Liu Jun’s voice was filled with pride.

But that pride quickly turned to helplessness.

"It’s a shame... but greed knows no bounds. Once the prices went up these past few years, everything fell into chaos."

He sighed. "The truth is, many of the merchants who come to buy the jujubes know perfectly well that these unripe ones have practically no medicinal effect."

But they’re crooked.

Think about it. They spend three yuan per pound to buy up huge quantities of unripe jujubes and haul them back to put in cold storage.

Then, when the ripe red jujubes hit the market, they spend ten yuan per pound to buy a batch of those.

Finally, they mix the unripe and ripe jujubes together according to a certain ratio.

When they turn around and sell the mix to pharmaceutical companies, the value instantly multiplies several times over.

As long as the volume is large enough, the profit margin is terrifyingly huge!"

Professor Gao said with a sigh, "This is no longer just an economic problem. This is toying with people’s health. The quality of medicinal ingredients determines their efficacy. It’s a matter of treating illnesses and saving lives! How can Chinese patent medicines made from such inferior raw materials possibly be effective?"

"Sigh, you’re right," Liu Jun said. "Actually, controlling this situation would be very simple. If only the downstream pharmaceutical and processing plants would unite and reach a consensus to refuse all unripe jujubes. I guarantee you, within three days, not a single jujube farmer on this mountain would pick them unripe. But... it’s just too difficult. There are always some black-hearted merchants who would do anything for profit."

The three of them chatted as they ventured deeper into the mountain forest.

The sight before him gave Li Xu a new understanding of the "wild sour jujube forest."

The sour jujube trees here weren’t tall. Most were shrubs, about half a person’s height, with branches covered in sharp, hooked thorns. They grew in a tangled mess from the crevices of the barren rocks of Taihang Mountain.

A few unripe, fingernail-sized sour jujubes hung sparsely from the trees.

To pick them, one had to risk getting scratched and pluck them one by one.

Li Xu could imagine the hardship the mountain folk endured to pick these jujubes.

And because of that, they were all the more eager to turn their hard labor into cash as quickly as possible.

"Stop! What are you doing?!"

The trio hadn’t gone far when Liu Jun’s eyes sharpened. He barked at a figure a short distance ahead.

He immediately quickened his pace and ran over.

Li Xu and Professor Gao followed close behind.

Sure enough, a skinny old man in his fifties was furtively stripping unripe jujubes from a tree.

At his feet was a half-full bamboo basket, filled with all the unripe fruit he had just "snatched while green."

’Another one stealing sour jujubes...’ Liu Jun seethed with anger.

He rushed forward, slammed a hand down on the old man’s basket, and snapped, "Caught you! Who let you come here to steal sour jujubes? What village are you from?"

Unexpectedly, not only was the old man not scared, but he also retorted shamelessly:

"What business is it of yours what village I’m from? These are my jujubes. I’m picking my own jujubes, what’s it to you? Mind your own damn business!"

"What village are you from?" Liu Jun’s face flushed with anger.

"It’s none of your business what village I’m from!"

The old man stuck his neck out, a roguish look on his face as if to say, ’What are you gonna do about it?’

Liu Jun ground his teeth in frustration, but there was nothing he could do.

He looked at the basket full of unripe sour jujubes, feeling even more helpless. He pointed at the basket and said angrily, "What’s the use of picking these sour jujubes? This unripe crap!"

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He kicked over the basket, and the unripe, green sour jujubes scattered all over the ground.

"I don’t care what village you’re from!" Liu Jun pointed at the old man’s nose and lectured him. "I’m telling you! It’s not that you can’t pick these sour jujubes."

"But it’s not time yet."

"Wait until they’re completely red before you pick them. You’ll be able to sell them for several more yuan per pound. Wouldn’t it be better to earn more money?"

"If you sneak around picking them by yourself now, others will see you and get jealous!"

"Then everyone on this mountain will follow your lead and start picking too. This whole mountain will be ruined!"

After the lecture, the old man knew he was in the wrong. He muttered a few words but didn’t dare say anything more. He reluctantly picked up his empty basket and trudged away resentfully.

But Liu Jun still heaved a long sigh.

He knew the man most likely hadn’t taken a word of it to heart.

He’d probably just move to another part of the mountain and continue picking in a little while.

Watching from the side, Li Xu and Professor Gao felt a headache coming on just from listening.

’It’s a hopeless situation.’

They patrolled the mountain for a while, and when they came back down, they saw a small truck with an out-of-town license plate parked at the village entrance.

A man who looked like a merchant had set up a scale there and was buying the sour jujubes brought by the villagers.

And without exception, every single jujube he was buying was unripe and green.

Li Xu walked up and couldn’t help but ask, "Sir, are you aware that these unripe sour jujubes have poor medicinal efficacy?"

The sour jujube merchant chuckled. He didn’t hide anything, saying frankly:

"You don’t get it, do you, young man? When we buy these sour jujubes, what we want is the ’seed’ inside. Once we remove the pulp and take out the Sour Jujube Seeds, you tell me, who can tell if the seeds came from a red jujube or a green one?"

He laughed smugly. "So, we buy these unwanted green jujubes at a low price, take out the Sour Jujube Seeds, and we can still sell them to the pharmaceutical companies at a high price! Tell me, isn’t that the perfect business? In fact, we even specialize in buying unripe sour jujubes now!"

After hearing this, Li Xu, Professor Gao, and Liu Jun were completely at a loss.

From the jujube farmers at the source, to the merchants in the middle, to the pharmaceutical companies downstream, a supply chain full of speculation, deception, and short-sightedness had already formed.

And in the end, the ones who would pay the price for all of this would be the innocent patients, full of hope, taking these "ineffective" Chinese medicines.

...

「That night,」

At Liu Jun’s enthusiastic invitation, Li Xu and Professor Gao stayed in a guest room at the village committee office.

A night in a mountain village should have been silent and peaceful, filled with the RUSTLE of wind through the treetops and the occasional crisp chirp of an insect.

However, driven by the lure of huge profits, Dashan Village was destined for a period of unrest.

Li Xu was sound asleep when he was jolted awake several times in the middle of the night by a cacophony of shouting and barking dogs coming from the mountain forest outside the village. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

He sat up and looked through the window. In the pitch-black forest, he could see several beams of flashlight light sweeping back and forth, mixed with angry rebukes.

He knew it was people who had come out at night to steal unripe jujubes being discovered by the patrol team again.

Li Xu wasn’t surprised, as Liu Jun had told them earlier that evening.

This situation would continue until all the sour jujubes were fully ripe.

The next day, Li Xu woke up groggily with faint dark circles under his eyes.

He habitually checked the intelligence that had refreshed for the day.

When he saw the intelligence clearly, he was instantly wide awake.