175: Chapter 175 This is a true miracle

The front-page news pushed to the CNN homepage drove the previously heated venue to the opposite extreme.

The nearly one hundred media reporters, who had been chatting incessantly, suddenly fell silent. Immediately after, countless gazes filled with speculation, suspicion, and even schadenfreude darted back and forth between Lin Zhou, Qin Yue, and the glowing tablet screen.

"Boss, the counter-attack plan is ready. Shall we initiate it now?" Qin Yue leaned in, her fingertips rubbing against the edge of the tablet. Her originally smooth business attire seemed a bit tense.

She had anticipated various emergency situations, but she hadn't expected the opponent's actions to be this fast, nor their tactics to be this vicious.

" 'Devil Seed'?" Lin Zhou stared at the bolded headline. His brows furrowed and then relaxed. Instead of getting angry, he chuckled, "That name is actually more creative than mine."

He took the tablet and swiped his fingers quickly across the screen, skipping over the inflammatory modifiers.

The entire report cited speculations from anonymous experts, claiming that the "Miracle Seed" carried aggressive genetic sequences. Once promoted on a large scale, it would consume local ecosystems like locusts, turning the land into a lifeless "green desert."

The article even found several environmental organizations to endorse it, playing up the "catastrophic risks" behind this growth rate, and ultimately pointed the finger at the newly established Cyber Freedom Republic, implying that this technology violated international bans.

"Proceed as planned." Lin Zhou placed the tablet face down on the table, his expression unchanged. "There's no need to specifically tap away at keyboards to fight back."

"No response?" A thin layer of sweat seeped from Qin Yue's palms. "Just let them sling mud in front of the public?"

"In this soil, only tangible results can make people shut up. Let them open their eyes and see clearly." Lin Zhou pointed forward.

Qin Yue followed his gaze. The Huaxia researchers working in the fields, their skin tanned dark by the sun, were grinning, their eyes fixed only on the heavy crops.

Watching this scene, the heart that had been hanging in her chest settled firmly back into place.

Ten o'clock in the morning sharp.

The press conference began.

On the temporarily constructed high platform, the backdrop for the "Huaxia-Cyber Freedom Republic Joint Agricultural Technology Achievement Press Conference" was exceptionally eye-catching under the desert sun.

Minister Wang stepped onto the stage, his leather shoes making dull, powerful sounds on the wooden floor. He didn't utter a single pleasantry; he grabbed the microphone and went straight to the point.

"I know that many of you present here received a message about the 'Devil Seed' this morning."

His thick voice covered the entire venue through the speakers, drowning out the sound of the wind from the distant sandy ground.

"The reporter who wrote this report—if you are at the scene, I invite you to come down to this field.

Squat down, grab a handful of soil and smell it, pull a leaf and look at it, and then touch these crops with your own hands!" He turned and pointed to the deep green that stretched to the horizon behind him.

"The land under our feet used to be called the 'Sea of Death.' It hadn't seen any proper greenery for thirty years; how many generations of savings and youth were poured into this sand pit!"

"Now, it's only been three months! This land has come back to life!" Minister Wang's words caught in his throat. He waved his arm, pointing at the green waves, "The facts are right here. I announce that the achievement demonstration starts now!"

Following his command, dozens of harvesters that had already been started cut into the farmland simultaneously, the roar of their engines instantly occupying everyone's eardrums.

On the screens on both sides of the high platform, aerial footage from drones cut in in real-time.

Rows of corn and red sorghum fell along the machine's path, the ears of grain were swept in by the header, and the golden, threshed grain poured through pipes into the grain trucks' trailers.

On the monitoring panel on the side, the numbers began to jump endlessly:

[Experimental Field A-01 (Corn)]

[Measured Area: 150 mu]

[Real-time Average Yield per Mu: 1489.6 kg]

[Experimental Field B-03 (Sorghum)]

[Measured Area: 180 mu]

[Real-time Average Yield per Mu: 1215.3 kg]

The group of reporters offstage began to lose control. They pushed and shoved toward the guardrails, the sound of camera shutters merging into a dense patter of rain, and the brightness of the flashbulbs even eclipsed the sunlight.

"The yield has exceeded 3,000 jin! How is this possible!"

"It's still rising! The data is still climbing!"

"The textbooks on modern agriculture will have to be rewritten!"

The harvesting work lasted for half an hour.

When the last harvester shut down, the final data on the screen finally froze.

Corn, average yield per mu: 1502 kg.

Sorghum, average yield per mu: 1221 kg.

These two sets of numbers were nailed to the screen like iron stakes, causing the previous clamor of doubt to come to an abrupt halt.

But this was far from over.

Several old experts from the Inspection Academy, wearing white lab coats, walked onto the stage carrying sealed boxes. They cut open the freshly harvested sample grain in front of everyone and inserted it into the on-site testing equipment.

Various indicators flashed one by one on the big screen:

Heavy metal content: Zero detected.

Pesticide residues: Zero detected.

Nutritional content: Fully covered and significantly exceeded the current highest industry standards.

"This is an answer sheet that needs no embellishment." The leading old expert pushed up his glasses, his fingertips pressing on the test report, his voice slightly hoarse.

The venue fell into a silence so deep one could hear the sound of breathing.

A few seconds later, the first round of applause rang out, and then it evolved into a wave that swept across the entire venue. In the face of this pile of solid data, that baseless report by CNN was made to look like a clumsy farce.

Just then, Father Martin, the representative from Vatican City who had been sitting silently in the front row, brushed the dust off his robes and walked steadily to the podium.

He faced the global media and made the sign of the cross on his chest.

"The Lord said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. And today, we have touched a miracle here."

He turned to Lin Zhou and bowed.

"The Vatican City Holy See has officially decided to fund the purchase of the first batch of ten million tons of 'Miracle Seed.' These seeds will all be handed over to the World Food Programme and sent free of charge to those places still suffering from famine!"

An exclamation erupted from the crowd.

A volume of ten million tons, combined with cross-border humanitarian aid, had already exceeded the scope of simple business.

After Father Martin left the stage, Minister Wang took the microphone again, his tense facial features finally relaxing.

"The Huaxia government hereby reiterates that the 'Miracle Seed' is open for global trade starting today. Our pricing will be in line with the prices of mainstream international hybrid seeds! Huaxia does not engage in technological blockades and will not set any barriers!"

The reporters at the scene were already somewhat numb from what they were hearing.

If the Holy See's decision was a moral shock, then Huaxia's price reduction decision was a precise dismantling of the existing structure of the global agricultural market.

Not raising prices meant that the patent walls that agricultural giants like Monsanto and Bayer had painstakingly built over decades would crumble in a very short time.

Finally, with countless lenses focused on him, Lin Zhou walked to the microphone.

He hadn't prepared a speech, his gaze sweeping over the media below with their complex expressions.

"The press conference is over. Starting tomorrow, any country or any region can place an order directly on our official website. Our logistics will be responsible for delivering them to any place with soil."

After saying this, he turned and walked off the stage cleanly, leaving the crowd behind him to fall into a frenzy of debate.

He knew in his heart that the public arguments were over. Next, those commercial empires whose foundations had been shaken would launch a truly desperate plunder.