Chapter 93: Does the Taiping take us for fools, or for taking advantage? ...
It must be no small matter for the Hongshi Forest Farm to call Secretary Lang and for Lang Yue'e to come to see her specially.
Yan Xue immediately put her fat son down and asked, "What's the problem?"
"They say our batch of bacteria has gone bad," Lang Yue'e said. "My dad doesn't know the details either. Wait for you to go over and ask him."
Yan Xue called the second old lady, "Grandma, I have something to do. Please come and look after Yan Yu."
The second old lady responded in the backyard. Yan Xue coaxed her son again and waited for the old lady to come back before going out with Lang Yue'e.
When she arrived at the site, Secretary Lang was still waiting in his office. As soon as he saw him, he picked up the phone and dialed, "I'll have them talk to you directly."
Yan Xue nodded, waited for the call to be connected, and after Secretary Lang finished talking to the other end, she took the phone and said hello.
"Hello, Technician Yan." The man on the other end was quite polite. "Well, we're slow at growing, and we still haven't finished growing some of the fungus. When I opened it today to start growing, I noticed it looked like it had grown hair inside. I wanted to ask if this is normal?"
Of course, growing hair is not a normal phenomenon. It is caused by the growth of foreign bacteria. However, the strains used in the pilot project have been strictly selected. How could there be foreign bacteria?
Yan Xue couldn't help but frown, but her voice remained calm. "What kind of fur is it? Can you describe it?"
"I can't really describe it," the other person said. "Anyway, there are quite a few. Technician Yan, please come over and take a look."
"A lot of them have grown?" That is even more confusing. After all, the weather is not hot yet. Even if they are not stored properly, it is not the season for the growth of various fungi.
But the other party did give her a positive answer, "Yes, quite a lot of them have grown, at least one or two hundred bottles."
That was indeed a lot. Yan Xue's expression became even more serious. "Okay, I'll go over and take a look."
Just as he handed the microphone back to Secretary Lang, Secretary Lang said, "I'll send you a motorcycle card."
Although Jinchuan Forest Farm and Hongshi Forest Farm are on the same small train line, they are quite far apart and it takes at least one or two hours to walk there.
Yan Xue didn't refuse. After thinking about it, she looked at Lang Yue'e again and said, "Sister Yue'e, please go and call Chang'an over for me."
Guo Changan was trained for a technical position and will inevitably have to face such emergencies in the future, so it won't hurt to see them more often.
Not long after, Guo Changan hurried over, and the motorcycle truck was also brought over. The two got in the car and headed straight for the Hongshi Forest Farm.
Something went wrong, and the Red Stone Forest Farm was more anxious than them, so they sent people to wait by the railway tracks in advance.
Seeing that Guo Changan, who had difficulty walking, had also come with him, the other party obviously frowned, but still said nothing and walked towards the ear field with two people.
As soon as Yan Xue saw the brick wall of the Red Stone Forest Farm from afar, she couldn't help but ask, "Who chose this address?"
The relationship between Hongshi Forest Farm and Jinchuan Forest Farm is average. They did not ask her to choose the site at the beginning, but she had already told them the precautions. How could they choose like this?
It is close to the mountain and residential area. It faces north and south, but the ventilation is much worse because of the mountain and residential areas.
As a result, the other party said that it was selected by their secretary himself. What else could Yan Xue say? After all, the construction had already been completed.
Several people rushed to the ear field. The previous team leader and Qin Ling were there, as well as a middle-aged man in his forties who said he was the person in charge of the Red Stone Ear Field.
The person in charge spoke to Yan Xue and Guo Changan for a few words, then asked the team leader to come and explain the situation. It turned out that he was not involved in the production.
In those days, even many brigade secretaries were only working part-time. Yan Xue wanted to ask about the situation directly, but seeing this, she had no choice but to ask the team leader, looking around as she asked, "Where do you wash your hands?"
The team leader pointed to several basins of water by the wall and helped Yan Xue change the water in the basin. After Yan Xue finished washing, she found some alcohol and wiped her hands carefully before walking towards the room where the fungus seeds were kept.
As soon as she entered, she saw the cans placed on the ground. Indeed, many of them had hair growing inside, and it was quite obvious.
Yan Xue squatted down and checked. The hairs were either white or green, obviously they were breeding fungi.
"It looks like wood mold." Guo Changan leaned over with his good leg to take a look and frowned.
