That compressed biscuit originated from Ding Yun.
It wasn't sold by her directly.
She had wholesaled it to others.
There were three main reasons for this. Firstly, the hidden space of the treasure basin was already overflowing with compressed biscuits, and Ding Yun had other items she wanted to replicate, necessitating space to be cleared.
Secondly, those compressed biscuits were purchased by Ding Yun four years ago and placed inside. Replication meant they were identical in every way, including production dates and expiration dates.
Although time was static within the hidden space, allowing items to remain preserved for decades or even centuries, others wouldn't know this. The production dates indicated they were over four years old.
With less than half a year left until expiration, it was troublesome to either manually alter the production dates or sell them after they expired. Therefore, it was better to clear them out before they went bad.
Furthermore, these compressed biscuits were produced before the national food industry reform implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. At the time of purchase, food stamps were not required, or rather, the food stamp system hadn't even been introduced, making their origin easy to explain.
Thirdly, of course, Ding Yun was in need of money.
Although the country had increased its support for agricultural research, most of this support and subsidies went to renowned researchers. As a student, a slight increase in food allowance each month was the most one could expect; substantial funds were out of the question.
Agricultural research was unlike mathematics or physics, where theoretical research and groundbreaking theoretical papers could be published even without extensive experimental equipment or processes.
Agricultural research was fundamentally a practical discipline.
It required experiments to yield results, and every paper needed a factual basis supported by data.
Despite Ding Yun's diligence over the past three years, she clearly hadn't reached a level where she could independently apply for experimental fields or projects. She could only assist her supervisor with miscellaneous tasks.
If the global environment were stable, Ding Yun wouldn't be in a hurry. She would content herself with assisting, but the current global environment and food reserves couldn't last much longer.
Without significant achievements, the country would descend into chaos.
After all, famine had been the root cause of unrest throughout history.
Therefore, Ding Yun naturally had to set aside her supervisor's work and conduct independent research to achieve results sooner, thereby saving the world and simultaneously gaining considerable influence.
And all of this required money.
If she didn't sell those compressed biscuits, she had nothing else to sell. She couldn't possibly sell the treasure basin.
As for the source of the compressed biscuits, she had already concocted a plausible story: she had won a prize long ago, used the prize money to speculate in the stock market for a while, and then, fearing the apocalypse, specifically stocked up on so many compressed biscuits.
Even though it was now akin to the end of the world.
But as the biscuits were nearing their expiration date, she wanted to clear them out.
Regarding the prize records, stock trading records, purchase records, and even the manufacturer's production and sales records of the compressed biscuits, Ding Yun had personally gone online to modify, fabricate, and add them. Even if someone were to be suspicious and investigate thoroughly, it would be seamless.
Her refusal to accept food stamps for payment further eliminated any issues.
Because the regulations never stated that merchants selling food must accept food stamps; it was only stipulated that merchants must use food stamps when purchasing raw materials. Ordinary merchants who sold goods without accepting food stamps wouldn't have food stamps to buy raw materials.
But Ding Yun had no intention of continuing production and sales.
No one could fault her for selling them at a high price without accepting food stamps.
Furthermore, while a million cubic meters of compressed biscuits was a considerable amount for an individual, it was not a large quantity relative to the entire nation. Coupled with the fact that many people were hoarding them, unwilling to sell,
The actual amount released was less than a tenth.
Consequently, it didn't cause any significant disruption, nor did it have any impact on the national food supply.
This was because most of the buyers were hoarding them, keeping them for emergencies. If the quantity of food stamps continued to be reduced in the coming years, or if distributing grain became even more difficult, these biscuits could become a lifesaver.
...
Meanwhile, after clearing the space in her treasure basin, Ding Yun began replicating essential materials for agricultural research and seed cultivation, specifically those that were difficult to acquire.
She also spent money to establish a private research institution.
And leased a portion of land to serve as experimental fields.
She possessed many grain seeds, including those capable of withstanding extreme cold and extreme drought and heat. However, these were spiritual seeds. If planted in large quantities, they could potentially trigger a rapid resurgence of spiritual energy. In the current harsh environment, where human survival was already precarious, a sudden resurgence of spiritual energy could lead to countless deaths.
Therefore, Ding Yun's current objective was to utilize the existing spiritual rice seeds to cultivate varieties that were resistant to cold, drought, and extreme temperatures, but without any spiritual energy.
This required time.
After all, Ding Yun no longer possessed the ability to accelerate time, nor could she use a seed cultivation space or any other cheat. She could only allow the spiritual rice seeds to undergo generations of hybridization and degeneration, thereby reducing the spiritual energy they contained.
Moreover, she had to ensure that the yield didn't decrease too drastically during the process, which further complicated the task.
However, regardless of the difficulties, compared to other seed cultivation institutions that were still relying on luck and patience, Ding Yun already had a concrete research direction. She was already far ahead, needing only to invest more time.
Yet, not long after, the environment changed again.
First, there was the sudden eruption of the world's largest volcano, followed by the sun's activity intensifying threefold over half a month.
In theory, volcanic dust and other products from volcanic eruptions would block sunlight and lower temperatures, while increased solar activity would raise temperatures.
A balance might be struck between the two.
However, these two events were not truly compensatory.
This was not a matter of simply adding or subtracting water.
The consequences of these two events were devastating. In the areas affected by the volcanic eruption, a dozen countries experienced widespread plant death, extreme environmental degradation, and critically poor air quality, making survival almost impossible. Meanwhile, countries experiencing summer began to suffer from severe drought due to the intensified solar activity.
A drought unprecedented in a thousand years caused rivers to dry up, most communication facilities to be damaged, and power plants to become paralyzed. Everything seemed to have reverted to the dire drought conditions of centuries past.
Simultaneously, peat in the Arctic and Antarctic began to burn at low temperatures over vast areas.
Ice sheets visibly reduced in size daily.
The news no longer reported on these events, as reporting them served no purpose other than to incite panic. Consequently, the government was forced to make a new decision: to officially initiate a doomsday survival mode.
This included concentrating the population and migrating to core water sources, constructing large-scale seawater purification facilities, suspending all industries unrelated to survival, and pooling national resources to build underground survival bases and similar projects.
It also entailed reducing the allocation of funds for agricultural research.
There was no other choice. The environment changed daily. Even if a crop was developed today that could grow normally in 40-degree Celsius heat, if the temperature rose to 43-45 degrees a few days later, it would still be useless.
Furthermore, due to frequent natural disasters, there had been multiple instances where crops were destroyed just before harvest.
All crops were ruined in these events.
Therefore, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture had to shift its strategy. Instead of focusing solely on feeding people with grains, they began researching processed foods, hydroponics, underground cultivation, and even artificial starch. They hoped to produce the nutrient solutions depicted in science fiction novels in the shortest possible time.
There was no alternative; the bottom line was being broken step by step.
In the absence of any other hope,
Simply not starving would be the best outcome.