It really did have something to do with her. Back then, Jing Shu had kept one trick to herself. She never disclosed the step about selecting only the old nematodes, so although everyone had witnessed the method, no one knew the secret within it. Naturally, they could not reproduce the way to clear the eggs.
When Jing Shu and Zhou Bapi arrived, Xiao Xiao was arguing for her life. "I did not falsely claim the bounty. I was claiming it on behalf of our Medicinal Herb Association!"
Jing Shu's gaze slid to the young man standing to the side. It was Zhu Chuangshi, the one interviewed in her previous life.
She remembered the name because while others were named things like Jianguo, Chenglong, or Jiancai, his father had gone for broke and named him Chuangshi, Creation.
On the other side, the staff laid out the sequence of events. Last night, Xiao Xiao brought in a batch of gastrodia whose eggs had been cleared and claimed she had discovered the method. She wrote out the process in detail. The inspectors asked her to try it on other plants, but it did not work. After several attempts, Xiao Xiao insisted it needed half a day to take effect and said that was how the eggs on the gastrodia had been removed. She asked the staff to recognize her as the first to come up with the idea.
The reward was rich, with food and virtual coins, plus honors and even a post. It drew countless greedy eyes. After learning about the bounty, Xiao Xiao waited half a day. Jing Shu's friend still had not announced anything, so Xiao Xiao took her shot.
Naturally, the staff refused, saying they would wait until results appeared. They waited a long time. Xiao Xiao tried every which way and still failed.
Then the young man arrived, carrying a bucket of red nematodes. Using the same method as Xiao Xiao, he cleared the eggs.
The government prepared to recognize him as the first to solve the problem.
But why did the same method fail in her hands and work in his?
Dangling in front of a massive prize, Xiao Xiao asked if he was not Jing Shu's friend. When he said no, she finally blurted out that the Medicinal Herb Association had thought of this method the morning before yesterday. The reward, she said, should go to their association. In the process, she inadvertently dragged Jing Shu into it. If the reward went to the Medicinal Herb Association, she would surely get a slice.
Since Xiao Xiao first claimed the method as her own, then slipped and said it belonged to the Medicinal Herb Association, the authorities brought in officers to assist the inquiry.
"Given your statements, this amounts to using another's name to falsely claim a bounty," they said.
Even if you used it earlier, you were not the one who came up with it.
Because Xiao Xiao belonged to the Medicinal Herb Association and held a special status, the police asked for a responsible leader. With the other presidents absent, Zhou Bapi came.
Jing Shu wore an oh-I-see expression. So Xiao Xiao had wanted the bounty and, understanding only half, had rushed to present the idea. Of course it would not work. Unwilling to watch the reward slip past, she tried to package it as the association's achievement.
"What a troublemaker." Xiao Xiao had even wrecked the cover story Jing Shu had set up.
The Medicinal Herb Association would not carry the blame, nor would it steal what belonged to someone else. After listening to Zhu Chuangshi's method, Jing Shu applauded and endorsed it twice over, confirming that Zhu Chuangshi's version was more precise and practical. He deserved the reward.
The government staff hurried to publish the new procedure. They had no time for anything else.
Xiao Xiao was escorted back to the Medicinal Herb Association. Given the severity of her false-claim stunt, Zhou Bapi stripped her of her full-time position, causing an uproar within the association.
Everyone knew Xiao Xiao had tried to use Jing Shu's method to claim the bounty. The looks they gave Xiao Xiao turned strange, and the way they looked at Jing Shu, whom most had met only on her first day, shifted as well.
Evildoers meet their comeuppance. This was not the first self-destructive type Jing Shu had seen. She had a feeling Xiao Xiao would end up ruining herself.
…
With that wrapped up, Jing Shu steadied her mood and dived back into work. Chu Zhuohua had already driven the RV to Chen Nan's conversion shop, and the major refit had begun.
That day, Jing Shu had light gauge steel hauled over by Li Yuetian, then confirmed with Chen Nan's shop what materials were on hand and what was missing. She made a list and headed downtown to salvage more. The drowned city was a natural treasure vault.
She could still picture Chen Nan's pained face at the materials list. For the big sister's sake, when Jing Shu said she planned to refit a second vehicle, Chen Nan forced a smile. Jing Shu was not about to stiff her. She paid 600 coins per vehicle in materials to help offset the RV costs.
She suddenly felt poor. If she had not salvaged that yellow bed and earned some virtual coins, she could not even have covered the materials. No, now that virtual coin circulation on the big data exchange had kicked in, she needed to speed up her own earning.
By the way, the items auctioned by Su Mali were delivered the next day. Jing Shu transplanted the aloe to the villa yard, where it had already rooted.
As for the cigarettes, Grandpa Jing and Jing An had divvied them up. With tobacco on hand, they quarreled less. It even made Jing Shu wonder if she should plant a crop of tobacco leaves.
For now, Jing Shu planted another batch of grapes in the Rubik's Cube Space, planning to brew wine. When the wine was ready, she could bring it out in the open. Wine could be explained as stock from before. Fresh grapes, though, would be hard to justify.
She was so busy she almost forgot she was on the Medicinal Herb Association's payroll. Only later, at the old master's birthday banquet, when someone asked what she did, did she remember. "Oh shoot, oh shoot, I am with the Medicinal Herb Association. And I have barely shown up lately."
But that was for later.
Every day, Jing Shu piloted the amphibious shark submarine to Chen Nan's shop first to go over the refit progress with Chu Zhuohua, then pushed into the flooded city to scavenge usable materials.
The blood mushroom craze had spurred people on. Every few days, someone found a fresh patch. Deaths followed too. Even so, the fervor held. In the apocalypse, grain drew people like a magnet, and everyone believed in a little luck.
When the first batch of red nematode mushrooms came to market, Zhu Chuangshi's method had already been popularized, but it did nothing for seeds. Su Lanzhi's vegetable plots hit a wall again, and the government urged new experiments.
"Try boiling the water before irrigating. Boiling kills 99 percent of bacteria, but the fungus associated with red nematodes just happens to be in the other one percent and shrugs off heat."
"I have applied for an ultrafiltration system," Su Lanzhi said, "but the materials are all waterlogged. Who knows how long installation will take. Until then, we may not be able to grow any vegetables at all."