[Pu Ye] Gardener and Flowers

Middle/Imayahan, Imayahan, the flames and stars are dancing

After a rough afternoon, the captives and camels were brought back to Imayahan's camp.

Golden and orange afterglow floated in the desert at dusk, and a few pale stars hung on the eastern sky.The camp under the setting sun is surrounded by a circle of tents, and the open space in the center of the tents is piled with charred charcoal and ashes.Imayahan's tent was larger than the others, and Urahara could see the black desert rose emblem on the flag fluttering on the top of the tent from a distance.

The captives were taken to one side of the camp, where they were guarded.Except for Urahara, everyone else was firmly tied up.People were trembling with fright, and no one dared to speak.

"This is the end," Kurosaki muttered behind Urahara's back. "Maybe we won't see the sun tomorrow... She won't sell us to Egypt?"

Urahara tore off a large piece of cloth from his robe: "I don't know. But we can try to beg her."

"...Are you kidding me?" Kurosaki stared at the back of his head. "Also, why didn't they tie you up too?"

Urahara spread the cloth on the ground.

"I think it's because of this." He pointed to the flowers in his arms.Although he carefully protected it along the way, the sand that had stuck to the roots was shaken off a lot during the bumps.He put the flower on the cloth, wrapped its roots with the cloth, and filled it with sand.It looks like a flower pot made of cloth.

"It seems to be their sacred object." He happily admired his masterpiece. "It has blessed me."

Just saying that, there was a slight sound of footsteps, and Broken Bee came over.

"You!" She pointed the handle of the knife at Urahara's nose, speaking his language, her eyes filled with disgust. "...Come with me. Imayahan wants to see you."

The interior of Imayahan's tent is not as luxurious as Urahara imagined.People in the desert live on horseback and hunchback, and all unnecessary items may become cumbersome.However, the place in front of him was messier than he had imagined.Scimitars, wine cups, fireboxes, riding whips, and women's clothing were scattered on the carpet.Two huge oil lamps illuminate the place as if it were daytime.

Imayahan was sitting cross-legged among these messy items, holding a water jug, drinking water from the spout.She was wearing nothing but a close-fitting corset and a short gauze skirt.His dark skin glowed with a healthy glow under the lamplight, and his long purple hair, just like the rumors, flowed down his back vigorously to the ground.She seemed to be dying of thirst, and she looked up as if she had to drink the water bottle before she would give up.Urahara found that her right leg was still wrapped with layers of bandages, and it was not difficult to recognize the scarf that she took away last night.

He stared at her for a moment, but then, he was kicked in both legs from behind by the broken bee, and he fell to his knees on the ground with a "plop".

Imayahan threw the empty jug aside, wiped his wet lips, and looked over with amber eyes.

She looked so fresh, it didn't look like she had just been injured and had been riding a horse in the desert all day.

She looked at Urahara for a while, and said to Suifeng loudly: "I have something to ask him, you can tell him in his language!"

"Yes!" Broken Bee nodded, kneeling and sitting aside.She seemed very worried about Urahara, and she never took her eyes off him for a moment, for fear that he would act rashly.

Urahara couldn't understand their conversation, but the questions that Imayahan asked next were all relayed by Sapphire in his native language.So he answered them one by one.

"Where are you from?"

"The plains of the north."

"A businessman too?"

"No. I prefer to be called 'The Gardener'."

"Gardener? What's that?"

"He's the one who grows flowers."

"What kind of flowers?"

"Damascena rose. My house has a flower field. Every time it blooms, bees from nearby will fly to my house."

Smasher gave him a glare, obviously thinking he was talking too much.But Imayahan seemed very interested, so Broken Bee had to translate word by word for her.

"And then? What's the use of flowers? Are you going to sell them all?"

"No. Only a small part is sold. The flowers can be used in many ways. They can be made into medicine, or spices and dyes. They can also be used to smoke tea and brew wine. However, I mainly use them to extract flower oil."

"Flower oil? What is that?"

