Canteen System Assistance Notes

It’s just that the “dumpling trick” demonstrated by Comrade Xiao Liu earlier was too scary, which left Minister Deng with some psychological trauma. He shuddered a little when he saw the legal tender with a lot of black words on the account book.

"This year's goal of collecting 10,000 dan of national grain has been exceeded... There's even an additional levy of nearly 8,000 dan, or about 500 tons—all of which is considered 'fine grain' according to the previous standards."

Shaking his head to dispel these worries, Minister Deng glanced at the next piece of good news. Honestly, this data was already largely known during last year's autumn harvest, and now it refers to the actual amount of grain collected and stored. So, not counting the grain purchased, this year's total grain harvest was approximately 1,100 tons. Because it was military rations, it primarily consisted of wheat, millet, and broomcorn millet—and now it seemed like it was clearly "under-harvested."

In this way, the "Eastern Expedition Grain" borrowed from the peasant comrades in 36 should be able to be repaid. At the same time, with such a good reputation guarantee, the border region will have a better social foundation for promoting its own "Guanghua Currency" and "Discounted Bonds".

The steel plant was able to go into production in 38. The physical bonds designed by Comrade Xiao Liu and Chen Daguanjia, which can be exchanged for corn, snowflake salt, soda ash and "American palm oil", are indeed a very innovative monetary tool.

In the future, as our output increases, discounted bonds can be exchanged for more products, hmm...

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While he was thinking, the left staff officer across the table suddenly let out a long "Huh". He frowned and even half stood up, staring at the thing in his hand in disbelief. After a while, he muttered and sat down on the chair.

"Staff Officer Zuo, what's wrong?"

"Oh, I'm looking at the cafeteria's accounts. Minister Deng has a rough idea of ​​our surplus from last year." Staff Officer Zuo held out his hand, extending ten fingers. "In addition to legal tender, foreign currencies, and various banknotes, we also have the RMB reserves from Comrade Xiao Liu's time. This is the number."

How could I forget it! This was a profound impression! Minister Deng smacked his lips. He had last made 70,000 yuan for a painting he'd created, and since then, he'd created several more in his spare time. The prices fluctuated wildly, but over the course of a year, he'd contributed over 300,000 yuan.

"Of course I remember." Minister Deng nodded cautiously. "We discussed this in a previous meeting. We're actually profiting by exploiting the 'reverse scissors gap.' In Comrade Xiao Liu's time, labor was more expensive than it is now. Furthermore, due to changes in people's consumption habits, handmade products that are now being replaced by machines actually became more expensive in their time due to their pursuit of rarity."

"I'm now looking at the details of every transaction, as well as the reports from the Social Affairs Department and the External Relations Department."

Staff Officer Zuo took a deep breath and coughed. "Our main source of income, besides the occasional agricultural product returns from Aperture, is the purchase of goods from the Consumer Cooperative. They've been shipping quite a bit these past few months."

"Huh? Someone's hoarding it?"

Minister Deng worked in intelligence and is quite sensitive to this. Hoarding and malicious reselling have always been targets of severe punishment by the Eighth Route Army. If anyone is hoarding our products, we must notify the border security and the Ministry of Social Affairs, and they will take action...

"Yes, there is, but..."

Staff Officer Zuo weighed his words with some difficulty, incredulously. He took a sip of tea and swallowed, "It's not here, it's in Sichuan Province... over there in the preserved fruit market. There have been some horse caravans, or rather, they were already there... There are many small vendors like this. They lower the purchase price of cloth, silk, woven carpets and the like locally, and then resell them to us.

"To prevent being attacked by bandits along the way, they even traveled in groups, forming a team like the escort agencies of ancient times, buying and selling goods along the way, and then coming to our place to buy a lot of salt, soy sauce, sugar and the like, and then returning to sell them at a high price. This is not easy to do. You know, to be able to organize so many people, open up connections along the way, and bribe the national army, there must be someone behind the scenes organizing it.

"To this end, they even drove up the price of sugar in the Kuomintang-controlled areas..."

Staff Officer Zuo turned the list around and showed it to Minister Deng. "Look, even among the purchased materials are shawls woven using techniques previously only found in the Imperial Palace of Beijing. This 'Gold Embroidered Phoenix Shawl' sold for over 5,000 RMB..."

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No, that’s not it…

Minister Deng's mouth dropped open in disbelief. Although he had experience working in Guangdong Province, the sheer initiative of these businesspeople truly exceeded his imagination. It truly was the belief that "capital will do anything if there's high profits!"

If I can’t deal with you, the Eighth Route Army, I can’t deal with you, the preserved fruits?

Just as I was about to sigh, the alarm in the cafeteria suddenly rang.

