Chapter 24 Fainting

Chapter 24: Fainting

“How does it taste?”

Xie Xinyi turned to face the speaker.

It was an elderly man, around sixty, dressed in a neat Zhongshan suit. Though short, he exuded vitality, his piercing eyes conveying an air of authority to everyone he met.

Xie Xinyi initially had no idea who he was. But when he posed that question, everyone in the workshop instinctively put down their ice cream and respectfully responded. Jiang Tiantian, with an admiring expression, then enlightened her: it was the factory’s revered master craftsman, making a rare appearance.

Master Liu had overseen all product development at the factory since its inception. From processed foods to frozen goods, even pickles—everything you saw was his creation.

The old man had dedicated his entire life to Guohui Food Factory, accumulating both accolades and hardships. He had only retired at the beginning of last year.

However, Master Liu was not one to stay idle. Even in retirement, he frequently visited the factory, especially during development bottlenecks or new product research. He came to the factory more often than he went home.

A man who had devoted most of his life to the factory, possessing impeccable technical skills, and after all these years, still without a successor—it was no wonder the factory leadership and everyone else held him in such high esteem.

Jiang Tiantian proudly introduced her idol. Xie Xinyi, too, watched through the crowd as the master craftsman personally sampled the ice cream. When Liu Yinsheng asked for a second time about everyone’s opinions on the ice cream’s taste, she and Sister Liu instinctively turned to look at Wu Guifen, who had eaten the most.

The two exchanged a knowing glance. Then, Sister Liu loudly teased, “Wu Guifen, you ate the most just now. Hurry up and tell Master Liu what you think!”

Before joining the factory, Wu Guifen had been raising children in her hometown, spending her days either toiling in the fields or caring for her entire family. She could easily chat about household gossip, but asking an illiterate woman like her to offer an opinion was like forcing her to drink ink.

She couldn’t read or write her own name. In the past, whenever the factory required forms, her husband would fill them out for her. Everyone knew this and often mocked her behind her back.

They not only mocked her but also her husband, saying he had remarried a country woman who only knew how to feed pigs and couldn’t write.

But so what? She still became a factory worker, lived in a workers’ dormitory, and even bore her husband a healthy baby boy.

Those who mocked her were clearly jealous, especially Liu Chunhua. Her own husband couldn’t earn much, so she envied Wu Guifen for having a husband who was the head of the procurement department. Liu Chunhua constantly picked fights with her, and now she wanted to humiliate her in front of so many people.

Wu Guifen, of course, wouldn't fall for it. After giving Sister Liu a massive eye-roll, she shamelessly retorted, "What's wrong with me eating ice cream? Master Liu hasn't said anything, so why are you blabbering? Besides, who says you *have* to give an opinion just because you ate ice cream? I won't, I just won't."

She held her head high, an arrogant expression on her face that dared anyone to challenge her. Sister Liu was so infuriated by her brazenness she wanted to curse, but Master Liu interjected, "Everyone, please speak up. Those with excellent suggestions may be specially invited to join the R&D team."

“The R&D team? We can join the R&D team?”

As Liu Yinsheng’s words landed, the Frozen Products Workshop immediately erupted in a buzz. People exchanged glances, unsure if it was truly possible.

“Can our Yuanxiao (Sweet Rice Ball) team participate?”

Someone in the crowd boldly asked, and Master Liu immediately gave an affirmative answer: “As long as your suggestion is adopted, anyone can join the R&D team.”

“No other requirements?”

“No other requirements!” Liu Yinsheng confirmed again, “But it must be someone from our Frozen Products Workshop.”

His humorous remark drew laughter from everyone, and many in the crowd began to discuss.

“If we join the R&D team, does that mean we can be considered Master Liu’s disciples?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. The R&D team isn’t new this year. It’s been established many times before, but besides Old Chen, have you ever seen Master Liu take anyone as a disciple?”

“True, Master Liu doesn’t take disciples easily. But even if we can’t become disciples, we can still learn some skills from him. That’s not a loss.”

The person who said this was eager to try. When Master Liu looked over, he quickly raised his hand and loudly replied, "The ice cream is delicious, much better than our factory’s ice pops."

Two sentences, both just saying "delicious"—what kind of opinion was that? The crowd scoffed.

“I think the ice cream must have added milk powder. Otherwise, why would it have such a milky flavor?”

Someone else in the crowd raised their hand, but what they offered wasn’t an opinion—it was just a description of the taste. Everyone shook their heads after hearing it.

Jiang Tiantian also wanted to raise her hand. Although she wasn’t interested in developing new products, she was quite keen on joining Master Liu’s R&D team. However, she didn’t know what to say to catch his attention. She kept raising and lowering her hand, the ice cream clutched in it, as she hesitated, unable to decide.

Xie Xinyi saw this and smiled, "You want to go?"

Jiang Tiantian nodded sheepishly. Xie Xinyi leaned in and whispered a few words into her ear. Instantly, Jiang Tiantian’s worried expression transformed into a sweet smile, and she shot her hand up high.

