No Soup for You

I arrived home Friday afternoon to my mother-in-law introducing me to two turtles that were inhabiting my bathroom floor. I was definitely a bit surprised. Later, my wife translated the reasoning--my mother-in-law was told by a monk* on the street that he would take the turtles to a pond at a Buddhist temple if she bought them. I was quite relieved to hear she wasn't planning on cooking them (though I doubted that when I first saw the turtles).

As of Monday, we have a little fish tank for the two reptiles sitting on the balcony. I'm not sure if my mother-in-law is still looking for that monk. Jia says she found a local Buddhist organization that would take care of the turtles, but I haven't heard anything about that since Friday.
I just hope that they end up in a pond that's clean and not overcrowded like the one in Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou. It looks like the monks are practicing turtle stacking there.

*There are quite a few fake monks in Shenzhen that go around asking people for money for their temples. Usually these "monks" are seen talking on cell phones and wearing sneakers. We've even seen a few eating meat.