My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 242, Question 239: Why is a tomato a fruit?

When Lynn came out of the principal's office, it was already completely dark outside.

The Sorting Hat remained silent until the end, leaving the other party with no choice but to continue with the original plan to obtain clues from the next relic.

It was almost 8 p.m., and the corridor leading to the Hodgepodge lounge was deserted. Lynn went to the entrance of the kitchen, where a mural depicting a silver bowl filled with fruit hung.

Lynn knew that the Sorting Hat and the Eagle Gate Ring were left by Gryffindor and Ravenclaw respectively, but he had never heard of this mural being left by Hodgepodge before.

He looked at the fruit in the mural, scratched his chin, unsure how to communicate with it, so he simply asked directly.

"Am I qualified to receive this honor?"

No sooner had Lynn finished speaking than an unusual event occurred!

The fruits in the silver bowl in the mural seemed to jump out of the bowl at his question: oranges, apples, pears, bananas, grapes, and plums. They stood side by side, looking at Lynn in astonishment.

"Good heavens! Almost a thousand years have passed, and someone actually asks us this question!" Banana exclaimed shrilly.

Orange said with dissatisfaction, "What's so surprising about that? Since Master said there would be, someone will always ask about it no matter how much time has passed."

The apple scratched its peel, looking distressed, and said, "So, according to the procedure, what should we do now?"

Grape and Plum exchanged a glance, as if shrug: "We forgot too, after all, so much time has passed. Pear should know that it has a chance to contact the little wizard every now and then."

The pear's bright yellow skin seemed to blush: "I... I never talk to little wizards. If they touch me, I turn into a doorknob and let them into the kitchen."

"So you forgot too?" The banana seemed to be in constant shock, and it asked with a furrowed brow.

Yes, yes.

Lynn watched their interaction and found the mural very interesting. He had entered the kitchen through the pears many times, but only today did he realize that they all had their own thoughts.

"Is your master Hodgepodge?"

The apple seems to be the leader of these fruits. It stands tall and proud, saying this.

"Of course, we were created by this greatest witch."

"I've been to the kitchen quite a few times, but I've never seen any of you fruits touched except for the pears. Why can't you be like the other murals?"

"This is the master's order!" Orange said solemnly.

As a result, the grape immediately exposed its weakness: "You even went to visit the Knight of Pendragon last night."

"That was...that was...can you call it a casual visit when it comes to the murals? The knight invited me himself, and if I didn't go, I would be disrespecting him."

"Alright, alright, stop arguing. You won't get anywhere like this. Let's figure out the correct procedure after this little wizard asked this question," Orange advised.

The fruits were deep in thought, and Lynn didn't disturb them, but leaned against the wall and waited for them to recall.

The pear is like a shy little girl.

"It seems like we need to ask him a question."

"That's right!" Li Zi interjected, "I just remembered! We need to ask him a question!"

"So what exactly is the problem?"

This time, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't remember, so the fruits all turned their attention to their heads.

"You decide. We don't remember anything. Anyway, you were the first one created by the master, so you have the right to decide."

The apple, entrusted with an important task by the fruits, looked at Lynn for a moment, pondered, and scratched its peel before speaking.

"I've seen you before. Although you're a junior wizard from Slytherin, you always like to go to the Ravenclaw table when you eat."

"Well, you call yourself the boss, yet you also like to sneak out!" Orange said angrily.

"Shut up, don't interrupt."

Because there was no one around, Lynn used his original appearance when communicating with the mural, and he wasn't surprised that Apple could recognize him.

"Because my friend is at the Ravenclaw long table, and I have another friend from Hodgepodge, the three of us are in different houses, so if we want to meet up for a meal, we have to choose a common place."

"Oh, what an enviable friendship, I love it," the apple exclaimed, then abruptly changed the subject, "So why do you think a tomato is a fruit?"

"What! He actually thinks tomatoes are fruit!" Banana exclaimed in shock.

"Incomprehensible!"

"Incredible!"

"incredible!"

"."

They were all vying to express their incomprehension, as if they simply couldn't accept that tomatoes could be grouped with other fruits like themselves.

Lynn hadn't expected such a strong reaction. He scratched his forehead and said, "If I answer this question, will you accept me?"

Apple replied seriously, "That depends on whether your answer can convince us."

Lynn shrugged and leaned against the wall next to the mural: "It's good to talk to you guys about these things. If you hadn't asked, I would have almost forgotten why I thought tomatoes were fruits in the first place."

He tilted his head back, looking at the dim ceiling, and quietly reminisced.

"I grew up in an orphanage. Back then, orphanages weren't like they are now, with the internet so developed and people becoming wealthier. People with compassion and resources could donate or do volunteer work. Most people were struggling to make ends meet, let alone have any spare money to donate to orphanages."

I was probably 6 or 7 years old at the time? I forgot exactly how old I was, but anyway, I was the oldest in the orphanage and often helped the director, so I became the older brother to the children who were younger than me.

One day, when I was teaching my younger siblings to recognize words and objects, a little girl suddenly asked me, "What is fruit? Is it just potatoes that you eat raw?"

She was four years old at the time and had never seen real fruit before. She only saw that yellow pears and potatoes looked very similar in pictures, so she thought that eating vegetables raw was the same as eating fruit.

I wanted to find an apple or banana or something to teach her what real fruit is like, but there weren't any of those things in the orphanage. Even the director was still eating pickled radishes every day while going out to raise money. So, I had no choice but to go out and steal a tomato that looked most like a fruit from a family's vegetable garden and teach her that things that taste sweet and sour when eaten raw are fruits.

The thirteen younger siblings each took only a small bite of the tomato before finishing it, but they all said the fruit wasn't tasty at all, not at all like the sweet and sour taste I described, and had no flavor at all.

Because the tomato wasn't ripe at all, how could it possibly have a sweet and sour taste? But from then on, everyone knew what fruit was like. All the children in the orphanage who had eaten the tomato could proudly tell the other children who hadn't eaten it that fruit was actually not tasty at all, it was green and astringent, and it was not as good as raw potatoes.

After that incident, all the children from our orphanage thought tomatoes were fruit, not vegetables, and they still thought so even when they grew up. I was no exception.

(End of this chapter)