Chapter 214: Aksim General Manager’s Gains
Facts proved that Liang Gong had not deceived Xiang Chuan after all. At least on the day of the visit to the Animal Husbandry Production Department, Aksim General Manager did not show such overtly enthusiastic behavior toward Xiang Chuan in front of people like Manager Hill and Manager Wu did.
This instead first let the other students breathe a sigh of relief. After all, this was at least a visit activity for the Production Escort Ship. If they kept being led astray by the person in charge to recipes for agricultural products, they might as well just go directly to the A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant to listen to Xiang Chuan teach her club members. Although for the sake of being able to eat some novel and delicious ancient food every day, everyone had no complaints about Xiang Chuan, but if for three consecutive days everything revolved around the central question of whether Xiang Chuan could come up with new recipe information for agricultural products, then some students might really go discontentedly complain to Captain Mark Bay.
It had to be said that Aksim General Manager’s current impartial attitude hit right in the students’ strike zone. As a result, all the first-year high school students, including the Class Eight Students, were very satisfied with the morning visit activity on the third day.
Except for Xiang Chuan.
——
Xiang Chuan did not feel happy for even a moment about finally escaping Manager Hill’s entanglement on the third day, because the person in charge for the third day, Aksim General Manager, arrived right after.
At first, Xiang Chuan was also deceived by Aksim General Manager’s clear distinction between public and private matters, relaxing her vigilance all at once and attentively starting to listen to the introduction about the cattle farm.
The Animal Husbandry Production Department of the Production Escort Ship mainly supplied the main ship with agricultural products of chicken, beef, and a very small amount of pork, so on the surface it seemed the escort ship’s animal husbandry was relatively monotonous, but due to the existence of by-products, it had characteristics different from the Staple Food Crop Production Department.
The cattle farm mainly raised two kinds of cattle: dairy cows and beef cattle. According to the introduction from the Animal Husbandry Production Department, the dairy cows and beef cattle raised on the production escort ships of the major fleets were the best breeds of cattle carefully selected by Common Era agriculturalists during the early stage of the fleet’s construction.
Upon hearing this sentence, Xiang Chuan immediately realized what breed the beef cattle were. She was then somewhat carried away by unexpectedly escaping the headache of “still being chased by the manager on the third day asking about recipes,” and didn’t notice Aksim General Manager’s profound gaze, so her inner thoughts slipped out:
“Since it’s the best beef, this must definitely be District 11’s Wagyu, right? That meat is indeed very delicious, but it’s a pity there’s no more Huaxia’s yellow cattle; that meat is also exceptional for stewing or barbecuing.”
As Xiang Chuan spoke, her mind flashed to the yellow cattle beef that cost nearly four figures, which she had the fortune to eat with her supervisor and a client during her corporate slave days, and she nearly drooled in reminiscence.
At that moment, Xiang Chuan noticed that Aksim General Manager had somehow stood in front of her, holding her right hand with both hands, that pretty face which was extremely similar to Liang Gong’s but more feminine staring at her with a look of expectation.
Oh no. Xiang Chuan then realized what she had just said.
How could she have forgotten? For the modern Agriculture Bureau, excavating, recreating, and cultivating more edible species was the most eye-catching topic right now as ancient food culture began to gradually revive.
——
From Xiang Chuan’s initial “discovery” of yam’s edibility, to later ginger, garlic, pepper, beans—every time a new ingredient that could be commonly used in dishes and food processing appeared, it was no less than an industry earthquake for the three major industries of the production departments.
The three departments therefore all enjoyed the treatment of new crops being listed as edible and allowed for large-scale planting: beans for the Staple Food Crop Production Department, wild vegetables, ginger, garlic, yam for the Vegetable Crops Production Department, river fresh for the Animal Husbandry Production Department. At the same time, due to the influence of the field training live stream and Yue Xiang Restaurant, these emerging agricultural products all received great attention. Every time the Agriculture Bureau or various media released the latest developments in the three major industries, it would spark heated discussions among Third Fleet residents on SNS.
This made the three departments feel both pain and joy: joy because their previously overlooked agriculture finally had a day of becoming a social focus, pain because the stars of this hot discussion—the emerging agricultural products—would at least have to wait until next year to be provided on a large scale to the main ship’s and various escort ships’ markets.
