Chapter 153 – Cooking Mung Bean Puree

Factory Director Hu took the opportunity to step out briefly and soon returned, a look of barely contained joy on his face.

“Old Hu, how did it go?” The factory committee knew exactly what Factory Director Hu had gone to check on. Judging from his expression, they could already guess the result, but still wanted confirmation.

Factory Director Hu smiled and said, “Four or five years ago, a company in Japan invented the electric rice cooker. It was indeed a popular product. However, the rice cooker with a heat preservation function only came out this year.

In other words, the electric rice cooker that our comrade Zhou Yimin invented has already reached the international advanced standard.”

As soon as the factory committee and other leaders heard this, they all began clapping enthusiastically, everyone turning their eyes toward Zhou Yimin.

Zhou Yimin deliberately looked confused and asked, “So they only released a rice cooker with a heat preservation function this year?”

“That’s right! I’ve already confirmed it with the comrades from the Foreign Trade Department. There’s no mistake.”

Zhou Yimin continued, “Then what we need to do is optimize the appearance of our rice cooker. Under the same performance conditions, if we want to gain an advantage, we need to put in work on appearance and quality.

Of course, price is also a major factor.”

“Comrade Zhou Yimin is absolutely right! Our comrades still have to work hard,” said the committee member encouragingly.

Next, they began working on setting up a specialized production line and workshop.

Many people had just watched the rice cooker being made, and it was indeed not a very complicated product. Their steel factory was more than capable of designing the necessary machinery in-house, building the production line, and establishing the workshop.

“For now, the most important thing is to produce a batch of finished products and take them out for testing the waters,” said Factory Director Hu.

As for where to test them, they had already made up their minds—it had to be Hong Kong! Currently, the place in the country closest to the international market was Hong Kong.

Zhou Yimin didn’t get involved in what came after.

Team Lead Wang took him to collect diesel fuel.

With the note Director Ding had given him, Zhou Yimin didn’t even need to pay out of pocket. He easily got two barrels of diesel from the logistics warehouse.

“If it’s not enough, just tell Dazhong to come back and let me know,” said Team Lead Wang.

In his heart, he was still very grateful to Zhou Yimin. Because he knew, if not for Zhou Yimin, he wouldn’t have had any chance at all in the competition for Section Chief this time.

In terms of seniority, others were more experienced; in terms of ability, others were more capable; in terms of background, connections, and influence, others outmatched him.

His biggest advantage was Zhou Yimin.

The factory leadership clearly intended to promote Zhou Yimin, which meant someone had to vacate a position. Otherwise, could he just jump straight into the Section Chief role? Not that it was impossible—special talent often meant special treatment. But ideally, it should be step by step.

“Alright!” Zhou Yimin didn’t bother being polite.

He took the two barrels of diesel and went back to Zhoujia Village, not even stopping by his own courtyard home.

When Zhou Yimin returned to Zhoujia Village, he saw the villagers in full swing expanding the road. In some areas, they had slightly encroached on farmland, but hadn’t damaged any wheat that was about to be harvested.

To compact the road, someone had even sourced a large stone roller, and an old ox was dragging it back and forth across the road.

Everyone was thrilled when they saw Zhou Yimin bring back diesel.

This meant that a tractor could help haul coal slag to pave the road. That would make their village road much better than those outside.

“So much?” The old party secretary was a little surprised.

Could the money he gave Zhou Yimin buy this much? He suspected that Zhou Yimin had chipped in some of his own money.

Zhou Yimin said, “If there’s extra, just send it to my house.”

That actually put the old secretary at ease, and he nodded. “No problem!”

Before long, a tractor entered the village carrying a full load of coal slag. Since the road was being built from the inside out, the tractor unloaded the slag at the far end of the village road.

“Master Chen, come have a smoke,” the team leader greeted him.

The tractor driver laughed, “Your village really has guts, using coal slag to build roads.”

Coal slag didn’t cost much. Just give the people at the brick factory a few local specialties, offer some benefits, and they’d let you haul it away.

Zhou Zhiming was familiar with the brick factory folks. He brought two sacks of potatoes and two sacks of sweet potatoes from the village to negotiate, and got their permission easily.

“No choice! Our village roads are terrible. If we don’t fix them, even riding bikes will be tough in the future.”

The tractor driver chuckled and didn’t argue. Saying it’d be hard to even ride bikes was a bit of an exaggeration—don’t underestimate bicycles.

After finishing his cigarette, he refueled and added water to the tractor, then continued hauling more slag. Even though the road from Zhoujia Village wasn’t long, it still needed quite a lot of coal slag.

Thankfully, the brick factory had plenty of coal slag piled up and left untouched for a while—otherwise, it wouldn’t have been enough.

Zhou Yimin also brought his farming tools to help out.

The old party secretary and others immediately stopped him. “Yimin, don’t bother. If you’ve got time, go check on the mushroom house to make sure nothing’s gone wrong. We can handle things here.”

If they really let Zhou Yimin work and he accidentally got a blister, wouldn’t his grandfather scold them all into next week? Even the old secretary wouldn’t be spared.

And no doubt about it—Zhou Yimin’s grandfather was fully capable of cursing out the entire village.

Besides, someone like Zhou Yimin, who wasn’t used to hard labor, would easily get blisters. Unlike them, whose hands had already developed thick calluses and were no longer afraid.

One look at Zhou Yimin’s hands and it was obvious—he wasn’t cut out for heavy labor. His hands were even more delicate than the girls’ in their village.

Plus, Zhou Yimin had already gotten them diesel—asking him to do labor on top of that just didn’t sit right.

“Alright then!” Zhou Yimin had no choice but to change course and head toward the mushroom house.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as he walked away.

When Zhou Yimin arrived at the mushroom house, he saw the women working efficiently and skillfully. He immediately felt like his presence was redundant.

Forget it, might as well head home!

Back at home, he decided to make a pot of mung bean soup. He was craving mung bean puree from his past life.

He’d previously bought mung beans for just one yuan, so he took some and washed them thoroughly.

Lai Cai was still playing the role of his little fire-stoking assistant.

After washing, Zhou Yimin added clean water and cooked the mung beans over high heat until they were about 60% done. He let them cool slightly, then rubbed them through a bamboo sieve to remove the skins, put them back in the pot, added water, and simmered on low heat until the beans were soft. Then, he used a cloth bag to filter out the puree, brought it to a boil, and finally added sugar to finish it.

The mung bean puree had a light green hue, looked pleasant, had a soft and sweet taste, and gave a cooling sensation—especially suitable for cold drinks.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t just magically produce ice.

That was a real shame. Without crushed ice, the texture and experience of mung bean puree just weren’t the same.

At this point in time, although refrigerators and freezers did exist in the country—the steel factory even had several—it was quite difficult for individuals to own one.

Looks like next time he wanted ice, he’d have to bring it back from the city.

Or maybe, come winter, he could learn from the ancients and store ice the old-fashioned way.

(End of chapter)