Chapter 65: The Refreshing Aroma of Rose Wine
The first team to be assessed was the one that Xu He and Hong Guo were in. Almost all the roses in this team's flower garden were in full bloom, but more than half of the flower clusters had been broken by something, and the roses were withering and dying at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The team looked at the scene in disbelief, and someone murmured, "Impossible!"
"How could this happen? Everything was fine when we left just now!"
A man in a striped shirt walked out of the group. He looked at the two people who had intruded when Dai Tian's group was gathering and shouted, "It must be you! You just sneaked into the group and must have destroyed our flowers while we were away!"
Dai Tian sneered: "You can eat whatever you want, but don't say anything you want."
Of the two latecomers, the dark-skinned man said proudly, "That's right, don't talk nonsense without evidence."
"It's you two, who else but you!"
"You despicable snakes! We're done for! You're done for too!"
"Kill them!"
Just when the two teams were about to fight, the man in the suit walked over to a few intact roses with a gloomy face.
He tilted his ear toward the flower, as if listening to something.
After a while, the man in the suit walked up to the two latecomers. He slowly pulled up the white gloves on his hands and said softly, "But they said it was you."
"W...what..." Before the dark-skinned man could finish his words, the man in the suit grabbed his head with both hands.
With a "crack", before anyone could react, the man's neck was broken and he fell to the ground with his eyes wide open.
"And you." The man in the suit said, walking towards the other remaining person.
The man trembled: "Brother Tian...Brother Tian, save me..."
He hid behind Dai Tian. Dai Tian looked at the man in a suit who was walking slowly towards him, reached out his hand without any expression, pulled him out, and pushed him to the ground.
"No...don't...save me, Brother Tian! Save me!" The man lowered his head and pulled Dai Tian's trouser leg in fear.
No matter how the man begged, Dai Tian seemed to be deaf to it.
After a while, the man was quickly killed by the man in the suit in the same way.
The gardener dragged the two men's bodies into the flowerbed and placed them next to the broken rose stems. He then cut open their stomachs with a knife and turned them over. Their blood slowly flowed into the soil beneath them.
After a while, the broken branches near the corpses slowly sprouted new branches, and many plump flower buds suddenly appeared on the branches. In a short time, the two corpses were reduced to empty skeletons covered by a thin layer of skin.
"This flower garden has a poor rating." The man in the suit said to the gardener corresponding to the flower garden.
The gardener said respectfully, "Yes."
The crowd began to discuss: "What will happen if we fail?"
"Isn't there a question and answer session?"
"If I had known I wouldn't have cut my hand. It was a waste of my blood!"
"Who would have thought their team was so despicable? They deserved to die!"
The man in the suit led everyone to the next flower garden, which was under the responsibility of the team that Xie Liang and Long Qingye were in.
Like the previous flower bed, most of the flowers in it were damaged by humans and received a "poor" rating.
Liu Boyuan from Xie Liang's team was furious, with his fists clenched, staring at Dai Tian, while Dai Tian looked at him provocatively.
Xie Liang patted Liu Boyuan's shoulder and said, "Don't be impulsive. Didn't I tell you the general content of the questions last night? Don't worry."
"But he..." Liu Boyuan wanted to say something else, but Huang Tao from the team pulled him and shook his head.
Liu Boyuan sighed, and after a while, loosened his clenched fists.
The man in the suit continued to lead everyone to the next flower garden.
Dai Tian suddenly looked at Xie Liang provocatively, turned around and followed the team forward.
Next was the flower garden of Zhang Minghui's team. Like the previous two flower gardens, large areas of flowers in it were damaged and still received a "poor" rating.
Although the people in the framed team were very dissatisfied with Dai Tian's team, they had no choice - after all, the two people who damaged the flowers had been used by the man in the suit to "grow flowers".
No one said anything else. They all looked absent-minded and thoughtful, and followed the man in the suit to the last flower garden.
After walking for a while, we arrived at the last flower garden - the one that Dai Tian's team was in charge of.
The bright red clusters of flowers sway slightly in the wind, blooming to their fullest, competing with each other for beauty in the afterglow of the setting sun.
