Chapter 19: The Impact Of The Live Stream
Just as Xiang Chuan and Xiang Qi returned home, and Xiang Xue’s live stream was slowly progressing to the second episode, rumors in the live stream room had already quietly spread.
Those who frequently interacted with Xiang Xue were either children from families with similar conditions to hers, or children from families hoping to connect with Xiang Weiguo or Lin Minzhi. Plus, it was now the period right before the holiday ended, when children were hurrying to do homework at home, so upon hearing that Xiang Xue had come up with new things, many parents paid more or less attention.
With this attention, they naturally took a keen interest in the TV series in the live stream room and Xiang Xue’s snacks, while also not forgetting to message other relatives working at the government. One passed to ten, ten to a hundred, and in less than a morning, most of the government building knew that Director Lin’s little daughter had tinkered with new things and was eating new food.
As a result, during lunch break, Lin Minzhi was directly surrounded by her colleagues.
“Director Lin, this platform that Xiao Xue newly made is really good. It can chat with the audience and play images. This can be applied to our Cultural Affairs Bureau’s promotion work.”
“Director Lin, what is the image that your daughter is playing? The clothing looks very similar in style to the Huaxia Ancient Era clothing records collected in the Historical Research Institute.”
“Director Lin, Director Lin, is the food that Xiao Xue is eating a new product from Yue Xiang Group? When will it be sold? I want to buy some to taste too!”
“Director Lin, can our Historical Research Institute borrow your daughter’s image for research? One day… no, half a day will do!”
A series of questions left Lin Minzhi dizzy and confused. She had at least made some preparations before getting off work yesterday, but today’s incident was completely beyond her expectations. She looked at the terminal brought by a colleague whose child was in the same class as Xiang Xue. The screen showed the live stream room scene, with a large screen playing an image she had never seen, and in the lower left corner, her little daughter was eating French fries while commenting on the image.
What is this?
When did her little daughter tinker with this thing?
What is the thing on the large screen?
Did her eldest daughter find it in the information turbulence? When did it happen?
She was full of question marks, repeatedly saying she was unaware and would ask her daughter when she got home. Just fending off her colleagues took up most of the rest time, and even Lisa, who was helping her out, was exhausted. Lin Minzhi sat on the sofa in the lounge, took a sip of apple juice, and finally caught her breath.
“Lisa, can we contact Xiang Qi now?”
Lin Minzhi thought about it, and felt that asking her eldest son would be more appropriate for this matter. He had suddenly taken Xiang Chuan to register as an information turbulence contactee, probably because of that image she had just seen.
“Young Master Xiang Qi’s current status shows he is available for communication, but there are only ten minutes left until the end of lunch break. Director, are you sure you want to contact Young Master Xiang Qi now?”
“Uh… then let’s eat first.”
Lin Minzhi touched her deflated hungry stomach; she needed to eat something first to have the energy to handle the afternoon’s work.
Xiang Weiguo, who returned to the company for work today, wasn’t faring much better. Although the employees rarely approached due to his usual prestige, old friends kept sending messages to inquire, and even at the board meeting held on the last Sunday of each month, he faced a barrage of questions from other board members:
“Director Xiang, is the thing your daughter is eating our new product? Why hasn’t the product development room received any information?”
“Director Xiang, can this platform’s form be used for our product promotion?”
“Director Xiang, my wife is very interested in the image playing on this platform…”
The screen in the center of the meeting room was even projecting the terminal screen of one board member, where the little daughter was eating yam cake with relish.
He was also dumbfounded: When did this child tinker with such a thing?
But the timing was perfect. An hour ago, he had received the recipe usage authorization sent by Xiang Chuan, and he was preparing to formally announce the new product plan to the company. There was no time like the present.
“Everyone, please look at the big screen.”
Xiang Weiguo gave Xiao Ye a look, and Xiao Ye understood, projecting the product plan that Xiang Weiguo had prepared and transferred to his terminal onto the big screen.
The previously noisy meeting room instantly fell silent.
The plan that Xiang Weiguo presented was about yam cake and rice flour cake. He had specifically asked his eldest daughter for her opinion while eating.
Xiang Chuan had replied at the time: “Yam cake and rice flour cake are more suitable for commercialization. Potato wedges and French fries can only be eaten while hot. If your company, Dad, has offline restaurants, you could consider making things like egg drop soup and dough drops. To commercialize French fries, you’d have to find a way to squeeze out all the moisture from the French fries to make them crispy for long-term storage, but as for the method… I don’t really know.”
