Ch23.1 - The chili pepper everyone was anticipating (Part One)

It was normal to see a lot of takeout delivery workers crowding outside schools. At Nanhai’s University City, one could often see people in uniforms, riding motorcycles to and fro between the school and the restaurants.

After all, not every school canteen served delicious food like CU’s canteens did. In contrast, during meal times, one would basically see no takeout delivery workers at CU.

And since CU’s canteens were just right around the corner, they made the students from other schools extremely jealous. Thus, these students from other schools grew increasingly unwilling to head to their own school canteen for dinner, resulting in a sharp drop in customer count.

The takeout business was booming, while all the bosses and staff from the other schools’ canteens were depressed. And so, recently, they put up banners and advertisements one after another, calling for their students to return to their school canteen for a meal. Pictures of these were posted on the forums. 

After taking photos, the university students then compared the banners of various schools with one another. The only things these banners advocated were the cheap costs of their canteen food and the clean ingredients they used. Nothing else.

The other school canteens, including Nanhai Institute of Technology’s, felt really aggrieved. Their food wasn’t as bad as the dark cuisine that CU’s five tigers previously served. And yet, here they were, being compared to CU’s canteens. It wasn’t their fault. Who would operate at a loss like CU’s first canteen?

No rise in customer flow was observed in the other schools’ canteens for a long time. But at this time, someone spotted something else.

“Fuck, CU also put up a banner……”

What? CU also put up banners? Were the people mistaken? Wasn’t business booming for CU’s canteens? If CU thought they didn’t have enough customers, then why didn’t they sell their food to the other schools’ students?

Once a picture of their banner was posted, everyone took a better look at it. The banner said:

[Although the dishes in the first canteen are delicious, there are also tasty takeout dishes out there. Dishes from all sorts of cuisines are available for takeout. Why bother queuing up?]

Everyone: [???] 

[My God!]

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

[Was this hung by CU’s first canteen? They’re going to attract a lot of hate from this.]

[I feel sad for our school’s canteens. They’re trying their best to persuade the students to eat there, but the first canteen is persuading their students to eat outside…]

[Actually, I can understand their intentions. After seeing pictures of their canteen’s queue, motherfucker. The queue for the corn cob even snaked outside their doors. Is there really a need to line up just for that?] 

[To the person upstairs, the last person who asked that was invited by someone from CU to drink a bowl of white porridge there. For three whole days, he kept repeating ‘it was delicious’.]

[What do you know? This is the person upstairs’ stratagem. What if someone from CU invited him to try the corn later?]

Lbk mbeiv JF raevfcar cba xcbk jybea atlr lcmlvfca ktfc fnfc atf raevfcar ogbw batfg rmtbbir xcfk jybea la? Ufbqif ktb qjrrfv ys atf yjccfgr kbeiv jikjsr rabq ab ajxf j yglfo ibbx ja la yfobgf megrlcu lc ijeutafg, “Gjwc, P kbc’a fja ajxfbea!”

Glv atf ecmifr jcv jecalfr lc atf olgra mjcaffc kjca ab vglnf atfw jkjs yfmjerf atfs atbeuta atflg kbgxibjv kjr abb tfjns? 

This seemed possible. Currently, the five canteens were at full capacity during meal times everyday. From the three meals the students had each day to their midnight snack, the students were willing to solve all their stomachs’ needs within the school campus, especially in the first canteen. And whenever new dishes were served in the canteens, the sight in front of the canteens’ ordering window appeared as crowded as a subway station during rush hours.

No one knew whether there were any naïve students who would really go and eat takeout.

In any case, many people were determined—no, they decided that they must eat at the canteens.

On another note, someone went to the first canteen with a photo of the banner and inquired about it. In response, the people in the canteen looked puzzled. “We never hung such a thing. We’ve been getting busier and busier lately, so our boss said that we should utilize some machines to reduce our workload.” 

The students were all in an uproar. This wasn’t actually hung by the first canteen? What was going on?

There must be a shocking conspiracy! Was this scheme designed by the dry rice noodles shop in front of the school or by the fragrant mala stir-fry shop along the snack street?

The public uproar attracted the security department’s attention. After checking the school’s CCTV, they locked onto the suspects: a few bored students from the Journalism Department who secretly hung the banners up at night.

After they were exposed, they honestly admitted their mistake and claimed that they just wanted to play a prank because of the recent atmosphere in University City. 

Once the case was solved, the whole school was speechless.

[This is freaking hilarious. Who would be so dumb to do that?!]

