Chapter 167 - 159: I’ll Take This One, and This One, and Also This One
"Nope. The AC uses up gas. It’ll be an extra three yuan if you want it," the driver replied without turning his head. The moment he finished speaking, he slammed his foot on the gas, and the car shot forward over a meter with a WHOOSH. A slight breeze entered the cabin once the car was moving, but it did nothing to relieve the sweltering heat.
"Driver, please turn on the AC," Xu An said. He had been planning to just endure it, but then he remembered that Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant was nowhere near the expo. After more than half an hour in this mobile microwave, he and Master Liu would probably be medium-rare by the time they got out.
"Alrighty!" the driver chirped, a hint of delight in his voice. He quickly closed all the windows and turned on the cooling function. Blasts of cold air began to blow from the center console toward the back seat, and the temperature inside the cabin started to drop.
Xu An wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he thought he heard the driver let out a comfortable sigh.
The air conditioning was a relief, but the driver wasn’t very steady. With all the sudden braking and abrupt lane changes, it was impossible to fall asleep. Since sleep was off the table, they might as well chat. Xu An and Liu Daxi started talking about anything and everything.
As the two rambled on, the topic drifted from why the expo was built so far away to just how many dogs lived in Xu Family Village. Don’t ask Xu An; he had no idea why Liu Daxi was asking such a thing.
"Speaking of which, there’s this old man who goes to the China Disabled People’s Federation almost every day. Each time he goes, he’s carrying all sorts of bags, saying he’s making a charitable donation. Are pensions for retirees really that high these days?" The topic having veered off a thousand miles, Liu Daxi suddenly remarked.
"Maybe he’s bored after retiring and wants to contribute to society. Isn’t that a good thing?" Xu An replied casually.
"That’s true. It’s not like the old man has some ulterior motive toward them," Liu Daxi chuckled, dropping the subject.
Just before Xu An could get carsick, the taxi finally stopped at the main entrance of the Hai City Convention and Exhibition Center. As Xu An paid, the driver asked when they would be leaving, offering to wait for them. Xu An flatly refused.
One taste of that driver’s skills was more than enough.
Although this was the setup phase for all the exhibitors, you couldn’t just come and go as you pleased; you needed to show an exhibitor pass to get in. Unsurprisingly, Xu An and his companion were stopped at the entrance. He had to call Uncle Han, who then arranged for their passes, before the two were finally allowed inside.
"I was planning on coming down at ten ’til the hour. I didn’t expect you to actually arrive ten minutes early." Uncle Han reached out to take the boxed lunches from their hands, but they both dodged away.
"It’s fine, these lunch boxes aren’t heavy," Xu An said, turning to Liu Daxi. He made the introduction to Uncle Han, "This is our restaurant’s chef, Master Liu. His cooking is incredible. Master Liu, this is Manager Han of Xinyang Commercial Kitchen Technology Co., Ltd."
Amid the pleasantries, Uncle Han led the two to the exhibition booth. The space had seemed empty and unremarkable before, but now that all the machinery and equipment had been installed, Xu An realized just how massive the company’s booth was. With a quick glance, he could see three or four pieces of equipment that were over five meters long.
Xu An’s eyes landed on a machine at the very front of the booth, one that was a full six meters long. Two technicians were pouring a basket of dirt-covered potatoes onto a conveyor belt. They flipped the start switch, a low RUMBLE sounded, and the limp rubber hose on the ground instantly filled out. The sound of rushing water, SPLASH SPLASH, came from inside the machine.
The potatoes on the conveyor belt slowly entered the machine. Xu An quickly hurried over to the output end. After about a five-minute wait, the first potato emerged from the machine, appearing in their line of sight.
After getting Uncle Han’s okay, Xu An snatched the potato and held it up to his eyes for a careful look. It felt smooth in his hand. There wasn’t a trace of mud or sand anywhere on it; even the little indented spots had been washed perfectly clean. A bit skeptical, Xu An randomly sampled a few more from the army of potatoes that followed. Each one was impeccably clean.
At that moment, a technician carried the washed potatoes over to another machine. Xu An had seen this one in the brochure—it was a vegetable cutter. He and Liu Daxi immediately crowded closer, squeezing in next to the technician to watch the demonstration.
The operation was extremely simple: dump the basket of potatoes into the machine’s intake, close the lid, press the start button, then place a basket at the exit. That was it.
As the machine vibrated with a low HUM, Xu An saw a rain of shredded potato fall from the outlet into the basket. The technician then stepped forward and adjusted the machine, and the shreds became the size of potato strips...
The demonstration left Xu An dumbfounded. This machine was exactly as described in the brochure!
Next, Uncle Han showed the two of them how the automatic stir-fryers cooked food, how bags of flour were transformed into steamed buns and mantou, and also the automatic dishwashers, tableware-return systems, meal-delivery conveyors, and automatic constant-temperature spray-thawing machines...
All in all, the machines here could handle anything he could think of, and they even had machines for things he’d never imagined!
Looking at these machines, the equipment for the factory in Xu An’s mind became clearer. But unfortunately, the size of the equipment here was directly proportional to its price. The bigger the machine, the more expensive it was. That six-meter-long vegetable washer at the entrance cost a full sixty-eight thousand yuan!