The next few moments passed by so quickly that Lee Shun only nodded. After finally meeting the woman of his dreams, he couldn't say a word.
"Now, ask your senior over there if you have any questions. All the past inner disciples have called him the Gardener," explained Luo Ning. "I prefer not to be disturbed, but I'm in the center building if you can't find your senior." With that, she moved towards the temple.
Once she vanished from his sight, Lee Shun looked around to realize he wasn't given any direct task to do. If this were the mining cave, he would do his daily work as usual, but he had no idea as it was his first day.
He looked to his right and saw a dried-up patch of some herb he didn't know.
"Oh, I bet it needs water."
Lee Shun ran over to the pong surrounding the temple. Eyeing up an empty bucket, he filled it and ran back to the dried-up plant. A swift stick smacked the bucket from his hands as he was about to toss the water.
"The Sun Crest herb can only handle four cups of water annually. Go clean the dead weeds I've pulled," said the man. His stick was pointing to a row of herbs with many dead weeds.
Lee Shun tried to look at the man, but he had already turned to return to work. He watched the man move fluidly through the garden, trimming a leaf and pruning a flower. The man never stopped moving.
"Alright, I will pick up the dead plants."
A few hours passed as Lee Shun collected and placed many herbs into a large pile of other dead herbs.
"No, no, no. That is a pile of dried bumble herbs, not trash. Just..." The man sighed. He hated getting new coworkers. "Take this book and read it for the next few days. When you're done, let me know."
Lee Shun looked at the new book he had received. The cover was almost insulting.
'Dragon Weed for Dummies' written by The Gardener.
"Hey, wait a second. Did you write this?"
"Yes, I did since all of you workers do not know a thing. Oh, and don't do anything until I tell you to." The Gardener went back to his work. "Just go home and read it," shouted the man as he watered a yellow flower with thorns on its petals.
Lee Shun resolved himself and decided to head back down the mountain trail. The way down was more manageable, and he even ate his ration of dried bread.
He read the first few pages of the introduction and didn't know a single plant could have so much information about it. Before he knew it, he was at the bottom of the mountain.
"Hey boys, look who it is," said an outer disciple with sharp eyes and nose.
"The mining scum."
"Yeah, the rock head."
The boy in the back stepped forward. He wore a brand new outer sect robe and a golden sheathed sword on his back.
Lee Shun recognized the group as the gophers. Long Chen and his lackeys hold all slots for delivering high-value goods within the sect. With this job, they got to suck up to many instructors and inner disciples. This treatment made them think they were better than the other outer sect disciples. Strutting around all pretentious made them the bane of the outer sect.
"Long Chen, I think we should teach him a lesson for taking the job meant for you," chimed in the pointy nose guy.
"Shin, I think you are right." Long Chen pointed at Lee Shun. "Kyojin, break his arm."
A giant of a man stepped forward and charged Lee Shun. Kyojin landed a large hook on Lee Shun before he could react, launching him off his feet. Once the boy fell, the other lackeys joined in and began kicking.
Lee Shun cried out for help, but no one came to help as much as everyone hated the gophers. No one wanted to be their focus.
"Alright boys, let us head out." Long Chen kicked Lee Shun's head. "Boy, if you can hear me, next month when you can switch jobs. You will go back to mining or else."
Kicking dirt at Lee Shun, Long Chen followed his men.
The sun began to set as a man came down the mountain. He saw Lee Shun beat up. The Gardener rolled him over as he was crawled into a ball. Lee Shun's face puffed up like a blowfish but in his arms, protected was the book he received earlier.
"He really is a dummy."