[I don’t believe they did it just for the giggles. I think they wanted to dissuade others.]

[There are actually such brazen people in the world! They’re viciously trying to compete with us!] 

[What the hell, if they really cheated us into eating takeout, they wouldn’t have to eat takeout themselves, right?]

[Actually, I think what they said isn’t wrong…The fish restaurant nearby is currently still offering a 60% discount, and a new Sichuan restaurant has also opened around Nanhai University…]

[Right, right, right! And the Cantonese food being sold behind the school is also widely acclaimed, isn’t it?]

[Wow, this discussion is making my mouth water. Let’s set a date on when we can go together.] 

In an instant, the entire thread turned into a discussion among students on when they should meet up to go out for a meal. Everyone recalled those times in the past when they constantly had to order takeout to bring themselves hope. At that time, CU’s five tigers were still roaming around the campus, and the darkness enveloped all the canteens.

But, over the past year, they had forgotten about takeout. They no longer visited the specialty stores or shared discount coupons.

Now that they finally remembered the existence of takeout, they decided to change their meals occasionally and eat something that the canteen didn’t serve.

. 

The second day.

On that same thread…

[You swindlers, to those who said they were going to eat grilled fish and Sichuan food, get out of here. Why did I still see you in the canteen today?]

[…I really thought you guys won’t be coming to the canteen anymore. Anyone who trusts you guys again are fools.] 

[How naughty~ I said this to entrap other people~ LMAO.]

Under Cui QiChao’s guidance, the improved chili pepper breed that he had begun cultivating in the open field now became mature. There were some differences between the experimental results and the chili peppers that he had cultivated in the shed, but the deviations weren’t very big. CX-7’s performance was also very stable.

He was more optimistic about CX-7, so he specially planted more of it. He had planted a batch of CX-7 in a large area, set aside some of it, and selected the good seedlings from them, which he sent to the netizens in various provinces who he agreed that he would send to.

Cui QiChao thought of Meng Chang, the student whose family grew chili peppers. When Cui QiChao met him, Cui QiChao handed him a packet of pepper seeds. “This is a pack of specially selected pepper seeds that I bred. You can give it to your father and let him try planting it. Its quality is good.” 

There was also the data of CX-7 on the label outside the packet. Meng Chang was surprised. “Okay, thank you, Boss Cui.”

“I should be the one thanking you. You were the one who recommended me to the Small Farmers’ Q & A,” Cui QiChao said.

If Meng Chang didn’t intend to ask any questions, he would never visit Small Farmers’ Q & A. And during the times he did visit the website, he would usually slip away after asking questions. He never bothered to browse around. And to be honest, he used multiple websites for his inquiries, not just Small Farmers’ Q & A.

When he finished listening to what Boss Cui had to say, Meng Chang grew a little curious. 

After Cui QiChao finished sending out the seeds, the post where he stated he was sending out seeds instantly transformed into a thread where the chosen netizens shared their livestreams.

The netizens who received the seeds posted their observations of their chili pepper crops one after another. Cui QiChao was also very concerned about the crops’ growth and constantly popped up to give them a rundown on how to plant it.

However, Cui QiChao didn’t interfere too much. He had to see how good the harvested chili chili peppers would perform if a good sowing method wasn’t employed.

Of course, the results were very amazing. CX-7 had a low rate of being infected by a disease, as well as a high immunity against diseases. Of course, Cui QiChao also sent a good breed of chili peppers, which he personally screened, and the people he sent them to were all experienced agriculturists. They were experts in the field and could feel the difference as soon as they started to sow them. 

Moreover, when everyone compared the condition of their own crops amongst themselves, they found that CX-7 possessed good adaptability in various environments, whether it was in an open field, a greenhouse, a warm and humid environment in the south, or a dry environment in the north. It could be planted from mountains of high altitude to low-lying basins, exhibiting an excellent survival rate. This made this variety very suitable for open field cultivation, and it could also help them save a lot on greenhouse construction costs!

These advantages matched what Cui QiChao had said in the beginning. Now, what Cui QiChao should focus on next was their production.

Five grams of CX-7 seeds could be sowed per square meter. Based on Cui QiChao’s data, the plant could grow to more than 50 centimeters and bear a lot of fruits.

Nowadays, the average yield of chili peppers on the market was about 500-1000 kg/mu. Under careful care, the highest yield was 3800 kg/mu for the pepper that Cui QiChao had used as comparison. But based on the experimental results, CX-7’s yield was higher than this pepper variety by 16%. 

If this was really true, then CX-7 would be really powerful!