The entire cafeteria shook violently as if there was an earthquake, and all the people working in the cafeteria jumped up immediately.

What's wrong? Is there a fire?

The cafeteria had a fire alarm system that would sound the alarm in the event of a fire, but it wouldn't shake like this. Could this be an earthquake? Pushing the guards who had rushed through the door, Minister Deng and Staff Officer Zuo were about to evacuate according to the previously practiced fire evacuation plan when the cafeteria's public address system blared.

"Which comrade is in charge of the cafeteria control? What's going on? Has the new system been unlocked?"

Comrade Xiao Liu! Isn't he in the UK?

"Hello, comrade. Please go find the commander. I've received good news about this big thing of ours!"

He spoke quickly and happily, as if he was announcing good news to someone from a distance.

Chapter 60: More than just a canteen system (Part 1)

Canteen System Assistance

By Forgotten Maple X

2213 words

2020-11-13 12: 00: 00

The cafeteria's central control refers to a small underground area, which is located in the solid center of a standard civil air defense basement. It is a small compartment made of dense steel bars and high-grade cement, right next to the cafeteria's recycling/shipping area.

The density of steel bars here is extremely high, with even steel plates embedded in them, so the internal signal is very poor. The future civil engineer who built this future cafeteria has specially placed a 4G mini base station and several mushroom heads here to maintain the wireless signal in the compartment. This is also where the only computer provided by the cafeteria system so far is located, a high-performance host with four screens. When Liu Helian is not in Fushi City, almost all daily operations of the cafeteria can be controlled from here.

By the time Minister Deng and Staff Officer Zuo arrived underground, the place was already surrounded by people. Because it was night, it was said that the Chairman was about to arrive.

Striding into the control room, Liu Helian's head appeared on the computer screen, with an icon of a square and triangle next to it - this was called a "video call". Operated by a force that even Xiao Liu called mysterious, through a small green software, it allowed Liu Helian and the terminals in Fushi City to achieve real-time communication.

"Xiao Liu, what's wrong?" Staff Officer Zuo spoke first. He simply pointed at a glass window above the terminal, and the imaging device inside would transmit the image to the other side. "Why are you so anxious all of a sudden?"

Liu Helian's background was an overcast sky, with rolling green fields behind him. He seemed to be holding up his device as he addressed the group: "Commander Zuo, I just received a message. I'm wondering if there was a loud noise at the cafeteria headquarters, like someone digging a hole or even blasting?"

"Yes, just now." After recalling it, Staff Officer Zuo nodded in confirmation.

"Then can you confirm whether our new ironworks in Huinong has produced its first batch of iron?"

------

There was a wired telegraph line from Fushicheng to Yulin, but not to Huinong. After financial sufficiency, the border region established a branch line from Zhenjingbao, running along Dingyan and all the way to the Huinong base, facilitating communication between the two areas. The Huinong Ironworks had recently been operating, but no one knew when the first batch of molten iron would be produced. Minister Deng, who was standing by, immediately sent a telegram to the telegraph office to inquire.

Not long after, the soldier who was sent out came back excitedly, and he brought back the good news sent by Huinong Ironworks:

"At 1:32 this morning, 45 tons of iron were produced from the first furnace. The iron quality is gray and acceptable. Special report."

"Comrades, Commander! The Huinong Steel Plant has successfully started up its furnace!" He was so excited that he trembled a little as he stood at attention to report. "They have already produced the first batch of iron!"

With a buzzing sound, everyone present instinctively wanted to cheer. Although it was already early morning, after hearing the news, it was as if all the sleepiness and fatigue were thrown into the hot blast furnace thousands of miles away, turning into red molten iron, so hot that it made people want to shout out loud.

But in the end, discipline prevented them from shouting it out directly, and everyone's eyes were focused on Liu Helian on the screen.

"Really? That's great." Company Commander Liu He breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly unsurprised. "Commander, I received this news in England. But the sender was 'them.' They also congratulated us on our first batch of iron and provided us with a brand new annex—a supermarket."

"Supermarket? Is it the same thing as the 'canteen' from before?"

By the time he said this, the door of the control room had been closed and the excited security guards had been sent away. Only Minister Deng and Staff Officer Zuo, who was on the phone, were left.

"It's actually a kind of self-service supermarket, with a wide variety of goods. Since our cafeteria is a combination of cafeterias from many universities across China, the supermarket is probably a collection of supermarkets from various schools."

Liu Helian glanced back and forth at the other end of the screen, pausing for a moment. "Bosses, I have a lot of people here. We're organizing the exploration team and purchasing the land, so it's a bit inconvenient to talk. I'll transfer the documents to you right away. The preparations for setting up the supermarket are complete. Unlike the last time we set up the cafeteria, it will be generated directly next to the cafeteria headquarters building. Once we're ready, please give me a code. I'll confirm it and then I can set up the building directly."

