Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"The pork knuckle we eat is made right here." The noise was a bit loud, so Zhu Xianxun moved closer to speak. "There's a conveyor belt over there. The cold chain transport truck we saw outside will deliver the pork from the cold chain here. They were all slaughtered this morning and then sent via the conveyor belt to the disassembly line, where they're broken down into 96 standard parts. The pork knuckle we eat is the front elbow."

“Why the front elbow?”

"Because the skin from the hind elbow isn't tasty. After the front elbow is cut off from a pig here, it's preserved separately from the other 96 standard parts. The pig's trotters are in the front of the workshop, a little further ahead. Oh, by the way, what else do you eat at your school besides pig's trotters?"

"French fries? They seem delicious."

“The fries are up front.”

They walked along the glass walkway. The imperial kitchen had separate areas for raw and cooked food, so wearing their dust-proof suits, they could only touch the ingredients in the cooked food area. The rest of the time, they walked along the glass walkway.

After walking a bit, Zhu Xianxun pointed to the right—where Guanglu Temple employees, also wearing sterile suits, were pouring a basket of potatoes into a shredder. Each potato had been peeled and was almost the same size.

"These fries will be made into pre-made semi-finished products, frozen to remove moisture, and then delivered to your school in a cold chain transport vehicle to be fried in the oil pan."

"So the dishes in our school are also semi-finished products here?"

"Yes, the lunches at your school, including the Imperial College and many other schools, are all pre-prepared meals from the Imperial Kitchen. This is because the Imperial Kitchen is essentially the Guanglu Temple's official office. Its ancient responsibility has been to provide food to various government offices in the capital, primarily responsible for slaughtering and pre-processing. Pigs come in from outside, and pork is produced here. Cooking the food is a separate step. Oh, we're ahead."

The rich aroma of sauce has drifted over through the glass:

"This is the braised food workshop. In addition to making semi-finished pork knuckles, they also produce semi-finished roast duck and other items. Oh, it's so early in the morning. Look, the pork knuckles have already been braised because they have a fatty flavor."

White steam billowed from a huge stainless steel braising pot. Ingredients were being added, while others were taking samples from the pot to analyze the composition of the brine.

"After braising the pork elbow, it's time to braise beef, duck, chicken feet, chicken hearts, pork liver, and pork heads. Over there are rows of soy products like vegetarian chicken, which will be used to absorb the oil after everything is braised."

"How come you know it so clearly?" Shangluo asked him.

"Because I loved coming here when I was a kid. You can go inside the braised food workshop here, and I especially like the freshly braised vegetarian chicken."

"So what do we usually eat?"

"After the semi-finished pork elbows are prepared here, they're sent to the frozen warehouse for storage. The Imperial Kitchen will calculate our meal time, take out the pre-prepared dishes, thaw them, and simply heat them up and pour the braised sauce over them. The seasonings are all adjusted in advance, so they're naturally flavorful. So you can have as much as you want. The Imperial Kitchen can produce unlimited dishes during business hours. Anyway, they're all pre-prepared dishes, and there are rows and rows of them in the warehouse."

"." Shangluo didn't know what to say for a moment.

Apollonia popped up, "Visiting a food factory is such a joy. This place is truly a factory that creates happiness. My dream job, besides driving a train, is working in a factory that makes chocolate chip cookies. Have you ever tried chocolate chip cookies? When I was in Delphi, children who visited often brought me cookies. I can't taste them, but this is a place that creates happiness."

"Yeah" Shangluo held his head.

"What's wrong?" Zhu Xianxi asked him, "Are you hungry? If you're hungry, you can actually eat right away. You can grab some braised food from the production line. It's not a big deal."

"I'm thinking, I'm doing a special job in a modern country that affects everyone's life. It's really difficult."

"Of course you are. If you don't live in the modern era, how could it be the ancient era?"

"That's true. But the appearance of the imperial kitchen is really beyond my expectations."

