Chapter 16 Black Lotus
Hearing the ‘ding’ sound, Zhao Lingjun had assumed that it was a rusty nail, but was astounded when he took a look.
A lotus-shaped item appeared in the assortment of garbage.
“Could it be Hao Meili’s old brooch?” Zhao Lingjun wondered as he used a pair of chopsticks to carefully remove the lotus from the pile of disgusting filth.
However, when he thoroughly washed all the filth off, that theory of his was immediately invalidated.
The lotus like object when unsullied by the filth, was worthy of being referred to as a work of art.
It was a Black Lotus.
The lotus had eight petals in various arrangements, and had an indescribable vividness to it. What had pierced Zhao Lingjun was likely one of the upturned leaves.
The Black Lotus was slightly heavy, looked neither gold nor jade, and even had dense clusters of veins on the petals. Zhao Lingjun couldn’t discern what material it was made of.
Therefore he tried to test it with a penknife, scratching its surface slightly.
But what astonished him the most, was it appeared completely unscathed, not even fine scratches could be seen on its surface.
This discovery perplexed Zhao Lingjun, to his knowledge, there were very few materials harder than that the penknife.
This lotus wasn’t your average item.
While thinking, Zhao Lingjun noticed some oddities on the lotus.
On each and every petal, he saw many strange symbols. At first he had thought it was just veins and put it aside. Now, after looking carefully, they weren’t veins but strange symbols, which looked like ancient characters.
“Could this be an antique?” Holding the lotus and hobbling back to his bedroom, it occurred to him that the thing that injured his foot could have been an antique with historical value.
“If this is a historical antique, then wouldn’t I have struck gold?” Zhao Lingjun dreamed joyfully. At the thought of two words, historical antique, it evoked his memories of the many news reports, reporting people getting rich after an unremarkable object in their home, turned out to be a priceless antique.
“I had a fortuitous event?” Filled with joy, grinning from ear to ear, Zhao Lingjun was elated. However a moment later he had another thought, “If this item really is a historical antique, then why would it appear in the sewer?”
Immediately Zhao Lingjun felt nauseous remembering that disgusting hell-like sewer.
This item, most likely slipped into his boots as the sludge poured in, and when he had ran home, it pierced his foot.
But why would it be in the sludge? Zhao Lingjun while wondering, remembered the weird feeling when he first stepped onto the sewer’s floor.
At the time, he wasn’t in the right frame of mind and was more concerned about the smell and knee high sludge. But now, thinking back, the ground was softer than concrete. He was now 80% confident that the floor wasn’t made of concrete, but of natural soil.
These two words, natural soil, were the trigger for Zhao Lingjun to slightly understand why the Black Lotus would be there.
The Black Lotus would have been buried in the soil, and after the continuous erosion from the sewage water, the Black Lotus surfaced and remained among the sludge at the bottom of the sewer.
Then why would this thing be buried in the soil?
A thought sprang to his mind, this place was once a burial ground for the condemned. The Black Lotus probably belonged to one of those people and was buried along with the corpse.
Zhao Lingjun started to shiver all over, even the hand that held the Black Lotus was trembling vigorously.
His trembling was so bad, that the Black Lotus fell out of his hands. Trembling both mentally, and physically, Zhao Lingjun didn’t even notice it falling.
When he finally came back to his senses, the lotus was no longer in his hand and was on the floor.
He then saw a scene beyond all imagination.
* * *
The Black Lotus undoubtedly fell to the ground. However, this time when it fell, there was a lack of audio feedback, and unlike the first time, the ‘ding’ sound wasn’t heard.
Zhao Lingjun already found this to be very strange, but when he saw then petals suddenly move, he was even more shocked.
“Could this thing be broken by my carelessness?” Wondered Zhao Lingjun, when seeing the Black Lotus silently fall apart into pieces.
But what truly surprised him was that the eight petals, moving in midair, didn’t fall down. Instead, suddenly quickly oscillated around a point. The center, where the seed head would be in a normal lotus, was exuding a strange light.
“What’s happening?” Zhao Lingjun instinctively reached for his eyes, and rubbed them.
But after rubbing, what he saw was even stranger.
The eight petals, aftering fluttering in the air, gathered together and reassembled itself.
After reassembling itself, the initial budding Black Lotus, was in full bloom.
The Black Lotus after reassembling itself into a fully bloomed lotus, remained floating in the air, causing Zhao Lingjun to go limp and slump onto the ground.
The lotus silently floated in the air, while the center gave off a brilliant rays of many colours. The light slowly converged into a multi-coloured radiant seed head.
“I’m not dreaming am I? Or perhaps hallucinating from excessive blood loss?” Zhao Lingjun brought his arm towards his mouth and took a bite.
“AHHH!!!”
A muffled scream exploded from Zhao Lingjun.
Finally confident that he was not dreaming or hallucinating.
That eight-petalled bloomed Black Lotus, was still floating silently in front of him, exuding a dazzling brilliance.
* * *
“Did I perhaps pick up a legendary treasure this time?”
After an unknown amount of time spent blankly staring, Zhao Lingjun finally came to.
When he came to, his two legs were numb. Looking at his watch, he realized that he had foolishly stared at the Black Lotus for over twenty minutes.
Even after twenty minutes, the Black Lotus was still silently and tranquilly floating in the air, exuding its brilliance.
“Just what is going on?”
Aftering he had stared at the Black Lotus for over thirty minutes, Zhao Lingjun finally couldn’t resist any longer.
Zhao Lingjun unable to suppress his curiosity, reached out, and touched the floating Black Lotus, which was unwaveringly exuding its brilliant light.
