"Did I pick the wrong time? It is already afternoon. Is something big happening today?" After scanning her fingerprint, Jing Shu stepped into the Medicinal Herb Association. The first floor lobby looked like it was hosting some kind of event. She did not look closely, just headed up to the third floor to her test plots.
This time she would not eat, would not stir trouble. She would quietly plant what she came to plant, then leave. On the way, she would check how her recent crops were doing. As a member of the Medicinal Herb Association, she had to care about these things. She could not be a complete hands-off manager.
Wang Danai nodded. "Any day but today, and yet here you are. Since you are here, of course it had to be right now."
"What is wrong?" She set the prepped seeds into the racks in her field, labeled them, and entered the information into the big data system.
Once the tobacco sprouted and reached medicinal grade, the results would count for her record.
"Yesterday the branch from Ta City came to challenge us. After two days on the platform, they are about to win. And you walk in at this exact moment."
Wang Danai sighed. "They are downstairs hunting for someone to take the fall. We were going to call you, but we did not have your contact. And now you walked right in."
She stared. "Challenge? People challenge a Medicinal Herb Association?" This had to be a joke.
"Ta City is being put under Wu City. Same province, but who wants to be the junior? Of course they do not. So they came up with this idea. Ai, you should go. Do not wade into muddy water."
She finished sowing and had no intention of lingering. "Alright, I will go."
Just then a crowd flooded up from below. The third floor fields were large, but her enclosed private test plot was not. Suddenly the place felt cramped.
President Tie bulled through, his stout body squeezing between people. "Make way, make way. What did I say? The savior of the Wu City Medicinal Herb Association has arrived. Our finale genius cannot show up early, can she? Those so-called masters from Ta City are nothing but hot air in front of Jing Shu."
Whispers swelled. People asked who she was and why President Tie praised her like that.
Those who knew the last incident rushed to embellish it: the prodigy from a medicine clan whom President Zhou had begged to return, so high and mighty in daily life, always putting on a show.
Others hinted that President Zhou had paid handsomely to bring her in as window dressing. In a blink the crowd had lifted her to the clouds.
She frowned. She really had walked in at the worst time. She lowered her voice to Wang Danai. "Where is Zhou Bapi?"
"Who?"
"Ahem, I mean President Zhou. Is he back?"
"Not yet. You are on your own."
President Tie's eyes shone. He rubbed his plump hands, thrilled. "Come, Jing Shu, our association's super genius. Whether we can salvage our face depends on you."
She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, President Tie, I am not the super genius you claim. I only came to fetch something. I do not even know what you are talking about. If your own president cannot handle it, I certainly cannot. Please step aside. I am going home."
The murmur grew louder.
"How can she be like that? I thought she was amazing."
"Right. The association is on the line."
President Tie smiled with a sincerity that barely hid clenched teeth. "Jing Shu, you are a member of the association. Right now they are trampling us. This is the moment to prove your strength.
Ta City is on the platform downstairs challenging our orthodox branch. If they win, the government will split our resources and give them half. If we win, they will be merged under us.
And if, as a full member, you deliberately hold back and we lose, you will not escape responsibility."
Her eyes narrowed. She hated threats most of all. A cold laugh slipped free. "Heh. You lost. What does that have to do with me? If you want to assign blame, then it belongs to everyone equally. So let everyone share the consequences."
She had zero desire to climb on any platform. She was a layperson at this stuff. If she fought, she would lose badly.
President Tie froze for two seconds. He had not expected someone her age to be so calm under social pressure. He had brought a whole crowd to box her in with public opinion, add his sugar-coated shells, and nudge the little miss onto the stage. Instead she stayed cool and simply refused.
"Lost. We are done," he thought. But before losing he needed a scapegoat.
That person had to be Jing Shu. He could not shoulder the blame for cutting the association's resource allotment in half.
To be frank, he had no solution himself and assumed there was no way to win.
"Wait," he blurted. "Jing Shu, if you can solve one problem on the platform today, it will count toward your vice chair assessment. How about that? You might even settle your assessment task right on the stage. Then once your plantings reach medicinal grade, you can be promoted directly to vice chair."
Anyone can paint a big pie in the sky. So could he.
She arched a brow. That did sound convenient.
"So what kind of platform is it? Academic? Planting?" she asked. If it was pure theory, she would walk. She did not know textbook botany.
President Tie wiped sweat. The fish had bitten. "Times have changed. The apocalypse erased old theory. What matters is who can grow medicinal plants under apocalypse conditions. That is the core. Use any method that works. Along the way, weather, temperature, humidity, and so on cause all sorts of problems.
"So the Ta City people brought problems from their fields. If you revive their medicinal plants, Wu City gets one point. If they revive ours, they get one point. The score is Ta City five, Wu City two."
Her lips quirked. Was this not an upgrade package tailor-made for her?
"So if I solve one case," she said, "you will count it as one of my assessment tasks."
President Tie nodded three times. "It counts. It must count."
Beep
"Good. I recorded that. Let us go have a look."