History of Human Space Exploitation

Chapter 40 Fragrant Pleasure

Feng Guang: "Do you know how many ways there are to add agarwood to tobacco?"

Bai Yan: "???"

Feng Guang: "Does it sound like you are asking how many ways to write the word fennel in fennel beans?"

Bai Yan: "Hmm... It kind of means that... Are you serious about asking this kind of question?"

Feng Guang: "Seriously, aren't we just walking around in an agarwood forest? To be precise, this may be the largest agarwood base in the universe."

Bai Yan: "It's really strange to say it. It's an era, and there are still so many people obsessed with it. What's it called? Xiangdao?"

Feng Guang: "Yes, I heard that in the past, incense, tea, flower, and chess were always endowed with many metaphysical attributes. In the decades before the Great Recession, some new tricks were developed. And new theories can almost be said to have reached a historical peak during that period."

Bai Yan: "Huh? The peak of history? It means that it fell later? Why?"

Feng Guang: "Yeah, after discovering the star tunnel that can lead to other galaxies, people's interest is focused on exploration, as well as those scientific research related to exploration, and some bits and pieces related to exploration. thing."

Bai Yan: "Small things? For example?"

Feng Guang: "For example, many people will buy "9973 Questions about the Daily Life of Amateur Space Travelers" in their implanted memory. The latest version I have seen should be more than 200 editions? There are more than one question in it. The original number of more than 9000 seems to be because the author is a person who likes prime numbers very much, and also requested that the name cannot be changed in future reprints in the first edition, so this number has been used all the time.”

Bai Yan: "Ha, that's it. Judging from the title of the book, it's the kind of trivial things you mentioned? I've heard of this book, but haven't read it. What are the things about it?"

Feng Guang: "For example? For example, there is an article specifically about how to use the most common kitchen tools and the most Ordinary filling ingredients, make pizza."

Bai Yan: "Hahaha, I love pizza."

Feng Guang: "I know you love to eat, and I love to eat too. Didn't we just eat it yesterday? Do you want to continue eating today?"

Bai Yan: "Yes, yes, I have been eating pizza for half a year. I can eat the same flavor every day, as long as there is cheese on it."

Feng Guang: "Hahaha, among other things, we are really similar in this regard, and I can really eat the same thing for half a year. But then again, I don't know what to make according to the pizza making guide mentioned in the 9973 question, Can you still eat for half a year?"

Bai Yan: "Is it hard to eat?"

Feng Guang: "I've eaten it a few times, and it's okay. Although the cheese, flour, and sausages used in these places are not made in more traditional and formal ways, they are temporarily fooled with other things, but they come out The taste is not bad. However, it depends on which chef you meet. But generally, if a chef can cook delicious food in such a place, those spaceships will not stay long."

Bai Yan: "Well... I just wanted to say that I read a report the other day, saying that for hundreds of years, the number of interstellar voyages and the number of kilometers have been increasing by double digits every year, and the positions of spaceship service personnel have increased every year. There was only single-digit growth, and there were actually negative growth for a few years. Is it because these crew members have learned a lot and found a better way to make money after serving with the ship for a period of time?"

Feng Guang: "Yes, my great-grandfather was a miner on the planet Casalos, um... I guess you have never heard of this planet, a small planet rich in lead and zinc mines. Once a local shipping company came to He signed up for the ship crew. He worked on the interstellar spaceship for more than 20 years, and then he borrowed money to open an interstellar material wholesale center here, and now it is here.”

Bai Yan: "No wonder you still know a little about life on the ship. Is it the old man who often tells you?"

Feng Guang: "Yes, he does live longer than the average person. I am almost thirty this year, and he is almost two hundred years old, and he is in good health. Guess what he often talks about in front of us?"

Bai Yan: "It can't be the pizza made by the chef on board, right?"

Feng Guang: "Hahaha, yes or no, he often talks about pizza, but he also often talks about smoking all kinds of cigarettes on the boat."

Bai Yan: "Isn't it the way you said just now that you put agarwood into tobacco and divide it? Let's hear it. You know, homework in college is really physical work and mental work. Even though I'm a girl, I still know I smoke some cigarettes. But the ones I smoke are all Yunjinxing’s loose cigarettes, and I haven’t smoked the others.”

Feng Guang: "Well, yes, the finished tobacco produced by Yunjin Star is estimated to have accounted for more than 80.00% of the total share, right? If students want to smoke, they can only buy theirs. But for the crew, they can buy It is produced in many small places, very distinctive tobacco, and additives like agarwood."

Bai Yan: "Although when I was in college, I usually smoked one or two packs a week, but it's probably because their tobacco has a special processing technology, so I didn't have much cravings when I smoked so much. It's good. Let's hear it. ? How many additions are there?"

