A man's voice, carrying a tone of practiced authority, sounded from the hallway outside: "Take a look at yours too. Let's first go check on Deputy Director Su's side. With carrion scavengers popping up everywhere lately and no pesticide allocated from above for her section, it looks like we can only rely on ingenuity and natural methods."
A man in his early thirties with a straight, upright posture and sharp, intelligent eyes stepped in first, his gaze sweeping the room. He was followed closely by the familiar, pot bellied Clerk Liu, who moved with a wheezing effort. Jing Shu recognized him instantly as the smarmy clerk who had tagged along with Yu Caini to pressure and haggle when selling the apartment.
"Deputy Director Su, the final trial samples are due for the district competition tomorrow. How are things shaping up? Do you need any last minute support here? And this is…?" The man smiled warmly as he shook hands with Su Lanzhi, then looked with polite curiosity toward Jing Shu.
"This is my daughter, Jing Shu. She brought some frogs today to help eat the bugs," said Su Lanzhi, introducing Jing Shu, then adding in a lower voice to Jing Shu, "This is our Director Niu. Once the artificial sun's primary site is finalized for our district, Director Niu will be promoted to vice ministerial level." Her tone held a mix of respect and caution.
As for the balding, sweating Clerk Liu standing behind him, Su Lanzhi completely ignored him, turning her attention back to the mushroom logs. Clerk Liu stuck out his belly, hands on his hips, and rolled his eyes with open disdain at the humble setup.
"Hello, Director Niu," Jing Shu said, wearing an innocent, harmless smile, the picture of a polite young woman.
"Hello, hello. Are you getting used to the conditions here? It must be quite a change from before," Director Niu said, his demeanor young and approachable, the type of high EQ official who is always warmly attentive to subordinates' families, making them feel seen.
Seeing the five thin cords in Jing Shu's hand and the horned frogs munching steadily on the tiny flies and beetles around the vegetable racks, Director Niu's professional interest was clearly piqued. He crouched slightly for a better look. "Jing Shu, this is a good, ecological approach. The Agriculture Ministry's research branch also considered suppressing carrion scavenger populations with biological controls like this, but so many amphibian species have died off locally, and it's not their natural breeding season. It's very hard to reproduce them in sufficient numbers quickly." He spoke knowledgeably, his tone one of genuine interest rather than condescension.
He asked a few more technical questions about the frogs' diet and care. When he learned from Jing Shu's careful replies that she had already successfully hatched a batch of tadpoles from a pair, Director Niu's eyes lit up with appreciative surprise.
"Director Niu, please, take this one home to raise and see if my humble idea actually works in a household setting," Jing Shu offered, handing over the cord of a particularly robust male horned frog she had kept in the Cube Space for two days, its coloration vivid.
Clerk Liu, leaning against the doorframe, shook his leg impatiently and rolled his eyes harder, muttering just loud enough to hear, "Giving frogs as a gift? How rustic. So low rent."
Director Niu kept saying he felt embarrassed to accept it, that it was too kind, but just then a small, familiar figure, the snot nosed, chubby kid who had been eavesdropping behind the door, rushed in. He tugged on his father's trousers and looked up pitifully. "Dad, Mom says she can't stand the bugs in the bathroom anymore. If you can't solve it soon she'll make you…" He trailed off, but the unspoken threat of domestic punishment, kneel on 3.8 jin (1.9 kg) of rice, hung in the air.
While his dad froze momentarily under the shadow of this whispered domestic tyranny, the quick witted kid seized the cord from Jing Shu's hand and said brightly, "Thank you, big sister!" The little rascal even knew how to divert attention and secure the prize.
Director Niu could only relent with an embarrassed chuckle, thanking Jing Shu profusely as if he had accepted a precious gift rather than a bug eating frog. To Jing Shu, the impression was clear and valuable: Director Niu made people feel their contributions were valued, and that made the gesture feel worthwhile, building goodwill.
"With emotional intelligence and political skill this refined, it would be unnatural if he didn't rise fast," Jing Shu thought. No wonder he was already a district director in his thirties and, after the apocalypse's restructuring, kept rocketing upward. He understood the currency of favors.
After a thorough look over the lush trial batches of garlic shoots, spinach, and mushrooms Su Lanzhi had nurtured these past days, Director Niu was pleasantly surprised. "So focused, artificial cultivation with careful monitoring does have its distinct merits. Your oyster mushrooms are especially impressive, the cluster density is excellent."
Then the group moved to tour Yu Caini's gleaming, pesticide smelling experimental plots next door. Director Niu raised a few pointed, technical questions, his brow slightly furrowed: "With such heavy, routine pesticide use, are there any preliminary findings on health impacts for consumers? Are these growth catalysts within international usage standards, or are we pushing past safe limits out of necessity? And these transgenic rapid growth variants, has there been any assessment of potential adverse effects?"
Everyone in Yu Caini's team was momentarily tongue tied, looking at each other. Only Clerk Liu, eager to please, spoke up with a dismissive wave: "Director, there's barely any grain left in the city anyway. Who has time to care about all that? The higher ups have already relaxed policy for yield. They just want us to increase output, by any means. Survival first, right?"
Director Niu nodded slowly, his expression unreadable. "Then record the dosages and methods meticulously. The final risk benefit analysis will be for the higher ups to decide." It was a neutral, bureaucratic sidestep.
