Chapter 65

The Hope Tree fruit is a green fruit the size of a palm. After Qin Yun looked at it, he checked its attributes.

Name: Young Hope Tree Fruit

Level: Beginner

Unlockable Fruit: Algae Plants

…

The Hope Tree fruit’s description was brief. After Qin Yun finished reading, not only Liu Wensheng but also the other researchers were baffled.

“When was the fruit discovered?” Liu Wensheng asked, looking at the monitor.

“Three days ago,” the monitor replied, checking the data.

The Sprouting Tree of Hope is a reward of ten million Starlight Points. It has been a year since it was planted. A week ago, the Hope Tree began to rustle, and a blueberry-sized green fruit grew. Before the researchers could test it, the fruit ripened, and now the scene had unfolded.

It was 3 p.m., and inside the protective greenhouse, there were various groups of researchers. After observing for a while, Song Yue Shan looked at the fruit and asked, “Is this something we eat directly?”

He had just placed the fruit into the glass house, and the only words displayed on the glass were ‘Algae Door Fruit.’

“It should be system-clicked…” Qin Yun turned around and noticed the fruit interface had the words “Use?” in large characters.

Liu Wensheng gestured for Qin Yun to click.

Qin Yun didn’t hesitate and directly clicked ‘Confirm Use.’ As soon as he did, the Hope Tree fruit rapidly expanded, turning into a two-meter-tall green sapling. The sapling was lush, with abundant leaves. Each leaf had some barely visible rice-like seeds on it.

The sapling resembled a grafted collection of various leaves, and everyone around curiously observed it.

Song Yue Shan took out sterile tweezers, carefully picked one of the green leaf seeds, and placed it under the microscope.

Name: Nori

Attributes: Red Algae, Porphyridiophyceae

Composition: 12.78% water, 26.7% protein, 1.1% fat…

Notes: Only for farm planting.

…

Nori is a red algae plant, primarily cultivated from spores. After studying the Nori, Song Yue Shan used the tweezers to sample other rice-like seeds from the sapling.

Kelp, seaweed, kelp… These are all spores from algae plants. Some, like kelp and coral algae, are edible, while others, like the cladophora and spirulina, are not. After a night of analysis, the Hope Tree sapling contained a total of 32,000 species of algae spores, covering 99% of the algae plant species in the Shuilan domain.

“An encyclopedia of algae plants…”

The researchers were seeing such a bizarre tree for the first time. It was more like a collection of algae plants rather than a Hope Tree sapling.

Algae plants are the oldest primitive organisms in the Shuilan domain, accounting for 90% of global photosynthetic oxygen. Besides providing oxygen worldwide, algae are also used for fish feed, biofuels, and other industrial materials.

Algae plants are the global source of oxygen. Since the Harma Storm, global algae have degraded by 18%, and some deep-sea fish have died in large numbers.

According to the Shuilan union’s forecast, by early next year, global algae are expected to degrade by 42%. The world is not only facing an acid rain crisis but also an oxygen crisis caused by the acid rain. Currently, multiple countries, including Longxia, are researching artificial oxygen, and if the world resorts to artificial oxygen, it will be a global disaster.

“Can we localize algae plants?” Liu Wensheng asked.

With 32,000 species of algae spores here, if they could be localized, it would completely solve the oxygen crisis a year from now!

“Not sure,” a biologist shook his head.

Spores and seeds are fundamentally different. In the past year, the research institute has focused on seed plants, but now the system’s algae domain is an entirely new field.

“We’ll try to research it,” Liu Wensheng encouraged.

According to Longxia Team’s analysis, the Hope Tree fruit seems to be related to the height of the Hope Tree. When the Hope Tree fruit fell, the Hope Tree was exactly one meter tall. It’s similar to a system upgrade—every time the Hope Tree height reaches a certain point, there will be corresponding rewards. As for the next milestone… because there’s too little reference data, there is no data yet, but this gives direction for agricultural research.

“I’ll go liaise with the publicity department,” Liu Wensheng said as he stood up.

