Chapter 220: Rejecting The Meat Processing Plant
After waiting for almost five minutes, Chief Steward An Jing arrived in front of Xiang Chuan and the others with a medium-sized transport robot. The transport robot was carrying a pig locked in a cage, and it was now leisurely lying inside with its eyes narrowed.
“We gave it a sedative; it won’t wake up for less than six hours.” Chief Steward An Jing patted the glass-textured cage. “Classmate Xiang Chuan, do we need to help you send this pig to the meat processing plant for edible processing?”
“Huh? What’s the difference between this and sending it with the previous batch of pigs?”
Then she saw Ouyang Yating and Ainuo standing beside her giving her the idiot look they hadn’t seen in the past two days, and Liang Gong standing behind Ainuo also had a helpless expression.
“Didn’t we hear Aksim General Manager say it at the cattle farm just now?” Ainuo couldn’t help but say.
“Did, did we?”
Xiang Chuan began to use her pitiful brain cells to recall the scene of the cattle farm visit just now, but no matter how she recalled, her mind only had Aksim General Manager’s oppressive smile when assigning her the commission.
As for what Aksim General Manager explained during the visit? Sorry, it wasn’t recorded by her brain cells at all.
Seeing Xiang Chuan, who had rarely maintained the top student image for the past two days, almost reverting to her original form, Ainuo and Ouyang Yating could only sigh lightly and begin to explain it to her slowly.
Simply put, the meat processing plant also handles feed production for the nature reserve and the animal husbandry production department. Qualified chickens and cattle are sent directly to the edible processing department of the meat processing plant, and after a series of processing, they are transported to the markets of various escort ships and the main ship, or supplied to processing groups that have signed cooperation agreements with the production escort ship. Pigs, substandard cattle, and chickens are transported to the farming and processing department and processed together with other ingredients into feed for animals or livestock.
Xiang Chuan dry laughed twice after hearing this. Close call; she almost turned the rare castrated pig into ancient rations—no, it should be more nutritious than ancient rations, right?
But she still had a question: “What exactly does edible processing entail for these meats?”
Chief Steward An Jing took over: “Pork processing is similar to beef; basically, excess hair, skin, fat, and internal organs are removed, and after sterilization and preservation treatment, they can be packaged for transportation.”
Xiang Chuan showed no reaction on her face when hearing about hair and skin, but when she heard that fat and internal organs would also be processed away, her expression changed instantly: “Wait, you mean all the pig’s fat and internal organs are to be removed? Is the edible processing for cattle the same process?”
“Yeah, that’s normal.” Ainuo opened the light screen of her personal terminal and sent her the introduction text on fat processing at the meat processing plant. “From a medical and health perspective, excessive fat intake is harmful to the human body, so this step is done in advance during edible processing.”
Hearing this, Xiang Chuan felt dizzy and took several deep breaths to hold back from shouting out loud on the spot.
So luxurious! So wasteful!
Lard and beef tallow are so fragrant! That’s rare high-quality animal oil! And yet… they just throw it away like that! Throw it away!!
Thinking of how her morning obsession with deep frying and stir-frying almost slipped away, Xiang Chuan shivered and decisively said:
“Chief Steward An Jing, thank you for your kindness, but from what you just said, the meat processing plant’s processing method doesn’t suit the pork processing method pursued by the ancient gourmet club, so we’ll do it ourselves.”
“Ancient pork processing method?” Chief Steward An Jing’s eyes lit up instantly.
“We’ll do it ourselves… hands-on?” Ouyang Yating and the other two’s gazes switched back and forth between the pig in the transport robot’s cage and Xiang Chuan; the expressions on their faces gradually shifted from confusion to panic.
“Xiang Chuan, club president, what do you mean by that…?” Liang Gong hesitated and spoke up.
“Do I even need to say it?” Xiang Chuan blinked at the three of them, a sly smile on her face. “Of course we’re all going to slaughter the pig together.”
——
Ouyang Yating and the other two no longer remembered how they got back to the group.
All the first-year high school students, including Class Eight, were looking at the transport robot beside Xiang Chuan, and everyone’s gaze toward Xiang Chuan was filled with confusion and doubt.
Normally, according to the “process” of the first and second days of the visit, this ancient gourmet club president of Class Eight Grade One would come up with something new, which in their eyes was just daily routine; it would be shocking if Xiang Chuan didn’t stir up something. (Xiang Chuan: Are you being polite?)
