Chapter 107 Scientific Deusion, Collapse of Faith
"Public debate?"
"Debate with Comrade Xiaoting?"
"This woman from the city must be crazy! Comrade Xiaoting is a divine being who can predict the future, what makes her think she can argue with her?"
The employees were in an uproar, looking at Bai Zhu as if he were a fool who didn't know his place.
Then all eyes turned to Su Yuting.
To agree or not to agree?
That bitch Su Wantang knows perfectly well that her advantage is "prophecy," yet she insists on putting herself in such a precarious position.
Her face, which had been wearing a perfect smile, now looked somewhat stiff.
She knew perfectly well that this was a trap Su Wantang had dug, just waiting for her to jump in.
Debate? Debate with a capitalist from a big city like Shanghai? What do I have besides the things I dredged up from my past life?
But could she refuse in front of all the farm workers?
Her carefully cultivated "little fortune teller" persona relies on an attitude of being compassionate and omniscient.
Once you show weakness, half of your persona collapses.
"Fine!" Su Yuting practically spat out the words through gritted teeth. She forced herself to put on that pitying smile again, looking at Su Wantang with a dagger hidden in her eyes.
“Since you’re interested, I’ll naturally oblige. But I wonder what you want to debate? Is it whether this tractor can bring us a better life?”
Her words were a reminder to everyone that Su Wantang was a capitalist and had come with ulterior motives.
Bai Shu smiled slightly, a smile that Su Yuting found extremely irritating.
"Sister, you've misunderstood. The tractor was just a token of my sincerity. I'd like to discuss with you how we can truly free the farm and everyone else from the fate of relying on the weather for a living."
"How about this afternoon?"
She gave Su Yuting absolutely no room for maneuver and set the date directly.
Seeing this, Director Zhang had no reason not to agree and immediately patted his chest to guarantee it.
"No problem, Mr. Bai! I'll arrange it right away! I guarantee it will be handled perfectly!"
...
In the afternoon, the farm's only auditorium, which can accommodate several hundred people, was packed to capacity.
The corridors and windows were filled with employees craning their necks to watch the spectacle, each with an excited look on their face.
Director Zhang personally presided over the debate, cleared his throat, and announced its commencement.
Su Yuting changed into a simpler outfit and stood on the stage, looking even more pitiful. She was the first to launch an attack.
"Fellow villagers, comrades! I, Su Yuting, don't have any great abilities, but I have a little more insight into the future than you all."
Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried a strange, alluring quality.
"I foresee that starting tomorrow, for the next fifteen days, our Beiwang Farm will experience no rain and the scorching sun will beat down on us! The seedlings in the fields will all die from the heat!"
An uproar erupted in the audience, with people whispering amongst themselves and expressions of fear on their faces.
Su Yuting was very satisfied with the effect, and she continued.
"That's not all! In two weeks, there will be a massive hailstorm that will smash our remaining crops to pieces!"
As soon as this "prophecy" was made, the believers below the stage began to shout "Comrade Xiaoting is right" and "We all believe in you," and the atmosphere became extremely enthusiastic.
Su Yuting slightly raised her chin and looked at Bai Shu provocatively.
Let's see how you respond!
When it was Bai Shu's turn to go on stage, she didn't rush to refute, but calmly looked at the restless crowd below the stage.
Lu Jingyan sat in the first row, watching her with a relaxed expression, his eyes full of trust.
Bai Shu nodded almost imperceptibly to him, then turned to Director Zhang and said, "Director, could you please help me move these things upstairs and then draw the curtains?"
Soon, an iron box that none of the people present had ever seen before was brought up and placed directly opposite a white cloth hanging on the wall.
"This is a slide projector," Bai Shu explained casually.
With a "click" from the pull switch, the lights went out, plunging the auditorium into darkness.
With another press, a beam of light shot out from the projector, projecting a clear, colorful image onto the white cloth.
Bai Zhu's cool voice rang out: "What Comrade Su Yuting saw was not fate, but science."
"This is a map of the atmospheric circulation on our planet."
Holding a thin wooden stick, she pointed to the intricate lines and color blocks on the picture and began to explain.
