After testing the rice transplanter at Wang An's house, everyone tested the one at Wang Li's house as well.
Since both transplanters used the same modification method and the walking tractors used as the driving force were both new, the test results were identical; in short, everyone was very satisfied.
Immediately following this, the two transplanters began working together. The speed of transplanting was staggering, practically absurdly fast.
Three hours later, the entire rice field, which was a full 15 mu in size, had been completely transplanted.
However, by this time, everyone was covered in thick black mud, with mud and water even splattered across their hair and heads.
This particular point was unavoidable.
When a walking tractor moves through muddy water, the mud flung up by the wheels flies everywhere.
Whether it was the driver or the person standing on the transplanter arranging the seedlings, everyone was covered in mud splatters. Moreover, since the person arranging the seedlings was constantly dealing with the soil, it would be abnormal not to be covered in mud.
Looking at the field that had just been transplanted, Wang Daliang spoke with a face full of excitement and admiration
"This machine thing is really too fast. I thought that for a plot of land this size, we'd have to work on it for three or four days at least."
Wang Dazhu replied with a beaming smile
"Exactly. Who knew it would be finished in three hours? Hahaha..."
At this moment, Liu Guilan was also very happy, saying in a way that sounded like criticism but was actually praise
"I'm telling you, that lazy brat Xiao An is so lazy that he actually found a logical way to be lazy. Look at how these seedlings are planted—so great, both fast and high quality."
Shen Wei stole glances at Wang An from time to time. Although she said nothing, the admiration and romantic longing in her eyes were almost tangible.
In truth, not only had Wang Dazhu and his wife noticed the illicit relationship between Wang An and Shen Wei, but Wang Daliang and his wife had noticed it long ago as well.
Of course, it wasn't impossible that the entire Kaoshan Village had noticed.
One must realize that Shen Wei was an educated youth and had no kinship ties whatsoever with Wang An's family; simply put, she was just someone from the same village.
There were several widows like Shen Wei in the village, so why did Wang An's family only look after her?
Most importantly, Shen Wei was the only able-bodied laborer in her household. As for livestock, she only had a donkey that could barely be called a large beast of burden. To put it bluntly, under such conditions, she would be someone people avoided in any village.
The reason for this was that someone like Shen Wei was a literal burden.
Then again, while she was a burden, there was certainly no shortage of men who wanted to "do something" with her; however, whether they could take responsibility after "finishing" was another matter entirely.
Therefore, although Shen Wei felt her gaze was discreet, both Wang Dazhu's couple and Wang Daliang's couple had actually noticed it long ago.
However, Shen Wei was a very clever woman. In front of others, she never spoke too much and worked silently, like a little invisible ghost.
It was precisely this clever behavior of Shen Wei's that prevented people from developing any hostility toward her.
After a while, Wang Dazhu suddenly muttered to Wang Daliang
"15 mu in 3 hours, so two machines can plant 5 mu in one hour. That means one machine can do 2.5 mu an hour?"
Wang Daliang thought about it and nodded
"Yep. One vehicle could plant 25 mu a day if it worked a full day."
Wang Dazhu blinked, calculating
"Then if we hurry today, wouldn't the 40-plus mu of land across our three families be finished?"
At that moment, Wang An, who was inspecting the transplanter, suddenly interrupted
"It won't be finished today. Dad, the wire fork you made has been squeezed into a deformation. If we keep going, the field will end up with missing seedlings. We have to go back and replace it."
After Wang An finished, Wang Li followed up
"Mine too. The hardness of this wire doesn't seem sufficient. Now the two gears are only catching the edges; they're about to lose their grip."
Hearing this, everyone instinctively crowded around, anxious expressions appearing on their faces.
Mainly, they had just tasted the efficiency and charm of the transplanter, and now the machine was having problems.
Liu Guilan asked with a worried face
"Dazhu, can this still be fixed?"
Wang Dazhu looked at the deformed wire and frowned
"It's fine, it can be fixed. It won't interfere with the work after lunch, but we'll need to prepare several more forks for future transplanting."
Bending the wire again, Wang Dazhu said helplessly
"Alright, let's go home. We'll deal with it after lunch."
Thus, having planted only this one plot, everyone went home before noon.
It had to be admitted that these kinds of mechanical components were not problems that could be completely solved with just a pair of pliers and a piece of wire.
Fortunately, the "synchronizer" Wang Dazhu had figured out could be replaced at any time, and the cost was merely a piece of wire.
Two days later, after Wang Dazhu replaced several synchronizers, the rice fields of the three families were finally all transplanted.
Of course, the completion of the rice fields also marked the rough end of the spring plowing for the three families.
The reason it was "rough" was that the contracted wasteland and wild mountains of the village had fallen into a brief stagnation because everyone was busy with spring plowing.
Simply put, everyone, including the village cadres, was busy planting their own allocated land, and no one could attend to the contracting of the wasteland.
However, for Wang An's family, although spring plowing had ended, they became even busier.
Because the construction of Wang An's new house was about to begin!
Regarding the construction of the new house, the blueprints in Wang An's hands had been revised over and over; he had lost track of how many times.
But for the current Wang An, the first priority was to drive the crawler tractor back.
Because Wang An didn't plan to dig the foundation by hand; he intended to use a bulldozer to push out a large pit.
Regardless, a large pit had to be dug in advance, as the "earth fire dragon" (underfloor heating) needed to be installed beforehand.
Early this morning, urged by Mu Xueqing, Wang An finished his meal, put a handful of candies in his pocket, and rode his sidecar motorcycle toward his father-in-law's house.
Mainly, he had been very busy these past few days and hadn't yet delivered the scar-removal medicine to Mu Xueli.
Crucially, over the last few days, the scars on Wang Li's face had visibly faded, proving that this scar-removal prescription was indeed very effective.
Therefore, Mu Xueqing was thinking of her younger brother.
This was all just human nature, perfectly normal.
When Wang An arrived at his father-in-law's house, the happiest person was actually his sister-in-law, Mu Xueting.
Although the father-in-law's house was no longer what it used to be and had all sorts of delicious food, Mu Xueting simply loved being fed by her brother-in-law.
The moment she saw Wang An, Mu Xueting dove straight into his arms.
(End of Chapter)