Urahara felt through his pockets all over his body, and was finally lucky enough to find the small bottle.There is still half a bottle of flower oil in the bottle, which he brought with him to feed the donkey, because his donkey grew up in the flowers, so he especially likes the smell of flowers. Pour a drop of flower oil into the grass roots and feed it to chew, and it will immediately stride forward energetically.This method has been tried and tested repeatedly since it was discovered by Urahara.

"This is it." Urahara reached out and handed the bottle to Imayahan, but Broken Bee blocked it with a knife.

"It's okay, Broken Bee!" Imayahan waved his hand and grabbed the bottle.

"What's the use of this? Can I drink it?"

"No, no, this is for smearing. Women apply it on their body to improve the skin and eliminate scars." His eyes subconsciously brushed her injured right leg.

Imayahan uncorked the bottle and went up to smell it curiously, but immediately raised his hand to fan the air in front of him:

"It's too sweet! It's too greasy! This doesn't smell good at all!"

Urahara scratched his head and smiled innocently.

It seems that Imayahan is not as terrible as rumored.He thought this was an opportunity, so he said boldly:

"Ima Yahan, I have a request."

Broken Wasp turned back, staring at him with a frown, refusing to translate the sentence.

"What did he say?" Imayahan asked.

Broken Bee hesitated for a moment: "...he said, he has a request."

"Speak!" Imayahan nodded.

Urahara looked at her and said, "Can you let those prisoners go home?"

Broken Bee hurriedly stood up, drew the knife and put it on his neck.

"Wait!" Imayahan also stood up.

They exchanged a few words, and then, Imayahan looked down at Urahara:

"Everyone caught by me will beg me so, why should I agree to you?"

Urahara thought for a while, then shook his head: "I don't know. I just think it's better to try than not to try."

Imayahan laughed out loud.

"Okay! You helped me without asking for anything in return. I promise you, let them go home early tomorrow morning!"

"Imayahan!" Broken Bee looked at her in surprise.

"However, you are very interesting, you want to stay and play with me!" After Imayahan finished speaking, he wrapped his robe and laughed and walked out. "Broken Bee, tell him these words verbatim!"

In this way, Urahara was left alone in Imayahan's camp.He told Kurosaki to sell the goods for him, and told his assistants that it might be a while before he could go home.

Imayahan, who let go of the captives, started running again.Broken Bee told Urahara with a sullen face that it was because of his unreasonable request that Imayahan was so busy and unable to recover from his injuries.She said that there were four Imayahans in the desert, all led by an old patriarch.Every three months they had to secure enough captives and goods to exchange for food on the black market in nearby countries.Now, the three-month deadline is approaching, and since Imayahan let Urahara's companions go, she has to capture another group of prisoners before returning.

Even though he didn't know it at the time and had no choice, Urahara still felt a little guilty.Therefore, whenever Imayahan returned to the camp to rest, he would tell her about the customs and interesting things in his hometown.Imayahan was often amused by him.Even Broken Bee, who thought he was too talkative at first, couldn't help but be attracted by his stories later on.

It went on like this for a while.One day, Urahara was admiring his precious flowers in the tent, when the sound of horseshoes was faintly heard in the distance, and Imayahan's horse team came back.

"gardener!"

He was about to get up and go out to have a look, but Imayahan had strode in.She was still wearing a sun-proof cloak, and she was carrying a heavy package in her hand.She threw the package in front of Urahara, sat down, and stripped herself down to only her skirt and corset.

She unwrapped the package, and Urahara saw that it was full of ivory vessels and gold, as well as pipes inlaid with gemstones and large rolls of expensive tobacco leaves.

"Choose, gardener!" Imayahan generously pushed the pile of things in front of him.

Urahara understood what she meant.But his eyes still drifted to her right leg involuntarily.Every time she came back, he would look there first. He remembered that the wound was deep, and it was not so easy to heal.And as he expected, the bandage on Imayahan's leg has not been removed.

"What's the matter?" Imayahan asked strangely.

Urahara turned a deaf ear to it, and he didn't understand it at first.He looked at the injured leg, and in a strange way, he did something that he had wanted to do all this time.

He reached out and touched the thick bandage.

The next moment, he found that he was pinned against the neck by Imayahan's blade just like that night.

