Chapter 172 Egg Carton

Because many things happened that were different from what she dreamed about, Xu Jiajia sometimes wondered if that seemingly real dream was just a dream, a strange one.

So when Xu Jiajia saw the educated youth who came this time, they were different from those in her dream. She actually felt relieved because this meant there was another difference between her dream and the dream. So she could simply treat the dream as an unexpected one.

If we're talking about the person whose emotions fluctuated the most this time, it would actually be Zhao Yulian. She was the happiest when the new educated youth arrived, but also the most unhappy.

She was happy because there were five girls in this group of educated youth, so she would have company again when she returned to the girls' dormitory. And there weren't many of them, only three people in one dormitory room, which was quite spacious. The girls' dormitory was finally going to be lively again.

She was unhappy because Zhao Yulian was the most senior female educated youth at the current educated youth settlement, so she was promoted to team leader, which was not very friendly to her personality.

But she couldn't refuse, otherwise she would be labeled as a disunity.

However, apart from her dislike of being the team leader, everything else seems pretty good so far. The new educated youth are all good-natured, and everyone is getting along very well.

Because Zhao Yulian moved back to the educated youth settlement, the food quality in Ning Xuan's courtyard also returned to normal.

With the arrival of spring, before resuming operations, Zhou Jianguo made a special trip to the chicken farm.

“Ning Zhiqing, let me tell you the truth. Because of He Yuting’s poisoning incident, our chances of being recognized as an advanced brigade this year are probably gone again. I was thinking, could we start with the chicken farm to salvage our brigade’s reputation? Maybe there’s still a chance. If all else fails, but we do well, maybe we can be evaluated next year,” Zhou Jianguo said dejectedly.

Ning Xuan looked at Zhou Jianguo, who was wholeheartedly thinking about the team, and nodded in agreement: "Team leader, I'll give it a try."

Zhou Jianguo smiled again: "Yes, give it a try. It's okay if it doesn't work out. Ning Zhiqing, you don't need to put too much pressure on yourself."

In fact, Ning Xuan had really thought about expanding the chicken farm in Hongxing Brigade to be bigger, not only selling fresh eggs and adult chickens, but also developing other egg products and chicken products. This would solve the problem of transporting raw eggs and allow them to be sold to more distant places.

Originally, what she really wanted to make was braised eggs, because the chicken farm had a lot of eggs. The commune's market was already saturated, but their chicken farm was expanding, so there were many more eggs. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to give the team members eggs twice a month.

However, the preservation of braised products needs to be considered, which requires preservatives or vacuum compression packaging. But according to the development trend, vacuum compressors will not be available for at least another ten years.

In that case, she can't just conjure up a vacuum compressor out of thin air.

This is the problem that's giving Ning Xuan a bit of a dilemma: should she take it slow and focus on what she can do now, or should she use a shortcut to bring the vacuum compressor to market sooner?

Ning Xuan thought about it for three days and finally decided that if there was a cheat, of course she would use it. If she couldn't produce it herself, she could use her advantages to help the relevant researchers develop it as soon as possible.

Even with her help, it will still take some time for researchers to turn their research data into a physical machine, and they can't just wait around like this.

So Ning Xuan decided to add a side business to the brigade: making egg cartons. By making egg cartons, their egg market could be expanded to the provincial capital.

Because of limited materials and the lack of machinery in their team, Ning Xuan planned to make rattan egg trays using natural raw materials and pure hand-weaving.

While it's called rattan weaving, that's just a general term. Ning Xuan's plan is to use bamboo, rattan, wheat straw, and corn husks to make egg trays suitable for holding eggs.

The matter of the vacuum compressor still needed to be addressed by finding suitable researchers, something Ning Xuan had to keep to herself. However, the preparations for the egg cartons were much simpler, so Ning Xuan spent two hours organizing her plans before going to find Zhou Jianguo.

"You mean egg trays? Aren't the eggs at our chicken farm stored just fine?" Zhou Jianguo retorted.

"That's because we're stationary in the warehouse, so storing them like this isn't a big problem. Also, the commune isn't far away, and it's all done by oxcarts, so the journey is less strenuous and the amount lost each time is minimal. But if we're transporting them to the provincial capital, which is further away, using egg cartons would be safer." Ning Xuan said, showing her sketch to Zhou Jianguo. Zhou Jianguo looked at it for a while and thought it was brilliant.

"This thing seems really good. It's just the right size to put an egg in. Unless there's a big shaking, the egg won't fall out. But there's another problem. If you want to use bamboo or rattan to weave it, those things aren't soft enough. Won't the egg still break easily if it gets bumped?"

Ning Xuan explained, "I've thought about that too. My idea is to use thinner bamboo strips so that they don't need to be woven so tightly. The gaps between the thin bamboo strips or rattan will reduce the stiffness to some extent. Also, the bamboo strips and rattan will be treated before weaving to make them more flexible."

After listening, Zhou Jianguo nodded, "It seems feasible. Let's find someone to weave a few first and see if they work. If they do, we'll make more. If the pillars and vines don't work, we still have wheat straw. And you said those grasses can also be processed and woven. There are quite a lot of materials."

“Yes, I realized that just using wheat straw and corn husks wouldn’t be enough, so I thought of several other materials. Let’s try them all first and see which one works best, or if all of them work well, and then we’ll choose the most suitable one to start with.” Ning Xuan also agreed to make the physical product first, and then test it with eggs to determine if the product could be made.

Zhou Jianguo looked at Ning Xuan with admiration, "You young people are really quick-witted, especially you city kids, you have such broad knowledge!"

Ning Xuan smiled and said modestly, "I just happened to think of it. Actually, there are already egg trays available outside, but the materials used are more expensive. We can't afford those for now, so we'll use local materials and make them by hand, which will reduce the cost a lot."

“That’s right, that’s right. You’ve thought it through very well. Let’s go find Uncle Yougen. The bamboo baskets and carrying baskets he weaves are really good. I just don’t know if he can handle such delicate things.”