The man in the suit saw this and a strange smile appeared on his face.
He turned to the young gardener who looked only seventeen or eighteen years old and was in charge of Dai Tian's team and said, "You, take them in."
"yes."
The young gardener responded and led Dai Tian's team back. Soon the team walked away.
Then, the man in the suit asked the remaining three teams to line up vertically in the open space beside the ridge of the field.
After lining up, the man in the suit walked to the front of the first team - Xie Liang's team.
Xie Liang had already told the team members about the possible problems they might encounter last night, and asked them to discuss the possible problems with their teammates in other teams during the day.
The man in the suit walked up to Liu Boyuan, who was standing at the front of the line, with an expressionless face. Xie Liang could only pray that the questions he was going to ask were within the scope of what they had discussed.
The mechanical voice of the man in a suit rang out from the front of the team: "Which rose on the plain is the most beautiful?"
Fortunately, this issue was within the scope of discussion, but Liu Boyuan was a little nervous and clenched his hands tightly: "Every... every flower is equally beautiful."
The man in the suit had no expression on his face after hearing this. He waved at him and motioned him to stand in the open space behind him.
The next person came next, and four or five people passed smoothly in a row. Finally, it was the turn of Xie Liang who was standing in the middle of the team.
The man in the suit remained expressionless and asked him mechanically, "What do the flowers say?"
Xie Liang's heart skipped a beat. This question was not within the scope of discussion.
He glanced at Long Qingye who was standing behind him and found that Long Qingye was also looking at him with a frown, as if he was thinking about something.
Xie Liang retracted his gaze and looked up at the endless clusters of flowers. As his eyes turned, he found that Xu He was looking at him worriedly not far away.
Seeing this, Xie Liang smiled at Xu He and signaled Xu He not to worry.
The man in the suit began to count down: "3...2..."
Seeing that the time was almost up, Xie Liang remembered the language of roses and said lightly: "I love you passionately."
"What...what love?" Long Qingye's surprised voice came from behind.
Xie Liang turned around and saw him looking at him with a half-smile.
Xie Liang lowered his voice and muttered: "What are you laughing at? I'm not talking to you."
The man in the suit waved at Xie Liang mechanically, signaling him to leave quickly and stand behind the people passing by.
He actually passed, Xie Liang thought and shook his head. These questions were indeed of low standard. He walked to the open space behind the man in the suit and stood with those who passed the test.
After a while, Long Qingye also passed by and walked towards Xie Liang.
When it was the turn of a tall and thin teammate, he seemed unable to answer and his whole body was shaking.
However, the man in the suit did not do anything to him, but went straight to ask the next person. He was still standing there, looking dazed, as if he was at a loss.
The man in the suit quickly questioned everyone in Xie Liang's team. Only three people failed the test and remained in their original positions.
The man in the suit went through the groups one by one, row by row, but many people still failed the test and stood there in a daze. Fortunately, Xu He, Hong Guo, Liu Hao, Zhang Minghui and others all passed the test successfully.
The afterglow of the setting sun had completely disappeared, replaced by pale moonlight. The sky was a depressing dark purple, without a single star, only a crescent moon hanging on the distant mountains.
The night wind gradually picked up, making the flowers rustle, as if something was about to break out of the ground.
The man in the suit asked those who failed the test to stand together and form a new team.
Then he said something to one of the gardeners, and that gardener stayed.
The other two gardeners followed the man in the suit and walked towards the group of people who had passed the test.
The teams were redistributed, and those who passed the assessment were divided into two teams of equal size.
Xie Liang and Xu He were assigned to the same team, still with the original female gardener, while Long Qingye's group was assigned to another team, with a short, fat, bald gardener.
After the teams were divided, the man in the suit walked in front, and the two gardeners led the two teams following him towards the manor.
Xie Liang looked back and saw that the gardener and those who had failed the assessment were still standing there stupidly, as if waiting for something.
After entering the main gate of the manor, Xie Liang was shocked: high walls on all sides tightly surrounded the large and small buildings in the manor, leaving no room for any penetration.