"what are you doing?!"

Imayahan frowned and glared at him angrily.Urahara was surprised for a moment, but quickly guessed why she was angry.He then relaxed his body and put on a posture of letting others slaughter him.Imayahan stared at him for a while, then suddenly backed away with a "tsk".She thrust the machete into the ground forcefully, and untied the bandage on her right leg.

"Look! It's all right!" she exclaimed.

Urahara looked at the scar.The wound has healed about [-]% to [-]%, and there are still dark blood stains oozing out from the vigorous activity around the wound.

"Quickly pick!" Imayahan pointed to the pile of treasures again.

Urahara glanced at it, then shook his head in frustration: "I don't want it."

Imayahan stood up abruptly and pulled out the knife on the ground.For a moment, Urahara thought she was about to turn on him again.But she just yelled at him angrily:

"I gave you something, why are you unhappy!"

After speaking, he rushed out without looking back.

Imayahan's anger came and went quickly.That night, she forgot about this unpleasant incident and pestered Urahara to tell her anecdotes.When she saw Urahara cut open several expensive pipes to make a strong support for his coarse cloth flower pot, she laughed again.

"You're such a waste of money." Broken Bee said coldly.

Urahara smiled, not taking it seriously.

This time, Imayahan returned with a full reward.With things to hand over to the old patriarch, she quickly ordered to break camp and set off for the old patriarch's residence.They galloped southwest for ten days and came to a lake on the edge of the desert.This is the last lake one can see before entering the desert.There are sparse shrubs growing around the lake, and there is even a small forest.

The four Imayahans and their teams set up tents here.From a distance, the tents and flags are connected together, which is very spectacular.

The first thing Urahara did after arriving here was to jump into the lake and take a comfortable bath.The next day, when Imayahan and Broken Bee brought their things to meet the old patriarch, he took a leisurely walk among the large tents.

The four Imayahans were all discussing matters in the tent of the old patriarch, and the people under him were naturally happy and relaxed, and they all came out to walk around with each other.At first Urahara mingled silently among them, but it wasn't long before he chatted with a red-haired man named Asai.

A Sanjing, like Broken Bee, is also a helper of Imayahan, and he can also speak fluent northern dialect.It is said that it was because their Imayahan married a woman from the north, so many people in their place could speak the northern dialect.

Under the introduction of A Sanjing, Urahara met Imayahan's wife, Mrs. Feizhen.

Mrs. Feizhen is a gentle and amiable person.Her hometown is not far from Urahara's hometown, and the two chatted very well.Mrs. Feizhen promised Urahara that if she was free during this time, she could teach him the local language.

After coming out of the tent, A Sanjing told Urahara in a low voice: Their Imayahan did not hesitate to break the rules of the clan in order to marry Mrs. Feizhen, and paid a heavy price. Therefore, he is learning the language from Mrs. Feizhen It is best to be honest and not do anything that will misunderstand that Imayahan.

Urahara nodded repeatedly.

He spent most of the day playing outside like this.When he came back, he saw Imayahan talking with Broken Bee outside the tent.Both of them looked very serious, and Imayahan frowned slightly.

"What's the matter?" He walked over and asked.

"None of your business!" Broken Bee immediately angrily reprimanded. "Don't get too carried away!"

Imayahan looked at the two of them and poked the direction of the tent with his thumb: "Let's talk about it after we all go in."

This is how it happened: reliable news came, and the nearby kings finally made up their minds to send their own royal army to kill the four Imayahans.In the desert, they were not Imayahan's opponents, so they chose to fight this battle when Imayahan came out of the desert party.

Each country has dispatched a cavalry, which is gathering at the designated location.

"So, what does the old patriarch mean?" Urahara asked.

"He wants us to stay here and give those annoying guys a good blow so that they don't dare to interfere in our affairs again." Imayahan replied full of fighting spirit.

Urahara's eyes looked at the ground, as if he was deep in thought, and stopped talking.

Since then, the camp has become more lively.Everyone is sharpening their knives and preparing for battle.For the warriors who roamed the desert, fighting was as natural as eating and sleeping.When they heard that their opponents consisted of the kings of all countries, they were very excited, as if some important festival was approaching.