…
The next day was the crucial competition among the thirteen districts' trial product showcases. At 4 a.m., after a quick breakfast, Jing Shu and the family went with Su Lanzhi to fetch the carefully prepared samples from the warehouse. The moment Jing An turned the key and pushed open the heavy old warehouse door, a dark storm of flying insects burst out in a buzzing cloud, directly into their faces.
"They're mature carrion scavenger females, looking to lay eggs!" Jing Shu yanked up the zipper of her full body protective suit and swiftly pulled up Su Lanzhi's as well. Jing An, reacting fast, swung a broomstick like a bat, driving back the swarm rushing toward their exposed skin.
Su Lanzhi fumbled for the light switch and flipped it on, then froze at the ghastly scene illuminated by the bare bulbs: masses of pale carrion scavenger larvae writhed in heaping piles on the floor and tables, and every single vegetable plant in the warehouse, every spinach leaf, every garlic shoot, was chewed into a lacework of a thousand holes. Days and nights of meticulous hard work were utterly ruined, the plants unrecognizable.
With a soft thud, Su Lanzhi sank to her knees on the grimy concrete, her action startling another cloud of flying females into the air. "It's her, it has to be her! Yu Caini! She must have deliberately released these bred bugs into my warehouse last night!" She cried out hoarsely, her voice cracking with a mix of fury and devastation, utterly unwilling to accept the sabotage.
"Consider it a harsh but necessary lesson in the darkness of the human heart for my straightforward, hardworking mom," Jing Shu thought with a pang of sympathy, even as her mind shifted to damage control. She reached for her phone inside her suit and called Director Niu's direct line. He hurried over within minutes, his suit jacket askew, and was visibly shocked by the apocalyptic scene, his hand going to his mouth.
"Yesterday before we left, the carrion scavengers were all eaten clean by the frogs. We checked every inch of this place carefully with Lao Chen. There's no way a population this large could have exploded naturally in a single night," Su Lanzhi murmured, her eyes unfocused, replaying the previous evening's lock up routine.
Director Niu, his face grim, immediately summoned Yu Caini to the scene. Yu Caini arrived a few minutes later with two of her researchers in tow, her chin high, a mask of innocence plastered on her face. "What evidence do you have that I put bugs in here? Hmm? Don't you dare sling mud without proof. This is slander!" She crossed her arms. "Whatever you say, competitions only judge the final results presented. No one's going to give you another ten days or half a month to regrow samples from scratch. Unless," she added with a sneer, "you can magically produce new, perfect samples right now?"
Yu Caini tittered, a sound of pure satisfaction, very pleased to see Su Lanzhi so utterly defeated, kneeling amid the ruin. She then turned smoothly to Director Niu, her voice syrupy. "Director Niu, once you transfer to the ministry, we in the district must continue to cooperate closely. If you ever need access to professor level researchers or specialized equipment, just say the word. I believe consolidating our district's best resources will maximize benefits for everyone." It was a blatant offer of alliance, leveraging her connections.
Jing Shu, watching from the side, raised an eyebrow. So Yu Caini did have real, substantial backing beyond her uncle. No wonder in the previous life she had risen so securely, attached to Director Niu's coattails all the way up. But in this life, maybe, just maybe, Jing Shu would find a way to knock her down a peg or two.
"Well then, I'm off to prepare for the competition presentation," Yu Caini said breezily, brushing imaginary dust from her sleeve. "Oh, and Deputy Director Su," she added, turning back as if an afterthought, "after the results are announced, I expect you to bring the money and buy back that shabby little apartment of yours. At the original price, of course. Otherwise," she smiled sweetly, "I don't think you'll be deputy director for much longer."
Today Yu Caini had changed into a neat, pressed office outfit. She had apparently wrangled a few precious bottles of purified water from some hapless man to wash her hair and face, put on light makeup, and was feeling very pleased with herself, ready for her moment.
"Of course, if you buy it back promptly, I might be persuaded to let you keep the job for another month, out of pity," Yu Caini thought smugly to herself, already savoring the victory.
Seeing the dramatic confrontation seemingly come to a dead end, Jing Shu stepped forward and began gathering the empty sample boxes. "Mom," she said, her voice calm and clear in the tense silence, "did you forget there's still one backup set of samples we brought home yesterday to keep safe? Come on, let's go get them. We still have time."
It took Su Lanzhi, still on her knees, a few seconds to process the words. Then hope flickered in her eyes. "Oh, right, right! Thank goodness we were cautious and kept one backup set at home!"
"Go quickly, and hurry," Director Niu urged, his expression easing slightly. "Don't worry about transport; I'll arrange a vehicle. If you win this time, I will make sure this act of sabotage is investigated and you get justice." His meaning, however, was clear and pragmatic: if they lost, there would be no political capital to pursue anything. History, especially bureaucratic history, is always written by the victors.
The family rushed out of the infested warehouse, leaving the buzzing horror behind, and sped home in their scooter. Of course, there were no pre prepared "backup samples" waiting at home; they only had what they had been growing privately in the villa's greenhouse and the superior stock from the Cube Space. Re packing the best specimens into the official sample boxes was a frantic hassle, but they still had a few hours. To secure a sure win, to make the plants utterly unbeatable, Jing Shu kept adding drops of heavily diluted Spirit Spring water to the roots of the selected garlic shoots and oyster mushroom logs, confident they would perk up, grow visibly denser, and emit an even more vibrant vitality by the time they arrived at the competition site.