I See through Everything

Inside the research area’s cafeteria.

Jiang Miao had just left the lab when he saw Lin Shuya eating dinner not far away.

Grabbing his own food tray, Jiang Miao walked over with a smile. "Ah Ya! Aren’t you off today?"

"Plans change." Lin Shuya shook her head helplessly, then recounted her afternoon discussion with Lü Weibin.

After listening for a while, Jiang Miao realized it was his fault and laughed awkwardly. "Sorry, I didn’t expect the tech you developed to be so amazing, pushing the yield up so high all at once."

Lin Shuya didn’t seem to notice Jiang Miao’s awkwardness, instead cheering herself on. "It’s fine. I’ve already decided to continue researching the ultimate mass-production technique for Morchella. I’m aiming for a cultivation technique that yields ten tons per mu."

"Forgive my ignorance, but all I can say is: you’re awesome!" Jiang Miao joked.

"Haha, stop pretending. If you decided to get involved, would I even have a chance?" Over the past half-year, Lin Shuya had come to understand Jiang Miao’s terrifying research capabilities all too well.

In truth, Jiang Miao had known all along that Morchella could yield over ten tons per mu. However, he didn’t have the time to work on the formula, nor did he want to stand out in too many fields, so he let Lin Shuya tinker with it.

Fungi in the natural world are arguably some of the fastest-reproducing organisms.

As long as all conditions are optimal, many mushrooms can go from the fruiting body stage to maturity in just a few days.

People who have lived in the countryside for a long time have more or less seen fungi grow. Sometimes, after a light rain, a whole host of strange and varied mushrooms will sprout under trees or in the grass the very next day.

Often, it’s not that cultivated mushrooms grow slowly, but that the technology is substandard and fails to optimize all the growing conditions.

Take the common substrate bag formula for Morchella, for example. The formula is very crude, with only five raw materials, which obviously cannot cover all the growth factors Morchella requires.

If the yield of Morchella in a smart greenhouse can reach 10 tons per mu, then each mu can produce 1,300 to 1,500 kilograms of dried Morchella. Even if sold at the cheapest price of 200 yuan per kilogram, the value per mu could reach around 130,000 to 150,000 yuan.

According to the information Jiang Miao learned through his identification panel, after reaching optimal conditions, Morchella can complete its fruiting in about 70 days. Including disinfection and other preparations, a single production cycle takes only about 85 days, allowing for four consecutive harvests a year.

Such high-precision smart greenhouses consume 15 to 20 kilowatt-hours of electricity per mu per day. Including other consumables and depreciation, the total daily cost per mu is around 50 yuan. Over 85 days, that comes to 4,250 yuan.

And that’s not even counting the cost of labor and raw materials for the substrate bags.

In other words, crops with too low a yield value simply aren’t worth growing in this kind of high-precision smart greenhouse.

The two chatted for a while when Jiang Miao suddenly remembered something and said with a smile, "Ah Ya, isn’t your former advisor’s son also studying under him?"

"Uh... yes. That guy’s thesis was actually the result of my work and that of a few of my senior brothers." Lin Shuya grew indignant just talking about it. Then she asked, a little puzzled, "Why bring this up all of a sudden?"

"He’s recently published several papers on medicinal fungi. Two of them are about using yeast extract to treat Alzheimer’s disease."

"Yeast extract? To treat Alzheimer’s? Isn’t that the research topic of one of my senior brothers? But I heard him say he wasn’t making much progress."

Jiang Miao took out his tablet and handed it to her so she could look at the two papers.

Lin Shuya put down her chopsticks and skimmed through them for a few minutes. A strange expression soon crossed her face. "Weird... How come my senior brother’s name isn’t even on it? That old bastard was unreasonable before, but at least he’d leave a name."

"What’s your senior brother’s name?"

"Luo Yulin."

"No wonder. The day before yesterday, Handong University issued a notice saying a student had jumped from a building. The name, I think, was Luo Yulin."

"What?" Lin Shuya’s brows furrowed. "It seems those two papers were very important to Brother Luo. What a shame. He was quite talented. If he’d had a good advisor, he might have become famous long ago."

"A shame about what? He didn’t die. He just broke a leg."

"Oh! I thought he had passed away." Lin Shuya was suddenly embarrassed.

"Ah Ya, if this Luo Yulin is really as talented as you say, you should give him a call and see if we can recruit him to our company."

Hearing this suggestion, Lin Shuya mulled it over for a moment. "His research area is indeed a good fit for our company... but I wonder if he still has any fight left in him."

"Give it a try."

"Okay, I’ll call him later and ask."

Jiang Miao had actually been keeping an eye on the situation at Handong University, especially on Du Bolun, the advisor who had exploited Shuya.

After gathering some information on him through online channels, he realized that this Du Bolun wouldn’t be so easy to deal with. At least, conventional methods would be difficult to use against him.

This was because the man’s father was also a powerful figure in an academic clique. Although retired, he had a vast network of former students and subordinates, a web of connections that was deeply entrenched.

And as for using underhanded tactics—while they could be fatal in one move, Jiang Miao hadn’t done so. Such methods couldn’t be used often, especially when he had a clear conflict with the target. If something suddenly happened to Du Bolun, it could attract unwanted attention.

After all, Li Rongyao had just left Hailufeng Company when he ran into trouble right after returning to his own company. His backer also got taken out. To the top powers, these events were hardly a secret.

The reason no one suspected Jiang Miao and Hailufeng Company was that he was currently just a small fry. The top crocodiles and great white sharks of the world simply didn’t believe he had the ability to take out David A. Locke.

But if he were to wipe out Du Bolun’s entire family now, it would definitely attract attention domestically, and people might connect it to what happened to Li Rongyao.

Being cautious, Jiang Miao suppressed the killing intent in his heart.

However, just because he couldn’t use underhanded or conventional methods didn’t mean he couldn’t go after his target.

One had to understand that academic cliques were powers that relied on "people."

And as long as they were human, they had weaknesses.

Handong University was protecting Du Bolun and his son now because Lin Shuya and the others were powerless and couldn’t make any waves.

But what if Lin Shuya and Jiang Miao’s power grew to the point where they could influence the entire domestic agricultural system, even becoming behemoth-like agricultural giants?

Then, the situation would rapidly reverse.

People would naturally emerge to curry favor with Jiang Miao and his wife by taking action against Du Bolun’s family.

That was the inevitable trend of power.