tkworld Chapter 431 Not Seeking Foreign Experts, Offering Rewards to Folk Prodigies
Chapter 431 Not Seeking Foreign Experts, Offering Rewards to Folk Prodigies
That evening.
In front of the ancient ancestral hall in Jiangjia Village, the lights were bright and the air was filled with the sounds of people.
In the huge open space in front of the ancestral hall, twenty large safes, each more than half a person tall and entirely black, were lined up in a row.
Under the operation of Wang Dagou and dozens of security personnel, the locks on the safe were opened one by one.
The moment the lid was opened, countless dazzling red lights shot out, blinding everyone present.
There were rows and bundles of brand-new 100-yuan bills, neatly sealed with bank seals!
Under the illumination of hundreds of high-intensity searchlights, twenty boxes of cash resembled twenty tempting red hills piled up before everyone.
The visual impact was so strong that it could make any normal person stop breathing.
Almost everyone in the village came.
Even villagers from neighboring towns, having heard the news, rode tricycles and drove tractors for dozens of miles to join the fun.
Thousands of people surrounded the entire ancestral hall square, making it impossible to move.
Jiang Chen stepped onto a long bench and stood at the front of the crowd.
He took a high-powered megaphone from Wang Dagou and pointed it at the dark mass of people below.
"Fellow villagers! Brothers!"
The sound of the loudspeaker echoed through the night sky.
"Some people don't want us Chinese people to eat the good food we grow ourselves!"
"They've hoarded all the best seeds in the world, trying to strangle us and make us forever dependent on them!"
Jiang Chen's voice was filled with a burning anger.
"Today, I, Jiang Chen, here before this ancestral hall, set up my hero's arena!"
He waved his hand, pointing to the twenty safes behind him filled with cash.
"I'm not going to the provincial capital to find those foreign experts who wear glasses and white coats!"
"I won't beg those high and mighty research institutes!"
"I'm offering a reward right here among the common people, in this very area around here, for any talented or extraordinary individuals!"
"Who can grow crops on this land that are pest-free, high-yielding, and just as good as those imported seeds?!"
Jiang Chen's voice was like a thunderclap, resounding in everyone's ears.
"These twenty boxes of cash, one hundred million!"
"Whoever has the guts, come up here now and take him away!"
The crowd erupted in uproar.
"My God! One hundred million!"
"Just to find someone who knows how to farm?"
"Has Brother Chen gone mad?!"
A cacophony of voices and exclamations rose and fell.
In a corner of the crowd, Jiang Jianwen, the village's "pedantic scholar," stood with his hands behind his back, fanning himself with his tattered palm-leaf fan, his face full of disdain.
He pursed his lips, looking at the few people around him who shared the same skepticism.
"Nonsense! Absolutely nonsense!"
"Cultivating superior varieties? What kind of work is that? It requires a national-level laboratory and takes decades and countless scientists' hard work to accomplish!"
"He's got the nerve, making a big fuss about the money here."
Jiang Jianwen pushed up his thick glasses, which were as thick as the bottom of a bottle, giving him an air of knowing everything.
"What, you think we peasants with hoes could possibly conjure up some high-tech gadget from mud?"
"I think this money is being wasted. It's just a publicity stunt!"
Just then, a clear and melodious voice emerged from the crowd.
"Brother Chen! Brother Chen! I know! I know a few people who can do it!"
Wearing coarse cloth clothes and with two small braids, Jiang Lingzhi emerged like a little mountain elf.
Her clear, doe-like eyes sparkled under the light.
Jiang Lingzhi ran up to Jiang Chen, her face flushed with excitement, gesturing and speaking rapidly.
"I...I used to often go to the back mountain to collect herbs. In the deep forest, I met a few grandfathers with very strange tempers!"
"They used to be top professors at the provincial agricultural college, but they couldn't stand the academic cliques there. They were only thinking about how to get promotions and projects instead of how to cultivate the land properly. So, in a fit of anger, they all resigned and left!"
"Those old fogies rented a small plot of land deep in the mountains and spend all their time there conducting hybridization experiments, claiming they want to cultivate the best seeds that belong to the Chinese people!"
Jiang Lingzhi stuck out her tongue, looking somewhat embarrassed.
"However...it seems they haven't had money for food in a long time. Last time I went, I even saw them making tree bark soup..."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen's eyes lit up.
Isn't this the hidden master who has been buried among the common people?
Aren't these the true pillars of the nation, who have been marginalized and suppressed by those so-called "authorities" and "systems"?
Jiang Chen jumped off the bench and grabbed Jiang Lingzhi's arm.
"good!"
"Lingzhi, lead the way now!"
He turned around and gave the order to Wang Dagou behind him.
"Big Gou! Get that Land Rover Defender! And call Stone and the others, fill all three spare safes in the trunk with cash!"
"Let's head into the mountains tonight and bring these gentlemen out for me!"
. . .
The night was dark.
The Land Rover Defender's powerful high beams cleaved through the darkness of the deep forest.
Led by Jiang Lingzhi, the car bumped along the rugged mountain road for more than two hours before finally stopping in front of a thatched hut that was almost collapsing.
Jiang Chen pushed open the car door and got out, a smell mixed with soil, herbs and musty odor wafted towards him.
Inside the thatched hut, only a dim kerosene lamp flickered.
The room was devoid of any decent furniture; the floor and corners were piled high with various glass bottles filled with countless oddly shaped seeds.
The walls were covered with dense, yellowed and moldy experimental notes and data charts.
Three old men with gray hair and tattered clothes were arguing fiercely around a broken wooden table in the dim light.
Upon seeing Jiang Chen and his group of uninvited guests, the three old men immediately stopped and stood up warily.
The leader had a scraggly beard and his hands were covered in dry, cracked grime, but his eyes were surprisingly bright.
He is Yuan Ping, the agricultural fanatic Jiang Lingzhi mentioned.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"We don't welcome outsiders here, get out of here!"
Yuan Ping's temper is like a rock in the mountains—both smelly and stubborn.
Jiang Chen didn't waste any words, but simply gave Wang Dagou and Jiang Shitou behind him a wink.
Three heavy safes filled with cash were placed heavily in front of Yuan Ping.
The lid of the box is opened.
The bright red light instantly illuminated the entire dilapidated thatched hut, as well as the shocked and bewildered faces of the three old professors.
Jiang Chen looked at Yuan Ping, his tone calm yet full of strength and respect.
"Elder Yuan".
"Money, plenty!"
"Plenty of land!"
"Laboratory? What equipment do you need? I'll build you the world's most advanced!"
"All I need is you, using the simplest, most reliable method passed down from our ancestors, to work on this muddy land..."
Jiang Chen's gaze was resolute.
"Give me the most awesome seed in the world, a seed that belongs to the Chinese people!"
"To do it or not to do it?!"
Yuan Ping stared intently at the mountain of cash in front of him, then looked into Jiang Chen's sincere and ardent eyes.
His chapped lips trembled uncontrollably.
Decades of grievances, decades of resentment, decades of perseverance and setbacks, all turned into a surge of emotion at this moment, rushing straight to my eyes.
He slammed his hand on the table, and an unprecedented light burst forth from his cloudy old eyes.
A single word was roared from his hoarse throat.
"Dry!"