My Path to Immortality with a Blade of Grass - Chapter 9

10 — Extra 1: Epilogue

After a reluctant farewell to the old immortal, and solemn, extravagant vows that we would definitely, definitely return to visit him often, I finally took my little Immortal Grass down the mountain.

I also made off with a large number of the old immortal’s chickens.

Perhaps he knew. He could never bear to say no to me.

On the advice of the parrot, who often visited the human world and had even found himself a human owner there, little Immortal Grass and I decided to open a chicken farm.

The chickens I’d taken from the old immortal could pass their plump, juicy excellence down through the generations. I’d have an endless supply of chicken to eat. We might even make lots and lots of money.

Only after entering the human world did I learn that eating chicken in over a hundred different ways required lots and lots of money.

Unfortunately, the chicken farm never got off the ground.

What a joke. Asking a snake to give her chickens away was far too cruel.

Not even for money!

At my heartbroken wailing, little Immortal Grass quickly softened and gave in. He promised never to separate me from my chickens.

To earn money, we decided to open a flower shop instead.

“A Snake and a Blade of Grass: A Love Story.”

I went back to Mount Kunlun and found a great many flowers rarely seen in the human world. Of course, now that I was family to a plant, I didn’t snap flowers off their stems or rip rare blooms out by the roots.

I brought flowerpots and a little trowel, carefully transplanted them, and took them to our shop to sell.

After becoming a spirit, little Immortal Grass gradually lost his sense of kinship with flowers and plants that lacked awareness.

But the gentleness in his soul remained.

Whenever he sold a plant, he included a bottle of “nutrient solution” made with his spiritual energy, along with a promise to care for it free of charge if it fell ill.

Business got better and better. People came from far and wide after hearing of us.

Once we’d earned some money, I took little Immortal Grass to the hospital and spent the price of a hundred braised chickens on a pair of glasses for him.

Just as I’d thought, whatever accessory he wore on his face, he was still the person I loved best.

Naturally, plenty of people were curious about our shop’s name.

Whenever anyone asked, little Immortal Grass and I would exchange a mysterious smile and tell our curious customers our story.

“Long, long ago, on Mount Kunlun, there was a snake who loved chicken and a blade of foxtail grass growing beside a lingzhi…”

No one ever believed it had really happened, but they loved hearing our “fairy tale” again and again.

Perhaps everyone in this world longs for a love that pure and beautiful.

Oh, right. I suppose I should add the final line found in all human fairy tales:

“And they lived happily ever after.”