Chapter 170: Long time no see. Is this your guest?
He looked very aggressive, which was something Zhu Yingning had known for a long time.
Of all the people she knew, Xu Sirui was the one most worthy of the title "beauty." While the others were certainly beautiful in their own unique ways, none possessed the same meticulously crafted beauty as his. In the past, when they were together day and night, she'd grown accustomed to this beauty with each encounter. But now, after such a long time, she wasn't sure if the shock she felt was because his face had become unfamiliar to her after so long, or if he was truly more beautiful than before.
He emerged from the elevator. His face and head were small, the proportions striking. His physique alone was far superior to that of an average person. On his palm-sized face, his eyelashes resembled a waterfall, his nose was like a cliff, his lips were like a touch of vermilion. Each color was distinct and intense, so vibrant that even without makeup, it had its own unique color.
He rolled his eyes, his gaze blandly sweeping across her face. Without even a second's pause, he turned away as if nothing had happened, seemingly not recognizing her. In contrast, she stood there in bewilderment, her right index finger still foolishly tapping at the cell phone numbers in the phone book, looking particularly foolish.
Director Lin walked past her with Xu Sirui. As they passed by, he nodded to her secretly and asked them to wait for a while until he had finished dealing with the things here and had time to receive them.
Xu Sirui, who had already passed by her, stopped in his tracks because of his whispering and turned around to ask, "Director Lin, is this your guest?"
He didn't look at her when he said this, his eyes were fixed on Director Lin, leaving her with only a distant profile.
Director Lin stammered, "...Yes, they said they were cadres from a certain village and came to visit us."
"What are you visiting?"
"Uh..." Director Lin probably didn't expect Xu Sirui to dig into such details. After a long pause, he said, "They visited our farm and told us that their village is raising a special breed of pigs. There might be room for cooperation with us in the future."
Xu Sirui said "Oh" in an ambiguous tone.
Zhu Yingning saw this as a good opportunity to broach the subject, as Xu Sirui looked like he was about to leave and didn't seem to need to discuss any more serious matters. Since he'd given her such a good start, there was no need for her to sit back and wait for death. So, she pulled out her phone and began to talk nonstop about the farming practices in her village.
"Yes, Director Lin, this is the nutritional analysis of our local pigs. It's the result of an inspection by a provincial research institute and is absolutely authoritative. Our pork is expected to compete with well-known high-end pork like Shengxian Flower Pig in terms of nutritional value and taste. Take a look at this column... and then take a look at our unique local breeding methods and these pig breeds..."
Without hesitation, she began to introduce herself, even showing him a group photo of their Party and Mass Service Center to prove she wasn't a liar. Director Lin was stunned for a moment, stunned by her direct response. After passively listening for a few sentences, he slowly took in what she was saying, his eyes gradually becoming serious.
"What is the current scale of your breeding? Do you have any photos?" he asked after listening to her introduction.
This involves their current shortcomings, and is also the main reason why they came here to learn from others. There is no need to lie, as the other party is much more experienced than them, and they can tell at a glance whether they are knowledgeable or not. However, they cannot just say "actually we haven't built a farm yet", which sounds too unreliable.
Zhu Yingning racked her brains urgently and finally chose a compromise statement, saying that they had united eleven positive pig farmers in the village and were currently piloting the establishment of a small-scale farm, which was expected to be completed on a certain day of a certain month and officially start collective breeding.
She played a slightly unethical word game here, saying that she had united the "eleven actively engaged pig farmers" in the village, but she did not directly state that there were only eleven households raising pigs in their village and the surrounding villages combined.
Director Lin, as expected, assumed that these eleven pig farmers were simply selected from a sample of all pig farmers for a pilot program, chosen for their "positive attitude." He nodded and commented, "You started late, then," but didn't comment on the scale of their operations.
Zhu Yingning knew that he had barely gotten away with it. He exchanged glances with Chen Fei, who was also sweating, and continued to ask Director Lin: "Then Director Lin, when can we start the tour? Can we go now?"
Director Lin then remembered Xu Sirui, who he had left aside, and was shocked: "Sorry, Director Xu, let me see you out first."
Mr. Xu?
Zhu Yingning was surprised by this name.
Although she hadn't met Xu Sirui much in the past few years, she had more or less heard about Xu Sirui's recent situation from Zhou Tianqing. She knew that he had set up a game studio during his undergraduate studies and that it was developing in full swing, but... how did he suddenly step into the stage of "Director"?
She was full of doubts, but Xu Sirui didn't move immediately. Instead, he said to Director Lin, "No need, let's go to the farm."
