Chi Youyou followed the gentle senior to the conference room door. Just as she was about to knock, she heard a roar from inside.
"Are you all crazy, using seeds cultivated by a student? And a freshman at that!"
It startled her.
She thought for a moment, then took a deep breath, mustered up her courage, and knocked on the door.
"Come in."
It was the dean’s voice.
"Dean, I heard you were looking for me..."
Chi Youyou pushed the door open. Besides the dean, there were five others in the room.
One was Mr. Feng, another was Mr. Shen. The others seemed familiar; they were professors from the institute, but she didn’t know them well.
"Chi is here, come on over, we were just talking about you."
The dean immediately put on a smile when he saw Chi Youyou, as if the earlier argument had never happened.
Chi Youyou greeted the other teachers; two of them had dark expressions, but she didn’t mind and walked over to the dean with a smile.
"I’ve already looked at the vegetable seeds you sent with Changqing, and I think we can start small-scale planting."
"I haven’t agreed yet!"
One of the dark-faced professors slammed the table and stood up, showing no respect to the dean.
But the dean wasn’t angry either.
Everyone knew their temperament was like that — straightforward, if they’re not satisfied, they’re not satisfied; if there’s a problem, there’s a problem.
They argue, solve it, and then everything’s fine because everyone wants the institute to develop better.
"Old Ma, lower your voice; don’t scare the young lady!"
Mr. Shen liked Chi Youyou; he didn’t even dare to speak loudly, so why are you yelling!
The professor called Old Ma snorted coldly, showing respect to Mr. Shen, if not the dean.
"Mr. Shen, isn’t this a joke?!"
"Old Ma, you’re wrong. What did the dean say? Small-scale planting, just to cultivate a portion and see. If it turns out well, are we going to reject it just because it came from a student? If that’s the case, all the meals you’ve had over the decades were in vain!"
Mr. Shen had a stern face, "If you really don’t want it, I’ll take it back to the Agricultural Research Institute. We still have a place for small-scale testing!"
Even though Mr. Shen had retired from his position as the head of the Agricultural Research Institute, he still had an honorary role and held some influence there.
Chi Youyou felt a bit embarrassed hearing their argument; she hadn’t considered everything thoroughly.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the dean interrupted her.
"Alright, Old Ma, I understand your concerns, but Mr. Shen also has a point. Small-scale planting, I believe, has no problems. Our experiments emphasize bold assumptions and bold innovations, don’t they?"
Professor Ma furrowed his brow, not refuting.
"This batch of vegetables takes about 1-2 months to mature. It’s not a long time. If you’re still worried, how about this! Chi!"
"Yes!"
Chi Youyou originally thought it had nothing to do with her, but suddenly being called on caught her off guard.
"When this batch of vegetables matures, the new International Vegetable Seed Industry Autumn Expo will be coming up. Our institute will organize a team to participate. You can take this batch of vegetables to the competition."
Compete?
International Vegetable Seed Industry Autumn Expo?
"Old Ma, since you have objections, we’ll find a way to resolve it. This competition holds significant value, and this year, the director from the International Agricultural Research Institute will personally attend. Whether to introduce new varieties will depend on the results, how about that?"
"...Since you put it that way, Dean, I agree."
"I agree too!"
...
No...
Did anyone ask if I agree?
Chi Youyou watched them vote one by one, while she was utterly bewildered, looking at the smiling dean. Why did she feel like she was being pushed into a pit?