"You are not even a regular employee. What right do you have to talk to me?"
"Heh. Xiao Xiao is not a regular employee anymore either. Now I have every right to talk about her."
…
The argument ended with Wang Danai winning by a hair. Wang Danai wiped her dry lips. "Come on, breakfast. People break their heads trying to get in here just to eat from our canteen."
Wanting to ask about recent events, Jing Shu followed Wang Danai into the canteen.
By then, the crowd had thinned. Without lining up, they each got a bowl of thin millet porridge and a small plate of salted greens mixed with mushroom.
In her previous life, Jing Shu would have dreamed of a meal as plain as this. In this life, she could barely swallow it. She had definitely been spoiled.
They found a seat. Jing Shu slid her tray over to Wang Danai. "You eat. I already had breakfast at home."
"Then get another portion. With food this good I can eat five bowls. Are you foolish?" Wang Danai stared in disbelief.
"Ahem, small appetite. I can't finish." Jing Shu lied with a straight face.
"Alright then. I like people like you. Thanks." Wang Danai dug in with gusto.
"What has happened these days? And the plants assigned to me, are they still alright?" Jing Shu asked.
"Strangely alright," Wang Danai said. "That batch of gastrodia used to grow all crooked. Ever since you fixed them, I check them daily and they only get better.
And the honeysuckle assigned to you, President Zhou said it was under your care. The moment he said that, the honeysuckle acted like it had gained a spirit. Every day it looked better. The ones that never bloomed are blooming, the stunted ones are filling out. Still not like before the apocalypse, but almost good enough to enter the pharmacopeia."
Wang Danai rattled on like beans from a bamboo tube. "And your astragalus seedlings have sprouted. The germination rate beats the other plots by a lot. None of the odd symptoms that other people are seeing. Honestly, even if no one watched them, yours would survive.
But President Zhou said the seeds must be special, that you soaked them with a unique method."
Jing Shu nodded, surprised. The Spirit Spring was working even better than she thought. Last time, to avoid attention, she had only used heavily diluted Spirit Spring, and it still outperformed the other plots by a lot, even after being left alone so long.
"Good. And these people? I see so many new faces today, while the familiar ones from last time are gone," Jing Shu said.
At that, Wang Danai pulled a mournful face. "Some were cut. Some were reassigned downward. The Medicinal Herb Association only has so much space. We cannot waste grain on too many mouths. The 'downward' posts are the pharmaceutical factories that stopped before. After material enters medicine, the residue can be pressed into secondary tablets. Efficacy is ordinary, but better than nothing. The authorities are preparing to reopen the factories. That job is bitter, with worse benefits than ours."
Jing Shu let out a long "Oh." She had heard the Association's status would be high later. So why were there only seven regular staff at first? Turned out they were still merging institutions.
"These people have been here more than a week," Wang Danai continued. "The plan is to centralize medicinal planting for the whole provincial capital, then allocate processed material down to the prefectural and municipal levels. Central supply, higher efficiency. So they are summoning experienced growers from across the province. This is only the first batch. Another batch is coming."
Wang Danai glanced around and lowered her voice. "I heard there are real medicinal families in this batch. After President Tie put that tall hat on you today, those family types will probably come make trouble soon."
Wu City had only four million people, but the provincial capital had thirty million. Even with fifteen percent dead, that left over twenty million. At even one in ten thousand, the Medicinal Herb Association would soon have thousands of people. That would be lively indeed.
As for the trouble Wang Danai mentioned, Jing Shu did not mind. If they asked professional questions, she could simply not answer. She truly did not know the textbook theory.
After Wang Danai finished all the gossip and business, the two finally went to "work."
Others were genuinely busy.
Jing Shu's "busy" meant checking her three items: gastrodia, honeysuckle, and astragalus.
By Wang Danai's standards their growth was joyous. To Jing Shu, they were mediocre, not even as vigorous as the weeds at her villa.
Even so, they still grew better than most plots here.
Many medicinal plants were as finicky as ornamental flowers.
Jing Shu calculated. With these three qualifying for medicine, and with leeches also counting, she would claim the leech niche early while no one else was raising them. Then she would add two more medicinal lines and solve a couple of problems. The vice president seat would be as good as hers.
Of course, the Medicinal Herb Association was not idle either. They were already planting the herbs most in demand for current illnesses. Quantities were small, but good enough for emergencies.
That left fewer open niches for her. To plant more, she would need to choose something scarce.
Seeing that aloe had been added to the medicinal roster, Jing Shu's eyes lit up. She had been too rigid. Who cared whether something was traditionally "a medicine." If it had medicinal effects, it counted.
"I can plant the Bodhi tree," Jing Shu thought. "Bodhi is a nemesis of parasites. Most important of all, the seeds were given to me by Mu Xiaoxuan. With that legitimate source, there is nothing to fear."
The inspiration hit like lightning. Before, she had wanted to plant Bodhi but did not know how to bring it out publicly.
Now the chance had arrived. As a member of the Medicinal Herb Association, with proven skill and experience, and with classmate Mu Xiaoxuan conveniently providing the seeds, she could plant it openly.
If the day came when parasites ran rampant, she could reveal this and save more people, while elevating her own standing. Parasites were truly terrifying for apocalypse survivors. She prayed that in this life, no one would die from them.
Once she thought it, she acted. Jing Shu took the Bodhi seeds from her Rubik's Cube Space and planted them on the nursery racks, then recorded the planting on the Big Data system as evidence.
Bodhi grew fast. It needed repotting every month and could be used medicinally in four months. Planting Bodhi was completely in time.
She had considered propagating from cuttings, which would be faster. But for the sake of "fair play," she chose to plant from seed.