diligence 5

Shengjiang made his way back to the Heavenly Embassy once again. He had the trip memorized by now, and he was glad that it was pretty close by, given how many times Primrose had called him up to come and help out. Shengjiang didn’t mind it, he liked the exposure to the new culture of Cherubuns in Burrowgatory. It gave him new perspectives that he could apply to his art. He especially liked getting to talk to Beanny last week, she made a lovely conversation partner.

Though, Shengiang would never say that he had a green thumb. He half expected for Primrose to call him halfway through the week, fuming that the plants had died, or something. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, but that didn’t dissuade his fears about it. 

When he arrived at the Heavenly Embassy, Primrose was already waiting for him. The Cherubun had his usual irritated expression, and a pair of cloth lined woven baskets hooked on his arms. He insistently thrusted one out at Shengjiang, and the Succubun took it, confused.

“What’s this for now?” Shengjiang looked at the basket in his hands.

“We’re harvesting today.” Primrose said, as though it were an obvious fact and Shengjiang was just stupid.

“Already?” Shengjiang asked, incredulous.

“Maybe the growing conditions in Burrowgatory don’t facilitate such quick growth, but in the Embassy, the plants have no problem sprouting within expected time frames. Shockingly, this batch that you took care of still grew just fine and just as quickly as the others.” Primrose spoke while he started leading Shengjiang to the familiar patch where the plants were.

“Was that a compliment?” Shengjiang chuckled, following him.

“I just said that you performed adequately, despite what I expected. You performed about as well as the average gardener Cherubun would.” He said.

The grin on Shengjiang’s face was evidence enough that he was going to take it as a compliment regardless of whatever Primrose said in response. The Cherubun rolled his eyes and gestured at the plants.

“We’re going to harvest the plants. To harvest them, we cut them off at the very base of the plant in order to get the entire plant, save for the roots which will be left there to grow more plants.” Primrose handed Shengjiang a small set of shears that he could use to cut the plants. “Make sure the blades of the shears are flush with the dirt before you cut, we want to get as much of the plant’s above-ground portion as possible.”

Primrose did as he was saying, and Shengjiang followed his example. He pushed the shears’ flat side into the dirt and snipped the stem of the plant right where it met the ground. He held the ambrosia plant up for Primrose to see before he put it into the basket, and when the Cherubun nodded, he put it in the cloth lined basket and continued to the next one. Together, the two of them harvested close to thirty plants within the next hour or so. Their baskets were brimming with the bundles of stems and flowers.

“Now, we are going to separate the plants into their pieces.” Primrose said as he brought Shengiang to a set of tables. On the tables there were knives, shears, scissors, cutting boards, and containers. “Put your basket there.”

The two buns stood on either side of a table, and Primrose instructed Shengjiang on where to put his basket before beginning. Primrose took out one plant and laid it on the wooden cutting board carefully. “You’re going to start by cutting here,” He held the plant up with the stem pointing towards Shengiang and pointed at the spot right where the stem started to widen before the flower. “We’re separating the flower and the stem. The stem goes into the green container, and the flower into the white one.”

Shengjiang did exactly as he was told, careful to follow Primrose’s instructions precisely. He handled each flower with care, making sure that he wasn’t damaging any of the petals, stems or leaves.

The next step, as Primrose demonstrated, was to snip each leaf from the stems and place them into a different container. That step was easy enough, although tedious as each plant had quite a few leaves. By the time they were done with that, the container for the leaves was piled high, and the remaining stems resembled a bundle of sticks.

“Finally, we’re going to peel the petals from the center of the flower. What’s left behind is going to be the core and the stamen, all the pieces of this are going to be fragile, so make sure you aren’t clumsy with it.” Primrose made sure to stress that part.

Shengjiang understood what he was saying. He was great with detail work, so he hoped that this would come easily to him. The flower’s petals had a paper-like quality to them, and it made him wary about even bending them. The first few petals around the outside of the blossom came off easily enough, they were large and easy to hold. They got deposited into the white box Primrose gave him.

The next petals, the ones closer to the inside of the flower, were a little more difficult. They held onto the core more firmly, and Shengjiang was worried that he’d tear them as he tried to pluck them off, but none of them did tear. He made it through the first flower within a few minutes, it was definitely the most time consuming part of the process.

Primrose was going faster than him, but not by a huge margin. By the time Shengjiang finished one, Primrose was halfway through his second.

“You’re not doing terribly.” Primrose said a few more flowers later. 

“Ah, thanks.” Shengjiang was too dialed in to the task at hand to pay much attention to Primrose, meaning that the Cherubun didn’t get a snarky, confident reply this time. 

The flower processing went by with few words exchanged between the two concentrating buns. By the time they were done, it was well past lunch time and Shengjiang’s stomach was growling.

“Are we done here?” He asked, looking at the different containers piled high with their respective flower parts. It took a while, but it did feel rewarding to get it all done.

“Yes, I’ll release you for now.” Primrose said, clearly proud of the work that they’d done, judging by the look in his eye as he saw the containers. “But I’ll expect you back here another day, we’re not done yet, of course.”

Shengjiang gave the Cherubun a nod and a joking salute before skipping off back to the Burrowgatory’s downtown. Maybe he could swing by Beanny and find something to eat there.