Chapter 188: The Annoying Authorization Process
Under Ainuo’s relentless attempts to block and snatch, Xiang Chuan finally managed to defend her precious lunch with the (really couldn’t bear to watch) assistance from Ouyang Yating and Nancy.
Ainuo’s covetous eyeing of Xiang Chuan’s fried rice was actually quite understandable.
At noon, when Xiang Chuan instructed the kitchen AI to prepare white rice, she subconsciously prepared based on the amount students consumed at lunch. Almost two bowls per person at noon, which seemed more than enough no matter how you thought about it.
But she only realized when she saw the students actually serving rice that the lunch portions were calculated with side dishes, while the fried rice for dinner had soup as the only side dish. Even though Xiang Chuan later had the kitchen AI add more ingredients to the soup, it still wasn’t enough to make up for the shortage of side dishes.
Thus, in the students’ eyes, this fried rice became both rice and vegetable, and since Xiang Chuan made several kinds all at once, it stimulated the students to want another serving right after finishing one, leading to the situation of too many monks and too little porridge once again.
Xiang Chuan originally thought: with modern food processing technology that’s almost equivalent to magic, having the kitchen AI prepare a portion of white rice on the spot for immediate fried rice shouldn’t be a problem.
After all, just last week she saw in the classroom teaching video material the magical moment when milk instantly turned into milk powder.
Xiang·already accustomed to being treated like a clueless dumb kid by her own club members·Chuan thought for a moment, then decisively threw the question to her own club members.
Hearing this question, Ainuo and Ouyang Yating unsurprisingly looked at their club president with the eyes one would use for a kindergarten kid lacking common sense.
Ouyang Yating sighed and said, “President, from the white rice you just prepared, the fried rice needs dry and hard pre-steamed white rice, right? Indeed, preparing this ingredient isn’t difficult for the kitchen AI equipped in this canteen. Cooling and dehydration are very basic food processing steps. But the degree of cooling and dehydration needed for the white rice required for fried rice, how to coordinate with your previous cooking operations to prepare other ingredients on this basis, post-cooking preservation handling, and so on—these all require layered audits and re-arranging of production steps.”
“If it were like lunch, directly using fresh ingredients for cooking, it could greatly shorten these processes, but the fried rice everyone wants to eat now requires just-processed ingredients, which is somewhat overstepping authority for this canteen’s kitchen AI—even if it’s just light processing.”
Modern people are really troublesome. Xiang Chuan thought to herself, then continued asking, “But I didn’t encounter this issue at home or in the club kitchen? The dough we use for buns and noodles is also a product of fermentation processing, isn’t it?”
Ainuo took over the topic, pointing at Xiang Chuan with a spoon, and said, “That’s because whether it’s your home or our club, we’re using kitchen AIs that can connect to the highest permissions, and as the property rights owner, you can directly skip the audit steps and authorize the kitchen AI to use these processed ingredients. The government canteen on the production escort ship, although also under government industry, involves technical support and ingredient supply from various departments of the escort ship for the kitchen AI. To get authorization to use your recipe, it would require that A Dan captain to convene a joint meeting of all departments.”
Wow… so troublesome.
Xiang Chuan listened to all these twists and turns, and the sparkle in her eyes was almost gone.
Previously, in games or animations where the protagonist enters a sci-fi near-future style city, they often encountered robots or AIs reminding the protagonist of needing this or that permission.
Xiang Chuan thought preparing an application for the information turbulence processing office every time she made a new dish was already troublesome enough, but she didn’t expect enjoying modern technology benefits outside involved so many intricacies.
It’d really be better to have the gluttons from her own class—who are adept at preparing ingredients but turn into demons the moment cooking starts—prepare the ingredients, find the person in charge to apply for an open space, and have everyone light a fire for a barbecue.
At that moment, Xiang Chuan’s personal terminal suddenly received a video call request.
If she hadn’t seen the caller’s name at a glance, Xiang Chuan would have instinctively hung up. In her previous life, such inexplicable call requests were mostly weird sales calls, and she encountered them so often as a corporate slave that it became muscle memory.
Pressing the call button, the light screen unfolded in front of Xiang Chuan, showing Xiang Xue’s cute little face and Lin Ming behind her on the screen.
[Good evening, sister~ Have you had dinner? Hehe.]
Xiang Xue smugly shook the steak bun in her hand.
“We’re eating it right now. Xiao Xue, if you eat buns now, will you still have room for rice later?”
Xiang Chuan raised an eyebrow, saying this while taking two sips of soup.
Her own sister loved to show off and gloat, so calling now was probably because the production escort ship hadn’t gotten authorization from Yue Xiang Restaurant yet, so her sister had to munch on solid food with the escort ship people and eat those liquid foods full of fishy smell.
[Hehe, I had PE class this afternoon and burned a lot of calories, I’m starving now, just waiting for the beef noodles and roasted chicken Xiao Chu will serve later.]
At this time, Lin Ming behind her suddenly spoke up: [But didn’t you mostly sit on the sidelines drinking juice during PE class? I was the one burning calories, right?]
[Don’t interrupt, Lin Ming, and I was cheering you on back then, cheering takes energy too!]
[You call that cheering? Just shouting two or three sentences…]
[Enough, keep talking and there won’t be any roasted chicken for you later!]
At this moment, the spoon with fried rice in Xiang Chuan’s hand suddenly stopped in mid-air, and she looked at the screen in confusion, asking:
“Wait, where did you get roasted chicken from? Don’t tell me you used the one at school? Is the principal that generous?”
Xiang Chuan was already starting to calculate whether to charge rent next time. Making money means clear accounts even with relatives and friends; she could give family a 20-30% discount at most.
Hearing this, Xiang Xue showed a smug smile again and said:
[Hehe, actually Dad built a roaster for home too, right in the yard, and he even connected Xiao Chu’s port to the roaster, way more convenient than your manual one.]
Xiang Chuan recalled seeing some familiar building materials piled in the yard when she left in the morning, but the Xiang Family Mansion wasn’t small, and they sometimes did irregular maintenance, so she hadn’t paid attention then.
In the end, Xiang Weiguo had now backstabbed her. Thinking of this, Xiang Chuan’s mouth twitched.
No matter how much she begged Xiang Weiguo back then, he wouldn’t apply for an electric oven for her, but now less than a week after the roaster was built, he copied it for home and even automated it!
You know, until yesterday afternoon, their A Bite of China Club was still braving the heat waves practicing how to make qualified roasted beef and roasted chicken!
Xiang Chuan was already planning how to swindle some money from her old man when she got back.
The same level of kitchen AI exists in the A Bite of China Club kitchen too, and if it can be connected outdoors, her next practice of baked bread and such would be much more convenient. As for the connection fees, hehe.
At the same time, Xiang Weiguo, who was looking at news on his terminal at the dining table in the Xiang Family Mansion, suddenly shivered.
At this point, he still didn’t know he would be ruthlessly fleeced by his own filial daughter soon.
Xiang Weiguo’s pocket money, in danger!
