Chapter 215: Ouyang Yating’s Concerns
Staring at the three of them for a while, Xiang Chuan let out a heavy sigh, waved her hand to indicate acceptance of their assistance, which finally allowed Ouyang Yating and the other two to secretly breathe a sigh of relief in their hearts.
After all, this matter was something the three club members had handled unethically—one sold out Xiang Chuan for their family, and the other two chose not to stop Xiang Chuan’s trash talk for their desire for food. So on this matter, even if Xiang Chuan pressed the three of them to work as merciless typing workers in A Bite of China Club for a month, they wouldn’t dare resist.
Who made them the ones in the wrong!
Xiang Chuan let out a heavy sigh, took a big gulp of juice, then opened Geegle and started writing some notes while walking.
Compiling a list of common livestock from the 21st Century was a simple task, but the problem was that the modern era had lost the information on these animals, and even whether the gene bank still retained their genetic material for cloning and restoration was an issue. So she needed to prepare as much information as possible on these livestock, including some academic content, which inevitably involved fields she, as a former liberal arts university student, didn’t want to face: academic papers.
Domestic species were fine; with luck, some institutions would publicly release detailed biological information on livestock, even some genetics-related biological data. But the problem was that for livestock like cattle, the quality from European and American Countries or District 11 was better, with more large-scale breeding technology, and some foreign institutions would also release this information, but it was all in English and other foreign languages!
Although Xiang Chuan’s personal terminal could automatically translate text she copied from Geegle into modern language, she couldn’t tell from Geegle’s built-in machine translation before copying whether the article she was copying was what she wanted. So she also couldn’t estimate how much time it would take to organize information on so many types of livestock afterward.
Just thinking about it was enough to trigger her work PTSD.
This time she had to drag people over to help! Not just her A Bite of China Club and Chou Manman, Nancy—with necessity, she’d drag the entire Class Eight over, and even homeroom teacher Zhu Bingwen wouldn’t refuse, right!
Xiang Chuan thought viciously.
——
Looking at Xiang Chuan’s resentful back, Ouyang Yating, Liang Gong, and Ainuo Classmate following behind her couldn’t help but whisper among themselves.
“Liang Gong, this time with your mother…”
Ainuo’s words stopped halfway, not knowing how to continue. He wanted to bluntly say “too much,” but his family education prevented him from speaking ill of the other person’s elder in front of Liang Gong, not to mention that Ainuo also knew Aksim General Manager’s inching demands were for the fleet. However, seeing Xiang Chuan’s furrowed brows, Ainuo felt he should complain a bit on her behalf, but he couldn’t find the right words right away.
“Ainuo Classmate, don’t say it, I understand. This time my mother went a bit overboard.”
Liang Gong lowered his head in shame.
After dinner last night, Liang Gong had sent his mother several messages in a row, and after getting Aksim General Manager’s guarantee that “I absolutely won’t do anything overboard like Manager Hill and Manager Wu,” he naively thought he could help Xiang Chuan secure a day of peace on the third day. But the fact was, he had greatly underestimated his mother’s decisiveness and methods in the political arena.
Don’t do anything overboard like Manager Hill and Manager Wu? Fine, I’ll choose another track.
Don’t want the visit activity to deviate from the main axis due to too much focus on Xiang Chuan? Fine, I’ll ask Xiang Chuan to help me organize information after going back.
Aksim General Manager perfectly fulfilled the agreement with her son, just without letting Xiang Chuan off.
Thinking of this, Liang Gong’s temples throbbed with pain.
When Xiang Chuan previously chatted with them about ancient TV series, she would refer to cadres working in the government as “old foxes of the political arena.” Although the three didn’t know what “oil strip” was, after these three days—looking at the thick-skinned Manager Wu and Manager Hill, and Aksim General Manager’s smiling dagger—they could already understand the complex mood Xiang Chuan had when bringing up the topic.
Actually, logically speaking, the escort ship managers of their fleet considering the interests of the entire industry and the entire fleet was already billions of times better than those corrupt officials from the TV series in Xiang Xue Live Stream Room that made modern people drop their glasses, but in the eyes of Ouyang Yating and the other two, their ruthless exploitation of the surplus value of specific targets really had the vibe of those corrupt officials squeezing commoners in ancient TV series.
Manager Wu&Manager Hill&Aksim General Manager: Are you being polite?
Thinking of this, Ouyang Yating’s brows furrowed even deeper. She lowered her voice and said to the two:
“Don’t you think the Agriculture Bureau and the escort ship’s series of decisions are too rushed?”
Ainuo and Liang Gong nodded. Far from just too rushed, it was excessively so.
All three of their families had deep exchanges and long-term dealings with the Third Fleet’s agricultural industry, so they all paid attention to some agriculture-related policy changes.
Based on past years’ situations, adjustments to the scale of the production escort ship’s three major industries required more than five years for detailed refinement. And the Agriculture Bureau’s planned draft for increased production ratio adjustment for agricultural products this time should logically proceed gradually as in previous years, but from the performance of the three department managers over these three days, the Agriculture Bureau seemed intent on finalizing this draft within the year.
This might be just right timing for other fleets, but for the Third Fleet, which valued balance in the scale of its three major agricultural industries, it was an extremely abnormal measure.
“If we discuss this matter with our parents after going back, we might get some information. But…” Ainuo glanced again at Xiang Chuan walking ahead deep in thought, “I feel like this matter might not just be the Agriculture Bureau’s independent initiative.”
Meaning, it might be under instruction from the Third Fleet government.
“Maybe it’s just preparation for the upcoming fleet exchange period?” Liang Gong was still relatively optimistic. “We already encountered the First Fleet before; after entering the exchange period, the first one we might meet is the First Fleet. To showcase ancient food culture to the Fleet Central Government, our fleet government is so anxious, right?”
Fleet Central Government—this was the highest government agency located in the First Fleet, with adjudication and law veto power over the twelve fleets. If a fleet’s non-compliant law was reported to the central government by government personnel or civilians, the central government would dispatch a team to that fleet for a 2,000-year supervision period, until the next fleet exchange period began.
This was a disgrace for other fleets, so they were extremely cautious when formulating new laws and regulations, fearing being targeted by the central government.
However, conversely, if a fleet’s laws and regulations positively guided the industries and residents’ lives within the fleet and showed actual results, the central government would also vigorously promote those laws to other fleets, greatly enhancing that fleet’s reputation among others.
Liang Gong guessed that the Third Fleet government wanted such an opportunity. After all, it had been 8,000 years since the last time the Third Fleet’s new agricultural law regulations were promoted by the central government; in these 8,000 years, the Third Fleet had nearly become a nobody among the twelve fleets, so it was understandable for the Third Fleet government and Agriculture Bureau to be anxious to produce results and launch new laws.
Ouyang Yating also felt Liang Gong’s guess was reasonable, but…
“Maybe I’m overthinking it, but I just feel like things aren’t that simple.” Ouyang Yating looked at Xiang Chuan with concern. “I hope nothing big happens.”
