Riding the wind of rebirth

Xu Anxin was very satisfied with Zhou Zhi's attitude and knew that she had made the right choice in coming here. She was good at business marketing, her brother was good at research and development, and her sister-in-law was good at accounting. Everyone felt that fingerprint recognition locks were a good development project that could improve the "technological content" of Jinan Locks and add another profit growth point on the basis of mature anti-theft lock technology.

However, everyone thought that fingerprint locks were the only option. Now, after hearing what Elbow said, they realized that there are so many aspects to human biometrics. The technical issues that they were most concerned about were no longer the focus in his eyes.

But that's fine too. What Elbow meant was that the part of the technology she wanted wasn't the issue at all; what was more important were the technologies they didn't know about.

This is interesting. Even Jinan doesn't know, so other domestic and even international competitors probably aren't aware either. Elbow has already made the weaknesses of fingerprint recognition very clear. What if, after competitors have spent huge sums of money developing fingerprint locks, Jinan suddenly launches a recognition technology that is one or two generations ahead of theirs, and makes the public aware of the problems with fingerprint recognition...

Xu Anxin is a strong woman who has fought her way up in the market. Her kindness is never used to deal with her opponents. In the blink of an eye, she figured out the key to this matter and raised her chin at Li Laosan: "Hey, information broker, what do you say?"

"Wife, you can't blame me for this! You didn't mention it before!" Li Laosan quickly protested.

"Did I say I blamed you? I'm asking what we do now!" Xu Anxin was very dissatisfied with Li Laosan revealing his tigress nature, but now was not the time to argue about such things.

"I'll make the arrangements right away. I'll make a satellite phone call as soon as I get to the grain depot!"

"Alright then," Xu Anxin said with a smile. "I think I'll go back to Shenzhen with Tiedan today or tomorrow."

"No way!" Zhou Zhi quickly stopped him. "We're already here, why not stay a few more days? It'll be so hot going back now. The climate in Liangshan is so nice, it's perfect for a couple of days of rest and to escape the heat. Oh, by the way, didn't you say the pomegranates at the base were delicious the other day? I'll take you straight to the place where they're grown and eat as many as you want!"

Where is it? Is it far?

“We have a car, and it’s not far. There’s a well-preserved ancient city there that we’ve wanted to visit for a long time.”

"Okay, then let's stay for two more days!"

Actually, this trip is not short. Meigu and Huili are located north and south of Xichang, respectively, and are both about three hours away from Xichang by car.

So the route started from Meigu, went to Xichang, then to Dechang, and finally arrived at Huili.

As the car passed through a village in Dechang, Li Yijia noticed that the villagers, especially the women, dressed differently from those in Lianhe Township: "Hey? Zhouzi, the Yi people here dress more brightly."

“They are not Yi people.” Jili Azi rarely has the opportunity to travel, but this time Zhou Zhi pulled her into the car. After only glancing at the scenery outside the car window, she said, “They are Hua Lisu.”

The women on the roadside wore short-sleeved shirts and skirts that reached their ankles. The skirts had many pleats and the colors of their clothes were very bright. Their shirts and skirts were embroidered with many colorful laces. They also wore floral headscarves and large copper or silver earrings that swayed as they walked, making them look graceful and charming.

If you look closely at the girls, you can see that there are differences from childhood to adulthood. Little girls usually have three pointed hairs on their heads. The older the child is, the more pointed the hairs become. It seems that girls over fourteen or fifteen years old have full hair. After the hair is full, the girls wear a "colorful hat" made of wool ribbons on their heads, with two braids tied under the "hat".

The older women, who were clearly married, dressed differently. They wore a silver earring in each ear, and their tops were made of self-woven dyed cloth with seven or eight lace trims on the collar, and as many as twenty. They wore skirts with a five-inch-wide white cloth attached to the inside of the skirt. The white cloth was decorated with six circles of patterns embroidered with floral thread, and they wore red and black wool belts around their waists.

Whether young girls or older women, the clothes were all very beautiful, truly deserving of Gillette Azi's description of them as "flowery".

They also particularly enjoy doing handicrafts and singing. When Zhou Zhi drove by, he noticed that they were mostly gathered together, sewing or knitting while singing for fun. "Hey? An Xin and the others have stopped their car," Mai Xiaomiao reminded Zhou Zhi.

This time, everyone was driving two cars, Zhou Zhi was driving one and Li Laosan was driving the other. Li Laosan didn't know the way, so when they stopped behind, Zhou Zhi had no choice but to stop as well.

After getting off the car, Zhou Zhi noticed that Li Laosan's family had already walked up to a small group of people, looking at their handicrafts with curious eyes.

"What has your cousin taken a fancy to?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"No, I just stopped to watch because their clothes were so pretty and they sang so well." My cousin Anxin got playful: "What are they holding in their hands?"

"Hello," Zhou Zhixian greeted the ethnic minority women who were looking at them curiously. "We're from Lianhe Township, Meigu County. Are you making fire grass?"

The slight wariness in the women's eyes vanished instantly. One of the women, who seemed to be the leader, said, "The young men from Lianhe Township are quite good. Do the girls from your township also gather fire grass?"

“We don’t have that; we usually make felt,” Gilles said.

"How did this kid know that?"

“Him? He’s like a reincarnation of the God of Literature, he knows everything,” Gillette joked.

"What is 'Hock and Fire Grass'?"

"Fire grass is white wormwood, which is somewhat similar to mugwort. This grass has white down on its back. You can peel off the downy layer on the back and twist it into a thread by hand. This is fire grass."

"How much effort would it take to weave just one garment?" Old Li was dumbfounded.

"Two catties of fire grass and a piece of clothing, sister, am I right?"

“Yes! This time of year is when we go into the mountains to collect fire grass. The men in the family have to collect it for eight days and four times to gather enough for one pound of Aled white cotton.”

"That will take half a month and a day more," Li Laosan calculated.

"It's more than that. That's just the work of gathering herbs. The rest—twisting ropes, spinning thread, and weaving cloth—is all our job," the eldest sister said. "We're busy from morning till night, and we can only twist about a foot and a half of thread a day. After that, we have to dye it, weave it, and make clothes."

"So our village doesn't make it anymore, we've switched to using wool," Gillie Azi said. "I haven't seen fire grass cloth in a long time."

"That's impressive." Xu Anxin seemed quite interested: "Sister, do you have any finished knitted pieces here? Could you sell us some?" (End of Chapter)