"Huh?" Director Lin was stunned for a moment. He didn't know why Xu Sirui was suddenly so interested in their pig farming business today. But everyone present was looking at him straight in the eye. He had no choice but to take out his phone and say, "Okay, then I'll contact the farm manager."
He walked away to make a phone call. At this point, it was impossible for Zhu Yingning not to notice that Xu Sirui was helping her. Since he was helping her, he must have recognized her. She wondered whether to go up and say hello.
But now that they had missed the opportunity to greet each other when they first met, it seemed a bit awkward to suddenly say hello. Furthermore, Xu Sirui didn't seem to want to greet her at all. He lowered his head and sent a message on his phone, his slender fingers moving quickly on the screen, looking very busy.
She thought about it and decided not to disturb him from working.
After a while, Director Lin finished his call, walked over and said to them, "Let's go, now that everything is in place, let's go check out Farm No. 1."
Chen Fei then trotted over to Zhu Yingning, walked close to her arm, and whispered to her, "It's okay, it's okay. I thought today's visit wouldn't be possible... Captain, who is this person? Why is he suddenly helping us?"
Zhu Yingning didn't know what to say, so she simply shook her head and didn't answer.
Director Lin led the way in front. She and Shen Fei followed behind Director Lin and listened to him introducing the company's situation to them in a disjointed manner. Xu Sirui lazily fell behind.
Before entering Farm No. 1, a balding man emerged, taking over Director Lin's duties. He introduced himself as Zeng, the farm manager, and began to lead them on a tour. He took them to the disinfection area, showered, and changed into special disposable protective suits.
The disposable protective suits were one-piece, snow-white, and made them look like Baymax from Big Hero 6. They put on masks, and the director even gave them each a pair of goggles. Chen Fei, who already wore glasses, struggled to hide them behind the goggles, vowing to switch to contact lenses before future business trips.
After helping each other put on protective clothing, Zhu Yingning inadvertently looked in the direction of Xu Sirui and found that he had already changed into the protective clothing by himself.
The bulky protective suit didn't look bulky on him at all, perhaps because he was tall and stretched it out. She silently lamented the injustice of God, averted her gaze, and turned to follow the director.
Unlike the randomly fenced pig houses in the village, everything here is standardized and automated. The pig houses are equipped with temperature control and ventilation systems, which can not only adjust the temperature, but also adjust the humidity according to the pigs' growth environment. Even feeding is delivered at a fixed point every day by an automated feeding system.
She and Shen Fei were amazed. Although their village could not use such high-end technology at present, the standardized breeding of this large company still provided her with many new ideas, especially in the area of epidemic prevention. Zhu Yingning was deeply aware that the village's pig farming and epidemic prevention ideas were still very backward, which needed to be improved.
The farm manager walked them through each step and explained in detail how the pig manure is processed. They use the manure to make organic fertilizer, which they sell to gardeners and flower vendors, effectively making the most of it. They also offer a wide variety of pork products. In addition to fresh pork, they also sell meat floss, dried meat, and pork jerky.
By the end of the story, she had completely forgotten about Xu Sirui's existence. She only regretted that she couldn't grow a brain so that she could memorize all the knowledge she had seen and heard today.
The visit was undoubtedly boring, but they came with a purpose and were highly focused, so time passed quickly.
After they had completed the tour of all the processes, it was already dark. The farm manager invited them to have lunch in their cafeteria, saying that they could actually experience the pork they produced.
Zhu Yingning was about to agree when she heard a voice behind her: "No."
Only then did she remember Xu Sirui and turned to look at him.
They had all taken off their protective suits by then. Perhaps from being cooped up in them for so long, his temples were a little damp, and his lips had become even more vibrant. He glanced at her casually and said to the director, "Let's just go out to eat."
The director had always assumed they didn't know each other. After all, they hadn't even exchanged glances, let alone a single conversation. However, after overhearing Xu Sirui's words, it seemed they did know each other. Although bewildered, the director, a seasoned veteran, chuckled, "Alright, then I won't force you to stay."
Zhu Yingning glanced at Xu Sirui in confusion, but he had already turned his gaze away from her. She thanked the director for taking the time to show them around today, then called Director Lin to inform him they were leaving. She promised to seriously discuss cooperation next time they had the chance, and then left the base.
Arriving at the open space outside the base, Shen Fei glanced at Xu Sirui who was walking in front, and asked Zhu Yingning in a low voice: "Captain...what do you mean, does he know you?"
It would be boring if she didn't admit it, so Zhu Yingning nodded: "Well, I was in a hurry just now and didn't have time to introduce him to you. Actually, he is a friend I haven't seen for a long time."
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