Chapter 1069: A New Page in History

Chapter 1069: Chapter 549: A New Page in History

It’s dinner time.

Paegir cooked four dishes, three dishes and one soup.

Three of the dishes were Great Xia cuisine, while the other was Artina cuisine.

She had heard before that Great Xia cuisine was very complicated, but when she actually cooked it, she found it very simple.

Because everything was in packaged meal kits, with the main courses and side dishes all cut and washed, and all the ingredients laid out, she just needed to follow the steps to cook it, and it wouldn’t taste bad even if her cooking skills were poor.

But her boyfriend told her that it wasn’t this way a year ago.

Every Great Xia family used to buy groceries on the Business Communication platform, and then wash, cut, and cook them, working for quite a while before they could have a meal.

However, the advent of smart food factories completely changed every Great Xia family’s kitchen.

Paegir watched a video her boyfriend had found, and the scenes deeply shocked her.

Take carrots as an example.

Once the carrots grown in indoor farms matured, smart machines started harvesting them.

Each machine had four mechanical arms, with each arm equipped with four picking clamps. The picking was precise and fast, picking up to 32 carrots per second.

This new variety of carrot was both crisp and sweet, with an average weight of 200 grams per carrot, significantly higher than the varieties before the Age of Calamity.

The advanced planting technology of indoor farms ensured the highest quality of each carrot, eliminating the issues of varying sizes and inconsistent quality.

Calculating from this, a single smart picking machine could harvest about 20 tons of carrots per hour.

That’s far beyond human speed.

After the harvesting work, smart loading machines packed crates of carrots onto trucks, which were then automatically delivered by smart transport vehicles to smart food processing workshops.

The carrots were first cleaned with high-pressure water jets, then peeled by mechanical arms, followed by another cleaning step, completing the preliminary processing.

If the smart factory was producing stir-fried carrots with meat, the mechanical arm would shred the carrots. In the video, the mechanical arm moved so fast that it was hard to see; only carrot shreds could be seen falling like heavy rain.

The most impressive part was that this smart vegetable-cutting machine could chop any vegetable; it’s just a matter of changing to the corresponding blades.

The shredded carrot was portioned, then packed together with shredded meat and seasonings, becoming individual meal kits, and finally sent to cold storage for preservation.

The entire process was controlled by an intelligent AI system, without a single human worker visible.

The video also mentioned that before the Age of Calamity, food from fields through transportation to markets, and finally to the tables in every household, involved considerable waste at every step, adding up to a significant figure.

Post-Calamity Era food technology minimized waste to the extreme, while ensuring high quality and health.

The ultra-efficient smart factory and extraordinarily efficient smart logistics system meant food could travel from farm to table in as little as one hour.

Moreover, the ultra-low cost of smart factories had reduced food prices to the limit, creating the miracle of meal kits being cheaper than buying and cooking ingredients oneself.

Hence, in today’s Great Xia, clean and convenient meal kits have fully spread.

After watching the video, Paegir deeply felt that Great Xia was practically a country of the future.

At the time, she couldn’t help but say to her boyfriend, “Great Xia is a hundred years ahead of Artina.”

As for the remaining Artina dish, it was a local specialty.

This dish was called “corn chowder,” with main ingredients including corn, beans, pumpkin, onion, pork, and beef, sometimes supplemented with ham.

To cater to her boyfriend’s Great Xia-styled stomach, she especially made a lot of effort online, finding a modified recipe popular among Great Xia people.

“Not bad!”

Bei Ming drank a mouthful of corn chowder, savoring the richness, and gave a thumbs-up.

Paegir beamed with joy: “If you like it, I’ll make it for you again tomorrow.”

She glanced at her boyfriend and suddenly asked, “Why did you choose me when someone introduced you to three Artina girls?”

She immediately added, “Saying ‘because your chest is big’ is such a lame reason; I want to hear the real reason.”

Bei Ming [paused for a moment], “It really is because your chest is the biggest.”

Paegir shook her head, “I don’t believe you.”

Bei Ming thought for a while and replied, “About ten years ago, I read an opinion online that I personally found very reasonable.

“Having a large chest without being overweight generally signifies high estrogen secretion, making such women more gentle and possessing stronger maternal instincts.

“When men first see women with large chests, they instinctively feel they would be suitable partners, so women with large chests are not easily left alone.

“Conversely, women with excessive androgen secretion not only tend to have smaller chests but are also more combative, making them prone to conflicts with partners and breaking up relationships, hence remaining single more easily.

“Among the women I encountered at work and in life, those with large chests were indeed not single, and I’ve been on more than ten blind dates without meeting a single woman with a large chest.”

Paegir was convinced: “Alright, you have a point.”

She then focused on another question: “Why did you go on blind dates?”

In her eyes, her boyfriend was no less than an ideal boyfriend for girls, so why would he need to go on blind dates?

Bei Ming explained simply: “Back then, the social environment in Great Xia was different. The criteria of Great Xia women for choosing partners were generally very high, and I remember the media reported that Great Xia had 30 million single men.”

