looking at them for a long time, Yu Zhen couldn"t identify the seeds.

"It can"t be some treasures from the cultivation world, right?"

He rolled the biggest seed around. Curiosity piqued, he fed it a tiny bit of merits.

Pop.

The seed immediately split and grew a sprout.

“…” Such a low maintenance seed.

Yu Zhen didn"t dare to play around. He hurriedly stored the box with the other four seeds away and planted the sprouted seed in the Heaven and Earth Flower Pot. He watered it with a small amount of boundless water then moved it beside the pond and placed it near a lotus flower.

“You need to grow up healthy.”

In the upstairs bedroom, Yin Yan saw the scene within the Heaven and Earth Pot through Xu Wu"s eyes. The corners of his lips lifted a little. Remembering Yu Zhen"s "dad" comment, the corners of his lips flattened out. He couldn"t help but grumble, "Evil disciple."

Translator(s): Epsea
Editor(s): Miiya
Proofer(s): Avalie

周扒皮=Zhou Bapi=Zhou the exploiter. He was a tyrannical landowner from the story 半夜鸡叫(can be roughly translated as The Rooster"s Call Early in the Morning).

The story is about a landowner who tried to scam his farmworkers out of ONE YEAR"S WORTH OF PAY by setting unreasonable demands. The farmers are told they must get up and work as soon as the rooster crows otherwise they will not get their money. But there"s some dodgy business going on – the landowner makes his rooster call much earlier than the average rooster normally would. The plan there was to make the farmers so tired they would quit so the landowner would get to keep all of their pay.

The farmers notice their rooster crows much earlier than their neighbors", so a farmer"s child investigates and spots Zhou Babi waking up a rooster, causing it to make its early call. The farmers eventually decide to catch the sneaky landlord in the act and make him pay.

One early morning when the landlord goes to wake up the rooster, the farmers swarm him and beat him up, yelling things like "a rooster thief", "beat the rooster thief", "beat him" and so on(pretending they can"t see in the darkness). The landlord"s wife comes out and stops the beating saying it"s the landlord. The farmers go, "Oh, it"s the landlord. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). What are you doing here at the chicken coop?" The landlord doesn"t reply and simply hobbles away with his wife.

So it"s a fable.

Puppet retelling of the story(it"s in Chinese without subt.i.tles :<>