Mama Lin woke up at the sound and, seeing the situation, quickly said, “If you have something to say, say it properly. Why are you crying?” No matter what, one shouldn’t cry in front of the mistress; it wasn’t proper. Even with a kind-hearted mistress, at a time like this, crying before explaining could be frightening.
Yuhe naturally knew it was improper, and she was aware that Mudan shouldn’t be startled now. But she couldn’t stop her tears. Heaven knew she had felt like dying since she arrived. Mudan had trusted her so much, putting Fang Garden in her hands, yet such a big mishap had occurred.
“Mama, pour her some water. Shu’er, bring a stool over.” What will be, will be. Mudan sighed, stopping Mama Lin, and handed a handkerchief to Yuhe. “Don’t panic. Crying and panicking won’t solve anything. First, I believe you didn’t do this intentionally, and you’ve done your best. Have some water first, sit down, and let’s talk slowly.”
She wasn’t a delicate flower from a greenhouse. She had experienced life and death, lived two lives, and in this life, she had weathered some storms and suffered some hardships. How could a small matter like this overwhelm or frighten her? Of course, she was distressed that Fang Garden had run into trouble after all her efforts, but the most important thing was that she was still here, Jiang Changyang and the He family were fine, and everyone around them was alright. The worst outcome would be losing money and having to start the business over, but it couldn’t be more difficult than the beginning. Thinking of this, her emotions settled.
Seeing Mudan quickly calm down from her initial anxiety and even comfort her, Yuhe felt even more ashamed. But now was not the time for apologies or assigning blame; the most urgent matter was to deal with the situation. She cleared her throat and said, “Master Li’s illness was on and off. To make it easier to care for him, and because I felt the rooms in the seedling garden were damp, cold, and lifeless, which wasn’t good for recovery, I moved him to the room where you used to live.”
Mudan nodded, “I know about that.” During those rainy days, Lu Fang found it inconvenient to go back and forth, so he stayed at Li Huajiang’s place for a few days. She had also sent for a doctor from the city to see Li Huajiang in the rain and later heard that his condition had finally improved, which made her very happy.
“After Mr. Lu left, the weather improved. I thought everywhere was damp, and Master Li had just started to get better, so it wasn’t suitable to move him. Instead of moving him back, I took Atao and Ashun to live there, patrolling morning and evening as usual. If we saw anything amiss, we’d deal with it immediately.” At this point, Yuhe’s voice began to tremble. “At first, we noticed some shallow reddish-brown, oval, slightly sunken spots on the stems of a few peonies and tree peonies near the wall. The spots had some pinkish, slightly sticky substance. You’ve mentioned before that this was a disease, and once discovered, it needed to be dealt with quickly. So I had them cut off the infected stems and took them to the kitchen to burn.”
“And then?” Mudan nodded. This treatment wasn’t wrong; the key was what happened afterward. As soon as she heard about it, she knew it was anthracnose. This disease usually occurs most severely during rainy periods in August and September in hot and rainy years. In this era without chemical treatments, it was very difficult to cure, and prevention was key. When she bought these flowers last year, she had inspected them strictly. There were no signs of disease in May and June, and although some symptoms appeared in early autumn, they were promptly dealt with at the time. Even under this year’s weather conditions, with Yuhe’s caution, it shouldn’t have been possible for such a big mistake to occur. How did it get to this unmanageable state? There must be an internal cause.
“That night, I got up to use the bathroom and fainted on the floor. I lay there all night, and when I woke up the next day, my whole body ached. I had a fever for several days and couldn’t look after the seedling garden.” Yuhe started wiping her tears again. By the time she recovered, she found that many flowers had been infected with these spots. Li Huajiang, still ill, led everyone in cleaning up for several days, but there was no improvement.
Just as they dealt with one area, it would appear in another, leaving them at a loss. Infected leaves could be picked off, but they couldn’t keep cutting infected stems; if they did, not only would they have nothing to deliver next year, but there would be no flowers to bloom. What’s worse, many young buds began to wither, which meant that the next year, and even the year after, Fang Garden would have no shoots to use for grafting.
Mudan’s eyelid twitched, “You fainted? If you were sick, why didn’t you send someone to inform us?” A person falling ill unexpectedly, and the flower disease spreading as soon as one area was dealt with – how could this not sound suspicious?
This was what Yuhe felt most ashamed about. She thought it was probably due to overwork and didn’t think it was a serious illness. She thought being sick for a couple of days wouldn’t greatly affect Fang Garden, so she didn’t take it seriously. If she had known that her illness and absence would cause such a big problem, she would never have tried to tough it out.
“How many flowers have been infected so far? Apart from those in the seedling garden, have any of the valuable varieties planted outside been affected?” Mudan rubbed her head in distress. If the buds were diseased, even if they bloomed next year, they would be deformed flowers, which would be no different from ruining their reputation.
