She looked up at the distant, continuous mountain range. The resources in the mountains were relatively abundant, so they shouldn't be too miserable here.

As she passed by the river, she glanced at it. There had been hardly any rain this year, and the usually swift river seemed to have slowed down, with the water level appearing to have dropped. If this river were to dry up, life would be even more difficult.

After Qian Xiao entered the village, he hardly saw anyone. At this time, the fields were extremely dry, and those who could move around were all fetching water. For farmers who depend on the weather for their livelihood, the crops in the fields were more important than their health.

The village has a problem with the land environment. The river is not close to the fields, and there is a lot of land. They don't know when this will end. She saw that the bucket of water poured into the field was useless.

After thinking for a moment, she took the luggage home. When she arrived at the edge of the field, it was usually a time for everyone to rest in this hot weather, but today almost all the able-bodied people in the village were working hard to carry water.

She squatted down next to an old man, who was the oldest member of the Qian family. Even her own grandfather had to call him "uncle," and the younger generation in the village all called him "Grandpa."

The old man turned his head and saw Qian Xiao, then smiled and said, "Erdan's back? Are you on vacation?"

"Grandpa, it's a holiday now, is it okay to water them like this?"

The old man sighed, "What can we do? If we don't water the plants, we won't be able to harvest a single grain and we'll go hungry."

Qian Xiao looked at the villagers, who were all sweating profusely from the heat. He could tell they were all just trying to hold on. The water buckets in the countryside were all made of wood, and even carrying two empty buckets was quite heavy.

"There's no other way. People can't take it like this."

The old man sighed deeply again, his face, weathered by time, filled with sorrow: "What can we do? The oxcart can haul water, but it spills a lot, not as much as we can get by hand."

The old man has experienced too much in his life. He came out of war. How many difficult days must he have gone through?

"Then digging a drainage ditch, digging a ditch from the big river and letting the water flow here on its own, is much better than people carrying water with such great effort. I remember there's a drainage ditch in our village, why don't we use it?"

The old man shook his head: "How could I not have thought of that? The water level in that river has dropped quite a bit. Our fields are still on higher ground and far away. It's not easier to work than carrying water like this, and it might not even be useful."

The river is located in a low-lying area, so the ditches that were dug before are no longer usable. If we were to dig more ditches, they would have to be dug very deep, which would be a waste of labor and not very useful.

Qian Xiao looked at the people carrying water, who were grimacing. The best solution would be to get a water pump, but they couldn't get one here. Even if they did, it would require diesel fuel, and the village simply couldn't get that much diesel.

"How about we get a waterwheel, bring the water from the river up, and let the water flow down the drainage ditch that used to be in our village?"

The old man's eyes lit up. A waterwheel! He had seen one when he was young, but those kinds of waterwheels were mostly used in the south. They had never lacked water here, so no one had ever thought of using one.

"We could give it a try, but nobody around here knows how to make a waterwheel." Back then, people had only seen them before, so who would bother to figure out how to make one?

Qian Xiao patted his chest: "I can do it. I'll go back and draw it out, and get all the carpenters in our village to work on it. It won't take more than a few days to make it. I just don't know if it's easy to secure in the river."

She had just checked the water in the river. Although the water level had dropped somewhat, the current was still quite rapid. What if someone was accidentally swept away?

"That's alright. There are so many people in the village, surely they can handle the river. Are you sure you know how to make that waterwheel?"

The old man had also heard that Erdan was quite capable; the radio in the village was repaired by this girl. But building a waterwheel is a technical job; could this child handle it?

"Really, would I lie to you like that? I'll go back and draw the diagram right now. You'll know whether it can be made or not once you see the diagram."

"Alright, then this old man will be waiting for your good news."

The old man said that, but he still didn't believe it. It's not like there aren't high school students in the village. Why can't they remember? It's because they don't know how. Other high school students don't know how, but this girl does.

Qian Xiao knew that she was an only child, so it was normal for the village elders not to believe her: "Alright, just wait for my good news."

After saying that, Qian Xiao didn't linger. She wanted to help her family carry water, but the waterwheel was the key. Once the waterwheel was made, her family wouldn't have to work so hard anymore.

Qian Xiao ran home, sat on his kang (a heated brick bed), placed paper and pen on the kang table, and then froze.

Qian Xiao had only seen waterwheels in videos and textbooks, and only remembered the general idea; she didn't know how to actually make them!

"Double eggs, you didn't have any more?"

Shuangdan was having a question-and-answer session with Sun Kaicheng in the space when it heard its host calling it: "My host is calling me. I'll go see what's wrong and answer your questions when I get back."

Sun Kaicheng nodded. Anyway, these problems weren't urgent. Besides, the system wasn't his. It was already good enough that he could help, even though he always had to pay a price.

"Yes, yes, host, what do you need me for?"

Do you have any information on waterwheels? Ideally, you'd like detailed data diagrams of finished waterwheels.

"Let me see," Shuangdan quickly searched through its memory. These were all data that Sun Kaicheng had asked it to copy, which it had secretly saved. It really didn't know if there was a waterwheel.

You should know that the post-apocalyptic world is more advanced than the world the host was in before. It's hard to say whether ancient tools like waterwheels still exist.

Qian Xiao didn't just wait around. She drew all the waterwheels she had seen and remembered. Her drawing skills were average. The art education she received was all from art classes in school in her previous life. However, she still had the ability to copy.

Just as Qian Xiao finished drawing a waterwheel from his imagination, Shuang Dan had already found the information the host needed: "Found it, but is it okay if there isn't detailed data?"

Qian Xiao rubbed her temples: "Let me take a look first." It seems she's going to have to learn something strange again.

Life is tough, Erdan sighed.

If Qian Xiao really wants to learn something, she can learn quite quickly. By sunset, she felt she had a good grasp of the material. However, it was unlikely that she would succeed on her first try, since the limited materials she had were not enough to make it quick.

After thinking for a moment, Qian Xiao got out of bed, put on his shoes, and went outside. He found a straight, thin stick by the woodpile, grabbed it, and ran outside, just in time to run into a family returning home.