Lehende finally opened one of his special greenhouses.
He could not help it. This was part of the tour, after all. If he did not show off at least some of his truly precious collection, all the effort he had put into it would have been wasted.
Still, he kept a little something in reserve. He did not take Leonard straight to the batch of plants he treasured most. Out of the four special greenhouses, he deliberately chose the one with specimens that were a little less valuable.
Only if Leonard kept his promise during the visit and did not go around touching things and getting plants killed would Lehende continue showing him the rest.
Lehende carefully reached the entrance to the special greenhouse, opened the door just a crack, squeezed through it himself, then beckoned for Leonard to squeeze through too.
Leonard made it through successfully.
Fleur did not.
With a gap that narrow, it was really not fair to people with good figures.
So Fleur could only wait outside helplessly.
"Do you really need to be this exaggerated?" Leonard asked helplessly as he watched Lehende carefully shut the door, hardly daring to breathe.
"Shh." Lehende raised a finger for silence and whispered, "What do you know? These plants are incredibly delicate."
He led Leonard forward on tiptoe as he explained, "You have no idea. Once these plants leave their native environment, they become absurdly fragile. Out in the wild, they could grow perfectly well through wind and sun. Put them in a greenhouse, and even a little noise is enough to make them die on the spot."
Leonard smiled indifferently. He had already sensed the aura of those plants. Lehende was right. Every single one of them was as delicate as Lin Daiyu, looking as though the slightest disturbance might kill them where they stood.
After walking a while, Leonard followed Lehende deeper into the greenhouse. Inside the temperature-controlled structure created with alchemy, a dozen or so plants had been placed in suitable spots according to their habits.
But compared with the plants outside, these were visibly much weaker. Every single one looked limp and wilted.
"See? There's a reason I wouldn't let you choose from these." Lehende lowered his voice and sighed unwillingly. "Looking at them like this, never mind shipping them, I reckon they'd wither instantly just from being dug out of the pot."
As an expert in magical botany, the fact that he still could not solve the problem of transplanting and cultivating these plants left him deeply frustrated.
Just as he was silently wallowing in that frustration, Leonard walked straight over to a yellowing plant and, under Lehende's horrified gaze, reached out to touch the plant that looked ready to keel over at any second.
"No!" Lehende let out a heart-rending cry, but it still could not stop Leonard's evil hand.
The plant in front of Leonard was a Poison Thorn Moon Orange, a magical plant that grew in India.
Like Devil's Snare, it could actively prey on living things. Unlike Devil's Snare, which feared light, it had no such obvious weakness, and it was highly venomous as well. It belonged to the notorious category of magical plants.
A few decades ago, hundreds or even thousands of Muggles died to this plant every year.
The Indian Ministry of Magic had dealt with the problem in the simplest possible way, a full-scale eradication campaign against the species, driving it to the brink of extinction in just a few decades.
Some things were just like that. When they were numerous, they were treated as a scourge that had to be wiped out. Once they became rare, they started attracting people who wanted to protect them instead.
Lehende was one of those people.
The moment Leonard's hand touched the Poison Thorn Moon Orange, the yellowing plant instantly withered completely. Even the poisonous thorns hidden among its leaves, ready to fire at any moment, dropped away like a programmer's hairline.
Wild Poison Thorn Moon Orange: overbearing and vicious, preying freely on other creatures, even humans and wizards.
Greenhouse Poison Thorn Moon Orange: oh no, someone touched me today. Ah, I'm dead.
Lehende's face darkened instantly, a chaotic mix of black, yellow, green, and purple, like someone had overturned a paint palette.
"Leonard..." He had just started to say something when he saw a soft glow bloom in Leonard's hand. The dead Poison Thorn Moon Orange instantly regained its vitality, as if by magic, sprouting lush green leaves and venom-dripping thorns in a flash.
Poison Thorn Moon Orange: Get me back up. I can still go wild.
"How... how is that possible?" Lehende cried out, eyes bulging, his face full of disbelief.
Locked outside the greenhouse, Fleur listened worriedly to Lehende's voice from within.
Since she could not see what was happening and had only heard what he said, she assumed Leonard had touched one of Lehende's plants to death.
She was a little worried her father might swallow Leonard whole.
"Dad, Leonard is a guest. Don't scare him," Fleur called from outside, not daring to raise her voice too much for fear of scaring Lehende's precious plants to death.
Lehende paid no attention at all to what Fleur was shouting. He stared at Leonard in astonishment, as though he wanted to see straight through him.
"How on earth did you do that?" Lehende asked.
"That's not important." Leonard rubbed the venom from his fingers, then tilted his chin toward the other plants in the greenhouse. "Look. Your precious plants are about to be scared to death."
Lehende froze, only then realizing that his cry just now had been far too loud, far beyond what these plants could tolerate.
The plants that had been carefully tended in the special greenhouse began rapidly withering. In no time at all, more than half of them had already dried up.
Collective thoughts of the plants: oh dear, oh dear, that sound was so loud and so scary. Ah, I'm dead.
Lehende's face turned several shades paler in an instant. Clutching his head, he screamed, "Good heavens! Leonard, save them."
Under normal circumstances, once the plants reached this state, they would be beyond saving. So he pinned all his hopes on Leonard.
He had not forgotten what he had just seen, Leonard reviving the Poison Thorn Moon Orange in an instant. At this point, no one but Leonard could save these plants.
"Relax. I told you not a single one of them would die." Leonard snapped his fingers, and a miniature dark cloud appeared overhead. The cloud spread, covering the entire greenhouse, and the next moment a fine rain began to fall.
Those raindrops shimmered with silvery light. The moment they landed on the dying, or already completely withered, plants, they merged into them at once.
As the raindrops sank in, the withered plants came back to life before Lehende's eyes. More than a dozen rare plants revived in clusters right in front of him.
"My God, this is practically a miracle!" Lehende stared at the scene, looking as though he wanted to drop to his knees and thank that magical rain.
"Leonard!" He looked at Leonard with feverish excitement and asked, "What kind of magic is this? Teach me! If you will teach me, I'll help you court my daughter!"
Leonard: ???
Fleur, eavesdropping outside the greenhouse: ???
Has my dad lost his mind?