Chapter 93 Selling Fans at Minus Twenty Degrees?

In the new Red Star Laboratory, He Zhenhua was reporting his work to Lin Xi:

"The management mechanism for Red Star Technology has been implemented and is currently running well."

"The expansion of the Fifth Workshop is still ongoing; it should be finished in about a month."

"The office space for the Red Star Lab has been secured, and instruments are being added one after another."

Lin Xi nodded with a smile; this general manager was truly not bad!

Everything was arranged in an orderly fashion!

"Thank you for your hard work, Engineer He."

Afterward, Lin Xi looked down at his notebook.

On it was a list of over 100 SSR talents, many of whom had already been checked off.

"Liu Xiaodong, handled."

"Zhao Qiang, on the way."

The red pen in Lin Xi's hand hovered over one spot, hesitant to descend.

There was only one name there: Jiang Jun.

"A freight driver with an unpredictable whereabouts—this is also the most difficult one to deal with."

Lin Xi capped the pen, his brow furrowed.

A grating scale—this was the 'ruler' of CNC machine tools.

Without this ruler, the parts produced would be like the blind men feeling an elephant.

And Jiang Jun was the person who could grind 'glasses' for China's industry.

While he was deep in thought, Sun Erga rushed in.

His face was flushed red, and he was waving a telegram in his hand.

"Manager Lin! Something big has happened!"

"Did the boiler explode?" Lin Xi didn't even look up, continuing to study the list.

"It's not the boiler! It's the orders! The people in Spring City have gone crazy!"

Sun Erga slapped the telegram onto the table. Because he was so excited, his voice cracked.

"The Spring City First Department Store in Jilin Province sent an urgent telegram to order ten thousand 'forest oxygen bars'!"

"How many?" Lin Xi thought he had misheard.

"Ten thousand units! Full payment! Settled immediately!"

"They've even arranged the railway wagons!"

Lin Xi turned to look out the window.

It was currently February 1981, the season in the north where dripping water turned to ice.

"Er Ga, do you have a fever?"

Lin Xi felt Er Ga's forehead.

"At minus twenty degrees, what are they buying fans for? To blow snow for fun?"

"I'm wondering the same thing!"

Sun Erga had a face that said 'I don't understand, but I'm deeply shocked.'

"Even though our fans can blow out those 'negative ions' or whatever, they're still fans after all."

"In the dead of winter, when wearing a cotton coat isn't even enough, who the hell buys a fan to blow on themselves?"

"And..."

Sun Erga swallowed hard, his expression becoming extremely strange. "The other party has a requirement."

"Speak."

"They said money is no object, even if the price is increased, but you—you must go there in person."

Sun Erga mimicked the tone of the telegram, saying respectfully,

"We must invite 'Master Lin' to visit the site and guide the work."

"Master... Lin?"

Lin Xi's mouth twitched.

Did I ever have this title?

This title didn't sound like someone in industry; it sounded like a fortune teller under a bridge.

The bullet comments in the livestream were even more confused than he was.

[Holy crap, Streamer, did you go and get a Taoist priest certificate behind our backs?]

[Spring City? Buying fans in winter? I haven't seen this script before either.]

[Case closed! It must be the butterfly effect; the Streamer has messed up the historical timeline!]

[What the hell, Master Lin? The Streamer has the aura of a total STEM guy; where does he look like a master?]

Lin Xi stared at the location of Spring City on the map, his eyes flickering.

Right now, every place was in desperate need of money.

No matter what the other party was planning, the cash flow from ten thousand units was real.

More importantly, Jiang Jun was in Spring City.

"Reply to the telegram."

Lin Xi grabbed his overcoat and threw it on, his gaze determined.

"Tell them that once the goods are ready, I will personally escort the shipment over!"

"I want to see what kind of tricks a fan in winter can pull off!"

...

Ten days later, Spring City.

The green-skinned trains of this era were as slow as old oxen, but the heating was vigorous.

When Lin Xi got off the train, the biting cold wind made him shiver.

"It's so damn cold." Sun Erga tucked in his neck, the white mist he exhaled frosting over his eyebrows.

But this desolation did not last long.

When they passed by Victory Park, the scene before them plunged Lin Xi and the netizens in the livestream into a collective, long silence.

Early morning, minus twenty degrees.

The park was packed with a dark mass of people, at least several hundred.

These people weren't dancing or practicing martial arts; instead, they were striking various distorted and bizarre poses.

Some were lying on the snow like toads, puffing out air; others were leaning against large trees, rubbing frantically while making strange "hissing" noises.

