Chapter 72
Kaelen consulted what little conscience he had left and felt that he probably… should… hmm, would definitely have agreed.
But times were different now.
Back in the negotiation with the Yaxun people, just as the top leader had predicted, they had proposed a partnership with Country A to jointly rule the Earth. Kaelen, following their pre-arranged strategy, pretended to agree to their demands.
After half an hour of talks, Qing Xu finally nodded in satisfaction, stating that they would be staying on Earth for a period of time. Kaelen arranged for them to stay at the state guesthouse.
After seeing the three uninvited guests off, Kaelen loosened his tie. Edward was organizing the notes from the conversation. He looked up and, after a moment’s hesitation, asked, “Should we send this to the Hua nation as is?”
Kaelen sighed and waved his hand. “Send it.”
Things were different now. Country A had to pick a side.
With the meeting in Country A concluded, the meeting in the Hua nation also dispersed. The next morning, Xia Anran and the production team arrived on time at the gate of the Capital Agricultural University.
A grove of lush green trees was planted in front of the gate, and the flowerbeds were filled with colorful blossoms. The sun was just right today, warming the skin. University students walked along the tree-lined avenue with their bags, talking and laughing. The air was brimming with youth and innocence.
“It’s great to be young,” Xia Anran couldn’t help but sigh, looking at the students.
“Hey, you only just graduated last year yourself,” Little Yan said, touching up her makeup in preparation for the broadcast.
Xia Anran paused. She had almost forgotten that she had only just left school last year. She felt like so much had happened this year, it was as if several years had passed.
“Alright, alright! It’s time! Go live!”
At the scheduled time, Xia Anran opened the livestream.
“Good morning, everyone! Today’s stream has begun!”
She was wearing a pink coat, her smooth black hair fluttering gently in the wind. She waved at the camera with a bright smile, showing everyone the powerful calligraphy of the university’s name carved into the marble.
“Ta-da! Behind me is our Hua nation’s Capital Agricultural University. This name was written by one of the founding leaders of our country. It has a lot of character, doesn’t it?”
[Here, here, came to see the fruit-growing tutorial!]
[So early today! Wow, what a beautiful place!]
[Wuhu! First time seeing so many humans in Anran’s stream!]
[A university… it’s a place for learning, right? Like our Imperial Academy?]
[Then these people are all students. They look so happy!]
[People can actually be happy while studying?]
[Hehe, we Beastmen don’t have to go to school.]
[…What’s there to be proud of about being illiterate?]
[Correction, correction! We Beastmen are not illiterate! We just don’t have state-established schools. We learn on our own!]
[Exactly! We have a Beastman Academy too, just with fewer people.]
She led everyone onto the campus. The Agricultural University often had film crews come to shoot promotional videos and the like, so the students were more or less used to it. A few fearless extroverts even proactively came up to ask what they were doing. After learning they were livestreaming, they enthusiastically greeted the camera.
“Baa—baaa—”
Suddenly, the sound of sheep bleating came from the side. Xia Anran turned her head and saw two sheep leisurely strolling in a nearby vegetable patch, having eaten several mouthfuls of the newly sprouted chives.
“Ah!!!”
A sharp scream soon came from the vegetable patch.
“My chives! Whose sheep are these?!”
A male student in a hat ran into the patch, grief-stricken, and shooed the sheep out. The two startled sheep ran out, trampling many more vegetables. The young man clutched his chest in anguish, looking like he might faint at any moment.
Xia Anran: “…”
She had heard that for many students at agricultural universities, their graduation theses were literally planted in the ground. She never thought she would witness such a tragedy on her first day here.
A young man in a gray sweatshirt came around from a path behind them. His eyes lit up when he saw the two sheep. “Little S! Little C! Come back!”
The student in the hat was still in utter despair, trying to save his chives. The moment he saw the culprit, he rushed out and grabbed the sweatshirt-wearing student, not letting him go. “Dude! Your sheep ate my vegetables! This is my graduation project! What am I supposed to do now?!”
The two sheep bleated, looking very frightened, and then suddenly collapsed to the ground. This time, the one who let out a sharp scream was the student in the sweatshirt.
“Little S! Little C! What’s wrong with you?” he asked, anxiously checking their condition. Then he grabbed the hat-wearing student by the collar. “Did you hit them?! They’re very timid! The slightest scare can throw their hormone levels out of whack! Ahhh!”
“What do I do, what do I do? The experiment is about to start!”
The student in the hat was stunned by his shouting for a moment, then quickly realized he was the victim. “Wait! It was your sheep that ate my vegetables first! What am I going to do if I can’t graduate?!”
“Little S and Little C are my graduation thesis too! I’ve already been held back a year, and you’re telling me you can’t graduate?”
