Lin You thought carefully about what Fu Qingze had said.

She had never imagined that a single vegetable could cause panic among all the citizens of the city.

If she didn’t want these vegetables to cause more trouble, there was still a lot for her to do.

So, she asked, “What should I do then?”

Fu Qingze told her, “First, you need to establish a good relationship with these vegetables.”

Lin You asked, “A relationship?”

Fu Qingze: “That’s right, all training must be based on this foundation.”

“So I shouldn’t treat them as ingredients but as living spiritual beings, starting with building a friendship?” Lin You asked.

Fu Qingze nodded. “Exactly. It’s like how you treat a cat. You feed it good food, throw a yarn ball for it… But if it’s just a vegetable, you would only calmly place it aside. In that case, your influence on it will weaken.”

Lin You thought carefully. “After establishing a good relationship, should I continue training them, so they won’t make mistakes?”

Fu Qingze reminded her, “That’s not enough. You need to establish a good system of rewards and punishments. If they follow your instructions, they should get the reward they desire. If they go against your orders, there must be a punishment. Only with clear rewards and punishments will they understand the standards and know what they should do.”

Lin You nodded. “That’s simple. The reward they want the most is to be cooked.”

Fu Qingze: “…”

Lin You continued, “If they perform well, I’ll make them into the next day’s breakfast, or promise to sell them to customers. If they don’t perform well, I’ll just put them back into the freezer.”

Fu Qingze was taken aback. “That’s an interesting hobby…”

After a moment of silence, he returned to the topic.

“What we need to do first is to increase the healing factor content. This will be more helpful for moderate to severe patients. And I suspect it might have the ability to make the infection site’s wounds reversible.”

“However, right now, high-content ingredients don’t exist, so I can’t make a judgment. We’ll only be able to test the ingredients further once your training reaches the required standard.”

They talked for a while, and the wontons on the table had already become warm.

Fu Qingze left the kitchen, quickly finished the bowl of wontons, and turned to leave.

Lin You called him and asked, “I also made you a cup of soy milk, won’t you drink it before you leave?”

Fu Qingze shook his head. “No, there’s a lot of testing to do in the lab. I came out halfway to find you.”

The sky darkened, and the streetlights turned back on, casting a faint glow.

Lin You rested her chin on her hand, sitting by the table.

She looked at the empty street, unsure of what she was thinking.

Like her, the remaining people in the shop were also somewhat silent today.

They sat at the table, staring at the empty wonton bowls in front of them without moving.

Could all their efforts over these past days be in vain? Shang Zhisheng must be really disappointed when he sees this, right?

She had originally hoped to solve the recent food shortage issue for the residents.

Unexpectedly, not only did they fail to resolve the food problem, but it also heightened the residents’ panic.

After sitting silently for a while, Qi Kai and Qu Fei went to wash the wonton bowls.

Lin You stayed where she was, her expression downcast.

What she didn’t know was that at the same time, the old man in the old buildings on the two neighboring streets was making efforts on their behalf.

In the morning, he visited the breakfast shop and saw a group of people busily selling breakfast and vegetables.

The lively scene reminded him of Ancheng a month ago.

Unexpectedly, in the morning, when he went to exercise, he told the neighbors about the abundance of ingredients at the breakfast shop. In the afternoon, one of the neighbors came to find him.

The neighbor, wearing three layers of face masks, didn’t come in but stood outside the door, earnestly advising him: “Don’t go to the breakfast shop anymore. There are mutated plants there.”

The old man didn’t believe it. “There must be some misunderstanding.”

Yesterday, the old man received the ingredients Lin You gave him. After eating them, the scar on his leg had indeed healed a lot.

He couldn’t understand how these could be mutated plants infected by a virus. If they were really mutated plants, could they heal wounds? They would most likely infect him…

But now, wasn’t he fine?

Seeing that the old man wasn’t convinced, the neighbor told him, “You should check online. The news has spread now. If these weren’t mutated plants, how could the round eggplant in the video still be jumping on its own? Moreover, the analysis by netizens is reasonable. There’s no other explanation besides this.”

The old man felt confused.

After the neighbor left, he muttered “impossible” to himself, opened his phone, and browsed the trending news. He frowned.

He had watched that strange video, but he thought that since the vegetables had healing functions, they were definitely unusual.

Although jumping was strange, for a vegetable that could heal, maybe it was understandable.

He firmly believed that these vegetables were not a problem, so he tried to post a comment in the news section to defend the breakfast shop.

He included the fact that he had taken many vegetables from the breakfast shop, cooked several meals without getting infected, and even healed the wound on his leg.

The old man struggled to write the comment.

He usually didn’t type much, so it took him a long time using two fingers to finally send it.

However, there were too many comments sent at the same time, and his comment quickly disappeared into the sea of comments.

Especially since his opinion didn’t align with others, it was naturally pushed down very quickly.

The old man posted several times until the browser popped up a message saying that he had posted too frequently and was banned from posting further. He had no choice but to stop.

He was now sitting in front of a plate of stir-fried vegetables made from ingredients from the breakfast shop, along with a bowl of steamed rice. He had nearly finished eating.

At this moment, he stood up, washed the dishes, put on a jacket, and went downstairs.

Today, the street was indeed different from yesterday; there was not a single person on it.

It seemed that everyone was affected by that negative news, staying indoors and beginning to avoid the breakfast shop.

The old man felt a sense of loss in his heart.

He still vividly remembered how Lin You and the staff had been so kind to him yesterday. He had a feeling that he should do something to help them.

At that moment, Lin You, who was still resting her chin on her hand and looking downcast, saw the old man and immediately brightened up. She stood up and asked, “Uncle, would you like something to eat?”

The old man shook his head. “I’ve already eaten. I just wanted to ask, how are you handling the video issue? Do you have any solutions?”

