Canteen System Assistance Notes

Although the reasons behind the central government's decisions are unknown, organizations at all levels still implement the collective resolutions to the letter while retaining their personal opinions.

At this moment, no one knew that this undercurrent would turn into a huge red wave sweeping across North China in the next six years.

On January 20, 1937, a date later highlighted and highlighted in countless confidential archives, at a place called Liujiatan on the banks of the Yan River, nurses and doctors from the nearby Fushe Central Hospital, following instructions from the troops, conducted a collective air raid drill. Patients, medicine, and staff were evacuated in an orderly fashion to the sound of sirens played by suona instruments, taking refuge in air-raid shelters in the mountains behind.

They didn't even have a hand-cranked air raid sirens.

Then, according to later records, there was no lightning in the sky, no loud rumbling noises from the ground, and no swirling clouds like a water dragon swept through. And after these nonexistent things vanished, there was no strange, angular, suspended structure appearing above Fushi, as if someone had carved a piece out of a photograph with a paper cutter.

Of course, there was no tall and strong man staring at his watch or looking at the sky with a serious expression.

Chapter 4: Eating is an Eternal Topic 7

Canteen System Assistance

By Forgotten Maple X

2516 words

2020-08-27 12: 00: 00

(For the sake of convenience, we will stipulate here that various units are based on the metric system and are familiar to everyone. For example, a 100g national standard steamed bun weighs 2 liang, and 1 liang refers to 50g, not 38g.)

The cafeteria made a loud noise when it landed, as if an enormous chess piece had been pressed into this unknown small grid by an invisible chess player - except that this chess piece had a concrete frame and was steadily suspended by some incomprehensible black technology. Finally, it put down its four legs and took root in this yellow earth.

Staff Officer Zuo and Liu Helian looked at each other for a few seconds, then solemnly pressed the Enter key to indicate "confirmation."

The ground shook, the optical camouflage lifted, and the frame of a massive building suddenly emerged, like a street performer's magic trick, startling everyone. Then, a large amount of mud and rubble gushed out from the ground, piling into small mounds before being transported away and disappearing one by one. Countless pipes, plates, and wires appeared out of thin air, flying into the building through various equipment shafts and ports, and automatically completing their installation. Finally, a large amount of tiles, flooring, paint, and soft furnishings and electronic devices fell into place like Lego blocks, completing the entire cafeteria system.

Liu Helian had a new map software on his computer. On a 1933 edition of the domestic map, a red flashing spot appeared on the Fushi City.

This is the first "main station" level station of the entire system.

Under the cover of the gradually darkening evening, Staff Officer Zuo and Liu He, along with a group of soldiers, filed in and began to tour the enormous structure. In the dim beams of their flashlights, the neatly arranged tables and chairs, the inoperative electrical appliances, and the ubiquitous display screens and televisions were a feast for the eyes. The comprehensive power, water, and ventilation systems were enviable. The highly automated, streamlined food production lines in the kitchen made it impossible to imagine this was just a "factory" for cooking.

Compared to Liu Helian, who was accustomed to large-scale projects and equipment, Zuo Quan was clearly in a state of profound shock at this typically magnified, even exaggerated, fully automated canteen. The canteen was still dormant; Liu Helian hadn't yet activated it to steam rice or cook. But even so, the mere hint of what it revealed was enough to send one's mind racing.

Is the world like this more than eighty years later?

"That's not entirely true, actually. I guess because they can't bring in other cooperating factories, they brought in almost all the food industry equipment, which led to such a huge scale." Liu Helian glanced at the huge equipment beside him. It was an industrial microwave oven, mainly used for heating, thawing, drying, dehydrating, and even sterilizing food. For example, it can quickly air-dry noodles and bulk thaw frozen meat. "For example, a regular cafeteria would never be equipped with this. Instead, they would hand it over to other cooperating manufacturers. After all, for the students to eat, fresh purchases are enough. A reasonable division of labor can also improve efficiency."

Division of labor and cooperation is not a new concept. Staff Officer Zuo nodded as he took notes. "A lot of this equipment is from your era. Even with the manual, we won't be able to operate it in a short time."

"That's not a worry. The cafeteria's production is almost entirely automated. From production to shipping, we're only responsible for order placement, payment, and transportation." Liu Helian operated his laptop and remotely activated some of the cafeteria's windows. "That means when it's not used as a cafeteria, we'll just need to hire extra staff."

