Chapter 82: Spiritual Rain Nurtures Lychee

At this moment, under the dim candlelight, Lu Weiguo and Liu Xiulan barely managed to make out the stack of certificates handed to them by Lu Hao. Though neither of them was well-educated or particularly literate, they could still discern that these documents were genuine.

Lu Hao’s father, Lu Weiguo, looked at him with a solemn expression and said, “Son, let me keep these certificates for you for now. I’ll look after them. Whenever you need them, just come to me.”

“I’m worried it’s not safe for you to carry them around,” he added.

Beside him, Liu Xiulan nodded seriously. “Your father served in the army, don’t worry—he’ll be careful. He’s tight-lipped too; he won’t let a word slip.”

“All right, I’ll leave these things at home for safekeeping. I’ll come get them if I need them,” Lu Hao replied with a nod.

“By the way, my sister has to pay her tuition soon, right? And the living expenses for the year—have you got those ready yet?” Lu Hao asked.

“Here’s ten thousand yuan. Mom, give this to Luhan. If it’s not enough, just come back to me. And if she wants to keep working a summer job, let her work at my shop,” he continued, handing over a thick wad of bills he had earned himself.

“Oh, this…” Liu Xiulan was momentarily stunned as she took the cash. To be honest, she’d rarely held so much money at once, especially not handed to her by someone else.

“Son, if you give me this money, what will you use yourself? I can’t accept it,” Liu Xiulan protested, shaking her head.

“It’s fine, Mom. If I can’t even spare this much, how could I run a restaurant?” Lu Hao said with a smile. “Besides, this is for her education—it’s only right.”

Liu Xiulan sighed. “All right, son. I know things aren’t easy for you out there. I’ll make sure to spend it carefully for her.”

Lu Hao nodded in response. Then, looking over at his father, he noticed how much older the man had become, the worry lines on his face yet to fade. Lu Hao knew his father’s stubbornness was acting up again.

His father had always believed that living off other people’s money was a disgrace; only money earned by one’s own hands felt clean and honorable. Even though Lu Weiguo hadn’t said a word, Lu Hao could easily guess what was on his mind.

Moreover, ever since his last illness, Lu Weiguo felt he had become a burden to the family, useless, and his attitude had slowly changed. He seemed to have aged overnight.

Letting his father’s spirit decline like this was not an option. It was clear that this knot in his father’s heart needed to be untied.

With this thought, Lu Hao stepped outside and walked into the backyard. There, he saw the two sparse lychee trees planted in the yard, and a plan began to form in his mind.

“I remember the Azure Dragon inheritance mentions a mystical rain: by using a special ancient talisman ritual, water can be transformed into spiritual rain. Once this rain is sprinkled on crops, it not only boosts their yield and value but also drastically shortens their maturation period—by around sixty percent. If I master it further, it could even reduce the time by eighty percent.”

Looking at the lychee trees again, Lu Hao noted that a few small fruits had already appeared on the branches. It was mid-June, right in the lychee harvest season. The trees weren’t a great variety, nor did they grow well—the fruits were small and astringent.

But even so, every year his father carefully tended those trees, hoping for a decent harvest to make a bit of money. For three or four years, he had nurtured them until they came of age.

In reality, however, those trees only yielded about a hundred jin each year. With poor quality, they sold for just three yuan a jin—the two trees together barely brought in eight hundred yuan a year.

“I wonder what effect the spiritual rain would have on these lychee trees. At the very least, it could cut their growth period by sixty percent, which would mean two harvests a year. If the quality improves, they could sell for at least a thousand yuan. My father would surely want to plant more lychee trees then.”

With this in mind, Lu Hao fetched a ladle of water from the vat, recited a complex incantation from the Azure Dragon inheritance—“Swift, Water, Lord of Thunder… As Heaven and Earth command…”—and, moments later, the water in his hands turned a clear, brilliant blue and gave off a faint, fresh fragrance.

“It worked!” Lu Hao regarded the ladle of water as if it were a precious treasure. “Let’s try sprinkling it as spiritual rain.”

Smiling, he used the needle technique to scatter the water into countless droplets, which fell over the crooked, stunted lychee trees.

Afterwards, nothing seemed to happen. “Let’s hope it works,” Lu Hao murmured. “I’ll check back tomorrow. For now, I should get some rest.”

The next morning, Lu Hao was woken by his mother’s excited shouting before he’d even opened his eyes.

“Son! Son! And your father, too! Come look—come quick! The weeds in the yard went wild last night! I don’t know how they grew so tall and thick!” Liu Xiulan burst in, her expression full of excitement, clearly amazed by the one thing she’d never seen in all her years of tending the land: plants that grew madly overnight.

“Get up, both of you! No more sleeping!”

Awakened by the commotion, Lu Hao and his father hurried to the backyard. When Lu Hao saw the weeds towering above his own waist, even he was taken aback.

“This is a bit much. I thought it’d only shorten growth time by sixty percent—how did it all happen overnight?” he wondered.

Consulting the Azure Dragon inheritance, Lu Hao discovered an effect he’d missed before: crops doused with this ancient spiritual rain would catalyze a growth spurt on the very first night, according to the vitality and energy of the plant.

“So that’s how it is. Does that mean the lychee trees have fruited, too?”

Sure enough, he looked up and saw the trees loaded with brilliant red fruit, so heavy the crooked branches were nearly breaking under the weight.

Each lychee was as large as an apple, plump and lustrous, with hardly any blemishes. By his estimate, each tree bore at least two hundred jin.

“Heavens above! Look at the lychee trees!” his father, Lu Weiguo, suddenly shouted in excitement.