The Great Worm Lich 632 A Fine Breed

Coupled with the investor's humorous and tactful apologetic attitude, it was not good for Carnegie to continue to accuse Zhang Lisheng with a cold face after venting his anger. He could only say helplessly, "Sigh, actually, these bushes are your private property so you have the freedom to treat them however you like. I had crossed the line just now. I should be the one who apologizes, Dr. Zhang."

"You are too serious, professor." The young man shrugged, indicating that he was not bothered by it, before asking, "What have you discovered in the past few days?"

"I found a lot of interesting little problems that are not easy to find." Now that his academic field was mentioned, Carnegie immediately became excited. "This oasis has a small area, but the vegetation coverage density is 23% larger than the average oasis of the same area. Of course, this increase is within a reasonable range but when I studied them carefully, I realized that most of the degraded wasteland in the oasis has not been lied wasted for more than ten years. There are still dry seeds in the surface's soil. Not only that, even though the shrubs here are short, they have all the unique characteristics of tall trees, such as hypertrophic leaves and strong phototropism ..."

Listening to the old man's eloquent explanation of his findings with interest, Zhang Lisheng asked after he had finally waited for the increasingly excited old man to finish his words, "Since there are so many findings, can you tell me what your conclusion is, professor?"

"I don't have any conclusion for the time being yet, Dr., but I'd like to ask you instead, do you have any thoughts on these issues from the perspective of a biologist?" Carnegie asked without shame.

"I'm sorry, Dr., I'm not used to making an inference based on the 'material' provided by others. I don't have any thoughts unless I personally make a systematic analysis of the oasis ecosystem, especially the inhabited animals." Zhang Lisheng shrugged.

"Oh, it seems that you have an old-fashioned attitude that is rare among young scientists in your field of expertise, Dr., even though this attitude doesn't go with any trend, I like it. It looks that my evaluation of your scientific attitude just now is wrong." Carnegie was rejected by the young man but he had an expression of appreciation on his face instead. Blinking at Zhang Lisheng in a childlike manner, he asked, "Since you don't have any new inspiration for me, what about the breeding experts then? And those fine breeds that you've bought from Earth with tons of money? Where are they? I've been looking forward to it for several days now."

On the Earth, even though the crops cultivated by modern humans originated from naturally evolved species, in order to pursue high yield or drought and disaster-resistant properties, scientific hybridization and domestication, and even genetic optimization are also necessary processes. Compared to the natural seeds, the maximum yield of domesticated and optimized seeds for the same crop in the same planting area may differ by more than ten times. Not only that, the adaptability of fine species to harsh environments would be far higher than natural species too.

In comparison, the value of an excellent crop species was self-evident. It was not easy to obtain such optimized and improved seeds either. It often required ten years or even decades of unremitting efforts from a scientific team and a touch of luck to produce this.

The long cycle, huge investment, and uncertainty of the results made the breeding of fine seed to become the most basic, most important, and most profitable business in a mature agricultural economic system.

The giant farms and agricultural companies that had cultivated good seed would never sell the original good seed, but would slowly popularize seeds that had genetic defects and would have significantly reduced yields after one generation of planting to monopolize the market.

Over time, from cattle and sheep herbages to the most widely consumed soybeans and rice by humans; from nutritious fresh sweet carrots to sour yet extremely vitamin-rich lemons, every crop that was widely promoted in human society would have the support from the yield of fine crops.

In the United States that had the most complete and most advanced productive force in the agricultural system on Earth, almost all good varieties of crops could be found in its several agricultural and pastoral states. During the peaceful times, these seeds were close protected in the breeding base and every original crop had an inestimable value.

However, after the war had destroyed the economic system and social order of these sparsely populated agricultural states, these primitive and good varieties naturally leaked out to the people and became less out of reach.

To the rich who intended to get their hands on them, it would not be a dream as long as they take the necessary methods and pay a sufficient price. The simplest way was to organize an armed force to infiltrate into the grave danger to buy or to rob them.

Upon hearing the connotation in Carnegie's tone, Zhang Lisheng was slightly taken aback by the old man's changeable eccentric personality. After a moment of bafflement, he answered frankly, "The expedition team to California came back five days ago and has brought back 67 fine seeds. The breeding experts are identifying their authenticity, and judging from its progress, I believe it can be completed this afternoon. The Mongolian expedition team has just returned to New Washington A this morning and has brought back 32 fine seeds. I'm afraid you won't see them until three days later, professor. "

"The patent law of the Constitution has not been abolished, Dr. a lot of agricultural company owners and farmers in California and Montana have fled to the Noah World so aren't you afraid of being sued if you trample on their rights without scruples like this?"