During the just-ended free activity time, everyone’s chat topics, besides the cattle farm and chicken farm visit projects, also included guessing what agricultural product Xiang Chuan would use to start this time. Some thought the great way is the simplest, and Xiang Chuan would start with classic ingredients like beef and chicken; others thought she would take the unusual path like yesterday and continue developing new uses for milk and eggs.
But no one thought it would be about pigs.
This left everyone unsure of what expression to make.
Xiang Chuan herself was unaware of these boring twists in her classmates’ minds. After returning to the assembly point, she headed straight to where Aksim General Manager was.
Aksim General Manager naturally saw the transport robot and the cage on the robot transport platform. Even Aksim General Manager, who had been unflappable all morning, couldn’t help but be stunned for a few seconds upon seeing that pig.
“General Manager, I, Ouyang Yating, Ainuo, and Liang Gong would like to request leave for the afternoon and apply to use some equipment.” Xiang Chuan said as she opened her light screen.
Before receiving the assembly notice, Xiang Chuan had searched Geegle for the entire pig slaughter process and compiled a list of possibly useful equipment based on the text and video materials. When Chief Steward An Jing saw the equipment list she made, he immediately saw through Xiang Chuan’s intention and gave her some advice, optimizing some unnecessary equipment.
Aksim General Manager glanced at the equipment list Xiang Chuan sent; having long been immersed in animal husbandry, she could naturally see the uses of some equipment, but…
“Classmate Xiang Chuan, if I’m not mistaken, you’re applying for this equipment to perform edible processing on the pig, right?” Aksim General Manager asked. “These tools are for cleaning, cutting, and such, similar to the meat processing plant’s uses, so why not hand it over to the meat processing plant?”
As expected of the head of animal husbandry; the questions are all the same. Xiang Chuan complained inwardly, but explained obediently on the surface: “That’s because I learned from Chief Steward An Jing about the meat processing plant’s pig slaughter… oh, no, edible processing process. Those process steps differ somewhat from the ancient pork processing steps I know, so I plan to do it hands-on with my club members… personally perform the edible processing.”
Edible processing—what a sci-fi term. Why not just say slaughter pigs, cattle, and chickens? Xiang Chuan, who had almost bitten her tongue several times, silently complained in her heart.
“You met Chief Steward An Jing?”
Aksim General Manager widened her eyes, but she seemed to vaguely recall during breakfast that other cadres from the Fourth Production Escort Ship mentioned Chief Steward An Jing would inspect the substandard pig screening at the pig farm today.
She didn’t expect him to run into Xiang Chuan and these students.
Moreover, ancient pork processing steps… Aksim General Manager’s eyes flickered.
Although she focused today on expanding cattle and chicken varieties, she and An Jing were both department managers of the animal husbandry department. The pig farm was a headache for all production escort ships’ animal husbandry production departments and an urgent problem to solve. Aksim General Manager had originally planned to take Xiang Chuan and the others to the pig farm in the afternoon, but unexpectedly, they had coincidentally connected with Chief Steward An Jing.
No head of animal husbandry could refuse ancient food processing methods.
Aksim General Manager hesitated not at all; she directly took out her electronic signature pen and signed her name on Xiang Chuan’s light screen.
At the end, she didn’t forget to remind: “Classmate Xiang Chuan, this is your first time actually performing edible processing, right? Do you need me to find some technical personnel to assist you?”
Xiang Chuan’s eyes lit up. Although the club had Ainuo, the electronic little genius who could handle most equipment operations, she needed Ainuo to assist; operating equipment and slaughtering the pig simultaneously would definitely stretch Ainuo thin. Having professional assistance would naturally be better.
She was about to agree when a voice sounded from behind:
“Aksim General Manager, thank you for your kindness, but we can actually go assist Xiang Chuan too, right, Xiang Chuan?”
Xiang Chuan turned her head and saw a large group from Class Eight Grade One standing beside her at some point, with the smiling class president Lu Daiqing and nominal vice class president Nancy standing on either side of her. Whether it was an illusion or not, Xiang Chuan seemed to read the big words “fun,” “want to play,” and “love to play” on their faces.
“…Can you guys handle it?” Xiang Chuan asked uneasily.
“You’re also doing edible processing for the first time; everyone’s first time. No reason you can do it and we can’t, right?”
Cultural committee member Mandy laughed heartily and patted Xiang Chuan’s shoulder, nearly making her lose balance.
Seeing Class Eight Grade One gradually getting excited about the hands-on pig slaughter preparation and the envious looks from surrounding classes toward them, Xiang Chuan couldn’t bring herself to refuse.
Xiang Chuan: …Fine, whatever. At least she could find suckers to help clean the pork large intestine.