The most ridiculous part was that there were actually dozens of elderly men and women.

They had aluminum pots from home on their heads, with antennas attached to the handles, facing the sun to "receive signals."

[??????]

[What kind of scene is this?]

[Holy crap! My eyes! What kind of grand exhibition of human confusion is this?]

[The person above doesn't understand, right? This is the legendary Qigong fever of the 80s! Those are information pots; supposedly, they can receive cosmic energy!]

[What the hell, cosmic energy? Isn't that just a pot for cooking noodles?]

[The artistic content is very high, probably three or four stories high.]

"Er Ga, look at that."

Lin Xi pointed at the most prominent banner in the crowd, his finger trembling.

Sun Erga looked where he was pointing, and his jaw almost hit his feet.

On that red cloth banner, several large characters were written in yellow paint:

[A Warm Welcome to the Qigong Research Leader—Master Lin Xi, Visiting Spring City!]

Nearby, two passersby were chatting, and their voices carried over clearly.

"Hey, have you heard? Tomorrow the department store is going to sell some 'Red Star Dharma Tool'."

"I definitely know! I've already withdrawn my money!"

"I heard that Dharma tool was consecrated by Master Lin in the capital for the old leaders. What it blows out isn't wind, it's 'Qi'!"

"Is it for real? Blowing a fan in the middle of winter, won't you freeze to death?"

"What do you know!"

"Think about it, Master Lin even cured the old leaders' insomnia. How deep must his power be?"

"Holy crap, that makes sense!"

"I must grab one. Even if I don't use it, placing it at home to guard the house and ward off evil is excellent!"

Lin Xi stood in the cold wind, looking at the banner that had turned him into an immortal, and he felt completely unwell.

Case closed.

During the Spring Festival in the capital, he had explained how "negative ions improve microcirculation" to the old cadres.

After thousands of kilometers of word-of-mouth, it had turned into "Master Lin sending power from a thousand miles away to cure terminal illnesses."

This is a sin!

"Manager..." Sun Erga's eyes shone. "You... you've become an immortal?"

"Immortal my ass!" Lin Xi's face was dark, and he spoke through gritted teeth. "We are about science!"

...

The next morning, in the plaza in front of the Spring City First Department Store.

Lin Xi had never seen such a spectacle in his life.

A sea of people, red flags fluttering.

Besides the citizens coming to snatch up the goods, there were even a few "Qigong comrades" wearing Taoist robes and zhongshan suits sitting in the front row to observe the ceremony.

On the stage sat fifty "forest oxygen bar" fans arranged neatly, all plugged in but not turned on.

Manager Ge of the department store rushed onto the stage, his face glowing, and shouted into the microphone:

"Comrades! Fellow practitioners!"

"Today, we are honored to have invited the pioneer who perfectly combines Qigong with modern technology—Master Lin Xi!"

Boom—!

The applause from the audience exploded like thunder.

Over a thousand pairs of fanatical eyes stared intently at Lin Xi.

Lin Xi steeled himself and walked onto the stage.

He was wearing an ordinary military overcoat. Because he hadn't rested well, his face was somewhat pale, and his eyes were sunken.

But in the eyes of the people below, this appearance was different.

"Look! This is what you call an immortal air and a Taoist spirit!"

"His pale face is because his essence and Qi are restrained internally, and those sunken eyes mean he's opened his Heavenly Eye!"

"This is the true demeanor of a master—detached from the mortal world!"

"Everyone, please be quiet." Lin Xi raised his hand and pressed it down.

His intention was to get everyone to stop being noisy so he could begin explaining the scientific principles of negative ions.

However—

At the very moment his palm pressed down.

Several old men in the front row with aluminum pots on their heads suddenly jerked violently, as if they had been electrocuted, and suddenly shouted:

"What a strong Qi field! The Master is releasing his power!"

Whoosh!

An extremely surreal scene occurred.

The hundreds of people in the front row actually stepped back in unison, as if they had truly been pushed away by an invisible wave of Qi.

The entire venue fell deathly silent.

Then, even more frantic cries of worship erupted.

[Holy crap! This acting—the Oscars owe them a golden statue!]

[Streamer: I just wanted you to shut up, but you thought I was firing a Kamehameha?]

[I'm dying of laughter; what kind of top-tier comprehension is this? Is this the legendary max-level 'Dihua' effect?]

Lin Xi's hand holding the microphone froze in mid-air, and the words of explanation were stuck in his throat, unable to be spoken.