"Compressed … biscuits?"
Tang Yue nodded. He took out all the remaining compressed biscuits from the cabinet and piled them on the table. They were taller than Tang Yue himself.
These were Tang Yue's main rations. The soft buns and canned food stored in Kunlun Station were basically all gone. Among them, fruits and vegetables with shorter shelf lives were the first to be consumed, followed by meat, pasta, and other rehydrated foods. When Old Cat and Tang Yue delivered supplies to the space station, they tended to give Mai Dong canned food that tasted better, carrying forward the Chinese tradition of sacrificing oneself for others.
Today, Kunlun Station only had these hard and heavy compressed biscuits. They came in a variety of flavors, such as braised beef, pickled cabbage, fresh shrimp and fish, and chicken stewed with mushrooms. In fact, they all tasted the same. They were stacked up like bricks and could be used to smash someone to death. They were the main culprit behind Tang Yue's constipation.
The food in the early missions of the Mars Project followed the style of military rations. It required high energy, was small, had a long shelf life, and was easy to carry around. It included luncheon meat, chocolate, energy bars, and compressed biscuits. There was also chewing gum to help the consumer maintain their calmness. However, due to its terrible taste, it was unanimously rejected by the astronauts. Some people jokingly called it "diet food." Therefore, such food was eliminated in later missions and did not become the mainstream.
The many compressed biscuits in Kunlun Station were a legacy of history. No one wanted to eat them, but it was too troublesome to take them back. Therefore, they simply left them in the station as emergency food. Whoever wanted to eat them could eat them. After all, these things would not spoil for decades.
"Do compressed biscuits contain vitamin C?" Mai Dong asked.
"In theory, no." Tang Yue weighed the compressed biscuit in his hand. "Mai Dong, what's vitamin C?"
The girl subconsciously replied, "Ascorbic acid?"
"L-Ascorbic acid."
Tang Yue nodded. "Vitamin C itself is not stable. It only exists stably in an acidic environment, but it is easily oxidized in the air. The raw materials of the compressed biscuits contain sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, and the production process is basically in an alkaline environment. It is also subjected to high-temperature, high-pressure sterilization and baking, so normal compressed biscuits do not contain vitamin C."
"Normal … compressed biscuits?" Mai Dong realized that this adjective was very abrupt.
If there were normal compressed biscuits, how could there be abnormal compressed biscuits?
"That's right. Normal compressed biscuits don't contain Vitamin C, but those idiots at the nutrition center used to make abnormal compressed biscuits." Tang Yue picked through the mountain of biscuits on the table. "Mai Dong, do you know Yang?
Cryptic Yang? "
Cryptic Yang?
Mai Dong frowned. What kind of name was that?
Were his parents programmers who had a mental breakdown because of a software bug?
"Cryptic Yang is the person who has been clamoring to make canned Swedish herring soaked in Laoshan White Flower Snake Grass Water."
Mai Dong suddenly understood. She understood with Tang Yue's reminder. Although she had never heard of this guy's name, his heroic feats had already spread far and wide. The entire nutrition center was rumored to have a peerless man who bought a wall of canned Swedish herring and another wall of Laoshan White Flower Snake Grass Water. He buried himself in the lab every day, wearing a gas mask and using an electronic balance to weigh the fish. Since then, the entire building had become unbearably smelly. Everyone speculated that this guy might be trying to create a biological weapon.
"Yang told me that his mentor was once in charge of a project. The topic was about the nutritional retention of compressed biscuits. A group of people in the nutrition center used a new method and process to make biscuits. The goal was to preserve as much of the nutrients in the biscuits as possible."
Tang Yue tried hard to recall. "I remember Yang's original words were … 'The old man developed a process to make compressed biscuits in an acidic environment without high-temperature or high-pressure baking … We can save on vitamins in the future.'"
"Vitamins can be stored in the biscuits?"
"Not only did they store vitamins in the biscuits, but they also stuffed in all the trace elements necessary for the human body to make a nutritious biscuit that was convenient to eat."
