Chapter 121 Scientific Research Truly Demands Great Effort

Indeed, if one were to ask where the most young women of age could be found—and where such a novel thing would be most readily accepted and appreciated—it would undoubtedly be at the universities.

Clusters of vibrant, youthful female college students packed the small shop, which had previously hung a sign for spicy hot pot, to the point of bursting. Perhaps it was precisely because this back door was tucked away in an inconspicuous alley that they felt no need to maintain their image. They were enthusiastically shouting, "I want ten packs!" and "I need twenty for my dorm!" as if they were in the middle of a frantic auction.

Seeing his younger brothers poking their heads out of the truck cab and waving, Rang Weidong hastened to shed his image of a stern, sleeve-rolling shrew. He miraculously smoothed his hair and stood by the car door, trying his best to look gentle and demure.

"Brother Dong is back," he greeted, looking up.

Even though his two younger brothers had already scrambled down to hug her waist, eyes glistening with tears, he still met Rang Weidong’s gaze with bright, sparkling eyes.

From the moment he stepped out of the truck, Rang Weidong felt uneasy; the gazes of the female students were locked onto him, their intensity—much like the concentrated firepower of a machine-gun company—carrying a palpable heat.

He had to skirt around to a side corner. Even through his face mask, he could see the smile in Shen Cuiyue’s eyes as she hugged her brothers and walked over. "Thank you, brother, for letting the boys go out and see the world these past few days."

She gave a subtle signal with her hand, and the two little ones immediately cupped their fists and said in unison, "Thank you, Big Brother!"

Rang Weidong felt that after taking them to Shangzhou and finally washing away a bit of their rough, street-wise edge, they were now being "tutored" right back into it by their third sister.

He retreated further into a slouch. "What is going on here?"

Shen Cuiyue explained, "We’ve already produced three batches of samples with different materials. Cadres from the city and teachers and students from the university have all come to volunteer for trials. But how can we just give them away for free? Some greedy, shameless people would take dozens of packs at once. I said we needed to cover costs, so we might as well make more and sell them for ten cents a piece, as you suggested, and then ask for their feedback later."

This approach was similar to the strategy for selling the hundred or so pounds of deli meat in Shangzhou, but that was just for tasting. Here, it seemed they were actually looking for usage feedback. Regardless, it had effectively protected the family’s assets from being squandered.

Having never used such things himself, Rang Weidong’s subconscious reaction was, "You can't do it like this. We haven't passed any product inspections, and besides... is the absorbency good? Will there be issues when they use it? If someone complains, we’re going to be in deep trouble."

Shen Cuiyue didn't tease him for knowing so much; she just looked puzzled. "Complaints? What do you mean by complaints? Who would inspect us? Our products are so advanced—everyone says the foreign imports are great, and I’m just asking them which material is the most cost-effective."

Rang Weidong peeked inside and felt as if he’d gone blind—some of the boxes were actually filled with products dyed red!

When he asked, it turned out a female cadre had suggested it, saying it looked pleasing and festive. Since they were all textile fabrics, they could be dyed any color.

*Festive, my foot,* he thought. In all the feminine hygiene product advertisements Rang Weidong had seen, he had never once seen a red version. Clearly, the mature manufacturers and major brands had their reasons for avoiding that.

More importantly, these pads had absolutely no packaging; they were just stacked directly into boxes! The boxes were tossed on the floor, and the floor was a mess, even covered in dust.

He was stunned again. "Have these been disinfected? Are you not concerned about hygiene? Leaving them out in the open like this—won't they be covered in bacteria and germs? You’re a woman, don't you care about hygiene?"

It was only then that he truly realized this was a brand-new product. There were almost certainly no quality standards for such things in the country yet, and the consumers of this era hadn't even developed the concept of making complaints. They were just happy to have something to use; they wouldn't have even thought to complain.

As his temple throbbed, Rang Weidong thought of a certain girl who was quite particular about hygiene, while his blood pressure spiked at the thought of a mass viral outbreak. *If I, a man reborn, end up ruined by a sanitary pad, I’ll never forgive myself!*

He signaled urgently: "Sell as little as possible to avoid trouble. Let's go to the workshop. We need to implement a disinfection process and pack every single piece in plastic bags. Damn it, we need to seal them, too."

Although they didn't need vacuum sealing, Rang Weidong felt the handling requirements were essentially the same. When he brought the three siblings to the busy workshop, he saw that there was absolutely no concept of hygiene—it was a true black-market sweatshop.

But then, he realized that in this day and age, people were just using straw paper or cloth strips anyway, and those didn't undergo any disinfection process either—at most, they were boiled in water and hung to dry, only to be exposed to the air again.

So, Rang Weidong, a grown man, had to give a lecture to a group of university teachers and students researching the materials. "There’s that thing—the glass tube with the soft rubber bulb on the end that sucks up water, what’s it called?"

Someone nearby immediately found it. "A pipette?"

Rang Weidong, who had seen countless advertisements, continued, "We should use that to simulate the volume of liquid. And water glasses—no, measuring cups. We need to know how many milliliters it can absorb without leaking. We should choose materials with high absorbency, but more importantly, hygiene. Every step of the production process... the salt-to-sugar ratio—oh, never mind that. The process needs hot air drying, UV sterilization, and finally, it should be sent through a high-temperature tower at 120 degrees for thirty minutes. Then, sterile packaging in a sterile space! Everyone, if this thing carries germs, it’s going to kill people!"

There wasn't a single person there who had any background in hygiene; they were all textile or mechanical engineering experts. Nearby, they had two newly assembled, similar-looking workbenches. Clearly, nobody had ever considered the hygiene aspect.

