Chapter 82 Why does this wind taste sweet?

Wang Dapao was startled and quickly flipped the switch off.

But that pungent, fishy odor still wafted out.

The surrounding workers all caught a whiff; they covered their noses and looked at each other in bewilderment.

Lin Xi's face was so dark it looked like it might drip with gloom.

He looked at Wang Dapao, his voice cold and devoid of any warmth:

"This is what you call 'a success'?"

"Manager... we just wanted to crank up the power to get more of those 'negative ions' out."

Wang Dapao hung his head like a child who had done something wrong.

"Wang Yu, you tell me." Lin Xi turned to the young technician.

Wang Yu's face was deathly pale, his voice as thin as a mosquito's buzz:

"I... I wanted to use high voltage to break down the air, but I chose the wrong transformer..."

"And... the discharge gap was too large, which produced a massive amount of ozone."

"At this concentration, two breaths would make someone throw up last night's dinner."

Lin Xi grabbed a piece of chalk and drew a massive red 'X' over the complex circuit diagram on the blackboard.

"If this kind of industrial garbage was sent to Sears Department Store, Harrison wouldn't even wait for the shipment; he'd go straight to court to sue us."

"Forget about earning foreign exchange; every single one of us would end up in prison treading sewing machines!"

Wang Dapao and Wang Yu buried their heads low.

The pride they felt moments ago vanished without a trace, replaced by a deep sense of frustration.

They felt that, in the end, they were still just unrefined laborers who only knew how to turn screws, and they had failed the manager's expectations.

Seeing their dejected expressions, Lin Xi sighed, and much of his anger dissipated.

It wasn't their fault.

In this era, crudeness was the norm.

There was no concept yet of "precision control" or "user experience."

In their understanding, the more powerful the effect, the better.

"Watch closely; I'm only teaching this once."

Lin Xi tossed the chalk aside and rummaged through Wang Yu's pile of parts, pulling out a few dusty diodes and several high-voltage capacitors.

Wang Yu was stunned: "Manager, just these few parts?"

"The beauty of industry lies not in piling on materials, but in precision."

The soldering iron in Lin Xi's hand began to dance, and clouds of rosin smoke rose.

In the livestream room, viewers studying electronic engineering began taking notes frantically.

[It's here! The Streamer's basic move: a voltage multiplier rectifier circuit!]

[Using the cheapest components to simulate the most expensive high-voltage generator—this skill is truly incredible.]

[What's that? carbon fiber? Where did the Streamer get that from?]

Lin Xi pulled a small pinch of black filaments from his pocket—

Those were aerospace-grade carbon fiber scraps he had conveniently "borrowed" from the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building Industry's laboratory.

Cutting, bundling, soldering.

His movements were fluid and seamless, without a single wasted motion.

Ten minutes.

A black module no larger than a cigarette pack was casually inserted by Lin Xi into the slot of the fan shroud.

"Try it again." Lin Xi stepped back, hands in his pockets.

Wang Dapao had a bit of a psychological shadow and hesitated to reach out.

Lin Xi didn't waste words and pressed the switch himself.

"Hum—"

The fan started up again.

This time, there was no fishy stench, and even the frantic motor noise from before had become much softer.

"Is it broken?"

Wang Dapao grew bold enough to lean in and look. "There's no sound?"

"Shut up. Close your eyes and use your nose to smell," Lin Xi said calmly.

Wang Dapao paused, then obediently closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the air blowing from the fan.

The next second.

The man's expression changed.

He snapped his eyes open, his pupils widening like copper bells, his face showing a look of unrefined shock:

"Why... why is this breeze sweet?"

He took a few more deep breaths, his expression as intoxicated as a drunkard who had too much to drink:

"Manager! It's a miracle! This feeling... it's like a mountain gully right after a heavy rainstorm!"

"Clear! Cool! One breath and even the top of my head feels refreshed!"

Wang Yu also leaned in, and after taking a deep breath, he stood there in a daze.

The disgusting fishy smell from before was gone.

In its place was an indescribable, crisp freshness.

It was as if you had been plucked from a soot-filled workshop and instantly dropped into the primeval forests of the Greater Khingan Range.

The workers in the workshop also began to gather around one after another.

"It's true! I smell it too!"

"Incredible! Why does the breeze from this fan feel just like the air in the mountains?"

Lin Xi looked at everyone's shocked expressions and casually wrote four large characters on the fan casing:

[forest oxygen bar].

"Big Cannon, Wang Yu, remember. We aren't selling fans."

Lin Xi turned around, his eyes burning with intensity as he looked at them:

"Things like fans can be made by the First Ministry of Machine Building Industry, by manufacturers in Shanghai, and in a couple of years, by the whole world."

"If we compete on hardware, we can't win."

"So, what we're selling isn't a fan."

"What we're selling is health."

"It's packaging the primeval forests of the Greater Khingan Range and selling them to the middle class of the Lighthouse Country, who live in reinforced concrete pigeonholes and breathe in car exhaust."

Lin Xi held up two fingers:

"This circuit costs less than two yuan."

"But by adding the word 'health,' we can add a $10 'technology tax' on top of the $30 base price for this fan."

At that moment, the way Wang Yu looked at Lin Xi changed.

It wasn't just admiration; it was more like he was looking at a living God of Wealth.

A cost of two yuan for $10 of pure profit.

This wasn't just doing business; this was practically turning stone into gold.

"Big Cannon, Wang Yu."

Lin Xi wiped the "voltage multiplier rectifier circuit" diagram off the blackboard, leaving only a few key parameters.

"The final look, mold development, and stability testing—you guys handle those yourselves."

Wang Dapao was taken aback: "Manager, you're not going to oversee it?"

Lin Xi patted his thick shoulder and said meaningfully:

"I'm the manager, not a nanny."

"If I have to solder everything myself, when will the Red Star Service Cooperative ever become the Red Star Industrial Group?"

"I want to see the first batch of mass-produced units off the assembly line before the Spring Festival."

"Can you do it?"

Wang Dapao puffed out his chest and roared so loudly the roof trembled:

"Yes! If I can't do it, I'll twist my own head off and kick it like a ball!"

Lin Xi smiled.

He stepped out of the sweltering workshop and stood alone under the biting night sky of the Northwest.

Behind him, the workshop echoed with the clanging of discussion; Wang Dapao was arguing with Wang Yu until they were red in the face over a one-millimeter tolerance.

Lin Xi lit a cigarette and gazed at the dark Gobi Desert in the distance.

The first move in this game of the Service Center had been played successfully.

The cash flow was there, and the spark of talent had been ignited.

Next year, we'll do something big!