Chapter 55

“@Natal, first solve your own problems.”

“Hurry up and save your ships, stop staring at our seeds.”

“Laughing to death, your backyard is on fire, and you’re still meddling this much.”

…

Natal and Guqia are both water-blue developed countries. Natal is the world’s largest grain exporter, located in the water-blue northern hemisphere. The moment they began purchasing grain from Longxia, they immediately prohibited grain exports. According to international media reports, Natal has already completed a ten-year grain reserve. Currently, Natal is focusing on freezing meat and canned goods, preparing to further increase residents’ supplies.

Guqia, located south of the water-blue equator, relies on aquaculture and port trade. They have always been allies with Natal. On July 10th, Harma Storm landed in Guqia, causing severe damage.

Guqia requested food aid from Natal. Natal kept delaying, and in the end, after some humanitarian sympathy, they responded that they couldn’t help due to limited grain supplies.

Although Natal said they couldn’t help, they subtly suggested that Guqia could exchange resources such as car chips and port contracts for food. The conditions were almost robbery-level.

Natal was met with a wave of criticism from Guqia. After half a month of international negotiations, Guqia imported 500,000 tons of grain from Sora.

The food crisis in Guqia was temporarily alleviated, but tensions with Natal continued to escalate. The day before yesterday afternoon, Guqia detained three of Natal’s cargo ships, and both sides are now quarreling over customs fees. The international community is closely watching this verbal battle, but no one expected that at this critical moment, Natal was still fixated on Longxia’s seeds…

“Your backyard is on fire, hurry up and put it out!” Some netizens went to Natal’s official media to leave comments. Currently, the official comments on Natal’s page had reached 1 million, with all of them being a shouting match between Natal and Guqia’s netizens.

“A terrible country.”

“Guqia strongly condemns Natal’s inhumane actions!”

“The ‘Natal-Guqia Friendship Agreement’ is nothing but a joke.”

…

Although Guqia’s netizens were curious about Longxia’s seeds, compared to the seeds, Natal’s actions were more deserving of scorn.

“How terrible.”

“They have betrayed the Friendship Agreement!”

…

Netizens from Longxia initially wanted to join the argument but ended up watching from the sidelines. In the past, during the honeymoon period between Guqia and Natal, Longxia had struggled between the two. Now that both sides had fallen out, Longxia felt sympathy for the disaster-stricken people of Guqia but was thoroughly impressed by the verbal sparring between the two!

While everyone was passively enjoying the spectacle, on August 8th, Longxia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement.

Longxia’s seeds are local seeds, and there are significant limitations to planting them outside. Longxia’s Agricultural Institute has always been committed to seed improvement, focusing on creating more scalable acid rain-resistant seeds.

Longxia’s seeds have been granted an international patent from January to August 3028. According to Article 201 of the “International Seed Protection Act,” no country is allowed to cultivate patented seeds without the permission of the patent holder. Natal has attempted to use Longxia’s seeds through unauthorized channels, and Longxia strongly condemns this, reserving the right to pursue legal action against Natal.

Seed planting requires on-site investigations. Longxia first stated its limited capabilities, then used the “International Seed Act” to strongly condemn Natal’s actions. Their stance was well-reasoned and assertive.

“Seed research requires on-site investigations. If you have the guts, open up your country, and we’ll go research it!”

“I checked, there really is an ‘International Seed Protection Act.'”

“Laughing to death, Natal doesn’t like others using their seeds, but they’re fine with stealing ours!”

…

At this moment, netizens looking at Longxia’s response felt a sense of reassurance and protection.

…

“You shouldn’t have come back.” While the verbal war between Natal and Guqia escalated, in the town of Cybola Bopole, Migada expressed some concern.

Migada had been married to Mike for ten years, and they had two sons and a daughter. Mike had worked in Longxia before, and she stayed at home to care for the elderly and children. Their family life had been relatively warm. However, Harma shattered all the tranquility.

The acid rain in Cybola fell from February to May. There was water pollution, power and water outages, and buildings collapsing… They thought they could return to normal once the acid rain ended, but the acid rain was just the beginning of their troubles.

After Cybola was hit by Harma, 30% of the country’s people were homeless, and 52% were unemployed. The most severe problem, compared to the high unemployment rate, was the food shortage. Cybola was an import-dependent country, and now, with global export restrictions, domestic food demand was rising rapidly. With one factor decreasing and another increasing, on May 17th, Cybola witnessed the first rice looting incident, followed by more rice thefts.

Cybola’s economy collapsed, and Mike happened to return home at this critical moment.

“You can go back to China, it’s very safe there.” Migada often kept up with international news, and Longxia was a peaceful country.

Migada was deeply worried, and Mike took a glass of water and said, “My visa has expired, and I’ve already resigned. I can’t go back.”

Now, international airfares had risen, and countries like Natal and Sora had increased their immigration checks. Mike had worked in Longxia for ten years and could return home with his previous connections, but leaving his family in a disaster zone… he couldn’t do it.

The moment he boarded the plane, he knew the consequences.

After finishing his sentence, Mike drank the water in one go. The water had a pungent smell, which he had only been able to tolerate after two days.

Now, Cybola’s food crisis was so severe that even municipal drainage and filtration systems were on the brink of collapse. Cybola was worse than he had imagined.

“Doo-doo—” In the middle of their conversation, a car horn sounded outside the window.

They lived in a two-story old building, and because of the higher location, refugee tents had been set up all around the building. Due to the large number of nearby refugees, Migada had not dared to go out lately. Only when Mike came back did she feel a sense of stability.