Ch23.2 - The chili pepper everyone was anticipating (Part Two)

After Meng Chang got the seeds from Cui QiChao, he took out his phone to look up Boss Cui on Small Farmers’ Q & A. Sure enough, after a quick search using his real name, Meng Chang actually found his user—his forum signature was even the descendant of the Divine Farmer.

“…” Meng Chang thought about his company, the Divine Farmer Catering Management Co., Ltd, and felt strange. This signature couldn’t possibly be referring to that… right?

His attention was caught by the number of fans and likes Boss Cui had—it was sky high! So unlike the usual traffic flow Small Farmers’ Q & A would have!

Wanting to satiate his curiosity, Meng Chang looked through all of Cui QiChao’s responses to questions. 

Some time ago, there was a photo on Weibo that started trending. It showed something like the Chinese’s accurate setup of a balcony for plants. It had been reposted several times to the point where the source was not clear. The original name of the user was also cropped away and only the picture was left. Meng Chang hadn’t known the balcony was personally set up by Cui QiChao until he saw the same pictures posted on Boss Cui’s account. It was his response that had the most likes.

“Oh my God…” Meng Chang murmured in shock.

His classmate sitting next to him looked over when she heard him murmuring. “What—eh, isn’t that the balcony that was trending? With all the vegetables planted on it? It looked so beautiful that my roommates and I started growing our own dragon fruit in our dorm.”

Meng Chang shook his head and pointed to the creator of the post, “No, look…”

His classmate carefully scrutinized the name, “Cui QiChao… Who is Cui QiChao? The name sounds a little familiar.”

Meng Chang: “If you think carefully, you’ll remember that the one with the surname Cui is a very skilled vegetable farmer.”

Classmate: “Damn, it’s Boss Cui?!”

The duo checked over and over again and confirmed that it really was Boss Cui. It even showed his location was in Nanhai. 

One was the pioneer of self-grown vegetables in the first canteen, and also the owner of the balcony that trended. Although both of these incidents were similar, they hadn’t connected the dots before this, so they felt this situation seemed very fascinating now.

“I didn’t even know Boss Cui surfed the internet. After all, he had no idea that everyone was talking about him in the forums…”

“Uh, well you would’ve been correct at first.” Meng Chang confessed his role in introducing Boss Cui to the internet. At that time, Cui QiChao said that he would become an expert on the website. Unexpectedly, he really did become popular on the site.

His classmate was scrolling through the webpage when he stopped. “Wait, there’s another post on here. He’s giving away his pepper seeds?” 

“Yes, I have another bag here.” Meng Chang showed him the type of pepper that Cui QiChao gave him. “It was improved and bred by Boss Cui himself. Since my father also grows peppers on a piece of farmland, he said I could check to see if my dad would be willing to grow it amongst his own.”

“Why are you thinking so simply? Don’t you know what you could do with this?” The classmate asked.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Meng Chang thought for a while, and hesitantly added, “I would have to ask my father. Boss Cui specifically gave it to my father to sow.”

“Tbe’gf remt jc lvlba!” Llr mijrrwjaf rwjmxfv tlw, “Ktf mtlil bli kjr lcreoolmlfca jii sfjg gbecv yfmjerf kf vlvc’a tjnf fcbeut lcugfvlfcar. Po Dbrr Jel jiibkfv tlr bkc mtlil ab yf xcbkc atgbeutbea Jtlcj, atfc j wjpbglas bo ojgwfgr kbeiv qijca tlr rffv njgljalbc, jcv la kbeiv yf mjccfv jcv rbiv mbwwfgmljiis. Ktfgfobgf, kbeivc’a kf yf jyif ab fja atlr mtlil bli ktfcfnfg kf gfaegc, bg ktfc kf ugjvejaf? Snfc lo atfgf lr j wlrajxf lc atf qgbvemalbc, la rtbeiv ralii yf ja ifjra tjio jr vfilmlber jr lc atf mjcaffc, gluta?” 

Meng Chang: “………”

Meng Chang: “Fuck. Sister, you’re thinking too far ahead!”

With his classmate’s passionate publicity efforts, CU students soon learned this new piece of information.

First of all, Boss Cui was the owner of the balcony planted with beautiful vegetables and fruits that was popular on Weibo (this very much aligned with his behavior). Second of all, Boss Cui was studying and improving chili peppers and experimenting whenever he could. Third of all, they all had something to look forward to in the future. 

