Liang Quan slapped the table with both hands and shot to his feet, glaring at Manager Fang.
“What the hell are you doing, Fang!?”
“I’m saying, Master Liang, if you’re having financial difficulties, you can talk to me or the boss—we’ll help you. Why go down the wrong path?” Manager Fang sneered, pointing mercilessly at the trash can. “Look at this lettuce. The leaves are already wilted. Forget me—would you even take a second glance at it on a normal day? And you still dare claim it’s radiation-free. Do you even believe that yourself?”
The school had only just started, and Liang Quan was already making trouble for him. For a chef, his reach was getting a bit too long, wasn’t it?
The cafeteria had always sourced freshly harvested ingredients. Compared to that, Liang Quan’s recommended lettuce really didn’t hold up. He fell silent for a moment before instinctively explaining:
“That’s because it was left overnight—that’s why it looks like this. And whether it’s radiation-free or not, you could just take a bite and find out. Why throw it in the trash?”
Supply shortages had always existed, and frugality was ingrained in Chinese culture.
Unable to stand waste, Liang Quan bent down, picked the lettuce out of the trash, and looked at it with visible distress.
Seeing this, Manager Fang quickly stood up and stepped aside, saying cautiously, “I’m not eating anything that came out of a trash can.”
Liang Quan clicked his tongue. “Then don’t. Anyway, I’ve already placed the order for this batch. Just transfer me the money later.”
At the mention of money, Manager Fang’s tone turned even more forceful than Liang Quan’s. “When have the ingredients you sourced not gone over budget? The cafeteria can’t afford your nonsense. Just make do. Boss Zhao’s goods are genuinely good.”
Over budget? Not this time.
Liang Quan said confidently, “This batch isn’t expensive at all—it’s the same price as those greenhouse vegetables you get from Boss Zhao!”
Oh, so now he was learning tricks on the fly?
In the past, Liang Quan argued for quality—that, Manager Fang could tolerate. But this time, it was obvious the guy was trying to skim off the top.
And if Liang Quan took a cut, wouldn’t that mean less for him?
Now that it involved his own interests, Manager Fang refused to budge. He chuckled and countered, “When I buy vegetables at this price, you say they can’t possibly be radiation-free greenhouse produce. But when you buy them, suddenly they’re high-quality goods? Don’t be such a hypocrite, brother.”
“Forget it. I won’t argue with you.” Manager Fang extended a hand, looking completely confident. “Show me the vegetable inspection report. If you can produce it, I’ll approve your supplier.”
Boss Zhao ran a legitimate company with complete documentation.
But Liang Quan’s supplier?
He had just said it himself—it was grown by agricultural students from Third School. There was no way they could provide a report.
And indeed, that was the case.
The moment he heard the words “inspection report,” Liang Quan lost some of his momentum. He had only been thinking about how good the vegetables were—he hadn’t considered anything else.
But he had already promised Xiao Jiang he’d place the order!
Anxiously, Liang Quan walked around the desk and stood in front of Manager Fang. “How about this—I’ll personally guarantee this batch.”
“So, you can’t provide a report.” Manager Fang sighed, feigning helplessness. “Don’t make things difficult for me, Chef Liang. Crops grown by students are unstable. And what if it’s a scam? They don’t even have a company—if something goes wrong, you won’t even find anyone.”
“I’ll take responsibility if something happens!” Liang Quan gritted his teeth. “I’ll go talk to the boss.”
Would Manager Fang let him see the boss? He could fool Liang Quan, but the boss was not so easy to deceive—and he was counting on smoothly switching suppliers.
He quickly grabbed Liang Quan, who was about to rush out of the office. “Why insist on this student’s produce? How about this—you put this lettuce in the fridge. Tomorrow, when Boss Zhao’s shipment arrives, you compare them. Maybe Zhao’s goods will turn out better.”
After a brief hesitation, Liang Quan found that reasonable and nodded. “You said it. If after comparing tomorrow Xiao Jiang’s produce is better, you must agree to buy hers.”
Manager Fang smiled. “Of course. We all want what’s best for the cafeteria.”
Finally, he managed to send Liang Quan away.
Manager Fang let out a sigh of relief. As long as Liang Quan didn’t take this to the boss, everything would be fine.
As for tomorrow’s comparison…
His eyes flickered. He had already said it—student-grown crops were unstable.
Confident, he opened his LingXun communicator and informed Boss Zhao about the comparison, telling him to be prepared.
“You can go now.” A soldier in military protective gear stepped off the bus and signaled to the guards at the city gate.
“Getting out is easy, but getting back in is hard,” Lin Zihan muttered. “We even have to go through security checks one by one.”
Jiang Luokui nodded. “It’s for everyone’s safety.”
Even inside the base, radiation was everywhere—just at low levels.
Fortunately, the arrival of the ability-awakening era had greatly increased humans’ resistance to radiation. Even those who hadn’t awakened abilities could still live out their lives inside the base.
Building a base wasn’t easy. Strict checks weren’t a bad thing.
As the bus passed beneath the towering black-gold outer walls, the agricultural students finally relaxed, helping each other remove their protective suits.