Lin You sighed slightly upon hearing this. “Right now, we can only wait for Director Shang to return, but I don’t know why. When I called him this afternoon, he didn’t answer. Director Shang had previously said that some information about the ingredients in the freezer needs to be kept confidential, and he couldn’t share it with the citizens for now. But to clarify the matter about the jumping eggplant, we’ll have to tell the truth. We’re still hesitating now, and in the end, we’ll need Director Shang to make the final decision when he returns.”

Qi Kai was swiping his phone, looking at the one-sided comments on social media, and suddenly spoke.

“I still think, with public opinion so intense, we should hold off on taking any action. If the clarification is done improperly, it could backfire. After all, we represent the official stance, and if we don’t make everyone believe us, it could damage the government’s authority.”

The old man looked at the two of them, who appeared troubled, and after thinking for a moment, said, “Well, if you need, I can be a witness.”

He turned to Lin You. “I saw the interview with you on the news today. Will that female reporter come again? Can I accept her interview?”

Lin You asked curiously, “Uncle, are you willing to clarify for us?”

The old man nodded. “You said the public isn’t easily convinced, but as a third party, I should be more objective. Moreover, I’m an old man, and everyone knows it doesn’t make sense for me to lie. Some people will surely believe me.”

“You’re in a situation now where you need a way to speak up. If everyone stays silent, the citizens will think the ingredients really are problematic.”

Qi Kai thought for a moment and said to Lin You, “It’s a way, right? How about we call the reporter and ask her about the news coverage? Director Shang must have briefed her. She knows the basic principles of publicity. If this doesn’t go against Director Shang’s thoughts, the old man should be able to accept the interview.”

Lin You lowered her head, looking at the phone in her hand, and said, “I’ll try calling Director Shang again. If he agrees directly, it would be best.”

However, after dialing again and again, there was still no answer.

Lin You felt a bit anxious. Could something have happened to him?

When she called earlier in the morning, Shang Zhisheng had been on his way back to Ancheng.

But since he hasn’t returned yet, and the outside city isn’t safe, could something have happened to him since she hasn’t been able to reach him for so long? Did he encounter zombies?

Lin You thought this, and her fingers began to tremble.

If something went wrong with the vegetable transport route, the zombies might be about to invade.

Moreover, the team that went to procure vegetables was the Fifth Division, which was responsible for the southern district where she lived.

Several of the staff at the shop were also members of the Fifth Division… The transport team absolutely could not have any accidents!

Lin You felt her temples throbbing, and she pressed her hand against them, trying to calm her panic.

After a moment, Qu Fei reassured everyone. “They’re traveling to a more remote place; maybe the signal is bad on the way.”

He looked at Qi Kai. “Didn’t the captain speak with you yesterday? He said everything was safe on the road and they would arrive in Ancheng by midnight. But when they return tonight, they’ll definitely be exhausted, so let’s not disturb them. Tomorrow morning, we can contact the captain again. It’ll be fine.”

Qi Kai’s expression softened slightly, and he nodded. “Right, I’ve been a little too anxious.”

As for contacting the female reporter, Lin You still hadn’t made a decision.

She told the old man, “Since Director Shang will return tomorrow morning, how about I update him once we have news, and let him decide if he wants to clarify on television?”

The old man understood. “I know you’re an officially appointed institution with rules and discipline. I understand that. But if you need me, just give me a call, and I’ll come over anytime.”

Of course, the old man wasn’t just here to help Lin You clarify the misunderstanding about the mutated plants. He was also concerned about the matter his daughter had asked him to follow up on.

So, he quickly changed the subject and asked Lin You about the possibility of transporting ingredients to other cities.

Lin You relayed the information from Shang Zhisheng and Fu Qingze, summarizing, “The biggest issue now is transportation.”

The old man couldn’t help but feel troubled.

The situation in Lancheng wasn’t looking good. Now that his daughter couldn’t come, they were facing a shortage of both food and medicine in the city. And with zombies rampaging, just thinking about it felt hopeless.

However, the transportation issue was an objective constraint. The old man knew it would be difficult to find a solution, so he didn’t say anything more.

After he left, Lin You told everyone, “Since we don’t have any customers today, let’s just go home for now. You don’t need to come in tomorrow morning. I’ll go downstairs to check the situation. If there are still no pedestrians on this street, we’ll close the shop for the day. I can’t have you all just sitting here.”

Tong Lan agreed verbally, but felt a bit sad inside.

After leaving the job, her legs weren’t in good condition, so she stayed at home, bored.

It had been a rare chance to experience the lively atmosphere again, and after just a couple of days, she was back to square one.

The breakfast shop was tiring, but at least it was lively, and the staff worked hard for a common goal. It felt fulfilling.

Moreover, Gu Hong often appeared in the shop…

Tong Lan didn’t continue to think about it.

She helped Lin You tidy up the kitchen, then drove back home.

Before leaving, Lin You took out two baby cabbages from the freezer. Once home, she changed her shoes, turned on the lights, and put down her bag. The next thing to do was to train these two baby cabbages.

Of course, as Fu Qingze had said, she needed to build a good relationship with them first.

So, Lin You turned on the TV, and the two baby cabbages obediently lay on the sofa.

She stretched out her hand and gently stroked the baby cabbages along the direction of their leaf veins, which was like combing the fur of a pet.

But as she was brushing them, Lin You suddenly noticed that one of the baby cabbages moved slightly.

She looked over, and the baby cabbage seemed to be inching forward. Then, with a “plop,” it draped its leaves over her leg.

What does this mean?

Lin You thought for a moment and realized it might want a hug.

So, she picked up the baby cabbage, hugged it, and then placed it back on the sofa.

The baby cabbage excitedly wiggled its leaves a couple of times before settling down again.