He pulled a meal card from his pocket—it was a product of the campus card management center—and swiped it to buy a few steamed buns. He heard the clanking of food coming from the kitchen, and ten minutes later, a plate of hot staple food was delivered to the staple food window.

White and plump, emitting a little heat, the national standard steamed buns of 2 taels each are indeed a completely industrial product. Coupled with the precise operation of the ultra-high-tech canteen system, even the surface cover has not cracked. The moisture content and temperature are controlled just right. It will not get your hands dirty when you hold it, and it will not burn your mouth when you bite it, nor will it feel cold. The buns placed in the small steamer have some grease stains penetrating the skin, revealing the tempting filling - these are pieces of shaped meat!

"Come, try some." Liu Helian distributed steamed buns to the soldiers around him and randomly picked one for himself, taking a bite. The soft, salty, and fragrant taste revived his taste buds, which had not experienced such a flavor for a long time. Chemical signals traveled along his nervous system, sending the message to his brain.

"Fuck, it's quick-frozen."

After all, the cafeteria wasn't fully operational yet, so it was understandable that the dormant "small kitchen" was making do with frozen food. After secretly cursing the stupid, annoying alien, Liu Helian proceeded with his work in an orderly manner.

At present, the cafeteria system is truly just a dining system, offering a wide range of menus, from staples to fast food, American fast food, even Western cuisine, and à la carte dishes. He even saw many distinctive "cafeteria cuisines": beef ramen from a northwestern normal university, soup dumplings from Jiangnan University, stir-fried sweet corn from a southwestern university, knife-cut noodles requiring a robot noodle chef, and generous portions of sweet and sour pork. He even discovered a "devil's dish" that was popular online before his time travel: stir-fried mooncakes with tomatoes.

Secondly, some counters also functioned as kiosks, selling common packaged snacks, drinks, and even homemade food from the cafeteria. For example, Liu Helian saw the familiar "Fat House Happy Water" from before his time travel, as well as a blue version nicknamed "Toilet Cleaner." However, due to trademark infringement concerns, he considered using his authority to change the color of the wrapping paper to avoid a lawsuit from the super-powered legal department across the ocean.

However, compared to this "sweet, sweet" caramel-colored drink, Staff Officer Zuo raised an opinion: "Comrade Xiao Liu, can we buy the seasonings used in the canteen's cooking, such as salt?"

"Let me see," Liu He flipped through the list. "Yes, we have iodized salt, non-iodized salt, natural salt, oh, and sea salt granules and rock salt granules. There are quite a lot of varieties. Which one does Chief Zuo want?"

He knew that one of the future financial pillars of the border area would be the coarse salt produced in the Huama Salt Pond. These coarse salts with a slight taste of brine were considered hard currency throughout the country. After all, people cannot live without salt, and they will not have strength without salt. Back in the Soviet era, one of the blockades imposed by the reactionaries on the Red Army was edible salt.

At present, Dingbian has just been liberated and Huama Salt Pond is not yet completely under the control of the border area. If there is a supply of salt, it will naturally be of great help to the economic situation of the border area.

"Let's buy some and try this." Staff Officer Zuo pointed to the cheapest iodized salt on the list. "Comrade Xiao Liu, was the salt in your era so cheap?"

Having been given 10 million RMB in start-up capital upon landing, Liu Helian didn't have to worry about running out of money for the time being. Since the boss had asked, he had to give it a try. He tinkered with his computer and generously purchased a ton. He used the bank transfer system and had 350 RMB debited from his account.

"Back in our day, salt was affordable for everyone—so much so that many people tried to tinker with it, creating some high-end salt. Look, the rose salt and rock salt in the list...they were all made by these people."

The two chatted while waiting, but there was silence at the cafeteria window, and no bags of salt poured out.

Ok?

The two men put down their computers and carefully checked, confirming that the transaction had indeed been successful. The soldiers on guard also used flashlights to search the cafeteria areas on floors one through five, but they couldn't find any trace of salt. After all, a ton of salt was no small target; how could it just disappear?

At this moment, a soldier came running over:

"Report to the commander! A lot of sacks appeared in the basement!"

Chapter 5: More Than Just Eating

Canteen System Assistance

By Forgotten Maple X

2482 words

2020-08-28 12: 00: 00

The cafeteria has a basement.