Teacher Li walked down the aisle and found Chu Zi’an in the back. Leaning against the seat, she asked with concern, “How are you feeling?”
Chu Zi’an scratched his head. “Nothing serious. The wound still hurts a bit.”
“That’s good.” Teacher Li smiled. “The farm said they’re willing to compensate you, since they bear some responsibility. But they hope you can keep this incident confidential.”
Compensation? Chu Zi’an hadn’t even considered that. His face lit up. “No problem!”
“I’ll send you the electronic confidentiality agreement along with the compensation later,” Teacher Li said.
In high-radiation environments, secondary mutations in crops could occur, though the probability was extremely low. The Forward Farm had only encountered two such cases so far.
To avoid causing public panic, handling it this way was necessary.
But after this incident, Teacher Li didn’t dare take students outside the base for classes anytime soon—at least not this semester.
There was still some time before the bus reached the school. After the excitement of landing a big order wore off, Jiang Luokui grew drowsy.
But for the others, today’s practical class had been far too thrilling—they couldn’t sleep at all and were quietly discussing what they had seen.
Pu Qing glanced at the freshman sitting in front of him. As one of the central figures of today’s events, she had actually fallen asleep against the window!?
The bus entered a tunnel.
In the darkness, the glass reflected Jiang Luokui’s bulging pocket—part of Bubu’s little head sticking out from the seam.
What was that?
Just as Pu Qing straightened up to get a better look, the bus exited the tunnel, and the reflection disappeared.
Though Jiang Luokui was asleep, she wasn’t fully out. Quietly, she pushed Bubu’s head completely into her pocket and slightly turned back. “Senior Pu Qing, what are you looking at?”
Pu Qing casually withdrew his gaze. “Nothing.”
Jiang Luokui stretched carefully, not disturbing the sleeping Lin Zihan, then turned and whispered, “By the way, I didn’t get the chance to say it earlier—thanks for this morning.”
“It’s nothing. Teacher Li paid me.”
Jiang Luokui immediately sensed a kindred spirit.
She had heard of Pu Qing in her previous life—he had even won the championship for Third School in this year’s Ability Competition. But after that, there was no more news about him.
If she remembered correctly… he was also from a welfare institute like her. The news once described him as “a flower blooming from the mud.” Food in those places was usually poor, and yet he had awakened an S-rank ability upon reaching adulthood—truly blessed by fate.
Even with the heavy training of a combat-type ability user, he still took private jobs. It seemed he, like her, was eager to repay his upbringing loan.
“Oh,” Jiang Luokui said, changing the topic. “By the way, what did Teacher Dong do with that secondarily mutated rice plant?”
If it were anyone else asking, Pu Qing would have refused to answer. But since Jiang Luokui already knew, it didn’t matter.
He lowered his voice. “Pulled it out and burned it.”
Given Pu Qing’s ability, Jiang Luokui immediately understood.
Researcher Dong must have feared triggering the rice’s attack when touching it, so he brought Pu Qing along—his ability could handle it perfectly.
Most combat-type abilities were straightforward—like [Super Strength], [Berserk], or [Hardening]. But Pu Qing’s ability was special—highly flexible and both offensive and defensive.
Vehicles weren’t allowed inside campus roads, so the bus stopped at the school gate.
The once-quiet entrance was now bustling. Students, teachers, and passersby crowded the sidewalk across from the bus.
“What’s going on over there?”
“Come on, let’s check it out before heading back to the dorm!”
Freshmen were curious about everything—where there was excitement, there they were.
“Luokui, let’s go take a look too!” Lin Zihan suggested eagerly.
Jiang Luokui shook her head. “It’s just recruitment for an exploration team. Nothing interesting.”
“Exploration team?”
“The predecessor of today’s cleanup teams—just a name used by civilian groups.”
Pu Qing, who had gotten off the bus behind them, added, “Civilian exploration teams are into official and unregulated groups. That one over there is unregulated—official groups wouldn’t recruit people this way.
That killed Lin Zihan’s interest.
Since all three were heading toward the dorms, they passed by the crowd and overheard people talking.
“Poor guy… That kid was so reckless—just because he got scolded, he ran outside the base.”
“He hasn’t come back for three days. The exploration team he joined is probably wiped out.”
“Alive or dead, they need closure… sigh. Forming an exploration team isn’t cheap. That family must’ve emptied everything they had.”
In front of a signboard stood a young man in a yellow vest. His face was unshaven, his eyes bloodshot. Exhausted, he cupped his hands toward the crowd.
“My family has no other choice. The teams we’re familiar with couldn’t find my brother, and my parents can’t let it go.”
“I’m recruiting three combat-type ability users with wilderness survival experience. Payment is negotiable. If you’re interested, please scan and add my LingXun…”
That guy… looks familiar.
Jiang Luokui slowed down. Wasn’t he from her old delivery group?
Right—he was the team leader, Sun Mao.
At that moment, Sun Mao was overwhelmed. Many came to watch, but few were interested.
If this kept up, he wouldn’t be able to face his parents.
Just then, he spotted someone familiar outside the crowd and called out in surprise—
“Xiao Kui!”