Ever since deciding to expand the cultivation of wood ear mushrooms, Yan Xue asked Qu Mingli to get some books about mold. They both read them and guessed what was going on.
But even after I guessed it, I was even more confused. After all, wood mold mostly appears in high temperature and high humidity environments. It is only the end of April now, which is not considered high temperature at all.
Yan Xue frowned and took in the surroundings before asking the team leader, "Have the fungus spores always been kept in this room?"
"Yes." The team leader nodded. "I've kept it in this room since I brought it back. I haven't moved it."
"That's not right." Yan Xue immediately denied it. "The temperature in your house won't exceed 10 degrees Celsius during the day, and even lower at night. It's impossible for wood mold to grow."
Guo Changan also looked directly into the other person's eyes. "This type of mold is only produced in high temperature and high humidity environments, and spreads through spores in the air."
They both looked at the team leader, and the team leader's eyes flickered. "Put it in this room. Where else can it be placed if not in this room?"
Yan Xue and Guo Changan noticed it and immediately realized that there might be something else going on.
But before they could say anything, someone nearby said, "Your own things have problems, and you blame others for not putting them away properly."
It was Qin Ling's voice.
Yan Xue looked over and saw the team leader even called her in a low voice: "Xiao Qin."
There was a warning in her tone, but Qin Ling was still indignant. "What did I say wrong? It was their stuff that had problems in the first place."
She pointed at the cans on the ground and said, "If there were no problems, I'd just brought them back and not touched them, and they'd already grown mold?"
"Xiao Qin!" This time the team leader's voice turned stern. "Technician Yan was kind enough to come and help us check the situation. How dare you talk to him like that?"
"How could she be kind?" Qin Ling pointed at Yan Xue. "I think she just holds a grudge against me because I didn't accept her standing in the middle of a poetry recitation, so she deliberately sold the bad ones to our forest farm!"
This was accusing Yan Xue of seeking revenge. Although Guo Changan didn't know about the poetry recitation incident, his face darkened. "Be careful what you say. The strains we sold during the pilot program were all good. Any foreign strains were picked out during the cultivation process. If you don't believe me, you can ask other forest farms."
"It's definitely not sold to other forest farms, but it's not certain if it's sold to us." Qin Ling still sneered with an aggressive attitude.
The noise here was so loud that it soon attracted the person in charge, "What's going on?"
Before Yan Xue and Guo Changan could even speak, Qin Ling spoke first, "The Jinchuan Forest Farm sold us the spoiled fungus strains and they haven't acknowledged it yet."
The person in charge frowned upon hearing this. "Don't say that. Are you sure what they sold us is bad?"
"If it's not bad, could it be us who spoiled it?" Qin Ling said, "Who would be so bored as to spoil something worth hundreds of dollars?"
"That's true." The person in charge looked at Yan Xue thoughtfully, "Technician Yan, how do you think we can handle this?"
"I think this is probably a misunderstanding. It's worth hundreds of dollars, how could they really sell us a broken item? It must be an oversight." The team leader tried to smooth things over.
Qin Ling snorted coldly when she heard that and wanted to say something, but the team leader looked at her and she shut her mouth angrily.
Yan Xue watched them play the good cop and the bad cop, and after they finished, she asked the person in charge, "How do you want to deal with this?"
"I think it's best to handle this privately," the person in charge said. "After all, this is only the first year of selling the strains, and if there's already a problem, it won't look good if it's made public. It will really affect the reputation of your pilot project."
The words seemed to be for the good of Yan Xue and the others, but upon closer inspection, it was not for their own good at all, it was clearly a threat.
Yan Xue didn't say anything, but squatted down again and checked the cans again.
The person in charge looked at it, thought for a moment, and said, "How about this, you should have some remaining bacteria strains over there, right?"
Yan Xue didn't respond, and he didn't seem to care. "If you have, give us another two or three hundred bottles. We won't ask for more."
That's true that I didn't ask for much, but didn't Qin Ling, who was always the good guy, say anything?
Sure enough, as soon as the words fell, Qin Ling said, "No, what if they give us the bad ones again?"
The person in charge paused, and Qin Ling continued, "I think it's safest to let them tell us the method and then do it ourselves."
Ever since Yan Xue squatted down to continue checking the cans, Guo Changan hadn't spoken a word. Only after hearing this did he glance at the other people.
They wanted to know how to cultivate the bacteria. It turned out that this was their purpose. They really had a big appetite.
