Chapter 291: The Beginning And End Of Searching For Nettle
The day after the banquet ended.
Nancy successfully met up with the four members of A Bite of China Club (plus Li Wei) at the entrance of the Botanical Garden early in the morning.
“Is she… asleep like a log again?”
Looking at Xiang Chuan, who was slung over Ainuo’s shoulder looking half-dead, Nancy felt a twinge of speechlessness in her heart, but she quickly adapted.
A Bite of China Club President, as everyone knows, only has any charisma when in the kitchen or presenting new dishes; at all other times, they are at the bottom of the food chain!
“She’s just lazing in bed and refusing to get up. She even told us to come find that thing… nettle.”
Ouyang Yating casually opened the light screen, which showed a plant that looked like a weed to Nancy.
“Finding it based on this? With our group’s knowledge of ancient plants, we’re probably going to end up hauling every weed in the Botanical Garden back to Xiang Family Kitchen all at once.”
Nancy mercilessly included everyone in her group in the complaint, successfully earning a fierce glare from Ainuo walking behind.
Unfortunately, zero damage.
——
No matter how much Xiang Chuan missed that wonderfully comfortable quilt, she had now been dragged by her useless club members to the Botanical Garden entrance, so she had no choice but to straighten out her outfit and meet with Botanical Garden Supervisor Manager Ye again after several months apart.
This slightly plump middle-aged woman was still enthusiastic toward Xiang Chuan, even seeming more enthusiastic than before, which someone as thin-skinned (?) as Xiang Chuan simply couldn’t handle amid the nonstop warm greetings along the way.
Passing by the regional conveyor belt, Xiang Chuan glanced toward the gate—not looking was one thing, but one look gave her a shock.
A few months ago, when their school organized a visit to the Botanical Garden, the number of regular visitors could probably be counted on one hand, while there were even more researchers in white lab coats.
But now, there was a huge crowd of people packed in front of the gate.
Some could even be seen holding buns and milk bought from the nearby Yue Xiang Restaurant, eating breakfast while waiting for it to open.
Are they really going this hard?!
Unable to contain her curiosity, Xiang Chuan directly asked Manager Ye about the reason for the crowd gathered at the gate.
“Haha, Classmate Xiang Chuan, that’s a funny way to put it. Have you forgotten? The first episode of A Bite of China only aired not long ago. When everyone saw those ingredients in the documentary that ancient people had developed for centuries or even millennia in the past, but can only lie dormant in the Botanical Garden in the modern era, how could they not feel curious about them?”
Manager Ye said, her smile widening; she even couldn’t resist patting Xiang Chuan’s shoulder a few extra times.
“Actually, the Botanical Gardens in each fleet mainly serve an educational role. The parent stock of all kinds of plants is preserved in the gene bank. Only our Third Fleet has the extra task of researching the uses of agricultural crops. As for making a profit, that’s really not in our considerations.”
“But in just these past few days, with the symbolic one Star Yuan admission fee, we’ve already made enough to buy several castrated pigs. How could that not be exciting?”
Xiang Chuan: Castrated pig has become a unit of count!
Suppressing the complaint about to leap from her mouth, Xiang Chuan turned back for another look at the crowd at the gate.
Each fleet’s residents number only about 100 million, with a considerable portion scattered across the twelve Escort Ships. Even so, the Main Ship still has over 50 million permanent residents.
Xiang Chuan wasn’t completely oblivious to the ancient culture craze she had stirred up, after all, the TV series website was literally making money hand over fist every day now.
But when she saw this craze sweeping into places not directly related to her, she truly felt how immense the modern person’s curiosity and thirst for knowledge about ancient culture was.
“That said, no matter how many people gather, we still have to open on time according to regulations, so everyone has to wait outside, even the researchers.”
Manager Ye said righteously.
If the smug little curve at her eyebrows and mouth corners weren’t so obvious, Xiang Chuan and the others might have actually taken her words at face value.
“Researchers should still have some privileges, right? After all, all those uncles and aunts are here for crop breeding and development…”
As the son of an Escort Ship department supervisor, Liang Gong still tried his best to speak up for his mother and those uncles and aunts who had once looked after him.
“Little classmate, your idea is good, but our conditions don’t allow it right now.”
Manager Ye said earnestly.
“Not to mention after A Bite of China aired—even after the Agricultural Products Increased Production Ratio Adjustment Draft was made public, people from nearly every agriculture department and Production Escort Ship research department have been rushing here. Today it’s a supervisor, tomorrow a person in charge, and some even bring their entire team.”
“Even Fourth Escort Ship’s Manager An and Second Escort Ship’s Shi Li dragged their whole project teams along with family in tow, with the reason being ‘to breed new livestock varieties, we need to further research different feed ratios, and for that we must delve deeper into the effects of this type of plant on livestock’… I’ve never seen them so proactive before!”
Hearing Manager Ye mention his mother’s name, Liang Gong no longer had the courage to keep seeking benefits for his mom; after all, from Manager Ye’s tone, he could infer that his shrewd mother had probably already plucked a considerable portion of the Botanical Garden’s wool.
The fact that department researchers now had to line up on time with the masses was probably due in no small part to his own mother’s “contribution.”
Thinking of this, Liang Gong directly chose to plug his ears and ignore worldly affairs, focusing intently on following behind Xiang Chuan and staring at the nettle on the light screen without distraction.
“But maybe after the A Bite of China craze dies down, things will get better… right?”
Xiang Chuan said, even sounding unsure of herself.
She recalled that in her previous life, up until she transmigrated, A Bite of China had led a over-a-decade trend in gourmet documentaries and spawned a boom in food bloggers.
Given modern people’s tendency not to tire of novelty… well, getting them to stop caring about those scenes in A Bite of China really would be quite difficult.
For this, Xiang Chuan could only silently apologize in her heart to all the industries that might be affected later.
—Sorry, but I’d do it again!
—After all, I want to eat the things from A Bite of China in the modern era too! Stimulating modern researchers’ dopamine with a documentary is a shortcut too!
Xiang Chuan justified to herself in her mind.
——
After following Manager Ye into the herbaceous plants section, everyone was eager to get started, all opening their light screens to begin the timed challenge of “find nettle before the Botanical Garden opens”—
“Ah, this is it.”
Xiang Chuan, who also had her light screen open, suddenly pointed at the plant in the glass cultivation tube to the left front after entering the door—it looked just like a weed—and declared that the purpose of this Botanical Garden trip was successfully completed.
Everyone: …
Xiang Chuan: So I told you guys from the start, just find it by matching the picture.
