Chapter 181: Manager Wu’s Bewilderment
When Xiang Chuan finished her first bowl of rice, the students from other classes in the canteen had long finished their first serving of food, and the students who had filled their stomachs were starting to chatter energetically again.
Some were talking about the stir-frying in the meal boxes, some were talking about the two kinds of soup, but of course, the main focus of discussion was still on the rice.
The first-year high school students and the employees of the Staple Food Department were all looking incredulously at this white and fragrant rice, even though they had personally tasted its sweetness, they still felt it was unbelievable.
Especially the employees of the Staple Food Department; ever since Yue Xiang Group’s new food—accurately speaking, Xiang Chuan’s recipe—gradually entered the public eye, the discussions about rice and wheat could be described as full of twists and turns.
Before ancient food burst onto the scene, solid food and liquid food made from rice flour (in 21st Century terms, rice flour) and wheat flour each had their own audience, but overall, rice flour had a milder texture and was generally more popular with the public, while wheat flour’s market share had been declining since five thousand years ago.
One of the reasons previously proposed for reducing production escort ships was that the Agriculture Bureau considered canceling wheat planting and concentrating staple food crop resources on rice.
But the opening of Yue Xiang Restaurant and Xiang Xue’s live stream room completely reversed this situation.
Dough drops, noodles, baked flatbread, buns, steamed buns… all kinds of noodle products took the stage, making the gradually neglected wheat flour the center of attention, and Yue Xiang Group even directly acquired most of the wheat flour on the market. If not for market operation management laws, they probably would have contracted all the wheat flour on the market and sent it to the booming Yue Xiang Restaurant.
If Yue Xiang Group didn’t have limited exclusive authorization rights that other groups couldn’t directly obtain, the Agriculture Bureau could even be certain that this year’s wheat flour market would enter a supply-shortage situation for the first time in eight thousand years.
Yue Xiang Group now receives canteen contracting invitations from various companies or government agencies every day, to the point that the manufacturers of kitchen AI peripherals are somewhat overwhelmed. Although the dishes in the canteens contracted by Yue Xiang Group are not as varied as those in the restaurant, they are cheap and convenient, and are very popular with student groups and corporate slaves.
As a result, last month’s staple food sales volume in the Third Fleet Main Ship achieved wheat flour far exceeding rice flour for the first time.
For this reason, the Staple Food Departments of various production escort ships had to unprecedentedly start thinking about ways to increase rice flour sales, because it is said that before July, Yue Xiang Restaurant will fully expand to the twelve escort ships of the Third Fleet, and at that time, the sales gap between wheat flour and rice flour will further widen.
However, Manager Wu didn’t expect that this topic had just begun to take shape when he immediately saw the dawn of a solution.
When Manager Wu finished his first bowl of rice, he sent the full process of his meal recorded on his personal terminal to Captain Mark Bay of the Fourth Production Escort Ship, and specified that this staple food was made from rice.
After seeing the other party send him a string of exclamation marks and colons in succession, Manager Wu decisively muted the message notifications.
Manager Wu: Captain, don’t get excited yet, let me get excited first.
“Classmate Xiang Chuan, hello.”
Seeing Xiang Chuan hand the lunch box to her classmate, Manager Wu’s eyes lit up, and he immediately came to her side.
Xiang Chuan blinked her eyes and asked doubtfully, “Manager Wu, what’s wrong?”
Hearing this, her deskmates Ouyang Yating, Chou Manman, Nancy, and others all somewhat admired her obliviousness.
What else could it be! Isn’t it this white staple food! Can’t you see Manager Wu’s eyes are excited enough to shoot lasers!
Manager Wu secretly glanced at the other students at the table, and when everyone met Manager Wu’s gaze, they immediately looked away.
Everyone was a first-year high school new student with peak observation skills; after going through more than a month of ups and downs with A Bite of China Club (or rather, Xiang Chuan), they had long developed a thick skin.
Simply put: If you want to talk business, go ahead, we’ll just listen casually.
After all, the topic Manager Wu was about to discuss with Xiang Chuan might very well be an important one that would determine the staple food structure of the Third Fleet, or even all twelve fleets’ production escort ships in the future.
Moreover, they were also very interested in this staple food called “rice,” so they naturally wouldn’t miss the on-site discussion.
“Ahem.” Manager Wu looked around and saw no one leaving, his face slightly embarrassed, but he quickly adjusted with a light cough and said in a very gentle tone, “It’s nothing important, I just have some questions about this rice.”
Actually, he wanted more to keep Xiang Chuan directly in the Fourth Production Escort Ship, but with Class Eight Grade One students eyeing her covetously and Yue Xiang Group board sharpening their knives, even if the captain came it wouldn’t help, so he had to give up.
Xiang Chuan looked puzzled: “Didn’t you just watch the whole process? Rice is made just like that. If you want to ask about the principle, I don’t really understand it either; I’m just a high school student.”
The Class Eight Grade One classmates who participated in the entire cooking process: No, we do understand this.
Hearing this, Manager Wu’s mouth twitched wildly.
He had long heard from other colleagues on the main ship that the eldest daughter of Yue Xiang Group Chairman wasn’t very smart, but facing her in person was still quite speechless.
“Ahem, that’s not what I want to ask.” Manager Wu had to cough lightly again to bring the topic back. “We’re more interested in the ancient people’s style of eating staple food. Until now, these staple foods have all been made into solid food and liquid food together with other ingredients, so until recently, we thought staple food had to be cooked together with other ingredients. In the wheat flour foods your… father launched in the restaurant before, most were also cooked together with ingredients, so we always thought ancient people’s dining style was the same as modern.”
“But this rice made from rice just now… it’s called rice, right? This rice has to be processed separately from other ingredients, which gave me a big impact and also confused me. As far as I know, rice, like wheat, was one of the staple food crops with the highest consumption in ancient times. Could it be that ancient people ate rice this way too?”
As he spoke, the confusion and bewilderment on Manager Wu’s face became hard to hide, and other Staple Food Department members pretending to pass by inadvertently also nodded silently.
The cooking method of rice was too worldview-shattering for production escort ships that had long mixed rice flour with other ingredients.
How would Xiang Chuan know about the entangled mindset of the entire Staple Food Department? She asked doubtfully in return, “But isn’t rice always eaten like this?”