"Okay," Staff Officer Zuo said, looking at the file transfer request that popped up on the screen. He operated the mouse and clicked "Confirm." "Comrade Xiao Liu, don't worry. We're here for you."

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The central government was confident in the operation of the entire cafeteria system. These Liu Helian seniors, practically predecessors, possessed an unwavering passion and curiosity for new things, along with an almost insatiable desire to explore. Over the course of a year, they mastered the cafeteria's purchasing and shipping procedures, mapped out the cafeteria's above- and underground floor plans, and learned how to use video surveillance, ordering, and subsystems such as power, environmental control, security, and fire protection. They also researched the cafeteria's many technologically advanced features.

Even under the leadership of Chen Daguanjia, the committee worked with comrades from the finance department to sort out the prices of almost all the materials that could be found in different time periods and conducted various analyses.

After this autumn harvest, the Logistics Committee conducted a quantitative analysis based on Aperture's judgment on the freshness of different fruits and vegetables, a small number of quarantine returns, and the price differences of the same goods of different qualities. They started experiments and gained a lot of model experience, and planned to conduct further tests in 38 years.

During the period when Liu Helian was abroad and Political Commissar Wang was receiving medical treatment, the daily operation of the canteen was basically handed over to the committee. They managed the canteen in an orderly manner and Liu Helian was almost never asked to come to the rescue.

Because the canteen can set up branches, the comrades of the Logistics Committee also specially developed a set of procedures for receiving "new assets", which they unexpectedly came in handy here.

The mission was quickly assigned. On this joyful, yet often bald, night, several leaders, defying instructions against staying up late, stayed up all night, contacting the troops, security forces, border civil affairs, and even the intelligence system. Following the information provided, they dug out a large, deep cave in the hillside next to the cafeteria, seemingly a small mound, and evacuated any nearby personnel.

The next night, the Fu She Central Hospital next to the cafeteria conducted another air raid drill. This time, under the shrill wailing of the hand-cranked air raid sirens, the confused doctors and nurses, along with the equally confused patients, left the hospital in an orderly manner according to the evacuation plan and hid in the air-raid shelter in the back mountain.

Immediately afterwards, the sky above Fushi City was covered with dark clouds again. A mountain that looked like a small hill flashed in the blind spot of almost everyone's vision and attention, and turned into a huge building with a metal shell, shining with strange light.

"Science Facility Ready."

"Functional transformation is underway, and the supermarket system is being generated."

Optical camouflage was then reactivated.

Chapter 61 Supermarket System (Style Test) 1

Canteen System Assistance

By Forgotten Maple X

2237 words

2020-11-16 12: 00: 00

The term "supermarket" was not as popular as it is now, but the corresponding concept of "self-service market" had already appeared. It was mostly used to refer to smaller stores in Japan: there were no sales clerks, only a cashier guarding the door, and all goods were selected by customers themselves, and then they checked out and paid at the entrance.

So when Minister Deng and Staff Officer Zuo started, even though Liu Helian mentioned it repeatedly in the information and chat interface, this thing was probably a merger and expansion of supermarkets in the domestic university circle. The scale was estimated to be very large. The largest scale they could imagine was probably the "Daxin Department Store" in Shanghai, or the "Quanyechang" in Tianjin.

It's a multi-story market, filled with a dazzling array of domestically produced and imported goods, something ordinary people wouldn't normally be able to access. If you include Shanghai's "Big Four" markets, the sheer abundance of their goods would become a familiar Shanghai jingle:

Steel pots and copper hangings, Stick and pillowcases, toothbrushes, toothpaste, scented soap, Esprit rubber, toilet paper, light bulbs, a Rollex gold watch, a hairpin, and cream cake!

Wow, this thing Comrade Xiao Liu brought came from the future, it’s very mysterious, but it’s not a department store of the future after all. If this future supermarket is half the size of Daxin, it will make people wake up laughing in the middle of the night.

As they walked and thought, they followed Xiao Liu's instructions and found a new area on the basement floor of the cafeteria. Minister Deng fumbled around and found a large box on the wall, then turned on the main power switch.

A heavy switch sounded, as if the automatic distribution equipment embedded in the wall was working.

Then the lights in the entire supermarket area came on.

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This is definitely not just some small campus supermarket!