Tang Yue nodded. "But it turned out that this was just a very obvious plan. The project eventually failed."
"Why?"
"Because it was too disgusting. The cold processed biscuits were not puffed. Everyone said that the biscuits tasted like brick dust. Not only was it disgusting, but it also made one's teeth hurt. They would rather take vitamin pills than eat these so-called nutritious biscuits."
Tang Yue explained. "In fact, there was no need to stuff all the vitamins into the biscuits. The development of aerospace food was more diversified. This plan was destined to fail. But it was said that this plan was led by CNSA. Because of their reputation, they still went ahead with it."
Mai Dong nodded. This was understandable.
No matter how big the world was, reputation was the most important thing.
"After the successful trial production of the cold processed biscuits, they entered the diet of the astronauts of the Mars program and were sent to the Orion spacecraft as a supplement source of trace elements and vitamins for the crew. The superiors even proposed to remove the multivitamin pills from the supplies, but they were met with fierce opposition from the subordinates. Some people even said that if they were allowed to eat such things again, they would refuse to carry out the mission."
Tang Yue continued. "The cold processed biscuits were quickly removed from the throne amidst the shouting and fighting. Later, the status of the compressed biscuits became lower and lower. They were gradually withdrawn from the crew's diet, and no one cared about these biscuits anymore..."
"How could they win the bid for such disgusting biscuits?"
Mai Dong felt that it was a little unbelievable. She was a newcomer and had never eaten such earth-shattering biscuits before.
"Because the manufacturer was connected and had a very deep interest dispute with the logistics department. The cold processed biscuits were a key national project. The people under the project made more than 10 million from the funds of this project."
Tang Yue explained. "After this matter was exposed, the first and second leaders of the group were all arrested. They were charged with bribery and a large amount of money from unknown sources. It was said that the amount was more than 200 million."
Mai Dong was amazed. As a small member of the expedition team, hundreds of millions of kilometers away in the orbit of Mars, hearing these things from Earth really made her feel like a spectator.
She had also heard about the messy interests involved in the Mars landing program, but she did not care. To Mai Dong, the Mars program was a bright pearl in the development of human civilization. It was a great milestone. But to some people on Earth, the Mars program was a huge gold mine. It was an opportunity to become rich overnight. Even if they could get one in ten thousand benefits from it, they could still make a lot of money.
Under the magnificent miracle, there were twisted maggots and shadows.
Not everyone was looking up at the starry sky.
Mai Dong patted her cheeks and returned to the topic at hand.
"You mean that this part of the biscuits contains vitamin C?
The cold processed biscuits? "
"Yes!"
"Where are these biscuits?" Mai Dong asked.
Tang Yue pointed to the compressed biscuits on the table. "It's in Kunlun Station, right here, right in front of me!"
Tang Yue walked quickly around the table, both his index fingers pressed tightly against his temples. He was trying hard to recall.
"Let me think, let me think!
The cold processed biscuits were not used for long. When was it put into use?
When was it put into use … When I left Earth, it was early 2052. At that time, Yang told me that it was six years ago!
Six years ago, the cold processed biscuits officially entered the Mars program, which is 2046! "
"The cold processed biscuit program was discontinued two years later. It was abandoned since then, and the production of compressed biscuits returned to normal. That is to say, from 2046 to 2048, all the biscuits produced in China were cold processed!"
Tang Yue let out a long sigh of relief. "From 2046 to 2048, which Mars missions were there?"
"The eleventh landing mission in March 2047. The Orion spacecraft flew for the fourth time. That was the last mission to build the scientific research station."
"Then the compressed biscuits brought from the eleventh landing mission are what I want!"
To be honest, finding vitamins in the compressed biscuits was an idea that Tang Yue came up with at the last minute. He happened to remember what Yang had said to him when he was chatting with him at the nutrition center. At that time, the two of them were sitting together for a meal, and Tang Yue was just casually listening. He never thought that this could actually save Tang Yue's life.
It was really unintentional.