Chapter 177: Rice! Snow-white Rice!
The ones startled by Xiang Chuan’s action were not only the three from A Bite of China Club, but also the surrounding Class Eight Students, as well as Manager Wu who was secretly paying attention to the movements on Xiang Chuan’s side.
What was Xiang Chuan doing? Eating rice directly? Can this be eaten directly?
The crowd who saw this scene thoughtfully looked at the rice grain in their hands; the cautious ones observed the rice ears in their hands, while the bold ones, following the same steps as Xiang Chuan, rubbed off the husks and threw the rice inside into their mouths.
The impactful delicious taste they imagined did not appear; the somewhat hard texture of the rice really could not be called delicious.
But they couldn’t just spit it out on the spot; what if the rice paddies below got contaminated with their saliva? The crowd, who had followed Xiang Chuan as the pioneers of chewing rice, could only make the mistake worse, imitating Xiang Chuan by slowly chewing the rice in their mouths and then swallowing it down.
However, some of the more attentive ones chewed more slowly and vaguely tasted some magical flavor, but before they could savor it, these rice grains had already gone down their stomachs.
After all, there were only a few grains; what flavor could they taste?
Manager Wu glanced at Xiang Chuan, suppressed the impulse to eat rice in public, and began leading the students straight to the next stop.
He had actually tasted the dehusked rice long ago, but he really didn’t think it was any good taste.
It was just that seeing Xiang Chuan and those students’ actions, Manager Wu couldn’t help but want to follow the trend.
Now was the harvest season, so how could they miss the harvest site?
Manager Wu led the first year high school students on the floating platform to the farmland in the next area, where autumn harvest operations were underway.
Xiang Chuan saw a scene that broke through her cognition of modern technology.
The harvesters in front of her were not like those massive behemoths from the 21st Century shuttling between the fields; on the contrary, they were very small in size.
On both sides of the fields sat equipment only a little over one meter high; below the equipment was a track as long as the fields, connected by a thin line between the two pieces of equipment. They slowly followed the forward movement of the equipment, continuously cutting down the mature rice in the fields.
These rice were sucked into mid-air absorbers the instant they were cut and transported to the plaza in this area.
The machines in the plaza, upon receiving the freshly harvested rice, immediately sent them into the processing machine. When the rice came out of the processing machine, the straw and rice grain had already been separated, taking less than two minutes.
Xiang Chuan took a deep breath.
Although in the 21st Century before she transmigrated, it wasn’t impossible to thresh quickly after harvesting, but going from harvesting to threshing in just two minutes seemed to overly challenge her cognition as someone originally from a farmer family.
Manager Wu explained the operating principles of these harvesters, which Xiang Chuan listened to in a daze.
Fortunately, this segment didn’t take too much time.
Immediately after, they arrived at the factory for dehulling the rice grain.
Since it was indoors, there was no need to rely on the floating platform for movement.
When Xiang Chuan got off the platform, she almost didn’t stand steady, feeling the difference between returning from a weightless environment to a gravity environment.
Ah, this soul bound by gravity! Xiang Chuan thought in a chuunibyou way.
In the rural areas of the 21st Century, sun drying was the most important step before dehulling; even in the sunniest weather, it took two or three days to dry the rice grain.
But in the technologically advanced modern era, this time had been shortened to just a few seconds.
Xiang Chuan looked at the rice grain in front of her that had already undergone the equipment’s “drying” process and gave up thinking.
On careful thought, the escort ship under her feet was currently following the main ship in navigation at a speed utterly inconceivable from a 21st Century angle, so simulating a sun exposure environment was naturally no problem.
She followed Manager Wu and the large troop to the final section of the assembly line, and her eyes lit up instantly.
What was the thing in front of her?
Rice! White rice!
Xiang Chuan directly pressed her whole body against the corridor glass; she watched the equipment rapidly separate the grain from the husks of the rice grain delivered by the transport belt, with the white rice falling into the containers below, looking extremely tempting.
At this time, Manager Wu explained: “This is the rice after dehulling. The removed husks will be ground into powder to make feed, transported to the nature reserve or the animal husbandry department. And this dehusked rice will be ground into powder in the next workshop to make the staple food we are familiar with.”
Hardened; Xiang Chuan’s fists clenched as she listened.
Xiang Chuan looked at Manager Wu with an incredulous expression.
This white rice ground into powder? Really? Looking at this white and plump-grained rice, was there no impulse to taste it?!
At this moment, Xiang Chuan’s rationality went offline; she instantly cast aside the reasons why she shouldn’t touch white rice.
Even though the rice noodles back home were made from rice paste and rice flour, that didn’t mean she could watch these premium rice be wantonly wasted by being ground into powder.
At a speed that Ouyang Yating and the others behind her couldn’t react to, she rushed to the front of the group, raised her arm high, and loudly asked:
“Manager Wu! Can I use some of this dehusked rice!”
Everyone stared dumbfounded at Xiang Chuan who had rushed out of the group; Manager Wu was the first to react, his eyes lighting up: There’s a chance!
He stepped forward, patted Xiang Chuan’s shoulder, and with a kind smile said: “Of course you can, Classmate Xiang Chuan, use as much as you want. Do you need any equipment or materials? We have the most crops and seasoning here; we can prepare the freshest and highest quality ingredients for you…”
As he spoke, as if afraid Xiang Chuan would change her mind midway, he directly put his arm around her shoulder and led her towards the canteen.
Why the canteen? Just ask, which high-level Department of Agriculture official doesn’t know that the eldest daughter of the Xiang Family from Yue Xiang Group is most enthusiastic about tinkering with ancient food; her sudden whims and impulsive actions are 99% related to food.
Following closely behind were the Class Eight Students with gleaming eyes; the moment they saw Xiang Chuan step out, they instantly understood: their class’s head chef was about to make something big again!
The three from A Bite of China Club in Class Eight Grade One were either holding their foreheads in pain or showing bitter smiles; their club president’s sudden whims were always so abrupt. Whether they wanted to stop her or cooperate with the president, they would always be a step slow.
Students from other classes saw the manager and the Class Eight people heading grandly towards the canteen, exchanging glances with each other, and also followed closely behind.
After all, they had heard about this legendary Ancient Gourmet Club president from Class Eight Grade One; if they could witness the birth of new ancient gourmet food, it would absolutely be worth the trip!
In fact, by the time Manager Wu had his arm around her shoulder halfway there, Xiang Chuan’s rationality had somewhat recovered.
To say she didn’t regret it was impossible; she was now strongly praying in her heart that this group of gluttons from Class Eight wouldn’t think of soy sauce afterwards.
However, when they reached the canteen kitchen door and Xiang Chuan saw the white rice delivered by the transport robot, the regret in her heart faded a bit.
Forget it; what could compare to freshly dehusked rice?
