Chapter 254 - 255: The First Meeting

Chapter 254: Chapter 255: The First Meeting

Completely bewildered, Li Yang arrived at the conference room.

This was the first time he had ever attended a meeting like this.

When he went inside, he saw it was full of people—at least thirty or forty of them.

More importantly, everyone had a grave expression on their face, and the atmosphere was tense.

Director Xu, however, had Li Yang sit right next to him.

As a result, everyone stared at Li Yang in astonishment.

’Who is this person? How did he get to sit next to Director Xu?’

Li Yang felt their strange gazes on him and couldn’t help but feel a little resigned.

’Don’t look at me like that. I’m even more confused than you are.’

"Alright, let’s officially begin!" Director Xu said to the group.

Instantly, the room fell silent, and everyone stopped staring at Li Yang.

"According to the latest information..." Director Xu picked up the data sheet in front of him and began to speak. "As of the time this data was printed, we have now discovered over thirty-eight outbreaks of chicken plague. Sixteen of those were discovered today, and there may be some we still haven’t found. Nineteen of these outbreaks are in natural villages, twelve are in small-scale farms, and seven are in large-scale farms. In other words, the chicken plague is now running rampant throughout our city."

Everyone felt a pang of anxiety.

Although everyone had been working tirelessly to prevent this, they had ultimately failed to contain it.

The situation had reached a nearly irreversible point.

"Professor Jin!" At that moment, Director Xu turned to the only woman present, a beautiful lady dressed in red. "You’re the expert in this field. I want to ask you, is there any solution now?"

The woman in red looked to be thirty at most. She had short hair and a sharp, capable air, along with a unique sort of beauty. ℴ

"Director Xu, my recommendation is a full culling," Professor Jin said with a serious expression. "The chicken plague has progressed to an irreversible stage. The best method is to cull all of them, subsidize the farmers, and prevent the infection from spreading to more chickens. This is also to protect the other farmers. Moreover, the sooner, the better."

The others nodded in agreement.

"That’s right. We’re out of time. The sooner we cull, the lower the chance of it spreading!"

"Yeah, if we wait any longer, the entire city might not recover from this!"

"At that point, it could affect the surrounding counties and cities."

...

Everyone was voicing their opinion.

But the general consensus could be summed up in a single word: Cull!

This was also the standard and most effective way to handle such a crisis.

"I have someone here with a different opinion..." Director Xu said, not at all surprised by their consensus. In fact, he would have thought the same thing himself before.

But now, he had another idea in mind and turned to look at Li Yang.

Li Yang gave a dry laugh. ’This old guy is really something,’ he thought. ’Throwing me to the wolves like this, making me voice a dissenting opinion in a place where I don’t know anyone. Isn’t he just setting me up to get torn apart?’

But now that he was on the spot, he couldn’t back down.

Li Yang cleared his throat and finally spoke up, "Uh... that’s right. My recommendation is not to cull them, but to treat them!"

His words sent the entire room into an uproar.

Treat?

’Is he joking? Can chicken plague even be cured?’

’It’s an infectious disease. The best method is to eliminate the source of the infection.’

Professor Jin sized Li Yang up and smiled. "Oh? I, for one, would like to know. How exactly do you propose to treat them?"

"I have a medicine!" Li Yang could only brace himself and answer. "My medicine can cure these plague-stricken chickens."

"Nonsense!" someone couldn’t hold back any longer and snapped angrily. "You have a medicine? What kind of medicine?"

"Feed!" Li Yang had to speak up again. "I have a type of feed that can cure this chicken plague."

"You’re a feed salesman, aren’t you!" someone finally realized and asked bluntly.

Li Yang shook his head. "I’m not a feed salesman. This feed is what I use for my own chickens, ducks, and fish. But now that something like this has happened, I can expand production and share some with the farmers whose flocks are affected."

"Director Xu, he’s a fraud!" someone said, pointing at Li Yang.

Director Xu looked at their agitated expressions and said to Li Yang, "My apologies. They’re all old fogeys like me. It’s hard for them to believe something like this."

Li Yang shook his head, indicating that he didn’t mind.

"I’ve done a rough calculation..." Director Xu began again. "If we cull all these chickens, the farmers’ losses will be at least fifty million."

Fifty million!

Everyone present was inwardly shaken.

"Of course, we will provide some compensation, but it certainly won’t be as much as they would have made from selling them. Besides, this money is the taxpayers’ money. We can’t spend it recklessly. If there’s a way to save it, we should."

"So, Director Xu, does this mean you agree to the treatment plan?" Professor Jin asked.

"Our city’s only pheasant farm..." Director Xu didn’t answer directly. Instead, he said, "Unfortunately, it was also infected with the chicken plague a couple of days ago. They were scheduled to be culled today. But when our people went to perform the culling and disinfection, they discovered that all the pheasants had completely recovered!"

What!

Everyone present was stunned, their faces a mask of utter disbelief.