I just don’t know why so many strains of bacteria have produced mixed bacteria. Did they do it on purpose?
Moreover, this matter is indeed difficult to handle. If the Hongshi Forest Farm spreads the news that Jinchuan sells bad mushroom strains, it will definitely affect their reputation, and they may even be criticized by the bureau.
Guo Changan frowned, but Yan Xue had already dusted off the sawdust on her hands and stood up. "Your Secretary Zhao is at the forest farm, right?"
She looked directly at the person in charge and said, "For such a big matter, it must be resolved with a leader as a witness, right?"
The person in charge thought about it and decided to invite Secretary Zhao over. Yan Xue also called the comrade who drove the motorcycle truck.
Yan Xue and Guo Changan moved the things directly to the open space outside, and when people arrived, they told them the general situation.
"You are sure that the things were broken when we sold them to you, and you hope to get the cultivation method so that you can cultivate them yourself, right?" Yan Xue glanced at Qin Ling and the others.
The comrade driving the motorcycle truck who was pulled in as a witness immediately became anxious. "What do you mean? How could the fungus strains used in our forest farm's pilot project be bad?"
However, no one at the Hongshi Forest Farm said anything, including Secretary Zhao who had just been called over.
Yan Xue didn't care and directly grabbed a handful from the can. "Then do you know that there is something missing in your culture medium?"
The team leader and Qin Ling's expressions changed immediately. Guo Changan also leaned over and asked, "Their culture medium?"
He reached into the can and grabbed a handful. After twisting it between his fingers, he realized something was wrong. "This isn't our strain."
"Why isn't it your strain? Who else but you guys can make this stuff?" Qin Ling was young after all, and she couldn't keep her composure.
Guo Changan was already certain, "It's not our strain. There's something missing in your culture medium."
There is only 1% gypsum in the culture medium of the original species and cultivated species, which seems negligible, but this 1% of gypsum plays a significant role.
Firstly, it can adjust the pH value and neutralize the acidic substances produced by the culture medium during metabolism, so that the growth environment of the mycelium remains stable; secondly, it can fill the gaps in the matrix, enhance air permeability and water retention, and avoid the compaction of sawdust and other materials, which may lead to water loss or the growth of miscellaneous bacteria.
But there is no gypsum in the culture medium in this can. Guo Changan has been dealing with these things for three years and can tell it by just touching it.
Seeing that no one was saying anything, he directly twisted the culture medium onto the ground. "The culture medium full of mycelium wouldn't be so loose. It would basically be clumped together."
"Then who knows if they weren't fully grown when you sold them?" Qin Ling refused to admit it. "Anyway, the ones you sold us were bad."
This was simply unreasonable. Guo Changan's eyes darkened, but Yan Xue said nothing and took out a few more pieces of something from the can.
"This is our strain." She spread out her hands, and in her fair palms was a culture medium of similar material but clearly solidified into clumps.
Guo Changan understood now. "You took our strains and tried to cultivate them yourself. When you failed, you blamed us and asked us for the cultivation method."
The young man was so angry that he laughed, "You guys really can think of something like that. Do you think our forest farm is a scapegoat or a fool?"
The whole audience was silent as death. Even Qin Ling, who had been dancing the most enthusiastically, was speechless for a moment.
Yan Xue watched, too lazy to say anything more to them, and stood up to wash her hands, "Changan, let's go."
If this plan succeeded, it would be fine. But if it didn't, it would have offended someone...
The leader of the Red Stone Forest Farm hurried over and said, "Technician Yan, don't be angry. There might be some misunderstanding here."
Before, I falsely accused the item of being bad when I brought it to him, and he said it was a misunderstanding. Now that the truth is out, he says it was a misunderstanding again.
Yan Xue glanced at him and asked, "Are you asking us to check all the cans and jars and then go back and get a normal one for comparison?"
How could the team leader not know what was going on? I was choked at that moment.
Seeing the atmosphere between the two sides reach a freezing point, Secretary Zhao of the Hongshi Forest Farm could only come out to keep the person. "Technician Yan, please don't be angry. Let's talk it over."
His face turned serious again. "If this is really as you said, I will investigate it carefully, deal with it seriously, and give you an explanation."
If Yan Xue left in anger like this, who would they turn to if they had any problems next time? Would they still be able to buy fungus strains next year?
Thinking of this, Secretary Zhao couldn't help but glare at those people who were more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything.
