Well, asking is pointless.

Shen Yanming didn't say anything and hung up the phone.

Then, faced with this result, both of them fell silent.

After a while, Bi Qiaoan said, "By the way, they wouldn't be eating this year's new grain, would they?"

Shen Yanming paused for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know, but it's very possible."

Both of them had a certain guess in their minds, exchanged a glance, and then entered the space.

This time, it was Shen Yanming who led Bi Qiaoan in, and they appeared in the storage area.

Walking up to a shelf, Shen Yanming pointed to the flour on the shelf and said to Bi Qiaoan, "These are all from this year's harvest. The ones on top are from the first batch of wheat that was delivered and milled. The ones on the bottom are from the batch that Chen Shunwei delivered and milled."

He didn't know if it was related to this, but since he had a guess, he decided to look at it separately.

Bi Qiaoan nodded and asked Shen Yanming for help. She took a bag of flour from the top shelf and a bag from the bottom shelf, opened them, scooped out two bowls of flour, and put them into different colored plastic basins. Then she carried them back to the planting area.

I glanced at the time; there wasn't anything complicated I could do.

Bi Qiaoan made two pots of dumpling soup in the kitchen, using the flour from these two plastic basins.

No soy sauce, vinegar, or salt were added. There wasn't even much vegetable in it. It was a completely white mess, looking more like a paste.

Shen Yanming picked up a spoon, scooped a spoonful from bowl number 1, blew on it to cool it down, and put it in his mouth.

Before he could even chew properly, his expression changed.

Then, quite calmly, he took a sip of cool boiled water to rinse the taste out of his mouth, and then used a spoon to scoop up the dumpling soup from bowl number 2.

The result was even worse; Shen Yanming almost vomited.

Seeing his eyebrows and nose furrowed together, and his lips pursed tightly, Bi Qiaoan was puzzled, so she stepped forward and scooped up a spoonful as well.

Before she could even utter the word "No!", Bi Qiaoan was seen sticking out her tongue, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Why is it so bitter? It's almost like a bitter melon!" Bi Qiaoan said tearfully, wiping the food crumbs from the corners of her mouth with a tissue.

Shen Yanming also felt that things were getting serious, but that was the truth: there was something wrong with the grain they received this year!

No, it's not accurate to say there's a problem. Zhang Heping said that apart from the suffering, there were no other abnormalities.

If the taste deteriorates, what difference is there between that and planting something in vain for ordinary people?

Shen Yanming thought for a long time and only felt that it might be related to sunlight.

After all, he had noticed before the harvest that many plants, including wheat, had withered.

Therefore, Shen Yanming boldly speculated: "Is it possible that those withered wheat ears were bitter?"

Bi Qiaoan swallowed two mouthfuls of plain water, and only after the bitter taste in her mouth had mostly dissipated did she taste the dumpling soup in bowl number 1.

This time it was alright, just slightly bitter. Compared to bowl number 2, this slight bitterness wasn't so unacceptable.

Bi Qiaoan nodded. "Very likely, otherwise the two batches of wheat harvested wouldn't taste so different."

"Yes, the second batch of wheat received more sunlight, so it's very likely that there were more withered wheat ears in it, which increased the bitterness."

"Also, Chen Shunwei's family helped pick up all the wheat ears in the field. Those wheat ears scattered on the ground were likely because the stalks had withered before, so they fell to the ground directly when you harvested them."

Shen Yanming smiled and said, "It's only a possibility, but I wasn't very careful when I was harvesting back then."

Bi Qiaoan frowned: "So what do we do now? Tell Zhang Heping the result, or not? Also, what kind of food should we send him? Food that wasn't bitter at all before the apocalypse, or food that's slightly bitter after the apocalypse?"

As for bitter food, Bi Qiaoan hadn't even considered it. She couldn't even stomach it herself, let alone someone as picky as her.

Shen Yanming was also quite frustrated. If this hadn't happened, it would have been easy for him to support his brother.

However, the taste of the grain has changed, and it will be difficult to produce good grain in the future.

Although everyone collected a lot before the apocalypse, these things will still spoil over time, no matter how well they are stored, right?

"Let's keep the good food from before the apocalypse. We'll save this slightly bitter kind and use it to help them when the situation gets worse."

Bi Qiaoan nodded, thinking that was a good idea.

"How come Zhang Heping and the others discovered it so quickly, while the others haven't even reacted yet?"

"Perhaps their canteen has run out of food and started eating new food. But most people are still eating old food."

Bi Qiaoan thought it made sense, so she didn't say anything more.

At this moment, Shen Yanming said quietly, "The trouble is that no one knew there would be such a change this year. We don't know if they mixed in the withered ears of wheat when they were saving the seeds."

"Who knows? Maybe everyone will just pick the ones with the biggest and fullest ears of grain to keep for seed."

That's what Bi Qiaoan thought, and that's what she said.

After all, the principle of "eugenics" has been promoted for so many years, everyone should understand it by now.

Little did she know, she was really overthinking things.

Not to mention that those four words are mostly used to describe people, even if they were used to describe plants, not many people would actively select seeds.

This is the consequence of relying on the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in the past.

Even seasoned farmers simply buy ready-made seeds from seed companies when it's time to plant; they have no idea about saving and breeding their own seeds. This is even more true for city dwellers who are not skilled in farming.

Perhaps, when it's time to sow in winter, they'll just grab a handful of wheat grains and throw them on the ground. Or, they'll frantically search for seed stations to buy high-yield hybrid seeds.

But now it's the third year of the apocalypse, and even if those experimental fields are still operating normally, their production capacity is limited and they can't supply so much land.

Shen Yanming and Bi Qiaoan stopped dwelling on the issue. They retrieved a 100-jin bag of rice and a 100-jin bag of flour from the storage area.

After unpacking, I scooped out about ten pounds of rice and flour using a bowl and put it into the sealed bag I had bought from Zeng Yiming. Then I used a vacuum packaging machine to remove the air, creating vacuum-packed rice and flour.

This way, on the one hand, it could explain why their own grain had been stored for so long. On the other hand, it would also allow Zhang Heping and the others to store it for an extended period.

It's not like he thought, where he gets so busy that he forgets there's food at home and only remembers when moths are flying everywhere, by which time it's all wasted.

After finishing all that, it was getting late. Shen Yanming and Bi Qiaoan woke up An'an and Nuan Nuan, fed them milk, and then went out to continue their evening training.

Time flew by, and it wasn't until mid-August that Shen Yanming finally found time to return to Qingyu Community.