Below the 5-story ground building, the magical futuristic civil engineering dogs laid the pile foundation, completed continuous pouring, and made the cement strength reach the acceptance standard in just over ten minutes. They also did the interior decoration and finally completed the 3-story underground structure to accommodate the part of the cafeteria that could not be arranged on the ground.

It includes a large underground garage, isolation doors and ventilation shafts built to civil air defense standards, a pump room supporting the building's water supply system and a fire control center for the firefighting system, an emergency generator to ensure normal operation in the event of a power outage, an oil storage tank built to explosion-proof standards, and a food cold storage that has not yet started operating...

And a gleaming "material recycling unloading area" - it looks like it is a place for trading: the ton of salt is quietly stacked neatly, lying on the wooden pallet.

Liu Helian took a quick look. It bore the logo of a salt company in a certain province and city, along with the words "sun-dried refined iodized salt," "pure natural and pollution-free," and "sodium chloride greater than 99%," along with a future production date. He quickly activated the purchasing system's permissions and modified the packaging. By the time the transport team, waiting outside the cafeteria, arrived with their carts, the ton of salt had been rebranded as "Neptune," a new product produced in November 1936. However, the contents were still made from modern refined salt.

Staff Officer Zuo and several soldiers had already brought out a bag of salt, cut a small hole with a knife, and carefully put some out of a bag. They sifted the salt, rubbed it with their hands, and then dipped a little into their mouths.

It's very salty, but not astringent or bitter, and there's no sand or stones in it.

It’s really the best refined salt!

The salt merchants were incredibly wealthy—this was a legend etched in the minds of almost everyone in China at the time. The stories of generations of salt smugglers and merchants stretched back to the Ming and Qing dynasties and continued to the present day. Staff Officer Zuo's face was filled with barely concealed joy. In his view, even if this enormous contraption, filled with incomprehensible equipment, could produce nothing else but this snowflake salt, it would be enough to bring about tremendous changes to the border region.

Is there anything that can't be bought back after selling a few tons of snowflake salt? Zuo Quan looked at the seven-digit balance in his account, thought about the plan decided at the previous meeting of the Central Committee, and asked Liu Helian to make another move and get a few more tons of salt.

"No, wait a moment, Chief Zuo."

Liu Helian turned his computer around and scrolled down the list. This shipment, not over the counter in the cafeteria, clearly included a wide range of legally acceptable food additives. While staple foods were still in a "gray" state, baking soda, baking soda, phosphate meat tenderizer, sodium citrate... even packaged vitamin C were available for purchase. Liu Helian pondered for a moment. Besides its pharmaceutical uses, it seemed like it could also be used as an acidity regulator and preservative in beverages, so its presence here made sense.

"Sir, should we get some alkali?"

Staff Officer Zuo felt like a nouveau riche who had walked into a huge department store. The long list of goods was full of various kinds, and the prices were not too expensive. His pocket was filled with a lot of silver dollars. The impulse deep in his soul made him want to shout out with great authority, "I want them all."

But his strong Party spirit and rationality restrained him, forcing his mind to imbue every action with the shrewdness and restraint of an old farmer at the market. After more than ten minutes of careful selection, several tons of soda ash, bulk liquor, sugar, refined salt, and cooking oil had piled up on the ground in front of the trading aperture. The floor could no longer accommodate the pallets, so the trading system created a double-layer steel shelf, upon which the pallets of goods were stacked.

A 200-man transport team was clearly insufficient, so Zuo Quan coordinated with the officers present to mobilize more personnel. Liu Helian, however, suggested that the canteen wouldn't rely solely on manual labor for daily transportation, and that some auxiliary transportation equipment must be needed. He then took two soldiers to the basement garage to search for these items. Only Staff Officer Zuo, Minister Deng, and Chief Ye of the Confidentiality Section remained at the scene of the shipment.

"Section Chief Ye," Staff Officer Zuo said, pulling out a cigarette and seeing the large "No Smoking" sign on the wall, he hesitated for a moment before stuffing the filterless cigarette back into the pack. "We are all Marxists and believe in materialist thought, right?"

Section Chief Ye was studying Liu Helianshun's bottle of Coke with great interest. Upon hearing this, he chuckled. "Staff Officer Zuo, you also thought this stuff was mysterious, but now you've seen the actual supplies. Do you feel... your worldview and outlook on life have been impacted?"

