Riding the wind of rebirth

The method of making the flatbread is relatively complicated. First, you need to make the oil paste. Heat the vegetable oil, pour in the white flour and stir quickly. After it cools down, it becomes the oil paste.

The oil-based filling is key to the layering and moistness of shortbread; Zhouzhi cannot pass this test.

After visiting Shenzhen and Hong Kong Island, my cousin Anxin brought back a recipe for adding butter to pastry, which makes the pastry even more fragrant.

The second step is to make the water-oil dough. The oil dough is made with low-gluten flour, while the water-oil dough is made with medium-gluten flour. The process requires flour, warm water, yeast, sugar, eggs, and sesame oil. Anyway, Zhouzhi doesn't know how to make it.

Once it's made, it's simple: combine the oil-based dough and the water-based dough to make a dough ball, wrap the filling in it, press it into a flatbread shape, fry it on a griddle, and then bake it in an oven. That's how you make a shortbread.

However, it sounds simple, but in the past, few families in Sichuan had ovens. They usually used clay ovens with charcoal underneath and a small box-like structure on top with a small door to put the food to be baked inside. In Zhouzhi's opinion, this was very troublesome.

But the baked goods are really delicious—roasted sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, and the best ones are the big steamed buns that my cousin Anxin bought from the factory. She put the leftovers from the morning inside and baked them until the crust was slightly golden brown, and they smelled amazing…

My uncle is actually from Jiuzhi Town, but he learned how to make northern-style pasta dishes while serving in the army in the north. After returning, he settled down in Jingyang to work. The pasta-making skills he learned from the north perfectly matched the temperament of this city, so he would show off his skills whenever he had the chance.

Back in the 1980s, these kinds of pasta dishes, such as chive and egg shortbread and brown sugar shortbread, were still hard to find in northern China. Everyone was poor back then. When my cousin Anxin went back to Jiachuan for vacation, besides bringing the work clothes and work shoes that my parents had saved up, she also brought candied hawthorns and shortbread made by her aunt and uncle.

As they made the pancakes, they chatted about the old days and found it all quite amusing.

The only one who felt both unfamiliar and curious was Mai Xiaomiao. She couldn't imagine that these people in front of her had lived such a poor life ten years ago.

“Your dad has size 42 feet and your mom has size 36 feet,” the third aunt said. “Your mom is easy to manage. Size 37 shoes are fine for size 36 feet. Just ask your grandma to make the insoles thicker, and your mom will have no problem wearing comfortable shoes.”

“The most annoying thing is your dad’s side. Anran is 44 and your aunt is 40,” the third aunt said. “Then we have to find someone in the family who is 42 to exchange. After exchanging a few times, we’ll find a match.”

Seeing that Mai Xiaomiao looked confused, Zhou Zhi smiled and explained to him, "Dongdian is a large state-owned enterprise. Compared to places like Jiachuan, their labor protection and welfare were very good in the past. They would give out clothes and leather shoes several times a year. These clothes and leather shoes were not only of good quality, but also trendy styles that you couldn't buy outside. In fact, winter leather jackets and shoes were considered luxury items in those days. Every year, my aunt would try to spare some from her own family to take back to her relatives in our hometown."

"But the sizes of my relatives back home, such as my dad and mom, are different from those of my aunts, uncles, cousins ​​Anxin and Anran. To get clothes and shoes that fit properly, I have to exchange them with other employees in the factory for sizes that fit all my relatives."

“My feet are also size 36,” Mai Xiaomiao said.

"Hahahaha..." Mai Xiaomiao's innocent words made everyone laugh. Third Aunt laughed and said, "Xiaomiao, whatever you want, I'll have Zhouzi buy it for you right now. If you can't buy it in China, I'll have him ask Anxin to bring it back for you! We don't have to live those days anymore!"

My aunt prepared two kinds of fillings: one was meat patties, and the other was brown sugar patties.

If we're just talking about the skill of making pancakes, Zhouzhi's is passable. The current ranking is: Aunt, Third Aunt, Cousin Anxin, Second Cousin, Zhouzhi, Mai Xiaomiao, and Tiedan. Li Laosan was cheering for Tiedan from the side, even though he wasn't as good as Tiedan.

Fortunately, they are shortbreads, so the ones that Mai Xiaomiao and Tiedan made leaks can be wrapped again, but the size will be out of control.

Once the pancakes were made, they were fried. The kitchen was filled with the smell of oil and smoke, so everyone was allowed to drink tea and chat outside. My aunt and uncle and Zhouzhi took care of this.

Mai Xiaomiao has become very familiar with everyone, especially Tie Dan, who likes her very much. He often hugs Mai Xiaomiao's leg and sticks to her, making Mai Xiaomiao reluctant to leave him for a moment.

Once inside the kitchen, the uncle finally had a chance to speak with Zhou Zhi alone.

"Elbow, tell your uncle the truth: is that biometric lock that Anxin Anran made really reliable?"

"Every industry is like a mountain, but even if you have doubts about your cousins, you should trust the country's quality inspection system to get a production license for special financial equipment."

“That doesn’t make sense!” Uncle poured oil into the griddle, turned down the heat after it started to smoke, and placed the meat patties on it one by one. “From the project’s inception to its completion, Igon only took two months. If it can be completed so easily, why didn’t other companies develop it before?”

“Uh, Uncle, you might not understand the baseline level and process of this research and development, which is why you have such questions.” Zhou Zhi understood why his uncle was so worried, and then secretly took the opportunity to ask him privately.

He then explained, "First of all, this is the result of an improvement in the baseline level. Clover Group can provide a general industrial control system platform, namely the Meeco system. You can think of this system as a computer; it contains basic functions such as storage, computing, and management."

"What is a system platform? You can think of it as a ship with comprehensive capabilities. It has a ship's power system, pipeline system, communication system, command system, etc., and has the basic functions of a maritime platform."

"What's next? If you install naval guns and anti-ship missiles, it becomes a cruiser; if you install a hangar, elevators, and flight deck, it becomes an aircraft carrier; if you install torpedoes, anti-submarine equipment, and depth charges, it becomes a destroyer."

"This is called a baseline platform. Adding equipment to the platform is called modular development. Combining the two can greatly improve the speed of new product development."

"It's not accurate to say that no other companies have done similar research and development before. However, this kind of research and development is mainly done overseas and is still relatively rare in China."

"For example, most DVD players nowadays are produced based on the industrial control chip structure of our Clover Group, with DVD decoding chips added. This was a collaboration between us and Sony, which eventually became the standard. The development speed was only three months."

"In addition, there is Samsung's home digital camera, which is more complicated. However, it also uses our second-generation industrial control chip with the MiniCOS system, which allows Samsung to skip the development of modules such as overall control, computing, storage control, and signal transmission. This allows them to focus on the development of lens control, motion compensation, light and shadow compensation, and image storage. That's why they were able to launch their first home-use 'point-and-shoot' digital camera in just six months, seizing the initiative."

"You previously asked why no other company could achieve such rapid development. The reasons are complex, but the most important is the level of trust, familiarity with each other, and experience in collaboration between the companies." (End of Chapter)