"You don't think there's still a stove burning in the Imperial Kitchen, do you? It's not a folk scenic spot. Tens of thousands of people eat from this kitchen, so of course only the cold chain transportation of modern industrial central kitchens can meet this demand. Although the taste of pre-prepared dishes is indeed a bit monotonous, I don't dislike pre-prepared dishes. Oh, by the way, you actually have to pay to eat in the Imperial Kitchen. I will send some meal coupons to your office. You can charge the amount within the limit, but there is no way to pay for the amount beyond the limit. The set lunch box is enough to fill you up every day, but ordering extra dishes may not be enough, so you have to pay for it yourself."

Chapter 230 Happiness Factory

"Ahhh!" Even Shangluo felt a surge of happiness as he reached the end of the production line. This was where the biscuits were made. Row after row of peach cakes emerged from the oven and lined up on the conveyor belt. One by one, one by one, a few crispy crumbs occasionally fell from the conveyor belt, and the air was filled with the aroma of lard-baked shortbread.

"Do you want this too?"

"Yeah, yeah." He'd been holding a brown paper bag since the beginning. He'd been walking along the production line, picking up things as he went. He'd already filled half the bag with chocolate biscuits, compressed crackers, cream biscuits, and the like, taking a little of everything. The bag was quite spacious, and he could still fit quite a bit more.

Lu Huaiyang immediately took a stainless steel clip and picked up a stack of peach cakes from the production line, four pieces each. It would be difficult to stuff more into him, as peach cakes would easily break if squeezed around.

"Give me one too." Halfway through, Zhu Xianxun suddenly wanted to eat too. He turned around and grabbed another piece—even though they were wearing antibacterial clothing, they still couldn't touch the snacks on the production line directly with their hands, so they had to use tongs.

Zhu Xianxun took off his mask and took the peach cake from the clip with his hand:

"Well, I remember when I was little, I came here with my classmates to visit. I didn't tell them this was my kitchen, and no one knew me back then. I just brought everyone here to eat peach cakes. They were the best. They were so popular that the peach cake production line broke down, and the packaging staff at the back ran over to see if there was something wrong."

"Ahh. Why can't I eat? Why can't I eat?" Apollonia's resentment seeped out from her phone. Not being able to eat was her biggest regret.

Shangluo was helpless in this matter, as he didn't know how to buy a phone that could taste good.

"By the way, can this guy steal so much at once?"

"If anyone passing by is hungry and eats one, it's not considered stealing here. Well, but the main attraction of visiting a food factory is eating fresh dim sum straight from the production line. That's why this one is specially designated for visitors, with a glass walkway in front where you can see the braised food. There are several more nearby, including a military canning production line, which is not open to visitors, and of course, you can't just eat it. The dim sum here is not a big deal, as it's all in bulk and will be supplied to various government offices and schools soon. But it tastes different from when I was a child."

He took another bite. "Hmm, they're definitely different. Actually, it's because the peach cakes here used to have walnuts added to them, using a recipe from the palace. But the peach cakes in the palace were only made and eaten as much as they could; they weren't kept overnight. The peach cakes here need to be kept for a while after being packaged, and adding walnuts made them a bit rancid over time, so they removed the walnuts."

"So the peach cakes nowadays don't have walnuts? Tsk, it feels like they've become wife cakes."

"But the taste isn't much different." After finishing the peach cake, Zhu Xianxun wiped it with a handkerchief and put his mask back on. "The exit is just ahead. Captain Lu, help Shangluo take the cakes and weigh and seal them. I'm going to court now. I have some things to do. Oh, and how's the situation with those Romans who came here to deal with the Ripper case last time?"

"They called it quits early because of the more important Golden Bough case. But the Ripper hasn't committed a crime yet."

"Are you still in Beijing?"

"Still there." Lu Huaiyang nodded. "We are also searching as quickly as possible. However, the Ripper didn't commit crimes against anyone other than the Romans, so the area we need to monitor is quite small."

"That's fine, no problem. After you finish packing it, you can send him off. Well, Shangluo, see you later."

