Chapter 37: The Shadow of the Consortium and the Eve of the Storm
# Chapter 37: The Shadow of the Consortium and the Eve of the Storm
Just three days after the sweet fragrance of the old crop fields returned, the monitoring equipment at the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau suddenly sounded a shrill alarm. Chen Wang hurried to the base in two steps. The soil data on the screen jumped wildly, and the number in the "Heavy Metals and Hazardous Chemicals" column was a glaring red—more than ten times the normal value.
"What's going on? It was fine when tested yesterday!" The technician in charge of the equipment was sweating profusely, his fingers clacking at the keyboard. "It seems like a large amount of pollutants have suddenly seeped into the ground. The source can't be found, and it's spreading extremely fast!"
Lin Xiaoman squatted down, scooped up a handful of soil, and rubbed it between her palms. The once soft, moist black soil had become rough and raspy. She could smell it closely, and could detect a faint chemical odor, completely unlike the herbicide Anderson had used. Suddenly, she remembered an illustration from her grandfather's notebook and quickly flipped through it: it showed a black liquid seeping down the ridge of a field into the soil, the roots of crops turning black and rotting. Written in red pen next to it were the words: "Foreign poison, specifically rotting old roots, requires underground water to neutralize."
"It's a root rot agent targeting the roots of old varieties!" Lin Xiaoman's voice trembled, and his fingertips wrinkled the notes. "It's a hundred times more powerful than the previous herbicides. It will directly rot the roots of the crops, making it impossible to save them!"
Chen Wang immediately called the agricultural expert, but no one answered after more than a dozen calls. Half an hour later, the expert's assistant sent a voice message, his voice trembling with panic: "Mr. Chen! This is terrible! The expert was taken away this morning on suspicion of leaking state agricultural secrets. Even the samples in the lab have been seized!"
These words were like thunder, shocking everyone present. Uncle Li's hoe dropped to the ground with a clang, his voice hoarse, "It must be the people behind Anderson! These people have no intention of giving up!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xiao Zhou, who was in charge of e-commerce, stumbled over, his phone screen lit up with a bank freeze notice: "Mr. Chen, Ms. Xiaoman! The company account has been frozen! The bank said they received a letter of assistance from Interpol, alleging that we are suspected of illegally exporting rare crop resources!"
Lin Xiaoman quickly pulled out her phone and discovered that not only her company account, but also her and Chen Wang's personal accounts were "temporarily unavailable." Even more alarming was the fact that the town government staff who had previously agreed to help clarify the rumors were now "unreachable," as if they had suddenly vanished.
"It's not Anderson." Chen Wang stared at his phone screen, his eyes as deep as a pool. "Anderson's company went bankrupt a long time ago and couldn't afford such a large-scale event. There must be a larger force behind this." He clicked on the photo of Anderson's business card he had saved and magnified the microscopic lines on the edge. "This is a secret code from the 'Blackstone Consortium'—they specialize in monopolizing rare crop resources around the world. They once drove the native rice of a village in Southeast Asia to extinction."
"Blackstone Group?" Lin Xiaoman's heart sank. She had read reports in agricultural journals: this group controlled the seed markets in more than a dozen countries. Farmers who refused to give up their native varieties were either forced to give up by having their water and electricity cut off or arrested on trumped-up charges. Their methods were brutal.
"What on earth do they want?" Aunt Wang clutched the jar of freshly brewed strawberry jam, her hands shaking. "We've recovered the seeds, and we've caught Anderson, so why won't they let us go?"
"What they want is the cultivation techniques of the old varieties, as well as our crops' ability to resist disasters and coexist with the land." Chen Wang lowered his voice. "Anderson was just a pawn. Now that the pawn has been defeated, the real owner is willing to show up."
Before he finished speaking, the sound of car engines emanated from the village entrance—more than a dozen black sedans lined up and stopped directly at the base's gate. The people who got out wore black suits. The middle-aged man in the lead, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, clutched a document and wore a false smile. "Mr. Chen Wang, Ms. Lin Xiaoman, I'm Zhou Ming, the head of the Blackstone Group's Asia division."
