The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

Zhuge Yunshu stopped what he was doing, put the homemade pencil aside, and then tidied up his desk.

She placed the completed drawing on one side of the desk and the draft on the other, weighing them down with books.

After she finished doing all that, she left the room.

"Dahua, hurry up and wash your hands and eat. Aunt Wu made a lot of her signature dishes today. I heard they are her family's recipes. And let me tell you, they smell delicious." Just then, Aunt Su came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of braised pork.

As soon as the family started preparing dinner, Zhuge Yunshu could tell from the smell that Aunt Wu would be cooking tonight.

Although she had tasted Aunt Wu's cooking on the first day of her holiday, braised pork was the only dish she had made for dinner that night.

Ever since that meal, Zhuge Yunshu had been looking forward to tonight's dinner.

At this moment, her eldest cousin Zhuge Yunren, second cousin Zhuge Yunyi, and fourth cousin Zhuge Yunzhi also returned from outside in a donkey cart.

The three of them were all surprised when they suddenly saw her.

"I was wondering why the food at home smelled so good. It turns out my cousin Da Hua is back." As Zhuge Yunren's older brother, he spoke first. He was a steady person by nature, and with his recent business trips to various villages, he had become even more eloquent.

Although my second cousin was a bit better than before, he still didn't like to strike up a conversation and just looked at her and smiled.

As for my fourth cousin, let's not even talk about him; he had already rushed into the kitchen after smelling the aroma.

My third cousin, Zhuge Yunli, was the last one to return.

There was nothing he could do; he was Master Zhang's most promising disciple, and he received special attention every day—extra tutoring.

Once all the dishes were served, the Zhuge family was ready.

Before dinner, Grandpa Zhuge Fengshou formally introduced Aunt Wu and her large family to the family.

To outsiders, they only said that they bought a page for Zhuge Yunshu, and that Aunt Wu's family couldn't bear to part with their granddaughter, so she volunteered to work for them.

After everything was finished, Zhuge Fengshou glanced at his family and said with a smile, "Let's eat."

After a busy afternoon, the Zhuge family members, who were starving, quickly reached for their favorite dishes when they heard Zhuge Fengshou say this.

Although the speed was fast, it wasn't wolfed down.

Aunt Wu secretly observed, and breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, "They're a little better off than other farmers."

So he continued to eat slowly and deliberately.

The Zhuge family did not serve meals separately today, simply because there was too much food and such a dining format was not feasible.

To put it bluntly, there aren't enough bowls and plates.

Zhuge Yunshu was already starving. Looking at the bright red, agate-colored braised pork, he quickly picked up a piece and put it in his mouth, squinting his eyes in enjoyment.

Soft but not mushy, rich but not greasy, it's simply a feast for the taste buds.

Zhuge Yunshu felt that there was nothing happier than this.

When she tried to take another bite, she found that the braised pork on the plate had already been completely devoured, and even the broth had been divided among her three cousins ​​and mixed with rice.

With no other option, Zhuge Yunshu turned to another dish, braised fish, which was equally tender and delicious.

In short, the Zhuge family was very satisfied with the meal, and everyone was so full they could hardly stand up.

It was at this point that Zhuge Fengshou began to believe Zhuge Laifu's words, that the family's purchase was indeed a worthwhile investment.

After the meal, the diligent eldest aunt Su, second aunt Zhang, and Aunt Wu cleaned up the dishes together.

The others continued to sit on the benches to digest their food.

I was too full to get up and go for a walk right away.

It was at this moment that Zhuge Yunshu told his family what he had been doing in his room that afternoon.

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Fengshou, Zhuge Lairong, and Zhuge Laihua's eyes lit up. They forgot about digesting their food and quickly stood up, pulling Zhuge Yunshu towards her room.

Upon arriving at the room, Zhuge Yunshu first opened the blueprints for the grain hulling machine and carefully explained its principles and structure to them, leaving no detail overlooked.

Zhuge Fengshou, Zhuge Lairong, and Zhuge Laihua, as expected of old carpenters, although they couldn't understand the blueprints before, after Zhuge Yunshu's explanation, they were able to roughly figure out some of the intricacies.

After the initial excitement subsided, they asked Zhuge Yunshu many questions about the various problems that might be encountered during the production process, since it was a rough hand-drawn sketch and could not be as precise as one drawn using CAD (CAD software).

Besides, Zhuge Yunshu wasn't a professional artist; she was just interested in drawing in her previous life and only studied it for a few months in a crash course.

"Grandpa, Uncle, Second Uncle, do you have any hope of making this?" Zhuge Yunshu asked the three silent men with some uncertainty.

After all, after the question and answer session, she realized that she hadn't considered things enough.

Besides the biggest problem of materials, the precise manufacture of parts was also a challenge in applying grain hulling machines in ancient times.

Even in modern times, some parts still require machining.

It can be said that if there is even the slightest mistake in one of the key parts, everything else has to be reworked.

"It can be done, but it uses too much wood," Zhuge Fengshou said.

Although he and his two older brothers had never made such intricate objects before, the so-called blueprint drawn by Da Hua was quite complete, and overall it wasn't particularly difficult.

If it doesn't work the first time, just spend more time on it; if it doesn't work the first time, just repeat it a few more times.

After all, making this thing will save my family a lot of trouble.

Zhuge Yunshu breathed a sigh of relief when she heard her grandfather say that, and then took out the blueprints for the grain thresher and explained the principles and structure to them carefully as before.

After saying all this, Zhuge Yunshu seemed to remember something and quickly took another stack of papers from the desk.

"Grandpa, I still have some blueprints for a grain windmill that I haven't finished drawing yet. This one is mainly hand-cranked, using wind to blow out the impurities from the grain... I'll definitely finish drawing it for you before we go back to town tomorrow."

Zhuge Fengshou: "..."

Zhuge Lairong: "..."

Zhuge Laihua: "......"

Do you suddenly feel a lot of pressure?

His granddaughter/niece, somehow, has a better understanding of farm tools than these old hands who have been farming for years.

"The minds of scholars are truly different," the three thought to themselves.

But then they suddenly thought of Zhuge Yunli, who was also a scholar, and they realized that there were still differences between scholars, and perhaps only Da Hua's mind was different from others.

They comforted themselves with this thought.

Meanwhile, Zhuge Laifu listened to his father, elder brothers, and daughter talk about so much.

We also learned that once this product was made, it could have a significant impact on farmers.

Then, a sudden inspiration struck him, and he had a bold idea.