Feng Guang: "I know, or what my great-grandfather told me, there are roughly three types. The first is to insert the agarwood cut into small sticks directly into the cigarette. The flavor is the strongest. However, there are also disadvantages, regular smokers will feel that although the agarwood and tobacco are in the cigarette, they are burned separately."

Bai Yan: "Shave it into a small stick and insert it into a cigarette? How thin does it have to be?"

Feng Guang: "Huh? Oh, I see, you all smoke the kind of thin cigarettes, right?"

Bai Yan: "Thin ones? Does that mean there are thick ones?"

Feng Guang: "Yes, look." (He released a holographic photo)
Bai Yan: "Ah, it really is. We've only seen the one on the left before, and it's indeed much thinner and longer than the one on the right."

Feng Guang: "The one you smoked is the current official standard in galaxy clusters, with a diameter of 5.4 millimeters, while the one on the right comes from the distant Earth era, with a diameter of 7.7 millimeters. I heard that there are even 8 millimeters in diameter in the Earth era. , but it seems that my great-grandfather who traveled all over the galaxy clusters, and my grandfather and father who have been in interstellar trade for hundreds of years have never seen anything like that."

Bai Yan: "That's easy to understand. The agarwood stick is cut into a diameter of about 1mm and a length of about 6cm, right?"

Feng Guang: "You are amazing, you can immediately have these dimensions in your brain just by looking at this picture."

Bai Yan: "Isn't that right, the engineering girl is not for nothing. The one we often smoke is 97 mm in length, and the thick one on the hologram should be 84, 85 mm. The filter part looks about the same length, They are all more than 30 mm, and the part that holds the shredded tobacco is about 60 mm. Smart, right?"

Feng Guang: "It's amazing, I really admire you more and more."

Bai Yan (blushing): "Go on, what are the other two?"

Feng Guang: "The second method is to cut agarwood into crumbs with a knife, that's it (release another hologram), and it will look like this curl when it is cut, the length is generally four to five millimeters, and the width is less than 1 mm."

Bai Yan: "This one looks really interesting too."

Feng Guang: "Well, the production time of this one is much slower than the one just now, and the advantage of this is that the shredded tobacco and agarwood are fully mixed before rolling, so when burning, in the words of tobacco professionals, it is the so-called more Agglomerated, fuller. Similar to this method is to grind agarwood into powder and add it to the shredded tobacco, but because the agarwood itself does not have enough adhesion to the shredded tobacco, the actual effect is not as good as the method of shaving it into small chips.”

Bai Yan: "That's really careful, the old man told you these?"

Feng Guang: "The old man told me a general idea. I researched more details by myself. Although I don't have much smoking addiction like you, I always like to learn more about pure knowledge, haha."

Bai Yan: "That's amazing. I am the same. I am always eager to know the whole picture and certain details of things I don't know, even if the knowledge itself has no interest. What about the third one?"

Feng Guang: "The third is to use physical and chemical methods to purify agarwood into essential oil or other forms of concentrated liquid, and then add it to shredded tobacco in the form of surface aroma or lining when making shredded tobacco."

Bai Yan: "Well... let me guess, there may be two problems with this method, one is that the original flavor of agarwood may be changed and lost during the purification process, and the other is... there will be artificial fakes, right? "

Feng Guang: "Yes, it's amazing. Although ordinary people don't like the burning smell of lignin very much, people who like agarwood like it very much. After purification, the molecules that give off the smell of agarwood can be separated, but 90.00% of lignin is lost, so many people don't like this method. There is also a lot of fakes that make this method notorious."

Bai Yan: "Speaking so much...you won't just take it with you?"

Feng Guang: "Well... I will put some on the electromagnetic car. Sometimes it is quite refreshing to smoke. Do you... want to try it?"

Bai Yan: "I didn't want to, but I've heard you say so much, and since you know so much, give it a try."

Feng Guang: "Let's go, I'll put it in the car and try it in the car. I think you will like it, and there is a high probability that you have rarely seen this before."

Bai Yan: "Why?"

Feng Guang: "Because of the entire galaxy cluster, the annual output of agarwood is less than [-] tons, and in this peaceful age where there has been no war for hundreds of years, the number of people who like to tinker with these things may be beyond everyone's imagination... …”

Bai Yan: "Ha, that's right, lead the way, the more you talk about it, the more I want to try what it tastes like."

When the two arrived in the car, Feng Guang took out the cigarette box from the storage box.There are 17 odd-sized cigarettes with a length of 84 mm and a diameter of 7.7 mm produced on their own small cigarette rolling machine side by side in the box.These are naturally special products obtained by carefully mixing agarwood shavings with shredded tobacco.

A few minutes later, the fresh and elegant fragrance of tobacco and agarwood burning began to permeate inside and outside the car. It was also mixed with subtle, imperceptible dopamine and phenylethylamine that are secreted only when people fall in love at first sight or when they are happy. the taste of.

(End of this chapter)