The sound continued, and the two of them walked toward the window.

They thought it was a fighting incident, but as they looked toward the noise, they saw three military trucks parked downstairs. Police officers got out of the trucks and were speaking to the refugees. Half a minute later, the refugees began lining up in front of the trucks. The trucks opened, revealing plump purple-skinned sweet potatoes.

“Boom!”

The refugees acted as if they were going to rush the trucks, but they were immediately stopped by the police officers.

The entire scene was maintained in order for ten minutes.

Mike hadn’t come to his senses when the home landline rang. His wife picked up the phone, and hung up after half a minute.

“What’s wrong?” Mike asked.

“It’s the municipal bureau. Cybola has launched a food ordering software and will implement minimum living security starting today,” his wife said, while opening the ordering software.

According to the software’s introduction, every person in Cybola would receive a minimum food supply every week. Citizens could place an order through the software, and upon successful ordering, they could pick up their food at the local municipal hall. The purchasing identity had to match the person’s ID information.

Food software, minimum supply, matching identity… Mike immediately thought of Longxia’s food app.

[Latest news from Cybola: 100,000 tons of Longxia sweet potatoes and 50,000 tons of wheat have arrived in Cybola. This significantly alleviates Cybola’s food crisis. This batch of food can last until the end of 3028. Cybola has signed the ‘Longxia-Cybola Food Assistance Agreement,’ and Cybola will also pre-order Longxia’s 3029 crops…]

In the midst of this daze, the latest news from Cybola appeared on the TV. Besides the food aid from Longxia, the report also detailed Longxia’s plans for future aid.

“So soon?” Migada was a bit stunned.

Cybola had signed a cooperation agreement with Longxia at the end of July. The news about the agreement had spread back home, and everyone had been anticipating Longxia’s food aid. Thanks to this cooperation, many disaster victims were struggling to survive.

Cybola was separated from Longxia by half of the water-blue ocean. Initially, they expected the food to arrive by the end of August, but now… this was quite unexpected!

“Wow!”

“Roar!”

…

Migada looked out the window. At that moment, a few young disaster victims had bypassed the police blockade and climbed onto the trucks’ rooftops. The victims were swinging the sweet potatoes around, as if they were expensive gold medals.

“Roar!”

“Beautiful sweet potatoes!”

…

More and more disaster victims climbed onto the truck roofs. The rooftops, house tops, and earth tower tops…any meaningful place was packed with disaster victims. Some young victims were even standing on the roof, tossing sweet potato bags down. Below, other disaster victims scrambled to grab them, some even getting hit by sweet potatoes but not caring. They simply picked up the ones on the ground and ate them raw, saying it was the most delicious sweet potato they had ever tasted.

The police officers tried to stop them, but when they couldn’t control the situation, they joined in and started throwing sweet potatoes themselves. These sweet potatoes were not being counted by the app; they were for the refugees to celebrate. At that moment, not only in Mike’s building but also throughout Cybola, sweet potatoes were being distributed—this was a celebration in the midst of a disaster.

“Go down?” Migada looked at Mike, as if tempted.

“Let’s go.” Mike quickly changed into sneakers.

Ten minutes later, the two of them easily joined the crowd. Areas where disaster victims gathered were often unsafe, and before Mike returned, Migada hadn’t left the house for half a month. She was afraid of the outside world and the despair she saw in the victims’ faces. But now, in the middle of despair, hope had risen again.

Over the next three days, Cybola was immersed in excitement. Residents went to the municipal hall with their ID information to pick up their sweet potatoes. These sweet potatoes were clean and delicious, and many residents turned them into sweet potato flour. Each bite they took was eaten with great reverence.

“Thank you, Longxia, for the aid!”

“Thank you, Longxia, we can cooperate on leather shoes!”

“We have the best workers for assembly lines, we can do electronic collaborations.”

…

With the widespread distribution of sweet potatoes, many Cybolan citizens actively sought work. At this moment, they realized that only through continuous labor could Cybola be rebuilt. Cybola was suffering, but they didn’t want to give up. Without aquaculture, they could focus on the service industry, manufacturing, and production… only by continuously seeking solutions could they find hope for Cybola.

“Bolton requests Longxia’s food, hoping to sign a food cooperation agreement with Longxia.”

“Longxia has completed 3 million tons of corn planting. Can Windstorm 003 continue the acid rain miracle of Longfeng 001 and Zhongzhi 002?”

“Longxia Seeds: The Defiers in the Acid Rain World.”

…

As Cybola changed, many countries turned their attention to Longxia. Now that Harma had spread across the entire water-blue equatorial region, in the context of the global food crisis, Longxia was truly the defier in the acid rain world.

Crude oil, gold, precious metals…

With Cybola as a demonstration, other countries directly extended olive branches, hoping to trade food with Longxia. Many countries were even willing to purchase Longxia’s seeds, but since Longxia’s seeds hadn’t yet overcome the issue of growing in foreign lands, cooperation was temporarily impossible. This wasn’t Longxia hoarding supplies, but rather the Agricultural Institute genuinely researching the seeds. Without on-site investigations, it was impossible to conquer this challenge…

Countries understood this well and shifted their focus to barter trade.

Now, with the global currency system unstable, barter was the safest method of exchange for all countries.

…

Host Name: Qin Yun.

Current Mission: Spread lettuce seeds across the land. (Cumulative planting of 50 million tons of hybrid lettuce seeds)

Mission Reward: Random Regional Card X1, Lucky Gift Pack X2.

…

While global cooperation continued, the mission system was updated at Fengshan Farm.