“I’ve been watching you very closely...” Ju De started his evaluation after Hun Lun arrived in his office.

Hun Lun gulped his dried saliva and clenched his pants as he tried to maintain a calm heart rate. He had taken a relaxant earlier, but it still wasn't enough to calm his nerve when faced directly with the CEO. Most people think CEO Ju De was a plain and simple man, but Hun Lun thought the CEO was one of the scariest people he had ever encountered. Looking into his eyes, there was no light or darkness, only a simple void devoid of any real emotion. 

“Is there a particular reason why you check all the equipment?” Ju De asked in a light-hearted tone from behind his desk.

“Sir, as a quality control engineer, it is our job to inspect the condition of all the equipment,” Hun Lun responded with the practiced line.

“Is that so?" It didn't escape Ju De's ear that Hun Lun avoided using "I" whenever he spoke. "It is rare to look inside every single machinery, and with a camera no less.”

“Sir, the camera provides views for hard-to-reach areas.”

“Hm… Then... For all your hard work, how about a promotion as Dr. Li’s assistant?”

“What!?” Hun Lun was stupified. It never crossed his mind that CEO Ju De was offering him a “promotion.” He was certain that his identity as a corporate spy was revealed somehow. After all, he had only started working recently and there was no reason for him to be promoted ahead of all the seniors. "A promotion, sir?" He asked again in case he misheard.

“You’re one of the most dedicated engineers in our department, so we need someone with that dedication to work closely with our researcher,” Ju De announced from his office.

“I’ll be working directly with Dr. Li!?” It was great news for Hun Lun. 

According to his real employer, Li Yun was the brain behind the operation. The formula and idea were centered around his research. If he was able to look into Li Yun’s research, he might uncover the secret behind the growth of the plants and the TCM formula.

“We are at a very critical stage in the research,” Ju De explained. “Unfortunately, our researcher has contracted an illness, so I want you to shadow him from his home to the workplace.”

“Dr. Li is ill?’ Hun Lun had seen Li Yun around. He was very personable and chatted with everyone in the building. It didn’t look like he was sick at all.

“He has motion sickness, so he can’t drive. He has been taking medication, but it isn’t working anymore. So other than being his assistant, you will have to drive him everywhere, is this something you do?”

Hun Lun took a quick moment to consider. He was suspicious of their goals, but it was better than being fired immediately. In China, the driver was considered one of the most trusted positions. There was no reason for Hun Lun to turn down the offer. “Yes boss! I will take the offer!”

****

On the first day as the researcher's assistant, Hun Lun got up an hour earlier and dressed up for work. His place was originally very close to the factory, but he had to drive into Caoben Street, located in the middle of Yide City, and then back to the factory. It added more than half an hour to his regular commute. It was all right, being a corporate spy was not a simple job to begin with. As he arrived at the entrance of Caoben street, he texted Li Yun about his arrival. 

The early morning was still dark, but the vendors could be seen setting up their stalls, hanging up the shaded canopy, and displaying the sales banner. The hanging lanterns lit up the paved streets and Qing Dynasty's stunning wood facades. Hun Lun heard that Caoben Street was a busy tourist trap, but the scenery was worth it. He waited for a few minutes and saw a young man walking down the street.

“Morning Mr. Hun!” Li Yun waved and greeted his new assistant.

Hun Lun greeted Li Yun with a short bow and opened the back seat door for his new boss. As Li Yun took his seat, Hun Lun returned to the driver's seat and began their journey to the factory. Hun Lun wasn't a chatty person, but he knew that small talks were important to gathering information.

Not a minute had passed, but Li Yun was already laying flat asleep in the back of the car. Hun Lun sighed. He was hoping to chat a bit with Li Yun and get some insight into the research. Unfortunately, he heard that the researcher had a habit of taking random frequent naps after watching some live broadcasting. From the front, he could still hear the sound of a surgeon performing surgery from Li Yun’s phone. 

“It is really amazing how dedicated he is despite his medical condition,” Hun Lun thought as he looked at the young researcher lying sickly from the rearview mirror and he shook his head in pity, “poor guy.”

Li Yun’s day consisted of him walking about the greenhouse and regularly taking a leaf and chewing on it. Hun Lun wasn’t sure of all the plants, but he wondered if it was safe to do, or if it was the reason for his illness.

“Uh, boss, are you supposed to be eating that?” Hun Lun finally couldn’t resist when he saw Li Yun harvesting an unripe lantern plant berry.

