Zeroth Directive

Archive II

In Yan, a Tianshi is an occupation that commands respect, but demands great responsibility in turn. To become part of this elite group, one needs to pass the Tianshi Bureaus' grueling exams. They require not only outstanding talent in Arts, but also a deep pool of specialized knowledge. Thanks to Wanqing's exceptional exam results at the young age of fifteen, an exception was made for him, and he was placed under the tutelage of a senior Nongye Tianshi, Shu. Only a handful of test-takers in all of Yan meet that standard. Some suspected cheating at first, but suspicions were quickly dispelled once his performance at the Tianshi Bureaus became clear. Not only were his academic scores once-in-a-generation, his first crop breeding experiment yielded promising results. Only three years after entering the Bureaus, he'd already taken on several fellow Tianshis as students. However, Wanqing was by no means a child prodigy. Even now, he is somewhat slow to pick up new techniques, a fact reflected in the courses he takes while on Rhodes Island. His tutor, Shu, who is just as kind as he is, says: 'using your mind always means being a touch slower than those around you, and your limbs will always be a touch slower than your mind.' Instead, he was able to achieve such amazing scores thanks to his unusual concentration and focus. As he himself puts it, if he runs into an issue while on the job, he'll simply think of a way to solve it. Thoughts such as 'maybe I could take a shortcut?' or 'what happens if I can't fix this?' never even cross his mind. While that sounds simple, it is actually quite difficult for most people to work without mulling over the consequences. 'For every step, plan three further' is an ancient Yanese saying for a reason, and its people are naturally disposed towards caution and forward planning, while always keeping an escape route in mind. This, too, can be considered a form of instinctive wisdom. However, only those who able to completely immerse themselves in the act of moving forward are able to arrive at their chosen destination. 'In earlier eras, crops still needed to be harvested by hand. More experienced farmers would tell younger ones, in all seriousness, that they must never raise their heads as they worked. Seeing the full fields stretching out to the horizon would demotivate even the hardest worker. But if you only see the stalk in your hand, then, well, you need only cut a single stalk.' Wanqing is rather serious when sharing his experiences with others, without a hint of arrogance or pride in his voice. 'While being able to focus like that is a rather rare trait, it's not always an appropriate one. Once, Wanqing accidentally broke an automatic door by bumping into it, and he silently took it on himself to fix it. By the time someone found him, he'd been at it for a full twenty-four hours... Can someone make sure to help him out the next time this happens? I'm scared that he'll starve to death.'

Archive III

When Wanqing was registering as an operator, he came up with his codename in almost no time at all. Dahuang focuses on several distinct problems plaguing the farmers of Yan, and is host to multiple experimental crops, each with their own name. For example, a crop bred for colder climates is named 'Kangdong', or 'Frost Resister'. If a descendant of this crop shows marked improvement during further experimentation, it would be named 'Kangdong #2'. In addition, there is also 'Zaoyou' ('Early Excellence'), 'Fanglao' ('Flood Defender'), 'Chuibudao' ('Unblowable'), 'Esichong' ('Pest Starver'), etc etc. These simple names entrust a simple hope into each and every variant. Of special note is 'Wanqing', or 'Vast Expanse'. Since time immemorial, people have been fighting with Catastrophes for land. Catastrophes destroy buildings and farmland alike, and soil contaminated with Originium is extremely difficult to grow crops in. As such, in ancient times, Catastrophes were usually followed by famine. Since the invention of the nomadic city, most scholars of agriculture have focused on increasing the yields of food grown on nomadic plates. However, the Tianshis of the Dahuang persist in trying to breed crops resistant to Originium. But despite their long efforts, countless academics have deemed it futile. The Dahuang Tianshis believe that limited space is a fundamental flaw of nomadic plates, and that though their research has been slow, it is only by exploiting the vast unused tracts of land that all the people of the lands can eat their fill. Generation upon generation of Tianshis have contributed, breeding crops that could tolerate more and more Originium activity. Five percent grew to fifteen percent, which blossomed further into twenty-five percent. Now though, progress is made only in fractions of a percent, with the rate of improvement inversely proportional to the time put into the experiments. Great leaps in tolerance seem to be a thing of the past. According to the Tianshis participating in the research, one could dedicate their entire life with no results to show for it, denied a place in the annals of history. Wanqing is just one such nameless Tianshi. 'People have asked if I'm afraid I'll never see my experiments bear fruit. I used to be... because I felt that anything I did needed a result, any result, so I could face myself in the end. But I think I see the bigger picture now. A man's life may be all too short, but the road he walks is long. It isn't the destination that's the result. It's the path you follow, and the footsteps that you leave behind.'

Archive IV

In modern times, 'starvation' is a rather foreign concept to most of us. It is more than simply having to endure until the cafeteria opens for dinner because you missed lunch, or skipping a few meals for two or three days straight during a tough mission. Rather, it is the inability to obtain sufficient nutrition for a long period of time, and the pain, suffering, and despair that comes along with it. Such an experience is beyond our imagination, and the same can be said for Wanqing. However, the records of withered crops and the photos of famished crowds in his textbooks have stamped themselves into his mind's eye. He returned to the village ruins up the large river outside the city. The ruins could very well have been his 'hometown', and he knew that his biological parents, and possibly others in his family, could easily have been in one of those starving crowds in the books. They, too, had experienced suffering unlike anything he could imagine. Wanqing was a fortunate child, being set adrift in a basket along the river at the tender age of two, sent by the wind and the flowing waters to Dahuang, like a seed blown by the breeze and coming to rest in a rice paddy. Thankfully, he survived the experience. As the farmers would tell him, after several years of poor harvests, the year he floated in saw Dahuang a bumper crop. And that is the story of how Wanqing came to the city, where he spent his childhood after being taken in by the kind-hearted farmers. One day he would eat at a house on the east side of the village, the next he would eat on the west side. He would run madly on the ridges between rice paddies, pulling along his kite. He would clamber up the greenhouses and back down again. All in all, he was just like any other child born in Dahuang. He might not be great with words, but he remembers their kindness, deep in his heart. Ever since then, he's treated the day summer began that year as his birthday. And as if by divine providence, ten years since his fateful landing, he was back in that very same paddy, gathering the rice fortunate enough to break through to a new level of Originium tolerance. He brings the seeds, bred with his own hands, alongside him as he sets off once more on the endless road, sending them to every corner of Yan. Wherever the wind takes these seeds, hope sprouts.

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