Lin You had no idea something had gone wrong with the route from Ancheng to the outer city.

At the moment, she called Fu Qingze.

A long while later, Fu Qingze finally answered, “Sorry, I was doing some tests earlier and didn’t hear your call.”

Lin You told Fu Qingze about the old man’s latest condition from the previous night and asked him if the vegetables in the breakfast shop that contained healing factors could be transported to other areas for large-scale use by the wounded.

Fu Qingze was holding a broken test tube, looking at the red solution inside.

“Everything has exceptions. The clinical trial for the healing factors in the vegetables is the same. If there’s an urgent need, I can report it to the drug administration department and have the food sent over as soon as possible.”

“Lin You, your vegetables are different from other drugs. Normally, medications have side effects. Clinical trials mainly determine the harm they could cause to the body.”

“But I’ve already run a few tests on your vegetables. There’s no problem with safety. For ordinary people, eating them normally can enhance immunity. Minor injuries can even recover. There’s not much to be particularly cautious about.”

“But for the wounded, to improve treatment efficiency, we of course need to determine how much of the vegetables is required to promote rapid healing within a short period. This way, doctors will have a reference when applying them. Without a standard, how many vegetables would be enough when transporting them from Ancheng to Lancheng? Without a set quantity, it might cause a waste of resources.”

Lin You understood. “So what you’re saying is, the reason you’re looking for clinical test subjects now isn’t to observe whether the vegetables have side effects, but to determine the content of healing factors and their effects on the body in order to establish a concrete food-medicine standard. That way, when food is limited, a fixed amount of vegetables can cover as many patients as possible.”

Fu Qingze nodded. “That’s right. This perspective does take more into consideration.”

He poured the solution from the test tube in his hand into the sink.

“However, transportation routes are probably still the biggest limitation. I think we might be able to set aside conventional thinking and see if there’s another way to deliver the vegetables.”

Lin You was completely confused. “If we don’t use transportation routes, how can we get the vegetables there?”

Fu Qingze returned the test tube to the rack and began writing on paper with a pen. He told Lin You,

“Actually, I already have a preliminary conclusion. I ran several data tests on the ingredients I took from you yesterday. The results are about what I expected.”

“The vegetables’ autonomous activity indeed affects the healing factor to some extent. Vegetables that have had autonomous activity show significantly higher levels of healing factors. The increase fluctuates between 30% to 50%. This might be related to the fact that the vegetables only performed a single jump yesterday. The difference in jump height and distance caused varying degrees of fluctuation in the healing factor. So we can continue to speculate whether, if the vegetables continue to be active, their healing factor will keep increasing. Then, their healing effect on patients might also multiply.”

Fu Qingze paused for a moment and continued,

“What I mean is, your influence over the vegetables is stronger than you think. You might even be able to control everything about them. It’s just that you’re not skilled enough yet and haven’t fully unlocked their potential.”

“For example, if the healing factor in the vegetables increases several times, and a truck carrying them leaves Ancheng heading for Lancheng, will our soldiers along the way be able to resist zombie infections or even recover quickly from injuries after being infected, achieving a reversible effect?”

Lin You thought for a moment. “Then I need to find a way to get the vegetables to continue autonomous activity to release more healing factors?”

Fu Qingze nodded. “Exactly. Although the vegetables move slowly now and can’t be transported faster, that’s okay. You still need to train them as soon as possible.”

After hearing Fu Qingze’s suggestion, Lin You hung up the phone and began planning training in the kitchen while moving vegetables with a vacuum cleaner.

The vegetables that had just fallen from the freezer and were piled at her feet became her first training targets.

“Don’t jump around. Space here is limited. Start moving slowly.”

Lin You stared at the vegetables crowded together.

The sweet potato in front moved and rolled forward.

Then came the potato, Chinese cabbage, baby bok choy, and onion, one after another. They looked fairly orderly.

Lin You grabbed a bamboo stick placed by the wall and drew a circle on the kitchen floor, guiding them to roll in a circle and not leave the area.

Fortunately, the vegetables seemed to be more obedient this time. The leading sweet potato didn’t roll off track but slowly followed the route Lin You guided.

However, their rolling speed was still as slow as ever.

After giving an order, it still took them a long time to respond.

Lin You felt this wouldn’t work. She tried to be more stern. She knocked the leading sweet potato with the stick and scolded,

“Speed up. You must set a good example. Hurry. You must respond within a minute after I give the order.”

The sweet potato seemed to understand. The next time she gave an order, it really rolled out within a minute.

Lin You curved her lips into a smile and gave another command,

“Faster. Even faster. React immediately after I finish speaking. Can you do it?”

This time, something seemed different.

As soon as she finished speaking, the vegetables suddenly began rolling everywhere and no longer approached in an orderly manner like before.

Instead, they jumped east and bounced west.

One onion head even bounced off the ground and hit Lin You on the nose.

Lin You pressed her stinging nose and stood still, feeling a bit of a headache.

It seemed things had gotten out of control.

Just then, Qi Kai opened the door and came in carrying two large baskets to pack vegetables.

But as soon as he opened the kitchen door, a crowd of vegetables rushed toward the entrance.

He was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted and used the basket in his hand to block the doorway.

Many vegetables didn’t have time to change direction and jumped into the basket by momentum.

A few others, however, were not intercepted and leaped out of the kitchen door.

With a “bang” one jumped into a customer’s wonton soup bowl, splashing most of the soup.

The customer was startled and quickly stood up from the table.

When he looked closely, he found that it was actually an onion head in the bowl.

He became curious. “How did this onion head jump into the bowl?”

Lin You felt very apologetic and rushed out to apologize to the customer.