"See you."

After taking two steps, Zhu Xianxun came back:

"I'll call you when Phaethon wakes up. Remember to come and take care of it. She's considered a celestial being, so I'll leave her in your care."

Apollonia thought for a moment, "If I'm not mistaken, Phaethon will be very useful now."

"Hasn't she returned to normal?"

"That's because it's useful to return her to normal. However, I haven't checked her condition yet, so I'll know when the time comes."

With a "ding" sound, Lu Huaiyang printed out a blank bill using the cash register and stapled it to Shangluo's oil-paper bag.

"Okay, take it. You don't have to pay, that person has already paid." He put the snacks in Shangluo's hand, which was a heavy bag.

“So you have to pay for it?”

"You can eat as much as you want, but if you can't finish it all, don't take too much. Every 'kid' here gets a paper bag, and you can fill it up as it's full. Actually, this place has been like this since I was a kid, and it's always been 50 wen a bag."

Shangluo weighed it and found that there were at least four or five pounds of snacks in it. 50 wen a bag was not very expensive.

"Oh right." Shangluo suddenly remembered, "Isn't this the imperial kitchen? I heard that the Jinyiwei wanted to help in the kitchen. Why is that?"

"Tsk." When Lu Huaiyang mentioned this, his expression turned strange. "Look at what they're producing here?"

“Dim sum, pork knuckle, braised pork.”

"We produce pre-prepared meals. Besides boxed snacks, we also produce canned food."

"Ah!" Shangluo understood. "So helping in the kitchen means... opening cans?"

"Yes, unpacking cans. There are state banquets on three major festivals a year, hosted by the Guanglu Temple, and they use canned food from the Imperial Kitchen. The Imperial Kitchen is only responsible for the entire process from receiving the ingredients to producing the canned food, while the rest is handled by the Jinyiwei. We have to heat the cans one by one, unpack them, and then serve them on plates, adding some fresh chopped green onions at most."

"So, these are what they eat at state banquets."

"That's why they say the Guanglu Temple tea soup is so bad. All the civil and military officials in the court, no matter how old you are, sit down to eat this. This is still considered good. In the past, when there were no canned food, there were a row of clay pots stewing there, and a pork elbow was heated and stewed, stewed and heated again, and repeated several times before it was served. Even this, it would probably be cold when it was served, and I wouldn't eat it if I were given it. Now that we have canned food, we should be content. At least we don't have to eat spoiled pork elbows, and we can eat freshly opened cans. Well, where are you going next?"

"I'm going to have dinner with Lu Liang and the others this afternoon."

"Oh," Lu Huaiyang glanced at the time, "even though it's morning, you can contact them. They're probably not in class."

"Beep~~Beep~~Hello?"

The call went through, but the voice wasn't right; it wasn't Lu Liang's. But it was a familiar voice.

"Is that Captain Qi? Is Lu Liang here?"

"Ah, wait a minute, she's not here."

"No classes this morning?"

"Today is training time. We are not in class. We are sitting in the stands of Wutaishan Stadium. Do you want to see her?"

Chapter 231 Racing Circuit

"Oh, yes. I'll treat her to dinner this afternoon."

"Will you please give her one?"

"No, we invited many people, including Wen Yuan and Han Xingzhi."

"Oh~~~" There was a long "oh" and then a "tsk" from the other end of the phone.

[Tsk, this girl's gossip spirit was burning fiercely, and then you extinguished it.]

"Ah, this." To be honest, Shangluo could also hear her disappointment, "Squad Leader, do you want to eat with us?"

"Am I included? Thank you. But now, are you free? You were on a business trip last month. So you're calling now so you're free? If you're free, why not come over? I've brought your contestant badge, so you can come in."

"The stadium? What are you doing now?"

"We're training. The preliminaries are next week, and all the teams from Nanzhili are training here. We're gathering intelligence."

