Courtyard House: My Hidden Wheat Seeds Caused a National Sensation

"First he followed his biological father, then his father died; then he recognized a godfather, then killed him; then he recognized another, then killed him too."

"That kind of person is really something!"

He suddenly lowered his voice and leaned closer to Yi Zhonghai.

"Do you think Sha Zhu looks like him? First, there was his own father, who ran off with a widow; then he followed you, making you furious; then he went to curry favor with the old lady, sending her straight to the hospital; and now, look what's happened, he's with that little bastard Li Jianye—"

"Isn't this just recognizing a thief as one's father?!"

Jia Dongxu became more and more enthusiastic as he spoke.

"And Sha Zhu is really good at fighting; ordinary people can't even get close to him."

"I was thinking, how about we call Xu Damao and Liu Guangqi together, and give him a 'Three Heroes vs. Foolish Pillar' showdown? What do you think?"

Yi Zhonghai listened silently, remaining speechless for a moment.

His apprentice's head is always filled with all sorts of nonsense.

Moreover, which of Jia Dongxu, Xu Damao, and Liu Guangqi is a capable fighter? Even if they all attacked together, they would probably only get beaten up.

Return the "Three Heroes"

It.

"Dongxu, stop worrying about these useless things."

Yi Zhonghai finally spoke, his tone filled with helplessness.

"Practice your fitter skills more often when you have time; it's better than anything else."

"What's the point of practicing skills, Master?"

Jia Dongxu disagreed.

"There were no upgrade slots this year, and I doubt it will be the same next year."

Nobody gets promoted; all that learning is a waste of time.

"That's not how you say it."

Yi Zhonghai shook his head.

"What if there are openings next year?"

As they talked, the two joined the queue for food.

They were in line very quickly.

"Let me handle it."

Just as Yi Zhonghai handed over the aluminum lunchbox, a very familiar voice interrupted.

Immediately afterwards, He Yuzhu pushed aside Ma Hua, who was originally in charge of cooking, took the long-handled ladle himself, and stood steadily in front of the dish.

"Zhu Zi, what's wrong with you...?"

Yi Zhonghai felt a sudden tightness in his chest.

"What? I personally served you the food, and you're still not happy?"

"Pillar..."

Yi Zhonghai shook his head, but ultimately handed over the lunchbox.

"One serving of eggplant with garlic sauce, one serving of stir-fried loofah, and three steamed buns."

"Alright!"

He Yuzhu took the meal ticket, a particularly warm smile spreading across his face.

He scooped up a full spoonful of eggplant, but his wrist suddenly trembled like a leaf in the wind.

With a tremor, the food in the spoon tumbled back into the bowl, leaving only a small piece of eggplant with a few drops of oil.

"Fish-fragrant eggplant—here it comes!"

He shouted loudly as he poured the tiny bit of food into Yi Zhonghai's lunchbox.

I followed the same method and shook out half a spoonful of the almost oily loofah.

Yi Zhonghai was stunned as he stared at the pitiful amount of food in the lunchbox.

He never imagined that one day he would be dealt with in such a way by Sha Zhu.

"You idiot Zhu, how shameless of you! Even shaking a spoon doesn't shake like that!"

Jia Dongxu, who was standing to the side, immediately flew into a rage.

"You treacherous traitor!"

"What?"

Although He Yuzhu didn't understand the specific meaning of the words, he knew from the tone that it was definitely not a nice thing to say.

"Jia Dongxu, what foul language are you spouting!"

He put down the spoon, his fist already clenched.

"That's enough."

Yi Zhonghai quickly grabbed his apprentice's arm.

"Pillar, I don't blame you."

Sooner or later, you will understand my feelings.

"Dongxu, let's go."

"Pooh!"

Jia Dongxu glared fiercely at He Yuzhu. If he hadn't known he would be at a disadvantage if he fought, he would have pounced on him by now.

"You're such a brainless idiot, Zhu!"

"You're the brainless one! Your whole family is brainless!"

