Cheng Zhen felt that the large meat buns she had just eaten were a bit dry.
He felt a bit full after eating a pot of fish porridge. He stood up and walked around a couple of times before sitting down on the sofa. He wanted to get along with the twins, but the two little ones kept avoiding him.
He sat down on the sofa, and the two kids jumped down as if their bottoms were on fire, without even putting on their shoes, and ran back to the toy room, then slammed the door shut without any politeness.
It was even locked!
Cheng Zhen touched his nose, feeling somewhat embarrassed and disappointed. It seemed that his path to getting along with the two kids and getting them to talk was long and arduous!
Jiang Wan couldn't get rid of him, so she stopped paying attention to him. Because Jiang Xiaoxin had been sleeping all day, they missed the bus to go out of the city to mine crystals, so they decided not to go today. She planned to make some desserts for the two little ones to satisfy their cravings. Since the apocalypse, the dessert shops on the street had long since closed down, and many shops had been smashed and looted.
If you want to eat it, you have to make it yourself.
Cheng Zhen's gaze followed her, and as he smelled the faint fragrance in the air, he leaned back on the sofa, and soon his breathing became long and even.
I was awakened by a sweet and cloying aroma that stirred my cravings; I was hungry.
He instantly stood up, his face grim, his hands clenched tightly, alarm bells ringing in his mind—he had actually fallen asleep?!
He actually fell asleep in almost completely unfamiliar surroundings?!
Still sleeping so soundly!
He glanced at the time and his heart sank again; he had actually slept for three hours!
but……
He pinched the bridge of his nose, let out a long breath. It had been so many years since he had slept for more than an hour straight.
He'd almost forgotten what deep sleep felt like!
Jiang Wan walked over, holding a stack of coupons in her hand, and placed them in front of him: "I've kept twenty coupons for your food expenses for the next two days. You can take the rest."
Cheng Zhen understood that this meant he was being told to leave and never come back.
He didn't take it, but said, "Thank you for yesterday. If it weren't for your timely reminder, I'm afraid we wouldn't have been able to successfully eradicate the mutated spider lily. In that case, the entire Xiangcheng would have been in danger within a week."
Jiang Wan frowned slightly and said, "I'm helping myself. After all, if the whole city falls, it won't do me any good."
Cheng Zhen didn't argue with her, but simply nodded: "Then can you tell me why you didn't agree to join us? You didn't even listen to the conditions we offered."
They desperately need botanical experts, not only to help strangle plants, but also to help save more useful plants.
After all, if humans want to continue to survive on this planet, they still need plants to produce oxygen through photosynthesis.
Artificial oxygen production is not a long-term solution.
Jiang Wan's expression of resistance was very obvious, which Cheng Zhen clearly saw, and quickly continued speaking:
"Join us and you will become a protected botanical researcher. You will no longer need to leave the city to mine crystals, and you will receive a monthly salary and supplies. Your children can also enjoy the benefits and be exempt from labor."
Now all wages are paid in crystal vouchers.
Jiang Wan's expression was firm: "We are not afraid of hardship, we can mine the crystals ourselves."
She has plenty of supplies in her tree hollow, and mining crystals doesn't require the kind of life-or-death struggle that ordinary people face.
Like today, others would be anxious and upset if they couldn't leave the city to mine crystals for one less day because they wouldn't have enough coupons to buy supplies, but she doesn't need to worry about that at all.
If bribery fails, is coercion the only option?
Cheng Zhen frowned as he looked at her, his gaze sweeping over the cartoon-shaped desserts she had painstakingly made. Suddenly, a thought struck him: "The twins are still so young. Don't you want to improve this post-apocalyptic environment? Do you want them to grow up breathing toxic air with increasingly low oxygen levels?"
When he brought up the issue using the example of twins, Jiang Wan's expression softened.
She was silent for a moment before asking, "Is this list you have really correct?"
Cheng Zhen took it out again to look at it. The only person clearly alive on it was her; the other one, Li Siming, still hadn't been found.
"What's wrong?" She had said more than once that there was a problem with the list.
After considering it for a moment, Jiang Wan finally said, "I was expelled from school several years ago, including my student status and degree."
The dismissal was thorough, so in principle, her name shouldn't be on their talent management system.
Cheng Zhen asked in surprise, "What's the reason?"
But after asking, he had a guess in his mind, and his gaze unconsciously fell on the photo frame of the twins on the coffee table.
Jiang Wan was very frank, without the slightest regret or resentment. She shook her head and said, "It seems that I had a conflict with my supervisor about the thesis, so you were able to get a list with my name on it. I think your talent system might not be very reliable."
In fact, she had no memory of why she was expelled from the college, nor did she remember how she adopted the twins. She must have forgotten a very important memory.
But she didn't force herself to remember. She was aloof and easygoing, especially now that it was the apocalypse. No one knew what tomorrow would bring, and wasting time dwelling on the past was just plain stupid.
Cheng Zhen readily accepted the list, saying, "Whether this list is real or fake, all the botanists in Xiangcheng are dead now. My brothers and I witnessed your abilities yesterday, so I hope you can join us and help us."
Jiang Wan was puzzled: "Just because I have a spider lily, I'm considered a talent? If that's the case, then college students who haven't graduated yet also have this ability."
Isn't the talent identification process too hasty? In the end, he still believes in that talent list.
"That's different."
How can the abilities of an ungraduated college student be compared to those of a proper researcher?
not to mention……
Cheng Zhen coughed and said, "You really don't have a way out. If you don't join us, you'll be in real danger."
Think about how other people died?
This is coercion.
Jiang Wan finally agreed to consider it. Cheng Zhen also had other things to do and couldn't stay any longer. He took a few desserts that Jiang Wan had made for the twins and ate them as he walked out. Before leaving, he told Cheng Zhen, "Be careful and give me an answer as soon as possible so I can arrange for you to leave here."
Hearing the door open and close, the twins in the toy room immediately pressed their ears to the door to listen for any sounds. Once they were sure the strange man had really left, they breathed a sigh of relief and then tiptoed to open the door together.
Jiang Wan wasn't against becoming a botanist; on the contrary, she genuinely loved the profession. The reason she didn't immediately agree to Cheng Zhen's offer was that her mother had instructed her before she died that if she and the twins wanted to live well, they should never do any work related to plants again.
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