"Oh!!!" Shangluo perked up. "Right away, right away." Daozu had promised to give him some small prizes, but he didn't know what they were. But the more magic weapons, the better. More is always better. He was also looking forward to what Daozu's first gift would be.

He hung up the phone and turned around to say goodbye to Lu Huaiyang - but when he looked back, Lu Huaiyang was gone.

"Where is he?" He was still wearing antibacterial clothing and had to find a place to throw it away.

"Forget it. It's disposable anyway and there's no need to store it. Just throw it in the trash." He took off his hat, white antibacterial suit, and mask, and walked out.

As soon as he went out, he collided head-on with a bicycle:

Pushing a bicycle with a huge bag on the back seat, Zhu Ling appeared before him again. He was still wearing the same overalls and a baseball cap, only the color was different.

"Ah!" Zhu Ling pressed the brake, "I just saw my brother coming out from here, so you..."

"Ah this."

"He must be showing you the imperial kitchen."

I guessed it right. Shangluo nodded.

"I knew it. He loves taking people to visit the imperial kitchen and having some snacks from the production line. By the way, have you seen Captain Lu? I've arranged to meet him here."

"He was here just now. Do you need anything from him? I have his number."

"Something happened. I had an appointment with him to open the Jinyiwei gate this morning so I could feed the pandas. But when I got there, he wasn't there. He said my brother had called him away—I was so pissed off. Why didn't he tell me? This cornmeal weighed dozens of pounds. I had to run up and down the mountain pushing it."

"Oh, this. Sorry, this is very heavy, right?" Actually, Zhu Xianxun called the Jinyiwei people over because he wanted to take a tour.

"It's okay. When I was conducting field research in Sichuan, I also carried dozens of kilograms of apples. I have to use this now. I have to feed the panda when I see it, and then I help check its body while it is eating the apples." As he was speaking, Lu Huaiyang came from another direction. He also received a call and went to find Zhu Ling.

"Okay." She handed a bag of cornmeal to Lu Huaiyang, "Please just mix the dough according to the recipe. Do you still remember the recipe?"

"Remember, cornmeal, rice bran, soybean flour, etc. We also make panda steamed bread here. Is this a new recipe?"

"Yeah." Zhu Ling nodded. "Nowadays, we've discovered that many pandas prefer cornmeal. It makes their fur look better. So, I'll leave it to you, Uncle Lu. Please take it to the panda house in the Imperial Garden. I'll be back this afternoon to feed the cats. I have things to do in the morning. See you later. And Shangluo, see you next time."

The goodbyes came much faster than Shangluo had expected. Holding a paper bag of snacks, Shangluo ran into Zhu Ling again at Xiamafang subway station.

The two looked at each other, smiled, and then walked into the same gate.

"Hmm?" The two looked at each other for a moment longer before walking onto the same platform again.

At Exit 3 of Wutaishan Subway Station, two people stood in front of the gate of Wutaishan Racetrack.

"Ah," Shangluo confirmed. "Are you here to gather intelligence as well?"

"What do you mean by gathering intelligence? Come and watch the game."

".By the way, I haven't asked yet, where do you go to school?"

"It's a secondary school affiliated with the Imperial College. We also have an engineering department. But I'm studying agriculture, so they asked me to come... um... to watch the game."

"Eh? Can unrelated people also participate?"

"Ahem." She coughed a few times, "Face, face."

Shangluo understood. The Zhu family's reputation was limitless, and even the most insignificant things could be done. Although unrelated people couldn't enter casually, she could establish a connection with anything at any time, and thus enter.

Shangluo thought about it and thought he'd heard they were also going to compete, but their results over the years hadn't been very good. After all, it wasn't a professional training school for craftsmen. While the teaching staff was comparable, the Imperial College was located right in the middle of the Confucius Temple, leaving little room for practice. Their performance and cars were pretty average, so they weren't very noticeable.

"By the way, I haven't asked you which school you are from yet?"

"Mount Wutai"

"Are you from the Longjiang team?!" Zhu Ling took a few steps back.