Supernatural: The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Peony in the Temple

Bai Jing pours beef-bone broth on a peony in the temple garden, cursing as he does. "Meat broth for a flower? You're living better than this Daoist! That old bastard Zhang Sanmao is a complete lunatic. I've lived for over twenty years, and I've heard of watering flowers, but never with meat broth!"

Even after finishing his rant, Bai Jing is still annoyed. He kicks one of the peony's branches.

"Zhang Sanmao says you've been growing for two thousand years. Hey! Doesn't that make you a flower demon? Come on, show this Daoist a flower fairy!"

The peony sways in the early winter wind, though its branches move in a somewhat strange rhythm.

Bai Jing doesn't notice. After pouring the broth, he turns to leave, but catches his foot on a branch and takes a face-first tumble.

He's about to start cursing when a casual glance reveals his junior female disciple, Zhou Qingmei, outside the mountain gate.

She wears a dark blue Daoist robe, with an embroidered white cloth bag over her shoulder and a camera in her hand. It seems she's just returned from photographing the sunrise.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.