“Mr. Hun, science and medicine require a lot of sacrifices,” Li Yun replied as he swallowed the lantern plant. “Did you know that doctors regularly stole bodies to experiment with? They were willing to risk their morale, judgment, and reputation for the sake of knowledge. Do you think it’s admirable, stupid, or unethical?”

“A bit of everything?” Hun Lun answered honestly.

“The mad scientist is a name for them,” Li Yun never thought of himself with such labels, but it really didn’t matter how people thought of him. The mission was important. He recounted many famous scientists in the past who had experimented on themselves and others illegally. Which one of them wasn’t a bit messed up in the head? Compared to them, Li Yun thought he was normal. He at least knew that he wasn’t going to suffer much from his experiment, but there were many TCM practitioners and scientists who had died in the past for the sake of finding a cure for their patients.

“Um.. Boss, how are the plants able to grow so quickly?” Hun Lun had only been there for two weeks, but he had already noticed the unusual growing patterns of the plants.

Li Yun dug his gloved-covered hand into the soil and took out the worms. “By creating a symbiotic relationship between the company, workers, the insects, and the plants,” Li Yun responded. “The company pays and treats the workers well. The workers are regularly feeding not just the plants, but the insects in the greenhouse. The insects protect the plants from invaders and their secretion provides nutrients.”

Li Yun wasn’t concerned about anyone stealing the secrets. It was like a TCM formula, which was very individualized to the location, place, plants, and insects. If any of the ingredients were off, it would not work properly. And, he would like to see if a company as big as Berne can actually treat its employees well. If a company could successfully replicate his secrets, they should be able to create a formula powerful enough to cure the world of almost all illnesses, but that and in itself was not possible because humans weren’t clones. Not only that, how much of it was Li Yun’s Shennong ability?

After going around the greenhouse, Li Yun returned to the laboratory to confirm his body analysis with what was recorded by the electron microscope. Li Yun could inject it into his body, but his body had a time limit. By the end of the day, Hun Lun drove Li Yun back to the street. 

The routine repeated for weeks, and eventually, Hun Lun was used to seeing Li Yun as his boss, despite regularly sending back reports to his real employer. There was something about the altruistic doctor that made him really admire and look up to him. They walked around the greenhouse, which was filled with lush greenery. Hun Lun was an engineer, and he knew a lot about agricultural practices that exponentially increased the growth of plants and animals unnaturally. However, none of the scientists were able to replicate Li Yun’s greenhouse. He understood that Li Yun had created a lot of different parameters for each greenhouse and each portion of the greenhouse. But how was it really possible? Not only that, the insects seemed to be actively helping the plants to grow.

“Boss, what sort of magic are you using?” Hun Lun asked.

“It’s a secret buff I have for being a divine farmer's reincarnation,” Li Yun replied with a straight face.

Hun Lun hated his boss sometimes. It was sometimes difficult to have a conversation with him, and other times he was so normal Hun Lun wondered if the boss was messing with him.

"Mr. Hun, you may think I'm joking, but let me ask you a question. Do you have children?"

Hun Lun wondered if he should lie about his family in Magic City, "I have two children."

"You don't see them much?"

Hun Lun shook his head.

"You're working hard now hoping that you can retire early and be a good father?"

Hun Lun's hands trembled. Sometimes, Dr. Li frightened him more than CEO Ju De.

"You should know, a child's early development is like looking after these plants. Missing any important stages of growth is a detriment to their development. These plants know my presence because I am their maker. They know that without me, they cannot continue to thrive and grow. Their only hope of survival is to see me satisfied. But not knowing the human language, my presence is their only affirmation. If I am not here, they could feel it and lose their spirit. The same with your children. They may not be fully conscious of it, but they could feel your absence as you not wanting them anymore. Are you sure working hard now is worth it?"

Hun Lun couldn't answer. He never thought about it in serious depth. His children were important to him and he was earning money for their sake. He had missed such a simple concept. Maybe he was looking at the picture too closely. When a picture was zoomed in too closely, it was difficult to identify what the object was. That was Hun Lun's problem.

"Boss! Thank you for your insight," Hun Lun had watched Li Yun give advice to other workers, but he never thought that he needed direction in his own life.

Li Yun was b******** half the things he was saying to Hun Lun. He wondered how long before Hun Lun's real employer realized that the data they were receiving was costing them research and development money that would go nowhere? The longer they explore Li Yun's guidelines, the more they were losing money.

Would they fire Hun Lun? Hopefully, not too soon. He quite liked the guy despite him being a spy. They were heading to Panda City in a few days, and Li Yun needed an “assistant.”