Chapter 205: Vice President of the Medicinal Association, I Have Reserved It (Requesting Monthly Votes)

“You old bastard, you're really bad,” Jing Shu thought to herself. To get her job quickly, he used this method. Even if you don't need it, I'll take the initiative! Really.

Everything went smoothly, but the more it went this way, the more Jing Shu felt uneasy. Originally, her intention to join the Medicinal Association was to pull the tiger’s skin, but why did she feel this tiger skin was actually a fox’s?

Seeing that Jing Shu didn’t object and took it as approval, Zhou Bapi flashed his big yellow teeth again, smiling happily. He had struck gold.

“Our president has sealed himself in for seclusion,” Zhou Bapi began introducing the members of the Medicinal Association.

Jing Shu: “??” Who is the president? Why is he secluding himself? Is he reliable?

“Others are scrambling to go to the countryside to recruit people. We need to consolidate everyone here who can cultivate medicinal herbs, and there will be competitions eventually.”

Zhou Bapi led Jing Shu inside and introduced, “Right now, what we’re cultivating here are the easier-to-grow varieties. This section has got water lilies; we planted them last year for clearing heat and detoxifying. Since the weather isn’t hot anymore, we plan to harvest the last batch soon and stop planting them. After all, too many resources are wasted.”

“There are some Ophiopogon here, which can regulate the spleen and stomach. Mainly, they’re grown thanks to sponsorships providing energy.”

“Look over there at the honeysuckle. Honeysuckle is a widely used medicinal herb, but unfortunately, it’s only growing leaves and not flowering, so it doesn’t meet the medicinal requirements.”

“This is aloe vera. Many planted last year have died; only the drought-resistant aloe vera survived.”

Jing Shu: “……” Damn it, I just spent 200 virtual coins to buy a pot of aloe vera. If I had known there was aloe vera here, I wouldn’t have bought it.

Zhou Bapi enthusiastically told Jing Shu:

“Even though we can simulate photosynthesis with sunlight here and adjust temperature and humidity through the fresh air system to slightly mimic weather and climate, we still can’t simulate the four seasons properly.

Some herbs need to be planted in spring and harvested in winter, some in autumn, but the current disordered seasons mean that herbs either stop growing halfway or only flower without producing fruits due to temperature and seasonal mismatches.”

Jing Shu completely agreed. You can’t plant something in summer and expect to harvest it in spring, right? Ignoring seasonal planting causes plants to fail to grow due to temperature and other factors, resulting in wasted cultivation. Those hundreds or thousands of winter varieties were perfected through years of optimization.

“So, how exactly are you managing to cultivate them? How are you overcoming the weather and seasonal issues?”

This was a question Zhou Bapi couldn’t figure out. He pondered it all night but couldn’t come up with an answer. Everyone else was maintaining a constant temperature, even simulating night and day temperatures and humidity, but it still didn’t work!

Facing such a profound philosophical problem, Jing Shu, who knew nothing about it, pondered, “It’s a secret.”

She was really just randomly planting and successfully growing herbs! Just watering them daily with diluted spirit spring water a hundredfold, and that was it.

It was that simple and straightforward.

Now, Jing Shu truly felt that her magic cube space was like an extraordinary hack. In this post-apocalyptic world, no one else could cultivate anything, but with her magic space and spirit spring, she could grow plants.

Having activated her second form, compared to these withered and twisted plants on the ground, Jing Shu looked at the one-by-one robust eggplants, feeling immensely happy.

Unfortunately, with only a small amount of spirit spring produced each day, Jing Shu could only ensure her family's vegetables and fruits were sufficient, unable to save the entire country.

This medicinal herb cultivation base was still quite large with many varieties, though some didn’t survive, and some were wilted.

Every time someone passing by saw Zhou Bapi inspecting the work, they would respectfully call out, “President Zhou.” These people were all unofficial staff, but a daily wage of 4 virtual coins was quite high.

“Hmm, how’s the Bai Zhi over there?”

“Still the same as always, sigh.”

“Alright, I’ll think of another way. You go ahead.” Only here could Zhou Bapi's authority be felt.

Zhou Bapi walked ahead with his hands behind his back. “So, you’re now a junior horticulturist of the Medicinal Association. As long as you can cultivate new varieties, you can advance one level. If you can grow five varieties and solve three problems, you can be nominated as vice president.”

“Does my pot of Huangqi count?”

Zhou Bapi shook his head. “It has to be cultivated here and be medicinal. If you could count any random one from anywhere, we’d have countless vice presidents.”

“Keep working hard. The vice president position comes with high-level permissions from big data, allowing you to exercise many rights and enjoy immunity. The police and government can’t control us, only the Medicinal Association can regulate us. This is a really awesome privilege. You mentioned yesterday that a junior officer arrested you, but if you’re the vice president, he can’t arrest you anymore.”

Jing Shu’s eyes squinted. Zhou Bapi was painting a grand picture for her, but she really wanted it. This meant the Medicinal Association was considered a more special sector among all departments, superior to food and other essential services. In chaotic times, doctors were even more precious than antiques in prosperous times, not to mention how valuable medicinal herbs were.

Moreover, the high-level permissions from big data were only available to the superiors of Director Jing’s mother!

Currently, Director Jing’s mother’s direct superior was Niu Mou, a minister-level official. Above the minister level was the power that only a major general like Li Yuetian could possess with high-level permissions.

So, could it not be impressive?

In other words, although there were few people in the Medicinal Association and they regulated little, their status was higher. Thus, the vice president position was equivalent to that of a major general?

The most important thing was that the path Jing Shu chose was really easy to advance, and it was something she was good at—farming! Especially with the freedom at work, only having to meet performance targets each month, Jing Shu loved it the most.

However, position equivalence did not mean power equivalence. Based on the current displayed powers, Major General Li Yuetian’s authority to manage the military was far greater than Minister Niu Mou’s management of agricultural cultivation, and even more so than the Commander-in-Chief Guangguan, surpassing even Vice President Zhou Bapi’s high title.

This was similar to ancient ministers where some positions were low but held real power, making them formidable, while others were high in title but held no real power.

“But you need to hurry. This year is the last batch to open up vice president positions. Soon, planting personnel from the entire provincial capital will flood in, making the competition fierce. This opportunity is rare, so seize it well.”

Jing Shu finally nodded eagerly, like a chick pecking at grains. She had reserved the vice president position of the Medicinal Association.

“Now let me cultivate the first new variety, Huangqi.”

The experimental field was only ten square meters, but it had seven or eight layers of racks. This scientific cultivation method indeed saved a lot of resources, which was why the ceiling was so high.

“Oh no, oh no, that batch of Tianma has so many insect eggs. I don’t know who irrigated it with unfiltered water. Now the stems and leaves of Tianma are all being eaten!”

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––– Side Note –––

Happy Lantern Festival! Eat lots of tangyuan and become chubby!