Garden in the City (城中别苑 Chéngzhōng Bié Yuàn) is the 19th episode of The Legend of Luo Xiaohei.
Description[]
Xiaohei, A-Gen, Xiaobai and Bidiu go to the city to find a placed that Laojun marked for them, where they may be able so find money they need to fix grandpa's town. They reach a big forest that's near the city, and find many elfin inside. They realize they have entered tan Elfin Guild Hall.
Plot[]
In the countryside, the town’s chief is gathering money to rebuild the ancestral pavilion that was broken during the flood. At grandpa’s house, Xiaohei and Xiaobai play around with Bidiu while grandpa tells the news about the pavilion to A-Gen. This makes A-Gen nervous, since he knows the pavilion was broken by an elfin and not by the flood. Grandpa begins to look around for his savings, since they’ll need as much money as possible to rebuild the town, but A-Gen stops him, and tells him he’ll take care of it. A-Gen wants to use Laojun’s map to get the money the town needs. Grandpa thinks A-Gen is doing it for the goodness of his heart, not knowing he feels responsible because an elfin damaged the building.
A-Gen, Xiaobai, Xiaohei and Bidiu decide to travel to the city using a bus, to the placed marked in Laojun’s map. A truck gets them near the bus station, and after waiting for a while, they get on the way. Eventually, they reach the city.
Surprisingly, the direction marked by Laojun leads to the entrance of a big forest near the city, that is covered by big stone walls. A guard[note 1] near the forest’s entrance asks the group who they are, and if they made reservations to get inside. A-Gen shows him the map, and tells him Laojun gave it to them, but the guard doesn’t believe them, since they’re just kids. After all, Laojun’s map is just a drawing on a piece of paper. Still, A-Gen decides they can get inside by sneaking past the guard.
They move around until they can’t see the guard anymore, and face one of the stone walls. A-Gen launches Xiaohei above the wall, and then Hei teleports them inside using the Heixius. Xiaobai is surprised but quickly congratulates Xiaohei for his abilities. They begin to walk around the forest, looking for the place marked by Laojun. Xiaobai thinks Xiaohei could get them there instantly, but Hei explains that he can only move five meters for now.
While they walk, A-Gen notices something weird. The forest is denser than the one in the mountains, and the trees look like they’re hundreds of years old. It’s not a natural occurrence. Eventually, they reach a tall cliff, and get to see the city beyond the forest. It’s a beautiful sight. A-Gen notices a building to their right, inside the forest, and realizes that’s a placed marked in the map as “external affairs office”. To the right of there, far away from them, the group sees other buildings, more ancient in their design, which are the ones marked by Laojun. A-Gen knows that if they get any closer, they’ll be detected by an elfin… but they’re detected before they even get to move.
Behind them, a weird looking man in a suit appears. He’s a manager called Tubei. He asks if they have any reference, and when A-Gen mentions Laojun, he smiles. Tubei asks if A-Gen is “lord Xuanli”, but A-Gen asks him to call him A-Gen instead. A-Gen apologizes for entering sneakingly, but Tubei tells him that everyone enters that way. He also says that the director has been waiting for him for a long time. Tubei enters a tree, and Xiaobai points that it’s like the entrance to Lanxi Town.
The group begin to follow Tubei towards the mysterious director, who A-Gen doesn’t know. While they walk through a hall, an elfin called Mr. Fu throws a glass towards them. Thankfully, A-Gen catches it before it can hit anyone. When A-Gen looks at him, Fu pretends nothing’s happened. Fu was drinking with two other elfins, named Qingqiu and Jiuxian. They tell him to please stop doing stuff like that. Fu, who looks like a big tiger, gets up and says that it wasn’t a serious attack. He was simply outraged at the sight of humans in that area. Despite his menacing presence, Xiaobai isn’t intimidated at all by him, and is simply amazed to see a talking tiger. Tubei tells him that there are no rules against humans entering there, and asks Fu to please behave. Fu jumps towards the group and stands very close to them. Looking directly at Xiaobai, he tells them that he hates humans. Xiaobai simply answers by saying that Fu looks very handsome. She also points that Fu uses human-made clothes, and that he should get them out if he hates them so much. This makes Fu really angry! A-Gen moves Xiaobai and Fu is stopped by his friends, and the two are separated before something bad happens.
Tubei apologizes for Fu’s actions, and tells them that the director will explain everything to them, since that’s his job. When they leave, Qingqiu tells Fu that Xiaohei’s group was holding the Shining Pearl.
Tubei, Xiaohei, A-Gen, Xiaobai and Bidiu finally reach the place where the director is: a big hole that goes in the ground. Tubei tells the director to come out, and that Xuanli has arrived. The director appears, climbing the hole using vines that grew from his back, and appears before the group. He introduces himself as Kali, and welcomes everyone to the Elfin Guild Hall.
Features[]
Characters[]
- Elfins
- Guild Hall's elfins:
- Humans
- Animals
Items[]
- Shining Pearl (mentioned)
Locations[]
- Countryside
- Yunfei's house
- Ancestral Pavilion (Mentioned)
- Lingxi
- Lanxi Town (Mentioned)
Abilities[]
- Xiaohei's teleportation
- A-Gen's reflexes
- Kali's plant growth
- Fu's strenght
Trivia[]
- When the group arrives at the guild's entrance, the Thousand Sunny (the ship from One Piece) can be seen in the back.
[1].