Staff Officer Zuo nodded and said, "Yes, look at these things..." He pointed to the soldiers who were sitting nearby to rest and drink water, and Minister Deng who was calculating something on a small stool, and looked up at the dense pipes and lights on the ceiling.

"I remember when I was little, my mother wove cloth in Huangmaoling. Every time she finished weaving a piece of coarse yarn cloth, I would go with her to the Qing'an shop next door to sell the cloth. If I remember correctly, that kind of coarse cloth cost about 10 yuan per piece. My mother could produce four pieces a year by herself. No one in the surrounding area could produce as much as she did." He held up four fingers and sighed.

"At that time, even the worst coarse salt, black salt, cost 0.20 yuan per jin. Four pieces of coarse cloth cost 40 yuan - converted into salt, that's only 200 jin, 100 kilograms. And then Xiao Liu just made it casually..."

At this point, he laughed again.

"You said that Comrade Xiao Liu is indeed from our future."

"I think it's true." Section Chief Ye also smiled and teased, "He can be so generous and selfless to give so many things, even the fake ones have become real."

The two men laughed and ended their short rest. Section Chief Ye rolled up his sleeves, picked up a bag of sugar and followed the soldiers out. Staff Officer Zuo and Minister Deng began further work. They put Liu Helian's big black book on the chair and began to calculate and arrange the dazzling list of goods.

As battle-hardened warriors, they knew that simply being overwhelmed by the wide variety of goods in the cafeteria system was not the right working attitude. What was important now was to further explore the "various boundaries" of this future product - how much goods could it output at most in a day, and how much supplies could we transport in a day?

The total amount of materials to be purchased is certainly limited. Before a completely balanced trade solution is found, how should the 10 million yuan in start-up capital brought by Comrade Xiao Liu be used? How should the procurement ratio be allocated to ensure that these scarce materials are used effectively without causing specialization issues?

Of course, the most important question is how to balance the outflow of funds generated from procurement. Comrade Xiao Liu reported at the beginning that purchasing things definitely costs money, and the output of the canteen system is not free aid.

The two ministers sat on the bench and began a friendly but heated exchange. As the discussion deepened, Staff Officer Zuo's brow, which had just been relaxed, began to gradually twist together again - the border area was really short of supplies. Although 10 million "RMB" was not a small number even in his time, according to Comrade Xiao Liu, it was a drop in the bucket when it came to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and the 40,000 to 50,000 Red Army soldiers who were extremely short of equipment and supplies.

How can we make good use of this system with unlimited potential?

"By the way, how long has Comrade Xiao Liu been gone? Why hasn't he come back yet?"

Minister Deng suddenly looked up and asked. At this moment, in the driveway from the second underground floor to the first underground floor, snow-white headlights suddenly lit up, and a short, fat car with a huge iron fork and only one seat drove in.

Comrade Liu Helian was sitting in the driver's seat, waving at them.

"Chief! We have a car!"

Chapter 6: Resale and Dumplings

Canteen System Assistance

By Forgotten Maple X

2575 words

2020-08-29 12: 00: 00

First, let's clarify: this flying cafeteria from another time and space doesn't appear to be a simple steel-concrete frame structure. It's more like the large, boxy flying base that appeared in the game Blind Battle 2. This is evident from the massive gun mount and radar base on the cafeteria's fifth floor—its ability to fly, and its ability to deform upon landing, rendering it incapable of further flight, also bears a strong resemblance to that structure.

However, this thing could neither produce the strongest melee units nor airdrop overly unbalanced super mules. After landing, Liu Helian found that the "sun" logo had turned black, the energy tank was empty, and the equipment that should have been on the gun mount and radar base was gone. A bunch of buildings and production interfaces turned into the long list of food in the cafeteria.

Oh, it seems that there are West Lake cuttlefish.

But this does not mean that this big thing did not leave Liu Helian with some futuristic products. The big forklift he is driving excitedly now is: after picking up the pallet and transporting two tons of baking soda away in the amazement of everyone, the big forklift turned into a small truck with a cargo bed when it came back. Liu Helian asked everyone to unload the several ground cows in the cargo bed, and then load the last few woven bags into the cargo bed so that he could take them away at once.

"Comrade Xiao Liu, what is this?"

Staff Officer Zuo and Minister Deng were completely bewildered. How had this thing, initially a powerful figure with an outstretched iron hand, transformed into a mid-sized truck? You see, the entire city of Fushe only had one truck, a coal-fired one, and it was useless due to a lack of parts, so it was used as a teaching aid in the driving school.

