"Why……"
"What's going on..."
"I said this plant isn't growing right. Its characteristics are completely different from before. How can it be..."
"Then why didn't you bring it up earlier?"
“…”
Seeing that the members of the group were about to quarrel, Shen Yiting rubbed his temples, then looked at Professor Zhang who was squatting in the corner and drawing circles, and felt like his brain was about to explode.
"Stop arguing!" Shen Yiting finally managed a word and stood up in an instant: "Go do what you need to do! Isn't it normal for an experiment to fail? You've been doing experiments for half your life and you still don't know what to do?"
Although Shen Yiting is young, he is Professor Zhang's direct disciple and the deputy leader of the research group. Professor Zhang is unreliable, so she is usually the one who gives the orders.
The noisy laboratory finally stopped.
She sighed.
The potato planting experiment was in full swing, and everyone thought it would be successful and a new variety with high cold resistance would be cultivated, but...
The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
The experiment failed.
…
As a "non-staff member," Lu Qin didn't understand many technical issues, but after three months of getting along, she still understood a little bit. She also knew that this experiment carried too much hope.
After all, food is the foundation of life.
But failure is failure.
The potatoes sprouted and grew, and everything seemed to be going well, with nothing amiss.
But when the harvest day came, everyone dug up the soil with great anticipation, only to find that the more luxuriant the potatoes grew above ground, the worse the harvest underground would be.
In short, there was no potato harvest.
It's not that there is none at all, but it's very small and the output is so low that it can be almost ignored.
Everyone tried it and found it was not poisonous, but the taste was much worse than the original improved variety of potatoes. The sour taste was almost impossible to swallow.
The cultivation of this kind of potato is not proportional to the investment.
Looking at the dejected crowd in the laboratory, Lu Qin didn't know what to say.
Experimenters should have long been numb to failure. In normal times, failure is just a set of data.
But this time is different. This failure is not just a piece of data recorded in a notebook, nor is it a failure experience that everyone has gained a lot from.
What fails is hope and confidence.
"Don't worry... Everyone in your industry knows how difficult it is to improve a plant variety. At worst, we can..." Lu Qin sat next to Shen Yiting and comforted him in a low voice.
Xiao Shen waved his hand. "How can I not be anxious? If we can't grow potatoes, we can't fill our stomachs. Not to mention, how much manpower and material resources have been invested in this experiment... Let alone, Xiao Qin, you've been begging everyone to get us resources, and in the end, we can't grow any. It's really... Sigh."
Listening to Shen Yiting's constant self-blame, Lu Qin felt very uncomfortable.
She also devoted herself wholeheartedly to Sheshan, watching the potato seedlings grow night after night. Now no one can accept the situation.
But she couldn't give up.
Lu Qin is the official representative on the mountain. Qu Dongbo had talked to her a long time ago about the need for full support for the plant improvement experiment.
She couldn't give up first.
"I think... we haven't completely failed!" Lu Qin took out a bunch of mini potatoes from the basket thrown aside. They were hanging on the green vines, and looked particularly pitiful against the lush potato leaves.
"If we can't grow potatoes, can we grow these leaves?" Lu Qin suddenly had an idea. She was not a professional, but she knew that when people are hungry, weeds can be eaten as vegetables.
So when she saw the big basket of potato leaves, she was a little excited.
Shen Yiting was stunned by her sudden question.
Professional knowledge told her that potato leaves have little nutritional value and even contain trace amounts of toxicity. All the nutritional value of potatoes is hidden in the underground rhizomes. Usually, potato leaves and vines are discarded and used as feed.
Can……
What era is it now?
You have to know that the people in the entire county can basically only survive on steamed buns, rice and noodles, and there are very few green leafy vegetables.
Occasionally, some smart people would carefully grow some vegetables at home, but they would all be sold out.
Shen Yiting looked at the potato leaves in Lu Qin’s hand.
Perhaps because the conditions in the experimental field were so good and the fertilizer and watering were done very carefully, the potato seedlings grew exceptionally well, with thick green leaves shining with a plump and attractive glow.
“!!!”
Why can't we eat potato leaves?
It just contains a tiny amount of toxins, so as long as you make sure it's cooked through, there will be no problem.
Besides... even if eaten raw, the amount of toxins contained in the small amount of vegetable leaves we eat every day is almost undetectable.
Shen Yiting grabbed a handful of leaves and ran to Zhang Cong.
Professor Zhang was clearly still lost in his own world. He was the type of person who could let go of everything, yet could also retreat into his own world at any moment.
And at this time, only Shen Yiting can wake him up.
"Teacher! Wake up?! Hey!" Shen Yiting excitedly held up a potato leaf she had plucked off. "This thing can be eaten, right? The potatoes didn't work out, probably because of the degradation of the soil and environment, but what about the leaves? Why are the leaves growing so well?"
Zhang Cong's expression changed from dazed to focused. He stared at the thing in her hand for a long time before finally reacting.
But before everyone could react, Zhang Cong stood up suddenly, grabbed Ye Zi and ran into his exclusive laboratory.
"Click" the door was locked.
A series of smooth movements, no one except Shen Yiting reacted.
"Ignore him, he must have an idea." Shen Yiting's face was also full of excitement. "I guess he won't come out until there is a result."
"Let's not just stand there like idiots. Tell us what you think..." Shen Yiting said to the remaining team members.
Looking at the situation, Lu Qin had no say in the matter. Unexpectedly, a casual remark she made became the fuse.
It's no wonder, then, that professionals focus more on the growth of potatoes, which is their main research area. The byproduct, potato leaves, are rarely noticed.
This is probably what is meant by the darkest place under the lamp.
Looking at the people talking at once, the atmosphere was completely different from the quarrels and gloomy mood just now.
Lu Qin was somewhat happy. Regardless of success or failure, as long as she persisted, things would definitely get better, right?
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