The chubby girl glanced at him, stepped aside, and didn't say anything.
How many ice cubes do you want to buy?
Lin Ziyan remained calm and observed him carefully.
Floral shorts paired with a polo shirt—he doesn't look like someone from Fuzhou.
The man was wearing a gold watch and dared to come to the fishing village alone to look for someone, so he must have traveled around a lot.
"Can I see the ice first?" the man asked tentatively.
He looked around the yard but didn't see any ice.
If his cousin hadn't assured him that the Lin family in this small fishing village really had edible ice, he would have left right now.
His cousin, who works as a spot checker, said that the edible ice cubes were made by a young girl; they were crystal clear and even cut into small pieces.
"Of course." Lin Ziyan gave the chubby girl a look.
She turned and went into the backyard, carrying out a molded block of ice.
The man stared wide-eyed at it.
The quality of this ice was even better than what he had seen on the cargo ship before.
"How much for this?" the man asked eagerly.
He had already inquired about the price.
He wanted to see what kind of person the boss was to determine the best way to cooperate.
"This big piece costs 1.5 yuan. If you order more than 20 pieces at once, it will cost 1.4 yuan per big piece."
Lin Ziyan knew he wanted to probe, so she spoke directly.
Fangjie uses a lot of ice, ordering 20 blocks of edible ice at a time, and she's paying the same price for that now.
The man nodded, then asked about the price of the large ice block, and seemed quite satisfied.
"I'd like to order 50 edible ice cubes and 100 large ice cubes, and pick them up right now. Do you have that much stock?"
Lin Ziyan nodded, went inside to get the form, and wrote it out for him.
The chubby girl didn't move. She guessed that Ah Yan might take the boss to the ice-making room in the backyard.
"Come on, I'll take you inside to see the ice-making room. Edible ice needs to meet certain standards before it can be shipped out."
Lin Ziyan tore up the form and gave it to him before going inside.
The chubby girl followed along without saying much.
The man glanced at them and followed them inside.
He had long been prepared to turn a blind eye to the mess in the production room as long as the quality was up to standard.
But when he went inside, he was stunned.
This is much cleaner than the ice factory's production room; you can tell from the details that it has always been kept clean.
"How are you going to transport the ice back?" Lin Ziyan asked, puzzled.
She does have a way to get ice to the county town without melting much.
But with so many people, it would be difficult to transport them by oxcart, and it would be too slow.
"I drove a truck here, but I need your help to transport the ice to the open space near the village entrance."
The man replied casually, his eyes fixed on the edible ice cubes.
The thought of the refreshing coolness of drinking with ice cubes made him wish he could fly back right now.
Lin Ziyan nodded, "That's no problem."
It was an hour later when they loaded the ice into the back of the truck.
The man paid the bill, said he would come again, and then left.
"Ah Yan, this man is not simple. His accent sounds like he's from Hong Kong."
The chubby girl watched the car drive away and murmured to herself.
The factory she used to work at was owned by a boss from Hong Kong, so it was easy to hear his accent.
"That's impressive, he doesn't even hesitate to throw away 150 yuan at once," Lin Ziyan chuckled.
What she didn't know was that when the man returned to the county town, he gave a piece of edible ice to the owner of the ice factory.
…
the next day,
After dropping Lin Ziyan off at the port, the chubby girl rode away on her bicycle.
She needed to deliver ice to the town.
This afternoon, the two of them had to stay home to wait for the shrimp larvae to hatch, so they didn't have time to deliver ice.
After setting up her stall, Lin Ziyan sold about twenty servings of lemon tea before pausing for a moment.
Just then, a cargo ship docked, and the workers were so busy that no one came out to buy anything.
She wasn't idle either; she had to write down a plan to prepare for raising the first batch of shrimp.
We also need to prevent shrimp diseases.
There are many types of shrimp diseases, but nowadays people collectively refer to them as shrimp plague.
Most of them are preventable.
She wrote several pages and calculated the data before stopping.
"I'd like five bags of lemon tea." Master Xu came over, paid, found some bricks, and sat down in the shade to wait.
Lin Ziyan had gotten used to it; once they became familiar with each other, they basically wouldn't stand by and watch her operate the equipment.
"Young lady, add more ice," Master Xu called out.
Lin Ziyan, "Okay!"
After she finished cooking, she added extra ice before sealing it.
Perhaps it was too hot at the port, because several tea masters came together to buy tea this time.
Once a bag is made, someone will come and pick it up.
After finishing the last bag, Lin Ziyan delivered it directly to Master Xu.
"That technician is incredibly shrewd. Even if we know how to fix it, we can't understand the numerical values, so it's pointless to fix it later."
Master Xu sighed, "If I can't understand the data, I'll be completely lost and won't know which parameters to replace with parts."
The other craftsmen nodded, each took a piece of paper, and looked at it for a long time.
They tried various algorithms, but they still didn't know what these numbers represented.
They can't buy a single technical book on this subject.
Even the boss couldn't buy it when he went abroad.
"Master Xu, we're basically learning by doing this behind closed doors. It would be strange if we could actually learn it," a younger instructor said dejectedly.
"What can we do then?"
"They say blocking technology will prevent us from developing, but does that mean we shouldn't develop?"
Master Xu glared at his dejected master, his expression solemn.
"Have some cold tea to cool down." The atmosphere eased a bit when Lin Ziyan brought the tea over.
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