"The drought that Comrade Su Yuting mentioned is not a divine punishment, but rather due to the unusually strong Siberian High recently, which has caused the skies over our Beibei Bay area to be controlled by a single warm air mass for a long time, preventing water vapor from condensing into rain."
"The hail that occurred half a month later was also a scientific phenomenon. It was because at the end of the drought, a lot of heat accumulated on the ground. Once cold air moved south, the strong convergence of warm and cold air would form cumulonimbus clouds, producing strong convective weather, which is hail."
She spoke slowly and used simple language as much as possible.
The workers were confused by what they heard, but they could understand the drawings!
The diagram clearly shows how the airflow moves and how clouds form, exactly as Bai Zhu described!
So that's how the weather is formed?
Bai Zhu paused for a moment to give them more time to think before pressing the switch to move on to the next slide.
On the screen, a huge building covered by a transparent film appeared, with lush greenery, abundant fruits and vegetables, and thriving growth.
"This is a scientific agricultural greenhouse."
"It can grow the most food with the least amount of water. Even if it hails outside, it will remain safe inside."
Another slide.
Rows of neat pipes are laid in the fields, and water droplets fall precisely at the roots of each crop.
"This is drip irrigation technology, which can save 90% of the water compared to the current flood irrigation."
One more.
An airplane flew across the sky, scattering white powder, and then it actually started to rain.
"This is artificial rainmaking."
A series of unimaginable scenes and unheard-of terms swept through the entire auditorium like a storm.
All the employees present had spent their entire lives toiling in the fields, never imagining that the land could be cultivated like this, or that the sky could be managed like this.
It turns out that fate is not predetermined.
It turns out that humans really can conquer nature!
The so-called "miracle" is a joke in the face of real science.
Their gazes changed completely when they looked at the exaggerated scenes of abundance in the slides, and then at Su Yuting on stage who only said things like "the secrets of heaven cannot be revealed."
It was a look that mixed shock, longing, and... doubt.
At this moment, clear cracks appeared in the foundation of their faith.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Bai Shu turned on the lights in the auditorium, and the light shone down again, illuminating the shocked faces of everyone present.
"The future is not determined by vague prophecies, but is in our own hands!"
"I hereby announce that Tangdi Group will invest 50,000 yuan as the first batch of funding to build the farm's first scientific agricultural experimental greenhouse, which is also the first in the entire Northwest!"
"Tangdi Group will hire all workers who participate in the construction and are willing to learn new technologies at double the salary!"
boom!
The crowd erupted in chaos.
50,000! Double the salary!
If the previous slides were a mental shock, then this is a real material bombardment!
All the employees' eyes turned red, and their breathing became heavy. The look in their eyes when they looked at Bai Shu changed from rejection to fanatical worship!
Su Yuting stood on the stage, her face ashen, her body trembling slightly.
Her proud advantage of rebirth, her pitiful prophetic ability, was utterly insignificant in the face of scientific knowledge that transcended time!
For the first time, she felt a deep sense of loss of control and fear towards Su Wantang, this "variable".
She lost, she lost miserably.
The debate—or rather, the one-sided science popularization session—has ended.
Director Zhang was the first to spring up from his seat. His obese body burst forth with astonishing agility as he rushed to Bai Shu in a few strides, grasped her hands tightly, and blushed with excitement.
"Chairman Bai! You are our savior at Beiwang Farm! On behalf of all the staff, thank you! Thank you!"
Their attitude was a hundred times more enthusiastic than yesterday; they were practically treating her like a living Buddha.
On the other side, there's Su Yuting, the "little witch doctor" who was once surrounded by everyone.
Amidst the disdainful and suspicious whispers and strange looks from the crowd, he awkwardly squeezed out of the crowd and hurriedly left the scene.
She heard people whispering.
"What kind of fortune teller is she? I think she's just a charlatan!"
"Exactly! Compared to Chairman Bai, we're nowhere near as good! That's real talent!"
"I'm not going to believe her anymore. I need to hurry up and sign up to learn that greenhouse technology!"
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