The Hope Tree is linked to the hopes and beliefs of the residents. With the global crisis, the best the Longxia government can do is to provide as much confidence as possible to the residents.

Over the next two days, residents went out to see lantern displays and participated in customs, constantly telling themselves: this is the new year.

“On February 10th, the Natal cold disaster covered 30 million acres, with agricultural losses of 30 billion Natal coins.”

“On February 11th, the sea level of Sola rose by 3 cm, significantly impacting fish farming.”

“On February 11th, Guchiya faced another round of Harma Storms, and Guchiya requested international aid…”

…

While Longxia was having a complicated New Year, the world was facing the same issue: economic crisis.

“Our shop just renovated, would it be a shame to sell it now…”

At 9 a.m. on February 12th, Wang Xiaopeng asked reluctantly. He was a staff member at the Dou Dou Milk Tea shop and had been working there since high school graduation. Now, with the economic downturn, he thought the shop would survive, but to his surprise, right after reopening for the New Year, he received such bad news.

“Business is tough now,” Wang Xiaopeng’s manager, Zhang Jie, sighed. He was 32 years old and had been a delivery driver for seven years before starting his own business, investing all his 300,000 savings into the milk tea shop. The shop was located at the entrance of Kunshan University, and the first two months had brought in good profits. Just as things were stabilizing, a heavy rain in March hit.

The milk tea shop, located on the ground floor of a street-front store, was flooded halfway in the heavy rain. He hadn’t slept for two days and nights, then borrowed 70,000 yuan to renovate the shop. He thought the heavy rain in Longnan would be the biggest crisis for the shop, but in the following six months, food shortages, rising prices, and a shortage of meat and poultry hit… the national economy faced sudden challenges.

The main ingredients for milk tea are plant powder and whole milk powder. Now, with the economy down, what used to be 200 orders a day was now often less than 20. He managed for half a year, but it was too much to bear.

“Should I go back?” Wang Xiaopeng asked, feeling upset. If the milk tea shop closed, he would be unemployed.

“Go back,” Zhang Jie waved his hand and then took out 1,200 yuan from the drawer.

“This is your salary for this month.”

The salary was 300 yuan more than expected. Wang Xiaopeng counted the money and, with reluctance, left the shop.

Zhang Jie cleaned up the shop, then posted transfer information on the local network and on the shop’s door. While posting, he glanced around; out of the twenty-three shops on their street, seventeen were up for transfer.

Over the next week, Zhang Jie kept waiting for someone to take over, but apart from two calls from agents, no one showed any interest.

Now, business at the milk tea shop was bad, and being an agent wasn’t any better.

Zhang Jie looked at his shop’s sign and finally had to admit: his milk tea shop was a failure.

On February 19th, Zhang Jie contacted some former colleagues and arranged to meet for a barbecue by the roadside.

“Can’t even afford eggs now, can’t eat pork either.”

“I used to think I’d achieve financial freedom by thirty-five, but now I can’t even afford pork freedom.”

…

At the bustling barbecue shop, seven middle-aged men sat at a small table, looking at the grilled meat on their plates with a mix of complicated emotions. Pork skewers had risen from two to eight yuan each, and a bottle of beer cost twelve yuan. In the past, they would eat with abandon, but now they licked each skewer clean, savoring it.

The shop only had two tables occupied. Each person had one skewer, and soon, the shop owner brought over a dish of spicy hot pot.

The price of the hot pot had increased from thirty-eight to eighty-eight yuan. Zhang Jie helped the owner place the dish and casually asked, “Business doing well?”

“Doing well? What’s doing well?” The shop owner began to vent.

The price per item had gone up, but the original costs had increased as well. They used to flip fifty tables a day, but now it was less than seven. Without the price hikes, the shop would be operating at a loss. “Price increase—fewer customers—had to raise prices again.” It had become a vicious cycle. She had been in the restaurant business for thirty years and had never been so tired of raising prices.

“Your shop is still doing okay, at least it hasn’t closed down,” one of the men remarked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, at least it hasn’t closed,” the shop owner sighed and then sent a plate of edamame to everyone.