Since French fries had appeared quite suddenly, Xiang Weiguo did not include the improvement research plan for French fries, but just yam cake and rice flour cake were enough to attract the attention of the board members.
“Director Xiang, why is the shelf life of these two foods so short?”
A sharp-eyed director noticed the shelf life estimate in the plan, which was only a few days!
“This is the reference value I got based on the food I ate. Since it was made on the spot at home, my daughter said freshly made food can only be stored for a few days at most. If productized, technical modifications can extend the consumption period, but to guarantee the taste, it can probably only be stored for a few years at most.”
If Xiang Chuan were present, she would be greatly shocked to hear Xiang Weiguo’s words: Can pastry foods be stored for several years?! In the 21st century, freshly baked pastries being able to last a month was already the limit!
But in modern times, this consumption period is very short for solid food. Normal solid food has an average storage time of fifteen years, and some specially made solid food can even be stored for fifty years.
So just the storage period alone made many board members frown.
“Won’t such a new product make people question Yue Xiang Group’s technology?”
“But these two products are worth sacrificing the storage period to preserve their original flavors to the maximum extent.”
Xiang Weiguo insisted.
“Flavor?”
The directors looked at each other: Aren’t all solid foods the same taste?
Yes, modern solid food, for storage convenience, undergoes de-flavoring treatment along with moisture removal to achieve long-term storage. Solid food and liquid food that only require raw materials and minimal seasoning were technologies developed by the Ninth Fleet and Eleventh Fleet for long-term food storage during initial universe exploration, but over long periods of time, they were gradually seen as normal food by later generations, forgetting the original food culture.
“Xiao Ye, bring my meal box over.”
“Understood.”
Ten minutes later, all board members received a small piece of yam cake and a small piece of rice flour cake. They put the pastries in their mouths, their expressions either widening their eyes in amazement or closing their eyes to savor.
This solid food… is actually so soft and sweet?!
“Director Xiang, what are the other contents in your meal box…?”
A director sitting nearby leaned over, and others reacted: Right, there are other things inside.
Why is this tasting session turning into a scramble for food!
Xiang Weiguo, like facing a great enemy, had Xiao Ye quickly put away the meal box, cleared his throat: “Ahem, we are discussing yam cake and rice flour cake here. Please don’t go off topic.”
“Ah, right right, we were discussing the new product.”
“Haha, look at us getting distracted…”
The directors verbally agreed, but their eyes kept glancing at his meal box, mentally calculating whether to invite Director Xiang for lunch together after the meeting.
“Ahem, there are no issues with the raw materials for rice flour cake. The key is yam cake. We have always regarded yam as medicinal material, but now it seems it can also be used as ingredients. If we want to mass-produce yam cake, it will inevitably cause a significant price fluctuation in the medicinal materials market.”
Xiang Weiguo quickly brought the topic back and raised the biggest current issue.
“The Agriculture Bureau side is easy to handle, but this time we need to coordinate with the Health Bureau…”
“Yam is a low-end medicinal material. I remember our fleet also has a production base, right?”
“But the medicinal materials output from the production base is far less than that of ingredient crops, right?”
“It’s not impossible.” An elderly shareholder suddenly spoke up. “Just have the Agriculture Bureau and Health Bureau reclassify yam as ingredients.”
Everyone was shocked.
This was indeed the most direct method. Once classified as ingredients, yam can be planted on a large scale, stabilizing raw material prices, but…
“Can we get yam reclassified just with one yam cake?”
Everyone fell into thought.
Reclassifying a medicinal material as ingredients would not only affect the Third Fleet’s crop proportions. The Agriculture Bureau and Health Bureau’s crop classifications are universal across all fleets, which also means it would alter the agricultural patterns of other fleets.
Even if Yue Xiang Group could fully utilize the Third Fleet’s yam, it doesn’t mean other fleets would accept the classification change for yam.
“Isn’t that simple?” The elderly shareholder who proposed the idea raised an eyebrow. “Just develop more food uses for yam.”
Everyone was stunned, then suddenly understood, and all looked toward Xiang Weiguo.
Yes, as long as more food value for yam can be developed, other fleets could accept this classification change!
In the live stream just now, Director Xiang’s little daughter said these things were all tinkered with by her sister, that is, Director Xiang’s eldest daughter. Could she come up with more ways to eat yam?
Xiang Weiguo, seeing everyone’s expectant gazes, naturally understood their meaning and smiled bitterly: “Sigh, I’ll go back and ask.”
At this time, Xiang Chuan, who had returned home to her room to organize recipes, suddenly sneezed several times in a row.
