A man's voice sounded outside: "Take a look at yours too. Let's first go check on Deputy Director Su's side. With carrion scavengers everywhere lately and no pesticide allocated from above, it looks like we can only rely on ourselves."
A man in his early thirties with a straight, upright posture stepped in first, followed by the pot-bellied Clerk Liu. Jing Shu recognized him as the clerk who had tagged along with Yu Caini to haggle when selling the house.
"Deputy Director Su, the trial samples are due for the competition tomorrow. How are things? Do you need anything here? And this is…?" The man smiled as he shook hands with Su Lanzhi, then looked toward Jing Shu.
"This is my daughter, Jing Shu. She brought frogs today to help eat bugs," said Su Lanzhi, introducing Jing Shu, then adding to Jing Shu, "This is our Director Niu. Once the artificial sun's site is finalized, Director Niu will be promoted to minister."
As for the balding Clerk Liu behind him, Su Lanzhi completely ignored him. Clerk Liu stuck out his belly and rolled his eyes with open disdain.
"Hello, Director Niu," Jing Shu said, wearing an innocent, harmless smile.
"Hello, hello. Are you getting used to things here?" Director Niu looked young and approachable, the type of high-EQ official who is always warm to subordinates' families.
Seeing the five cords in Jing Shu's hand and the frogs munching on bugs, Director Niu's interest was clearly piqued. "Jing Shu, this is a good approach. The Agriculture Ministry also considered suppressing carrion scavengers like this, but so many frogs have died, and it's not breeding season. It's very hard to reproduce them in numbers."
He asked a few more questions. When he learned that Jing Shu had already hatched a batch of tadpoles, Director Niu's eyes lit up.
"Director Niu, please take this one home to raise and see if my idea works. If every family kept a bug-eating frog, wouldn't it reduce the bugs at home?" Jing Shu handed over a male horned frog she had kept in the Cube Space for two days.
Clerk Liu shook his leg and rolled his eyes harder. "Giving frogs as a gift? That's so low-rent."
Director Niu kept saying he felt embarrassed to accept it, but just then a small, snot-nosed, chubby kid who had been eavesdropping behind the door rushed in. He looked pitifully at his dad. "Dad, Mom says she can't stand the bugs anymore. If you can't solve it soon she'll make you…" …kneel on 3.8 jin (1.9 kg).
While his dad froze under the shadow of domestic tyranny, the kid seized the cord and said, "Thank you, big sister." The little rascal even knew how to divert attention.
Director Niu could only relent, thanking Jing Shu profusely as if he had accepted a precious gift. To Jing Shu, the impression was clear: Director Niu valued what she gave, and that made it feel worthwhile.
"With someone this savvy, it would be unnatural if he didn't rise fast," Jing Shu thought. No wonder he was already a director in his thirties and, after the apocalypse, kept rocketing upward.
After looking over the trial batches Su Lanzhi had nurtured these days, Director Niu was pleasantly surprised. "So artificial cultivation does have its merits. Your oyster mushrooms are especially good."
Then they went to tour Yu Caini's experimental plots. Director Niu raised a few pointed questions: "With such heavy pesticide use, are there health impacts? Are the catalysts within international usage standards, or over the limit? Do these transgenic crops have adverse effects?"
Everyone was tongue-tied. Only Clerk Liu spoke up: "There's no grain left anyway. Who cares about all that? The higher-ups already relaxed policy. They just want us to increase yield."
Director Niu nodded. "Then record the dosages carefully, and let the higher-ups decide."
…
The next day was the competition among the thirteen districts' trial products. At 4 a.m., after breakfast, Jing Shu and family went with Su Lanzhi to fetch the samples prepared yesterday. The moment they opened the old warehouse door, a storm of flying insects burst out.
"They're carrion scavenger females!" Jing Shu yanked up the zipper of her one-piece suit and pulled up Su Lanzhi's as well. Jing An swung a stick, driving back the swarm rushing their faces.
Su Lanzhi flipped on the lights and froze at the ghastly scene: masses of carrion scavenger larvae writhed in heaps all over, and every vegetable in the warehouse was chewed into a thousand holes. Days of hard work were ruined.
With a thud, Su Lanzhi sank to her knees, startling countless flying females into the air. "It's her, it has to be her! Yu Caini! She must have deliberately released these bugs into my warehouse!" Su Lanzhi cried hoarsely, utterly unwilling to accept it.
"Consider it a harsh lesson in the darkness of the human heart for a straightforward mom," Jing Shu thought, as she reached for her phone to call Director Niu. He hurried over and was visibly shocked by what he saw.
"Yesterday the carrion scavengers were all eaten by the frogs. Before we left we checked every inch carefully with Lao Chen. There's no way this could have exploded in a single night," Su Lanzhi murmured, eyes unfocused.
Director Niu summoned Yu Caini. Yu Caini arrived with two people, chin high. "What evidence do you have that I put bugs in here? Hmm? Don't you dare sling mud without proof. Whatever you say, competitions only judge results. No one's going to give you another ten days or half a month to regrow samples. Unless you can magically produce new ones now?"
Yu Caini tittered, very satisfied to see Su Lanzhi so defeated. She then turned to Director Niu. "Director Niu, once you transfer, we must cooperate closely. If you need professor-level researchers, just say the word. I believe consolidating our resources will maximize benefits."
Jing Shu raised an eyebrow. So Yu Caini did have real backing. No wonder in the previous life she rose with Director Niu all the way. But in this life, maybe Jing Shu would knock her down.
"Well then, I'm off to the competition," Yu Caini said. "Oh, and Deputy Director Su, after it's over I expect you to bring money and buy back that shabby house of yours. Otherwise you won't be deputy director for long."
Today Yu Caini had changed into a neat office outfit. She had wrangled a few bottles of water from some man to wash her hair and face, put on light makeup, and was feeling very pleased with herself.
"Of course, if you buy it back, I might let you keep the job for another month," Yu Caini thought smugly.
Seeing the show come to an end, Jing Shu stepped forward to gather things up. "Mom, did you forget there's still a set of samples we brought home yesterday? Come on, let's go get them."
It took Su Lanzhi a while to react. "Oh, right, right. Thank goodness we kept one."
"Go quickly," Director Niu said. "Don't worry. If you win this time, I will make sure you get justice." His meaning was simple: if they lost, there was nothing he could do. History is always written by the victors.
The family rushed home again. Of course there were no prepared samples left; they only had what they had grown themselves. Re-packing into the sample boxes was a hassle, but there was still time. To secure a sure win, Jing Shu kept adding diluted Spirit Spring to the garlic shoots and oyster mushrooms, confident they would perk up even more by the time they arrived.