A thin man, while peeling edamame, casually said, “I’m thinking of opening a vegetable shop at home.”

Zhang Jie froze for a moment. “Aren’t you planning to buy a house in Kunshan?”

The man, who was thirty-seven this year, had been a delivery driver for five years. Back when they were colleagues, he used to run seventy or eighty orders a day. He often talked about saving up for a down payment on a house in Kunshan so his daughter could attend primary school there.

After Zhang Jie asked, the man smiled bitterly. “A three-thousand-yuan mortgage… the pressure is too much.”

He had saved up enough for the down payment, but with the downturn in the delivery business, along with the mortgage, his daughter’s education, and his parents’ care, he had realized that, despite his efforts, things weren’t working out.

“I’ve been in Kunshan for ten years, always thinking I’d get through it. But this time, I really can’t go on anymore… I’ve let my daughter down!” The man opened up, and as he spoke, he started to cry.

“Now, in this world, as long as we’re alive, we’ve done right by our wives and kids.”

The others quickly tried to comfort him. They had once been in the same delivery team. In the last two years, some had switched careers, some had started their own businesses, but none of them were doing well.

“I invested 300,000 yuan into my milk tea shop, and it’s gone just like that.” Zhang Jie poured the man a beer and shared his own experience to encourage him.

“I have a massage shop downstairs. It just closed the other day.”

“Nothing’s good to do now…”

…

The others also chimed in with their own stories of misfortune.

The man drank a beer, and his mood began to settle.

Half an hour later, the group finished the hot pot and twenty skewers. They calculated their costs, and in the end, ordered a plate of peanuts to save money.

By the time they finished eating and drinking, it was already 2 a.m.

As they paid and walked a few steps, they saw someone jumping into the sea from the Kunshan Bridge. Police and firefighters were immediately dispatched to pull the person from the bridge. It was a young man, in his early twenties, who worked at a sales office. Due to the poor state of the real estate market, he and several colleagues were laid off. Now, with rent due, no money, and family issues piling up, he had decided to take his life.

“So young!”

The seven of them were shocked, covered in cold sweat. Zhang Jie took out 500 yuan from his pocket, and the others pitched in to make up almost a thousand yuan. Quietly, they placed it in the young man’s pocket, saying, “You’re still young. There’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”

The young man was already in tears, clutching the firefighter as he cried.

The group watched for a while to make sure the young man wouldn’t jump again, then left in a somewhat complicated mood.

The streets in February had a slight chill. The Kunshan Bridge was filled with speeding cars. The weeping willows on both sides of Kunshan River had withered, and the road’s greenery was reduced to dry branches. A cold breeze blew, making the entire Kunshan feel even more desolate.

“We used to be a garden city,” Zhang Jie said, staring blankly at the night sky.

“We used to be,” the thin man replied, lighting a cigarette.

He had felt guilty for not being able to provide for his wife and children, but after seeing the suicide attempt, he was just relieved that he was still alive.

At 3 a.m., the group dispersed and went home.

Over the next week, everyone who needed to change jobs did so, and those who needed to return home did just that. The Dou Dou Milk Tea shop, after being on the market for half a month, was finally transferred at a very low price.

During this week, Zhang Jie went to Kunshan Mall and took a walk. The once-crowded mall now had only a few customers shopping. Seven stalls on the south side had shut down. He wasn’t sensitive to the economy, but even he could fully feel that the national economy was in trouble.

The national economy was in trouble.

This wasn’t just Zhang Jie’s impression—it was backed by Longxia’s data from December to February. According to Longxia’s post-holiday report, from February 5th to February 17th, the unemployment registration rate in Longxia increased by 620%.

In the past, after the Spring Festival, companies in Longxia would recruit and hold job fairs. But now, aside from a few large companies like Luohai and Jinghe, every other company in Longxia was cutting jobs. Nationwide, businesses were facing massive closures.

Material shortages, wage cuts, and unemployment crises.

This was the most direct reflection of Longxia after the Spring Festival, a situation caused by the unavoidable acid rain.