Chapter 213 Cream can be bought in this way.
Ever since the Browns bought the embroidered patchwork shirt, Yin Pingping has been coming to the foreign guest store every day. Because of her likable personality and sweet talk, all the shop assistants like her.
Even Wang, the shop assistant who had been rude before, praised, "The embroidered clothes in your factory are quite beautiful, and the ones that come later are even more beautiful."
Strangely enough, Wang, the shop assistant, found a few patchwork embroidered shirts that looked quite nice, so she bought two herself. They were embroidered with lotus flowers and bamboo leaves.
Yin Pingping: "This was meticulously designed by our factory manager! Of course it looks beautiful, it's one of a kind!"
Having won the favor of the store staff, Yin Pingping shamelessly stayed in the store to do sales. Whenever foreign guests came to shop, she would often go up to them and chat for a bit, promoting the patchwork embroidered shirts from the factory.
At this time, the 43 plan was being implemented. As a window for international exchange, Shanghai has many foreign technical personnel. Shanghai's ports are also improving and developing "container transportation" technology.
Aside from her initial fear, Yin Pingping has become increasingly bold in communicating with foreign guests. Even if they don't speak the same language, she uses gestures and drawings; there's always a way to communicate.
She even teaches foreign guests Chinese!
Under these conditions, Yin Pingping's spoken English improved more and more. She began to revert to her old ways, chatting with foreign guests who had free time, and talking about her hometown.
That day, she met Mr. Lawrence, a well-dressed and refined Western gentleman, in the store. Mr. Lawrence walked very slowly and did not rush to buy anything after entering the store. Instead, he slowly appreciated each item on the shelf as if he had stepped into a museum.
Yin Pingping hadn't intended to strike up a conversation; she was quietly practicing her foreign language in the corner when Mr. Lawrence came up to her and praised her: "Your pronunciation is very good, except that the 'b' in the word you just pronounced is silent."
Yin Pingping then realized that someone had overheard her oral practice. Her face flushed red, feeling both shy and excited. So she mustered her courage, pulled the person in front of the embroidered patchwork shirt, and dutifully completed the task assigned to her by Factory Director Qin.
She praised in broken English: "Unique! This is the work of the best craftsman in our factory! Each piece tells a unique story."
Mr. Lawrence gently ran his fingers along the back of the embroidered patch and the seam of the fabric: "This hand stitching... is a remarkable skill. The way they piece together these different elements is very bold, yet there is a strange harmony in it."
...
The two started chatting, and Yin Pingping not only persuaded Mr. Lawrence to buy the shirt, but also promoted sausages and salted duck eggs, and took the initiative to talk to Mr. Lawrence about the specialties of his hometown—Yin Pingping was best at talking about this.
Yin Pingping talked about the fishing boats salvaged from the island and the scenery of the island, while Mr. Lawrence couldn't help but shed tears as he talked about the former manor and farm, as well as afternoon tea, coffee and cream cake.
"Cake?" Yin Pingping sighed. "Our factory manager loves cake, but there are no cream cakes on the island."
Qin Xiangxiang instructed Yin Pingping to sell shirts and barter for some imported chocolates, candies, and milk powder, while also asking Yin Pingping to bring her a cream cake.
Lawrence and Yin Pingping chatted for a long time about black tea and cakes, and he also talked about his experience of milking cows and how dairy workers work... Finally, he sincerely said that he wanted to give Yin Pingping some Ceylon black tea, as well as canned spray-on cream and jarred butter.
Lawrence: "Don't be shy, try some of our local flavors."
Yin Pingping, of course, didn't stand on ceremony with him.
Furthermore, through Lawrence and the Browns, they received a number of orders from consulates.
Yin Pingping called Qin Xiangxiang to share the good news:
"Factory manager, our geometric embroidered patchwork shirts are selling very well! We've even received an order from the consulate."
Qin Xiangxiang, sitting in the office, was completely numb. Somewhat dazed, she picked up a red and green embroidered patchwork shirt next to her, then looked at the order numbers Yin Pingping had mentioned. She was extremely confused and incredulous: "People actually buy this? Do those foreign guests... have some... unique taste?"
Yin Pingping: "Director Qin, you're too modest! Even the shop assistants at the foreign guests' store bought several pieces! Everyone says they look great!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
Yin Pingping: "Factory Director, I also met a Mr. Lawrence. We talked about our hometowns, and I mentioned that you like cream cakes, but you can't get them on the island. So he said he would send some Ceylon tea, canned cream, and canned butter for everyone in the factory to try."
"Really?" Qin Xiangxiang's eyes lit up. Canned spray-on cream? Is it portable cream?
Yin Pingping is really popular!
Qin Xiangxiang: "Pingping, you did a great job!"
"Why don't you contact more people and we can use the factory's goods to trade for cream and butter? We also have down vests in our factory." The shameless Qin Xiangxiang couldn't help but ask for more money.
“Okay.” Yin Pingping was another brilliant strategist, not at all bothered by the trouble or embarrassed. “Then I will continue my conversation with Mr. Lawrence!”
A few days later, Yin Pingping returned to the island by boat and personally placed the first foreign exchange certificate and two additional orders on Qin Xiangxiang's desk. She also brought back imported candies and chocolates, as well as Ceylon tea, canned cream, and jarred butter that Mr. Lawrence had gifted her in exchange.
Yin Pingping pointed to the cream: "This needs to be refrigerated."
Their factory has freezers, which are capable of storing this batch of canned cream. In fact, the island is full of ice factories and ice storage facilities. There are countless ice factories and ice storage facilities of all sizes. Making and buying ice is a very common thing.
