Jing Shu rubbed her nose and kept quiet. She already knew what was coming next. The hardest period of the apocalypse was about to begin. All she wanted was to make a quiet fortune, eat well, sleep well, and not get dragged into trouble. As long as no one tried to take her private stash or force her to hand over her food, she'd be happy.
"Then you should store your seeds in the city's warehouse," Jin Tianci said. "We won't charge you any storage fees. You can use them anytime you need."
He called in his secretary and drafted the entire agreement on his tablet, officially logging every detail. He even added the new clauses they'd discussed earlier, then marked the deal as Wu City's top-level secret. From now on, only the highest-ranking officials could modify it. Anyone who dared mess with that twenty percent crop allocation would be breaking an official decree recognized even by the Capital.
Jing Shu nodded quickly, looking like a pecking chick. Even if Jin Tianci hadn't mentioned it, she'd planned to keep those seeds in Wu City's warehouse anyway.
After all, it was a massive batch. She didn't really have anywhere else to put it. Keeping them in the Rubik's Cube Space wasn't exactly "official," either. She'd just secretly store a small portion in the space later. You couldn't put all your eggs in one basket. The Red Nematodes she'd kept there before had always been safe, but if anything ever happened to the warehouse, losing her seeds would be a nightmare.
Once they'd finished the discussion, both of them let out a long breath. The weight in their chests finally eased.
Jin Tianci immediately began making arrangements for the seeds' distribution and planting. "We won't hand this batch to the Agriculture Department. They're overloaded and don't have the time or facilities to handle it. Send an order to the Research Department. Tell them to use that method to plant them."
He kept talking in circles.
Jing Shu frowned. "That method?" Besides soil and hydroponics, was there another way to plant seeds? Was it reliable? Was it safe? She had twenty percent in that batch, after all.
"When it's time to start planting, you'd better call me," she said seriously. "I'll help check things over."
"Sure, sure," Jin Tianci replied absentmindedly as he turned to issue new instructions. It was then that she realized just how many departments were getting involved in this.
"So this is what they mean by one command from the top, and the secretaries run themselves to death," she thought with amusement.
Jing Shu leaned back comfortably on the sofa, waiting for the briefing to end. Once things wrapped up, she'd ask the secretary to take her to see Li Dayou. She needed to think of a proper way to thank those people. They'd be leaving Wu City in a few days, and chances were she'd never see them again.
People always said cash was the best reward since everyone could buy whatever they wanted.
"How about giving them virtual coins?" she muttered, then shook her head. She didn't have that many herself.
In this apocalypse, nothing beat plain rice.
"Should I give them rice then?" she wondered, then shook her head again. The favor she owed was huge—how much rice would be enough to express her gratitude? And it wasn't like they could bring much on the plane anyway.
Besides, her family's rice supply wasn't endless. If she gave it away, they'd be short at home.
"So what should I give them then?" she murmured, thinking hard. Suddenly her eyes lit up. She slapped her thigh and said excitedly, "Teaching a man to fish is better than giving him fish! In times like this, what's the point of giving more food? It'll all run out eventually."
Just then, the door slammed open with a bang. A gust of cold wind swept in, then the door banged shut again. A familiar voice shouted, "Sister-in-law, pour me some hot tea, it's freezing out here!"
The first thing Jing Shu saw was Zhou Bapi's big yellow-toothed grin. Next door, Madam Jin rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath as she poured more milk tea. Milk was already a rare luxury in Wu City, and now these uninvited guests had drunk four whole pots today.
She sighed. "This was supposed to help Lao Jin recover, but everyone's freeloading instead."
"The Jin family's tea sure is fancy," Zhou Bapi said cheerfully, gulping down his drink. "Pure milk, huh? Would be perfect if you added a pinch of salt. It's freezing out there."
He plopped himself onto the sofa, then froze when he saw Jing Shu sitting there. The mouthful of milk tea he'd just taken almost sprayed everywhere, but he forced it down through his nose instead. It stung like hell, but hey, at least it wasn't wasted.
"Jing Shu, you're finally back? When did you get here?" His face lit up with excitement, his voice full of emotion. "My dear apprentice, you've got no idea how worried I was! You've been missing for over a month! I called you so many times my phone nearly exploded. Only Lao Jin here told me you'd gone deep into the mountains. We didn't even know if you'd come back, so I'd stopped hoping."
He sniffled dramatically. "You should've told us when you came back! I've been worried sick looking for you!"
Jing Shu blinked. "What's the matter? I thought I'd already arranged everything with the Medicinal Herb Association. If you need chicken manure, ask my grandma. What's so urgent?"
Her arrangement with the Medicinal Herb Association was pretty comfortable. All her monthly work quotas had been replaced with chicken manure deliveries, and she'd even exceeded the target. She didn't need to show up at the Association anymore. The only people above her were the missing Director and her own teacher, Zhou Bapi. No one else dared manage her.
"You forgot? The Capital's Medicinal Herb Planting Contest, the one that got canceled last year. It's back on. It starts in five days!" Zhou Bapi said urgently. "All twenty-six districts' associations will bring their own crops to compete. The results decide the next distribution of medicinal resources. Lao Jin gave us a strict order this time. A lot of Wu City's sick and elderly are counting on new medicine. If we don't win some resources back, the Association's gonna lose its privileges and benefits."
The Medicinal Herb Association's perks were way better than the Agriculture Department's.
Jing Shu raised an eyebrow. She did have a pretty high clearance level, higher than her mother's even. But she didn't hold much real power. It just meant if she got in trouble, she'd be judged internally by the Association instead of Wu City's main authority. No other department could touch her. After all, she was a vice president.
"So soon?" she said, surprised. She'd thought the contest was dead and buried, but it seemed it was happening fast. Way too fast.
She'd just gotten home, still had tons of supplies to prepare, and more things to handle. It was already the fourth year of the apocalypse—couldn't she just rest for a few days?
Her expression darkened.
Zhou Bapi, on the other hand, was grinning wide, his yellow teeth flashing. "That's right. They say someone cracked a mysterious item, and now a batch of resources is being distributed. So they're holding a quick contest. If you hadn't come back, we'd have no chance. But since you're here, hehe, our odds just went way up.
Lao Jin, if we really win this time, shouldn't the Medicinal Herb Association get a few extra benefits?"
Mysterious item?