Now, hearing my second great-uncle mention wanting to start a clay stove business...
When Grandpa Xu saw that his family supported his decision, his wrinkled face beamed with joy.
Once everything was decided, everyone got right to it.
After sunset that day, Grandpa Xu took his family out to find suitable clay.
This trip was undertaken by Xu Haiguo, who drove an electric tricycle. Sitting in the back of the tricycle, Grandpa Xu continuously shared his knowledge about the clay needed to make clay stoves with everyone along the way.
"This kind of clay, which is suitable for making clay stoves, can usually be found by the river. Xiao Hai, take us to the Changyan River and let's take a look!"
Based on his past experience, Grandpa Xu asked his nephew Xu Haiguo to take them to the river.
After they arrived at the Changyan River, the group dug around in the exposed riverbed and found suitable clay.
Fortunately, the location was on the riverbank, and even if there were people catching fish in the river, they were quite far away. So Xu Lai and the others put the soil they dug up into bags, and Xu Lai casually put them into an empty space outside the space warehouse.
"Second Uncle, should we continue digging?"
Seeing that it was already pitch black, Xu Chao straightened up, holding a shovel covered in mud, and looked at Old Master Xu.
"Haha, it's because Second Uncle didn't check the time!" Old Master Xu stopped shoveling when he saw that only their section of the river was lit, and he was quite embarrassed.
He had come here on a whim, and since the soil here was just right, he thought he should dig up some more to take back.
Anyway, my eldest granddaughter's space can hold a lot, but I didn't expect to get so busy that I even forgot about the time.
Fortunately, for some reason, the eldest granddaughter's space automatically ejects people after dark, but animals and other things can still be put in normally.
"Lai Lai, how many bags of soil have we dug this time?"
Xu Haiguo asked as he packed up his tools.
"Including these two bags, we dug up a total of fifteen bags!"
At that time, the weather was hot and the soil was dry. When they first started to determine whether the soil was suitable, they poured water from the river onto the cracked soil and then used tools to mix it into mud to make a judgment.
When digging, water is needed to irrigate the dry soil until it is semi-dry, making the digging process quite difficult and slow.
"Fifteen bags? That should last for a while!"
Grandpa Xu nodded, satisfied.
After filling the soil, Xu Lai washed his hands and then knocked down the rechargeable incandescent light bulb that was hanging on a stick stuck in the soil behind him, and hung it on the handlebars of the electric tricycle.
After the others washed their hands and feet, they followed Xu Lai onto the electric tricycle, and the group headed home.
Xu Haiguo drove them back as usual.
Along the way, perhaps due to a city-wide power outage, the waning crescent moon and countless stars in the sky were exceptionally bright.
"Look, the Milky Way!"
Having just studied geography on his own and having an immense interest in celestial phenomena, Xu Chao sat in the electric tricycle, pointed to the Milky Way visible to the naked eye in the sky, and excitedly shouted.
The Milky Way? Xu Lai remembered that before the natural disaster, due to light pollution, the Milky Way could only be seen with the naked eye in relatively remote areas of the northwest of the motherland.
Under the illumination of the incandescent bulb hanging on the handlebars, Xu Lai followed the direction his younger brother pointed and indeed saw a Milky Way composed of countless stars.
The Milky Way, like a jade ribbon in the sky, shimmers with dazzling starlight, making people feel the magnificence and mystery of the universe.
The scenery from above was breathtaking, but during their journey, apart from the sound of the electric tricycle, there wasn't a single sound of animals or insects chirping in the extremely hot weather.
According to normal time, this time of day is already summer. On a summer night, even if you walk alone in the open field, you can hear the croaking of frogs and the calls of various insects everywhere.
At that moment, they heard no sounds of animals or insects; it was eerily quiet.
"Sigh, it's so hot, all the animals and insects must have died from the heat, right?"
Sitting in the back of the electric tricycle, Song Qiu'e wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and sighed dejectedly.
If animals and insects can't survive this extreme weather, how long can humans endure it?
It was past nine o'clock when they got home. They couldn't access the space, and Song Qiu'e, who was exhausted from the night, didn't have the energy to cook a complicated dinner.
Exhausted and hungry, they simply went to the kitchen cabinet where food was stored and took out some instant noodles, hot and sour noodles, or even self-heating hot pot according to their own tastes. They then soaked them in boiling water from the thermos and ate them simply.
After dinner, everyone took a shower and went to bed in their air-conditioned rooms.
Nothing happened that night, and the next morning, the group, having rested all night, were full of energy again.
As soon as they opened their eyes, Old Master Xu couldn't wait to have Xu Lai send them to the space.
Song Qiu'e went to the kitchen in the space to make breakfast as usual, while Grandpa Xu excitedly ran towards the space to put the mud bags.
Pour in the soil, add water, and mix the mud. During this process, Mr. Xu also picked out the large particles of impurities mixed in with the soil.
"The soil should not be too sticky; it needs to be mixed with some rice husks or glutinous rice dumpling shreds to prevent the mud stove from cracking!"
When Grandpa Xu Lai made the first sample, she explained the whole process in great detail to Xu Lai, Xu Haiguo, and Xu Chao.
Fortunately, after the rice they planted in their space was harvested, a lot of rice husks were left over, which can now come in handy.
After mixing the mud, Grandpa Xu began to break off pieces of mud with his hands and start shaping them into the form of a small stove, that is, making the stove blank.
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