Chapter 257 Working Together
The ground beneath our feet was soft and moist, and the air was filled with the fresh scent of growing plants.
As he walked along, he became more and more awestruck.
"Oh dear, I was just messing around with it."
Zhou Shufen smiled and patted the dirt off her hands, a hint of shyness on her face.
"What do you think is missing?"
She had her sleeves rolled up, her trouser legs covered in mud, but her smile was radiant.
She has been living and working at the construction site for the past few months.
By consulting blueprints, asking experts, and measuring soil pH, he gradually turned his ideas into reality.
Zhou Yujie walked around and around.
From drainage to ventilation, from spacing to lighting, you can't find a single problem even after looking at it carefully.
"Stop trying to comfort me."
"At this level, you simply can't build something like this without ten years of experience."
In her past life, she actually did grow crops in greenhouses.
At that time, she invested all her savings with great hope, rented several acres of land, and built a simple plastic greenhouse, determined to turn her life around and get rich by growing vegetables.
However, while ideals are lofty, reality is exceptionally cruel.
She lacked technical knowledge, market understanding, and experienced mentorship; she relied solely on her passion to persevere.
As a result, pests and diseases occurred frequently, and the irrigation system was poorly designed.
Improper temperature and humidity control caused one crop of seedlings after another to wither and die.
At the worst point, even the money to buy seeds had to be borrowed from various sources.
In the end, not only did they lose everything, but they also incurred a huge debt.
Creditors came one after another to block the door and demand payment, their curses echoing throughout the house.
She will never forget the feeling of being cornered by life.
But he really figured out the tricks of the trade.
It was that painful experience that allowed her to learn lessons from her failures.
I learned to read the weather, understand the soil, adjust water and fertilizer, and prevent diseases and pests.
She secretly went to the agricultural technology station to listen to lectures, shamelessly asked old farmers for advice, and even read through all the agricultural books available on the market.
The knowledge that once bankrupted her has now become her most precious asset in this second life.
In this life, she avoided all the pitfalls.
From site selection to layout, from structural design to material selection.
She personally oversees every detail and never delegates the task to others.
She hired a professional construction team in advance and planned the drainage ditches and main pipelines before the foundation was laid.
The water pipes were already installed, so there's no worry about watering.
The underground system is laid with corrosion-resistant PE pipes, which are connected to an automatic sprinkler system.
Simply open the valve, and the water can be evenly distributed to every inch of land.
No more carrying heavy loads on my shoulders and back like before.
The pillars were reinforced three times, so they are not afraid of wind and rain.
The greenhouse frame originally only required two crossbeams for support.
She added an extra layer of steel frame and secured it firmly to the concrete pile with bolts.
Even the weakest seams are sealed with windproof slots, so it can remain as stable as Mount Tai even when a typhoon comes.
The workers all said they had never seen such a meticulous boss lady. She repeatedly checked, welded, and checked a single pillar three times before it passed inspection.
A month later, the greenhouses were all built and the ground was leveled.
Ten standard greenhouses are lined up in a row, covered with brand-new high-transmittance film.
She paid the women who dug the ground their wages and then asked them to stay and grow vegetables.
"If you're willing to continue working here, I'm short-staffed right now, and you'll still get paid as usual, plus a hot meal at noon."
Several women who had originally planned to go home and rest for a few days immediately agreed with beaming smiles upon hearing this.
There are vegetable seeds and seedlings in the space.
She simply scooped it out and pulled it out of the soil—bundles of fresh vegetable seedlings.
With a complete root system and glossy leaves, it's clear that it's well-nourished.
She casually planted them one by one into the soft black soil.
No one noticed how her hands magically produced the seedlings.
After all, no one would have thought that there really are portable small spaces in this world.
These seedlings have a 100% survival rate!
Not to mention withered and yellowed leaves, not even a single crooked leaf can be seen.
An old farmer from next door glanced at it as he passed by, squatted down, picked a leaf, and smelled it.
"This is bizarre! The seedlings I grow die off in batches every three days, but yours are like they've been injected with hormones!"
It sprouted incredibly fast, like it was on a cheat code.
While other plots of land take five or six days to sprout after being sown, her plots started to sprout on the third day.
In just four or five days, the sprouts have grown to three or four centimeters tall.
A week later, upon entering the greenhouse, one is greeted by a dense mass of tender green seedlings.
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves as they swayed softly.
Guo Zhenyi took the opportunity to come and see it, and his eyes widened in amazement.
He walked slowly along the ridge of the field, his gaze sweeping over the rows of spirited seedlings, his lips curving into a wider smile, and finally he couldn't help but turn to look at Zhou Shufen.
"Shufen, your hands are a gift from God!"
He grabbed her hand, ignoring the dozen or so workers standing nearby, and held it tightly.
"Don't praise me!"
Her face flushed, and she lowered her head, trying to pull her hand away, but he gripped it even tighter.
"All I know how to do is deal with clods of dirt, what skills do I have? You have real skills, you can make flowers bloom wherever the wind blows."
In this tide of the times, one is an official deeply rooted in the grassroots, and the other is a daring and enterprising female entrepreneur.
Support each other and move forward hand in hand.
To onlookers, it was both amusing and heartwarming; one was praising the other, and the other was teasing, their collaboration was seamless.
After the news spread, the townspeople talked about it for days.
Some say she married into a wealthy family, while others sourly say she's just a country bumpkin who hit the jackpot.
After finishing planting the vegetables, Zhou Shufen simply moved her home next to the greenhouse.
She set up a simple prefabricated house in a corner of the park.
Although it's not big, it has all the necessary water and electricity, and a bed, stove, table, and chairs.
From then on, we ate and slept here, making it convenient to take care of the crops.
Guo Zhenyi comes over every day after get off work, either by car or bicycle.
Sometimes when he worked late at night, he would insist on riding his bike for more than ten minutes to get there, just so he could stay by her side a little longer.
Here, he wasn't a director; he was just a husband.
The two squatted in the soil, pulling weeds, straightening the leaning seedlings one by one, and carrying water to irrigate the land.
Sweat dripped down their foreheads, dampening the stray hairs at their temples, yet smiles remained on their faces.
They slept soundly in the makeshift shed that Zhou Shufen had built at night.
The two lay together, talking about the trivial things that happened during the day and discussing their plans for the future.
Zhou Yujie hired several young men from Ningcheng to specifically keep an eye on this vegetable patch.
Most of them were interns who graduated from agricultural colleges.
Technically skilled and hardworking.
Responsible for daily inspections, recording growth data, and monitoring changes in temperature and humidity.
Because it is too far from the city center, commuting is inconvenient.
These people work during the day and can only stay in nearby dormitories at night.
They live far away and can't go home at night.
As a result, the greenhouse area was exceptionally quiet at night.
Guo Zhenyi was like a newlywed every night.
He put his arm around Zhou Shufen's shoulder and listened to her recount today's harvest and plans for tomorrow, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction.
They would snuggle together to watch the stars, cook a bowl of hot instant noodles late at night to share, and gently pat each other's backs to comfort each other when they were tired.
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