Chapter 15: The Takeout System Crushes Ancient Logistics

In the Sky Screen, shocking aerial footage crashed down upon the ancient earth.

In the Tang Dynasty, officials from the Bureau of Astronomy and the Imperial Granary burst out of their yamen, rolling and crawling, gazing up at the firmament.

The footage dove down, piercing through a glass roof.

Inside the greenhouse.

On rows of metal shelves, dense vines grew.

Tomatoes, strawberries, and melons hung heavy on the branches.

Huge ventilation fans spun on the walls.

At the top, rows of LED grow lights emitted red and blue light, replacing the sun to illuminate the plants.

Thick metal pipes wove between the shelves, spewing white water mist.

A voiceover from the documentary began:

"Through an intelligent temperature control system, we forcibly suppress the greenhouse temperature to fifteen degrees even in the scorching summer, simulating a winter climate."

"Combined with soilless cultivation and drip irrigation technology, we have broken the seasonal limits on plant growth."

The Director of the Imperial Granary could not help but exclaim: "Truly stealing from heaven and earth! Using Glazed Ware for walls, using iron pipes to create rain, forcibly forging a harsh winter amidst the sweltering heat!"

"These people of the future have seized all the work the Lord of Heaven manages and done it themselves!"

The scene shifted.

A massive truck stopped outside the greenhouse.

Workers loaded the picked fruit into white cargo compartments.

The moment the doors closed, a temperature display flashed on the screen: minus five degrees.

"Cold chain logistics seals fresh produce from the source in mobile ice cellars."

"Crossing thousands of kilometers, it arrives directly at the consumer's dining table."

In the Ming Dynasty, at Zijincheng.

Zhu Yuanzhang recalled a Tang Dynasty anecdote and snorted coldly, "A rider sparks red dust, making the concubine smile; no one knows it is the lychees arriving."

"Tang Xuanzong ran several fast horses to death just to deliver a few fruits."

"This iron vehicle of the future, filled with an entire ice cellar, runs more steadily than fast horses."

"All the world's supplies are within our grasp!"

In the master bedroom, the documentary finished playing.

Xiao Sizi stood with her mouth open, unable to snap out of her trance for a long time.

Lin Xuan, seeing her dazed look, picked up a cherry, took a bite.

"This thing is called a cherry, which is a type of cherry."

Lin Xuan spat out the pit and sighed: "Don't be fooled by the grandeur in that video just now; it was all paid for with money."

Xiao Sizi turned her head: "Money?"

"Yes, money." Lin Xuan patted the plastic box holding the cherries, "This stuff comes from Chile."

"On the other side of Earth, twenty thousand kilometers away from us."

"Riding on an airplane, that is, the iron bird that flies in the sky, all the way here blowing cold air."

Lin Xuan pointed at the fruit plate.

"Just this small box costs seventy yuan per jin."

"Buying all these fruits just now cost me over a hundred."

"Capitalists snatch money without even blinking; I stayed up half the night in the emergency room last night, and half a day's wages bought just these few bites of food."

Lin Xuan leaned back on the sofa, casually complaining about the pressures of modern life.

"Logistics costs, storage costs, labor costs; all are added into the vegetable prices."

"Reversing the four seasons sounds impressive, but the economic ledger behind it is enough to scare people to death."

Outside the Sky Screen.

Lin Xuan's few complaints, full of street-market flavor, exploded into another kind of shock in the hearts of the ancient emperors.

The Great Qin.

Ying Zheng's tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed.

"He wants to work; he feels pain over money."

"He must pay the reward of his own labor to buy these rare treasures and exotic fruits."

Li Si stood aside and agreed: "Your Majesty, this proves that the world in the Sky Screen is not an immortal realm that needs no grain."

"They still follow the mortal laws of trade and labor."

Ying Zheng laughed aloud.

"If they were truly gods above the Jiutian, I could only kneel and worship, but since they are mortals..."

"If mortals can use Glazed Ware and steel to build a foundation that reverses the four seasons, why can't my Great Qin do it!"

In the Tang Dynasty, at Taiji Palace.

"Capitalists... logistics costs..."

Li Shimin caught these unfamiliar terms and turned to look at Fang Xuanling and the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

"Did you hear the subtext?"

"That young man is complaining about the high price of the fruit."

"This means that what supports that magnificent feat of transporting goods over a thousand li and reversing the four seasons is a commercial and fiscal system so vast it is unimaginable!"

Li Shimin quickly sketched the outline of that world in his mind.

"Ministry of Revenue."

"Your subject is here." The Minister of Revenue knelt.

"The commercial taxes of Great Tang must be changed."

"Open the market district restrictions for the Emperor and encourage merchant circulation."

"The economic system that young man spoke of, Great Tang must learn it!"

"If we cannot learn it, we will never build that iron cart capable of holding ice and snow!"

Noon.

The electric rice cooker in the kitchen let out a crisp "Ding!"

Lin Xuan lifted the lid.

The rich fragrance of rice, accompanied by white steam, filled the entire kitchen.

He took two white porcelain bowls and filled them with rice.

Carrying the bowls to the dining table, he then brought out a plate of tomato scrambled eggs and a plate of shredded pork with green peppers from the kitchen.

"Time to eat!"

Lin Xuan pulled out a dining chair and shouted toward the living room.

Xiao Sizi had changed into a set of children's pure cotton loungewear Lin Xuan had just bought.

She ran to the dining table in her slippers and held her own small porcelain bowl with both hands.

The grains of rice in the bowl were distinct, pure white throughout.

The Imperial Kitchen of Great Tang also serves white rice.

But limited by the husking craft, the rice grains always contained fine fragments of chaff, and the color tended to be dark yellow.

She scooped a small mouthful and put it into her mouth.

Soft, sticky, and sweet!

As she chewed, carbohydrates under the action of amylase turned into a hint of sweetness, rushing straight to her taste buds.

"Lin Xuan, this rice is excellent." Xiao Sizi swallowed the rice and evaluated with satisfaction, "Not a trace of chaff, sand, or grit; white and bright as jade."

"To select this rice, the farmers of the later generations must have expended immense effort."

"Do they suffer greatly when farming in their daily lives?"

She recalled the Memorials on droughts and floods in various regions on her father's desk, and the tragic sight of refugees exchanging their children for food.

The education of the royal family gave her an instinctive reverence for the two characters "farming matters."

Lin Xuan picked up a chopstickful of shredded pork with green peppers, put it in his mouth, and explained with a smile:

"Husking and removing sand use fully automated assembly line machines; it does not rely on manual selection."

"As for whether farming is hard."

"Face to the yellow earth, back to the sky; how could it not be hard?"

"However, modern farmers no longer have to dig into the cracks of the earth for those few shriveled grains."

He took out his Mobile Phone, opened the browser, and typed in a name.

A high-definition photo popped out.

In the photo was an old man with dark skin and a face full of wrinkles.

He wore an ordinary short-sleeved shirt and had his pant legs rolled up.

"Recognize this face; he is an agricultural scientist."

"He is not the person who suffers most from farming, but he made everyone no longer suffer the hardships of farming."

Xiao Sizi leaned close to the screen, studying that old man.

"So amazing! Could it be that he also knows immortal arts? Can he make rice grains spontaneously produce white rice without any chaff?"

"No need to know immortal arts; he understands science."

"He spent decades, day after day soaking in mud and water, studying the temper of rice."

Xiao Sizi seemed to understand and yet not: "What mystery does this rice possess?"