Rang Weidong vaguely remembered that the practice of the whole nation drinking boiled water only became common knowledge in the 1980s. Many of their sanitary habits were really no different from those of ancient times.

After hearing him, the men were bewildered, while the women blushed and pondered his words. Finally, a female teacher took the lead and applauded: "Yes, that's exactly how it should be!"

Shen Cuiyue quickly bolstered the atmosphere: "Thank you, General Manager Rang, for pointing us in the right direction!"

Many students and teachers whispered among themselves: "He started this?"
"A man invented this machine?"
"I think he bought the machine from abroad."
"Hiss..."

It was quite breathtaking. What kind of spirit must this young man have to be so focused on buying this machine just to run this business?

Consequently, Rang Weidong had to use the meager knowledge of disinfection he’d learned at the food factory to guide the university staff in converting a corner of the workshop into a completely sterile room for final packaging. He also insisted on building a stainless-steel high-temperature tower. "Can we get stainless steel in Jiangzhou?"

Indeed, Rang Weidong had already experienced this at the Shangzhou Machinery Plant. The stainless steel that all consumers in the future would take for granted was nowhere to be found in the Shangzhou factory; they only had ordinary carbon steel. Over time, it would inevitably rust and cause contamination.

In the end, what Rang Weidong and the technicians had come up with was using a white galvanized sheet metal shell to make a large high-temperature tower, then using bamboo-woven racks to hold the deli meat so it wouldn't touch the metal. It didn't need to withstand high pressure, so as long as it didn't touch the product, it barely passed. At the time, the technicians had lamented that the most valuable part of the vacuum sealer from Shanghai was the imported stainless-steel chamber, which they couldn't replicate.

But Jiangzhou University was different. A materials science associate professor said she would make a call.

While they were busy trying to cobble together a large UV lamp, she returned with the news that the Jiangzhou Steel Mill had a special steel plant that supplied the military and aerospace industries. They could provide stainless steel plates, but supplies were extremely tight, and it was impossible to obtain them without a permit from the relevant authorities. Salesmen and trucks sat at the factory gates every day, eyes aching from waiting.

Rang Weidong thought for a moment, then went out to call the ladies from the Commercial Bureau, the Industrial Bureau, and the Light Industry Bureau. He described in detail why a stainless-steel high-temperature tower was needed, how he had returned to oversee sales only to find that the biggest issue in the workshop was poor disinfection, and how crucial it was for sanitary pads...

The ladies all said repeatedly, "Alright, Little Rang, you don't need to nag; we’ll find someone to issue the permit."

Naturally, Rang Weidong requested a little extra, just in case; after all, no one knew how big his high-temperature tower needed to be.

The mechanical engineering team already had suggestions: "Since you need to maintain 120-degree heat for thirty minutes to kill bacteria—and we don't even know what bacteria you're killing—how do you disinfect a tank filled with thousands of semi-handmade, semi-mechanical products? Hang them all up and lower them in? That’s not scientific."

"So, we think it should be a long box with a conveyor belt that slowly moves from one end to the other, filled with high heat. After thirty minutes, they move through continuously, and come out the other side ready to be packaged in the sterile room."

Rang Weidong agreed, adding that they also needed a row of heat-sealing machines. These wouldn't need to be vacuum sealers—just a quick heat press would do. The mechanical team said that making a heat sealer for plastic film wasn't difficult; they could adjust the nickel-chromium heating wire and industrial rubber to do the job. But where would they get the plastic bags?

Rang Weidong told them not to worry; he would have them shipped from Yuezhou immediately.

The whole room felt that this young man was truly capable of anything. The stainless steel that others fought tooth and nail for—which even they struggled to get for research experiments—he managed to secure with a single phone call. The plastic film bags, which were also rare in Jiangzhou, he could just order from Yuezhou as well.

Rang Weidong then asked if they were confident in building the sealers, sterilizers, and stainless-steel equipment. If not, he would call in men from the Shangzhou Machinery Plant. The university staff immediately braced themselves, insisting they had the skills too!

Watching the bustling scene, Stone was already explaining to his third sister how his big brother reigned supreme in Shangzhou. "From the local officials down to every trade and port, everyone has to address him as 'Brother Rang' or 'Brother Dong.' We even had a policeman assigned to our truck—I’m telling you, Brother bought him off..."

Shen Cuiyue’s beautiful eyes widened. "If you shouldn't ask, then don't talk about it!"

They worked from noon until evening, using pipettes and measuring cups to compare all sorts of materials. Rang Weidong had wanted to get rid of the garish red, but he struggled to recall if there were light blue or soft pink versions too. *Well, let's give those a try.*

He started asking why the machine had been designed to make the pads in a shield-like, small-axe shape. In his mind, a sanitary pad should be "center"-shaped, with wings to prevent side leakage. *Oh, right, and there should be a groove in the middle?*

The materials science teachers and students were enlightened and immediately set to work! As for the shape—well, that led to a discussion about the design of men's versus women's underwear. It felt like the entire workshop of university staff was blushing as they held their meeting.

Yet, they insisted on discussing it with a scientific spirit, and the teacher even drew a diagram of the female physiological structure on the blackboard.

If Rang Weidong hadn't lived through it, he might have been as red-faced as the boys, but now, he could visualize it perfectly. He kept nodding, "Oh, so that’s how it is!"

The real problem was that reliable double-sided tape didn't exist yet, so they had to rely on the shield shape to keep it in place. *Damn, this R&D is burning through my brain cells.*

It wasn't until late at night that a physically exhausted Rang Weidong walked out with Shen Cuiyue. There was no energy or time left for playing basketball.