He handed over the document, with the cover printed with "Qingxi Village Old Variety Crop Base Purchase Agreement." He said, "We can help you unfreeze your account, secure the release of your agricultural experts, and even help you sell your crops globally. The terms are simple—give us the old variety planting techniques and all the seeds, and we'll take over this base from now on."
"Dream on!" Lin Xiaoman pushed the documents aside, his voice filled with anger. "These crops have been grown by generations of Qingxi Villagers. They are local varieties protected by the state. Don't even think about taking them away!"
The smile on Zhou Ming's face instantly disappeared. He pushed up his glasses and said in a cold tone, "Don't refuse a toast and then drink a forfeit. Why do you think the government suddenly couldn't be contacted? Why was the agricultural expert arrested? We arranged it all. If we want, we can cut off the tap water supply in Qingxi Village tomorrow, leaving you without even drinking water from the well."
He pointed to the distant mountain stream. "And your crops won't last three days. We've applied a root rot agent upstream of the stream. It'll seep into the soil along with the water flow. It won't be long before all the crops will rot and die. Agree now, and you can still save yourselves. If you don't, you'll perish along with these seedlings."
Chen Wang stared at Zhou Ming intently, his fists clenched so tightly that they made a creaking sound. "Aren't you afraid of legal sanctions?"
"Law?" Zhou Ming scoffed, pulling out an agreement with the official seal from his briefcase. "Did you see this? We've signed an 'Ecological Agriculture Cooperation Development Agreement' with your local government. While we're nominally helping you develop your business, we actually already have the rights to use the land. Even if you call the police, they'll only arrest you for 'illegally occupying land.'"
The villagers were so angry they were shaking all over, but there was nothing they could do. Grandma Zhang leaned against the old pear tree, tears streaming down her face. "These robbers! This is the land we've guarded our whole lives!"
Xiaochen suddenly ran over holding his "Star Pattern" tomato seedlings, and put the potted plants in front of Lin Xiaoman, his small body stretched straight: "You are not allowed to bully Mom and Dad, and you are not allowed to damage my seedlings!" The leaves of the tomato seedlings in his arms trembled slightly, and the originally bright light yellow lines became dim, but not a single leaf fell off, as if they were holding on to accompany Xiaochen.
Zhou Ming didn't even glance at Xiaochen. He turned and walked towards the car. "I'll give you three days to think it over. I'll come back in three days to sign the agreement. Either you hand over the technology and seeds, or watch the crops wither and the villagers suffer." Before getting in the car, he turned back and added, "Don't even think about asking outsiders for help. No one dares to go against the Blackstone Group."
After the black car disappeared at the village entrance, the base fell eerily silent. The alarms on the monitoring equipment continued to blare, like a death knell. The leaves in the strawberry patch began to yellow and drop one by one. The soil beneath the old pear tree shone a pale green, the traces of the seepage of the root rot agent. The new shoots of the double-kernel walnut vines shrank and curled, lifeless.
"Is there really nothing we can do?" Aunt Wang cried, covering her face. "Do we really have to give up our old breed?"
Chen Wang walked to the old pear tree and touched its trunk—he could feel a faint tremor inside. The old pear tree hadn't given up yet. He turned back to the villagers, his eyes filled with a resolute determination: "No, we won't pay. They can freeze our accounts, arrest our experts, and poison us, but they can't destroy the roots of our old varieties, or our resolve to keep our home."
"But the water in the mountain stream is polluted. How can the crops survive?" Uncle Li was interrupted by Lin Xiaoman before he could finish his words.
"Grandpa wrote it in his notes!" Lin Xiaoman held up his notebook and pointed to the annotation next to the illustration. "There's a thousand-year-old well beneath the old pear tree. It's the source of the underground water veins, and the root rot agent can't penetrate that deep! As long as we guide the roots of the crops around the ancient well, we can avoid the toxins and use the power of the well water to slowly purify the soil!"