Liu Helian froze for a second on the other side of the screen—he was now connected to Fu Shi via a small black notebook held by a soldier—after the CCD in his camera faded from the overexposure caused by the high ISO. He saw before him a warehouse-style supermarket. Huge, towering shelves were filled with goods, and an electric forklift was parked nearby. Many unpacked goods were still on pallets, making it impossible to move them manually. A forklift or even a stacker would be necessary.

Under these tall shelves are bulk goods that can be handled by hand.

This kind of layout... you stupid alien, are you going to put an ice cream machine and a meatball window at the door?

Just by looking in from the door, he saw the fruit section and the clothing section, as well as an aisle at the back with categories of goods hanging on it, but surprisingly, he did not see any counter selling fresh produce.

This allowed Liu Helian to maintain a certain calmness: "Hello, comrade holding the computer, could you take me inside for a tour?"

Liu Helian, who was watching the surroundings through the computer camera, followed the other bosses who came to check out the supermarket and walked in. While explaining the functions of various things to the curious leaders, Liu Helian thought about it.

This "supermarket" lacked any large appliances, nor any sections for fresh meat or seafood. Normally, school supermarkets wouldn't sell high-powered appliances that students weren't allowed to use, and it was rare for students to buy refrigerators or large color TVs. Fresh meat and fish conflicted with the cafeteria's output, and weren't quite in keeping with the campus living environment.

But in this case, why can we see packaged cooking oil and vacuum-packed indica rice?

"Oh, Commander, this is the hardware tool section. There are no nails, probably because we're not allowed to hammer nails into the walls in our dormitories. But we do have vernier calipers, steel tape measures, multi-purpose tool knives, and things like drawing boards and T-rules for engineering drawings."

Looking at the short man in the video, who was fondly holding a digital vernier caliper, Liu Helian explained, "This digital caliper has a resolution of 0.005mm, which is quite high-precision. It's probably for students doing metalworking internships. If you don't need something this good, there are mechanically scaled ones available, which are much cheaper."

"Ha, Commissioner Liu, it looks like I can work as a fitter here!" He happily picked up the set of torque wrenches and pliers beside him. "These are much more sophisticated than the French ones. I'll just stay here for now..."

I also saw saw blades and a handsaw... but no concrete nails or door latches. Strange. Liu Helian hid in the eMule, which had transformed into a station wagon, charging his phone with the car's power bank. He stared intently at the images on the screen, recording the items that had appeared.

So far, it includes all the goods that should be found in a general supermarket, from bathroom products, bedding, to staple foods and clothing, shoes and hats, but it is missing a lot of things in kitchen supplies, furniture and hardware; it has a huge area for stationery and school supplies, even including things like Casio and Ti84 calculators, but there is no place selling fresh fish and meat.

Liu Helian could only give up thinking and attribute this strange setting to the unreliable ideas of the Danteng aliens.

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But no matter what, having this thing is better than having nothing. There is no reason to be picky when there is so much aid. Liu Helian thought to himself, this supermarket didn't charge him for the goods. Even if he didn't buy anything in the future, the things on these rows of shelves were free.

On the other side of the Eurasian continent, he was operating his mobile phone, checking the large number of new invoices in the supermarket and looking at the newly added Excel files.

Suddenly, someone's voice came from the earphones.

"Hey! Comrade Xiao Liu, there's a bookstore in your department store?"

It was the Chairman's signature voice. The camera feed showed him at a counter in a row at the supermarket entrance, his head fixed on one of them. "CET-4 and CET-6 English vocabulary... sequential version, random version, is this an English dictionary? C language, from beginner to advanced... 2018 advanced mathematics exam papers? What are these?"

"Comrade Xiao Liu, why are all the books in the bookstores here filled with books like this? These mountains of literature and endless questions don't seem suitable for an old man like me!"

The Chairman was clearly a bit displeased: even during the Long March, he'd ask someone to go to the next county town to get a newspaper binder. Liu Helian could imagine how much the Chairman must have hoped for future "spiritual nourishment" when he spotted the "Supermarket Bookstore" sign at the supermarket entrance; and how disappointed he must have been when he found only a pile of test papers and supplementary textbooks.

Ah, Chairman, when everyone is about to take exams, the bookstore next to the campus supermarket mainly sells these!

Just as he was thinking about how to explain all this to the Chairman, Liu Helian suddenly noticed that there was a row of counters at the entrance of the somewhat strange supermarket. Unlike the Nordic Swedish-style warehouse supermarket, this place was more like a traditional store with shelves and glass cabinets.

Their names are: "Electronic Supermarket", "Supermarket Bookstore", "After-Sales Maintenance" and "Internship Goods".

Chapter 62: Some Kind of Accidental Gain (Style Test) 1

Canteen System Assistance

By Forgotten Maple X

2139 words

2020-11-17 12: 00: 00

(This chapter is also an old style test)