Ice factories generally refer to old-style ice factories, which store ice in winter and harvest ice in summer. There are also industrial ice storage facilities. Ice storage facilities with a capacity of 200 tons were built in the 1940s and 50s, and now preparations are underway to build ice storage facilities with a capacity of 10,000 tons. The ice provided by the ice storage facilities and ice factories is used to keep fishermen fresh and store aquatic products.
The ice storage closest to their factory has a huge ice-making pool that produces countless tons of large ice blocks every day. These large ice blocks are rectangular, each weighing about 100 kilograms. They are carried and transported using iron hooks and wrapped in hay. Fishing boats going out to sea usually carry enough ice blocks.
The allocation of ice was also carried out strictly according to plan. Feiyan Textile Factory also needed to apply for certain quotas to use ice.
The factory had various textiles that could be exchanged for ice. Applying for an ice quota wasn't difficult for Feiyan Textile Factory, but…
Qin Xiangxiang stared at Yin Pingping in front of her and decided to send Yin Pingping to the icehouse to ask for ice blocks this year, hoping that she might be able to "fish" for some extra treasures.
She picked up the canned cream and was genuinely surprised to find such a thing. If it weren't for the circumstances, Qin Xiang would have loved to have Yin Pingping serve as the Feiyan Textile Factory's ambassador for foreign guests, spending her days trying to hook up with foreigners and see how many good things she could catch.
"Okay, I understand." Qin Xiangxiang patted Yin Pingping on the shoulder: "You are an excellent employee. Our factory can't do without you. If it weren't for you, this batch of embroidered patchwork shirts wouldn't have sold so quickly."
Yin Pingping: "Factory Director, this is not my achievement, it is all yours. Your idea is excellent, leading everyone towards a brighter future!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
You are a capable assistant in my army of "eating, drinking, and having fun" (a Chinese idiom for being lazy and unambitious).
Never mind that for now, let's just sell the shirt. After all, they had an unexpected bonus.
She wanted to try the wonderful effects of this canned cream first... At this moment, Qin Xiangxiang changed her mind. She wanted to ask the canteen of Feiyan Textile Factory to increase the supply of cream cakes.
Not just cream cakes, but also butter cookies!
Qin Xiangxiang brought some black tea, canned cream, and bottled butter home, waiting to see what surprises her deadbeat husband could bring her, as well as her son, Little Fatty—who had her grandmother's cooking skills.
"Ordinary people are reluctant to eat cream or use butter... but my deadbeat husband and my chubby little boy are not like that."
If Qin Xiangxiang were to waste the cream herself, she definitely wouldn't be able to do it. She'd rather leave this kind of thing to a "professional".
If the deadbeat man and the chubby guy ruin the cream, he'll pretend to eat it and then give them a serious scolding.
"Wife, you got some canned cream... I'll make you milk tea!" Upon seeing the canned cream, Li Jianzhi immediately thought of all kinds of milk tea in the future, especially milk tea with "cream topping".
Qin Xiangxiang said disdainfully, "What's so good about milk tea?"
Li Jianzhi asked suspiciously, "What woman doesn't love milk tea?"
Little Fatty: "Mom! Mom! I'll make you a cream cake!"
Sui Sui hugged her father's leg: "Let's eat cookies!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "I want to eat cream cake! Li Jianzhi! You deadbeat man, I want to eat cream cake!"
Li Jianzhi: "Let's have milk tea first. Making a cream cake is too troublesome. We need to bake the cake base, and we don't have the means right now."
"I'll bake cakes and cookies for my wife and kids when I have Sunday off."
The "bread oven" in their vegetable garden is already a great-grandchild generation, having been updated and replaced several times. This bread oven was made by hand by him and his daughter in the winter.
Given the conditions of this era, baking cakes was troublesome, making milk tea was much simpler, and eating cream cakes... well, what you're eating is cream, right?
There happened to be fresh milk at home, so Li Jianzhi brewed some black tea. After brewing it, he added ice cubes to the black tea, poured in milk, poured it into a glass with "Serve the People" printed on it, sprayed layers of cream in a pagoda shape on top, sprinkled crushed peanuts on it, and inserted a straw.
"Honey, have a taste."
Qin Xiangxiang: "Your way of eating is really sophisticated."
She took a sip of the sweet milk tea, inhaling the rich aroma of cream, wishing she could bite off the entire cream topping in one go.
Each of the children in the family also had a cup. The chubby boy was very unpretentious and directly ate the cream topping. As for the little girl, Sui Sui, Li Jianzhi squatted down and fed her with the cup, afraid that she might drop the glass if her little hands went limp.
"Daddy, the cream is so delicious!"
Qin Xiangxiang finished her milk tea in one go and tasted the cream on top with a small spoon. She felt it was too wasteful to eat it like that, as the cream stuck to the cup was impossible to lick.
"Li Jianzhi, do you think... it would be too much to ask the textile factory's canteen to serve cream cakes?"
Li Jianzhi: "That's normal, as long as you can get your hands on the cream."
In the cafeteria thereafter, cream cakes and pastries were very ordinary and commonplace items.
Qin Xiangxiang said, "Not many people would be willing to eat such a big piece of cream cake."
Li Jianzhi: "It's simple. You can make a small cake about the width of two fingers and pipe some cream on top."
Qin Xiangxiang: "??????? Doesn't that mean they can be eaten one bite at a time?"
Li Jianzhi: "That way we can afford them all."
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