Facing Secretary Zhao, Yan Xue didn't want to be too disrespectful and smiled, "Then I'll go back and wait for your opinion."
Then he looked at his watch again, "To be honest, I left home in a hurry today and didn't even have time to eat. I have a child at home waiting to be fed."
How could these people have the nerve to keep anyone here? They could take care of the food, but could they take care of the baby at home?
They could only send Yan Xue and the others away, and they apologized and gave them all the nice things to say.
But Guo Changan's face was still very ugly. The driver who brought them here was also very angry. "What kind of people are they? They can do such a thing."
Only Yan Xue remained calm. "It's okay. They have to give us an explanation anyway if they don't want to lose everything this year."
The driver who brought them here clearly didn't understand. "They can't pay much for just these few bottles of bacteria, right?"
One bottle of original species can be used to cultivate dozens of bottles of cultivated species, and the Hongshi Forest Farm would not be willing to use a large number of strains for experiments.
But Guo Changan understood it. After all, the fungus would produce wood mold. In addition to the high temperature and high humidity environment, it is usually accompanied by improper operation and inadequate disinfection.
Just now, when Yan Xue was washing her hands, she took a long time to find the alcohol. If the people at the Hongshi Forest Farm didn't do a good job of disinfection during the vaccination, the spores of this thing would stick to people's hands.
After returning to Jinchuan Forest Farm, they immediately told Secretary Lang about this. Secretary Lang was very angry when he heard it, and called Qu Mingli to tell him.
Qu Mingli hadn't expected Hongshi Forest Farm to be operating this way. He called Secretary Zhao and scolded him, "What on earth were you thinking? If Jinchuan Forest Farm hadn't been willing to give us their produce, do you think you could have managed to grow it?"
It is true that some people are capable and can lead others to progress, while some people can only find ways to hold others back.
Secretary Zhao immediately complained, saying that he didn't know either, and that it was all the subordinates who acted on their own. He had already dealt with the comrade who made the mistake seriously and deducted two months' salary from him.
Such a big thing, but he only had two months' salary deducted. Qu Mingli didn't even bother to say anything to him. "Do you think Jinchuan Forest Farm is satisfied with this treatment?"
"We are all from the same town forestry bureau. I really didn't know about this in advance. Besides, if they hadn't kept the technology secret for fear that our brother forestry farms would find out, we wouldn't have to go through the trouble of figuring it out ourselves." Secretary Zhao also tried to put the blame on others.
Qu Mingli simply ignored the other party and just hoped that the other party would never have to ask for help from Jinchuan Forest Farm.
With such a broad mind and such ability to get things done, he wouldn't be able to swallow even if food was fed to him.
The result was told to Secretary Lang, who was obviously very dissatisfied, but since they were at the same level, he really couldn't say anything.
Besides, Yan Xue had given him the hint, so he didn't need to say anything to the other party, he just had to wait.
The matter seemed to have passed, and the people at the Red Rock Forest Farm were greatly relieved. They had thought that Yan Xue would have to bleed to death to appease her.
It seems that this young man Yan Xue is very aware of the current situation and knows that if things become too awkward, it will not benefit anyone.
Then, when the people from the Red Stone Forest Farm opened the bark cap to check the mycelium, they found radial white mycelium inside.
Everyone felt something was wrong no matter how they looked at it. After all, the wood ear mycelium is transparent, but they were not sure, so they observed it for a few days.
As a result of this observation, and because the weather at the forest farm has been good recently, hair actually started to grow inside the drilled holes of some logs.
These hairs were exactly the same as the previous ones. The people at Hongshi Forest Farm immediately panicked and hurriedly called Jinchuan Forest Farm. However, the people at Jinchuan Forest Farm kept saying that Yan Xue was busy and couldn't spare the time.
"Technician Yan is busy, so what about Observer Guo? Since Technician Yan didn't say she was away, can I talk to Observer Guo if I need help?"
The people at Hongshi Forest Farm were still unwilling to give up. Secretary Lang sighed and said, "You all know that Observer Guo has difficulty walking."
After a few days, not only did the hairy drill hole begin to emit a musty smell, but more and more drill holes also showed similar symptoms.
It was obvious that the wood mold was spreading. The Hongshi Forest Farm had no choice but to harden their hearts and fire Qin Ling and the team leader.
No matter whether the people above knew about it or not, this could only have been done by the two of them in secret, and they could only swallow their anger.