“Me… Master Liu, over here!” When he looked over, she quickly repeated what Xie Xinyi had just told her: “The ice cream is delicious, but it’s too sweet. The sweetness clashes with the milk powder, making it hard to distinguish the main flavor.”

She wasn’t far from Liu Yinsheng, and her voice was loud, so everyone heard her clearly. Master Liu nodded frequently as he listened.

He had noticed this issue when he took his first bite—the sweetness was indeed too strong, overshadowing the milky flavor that should have stood out.

He glanced at the young woman, who was less than twenty years old, surprised that someone so young could pinpoint the key issue so astutely. Liu Yinsheng was very impressed and asked if she had any other thoughts.

“I don’t have any more.”

Jiang Tiantian smiled sheepishly. Her brain was like a block of wood—she could look at blueprints and repair machines, but asking her to give opinions was pushing it. Even this one point was something Xie Xinyi had secretly told her. How could she take credit for someone else’s idea?

So, as everyone booed and Master Liu prepared to ask someone else, Jiang Tiantian yanked Xie Xinyi, who was standing beside her, forward and announced, "I don’t have any more, but she does! The opinion just now was what she told me."

Still the same unassuming young woman, Xie Xinyi shook her head helplessly, while everyone looked at the two in surprise.

“Isn’t this the young woman who could read foreign blueprints last time? She can also give opinions?”

Someone in the crowd recognized Xie Xinyi, and others chimed in, "I heard she came here with her husband, who’s a soldier."

“She’s also very pretty.”

Everyone chattered away, exposing Xie Xinyi’s background, but what Master Liu heard was that the young woman had more opinions. He made his way through the crowd to Xie Xinyi, handed her the ice cream, and asked her to elaborate on her thoughts. "Talk about the packaging too."

Even the packaging? This... Xie Xinyi felt a bit stumped.

She could manage taste-testing and giving opinions, but she hadn’t really studied food packaging.

Because she loved eating since childhood, she was very sensitive to flavors.

When she lived at her grandmother’s house as a child, her grandfather, a scatterbrain, would often forget to add salt or sugar when cooking. She and her grandmother would pass the time guessing what her grandfather had forgotten to put in the dish that day. If they guessed correctly, they’d get a one-yuan reward. To earn the reward, Xie Xinyi put in a lot of effort behind the scenes, and over time, she became a skilled taste tester, with taste buds more accurate than a food ratio chart.

Earlier, when eating the ice cream, she was too cold to taste it carefully. Now, with the factory master asking her, she couldn’t just brush him off.

She took the ice cream and first examined its appearance.

She recalled that the ice cream the researcher brought back seemed similar to what she had seen in nostalgia stores in the future. The packaging was typical of this era, so she had no opinion on that.

She tore open the packaging and tasted it carefully. The proportion of white sugar was indeed too high, overpowering the milky flavor of the milk powder. This overly sweet taste might be just right for others, but for Xie Xinyi, who was used to eating food with precise chemical ratios, it was too intense.

However, this was just her personal opinion, and she made sure to clarify this to Master Liu. "Everyone’s taste is different, so this can’t be used as a standard for evaluation."

Liu Yinsheng nodded in agreement.

Liu Yinsheng cut in, "Too much sugar." It was clear he had noticed it too, otherwise, he wouldn’t have identified the reason so quickly.

Xie Xinyi didn't know about this matter; she could only offer suggestions, while technical matters had to be left to Master Liu.

“Anything else?”

After pondering a moment, Liu Yinsheng asked again, and Xie Xinyi shared a few more opinions.

In the 1970s, ice cream varieties were relatively limited, with fewer categories, mainly concentrated in big cities, with each region having its own distinct characteristics.

This milk ice cream from Hu City had just been launched this summer and was said to be quite popular among the masses. At that time, the ice cream market wasn’t yet monopolized by big corporations, so local food factories could develop their own ice cream brands.

Competition led to a rich variety of ice cream options, with reasonable pricing and quality assurance—unlike later eras, when businesses had eight hundred tricks up their sleeves, constantly finding ways to harm consumers' health and wallets.

Xie Xinyi shared her thoughts as a consumer, expressing what she most wanted, and others present echoed her sentiments.

Apart from Wu Guifen occasionally sneering and saying, "I knew that already," the exchange was generally productive.

Master Liu nodded to show his understanding. Later, he listened to feedback from other tasters. When he left, he didn’t mention anything about the R&D team. When someone asked, he simply said everyone should wait for further notice.

No one knew how long they’d have to wait. Everyone divided the remaining ice cream and returned to their respective work posts.

Xie Xinyi hadn’t given much thought to joining the R&D team. As soon as the clock struck five, she packed up her things, ready to leave on the dot. After changing her clothes, she was about to offer Jiang Tiantian a ride on her bicycle. But before the two could even reach the bike shed, a distending pain arose in her lower abdomen.

The pain was so intense that her frail body couldn’t handle it. Dizziness followed, and she collapsed right there on her way home from work.