And just like Meng Chang’s classmate, many people also had other progressive thoughts. In the beginning, the second reasoning was misunderstood. “What? Boss Cui finally decided that CU wasn’t big enough for him? He even went to other farmlands?”

Then they learned that he wasn’t going to other places, just asking people from those places to help him with improving his chili pepper varieties. Feelings of ecstasy flooded all the CU students, and they were happy and surprised as they commented on Weibo:

[It wasn’t until today that I found out the previously trending balcony was from our school canteen boss’s house. As expected, the food in our canteen is delicious for a reason.] They even smugly added their location in the post.

The majority of netizens who saw it thought, fuck, so that was the case. The legendary boss of the CU canteen that had self-grown his vegetables and could replace measuring scales when planting vegetables also planted a fruit and vegetable forest at home. 

The registered name of the canteen’s catering company and business owner could be found on the internet, so netizens knew they found the right person. Because his company’s name and his forum signature all contained the words ‘Divine Farmer’, along with a shocking yield of chili pepper, everyone jokingly teased, “No wonder the respondent had such an excellent balcony, it turns out that he is a direct descendant of the Divine Farmer!”

The students also revealed that since the post was still on the Small Farmers’ Q & A, there was a high chance of the boss completing his improvement of his chili pepper variety, and if it could be popularized, everyone would be blessed. They also named the chili pepper after CU since it was developed there.

In addition, Cui QiChao was still in the midst of conducting a large-scale experiment. He aroused the enthusiasm of netizens, who made it known that they wanted to be updated on his progress. The netizens said, “Please succeed in the development of the pepper variety, so all of us who couldn’t enjoy CU’s chili oil would finally have the chance!”

There were even those who asked if they could get some chili pepper seeds to plant them at home. 

——Now, Cui QiChao’s credibility on the internet has improved yet again.

At first, Cui QiChao was a nobody, but then his balcony started trending and he became an uncertified expert. Now, as his identity as CU canteen’s boss came out, he not only became an expert, but one whose products were recognized by the masses.

The chili oil had become famous, leading to the rise of the first canteen, and with the promotion of gourmet food we-media channels, Cui QiChao gained ample popularity throughout the entire internet. In Nanhai City, they even defeated The Forest of Taste, so in the eyes of the masses, Cui QiChao’s chili peppers and his professional knowledge were both well-recognized and respected—so there was no way his own variety of chili peppers would be inferior.

It could be said that if his chili pepper breeding was completely successful, CX-7 would already have a steady amount of customers guaranteed in the market, even before it came out. 

Later, some people even misunderstood that even though CU wasn’t an agricultural university, there had to be an agricultural major, right? Otherwise, how could someone cultivate superior types of chili pepper in the university?

Netizens wanted to get some of the seeds, but professionals of the field wanted to obtain the seeds even more.

It’s a pity that it’s too late now and Cui QiChao had already finished gifting the seeds. They could only wait for the results of the experiment.

Some people even went out of their way to visit The Forest of Taste’s HQ Weibo page, requesting them to consider using the peppers Cui QiChao cultivated as ingredients once he successfully managed to breed the seeds. 

The Forest of Taste had been suffering from a devastating loss ever since the reformation of the first canteen during this year. It turned from a successful and lauded restaurant into the first canteen’s stepping stone. Initially it was just a side branch that suffered a loss, yet as the first canteen got more popular, The Forest of Taste gained the reputation of being its aid. If it wasn’t because of CU’s canteens not being open to the public, The Forest of Taste’s boss would have long become fed up with it.

Now, upon seeing the good news about the chili pepper seeds, The Forest of Taste’s management pondered on it for a long time and eventually thought the suggestion was quite good…

After a few days of observation, it seemed that the Divine Farmer Catering Company really didn’t intend to operate a restaurant—they refused all publicity opportunities and didn’t open their canteen to the public. Their boss planted crops to the brim in CU, and now he was breeding his own chili pepper seeds… Perhaps he really was just interested in agriculture.

From this point of view, The Forest of Taste’s company and the Divine Farmer Catering could completely eliminate their old resentment and cooperate with each other. 

As long as Cui QiChao’s new chili pepper varieties were successfully developed and mass produced, The Forest of Taste could plant it using their planting space. Not only could they plant high quality crops, but they could also use the known story between the two in order to stir up a wave!

The more they thought about it, the more they thought they wouldn’t lose out in this deal…

Of course, it all depended on the premise that Cui QiChao could successfully develop a new superior types of chili peppers.

Besides that, some agricultural experts and professionals who noticed Cui QiChao in the Small Farmers’ Q & A heard that he truly didn’t even have a team behind him. 