Imayahan didn't seem one bit worried about the upcoming battle.She handed over all the affairs to Broken Bee, but she took Urahara and another Imayahan to hunt in the surrounding wilderness all day long.The dark-haired, dark-eyed Imayahan was just as passionate as she was.The first thing he said when he saw Urahara was:

"Hey! My name is Haiyan, what's your name?"

Only then did Urahara realize that Imayahan should also have a real name.

"What's your name?" He asked the people around him in local dialect.

"Yeyi." Imayahan grinned, showing his white and neat teeth. "Yeyi, Sifengyuan. However, you can call me Yeyi."

"Yeichi." Urahara nodded.In fact, he didn't understand the last two sentences of her, but he grasped the point.

Ye Yi looked happy.Haiyan looked at the two of them with interest.

The energy of the two Imayahans was extraordinary.They either compete who can shoot the black eagle in the air first, or compete who can catch more hares.Whenever their game came to an end, when they both turned their horses and came back to look for Urahara, they would find that the slow-moving gardener was still doing nothing very close to the camp—sometimes digging at the ground with his fingers. Sand, sometimes lost in thought on a few stones.

The effect of Mrs. Scarlet's teaching is becoming more and more obvious.At first, she just tried to teach Urahara some simple vocabulary, such as "tent", "hometown", "flower", "happy", "angry"... But soon, she found that Urahara's mind was very flexible, He is also quick to learn, so I try to teach him as much as possible.Within a few days, he could already speak simple daily sentences.

Knowing that Urahara was learning his own language, Ye Yi ordered Su Feng to teach her to speak the northern dialect.But she was too impatient, and wanted to go out to play before learning a few words, and Broken Bee didn't dare to stop her.Later, Urahara's local language became more and more fluent, and the playful Imayahan simply gave up studying and only spoke the local dialect with Urahara.

Seeing that the time to prepare is getting less and less.On this day, Yeyi couldn't find Urahara anywhere.She was walking around in front of the tent in a hurry, when suddenly, there was a bang, and a puff of smoke rose from the distant field.

After a while, on the way there, Yeyi ran into Urahara who was walking back with his face covered in black ashes.

"I seem to have found a way." He said hoarsely to Ye Yi, as if his throat was also filled with dust.He showed her the stone in his hand. "...We need more tents and ropes, the more the better. There are also such stones, to be ground into powder, the more the better."

His local dialect is interspersed with words from the northern dialect.However, Ye Yi still understood the gist.

It was a battle that turned the hearts of kings and their children's children.

According to the soldiers who escaped by chance, the cavalry of the royal army attacked the camp of the four Imayahans under the cover of darkness that night.The camp was set up by the lake, covering a very wide area, and the camp was densely packed with tents.When the king's army arrived, Imayahan's warriors seemed to be sleeping, and no one was awakened by the enemy.The king's army rushed to the tent quickly. They threw torches and cut off the pillars of the tent. Just when they thought that they were about to win easily, the criss-crossing ropes suddenly bounced in the sand.

The rope tripped the king's horse's hooves, and the cavalry and horses rolled to the ground together.Suddenly, there was a deafening bang all around, and one tent after another was lifted, and golden-red flames shot out from inside.

In a moment, all the ropes were also on fire.Wang Jun struggled painfully in a sea of ​​flames.When they finally rushed out of the camp and wanted to plunge into the lake to extinguish the flames on their bodies, they were pierced through their throats by a sharp arrow stuck upside down by the lake.

Until this time, Imayahan's warriors came from all directions.

Half of the lake was stained red with blood.The fighting lasted almost all night.Urahara sat alone in the grove, quietly watching the fire in the distance.Beside him was a flowerpot and the black desert rose that was regarded as a treasure.

A figure got into the woods and ran towards him.

"It's amazing!" Ye Yi grinned pantingly. "They are not opponents at all, your tactics are very successful..."

Judging from her excited expression, she should not be injured.But she was covered in blood, and her knees were trembling slightly from exhaustion.

"Come here." Urahara held out a hand to her and whispered.

