172 – Conspiracy

CloudOfWill: Oh my gosh, I tried the tomatoes from Shennong Farm! It’s absolutely the most perfect looking tomato I have ever seen. It’s big and red, and man! It lasts forever in the fridge.

Kingofcool: Seriously dude? 

CloudOfWill: Not a dude…

Kingofcool: Oh...

EatYourGreens: I got their green beans, and it was delicious! 

Desala: Are you sure they don’t use any fertilizer? I’m just playing around this app because the scenery is gorgeous. Haven’t tried the veggies yet.

Kingofcool: Not into greens. They don’t sell any fruits?

Ba5il_5pice: The cherry tomatoes are as sweet as grapes! You should try it.

Desala: Gee, I don’t have any money.

EatYourGreens: They are a promotional event. If you grow your own in-game crop, you can exchange it for real veggies.

wartmaster69: lol, that is hilarious. What sort of gaming company is this?

Ba5il_5pice: It’s not a gaming company, it’s a pharmaceutical company.

wartmaster69: lol, even more hilarious. A pharma selling veggies? How do we know they aren’t dumping their waste products into the land?

Ba5il_5pice: who knows…

EatYourGreens: Actually, there are live webcams of the farm, it’s on 24/7. I can guarantee that they don’t really add anything except water.

In the Shennong Pharmaceutical's meeting room, the top three lounged around a room table with Hun Lun standing by the side.

“The Shennong app is pretty successful,” said Ju De. “Everyone is also excited about the expansion of the app in six months. Do you think Bufu will have enough time?”

“He has a lot of more workers now, so I guess it should be enough?” Li Yun wasn’t sure what the gaming development world was like, but he thought it should be simple. Bufu already spent over a year creating the core of the gaming app. The rest were plots, characters, and stages.

“The workers have cleared out the farmland and are preparing for next season,” said Fatty Fang “I’m surprised the farmland here is so good, I wonder why the previous farm failed.”

Li Yun shrugged. Although the speed of the plant growth wasn’t fast as he had expected, the harvest was plentiful and resilient. They were also tasty according to everyone else, but Li Yun could only tell that there were a lot more vitamins and nutrients in them.

“What are the Huifu sales like?” Li Yun asked.

“Pretty decent, but nowhere near the point of profit,” said Fatty Fang. “Most of the sales are from this region, and from Magic City University Hospital.”

“It’s fine,” said Li Yun. It was within his prediction. “It has only been a month. The doctors are only learning about its usefulness through word of mouth.”

“Do you think doctors will avoid using it if it is too useful?” asked Ju De.

Li Yun laughed. The question was valid.

There was a conspiracy theory people liked to spread about the pharmaceutical company and hospital. It was the idea that if all illness and sickness were cured, then doctors and pharmaceutical companies would become obsolete. To prevent themselves from becoming obsolete, doctors and pharmaceutical companies purposely avoided providing patients with useful treatment.

However, people did not understand that to humanity, illness and sickness were as natural as death. Sickness was a way to tell the body that it was not functioning correctly, that whatever fuel it had ingested was wrong, or that it was time to leave the world and make room for future generations. When one illness was treated, another may arise. No medicine could completely cure the human body, and there wasn’t such a thing as cure-all medicine.

“Most doctors are people too,” said Li Yun. “For them to think like that, they need to have a hive mentality.”

“If you had the ability to cure all the illness in the world and allow people to live forever, would you keep it to yourself or share it with the world?” Ju De asked.

Li Yun remained silent for a moment. If humans lived forever like immortals, what was the environmental impact? China already had an overpopulation problem that caused the initiation of the one-child policy. With new genetic advancement and science, it wasn’t a question of if, but when.

“Death is naturally a part of life, even the immortals of the past had only lived up to 160 years old,” said Li Yun. “If they live longer, naturally they would ascend to a greater plane of existence where there are more resources available.”

“Have you been reading webnovels?” Fatty Fang asked.

“So, you would also hide it,” said Ju De.

“It depends,” said Li Yun. “If science manages to unlock the key to stop aging and live forever, hopefully by then, we will have better technology to store energy from the sun and adapt to live in the ocean.” He looked at Ju De and wondered why he was suddenly curious about the topic.

“Ah Nin is writing her thesis on fake news and conspiracies within our media,” said Ju De.

It was almost the end of the semester, so everyone had been focused on school work. Even Rouxi had been ignoring Li Yun to focus on school.

Li Yun thought about Ah Nin’s father, Zhu Zhang. “You know where her father is?” Li Yun asked.

“Why are you asking about him suddenly?” asked Ju De.

“I need to ask him about his contacts,” said Li Yun. “You know where he’s hiding?”

Ju De tapped his fingers and thought for a moment. “I do, but you need to tell me what you need from him. You also have to consider that whatever you’re planning, it’s definitely illegal.”

Li Yun gave Je De a printed piece of paper with a few of his requests.

“What are you planning to do with these?” Ju De rarely asked Li Yun for his plans unless it was something that interested him.

“It’s for the wine cellar,” said Li Yun. Wine cellar was his codename for dealing with Shudi.

“This is going to be a headache to deal with, are you sure you want to get involved?” asked Fatty Fang.

“I don’t want to get involved, but this is all a defensive maneuver,” said Li Yun. “We won’t strike unless they do something drastic.”

Tragedy struck every day in the world. It was impossible to solve everything. Li Yun wasn’t going to solve anything, but he wasn’t going to sit back and watch an underground gang destroy the surrounding cities on his watch. After they went over the details, the meeting was officially over.

“Xuxu is coming back for your girlfriend’s birthday,” said Ju De. “So, where is the party?”

“Beats me, Xuxu said she’ll plan everything.” Li Yun had never planned a party, but Xuxu had already said she was going to handle it.

“You two need to check the groupchat more often,” said Fatty Fang. “We have already decided to have the party at the apartment.”

“What? Again?” Li Yun was tired of the constant random parties at the apartment. The residents were always using someone's birthday or graduation as an excuse to have a party and drink. 

“I’m sure your parents had a bit of influence in that decision,” said Fatty Fang.

“So, are you going to buy her a ring?” asked Ju De.

“No, it’s her birthday, not an engagement,” Li Yun was already adamant about not asking her until he was firm on his two feet.

He wasn’t sure what to get her. She already had the lucky charm and lei ting. He then thought about his own luck blessing charm with +1 luck and +1 qi. With his current ability, he wondered if he could produce something more powerful.