“The one who asked you to buy alcohol, that was His Majesty!” the boss whispered.
“His… Majesty?” the supermarket clerk blinked. “General Jiang?”
“That’s right, him. As soon as you placed the order, the police detected it. They probably thought you were planning arson or assassination, since alcohol is flammable, so they came to arrest you. Seeing that the surveillance showed it was the General himself who bought it, you narrowly escaped. If it had been someone else, you’d be in jail for life by now!”
The supermarket clerk was stunned.
He had just served… General Jiang!
This was something he could brag about for a lifetime!
“You scared me to death, I almost thought I was a goner,” the boss said, wiping sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. “But this is a good thing. His Majesty personally coming to our store to buy something is a great affirmation! The rival supermarket won’t be able to beat us now, this will surely spread. But we can’t promote it openly.”
“Villa number six in the hot spring area, that’s the General’s…”
“Hush!” the boss’s eyes turned fierce. “Don’t say it! Keep it to yourself! Forget this address right now! If you dare to speak of it, your head will roll! How dare you reveal the General’s address?”
The supermarket clerk quickly slapped his own cheeks.
“So, the police can monitor our delivery addresses in real-time, but His Majesty’s address is protected?” the supermarket clerk whispered.
“It’s not just His Majesty; many important figures’ addresses are protected. You need to be careful when delivering dangerous goods in the future. Confirm the buyer’s identity, don’t lose your head carelessly!” The boss’s face was pale.
“Can I know which addresses are sensitive?” the supermarket clerk swallowed.
“No, you’ll see when you become a store manager. Work hard, young man.” The boss got up from the ground.
…
The first-floor hall was filled with cases of alcohol.
Jiang Ye poured more than twenty bottles into the fish tank, and the smell of alcohol in the room intensified.
“When I go out to work, you can help me add alcohol to the fish tank. Don’t add too much, just pour in a bottle when you have time,” Jiang Ye told Cen Yemeng.
“Okay, I’ll remember,” Cen Yemeng said obediently, holding the child.
For the next three days, Jiang Ye checked the fish tank’s condition daily.
The alcohol consumption rate increased rapidly. On the first day, twenty bottles of alcohol were used; on the second day, it rose to forty bottles; and on the third day, a full one hundred and twenty bottles were consumed.
The entire room smelled like a wine cellar, with a strong alcoholic aroma.
Jiang Ye had to buy two more air purifiers, running them at high power to prevent the alcohol concentration in the room from becoming too high.
On the fourth morning, Jiang Ye woke up.
Cen Yemeng, wearing a pink pajama, was clinging to him like an octopus. Her fair and smooth cheek was turned towards him, and she was sleeping soundly. Through her thin pajamas, Jiang Ye could feel the elasticity of youth.
His chest felt numb from the pressure.
Jiang Ye got up gently.
Cen Yemeng frowned but didn’t open her eyes, continuing to sleep. She had been sleeping a lot lately, likely still recovering from childbirth.
He glanced at Jiang Senlin in the baby carriage, who was also sleeping soundly, his eyeballs moving under his eyelids, dreaming of something unknown.
He tiptoed out of the bedroom, went downstairs, and headed to check the intelligent bacteria fish tank.
The amount of alcohol in the fish tank had decreased significantly again.
But… there was a change!
A few small white particles were quietly suspended in the center of the transparent alcoholic liquid.
Jiang Ye quickly took out his phone and sent a photo to Li Nannan.
“Chief, what’s going on? There were no such things a few days ago.”
Li Nannan: “Congratulations, the intelligent bacteria have evolved. This is the first stage, the visible stage. The bacterial colony has reached a certain number, and they are now visible to the naked eye!”
Jiang Ye: “What should I do next?”
Li Nannan: “Continue cultivating them. Don’t let the temperature be too high or too low; room temperature is fine. Don’t stop adding alcohol and wait for the intelligent bacteria to evolve further.”
Jiang Ye: “Alright, alright. The next evolutionary form is the character-display stage, right? What does that mean?”
Li Nannan: “You’ll know when the time comes.”
Jiang Ye: “What if other bacteria contaminate the alcoholic liquid?”
Li Nannan: “Not many bacteria can survive in alcohol. You keep adding alcohol and changing the concentration; ninety-nine percent of bacteria will die. Even if there are some residual fierce bacteria, they won’t be as strong as the intelligent bacteria. Do you think the two hundred and eighty billion bacteria were created for nothing? They have self-protection capabilities.”
Jiang Ye’s curiosity about the intelligent bacteria in the fish tank grew stronger.
It felt like raising a pet.
When he was a child, he saw on the news that rich people always kept strange and exotic pets. Lizards, snakes, crocodiles, tigers, pigs, miniature horses, deep-sea fish – they kept everything except aliens. It seemed like if the pet wasn’t peculiar, one wasn’t worthy of being rich.
This tank of bacteria was certainly peculiar enough.
Jiang Ye had been thinking about the uses of these bacteria for the past few days and had some guesses. But whether his guesses were accurate would depend on further observation.
Bacteria reproduce very quickly. As long as there are sufficient nutrients, their numbers grow exponentially. Evolution was likely a matter of minutes.
However, the progress was slower than expected.
A long week passed, and the fish tank’s alcohol consumption rate continued to increase. It was no longer a matter of pouring bottles in, but of consuming them by the case. In the transparent alcoholic liquid, the white sesame-seed-like bacterial colonies grew more numerous: four, eight, thirty-two… eventually forming small clusters, some suspended, some stuck to the bottom of the fish tank.
Jiang Ye would observe by the fish tank, changing angles, trying to discern any characters.
The first evolutionary stage, the visible stage, meant being able to see the bacteria. Then, the second stage, the character-display stage, should mean these bacteria could form characters.
But no matter from which angle he looked, they were just scattered white sesame seeds, with no discernible characters.
Cen Yemeng complained that raising these intelligent bacteria was too tiring, mainly because the alcohol was consumed too quickly and needed constant replenishment. Jiang Ye went out to work during the day, while she stayed home, taking care of the child, doing housework, and adding alcohol. She was constantly running up and down the stairs, topping the daily step rankings, her legs almost getting toned.
Jiang Ye immediately contacted Xu Yan and had a new small house built at the edge of his yard.
The house contained a 300-liter glass tank, equipped with machines for automatically detecting alcohol concentration, temperature, and humidity, as well as pipes for supplying alcohol to the tank.
With automated control, there was no need for constant manual labor.
Saturday morning.
Jiang Ye woke up, gently extricated himself from his wife’s embrace in her pink pajamas, glanced at the child, and went downstairs.
He opened the door to the bacteria house and looked at the transparent alcoholic solution.
His heart suddenly sank.
The white sesame seeds were gone!
Had the machine malfunctioned and replaced the entire liquid? Had all the intelligent bacteria been expelled?
Cold sweat broke out instantly. This thing had an extremely high security level and was incredibly valuable. Losing it would be disastrous!
But Jiang Ye looked again from a different angle and finally saw the bacteria in the liquid.
The white sesame-seed-like bacterial colonies were not scattered and suspended as usual but had all floated to the surface of the water. Due to the angle, Jiang Ye hadn’t seen them earlier.
“Holy crap,” he muttered.