It was also at this time that the three departments of the Fourth Production Escort Ship suddenly received news: their Third Fleet’s information turbulence contactee, Xiang Chuan, had made a completely new staple food using incompletely processed rice in the First Canteen.
After eating a bowl of white rice, the supervisors of the three departments all simultaneously thought of a new breakthrough: have Xiang Chuan help improve the uses of existing ingredients to make more “white rice.”
This was why on the second day, Manager Hill introduced various crops to Xiang Chuan in such detail, and reacted so intensely upon learning that lettuce and other vegetables could be eaten raw.
Aksim General Manager had the same idea today, but she was not from the Fourth Production Escort Ship after all. As someone from the Second Production Escort Ship, which cared more about horizontally expanding the types of agricultural products rather than vertically expanding uses, she naturally cared more about richer ingredient sources.
Would the Agriculture Bureau not have the full academic names of the production escort ships’ dairy cows and beef cattle? Not at all, because after the Common Era agriculturalists selected the two kinds of cattle back then, they had always recorded the names of these two kinds of cattle in the Agriculture Bureau’s most confidential archives, and the Agriculture Bureau did not restrict local residents from viewing this archive, so this was considered a public secret.
The reason Aksim General Manager did not directly state the academic names of the dairy cows and beef cattle raised on the production escort ship was to try to dig out more edible beef cattle and dairy cow breeds from Xiang Chuan. What surprised her was that her son’s club leader was even easier to fool… ahem, even more innocent than he had described in the video call. She had only mentioned the best quality beef cattle, and the unguarded Xiang Chuan blurted out a name of beef cattle that had never stopped.
This made the usually steady Aksim General Manager unable to hold back and rush forward to grasp Xiang Chuan’s hands, leading to that moment when Xiang Chuan was sweating profusely.
——
Fortunately, after much entanglement, Aksim General Manager gave up the intention of dragging Xiang Chuan to a small corner for a “detailed discussion” on the spot, and instead gripped her hands tightly, saying:
“Classmate Xiang Chuan, if it’s convenient, could you please compile a document with all the beef cattle and dairy cow breeds you know afterward and give it to us?”
Seeing the face so similar to Liang Gong’s show a pleading expression, Xiang Chuan couldn’t harden her heart to refuse, and almost immediately nodded.
Upon receiving Xiang Chuan’s promise, Aksim General Manager revealed a kindly smile. She gently patted Xiang Chuan’s shoulder, then casually walked back to the front of the group and continued introducing the equipment for raising beef cattle to the first-year high school students.
Watching Aksim General Manager walk away, Xiang Chuan finally breathed a sigh of relief, but thinking about how that one nod had just taken on a new task for herself gave her a miserable feeling like during her corporate slave days when, every week during character design standings, her superior would glance at her with a “loving” look and instantly pile up mountains of work.
She had already been a lay-win second generation rich in this lifetime, so please don’t make her bathe in such gazes anymore, okay!
——
Then, in the next hour, the tasks on Xiang Chuan’s shoulders added, besides compiling beef cattle and dairy cows, also compiling edible poultry besides chicken.
When it reached ten-thirty and Aksim General Manager announced with a beaming smile that it was rest time, Xiang Chuan still hadn’t recovered from the shock of “why is the work increasing.”
She subconsciously glanced at Liang Gong, who had been silent the whole way. Seeing their club president’s gradually hollow gaze, Liang Gong uncomfortably turned his head away.
In the end, he didn’t forget to comfort: “Club President, don’t worry, I’ll help you.”
Xiang Chuan: ?
Xiang Chuan: No, didn’t you even consider stopping your mother from assigning me tasks the whole way?
She also incidentally glanced at Ouyang Yating and Ainuo. When their gazes met Xiang Chuan’s probing look, both uncomfortably turned their heads away like Liang Gong.
Ainuo: “……I’ll help too.”
Ouyang Yating: “……It’s fine, four people doing it together will be quick. We can call Man Man and Nancy to join.”
Could they say that they had gotten hungry listening to Xiang Chuan talk about roast duck and roast goose just now, so selfishly didn’t stop Aksim General Manager, hoping to promote large-scale breeding of geese and ducks?
Xiang Chuan: Heh.