Chapter 16 Black Lotus
Hearing the ‘ding’ sound, Zhao Lingjun had assumed that it was a rusty nail, but was astounded when he took a look.
A lotus-shaped item appeared in the assortment of garbage.
“Could it be Hao Meili’s old brooch?” Zhao Lingjun wondered as he used a pair of chopsticks to carefully remove the lotus from the pile of disgusting filth.
However, when he thoroughly washed all the filth off, that theory of his was immediately invalidated.
The lotus like object when unsullied by the filth, was worthy of being referred to as a work of art.
It was a Black Lotus.
The lotus had eight petals in various arrangements, and had an indescribable vividness to it. What had pierced Zhao Lingjun was likely one of the upturned leaves.
The Black Lotus was slightly heavy, looked neither gold nor jade, and even had dense clusters of veins on the petals. Zhao Lingjun couldn’t discern what material it was made of.
Therefore he tried to test it with a penknife, scratching its surface slightly.
But what astonished him the most, was it appeared completely unscathed, not even fine scratches could be seen on its surface.
This discovery perplexed Zhao Lingjun, to his knowledge, there were very few materials harder than that the penknife.
This lotus wasn’t your average item.
While thinking, Zhao Lingjun noticed some oddities on the lotus.
On each and every petal, he saw many strange symbols. At first he had thought it was just veins and put it aside. Now, after looking carefully, they weren’t veins but strange symbols, which looked like ancient characters.
“Could this be an antique?” Holding the lotus and hobbling back to his bedroom, it occurred to him that the thing that injured his foot could have been an antique with historical value.
“If this is a historical antique, then wouldn’t I have struck gold?” Zhao Lingjun dreamed joyfully. At the thought of two words, historical antique, it evoked his memories of the many news reports, reporting people getting rich after an unremarkable object in their home, turned out to be a priceless antique.
“I had a fortuitous event?” Filled with joy, grinning from ear to ear, Zhao Lingjun was elated. However a moment later he had another thought, “If this item really is a historical antique, then why would it appear in the sewer?”
Immediately Zhao Lingjun felt nauseous remembering that disgusting hell-like sewer.
This item, most likely slipped into his boots as the sludge poured in, and when he had ran home, it pierced his foot.
But why would it be in the sludge? Zhao Lingjun while wondering, remembered the weird feeling when he first stepped onto the sewer’s floor.
At the time, he wasn’t in the right frame of mind and was more concerned about the smell and knee high sludge. But now, thinking back, the ground was softer than concrete. He was now 80% confident that the floor wasn’t made of concrete, but of natural soil.
These two words, natural soil, were the trigger for Zhao Lingjun to slightly understand why the Black Lotus would be there.
The Black Lotus would have been buried in the soil, and after the continuous erosion from the sewage water, the Black Lotus surfaced and remained among the sludge at the bottom of the sewer.
Then why would this thing be buried in the soil?
A thought sprang to his mind, this place was once a burial ground for the condemned. The Black Lotus probably belonged to one of those people and was buried along with the corpse.
Zhao Lingjun started to shiver all over, even the hand that held the Black Lotus was trembling vigorously.
His trembling was so bad, that the Black Lotus fell out of his hands. Trembling both mentally, and physically, Zhao Lingjun didn’t even notice it falling.
When he finally came back to his senses, the lotus was no longer in his hand and was on the floor.
He then saw a scene beyond all imagination.
* * *
The Black Lotus undoubtedly fell to the ground. However, this time when it fell, there was a lack of audio feedback, and unlike the first time, the ‘ding’ sound wasn’t heard.
Zhao Lingjun already found this to be very strange, but when he saw then petals suddenly move, he was even more shocked.
“Could this thing be broken by my carelessness?” Wondered Zhao Lingjun, when seeing the Black Lotus silently fall apart into pieces.
But what truly surprised him was that the eight petals, moving in midair, didn’t fall down. Instead, suddenly quickly oscillated around a point. The center, where the seed head would be in a normal lotus, was exuding a strange light.
“What’s happening?” Zhao Lingjun instinctively reached for his eyes, and rubbed them.
But after rubbing, what he saw was even stranger.
The eight petals, aftering fluttering in the air, gathered together and reassembled itself.
After reassembling itself, the initial budding Black Lotus, was in full bloom.
The Black Lotus after reassembling itself into a fully bloomed lotus, remained floating in the air, causing Zhao Lingjun to go limp and slump onto the ground.
The lotus silently floated in the air, while the center gave off a brilliant rays of many colours. The light slowly converged into a multi-coloured radiant seed head.
“I’m not dreaming am I? Or perhaps hallucinating from excessive blood loss?” Zhao Lingjun brought his arm towards his mouth and took a bite.
“AHHH!!!”
A muffled scream exploded from Zhao Lingjun.
Finally confident that he was not dreaming or hallucinating.
That eight-petalled bloomed Black Lotus, was still floating silently in front of him, exuding a dazzling brilliance.
* * *
“Did I perhaps pick up a legendary treasure this time?”
After an unknown amount of time spent blankly staring, Zhao Lingjun finally came to.
When he came to, his two legs were numb. Looking at his watch, he realized that he had foolishly stared at the Black Lotus for over twenty minutes.
Even after twenty minutes, the Black Lotus was still silently and tranquilly floating in the air, exuding its brilliance.
“Just what is going on?”
Aftering he had stared at the Black Lotus for over thirty minutes, Zhao Lingjun finally couldn’t resist any longer.
Zhao Lingjun unable to suppress his curiosity, reached out, and touched the floating Black Lotus, which was unwaveringly exuding its brilliant light.