“I didn’t hit your sheep, I just shooed them out! Why didn’t you look after your graduation thesis?!”
“Well, you didn’t look after your graduation project either!”
The two of them started arguing in the street, and more and more students gathered to watch. Everyone was used to this kind of “your thesis ate my graduation project” incident. Someone even joined in the fun and asked the sweatshirt-wearing student, “Why are these two sheep named Little S and Little C? Are they your initials?”
Without turning his head, he said irritably, “Because there’s another sheep named Little I!”
Xia Anran, watching from the side: “…”
Good heavens. SCI! This student really wanted to get published. At the mention of this, the sweatshirt-wearing student was overcome with grief. His SCI was not yet half complete, but Little S and Little C had already perished midway.
She watched for a while and left when she saw a teacher come to mediate. The comments section was also in a heated discussion after witnessing this spectacle.
[Little sheep!! So white and pretty!]
[It’s a plant, right? The sheep ate the plant?]
[Didn’t Anran say before that many herbivores on Earth eat plants?]
[Sob, sob, little sheep, wait! Let me have a bite!]
[A graduation project? What’s that?]
[It sounds like those vegetables are that guy’s research results.]
[Ah… that’s so tragic.]
[If my experiment was ruined by someone… ahhh, even a little sheep couldn’t be forgiven!]
[Hahahaha, so tragic! So students in the Hua nation also have graduation requirements?]
[They’re arguing so fiercely. Is it really that serious?]
[The person above me clearly isn’t in research. Even across the stars, I have to say, it really is that serious!!!]
[Hormone levels? What’s that? A little interested.]
[The little sheep were scared, and the vegetables were trampled. Sigh. Why don’t you mail them over and let me have a taste?]
[…Not even pretending anymore, are you?]
…
She led everyone to the place where she had arranged to meet Professor Zhao Yun, passing through a lush cornfield on the way.
“As the name ‘Agricultural University’ implies, many of the students here study animals and plants. So their projects are these things planted in the school, and many students also raise a lot of animals,” she explained, trying to use language the viewers could understand.
Director Li Sheng and Director Hukeni, who were watching the stream on time, had the same thought. They really wanted to go to this school to do research!!! A school that specialized in studying plants and animals, where an ordinary student could grow plants so well… it was a testament to how excellent this school was!
Professor Zhao was already waiting for them at her experimental field. She was a kind-looking woman with short hair, smiling and waving at them. This area was a strawberry experimental field that she had been cultivating for many years. She was also an expert in the domestic strawberry cultivation industry and had selected many new varieties.
After greeting her, Xia Anran pointed the camera at the experimental field. There were two greenhouses on it. It was November now, and the strawberries were not yet ripe. Only green strawberry seedlings were planted in the ground, and a few of them had already bloomed with small white flowers.
Professor Zhao led them into a greenhouse. The moment she entered, a wave of heat hit her face. The temperature inside was much higher than outside, and there was a light fragrance of strawberries. The seedlings were neatly planted in rows on raised beds. In the middle were two white plastic boxes, with a few bees flying in and out.
“There are bees too?” Xia Anran was surprised.
Professor Zhao nodded. “The strawberries are in their flowering period now and need bees for pollination.”
She was a little afraid of bees. Professor Zhao said, “It’s alright. The bees here won’t attack people on their own, as long as you don’t provoke them.”
The bees were busy collecting nectar among the flowers, completing their pollination task along the way. After watching for a while, Xia Anran felt that these bees, raised in a greenhouse, did seem to be much more docile than the ones in the wild.
Director Hukeni quickly asked in the comments.
[Imperial Academy Director Hukeni]: May I ask Professor Zhao, what does it mean for bees to help with pollination? Could you explain it to us?
Professor Zhao’s task today was to introduce plant cultivation to the interstellar scientists, so she gladly explained what pollination was and why bees could complete this process.
“…Therefore, bees are also called beneficial insects. Not only can they produce honey, but they can also help plants pollinate and bear fruit.”
The interstellar scientists listened, nodding and frantically taking notes. So, before a plant could bear fruit, it had to flower. And the flower was divided into a pistil and a stamen, and it had to be pollinated to bear fruit. In fact, there were also some self-pollinating plants, but Professor Zhao was worried that too much information would confuse everyone, so she didn’t mention it for now.
Phileas looked at the busy little creatures on the screen and stroked his chin. So the honey that guy Jeqi was always clamoring for is produced by these little guys. These little things are quite cute, and they can help plants bear fruit.
Wait, no. According to Professor Zhao’s introduction, although honey was produced by bees, it was made from nectar collected from plants.
It’s over! There’s going to be less honey! It’s highly likely honey also has an effect on humans. The United Star System must have known this all along, which is why they also took a share. That detestable United Star System has fooled them again!