The manor is filled with flower beds of varying sizes, each filled with clusters of brightly blooming red roses.
A feeling of oppression arose spontaneously. There was not a breath of wind in the manor, and there was no other sound except the voices of the team. It was terrifyingly quiet.
The four high walls cast large black shadows in the moonlight, reflecting on the buildings that were shorter than them, making the entire manor look like a square coffin without a lid.
From the moment he came in, Xie Liang noticed a faint fragrance all around.
The smell is like a graceful girl dancing with her skirt lifted, or like a majestic general fighting on the battlefield with a sword in hand. If you smell it for a long time, it feels like sweet and mellow wine, penetrating deep into your nostrils and making those who smell it extremely intoxicated.
"It smells so good..." Xie Liang couldn't help but sigh.
The man in the suit asked everyone to stop in the open space behind the main gate.
Xie Liang turned his head and found that the main door had been closed at some point, and the two guards had also disappeared, as if they had disappeared suddenly.
After everyone stood still, the man in the suit walked towards an ear room. After a while, he came back with a glass bottle filled with wine-red liquid.
The fragrance became more obvious, smelling a bit like red wine, but more of a charming, mellow aroma of fermented roses.
The fragrance came from the wine-red liquid in the glass bottle.
Everyone stared at the liquid in the glass bottle, intoxicatedly sniffing the aroma of wine in the air, and couldn't wait to taste the wine in the bottle.
The two gardeners surrounded the man in the suit long after he took out the bottle of liquid.
The man in the suit signaled with his eyes, and they knelt down on their knees, raised their heads and opened their mouths wide, like hungry chicks, staring at the bottle in the man's hand, their eyes full of desire.
The man in the suit shook the liquid in the bottle and pulled out the cork, and a rich aroma of fermented rose wine overflowed.
It seems that this is the addictive red wine that the gardener mentioned before.
The man in the suit held the bottle in both hands and poured some of the liquid into the mouths of the two gardeners in turn.
The two gardeners stood up with the liquid in their mouths. They squinted their eyes in ecstasy, as if they were reluctant to swallow it. They did not swallow it until about a minute later.
Xie Liang couldn't help but ask Xu He, "What kind of fairy water is this? It tastes so good."
Xu He said: "The liquid in the bottle can control people's minds, don't touch it."
"I think so too. Just smelling this fragrance makes your mouth water. It's hard to refuse."
Xie Liang thought for a while and said, "I got it. Just plug my nose." He took out a tissue from his trouser pocket, tore it in half, rolled it into two small balls, and plugged his nose with it.
"Here! Brother He, plug your nose too." Xie Liang handed the remaining tissue to Xu He.
Xu He shook his head and smiled at Xie Liang, "I don't need it."
Seeing that Xu He didn't need it, Xie Liang turned his gaze to Hong Guo and whispered a "puff puff" sound towards her back.
Hongguo heard Xie Liang's movement and turned around to look at him in confusion.
Seeing her looking at him, Xie Liang pointed at the bottle in the suit man's hand, shook his head, pointed at his nose, and threw the crumpled tissue in his hand towards Hong Guo.
Hong Guo took the paper ball and whispered to Long Qingye, "Brother Ye, there's something wrong with this smell. Should we plug our noses?"
"I don't need it." Long Qingye said lightly.
After the two gardeners enjoyed the liquid, the man in the suit handed the bottle to the female gardener.
The female gardener asked everyone in her team to squat down, raise their heads and open their mouths like she had just done, and said that this was the "magic wine" given by the master, and that drinking it could maintain the body's functions without eating anything.
Xie Liang squatted down like everyone else in the team and looked up.
The female gardener was pouring the liquid in the bottle into each person's mouth in turn, and it was Xie Liang's turn.
The first thing he tasted was the sweet scent of roses. Even though Xie Liang had blocked his nose, the fragrance could still penetrate his nasal cavity and seep into his lungs.
Xie Liang suddenly felt reluctant to spit out the wine in his mouth, nor was he willing to swallow it. He just wanted to indulge in this fragrance for a little longer, and longer.
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