Chapter 247: If This Bluff Doesn’t Work...

Jing Shu shook her phone and sent the video she had recorded to Zhou the Skinflint, confident that when the time came, Chairman Tie wouldn’t be able to renege on his promise.

Chairman Tie smiled widely, showing no sign of regret. "That silly girl probably doesn’t know that even if she solves a few problems, if Wu City loses, there won’t be a vice-chairman position at all. In fact, the entire association might get downsized," he thought.

As for finding someone to blame, Chairman Tie had already formed a plan in his mind:

The scapegoat would be Zhou Bapi, whose arrogance and stubbornness had led him to hire an inexperienced girl. That girl, full of overconfidence, had boasted publicly but ended up failing miserably. Not only did she disgrace Wu City, but she also caused a massive loss to the association...

A group of people marched down from the third floor to the first, where a lively commotion was underway. Most of the crowd were people integrated from other associations, along with the challengers from Tacheng.

Jing Shu hadn’t noticed earlier, but now she saw that the racks of experimental fields had been moved aside, and a boxing ring had been set up in the middle. On the stage were various herbs, each with a specialized machine behind it for testing.

Chairman Tie led Jing Shu to the ring and immediately announced, "Make way, everyone! Wu City’s genius is here! Tacheng, you’ve already lost. Let the genius take the stage!"

Jing Shu: "..." She could barely resist the urge to kick this man off the stage. If it weren’t for her desire to avoid trouble, she wouldn’t be getting involved in this mess at all.

The already noisy hall became even more chaotic, and Jing Shu mentally cursed. If this bluff didn’t succeed, she’d lose all face. Chairman Tie sure had a devious plan.

Jing Shu finally stepped onto the stage, drawing the attention of an old man with a large black mole at the corner of his mouth. His name was Cheng Qingzi, the one in charge of the competition. As he narrowed his eyes, he thought, "This must be the scapegoat Chairman Tie brought in." Feeling confident in his victory, his mood improved significantly.

"Ah, Wu City's genius. Let me explain the rules," Cheng Qingzi said with a smile. "You have two options: either propose a solution that we all agree on, or manually cure the herbs of their ailments."

Jing Shu turned her attention to the remaining three herbs. Great. She didn’t recognize two of them at all! But luckily, she did know one of them—what a coincidence!

Though, recognizing the herb didn’t really matter.

"So, which one will you handle first? The delicate *Tian Qi*, the dying *She Mei*, or the un-sprouted *Chong Lou*?" Cheng Qingzi asked slowly.

Jing Shu knew about *Tian Qi*—it was quite famous. But wasn’t *Chong Lou* a villain from *The Legend of Sword and Fairy 3*? Could it really be a medicinal herb?

Her eyes twinkled as she quietly opened up her stored files on her phone, browsing through the data she had downloaded before the apocalypse. Smiling, she asked, "Before we proceed, I have a question. This competition is about resolving issues with medicinal herbs, right?"

Cheng Qingzi nodded.

"So, if you present a plant that isn’t a medicinal herb to deliberately confuse the situation, should we get a point for that?" she asked, her tone playful.

The crowd grew rowdy at this question.

"Of course, that would be intentional fraud!"

"Definitely a point! Anything else would be cheating!"

Suddenly, a man rushed up, pointing at Jing Shu and shouting, "If you don’t know what you’re talking about, then don’t speak! There are only a few herbs here—anyone can tell what they are. Do you think the others are idiots for not noticing what you supposedly did?"

Cheng Qingzi frowned and waved the man off. "Which one are you claiming isn’t a medicinal herb?" he asked Jing Shu.

"That one," she said, pointing. "That’s *Ci Mei Guo*, not *She Mei*. *She Mei* is poisonous, and its fruit is solid and inedible. *Ci Mei Guo* is hollow and can be eaten. See, even though it’s withered, you can still eat it." Jing Shu plucked a fruit from the plant and popped it into her mouth, chewing casually. She remembered eating *She Mei* as a child, an experience that had led to a thorough stomach pumping, so she knew the difference between the two fruits perfectly.

The room erupted in chaos.

"Son of a—! No wonder none of our methods worked. It’s not even *She Mei*!"

"Who could tell the difference? They look exactly the same! The people from Tacheng said it was *She Mei*, and we just went along with it."

Cheng Qingzi shot a fierce glare at the trembling man in the corner, walked up to the plant, and squeezed the fruit. Sure enough, it was hollow.

"Damn it! I told you to bring problematic medicinal herbs, not throw in a bunch of lookalikes!" Cheng Qingzi angrily smashed the fruit on the ground. Compared to *She Mei*, which had medicinal value, *Ci Mei Guo* was not considered a medicinal herb, even though they looked nearly identical.

The man in the corner shivered, clearly aware of his mistake.

"One point goes to Wu City," Cheng Qingzi declared, his breath heavy, the hairs on his mole standing on end.

Jing Shu smiled as she turned to Chairman Tie. "Does this point count?"

Chairman Tie gave an awkward but polite smile. "Yes, yes, it counts."

"Seems like she’s someone to reckon with."

"That’s right. Chairman Tie has been praising her for a long time now. She recognized it with just a glance. She must really know her stuff."

Chairman Tie felt a deep pang in his chest.

Still, Jing Shu had won a round for Wu City, restoring a bit of their dignity.

Jing Shu moved on to the next plant, the un-sprouted *Chong Lou*, frowning as she studied it. According to the information she’d found, *Chong Lou* was notoriously difficult to cultivate due to unsolved technical challenges. It required very specific conditions, like altitude and soil quality.

It also needed to be propagated through cutting, meaning the stem had to be cut, disinfected, and replanted, similar to regrowing a person’s hand after chopping it off. There were many possible reasons why the plant hadn’t sprouted.

If she tried to identify and address each issue one by one... well, Jing Shu wasn’t nearly skilled enough. She hadn’t even fully grasped the details of how to properly cut and treat the plant.

This was a problem deliberately set by the Tacheng experts, meant to stump Wu City’s team.

It was like asking a poison master to mix a toxin with 99 different ingredients in the correct sequence and expecting someone else to figure it out. Who could possibly succeed?

Cheng Qingzi, sensing the difficulty, smiled and said, "Little master, how would you like to handle this un-sprouted *Chong Lou*? Would you prefer to explain a method, try to solve it directly, or review the solutions others have suggested?"

If *Chong Lou* couldn’t sprout, it meant it would die and never be usable as medicine.

Jing Shu shook her head.

Then, to everyone’s shock, she stretched out her hands and, with a loud crack, snapped the precious *Chong Lou* in half.

The entire hall gasped! Cheng Qingzi’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. What had he just witnessed?

Jing Shu casually stuck the plant into another patch of soil, secretly applying a bit of her spirit spring water. "There, it’ll sprout within two days. And by the way, don’t try to copy this lost technique—it’s beyond your ability to learn."