There were actually mutant chickens that weren't afraid of the zombie virus now? That was better than any insurance policy she could buy! The best part was that, with the virus spreading everywhere, raising these mutant chickens meant there was no more need for expensive feed. Imagine how much grain that would save! These birds were basically walking, self-preserving meat jars in the harsh reality of the apocalypse.
"What a pity," Jing Shu muttered, shaking her head as she looked at the small number of successful hatchlings. "A ten percent hatching rate is way too low. There's no way this can scale up for mass production."
She decided to stick with the premium route for her business. If she went for mass production and raised tens of thousands of chickens, by the fifth year, she wouldn't even need some tyrant to swoop in and steal her results; Jin Tianci himself would probably be drooling over her flock of apocalypse-proof mutant chickens.
No, the flock had to stay rare. It had to be rare enough that only a few birds were available every month, the kind of luxury people had to reserve months in advance. She wanted them to be rare enough that they would be classified as a protected species, something even the government would step in to safeguard.
Maybe she should come up with a touching little myth about them to drive up the value. For instance, she could claim that the first thing a chick sees after hatching is its mother, and from that moment on, it will follow her to the end of its life. Rich people always loved loyalty stories like that.
Oh, that's right, this matter needed Jin Tianci to handle it personally. Under the new post-apocalyptic laws, she could technically apply to join the Mutant Animal Protection Association, couldn't she?
Jing Shu quickly jotted a new line in her planner, her pen scratching against the paper:
Bring the dino-chickens and eggs for inspection. Check if they contain any harmful substances and confirm if they're edible. Apply for a rare-species license. Let Grandma Jing handle the breeding. Finally, trade them for resources!
After all, virtual currency was poor people's money now. The real rich traded goods directly, since energy and materials had become things that digital money couldn't buy anymore. Renting a single chicken for breeding already required a 10,000-coin deposit.
And these mutant chickens? No one would even need to worry about the cost of feeding them.
Oh right, she also had to check whether eggs from chickens fed with regular feed differed in quality or taste from those that ate the zombie-virus bugs.
Xiao Dou shivered in the corner of the Cube Space. She still felt a bit regretful that her own eggs wouldn't hatch, but honestly, she had come to terms with it. Poor hens out there in the world got mounted and forced to brood every single day just to become breeding stock. Compared to that, she was living the free life of a queen.
But still! Her status in this family was irreplaceable, no matter what other hens came into the yard. Starting tomorrow, no, starting today, she was going to lay a few extra eggs to prove her worth!
Cluck cluck cluck!
Grandma Jing had been wanting to raise chickens anyway, so why not surprise her with a batch of these mutants? They didn't need feed, they laid plenty of eggs, and their chicks could sell for a high price in the city. Grandma Jing would definitely love it.
Yeah, she would give them to her as a birthday gift. Just thinking about that wrinkled face breaking into a bright smile made Jing Shu grin too.
"Believe in yourself! You will win the fight! Believe in yourself, oh~!" She sang the lyrics out loud, her voice echoing in the courtyard.
Right then, her phone suddenly blasted out her battle song ringtone, the vibration nearly scaring her to death. She grabbed the device and quickly answered.
"Jing Shu! Didn't you say you were coming to work at the Medicinal Herb Association? Why aren't you here yet? We old guys are drowning in work!" Zhou Baqi's rough, gravelly voice roared through the speaker.
Cough cough. She had just been too busy lately to make the trip!
"Lao Zhou, didn't we agree you would only call me when there's a competition? I have been working on something big recently."
"Forget the competition," he snapped, his breath huffing on the other end. "It's been canceled. Haven't you heard? Huge mountains just appeared all over China, and the maps are a total mess. Lots of people went missing in the chaos. We will have to wait until next year to hold the next one, assuming anyone can even get there. So hurry up and get back to work. Your contribution score is still short for this month!"
Zhou Baqi honestly had mixed feelings about her. Every member of the Association had a monthly assessment, even the president himself. And this girl, she had somehow turned it into a game of loopholes. While the rest of them worked themselves to death supervising and lecturing, barely scraping a passing grade, Jing Shu always showed up at the end of the month, tossed in a few decent portions—not even rare ones, just what was in highest demand—and her score shot up like a rocket, multiplied by ten.
"Don't even think about pulling that again," he growled. "Because of you, the Association has canceled the ten-times bonus system. Now it's all based strictly on quantity and quality. If you don't show up soon, you're getting demoted!"
As an outsider, Jing Shu already worked hard just pretending to fit in with the experts. But honestly, there wasn't much she could teach at the Association. Her main trick was simply dripping a bit of Spirit Spring into things, and boom—an instant cure was born.
"Come on, Lao Zhou, I'm serious this time. I really am working on something big. My whole assessment this month depends on it. Don't worry, even if it's calculated by weight and quality, I will pass easily. I can hold off until next month, no problem," she said confidently.
That made Zhou Baqi curious. "Everything has been restricted, what have you got left to trade?"
Jing Shu replied calmly, "Chicken poop."
"Huh?" Zhou Baqi was stumped for a moment, the line going quiet.
She explained, "We have been short on fertilizer, right? The higher-ups aren't providing any for the medicinal gardens. People can barely find enough to eat, let alone plant long-term medicinal herbs. But I have got a healthy supply of chicken manure here, perfect for composting. I can process it into fertilizer myself. The best part? I can deliver it to the Association every day and improve the nutrient quality of the crops. How about that? You guys couldn't get fertilizer, but I did. This month's assessment, even next month's, will be smooth sailing."
Technically, human waste could also be used as fertilizer, but it was expensive, it needed to be sun-dried and mixed with minerals, and it didn't have as much organic matter as chicken manure. Plus, people were all malnourished now, so their waste wasn't exactly rich in nutrients. No one wanted to collect that stuff anyway; it was disgusting and complicated to process.
Her household, though, was different. Because of the central heating pipes, the waste dried quickly under the sunlight lamps and was efficiently turned into compost by Grandma Jing and Grandpa Jing. With a new batch of chicken manure coming in from the mutant birds, they would definitely help process it too. Still, it was more than they could use for their own garden.
"That... depends on the quality," Zhou Baqi finally said. "Fine, go get it ready. I will talk to the other old guys. If you're fast, we might still make it for this batch of herbs."
Then he hung up the phone.
Jing Shu smiled to herself. "Chicken poop really is a good thing." It had just solved one of her biggest professional problems.
Outside the villa, the BYD Song honked impatiently, the sound bouncing off the walls. She grabbed a shy dino-chicken, a pile of large eggs, and a few of the new hatchlings, shouting, "Coming, coming!" as she ran to the car.
Inside the vehicle, Su Lanzhi was wearing a gray business suit that made her look mature and composed. Ever since she had been working under Minister Niu to get familiar with the role, she had been preparing herself for a promotion. Jing Shu felt genuinely happy for her.
After dropping her mother off at the government building, Jing Shu followed her father to the long-lost Wu City Livestock Breeding Center. The place had expanded nearly tenfold since last year, with multiple new divisions established across the grounds. It was basically like the vehicle registration office now; every animal needed a license to prevent the spread of the zombie virus.