After returning to Shanghai, the first thing Xu Qiang did was to go to the college's chemical laboratory.

Seeing Xu Qiang coming to the laboratory, Zhou Yonggui immediately greeted him with a smile on his face.

Today, Zhou Yonggui is completely convinced of Xu Qiang's chemical engineering technology through their interactions over this period of time. In his opinion, Xu Qiang is indeed a rare genius, so almost every time Xu Qiang comes to the laboratory, he will take the initiative to talk to him and even help him.

It is often said that people in the same industry are enemies, but Xu Qiang and Zhou Yonggui became friends regardless of age difference. They would occasionally eat together in the cafeteria and had a very good relationship.

"Xu Qiang, why haven't I seen you in the cafeteria these two days? Did you go to BJ again?" Zhou Yonggui asked.

"I went out of town to do some work." Xu Qiang replied with a smile, and then asked, "Do we have probiotic powder here?"

"Probiotic powder?" Zhou Yonggui was stunned when he heard it.

"Ah, there must be yeast, right?"

"This thing is available in the cafeteria. What do you want it for?" Zhou Yonggui asked.

"I want to make an ingredient." Xu Qiang took out a big unity note from his pocket and said to Zhou Yonggui, "Director Zhou, can you ask your students to help me buy some yeast from the cafeteria..."

"No need to buy! I know the people in the cafeteria, I'll get some for you!" After Zhou Yonggui said this, he turned around and left the laboratory.

"This..." Seeing this, Xu Qiang couldn't help but smile and shook his head.

In fact, Zhou Yonggui asked Xu Qiang many questions about chemical engineering these days. Xu Qiang did not keep any secrets and helped him answer them one by one. In addition, Xu Qiang also provided key instructions for several projects that Zhou Yonggui was currently developing. Therefore, Zhou Yonggui was touched by Xu Qiang and was willing to help him.

Xu Qiang wanted to buy yeast, actually for the research and development of new feed.

Among them, the addition of probiotics is a crucial step in the entire process.

However, the current domestic research and development on probiotics started very late. It was not until 1979 that China's microecological research began. But people knew very little about probiotics. It was not until two thousand years later that probiotic products began to appear on the domestic market.

In later generations, farms like to feed weaned piglets feed with probiotics added. Pigs that eat this feed will not lose fat, and the probiotics enhance their immunity. Pigs rarely get sick, and the feed is rich in nutrition and can be marketed quickly. It can be said to be a very good feed.

In addition, when probiotics are added to the premix, the fermentation rate of the feed can be accelerated, which will undoubtedly greatly increase the yield of the feed and facilitate the absorption of nutrients by livestock.

The only drawback is that feed with added probiotics is slightly more expensive, but for Xu Qiang, he himself wants to develop a high-end feed, so the cost is inevitably higher than that of ordinary feed. However, since probiotic feed can be sold quickly, it is actually the most cost-effective feed when all else is taken into account.

However, you can’t buy dry powder or liquid probiotics these days, but Xu Qiang has his own way to cultivate probiotics, and the method is very simple.

Xu Qiang first asked several students in the laboratory to help find five or six metal buckets, and then added tap water into them.

Next, Xu Qiang put the yeast and brown sugar that Zhou Yonggui brought into the bucket, stirred it, and then covered the mouth of the bucket with two layers of white gauze.

Generally speaking, at the right temperature, the brown sugar water in the bucket will quickly ferment into a probiotic group, and then after some processing, it can become liquid probiotics.

If black spots or odor appear in the solution, it means that the solution has been contaminated and can no longer be used to breed probiotics. However, if the liquid is still clear, smells slightly sour, and the pH value is within the specified range, it means that the probiotics have been successfully cultured.

In fact, this is the simplest method of making EM bacterial liquid. The so-called EM probiotics are composed of more than 5 species of microorganisms from 10 genera, including photosynthetic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, yeast bacteria, actinomycetes, and filamentous bacteria.

After completing the work of culturing EM bacterial liquid, Xu Qiang began to prepare other additives in the feed.

General feed usually includes nutrients such as protein, energy, vitamins, minerals, as well as various additives such as antibiotics, enzyme preparations, and flavorings.

Take the products of the feed factory that Xu Qiang visited before. The protein part is mainly produced by fermenting soybean meal, and the energy part comes from cornmeal and sweet potato vines. As for vitamins, minerals, and other additives, they need to be prepared separately.