In this way, it was obvious that Hongshi Forest Farm showed weakness to Jinchuan Forest Farm and bowed its head, which inevitably made Secretary Zhao of Hongshi Forest Farm feel embarrassed.
But when the news reached Jinchuan Forest Farm, Yan Xue, who had been "busy" all the time, finally had time and brought Guo Changan to Hongshi Forest Farm for the second time.
This time, no one else was hired. The person in charge of the ear field came to pick them up personally. As soon as they met, he sincerely apologized for what happened last time and said that he would pay enough for the guidance fee.
Yan Xue didn't want to talk to them any more. She just went about her business and picked out the most polluted logs. "We have to find a place to burn these."
"Burned?" The person in charge couldn't believe it, and the others who followed him were also surprised.
They bought these things with their own money and planted them with great effort. Now they are burned. How much money will they lose?
"Trichoderma spores can spread through the air. If we don't burn them quickly, will they spread to other ear trees?"
No one dares to bet on this, after all, a lot of ear wood has been contaminated. Compared with these, it is most important to preserve the majority that has not been contaminated.
Everyone had no choice but to bear the pain and move the things to an open space, put some dry firewood on it, and set it on fire.
As for the remaining ones, Yan Xue and Guo Changan also brought people to check them one by one, and divided the contaminated and uncontaminated ones into two parts for isolation.
The next step is to deal with the ear wood that is less contaminated. For those that are completely unusable, the drill holes must be cleaned, the fungus must be dug out, and the wood must be scraped until the original wood is exposed.
Once these are dealt with, wipe the rest with lime water, which will effectively inhibit the growth of Trichoderma mycelium.
The project was huge. After Yan Xue left, the people at Hongshi Forest Farm worked for several days to complete it, and they still had to conduct follow-up observations.
And even if no problems arise later, their losses are unavoidable. After all, they burned a lot of ear wood, dug a lot of holes, and delayed the growth of mycelium.
When the matter was reported to Secretary Zhao, he suddenly felt that the punishment for those two idiots was too light.
What kind of shady trick is this? Instead of developing a cultivation method, they created a fungus called Trichoderma, which has ruined the entire ear industry.
When the news spread to other forest farms, regardless of whether they had the idea before, they all gave up the idea of secretly researching the fungus strains.
This technology is not something that everyone can master, and no one wants to cause such great losses as the Red Stone Forest Farm.
Knowing that the thing is difficult to obtain, Jinchuan Forest Farm, the only pilot site that can cultivate fungus strains, is even more important, and all forest farms have corrected their attitudes.
If you can maintain good relationships, then do so. Even if you can't, you must not offend others, otherwise you will be the one who suffers.
Even when Qi Fang came back from town, someone on the train recognized him and said, "You are Technician Yan's wife, right? I saw you go to the pilot site to look for her. Your Technician Yan is really amazing."
She kept flattering him all the way, and even asked him to help convey to Technician Yan that everyone in their Thirteenth Line Forest Farm admired her.
So when Yan Xue returned home, she found that the man had already returned. As soon as he saw her come in, he looked at her with a pair of peach blossom eyes.
The little fat boy in the man's arms rarely quarreled with his father. He sat leaning against the man. When he saw her, his eyes, which were very similar to the man's, lit up and he stretched out his hands for her to hug him.
Yan Xue went over and held her son in her arms, and then she heard the man talk about what happened on the road, "I am now the lover of Technician Yan."
"What? You don't want to?" Yan Xue gave him a sideways look, which made him deny it immediately. "No, I think it's fine."
Then he looked outside the door again, took out a small paper bag from his pocket, and handed it to Yan Xue, "I only got two."
Yan Xue didn't understand at first, but after she took it, touched it, and looked at the words on the wrapping paper, she finally understood and lowered her voice, "Where did you get it?"
"I went to Secretary Qu to report my plan last time and asked him to help me with this."
The man's voice was calm. "Didn't you say that asking him for a little help would help you get closer to him?"
But he was obviously not very comfortable asking others for help, so he immediately changed the subject, "Secretary Qu has something else for me to tell you."
Yan Xue obviously preferred to talk about business rather than the small piece of paper in her hand. She put on a serious expression and was about to ask what it was when she suddenly felt something in her hand being pulled.
She looked down and saw that the fat boy sitting in her arms had already tightly grasped the small paper bag and was about to stuff it into his mouth...
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