So, they wondered, could Cui QiChao’s theoretical predictions and practical efforts reach the same height? Could the legendary CX-7 really produce a yield of 4000 kg/mu?

Unwittingly, many eyes turned their attention to CU, focusing on Cui QiChao’s private chili pepper breeding.

“XiaoBai, bring me a t-shirt.” As Cui QiChao called out to it, XiaoBai stood up from its cat nest and hopped into the room to take out Cui QiChao’s clothes.

After delivering the goods, XiaoBai sat down and looked up at Cui QiChao. 

Ever since the program started, Cui QiChao had been wearing formal attire. Even in the summer, he wore a dress shirt. To be honest, it wasn’t as if Cui QiChao had the taste to wear formal clothes, but his identity in this virtual world only had formal clothes, so he had to go along with the flow.

As for why he was finally allowing himself to change into a t-shirt now, it was because of the feedback in the canteen suggestion box. Inexplicably, the students had started mentioning opinions that had nothing to do with the canteen, but instead with the canteen boss’s everyday clothing. Although he looked very handsome in formal attire, after seeing him in just that for so long, they wanted a change of taste.

Cui QiChao sometimes suspected that his “loving the subjects as if they were his own children” trait had awakened in his bloodline at some point. Anyway, the students didn’t ask for a presumptuous request, and as he usually satisfied them, he changed into a t-shirt and jeans.

Even XiaoBai was stunned at the sight. 

Cui QiChao usually dressed meticulously, as if he was going to hit the gong because his company was listed. Even students couldn’t help but subconsciously call him teacher when they saw him. In XiaoBai’s opinion, he was just like a beast garbed in human clothes…

But now, he changed into an airy t-shirt and jeans, and his hair was messed up when he put on a T-shirt. Even though his expression was still calm and he was still handsome, he looked a lot more approachable.

Cui QiChao saw XiaoBai’s stunned look and said, “Thank you.” He lowered his head and gestured, “Come up.”

XiaoBai skilfully climbed up from his trousers and made itself comfortable on Cui QiChao’s shoulder. 

Cui QiChao was truly much better to XiaoBai now than he used to be. Sometimes, XiaoBai felt that Cui QiChao was treating it as a human being, because he even said thank you to him when he heeded to a command—but Cui QiChao’s behaviour was so natural that there was no way to tell.

Cui QiChao touched XiaoBai’s chin and XiaoBai immediately raised its face joyously, “Meow, meow.”

For once, the atmosphere was very harmonious and happy.

“XiaoBai really is a good cat.” Cui QiChao stared at XiaoBai for two seconds, and suddenly said, “When I leave here, I must ask the company to copy your data. I will continue to have you as my cat for my next programs.” 

XiaoBai: “…………”

…No, this was against the rules!!

Cui QiChao didn’t seem to see XiaoBai’s pupils shrinking instantly as he went straight to school.

The canteen was packed full of students who came to eat breakfast. Cui QiChao and XiaoBai circled around twice to observe the canteen, and Cui QiChao felt very pleased to see that the students revealed a jubilant expression when eating—he was reminded of the duckies when he fed them. 

“This classmate, uhm… could you let us hug XiaoBai?” A girl’s voice came from behind the duo.

Who didn’t know that XiaoBai, the duck herder, was very cold towards anyone who was not its owner? When it was herding ducks everyday, it encountered many students, yet no one could ever please it or tempt it closer with food.

Seeing that this boy could capture XiaoBai’s heart, the girls were hopeful. They wanted to see if they could negotiate with him, as boys would usually find it difficult to refuse the request from some girls.

Cui QiChao turned around. 

“!!” The few girls were stunned for a while, and they even sucked in a few mouthfuls of cold air. Today, they were given a severe shock by Cui QiChao.

It’s Boss Cui! And it’s a Boss Cui who wasn’t wearing formal clothes!

Although they looked as if they were in a daze, in the depths of their hearts, their inner-monologue was crazily surging within them.

Handsome, he’s really handsome. Even if he wore casual clothes, he was still handsome. It seemed that the maturity in him had weakened without his formal wear—it was no wonder that they had mistakenly recognized him as a student. 

Wow, I really want to date him.

——Once this scene had been broadcasted, the commentary barrage on the broadcasting platform was filled with seas of words like “I’m in love” and “I order you not to look for a girlfriend!”.

It wasn’t until Cui QiChao held XiaoBai and said indifferently, “No, this is my cat.”

The ladies: “…”