Paegir listened with shock: “Oh my God!”

She felt that Great Xia men were certainly the ideal partners in the eyes of women worldwide. But for there to still be 30 million single men in Great Xia gave her a feeling that “the world has gone crazy.”

Paegir immediately asked: “Do you know any single Great Xia men? I have many female friends who are eager to meet them, even if they’re a bit older.”

Bei Ming shook his head: “As I said earlier, the 30 million single men were a matter of a special period; now, it’s very easy for Great Xia men to find partners, and none of the men I know are single.”

Paegir felt a bit regretful but saw it as a normal phenomenon: “Alright, let’s drop it then.”

At that moment.

“Quack!”

A sudden crow caw broke the silence.

The two of them looked towards the sound and only then noticed that a spirited crow had somehow appeared in the living room.

Pejier was initially startled, then exclaimed with delight, “Spirit Crow!”

As Mr. Spirit Crows’ fame grew more renowned, crows were no longer seen as ominous in many countries around the world; instead, they became symbols of good fortune. More and more people liked to wear a crow-shaped pendant around their necks.

The Spirit Crow spat out an invitation: “Mr. Bei, by the order of Mr. Spirit Crows, I invite you to attend the ceremony at the Spiritual Crow Martial Hall tomorrow.”

The invitation fluttered to the table, and the Spirit Crow promptly disappeared without a trace.

At that moment.

Bei Ming strongly suspected that he had encountered a swindler.

Such a prominent figure as Mr. Spirit Crows, how could he invite an obscure person like himself?

Five minutes later.

Bei Ming put down the phone with a dazed face.

He had sought verification from the Great Xia Diplomatic Mission in Atenina, and they confirmed that he was indeed on the guest list.

The mission also explicitly stated that the event tomorrow will be a “new page in history,” and urged him to attend the ceremony.

Bei Ming foolishly asked, “Where is the Spiritual Crow Martial Hall? How do I get there when the time comes?”

The other party laughed and replied, “Mr. Bei, when the time comes, just hold the invitation and wait at home.”

Pejier shook her boyfriend’s arm, overjoyed to the extreme: “Can I also enter the Spiritual Crow Martial Hall?”

Bei Ming came to his senses and nodded, “Yes, the invitation says you can bring a partner.”

“Ah~”

Pejier immediately let out a sharp scream.

However, Bei Ming seemed to have come around: “I received an invitation from Mr. Spirit Crows—could it be related to my Superpower Traits awakening just now?”

Pejier agreed, “I think it’s highly possible.”

She glanced at her boyfriend and suddenly felt that meeting him must have used up all the good fortune she had accumulated in this life.

*

The next day.

Bei Ming, dressed in formal wear, held the invitation in his hands as if it were the most precious item. He didn’t dare to take a single deep breath.

Pejier, on the other hand, looked very nervous, touching her hair and smoothing her hem, fearing any slight impropriety.

The diplomatic mission had said that this was a major historic event, so of course, they were nervous.

Both of them were acutely aware that the upcoming visit to the Spiritual Crow Martial Hall would undoubtedly be the highlight of their lives. No exceptions!

Bei Ming glanced at the invitation, still a bit incredulous, “Just holding the invitation can get us into the hall, really?”

He glanced at the intelligent glasses interface displaying the time and felt his heart pounding: “It’s almost ten o’clock.”

Ten o’clock was precisely the time mentioned in the invitation.

Pejier’s gaze immediately locked onto the invitation in her boyfriend’s hand.

A few seconds later.

The digits jumped, showing 10:00.

The time had come.

Simultaneously, Bei Ming felt the invitation in his hand tremble slightly.

Pejier let out an “ah” scream.

The couple simultaneously saw the invitation open by itself, and shimmering waves appeared on the paper surface, followed by clear water gushing forth.

Bei Ming almost tossed the invitation away but quickly realized the importance of the event and immediately grasped the invitation firmly once again.

He also noticed something strange: the water looked extremely real, but when the splashes hit his clothes, they didn’t get wet at all.

For both of them, the scene was simply too incredible.

Initially, only a trickle of clear water flowed out; within a second, the water flow dramatically increased by hundreds of times, submerging the couple up to their waists with a roar.

Pejier could only scream continuously, “Oh my god! Oh my gosh! Oh my god!”

Soon.

The water surface rose above their heads, transforming the living room into a Water World.

At this point, the clear water stopped gushing out and began receding rapidly.

As the water level lowered to their necks, the couple was left dumbfounded.

Because the living room had disappeared.

A vast complex of Xia-style palaces had invaded their vision.

Beyond the palaces was an endless desert, stretching to the ends of the earth.

A towering column of smoke rose in the distance, standing between heaven and earth.

The scene was so impactful that they temporarily lost the ability to speak.

After a few seconds.

A voice, filled with shock, drifted into their ears from the side, “Is this the famed Desert Smoke Rising?”