Where did he get these vehicles? Did he find them in the garage?

"Oh! There's no car in the garage, but there are these lifting trolleys and manual electric forklifts. Using hydraulics, one person can lift one or two tons!" Liu Helian wiped the sweat off his face and helped a soldier load sugar onto the cart. "This cart is the eDonkey I had before I traveled through time. Now, for some reason, it seems 'those people' have modified it so it can be used as a variety of vehicles. I turned it into a forklift truck and drove it over to help everyone."

After he finished speaking, Liu Helian tapped his phone in front of a dozen people. The pickup truck, like a Luban lock, began to transform, snapping and snapping, transforming from a pickup truck. "This thing doesn't even require fuel. It says to add water if fuel is low..."

Minister Deng hurriedly stopped him and said to everyone in a serious tone, "No one has seen Comrade Liu Helian drive in any car today. This matter, like the existence of the cafeteria, is top secret!"

The soldiers stood at attention, indicating that they would keep the secret strictly.

The canteen system wasn't just about food. After the soldiers finished moving the materials, Zhu, Mao, and Luo Quan arrived. Liu Helian found a few stools and brought in a table. Several leaders held a small meeting under the light bulb on the second floor underground to discuss another function of the shipping aperture.

"Resale".

According to the instructions, the value of the resold goods is calculated based on the market price. Dantingxingren will directly calculate the price of the goods according to the average price of the modern market and directly deposit the payment into the account. There are no accounts receivable or accounts in transit time, and there is no need for Liu Helian to return to the modern world to live broadcast the goods. He can directly achieve a "thrilling jump", which is quite convenient.

Before trying it, no one knows how much the things here can be sold for.

The guards who followed pushed in a cart loaded with a variety of items, ready to be dropped into the circle of light. Liu Helian fiddled with his phone, and the circle of light turned golden. The steel shelves within vanished, replaced by a massive floor scale. A television on the wall displayed prices and account balances, providing a clear overview.

He was the first to step forward and try it out. He took out various kinds of food wrapped in cloth from the wheelbarrow and threw them into the aperture.

Semolina, brown rice, red beans, corn...

Wait a minute, what's with this "pollution-free yellow millet from Shaanxi"? Why is the price almost doubled?

Minister Deng was taking notes quickly, drew a big circle on the millet and put an emphasis on it - Comrade Xiao Liu said that people in the future will not only care about having enough to eat, but also about eating well, and will pursue this kind of "pollution-free food". It seems that this millet can meet this standard.

Is there anything else that works?

Wild vegetables, goats, apples, Chinese medicinal herbs...

The prices of poor-quality vegetables and fruits were low, while the prices of Chinese medicinal herbs fluctuated wildly, ranging from high to low. However, the grass-fed goats in the border areas surprisingly fetched nearly 60 yuan per kilogram. A newly born lamb fetched even higher prices per kilogram.

It seems that this livestock farming business can be done...

Instead, the confiscated "special goods," considered hard currency during the Republic of China and held in high hopes, were rejected. A letter flashed through the aperture, informing them that, according to relevant regulations, your company is not qualified to sell restricted monopoly raw materials and cannot sell them. If this continues, the other party will call the police.

The signature is the Danting Star Space-Time Management Agency.

Everyone had no choice but to give up.

Finally, some items confiscated from the homes of some diehard landlords were put in, including mahogany furniture, antiques from the Ming and Qing dynasties... Although these items were sold at very good prices, they did not reflect the grand occasion of the "antique fever" mentioned by Comrade Liu Helian, where a vase could be sold for tens of millions.

"What's going on?" Comrade Xiao Liu himself was extremely confused. He checked the system several times but found nothing abnormal.

Finally, after the aperture had settled all the accounts for these antiques, wood, and small coins, a fax machine appeared on the scale and spit out a letter of thanks - as soon as it finished spitting out, the fax machine ran back to the aperture - the letter of thanks was jointly signed by several museums, thanking your company for donating many cultural relics of historical value, which greatly enriched our museum's collection and had the significance of filling historical gaps. At the end of the letter, it said that a certain amount of reward money had been transferred to your company's account, please check it.

"It turns out that many of them were donated to museums by the system. It seems that the antique business is not doing well..." Liu Helian stroked his chin, "It seems that we need to discuss the balance of trade..."