Tong Lan made a new bowl of wontons and brought it over to resolve the situation.

Lin You picked up the few vegetables that had jumped out earlier and shut the kitchen door.

Qi Kai was picking up vegetables and putting them back in the basket, but they were clearly not cooperating.

Previously, they had gone into the basket obediently. Now, when he reached out, they jumped away.

He had to run around the kitchen in circles, catching them while running. It took a lot of effort to get the vegetables into the basket.

But even then, the vegetables didn’t behave. They kept jumping in the basket, trying to escape.

Lin You had no choice but to grab a lid from a nearby basket and cover them up.

But this still wasn’t a solution.

These vegetables had to be sold outside. If they were all jumping in the basket when it was opened, what would that look like?

Customers would definitely be shocked.

Not knowing the truth, they might even panic.

Qi Kai held down the lid of the basket and asked, “Why did they suddenly become like this? Is there any way to make them stop?”

Lin You shook her head. “Actually, I don’t really know either. Could it be that the training was too strict and caused a rebellious reaction?”

Qi Kai found it unbelievable. “They can have a rebellious reaction? That’s basically turning into spirits.”

At this moment, Qu Fei also came in dragging a basket.

When he saw Qi Kai and Lin You standing still, looking at each other with confusion, he was somewhat puzzled. “Aren’t you packing the vegetables? What happened with getting the vegetables?”

Before Lin You could speak, Qu Fei noticed the vegetables on the floor still rolling around and was shocked. “What’s going on here? Did you give them any commands?”

Lin You told them about the increase in healing factor content from her conversation with Fu Qingze and mentioned that she had been training the vegetables earlier.

Who knew that after talking a bit more, things turned out like this. She wasn’t sure if she had given the wrong commands.

Qi Kai frowned. “You can’t be saying there’s really no solution, can you? Are we not going to have vegetables to sell today? The line outside is already so long, and the people are waiting for us to get the new vegetables…”

Lin You stared at the vegetables jumping all over the place and gave several more commands, but there was still no effect.

She couldn’t help but feel a bit desperate. “What should I do? They’re not listening to me now.”

She stood off with the vegetables on the floor for a while.

Lin You made up her mind—if the soft approach wasn’t working, she would continue to be strict.

She took out a bamboo stick from the side and began to hit each of the vegetables on the head forcefully, sternly saying, “Whoever doesn’t behave, beware. I’ll peel them one by one and throw them into the pot to cook!”

But after she said this, the vegetables didn’t seem to calm down. Instead, they jumped even more vigorously.

They seemed quite excited at the thought of being thrown into the pot.

…Maybe the command was the wrong one.

Lin You took a deep breath and said again, “Whoever doesn’t listen, I’ll lock it in the freezer, never to be made into soup or dishes, it’ll never see daylight, and it will watch its companions turn into delicious food, while it remains all alone…”

Would this work?

Qi Kai and Qu Fei couldn’t help but feel a little doubtful.

The vegetables had some spirit, and if they could speak or communicate, they could understand their true thoughts.

But these vegetables had no mouths and couldn’t talk. To understand their minds was really difficult.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Lin You finished the last word, all the vegetables quieted down.

A carrot that had been lying on the counter fell down and was caught by Lin You.

A little potato that had been climbing a slope also slid down.

Meanwhile, the beans that had been bouncing in all directions seemed to suddenly lose their spirit, like they had their strings cut, and fell with a “plop” onto the ground.

Taking advantage of this moment, Qi Kai and Qu Fei quickly picked them up and tossed them into the basket.

It looked like the vegetables had returned to normal.

The two of them dragged the basket out of the kitchen.

Outside, the long line had again extended around the corner. The citizens at the front of the line looked a bit anxious, but when they saw Qi Kai and the others return, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Finally, there are vegetables! My potatoes at home are only enough for one meal. I was worried you’d run out.”

Qi Kai quickly explained, “Sorry, we had some issues earlier, and accidentally knocked over the vegetables. We’ve repacked them now. Sorry for the delay.”

The citizens expressed understanding.

However, when the first two people bought vegetables, everything seemed fine.

But when the third man approached, Qi Kai turned to grab a plastic bag. When he turned back, he saw the man staring at a potato in the basket that was hopping around.

The man looked a bit alarmed and took a few steps back, pointing at the basket and saying, “What is this strange thing? Could it be a mutated creature?”

Qi Kai immediately realized the trouble and quickly reached out to pull the potato out.

He knew that, at this moment, they couldn’t cause panic among the citizens. The term “mutated creature” could not be associated with the vegetables in the basket.

Qi Kai said somewhat uneasily, “Sorry, this is not a mutated creature, brother. You might have mistaken it.”

But as soon as he took the potato out, a round eggplant in the basket suddenly leaped upwards.

At this point, the other customers standing behind the man saw it too. Someone quickly pulled out their phone and recorded a short video, uploading it to a short video platform.

Qi Kai tried to block it, but it was already too late.

He quickly grabbed the basket lid and slammed it back down, saying, “Please stay calm. Don’t misunderstand. This is an officially designated vegetable supply point. The vegetables are safe, and they’ve all been tested. You can rest assured.”

Although he said this, the customers who had witnessed the earlier scene took a moment to think and then all left.

They still had some vegetables at home, enough to last for a while.

If these were truly mutated creatures, getting infected would be too risky.

Everyone had seen mutated animals on TV, but they weren’t sure what mutated plants might look like.

Perhaps, like the ones in front of them, they might be able to jump around.

Qi Kai felt a bit dejected as he pressed down on the lid of the basket for a while.

When he opened the basket again, the vegetables inside were suddenly as still as could be. Now, they looked completely like normal vegetables again.