Although the proportion of other ingredients in feed except protein and energy is very small, and some even account for less than one percent, they are very important. These additives are also the important difference between high-end feed and ordinary feed.

It took Xu Qiang a whole morning to prepare two feed additives, one for poultry and the other for piglets. Many of the ingredients in the two additives were the same, but the proportions were different.

After completing these tasks, Xu Qiang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The fermentation and cultivation of EM probiotics takes about five to seven days. Once the cultivation of these barrels of brown sugar EM probiotics is completed, he can go to Changzhou to trial-produce a batch of new feed.

...In the evening, after finishing his work in the laboratory, Xu Qiang went to the teaching building to attend his tutor's class as usual.

"You haven't come to class these two days, so I copied some notes for you. Please take a good look at them later." Liu Siying sat next to Xu Qiang and handed him a notebook.

"You are still good to me." Xu Qiang said with a smile, looking at Liu Siying.

"You didn't even tell me that you were going out of town this time." Liu Siying said with a hint of dissatisfaction in her tone.

"The Changzhou government sent a car here at the time. The matter was urgent and I couldn't find you, so I left first."

"How are things going?"

"I just went there to learn about the situation of their local township enterprises." Xu Qiang pondered for a moment, then said: "This project is quite difficult, so I need more time to prepare..."

"If it really doesn't work, forget it. That's not our job anyway. Besides, the bonus given by the state is already a lot. If you don't have enough money, I can lend it to you..."

Liu Siying obviously had no interest in the job Xu Qiang found outside. She was already very satisfied with her current life.

In addition, Liu Siying is more keen to participate in the research and development tasks assigned by the factory and the department. Such work makes her feel honored and fulfilled. Like her father, Liu Siying has always been pursuing more spiritual things. As for money, she feels that it is enough as long as she has enough to spend.

In fact, people like Liu Siying are becoming increasingly rare in this era, but it is undeniable that the spirit and beliefs of such people are very strong.

But Xu Qiang obviously could not reach this spiritual realm. Even after living two lives, he was still full of the smell of money.

"That's not necessary." Xu Qiang smiled and said, "Besides, even if I'm short of money, I won't borrow money from a woman."

"What you said is simply male chauvinism." Hearing this, Liu Siying shook her head slightly.

"Once this project in Changzhou is completed, we can buy a house in Shanghai in the future," said Xu Qiang.

"Huh?" Liu Siying was startled when she heard that and looked at Xu Qiang.

In Xu Qiang's opinion, the living conditions in Shanghai are very good in all aspects and it is also suitable for starting a business, so if possible, he plans to "take root" here.

But if you want to settle down in Shanghai, in addition to work and household registration, there is also the issue of housing.

In the era of planned economy and rationing system, the concept of "buying a house" did not exist.

Including the place where Xu Qiang lived when he first came to Shanghai, it was also a staff dormitory specially provided by the Shanghai No. 3 Factory, not a private house.

However, it was not until the 1980s that "buying a house" and "commercial housing" gradually appeared in people's vision.

The first house that could be purchased in Shanghai was the Yandang Building on Yandang Road near Fuxing Park.

This was the first batch of "overseas remittance houses" built on leased land in Shanghai, and the investor at the time was a Hong Kong businessman.

The so-called "overseas Chinese housing" is sold exclusively to returned overseas Chinese, and requires purchase with foreign currencies such as Hong Kong dollars and US dollars. Non-overseas Chinese cannot buy it. "Afterwards, "foreign exchange housing" appeared in Shanghai.

There are many people in Shanghai who are not overseas Chinese but have overseas connections and hold a certain amount of foreign currency. Foreign exchange houses are sold to these people.

Soon after that, the real estate market was opened up, and "commercial housing" and "buying a house" became part of people's lives.

The "little white building" that Liu Siying's family originally lived in was actually provided by Shanghai for overseas Chinese to live in. In essence, it has become a private house.

Since it is a private house, it can be bought and sold.

Therefore, the reason why Xu Qiang is so active in taking jobs outside to make money is actually because he hopes that one day he can help Liu Siying buy her former residence so that he can truly take root in Shanghai.

But this is not an easy task. Even if the overseas Chinese is willing to sell, the money he has on hand may not be enough, so he needs to take on more projects to make more money... (End of this chapter)