"Me, brainless? I married a perfectly innocent girl! And you? Don't you even know what kind of person Liu Lili is!"

"Bullshit! What's wrong with Lili? She's beautiful, considerate, and doesn't embezzle my money or food!"

"What does she want from you? Your wrinkled face? Or your stench?"

"I'll tear your mouth off!"

He Yuzhu instantly exploded, and lifted the barrier to rush out.

"Only a fool would stand there and wait to be beaten! You treacherous, stupid fool! If you've got the guts, wait until I gather my brothers, and we'll have a proper match!"

Seeing that things were not going well, Jia Dongxu turned and ran, not daring to really confront He Yuzhu head-on.

"Hey you, surnamed Jia, don't run! I'll beat you to a pulp!"

……

While it was noisy and bustling outside, the scene inside the steel rolling mill's small canteen was quite different.

Li Jianye was having a meal with several factory leaders around a table.

"The factory's new project officially launched today. On behalf of all the leaders, I would like to thank Researcher Li for his meticulous guidance!"

Deputy Factory Director Li raised his glass and stood up.

"Researcher Li, all my gratitude is in the wine."

I'll offer three toasts first, please feel free to drink as you like!

"Director Li, drink slowly."

I just received a notification that the ministry will be coming to check on the production results in three days.

The factory can't function without your leadership, so please take care of yourself.

As Li Jianye spoke, he also raised his glass and drank a toast with him.

"Since all the leaders are here, I also have a few things I need to discuss with you all..."

Everyone's hearts tightened, fearing that Li Jianye would say he wanted to leave the steel rolling mill at this moment.

Nowadays, steel rolling mills can't do without him.

"Don't overthink it, everyone."

Seeing the expressions on everyone's faces, Li Jianye realized that they had misunderstood and thought he was leaving.

"I'm just outlining the next steps."

Now that the project has started, I won't be coming to the factory as often these days.

We need to shift our focus to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Of course, I will definitely be there on the day the ministry leaders come to inspect.

"If advanced agricultural machinery becomes available in the future, our factory will still be responsible for its production."

Hearing him say that, the leaders breathed a sigh of relief, and the atmosphere at the table became lively again, with laughter, food, and drink, and they were no longer reserved.

Li Jianye stopped talking about official business and chatted casually with everyone, and the meal was quite enjoyable.

After the meal, Li Jianye gave Liu Weiping a few instructions and told Liu Haizhong that he would not be returning to the courtyard house for the next few months. He then rode his bicycle away from the steel rolling mill and headed to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

His next task was to properly mentor his five assistants before heading to Xinjiang Province.

"Researcher Li, you've arrived."

When he arrived, the director of the Agricultural Academy's office greeted him with a smile.

"Have the seeds I requested arrived?"

"We're here! Everything's in your warehouse. Shall I show you around?"

"No need, I can go by myself."

Li Jianye waved his hand and walked straight to the warehouse.

The warehouse wasn't large, about two hundred square meters, but it was enough for him—the experimental field currently allocated to him was only about one hundred acres.

The warehouse floor was piled with bags of seeds, each bag labeled with a variety. They were seeds of staple grains such as wheat, rice, and corn from various regions, as well as various miscellaneous grains and vegetable seeds.

Li Jianye didn't look closely at the labels; he just grabbed a small handful from each bag and put them into his farm warehouse.

"With this batch of seeds, we can conduct research for quite some time."

He smiled with satisfaction, but a sense of anticipation stirred within him: "I wonder what reward I'll receive this time."

However, now is not the time to focus on breeding; he needs to settle his five assistants first.

After leaving the warehouse, Li Jianye found the five men and called them into his office.

"Next, I will go out to look for wild crops and will probably be back in a few months."

So before I leave, I need to give you some training.

His gaze slowly swept over the five people.

"Let me test you first—who can tell me what the importance of wild crops is?"

The five men exchanged glances, a barely perceptible hint of mockery flashing in their eyes.

Although they have been tempered by the world and learned to be outwardly compliant, they may not be convinced in their hearts—how could a college student be questioned by a farmer?