She then slumped down beside him.Urahara put his hands on her back.

"What's this called?" she asked curiously. "Have you given it a name yet?"

Urahara thought for a while: "You can call it 'Number of Beads'."

"what is that?"

"In my native language, it's the 'web of flames.'"

Ye Yi nodded in satisfaction, and slapped him on the shoulder vigorously: "Very good! I didn't expect you to be so powerful, and you are more ruthless than us! Puff ha ha ha!"

Urahara looked at the fire, his face under the shadow of the tree looked a bit gloomy, far less happy than her:

"I just want to protect you."

Ye Yi was taken aback for a moment, not sure what he meant by this sentence.But Urahara quickly turned around, and stroked her long hair lightly with his fingers:

"It's almost over there, it doesn't matter if you don't go. You can take a rest."

"it is good!"

After Yeyi finished speaking, he immediately fell down beside him on all fours, and fell asleep soundly.

At this time, the sky outside was already bright.The temperature difference between day and night in desert areas keeps the chill from leaving the land.Urahara took off his coat and put it on Imayahan who was still smiling triumphantly in his sleep.

The hearty fierce battle passed, and the lakeside returned to calm.The battlefield was quickly cleared, and huge fires were lit in the open space to celebrate the victory.

Urahara shook his head and described this way of celebrating victory on the bloodbathed battlefield as "barbaric".But no one cares about it.They see him as a hero.The old patriarch sent someone to bring a sharp waist knife with an ivory scabbard.Smashed Bee paused for a rare sneer at him.Even Mrs. Feizhen's husband, Imayahan, who always had a cold face, gave him a slight nod of his head to show his approval when he saw him.Among all the people, Ye Yi was naturally the happiest.As soon as the bonfire banquet started, she sat next to him and asked him to drink with her, holding a jug.

"Cheers, gardener!" She always remembered that he liked it, so she always called him that. "I promise, those guys won't dare to come here in ten years! Their king must be scared to death after hearing about our deeds, hahahahahahaha!"

Urahara didn't answer.He took a sip of wine and said slowly:

"Yeyi, have you ever thought about going to another place to have a look?"

"Somewhere else?"

"Well. My hometown, for example."

"Okay!" Without the slightest hesitation, Imayahan readily agreed.

This made Urahara a little bit at a loss.

"Really?" He looked back at her.

"Imayahan never lies!"

Putting down his glass, Urahara stared at his fingers.The joy came so suddenly that he couldn't control his fingers.

"...If you don't like the fragrance of flowers, I can sell the flower field. As long as you are happy, we can go anywhere—"

"No!" But this time, Ye Yi flatly rejected him.

He raised his head in surprise, not understanding why she agreed one moment and changed her mind the next moment.He saw Ye Yi put down his glass and stood up, looking down at him.Under the reflection of the fire, her face was bright and dark, solemn and clear, and her golden eyes shone with pride and holiness.She slowly raised her right hand, placed it on her left chest, pointed to Urahara's chest, and said word by word:

"Do what you like, walk the way you want to go. I will follow you. Because, I am free, and you are free!"

Urahara looked at her fixedly.At this moment, he was sure that he got the most beautiful and precious things in the world.He looked at the hand, held it gently, and then kissed the back of it quickly.

"What are you doing? Are you swearing allegiance?" A Sanjing broke the silence between the two with a drunken voice.

"Am I drunk?" He grabbed Urahara's shoulder, "Come here, gardener, come and have a few more drinks with me!"

Urahara looked back at Yeyi again, she was grinning at him.The banquet quickly turned into a drinking party.Urahara was in a daze from being fed, and in the dimness, he kept hearing Yeyi's hearty laughter coming from beside him.Her golden eyes, together with the silver stars in the sky, danced, twinkled, and twirled merrily above the fiery firelight, gradually melting into his consciousness.

At this time, he suddenly remembered the words Mrs. Feizhen taught him when he was learning the language.

"... Madam Fei Zhen, what does 'Ima Yahan' mean in this language?"

Mrs. Fei Zhen smiled and replied gently: "Ima Yahan means 'pride and freedom'."