"Did I pick the wrong time? It's already afternoon. Is something big happening today?" After scanning her fingerprint and hearing the sharp, mechanical beep of the terminal, Jing Shu stepped into the Medicinal Herb Association. The air in the lobby was thick with the scent of damp earth and the low, constant hum of voices.
The first floor lobby looked like it was hosting some kind of event, with people clustered together in small, whispering groups. She didn't look closely at the gathering, just headed up the stairs to the third floor to her test plots, her boots thudding softly on the concrete.
This time Jing Shu would not eat, and she would not stir trouble. She would quietly plant the tobacco seeds she had come to plant, then leave. On the way to her section, she would check how her recent crops were doing, looking for the green shoots of the astragalus and the vines of the honeysuckle. As a member of the Medicinal Herb Association, she had to care about these things. She couldn't be a complete hands off manager if she wanted to keep her status.
Wang Danai looked up from a crate of dried roots and nodded. "Any day but today, and yet here you're. Since you're here, of course it had to be right now."
"What's wrong?" Jing Shu asked. She set the prepped tobacco seeds into the wooden racks in her field, the small, dark grains feeling like sand against her skin. She labeled the rows carefully, then stood before the digital terminal and entered the information into the big data system.
Once the tobacco sprouted and reached medicinal grade, the results would count for her record toward promotion.
"Yesterday the branch from Ta City came to challenge us. After two days on the platform downstairs, they're about to win. And you walk in at this exact moment," Wang Danai explained.
She sighed, the sound heavy in the humid room. "They're downstairs hunting for someone to take the fall for the loss. We were going to call you, but we didn't have your contact information. And now you walked right in."
Jing Shu stared at the older woman. "Challenge? People challenge a Medicinal Herb Association?" This had to be a joke, a bizarre remnant of old academic rivalries.
"Ta City is being put under Wu City. Same province, but who wants to be the junior partner? Of course they don't. So they came up with this idea of a contest. Ai, you should go. Don't wade into muddy water."
Jing Shu finished sowing the last of the seeds and had no intention of lingering in the association. She dusted the fine soil from her palms. "Alright, I'll go."
Just then a crowd flooded up from the stairs below, the sound of their many footsteps echoing through the hallway. The third floor fields were large, but Jing Shu's enclosed private test plot was not. Suddenly the place felt cramped as people pressed against the glass partitions.
President Tie bulled through the throng, his stout body squeezing between the onlookers with a surprising force. Beads of sweat stood out on his bald head, reflecting the overhead fluorescent lights. "Make way, make way. What did I say? The savior of the Wu City Medicinal Herb Association has arrived. Our finale genius can't show up early, can she? Those so called masters from Ta City are nothing but hot air in front of Jing Shu."
Whispers swelled among the spectators. People asked who she was and why President Tie praised her like that, their eyes darting between the girl and the red faced president.
Those who knew the last incident involving President Zhou rushed to embellish the details: the prodigy from an ancient medicine clan whom President Zhou had begged to return, so high and mighty in daily life, always putting on a show of independence.
Others hinted that President Zhou had paid handsomely to bring her in as window dressing for the branch. In a blink the crowd had lifted Jing Shu to the clouds with their speculation.
Jing Shu frowned. She really had walked in at the worst possible time. She lowered her voice to speak to Wang Danai. "Where is Zhou Bapi?"
"Who?"
"Ahem, I mean President Zhou. Is he back from his trip?"
"Not yet. You're on your own," Wang Danai replied, her voice barely a whisper.
President Tie's eyes shone with a desperate intensity. He rubbed his plump hands together, looking thrilled as he moved closer. "Come, Jing Shu, our association's super genius. Whether we can salvage our face depends on you."
Jing Shu rolled her eyes. "Sorry, President Tie, I'm not the super genius you claim. I only came to fetch something. I don't even know what you're talking about. If your own president can't handle it, I certainly can't. Please step aside. I'm going home."
The murmur from the crowd grew louder, pressing in on her.
"How can she be like that? I thought she was amazing."
"Right. The association's on the line here."
President Tie smiled with a sincerity that barely hid his clenched teeth and the tension in his jaw. "Jing Shu, you're a member of the association. Right now they're trampling us in our own lobby. This is the moment to prove your strength.
Ta City's 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 won't escape responsibility."
Jing Shu's eyes narrowed. She had always hated threats most of all. A cold laugh slipped free. "Heh. You lost. What's that have to do with me? If you want to assign blame, then it belongs to everyone equally. So let everyone share the consequences of the failure."
She had zero desire to climb on any platform in front of a crowd. She was a layperson at this kind of academic debate. If she fought, she would lose badly.
President Tie froze for two seconds, his eyes blinking rapidly. He had not expected someone her age to be so calm under such intense 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're done," President Tie thought. But before losing he needed a scapegoat to present to the higher ups.
That person had to be Jing Shu. He couldn't 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 against the challengers from Ta City.
"Wait," President Tie blurted, his hand reaching out. "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.
Jing Shu arched a brow. That would sound convenient for her goals.
"So what kind of platform is it? Academic? Planting?" Jing Shu asked. If it was pure theory, she would walk away. She didn't know textbook botany and had no interest in learning it.
President Tie wiped sweat from his upper lip. The fish had bitten. "Times have changed. The apocalypse erased old theory. What matters is who can grow medicinal plants under apocalypse conditions. That's the core of the challenge. Use any method that works. Along the way, weather, temperature, humidity, and so on cause all sorts of problems for the crops.
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."
Jing Shu's lips quirked. Wasn't this an upgrade package tailor made for her and her Spirit Spring?
"So if I solve one case," Jing Shu said, "you will count it as one of my assessment tasks."
President Tie nodded three times, his head bobbing. "It counts. It must count."
Beep.
"Good. I recorded that on my phone. Let's go have a look."