That aura that belongs to the "chosen ones".

His arrogance secretly rose up.

"Isn't that simple?"

Tan Zezong said sarcastically, "Wild crops, since they're wild, farmers can pick up grains for free without any effort."

These things saved lives during famine years when people were starving.

You're not planning to take us to harvest wild crops to feed a few more people, are you?

Upon hearing this, Li Jianye burst out laughing.

Li Jianye laughed for a while before slowly stopping and shaking his head.

A complex mix of emotions welled up inside him.

People in this era seem to lack any sense of "protection" for plants growing in the wild.

This concept.

Nobody thought those wild grasses and shrubs that grew and died on their own had any special value.

It is precisely because of this widespread neglect that, more than a decade later, those precious wild crop genetic resources that originally belonged to this land were easily taken away by outsiders and lost to the distance.

"It seems I need to explain why these wild crops are important."

He cleared his throat, his voice becoming steady.

"The most direct point is their tenacious vitality that they have retained after natural selection—they often have an amazing ability to resist drought, floods, severe cold, and scorching heat."

These characteristics, if introduced into our cultivated varieties through hybridization, can greatly enhance the latter's environmental adaptability.

"Researcher Li!"

Zhou Mingkai suddenly interrupted, his tone carrying a carefully considered question.

"I understand what you're saying, but I don't completely agree with it."

If we want varieties with good resistance, we can simply breed them ourselves in experimental fields generation after generation! That way, the goal is clear and the process is fast.

Go searching the mountains and fields for wild ones? That depends on luck; if you're unlucky, you might go three to five years without finding anything.

"you're right,"

Li Jianye nodded, his gaze toward Zhou Mingkai filled with approval. "Searching in the wild is indeed difficult, time-consuming, and labor-intensive, with unpredictable results."

He then changed the subject.

"However, the crops we cultivate over the long term, after countless generations of artificial selection, will inevitably lose some of their genes."

Take soybeans for example.

Suppose we need a new variety that is both high-yielding and drought-resistant. What is the conventional approach? We cross a high-yielding variety with a drought-resistant variety and then select from the offspring.

This makes it easier for you to obtain plants that are both high-yielding and drought-tolerant.

He walked to a small blackboard next to him and picked up the chalk.

"But problems followed."

This new combination of soybeans may gain the advantages of high yield and drought resistance, but at the cost of other important characteristics, such as resistance to certain diseases or insects.

Let's simplify things and use letters to represent genes.

The chalk slid across the blackboard, making a clear sound.

"Assume that the dominant gene controlling high yield is A, and the corresponding recessive gene is a; the dominant gene controlling drought resistance is B, and the recessive gene is b; the dominant gene controlling resistance to a certain pest is C, and the recessive gene is c."

We now have a high-yielding and insect-resistant soybean with the genotype AabbCc; and another drought-resistant but not insect-resistant soybean with the genotype aaBBcc.

After hybridization, we have a high chance of selecting individuals with the genotype AaBbcc in their offspring—they are highly productive and drought-resistant, but they lose their insect resistance.

He stopped writing, turned around, and looked at everyone.

"You might say, then we can just screen for several more generations and find the insect-resistant genes, right? Theoretically, that's feasible."

But in practice? Everyone here knows how long it takes to complete one round of screening.

How much time would it take to conduct several rounds of such screening? Moreover, soybeans have far more than just these three traits.

There's also oil content, grain size, resistance to different diseases... countless genes intertwined together.

But we often have urgent tasks and limited time.

His tone gradually became more forceful.

"Under such pressure, it may be necessary to discard some less desirable genes during the breeding process."

Don't forget that soybeans have been domesticated and cultivated on our land for thousands of years.

Over the years, who knows how many precious natural genes have been unintentionally lost? That's why we urgently need the gene pool of wild soybeans to compensate for and enrich the genetic diversity of our cultivated soybeans.

He took a step closer, his gaze sweeping over every face.

"Let's imagine an even more serious consequence."

If we completely disregard wild germplasm resources and only focus on breeding existing varieties...