Yuhe choked, “It’s mostly the ones in the seedling garden that are infected; the ones outside are fine. When Master Li saw the situation wasn’t good, he directed people to move the healthy potted ones to another courtyard.” All in all, including the flowers for Jin Buyan, over a hundred plants were infected, varying only in the severity of their condition.
Thankfully, they had Li Huajiang; even she would have handled it the same way. Agriculture indeed carried high risks. Mudan sighed, “What about those potted peonies we grafted?”
Compared to Jin Buyan’s batch, she was more concerned about this batch. This batch was acquired through verbal promises and involved many households. It was bad enough that these households were not easy to deal with, but more importantly, once they lost credibility, it would be difficult for Fang Garden to establish itself in the capital in the future. Trust was not easily built.
Speaking of this, Yuhe finally perked up a bit, “Those are fine. Only a few were infected, and Master Li dug them up completely and moved them aside.” There weren’t many grafted potted peonies, only about forty or fifty. At the time, to distinguish them from other varieties, they had specially opened up a small plot of land near the house, quite far from the other seedling areas. Unexpectedly, this distance served as an isolation measure.
Mudan let out a small sigh of relief, “Have someone prepare a carriage. I’ll go see how bad it is. Send someone to call Shunhou’er over.” She was a poor soul who couldn’t catch a break. Seeing the weather clear up, she had thought they would pass safely through like last year.
Yuhe hesitated for a moment, then said softly, “There’s something else.” Four gardeners, led by Zheng Huajiang, had quit, saying there was an evil spirit in Fang Garden. This had been confirmed earlier. Hadn’t the family they originally sold to lost their official position and been exiled? And now, why did Master Li fall ill first, followed by Yuhe’s unexplained illness? And the spreading of flower disease in the seedling garden that couldn’t be cured. What did these gardeners fear most? They were most afraid of being tainted by this evil spirit, believing it would infinitely increase the chances of misfortune befalling the flowers they handled in the future. As one gardener put it, when that time came, their whole families would be left with nothing to eat.
“You let them go? Zheng Huajiang wants to leave, what about Lang?” Mudan sneered. Evil spirit? She, a soul from another time and space, was the real evil spirit. These people merely thought Fang Garden was going to have bad luck and wanted to quickly distance themselves, not to offend the guild, and find another good employer. Naturally, they also feared being held responsible. With such a valuable loss, if the owner investigated, everyone in Fang Garden would have been implicated.
Yuhe quickly said, “No, I didn’t. I said I couldn’t make decisions for the owner, and that I had to report to you first. We’re withholding their wages, and these past few days, I’ve had Shun and others keep an eye on them, not letting anyone leave Fang Garden. Xilang hasn’t mentioned wanting to leave. He’s been hovering around Master Li every day, very diligent.” She paused, then said with difficulty, “There’s another theory.
They say it was Mr. Lu’s doing. After all, it’s no secret that Master Lu and Cao Wanrong don’t get along with you. You know a person’s face, but not their heart.” According to Man and the other half-grown children, he was their father after all. Fang Garden’s downfall would only benefit the Lu family and Lu Fang, with no downside. Mudan had been too trusting. Most importantly, Lu Fang had been taking care of these flowers right up until the outbreak of the disease, making him the prime suspect.
Mudan remained silent. Whether it was a natural disaster or human sabotage, it was too early to conclude.
“Mother, did you summon me?” Shunhou’er arrived quickly.
Mudan gave him instructions methodically: “Go and do a few things. Find out which families’ peonies have fallen ill recently and what kind of disease they have. Also, find out what Lu Chun, Cao Wanrong, and Lu Fang have been up to lately, and who they’ve been in contact with.” She thought for a moment, “For now, don’t tell the master about the details. If he asks, just say I want to stay at Fang Garden for a couple of days.”
Shunhou’er agreed and went off to carry out her instructions.
As night fell, Fang Garden was as quiet as ever in the twilight. Atao and her father, Hu Dalang, sat at the entrance, eagerly watching the road, hoping to see a carriage or people coming from the city soon.
“Dad, what do you think will happen? Will Fang Garden be sold? Is there a problem with the feng shui here?” Atao was extremely worried. She had already sold herself to Mudan, but she feared that Hu Dalang and Ashun would have no work and be forced to leave. Who would keep idle people?
Hu Dalang silently picked at the moss in the wall cracks. The moss was cold and damp, slimy, staining his fingernails an odd green.
Atao grabbed his hand, frowning, “What are you picking at it for? Even flowers and grass have lives.”
Hu Dalang didn’t answer her, just stood up and pointed ahead: “They’re here.”