This rekindled everyone's hope. Chen Wang immediately assigned tasks: "Uncle Li, lead the young people in digging a shallow trench from the old pear tree toward the ancient well, making sure not to damage the taproots of the crops. Aunt Wang, have the women gather their buckets and draw water from the ancient well to water the seedlings first, providing some respite. Grandma Zhang, lead the elderly and children in keeping an eye on the base, ensuring the Blackstone Group doesn't sabotage it again."
The villagers immediately set to work. The thud of hoes digging into the earth, the clang of buckets colliding, and the shouts of children passing tools gradually drowned out the alarms from the monitoring equipment. Chen Wang and Lin Xiaoman knelt by the ancient well, watching the clear water bubble up. They reached out and touched it; the cool water had a strength, as if the earth were giving them energy.
But before the trench was finished, sirens blared in the distance. Over a dozen police cars pulled up at the base's entrance, and officers set up a cordon. The officer in charge held an arrest warrant. "Chen Wang, Lin Xiaoman, suspected of illegally releasing chemicals and damaging the ecological environment. Come with us!"
"You're wrong! It was the Blackstone Group that poisoned us!" Lin Xiaoman was so anxious that he wanted to hand over his notes to explain, but was stopped by the police.
Chen Wang held her, his eyes calm but firm: "Don't argue, they are being used. I will go with them, you stay here, you must protect the ancient well, protect the old species, and wait for me to come back." He took off the silver ring on his finger - it was a ring carved from an old pear tree branch, and later replaced with a silver ring, and put it on Lin Xiaoman's hand. "This is our agreement, protect the home and wait for me."
Lin Xiaoman clutched the ring, tears falling, but nodded vigorously: "I will wait for you, I will definitely wait for you."
Seeing Chen Wang being taken into the police car, the villagers wanted to step forward to stop him, but were blocked by the police. On the hillside in the distance, Zhou Ming's black car appeared again. He rolled down the window, gave Lin Xiaoman a smug smile, and drove away.
The setting sun painted the sky a bleak orange. The monitoring equipment suddenly went black, and the technician shouted, "It's being remotely controlled." A pale green root rot seeped from a half-dug ditch. The old pear tree's leaves fell to the ground, but a few still clung to its branches. Xiaochen squatted by the old well, holding a tomato seedling, whispering "Daddy." Wangfu lay beside him, tail drooping, whimpering softly.
Lin Xiaoman stood beneath the old pear tree, clasping two rings—one a silver ring from Chen Wang, the other a pear wood ring from her grandfather. She gazed at the sealed entrance to the base, then at the bubbling water in the ancient well. She knew: the Blackstone Consortium's true plan hadn't begun yet. Chen Wang's arrest, the account freeze, and the base blockade were merely the beginning of a storm.
As night deepened, the sweet fragrance of the crop fields faded. Only the water from the ancient well still quietly bubbled, nourishing the roots that extended towards this side. Lin Xiaoman pulled out her phone and edited an "orchard diary" visible only to herself: "The storm is coming, he's been taken away, I must defend this place. The land is here, the old varieties are here, hope is here, waiting for his return." In the photo, the ancient well glowed faintly in the moonlight. Xiaochen's tomato seedlings were placed by the well, their leaves gently touching the wellhead, as if guarding a last glimmer of hope.
In a high-rise building in the city, Zhou Ming reported to the other end of the phone: "Boss, Chen Wang has been arrested. Lin Xiaoman is now alone. We will get the planting technology in three days."
A deep laugh came from the phone. "Well done. Remember, after you get the technology, fill up that well and completely pollute the soil. Never let Qingxi Village's old varieties survive."
After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ming looked out the window at the night, a cruel smile curling his lips. A bigger storm was heading towards Qingxi Village, threatening to completely blow away the hope of this land.
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