The whole family travels through time and space, and the three of them struggle together

The next day, Xue Jing met with the newly recruited employees and gave them a pep talk. He then handed the banknotes to Ma Lin, asked Xue Ren to keep up with the work, and told them to consult Zhou Dajiang if they had any questions. Then he took a car back to the capital and would come back when the new factory opened.

After seeing Xue Jing off, everything needed to be arranged for the temporary factory was done. Xue Ren had also met with Wu Chunsheng regarding the construction of the new plant, so Zhou Dajiang didn't have to worry about it for the time being. He went back to working on his greenhouse.

The shed has been built, but the stove and chimney have not been installed yet, and the roof needs to be renovated. It seems like there is a lot to do.

Now that I have a car, traveling is more convenient.

Zhou Dajiang first went to town to buy the materials needed to build the furnace. He had to buy some bricks, and then he had to make three iron stove plates, a furnace door, and a chimney.

He planned to build three stoves. In modern times, iron stoves are used, but in ancient times, the use of iron was limited, so they had to use stoves made of earthen bricks.

Fortunately, the weather was getting colder, and Master Qu in the blacksmith shop had stocked up a bit more, so the ironware he wanted to buy was all available.

But earthen bricks were hard to buy, so he resorted to the same old trick, wrote a sign, and went around the town collecting old bricks.

In this way, it took a whole day to gather all the materials.

The next day was the day for the beam raising ceremony at Zhou Dahe's house. Zhou Dajiang helped out all morning. After lunch, Zhou Dajiang began to build the stove. Lou Ji and Zhong Yin joined him, too.

When Zhou Dajiang was little, he had stoves at school and home. But those were iron stoves. Nowadays, brick stoves are used, and he had no idea what the structure should be. He could only build his own by imitating the structure of an iron stove.

Fortunately, after two attempts, the three people finally built the first furnace.

The first one is out, and the second and third will be here soon.

Then, Zhou Dajiang began to renovate the roof, and the chimney had to extend out.

Rooftop work was Lou Ji's forte. Zhou Dajiang directed the work from below, while Lou Ji climbed a ladder and carefully cut a gap in the roof. He installed the chimney, connecting it to the chimney below, and then plugged the surrounding air leaks with straw. By the time the last rays of sunset fell on the chimney, both projects were finally complete.

At night, the couple each rested on a cushion, leaning against the kang to read. Ever since Sisi brought back "A Brief Introduction to Agriculture and Sericulture," Chen Xiuying has been reading it every night before bed. It's no use; her husband doesn't know much about farming, and she knows only a little herself. It's essential to accumulate more agricultural knowledge in her free time.

Seeing his wife was so engrossed in her studies, Zhou Dajiang realized that he, too, would be taking imperial examinations in the future, so he needed to be even more engrossed in his studies. Thus, the couple, in perfect tacit agreement, each took a book to read.

Zhou Dajiang read for a while and felt sleepy. He was reading the criminal law book he had bought before. As expected, ancient times and modern times were the same. Those books related to laws and regulations were all boring and difficult to understand.

To clear his mind, Zhou Dajiang chatted with his wife, "This afternoon, I took Lou Ji and Zhong Yin with me, and the three of us set up the stove in our greenhouse and installed the chimney."

Chen Xiuying was engrossed in her reading when she heard Zhou Dajiang's sudden remark. She casually replied, "You guys are really fast, then. I thought we'd have to wait until tomorrow to finish. It's getting cold, so it's almost time to light the stove."

After thinking for a moment, she asked a practical question: "What should we use to fuel the stove? Wood or charcoal? Does Donghua have coal?"

Zhou Dajiang happened to have solved this problem in advance, and he couldn't help but say proudly, "Neither, let's burn coal cakes."

This time, Chen Xiuying's curiosity was piqued. "Are coal briquettes honeycomb coal?"

"Similar, but not exactly the same. Coal briquettes are made from a mixture of coal powder and loess. They're durable and inexpensive. Blacksmith shops and processing plants use this type of briquettes. I've asked Xue Ren to order a batch for me when he goes shopping."

At this time, Zhou Dajiang was like some large canine animal that was expecting praise after completing the instructor's instructions. He was looking at his wife with expectant eyes, and he was almost saying, "Praise me, praise me."

"My husband is so great! He thought of it before I even said anything. I want to praise him." After she finished speaking, she gave Zhou Dajiang a kiss on the face. As expected of a couple of years, Chen Xiuying immediately took action.

Zhou Dajiang was satisfied. He felt relaxed and could concentrate on reading again.

The next day was the groundbreaking day for the new factory. Xue Ren bought two strings of firecrackers from somewhere, and the crackling sound made it very lively.

In order to save time, Wu Chunsheng actually brought a team of forty people over, and the construction site was bustling with activity.

Because Xue Ren was there, Zhou Dajiang didn't bother to worry about anything else. He just went to the construction site to see what was going on, then went to the temporary factory to find Ma Lin to share some coal briquettes, and then went home. His wife said she wanted to light the stove last night, so he had to arrange it. He hadn't finished planting the vegetables yet, so he still had to plant some vegetables. Why did he find so much work for himself?

Fortunately, after some trouble, the stove finally lit up.

Lou Ji and Zhong Yin also finished teaching the children martial arts and came over to help.

On the west side of the greenhouse are saplings, the two middle plots are planted with Chinese cabbage and leeks by Chen Xiuying and Zhang, and the small plot on the east side is where Mr. Chen and the children plant carrots. There is also an empty plot of land where Chen Xiuying has soaked a bag of celery seeds, probably to plant celery.

Zhou Dajiang thought that the remaining corners should not be wasted, and he happened to have a bag of green onion seeds, so the three of them planted green onions in the corners.

After planting these, Zhou Dajiang thought about the black mud balls he had brought back. Although the flower shop owner said they were flowers, they hadn't grown at all. Zhou Dajiang didn't know what they were, so he wanted to try pressing some into the soil.

He and Lou Yi, one digging the hole, the other burying the seeds in the soil and adding some more soil, while Zhong Yin followed behind and watered the plants. The three of them worked in perfect harmony.

When watering the last one, perhaps because too much water was poured, not only the soil on top was washed away, but also the mud on the black ball was washed off.

Zhou Dajiang was about to add more soil when he suddenly saw the color of the black ball and was stunned.

Why does this color look so much like a potato? It's just too small.

Zhong Yin saw Zhou Dajiang studying there for a long time but couldn't make out the answer, so he hurried over to call Chen Xiuying.

Chen Xiuying was helping Li sew curtains at home. Upon hearing this, she immediately put down her needle and thread and rushed over.

By this time, Zhou Dajiang had dug out all the black mud balls he had planted, a total of six.

Zhou Dajiang carried a kettle and gave each black mud ball a bath. After seeing the true form of the mud ball, Zhou Dajiang couldn't help but get excited.

He seemed to really see the potatoes!

When Chen Xiuying and Zhong Yin came in, they saw Zhou Dajiang squatting on the ground, grinning at her foolishly.

And in front of him, six potatoes of different sizes were neatly arranged. Potatoes?!

Chen Xiuying thought she was seeing things, so she went forward to take a closer look. They were indeed potatoes, but they looked more like malnourished potatoes, each one was very small.

Even Chen Xiuying was excited now. Now they had something to grow and no longer had to worry about going hungry in years of famine!