New Direction

Golden Week in October.

The company gave some employees time off.

But Jiang Miao and his brother-in-law were still at the Yan Cun Village farm, where they had spent the past few days discussing the lease of fish ponds.

So far, they had secured two properties: one with 40 mu and another with 50 mu, for a total of 90 mu of fish ponds, plus 3 mu of vacant land.

On the 3rd, they finalized the last property. Located right beside the breeding base, it had 120 mu of shrimp ponds and 8 mu of paddy fields. It was a Shrimp Farm jointly operated by several households, and also the most troublesome one to deal with.

After all, partnerships were the most prone to conflict. The five village households running the business had developed increasingly strained relationships over all kinds of disputes in recent years, large and small alike. The farm was nearly unable to continue operating.

To avoid trouble, Jiang Miao had originally not wanted it. In the end, his brother-in-law stepped in and negotiated separately with each of the five households, securing the 120 mu of shrimp ponds and 8 mu of paddy fields.

The average rent was 1,430 yuan per mu per month, with a ten-year lease and a 50% penalty for breach of contract.

Together, these ponds, paddy fields, and vacant plots amounted to 210 mu of ponds and 12 mu of open land.

Jiang Miao planned the new indoor breeding base beside the old one, covering an area of 20 mu.

His cousin's construction crew soon entered the site to fill the land, reinforce the foundation, lay underground pipelines, and so on.

The project was expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Bulldozers, dump trucks, and excavators worked in an orderly fashion.

Jiang Miao watched the construction site for a while and chatted with his cousin before sending him the test report that had just been completed yesterday.

"Brother Yao, just as expected, that medicinal powder contained two hormones: dexamethasone and Dexamethasone Acetate. Taking too much can easily cause femoral head necrosis. Don't casually take those folk-remedy medicines anymore."

"That son of a bitch actually fed me hormones? I'm going to report him!" Jiang Yao cursed furiously.

Jiang Miao quickly reminded him, "You can report him, but don't lose your head and go beating people up or anything. Things aren't like they used to be."

"I know." Jiang Yao naturally would not act impulsively. He had made quite a bit of money from these construction projects, so there was no need to take risks over someone like that.

After chatting for a while longer, Jiang Miao returned to the breeding base next door.

But instead of checking on the eel breeding ponds, he went behind the breeding base, where four stacked shipping-container rooms had been placed.

Along one side of the container rooms stood a row of plastic greenhouses covering roughly half a mu. This area had been converted from what remained of the vegetable plots after the previous renovations.

Next to the greenhouses were the 8 mu of paddy fields they had leased yesterday.

Jiang Miao did not intend to use those 8 mu of paddy fields for the new breeding base. Instead, he planned to turn them into a greenhouse area.

He opened one of the container rooms.

Inside were large numbers of glass bottles and plastic bottles, each marked with specialized labels.

The labels read "Ethyl methanesulfonate," "Diethyl sulfate," "N-Nitroso-N-ethylurea," "Ethyleneimine," "5-Bromouracil," "2-Aminopurine," "Maleic hydrazide," "Nitrous acid," "Sodium azide," "Colchicine," and so on.

All of these were chemical compounds capable of inducing genetic mutations in cells.

Using a special container, he took out several chemical reagents and entered the container room next door.

This room contained two rows of metal racks and a metal table. Glass petri dishes were arranged on the racks.

The petri dishes contained seeds of various sizes.

Since July of this year, Jiang Miao had been conducting secret experiments here. The project was seed cultivation.

For Jiang Miao, who possessed the Appraisal Panel, the difficulty of cultivating seeds had dropped dramatically. After all, for many agricultural breeding companies and institutions, developing a commercially viable variety from a large number of strains was an extremely lengthy process.

For herbaceous plants, developing and breeding a new variety with commercial value took at least five years.

For woody plants, it took at least ten years.

Why was it so difficult and time-consuming?

The answer lay in the step of verifying the varieties.

Making seeds undergo genetic mutation was simple. Whether through physical methods such as ultraviolet light, X-rays, fast neutrons, or ultra-low-temperature freezing; chemical methods; or even genetic modification technology, seeds could be induced to undergo genetic mutations on a large scale.

But after the seeds had undergone genetic mutation, researchers had no way of quickly determining the specific nature of those mutations.

They had to plant them, observe them, test them, select the better specimens, harvest their seeds, sow them again, observe them, and test them. Only after repeating this cycle several times could they begin to understand the mutations in those seeds.

That was why it required such an enormous investment of time.

But Jiang Miao was different now.

He could directly see the results of every seed's genetic mutation, including its survival rate, plant size, fruit size, fruit sweetness, cellulose content, various trace elements, various vitamins, and, most importantly, the stability of its hereditary traits.

This saved Jiang Miao 99% of the time. He only needed to use chemical reagents to induce genetic mutations in the seeds, then use the Appraisal Panel to pick out the valuable mutated seeds one by one.

The plants he had selected as breeding targets were strawberries, Sweet Cucumber (Ginseng Fruit), soybeans, and alfalfa.

He had naturally given careful thought to choosing these four plants.

First, all four were herbaceous plants, making seed breeding relatively fast.

Second, he was breeding strawberries and Sweet Cucumber for economic reasons, since both fruits had relatively high market value.

As for breeding soybeans and alfalfa, that was for the future. After all, these two crops concerned the core interests of food security, edible oil security, and feed security.

Although Jiang Miao disliked certain people, how could any egg remain intact when the nest had been overturned?

Jiang Miao could not say where the future of this era would lead, so he could only make more preparations.

Having finished today's induced mutation work, Jiang Miao went into the plastic greenhouse by the container house entrance.

After more than two months of raising and transplanting seedlings, the several dozen strawberry plants had grown lush and vigorous. Holding a sterilized knife and a cup of Carbendazim solution, he cut off some of their runners.

These cut runners would be used for propagation through stolons, a commonly used breeding method in the strawberry-growing industry.

After all, a single mutant plant could hardly produce enough seeds. Whether for subsequent crossbreeding or seed production, a larger quantity was needed.

There were currently thirty-five mutant seedlings in this greenhouse. All had been carefully selected by him: mutant varieties with stable genetics, high heat tolerance, resistance to disease and insect pests, good fruit firmness, moderate sweetness, high yield, and special flavor compounds.

However, when it came to those special flavor compounds, even the Appraisal Panel could not provide specific details. Their exact nature could only be determined after the fruit grew and was tasted.

Of course, since he had bought all kinds of strawberries and collected information on the specific flavor compounds of those varieties, he could roughly infer the flavor profiles of some mutant varieties.

But among the thirty-five mutant seedlings, fifteen had flavor compounds not currently found on the market.

Or rather, it was not that those compounds did not exist at all, but that their concentrations were too low to be perceived.

After all, flavor compounds came in countless varieties, and their concentrations in fruit varied as well. Components present in higher amounts were naturally easier to notice, while subtle ones were overlooked.

That was where the potential value of this batch of mutant seedlings lay.