"I have countless of gold and the best team of lawyers as my weapon. Do you think I'd be afraid of confronting those farmers who have fallen into reduced circumstances?" Zhang Lisheng asked indifferently.

"Very good, Dr. Zhang, I like your spirit of 'charging forward' for the sake of scientific research. What I truly admire is you understand that morality is not so important in the face of truth. I'm happy that I can work for you, Please call me Carnegie in the future!" The old man laughed and expressed his approval.

"Oh, Carnegie, you are such an unexpected and interesting scientist." Zhang Lisheng opened his mouth but had no words over Carnegie's ever-changing attitude. A few seconds later, he burst out in a chuckle, "Please also call me Lisheng directly from now on. I have a feeling that we will be happy working together in the future."

"Fingers crossed. Oh, I've wasted too much time chatting with you. I'll continue my work first." Carnegie seemed to have a pang of realization as he suddenly ended his conversation with Zhang Lisheng, and returned to work.

When he brought his assistants and students into the simple laboratory set up beside the river ditch, he suddenly turned back and said to the young man, "Lisheng, don't forget to send the breeding expert and the fine breeds to my lab after you've met him. I need them for inspiration so please don't forget about this matter."

Without waiting for Zhang Lisheng's answer, he entered the wooden room after saying so.

"What a freewheeling personality, I have never met such a person before…" Looking at the old man's receding back, the young man murmured his evaluation. The instant his words left his mouth, he faintly heard the 'dududu...' whirling sound of helicopter propeller in the distance.

A few minutes later, an eight-seater large transport helicopter began to land slowly on the edge of the sandy land, setting off strong winds from far to near under the hot sun of the desert. It was the breeding experts who had brought the fine breeds with them after completing their verification earlier than expected to the oasis.

Not every scientist had an unusually eccentric personality. At the very least, the six breeding experts who hopped off the helicopter appeared to be very normal when they were talking to Zhang Lisheng. When Dr. Jecniro, who was the oldest of all, passed the letter handwritten by Lavin family's eldest son to the young man on behalf of the expedition team, he even threw in some consolations with a solemn expression.

There were a mixed results of pleasure and foreboding on the experts' verification of the fine breeds. Even though it was not too promising, it was not entirely empty-handed either. Among the 67 fine seeds brought back by the expedition team that included 11 species of herbages, 21 species of soybeans, 10 species of cotton, 17 species of corn, 5 species of green beans and 3 species of tomatoes, 1 species of herbage, 2 species of soybeans, 1 species of cotton, and 1 species of green beans were of true value.

Even though the ratio of close to one-tenth was not too high, it was already roughly enough to make Zhang Lisheng feel satisfied. After instructing Charlie to immediately start the operation of the newly established breeding center, the young man personally took the breeding experts to meet Carnegie and finally drove back to New Washington A after a busy evening.

He drove all the way back to the city and sped on the street for a long time. By the time he parked his car in the community parking lot near his mother's house, it was already after eight o'clock at night.

Under the faint starlight, Zhang Lisheng enjoyed the breeze of the evening wind and walked past the piles of homeless men lying on the public lawn with no regard for their presence. When he reached home, he found that the whole family was waiting for himself.

The reason for so much expectation did not lie in himself. As soon as he entered the house, he handed the letter from Lavin family's eldest son to Sullo and randomly cooked up an explanation, "Uncle Lavin, this is the letter Stephen asked the expedition team to bring back. I've personally talked to Captain Adolf of the expedition team this afternoon and he said that the situation in Roundup City in Montana is not that bad and there are police and armed forces maintaining the basic order then. The Robinson's Arrow is not that kind of civil armed organization that particularly advocates force so all in all, Stephen's situation is not particularly dangerous. "

When Sullo received the heavy letter, he was touched and hugged by the young man. Patting the young man's back, he whispered deeply, "Thank you."

Upon seeing this, Lili who was by the side suddenly felt tears brimming her eyes for no reason. However, she gently pulled her husband's arm and deliberately used a light tone as she said, "Sullo, come read the letter and let the kids know what Stephen has written. I'll bring Lisheng to the dining room for dinner instead. Baby, you must be starving, right? We have grilled pork chops for dinner tonight and I've put aside a large piece of rear hock for you…"

Just like that, a few minutes later, Lavin family's children sat on the rug in front of the sofa in the living room stretching their necks while listening to their father reading—in a low voice—the thought of their elder brother, who was far away in another 'world', for the entire family. Zhang Lisheng, on the other and, was sitting on the dining table not far away eating pork chops and thinking about his amazing discovery in the oasis.

Chapter end