When Zhao Hao and his son returned home, it was already dark.

When the two got off the carriage, they saw Zhao Shixi leaning against the door sill, staring straight ahead with his eyes.

He looked like he had lost his soul.

"What happened, it's New Year's Day?" Zhao Hao kicked him, and yes, he was still alive.

"I didn't spend it..." Zhao Shixi muttered, "And there's one more."

Only then did Zhao Hao realize that he still had two meeting tickets in his hand.

"Why didn't you spend it?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile.

"The money houses are all closed..." Zhao Shixi burst into tears.

"Okay, okay, stop crying." Zhao Shouzheng couldn't bear to see people cry, so he wiped his grandson's face with his sleeve and said, "There's cash in the warehouse, and I'll give you another hundred or so taels of pocket money. That's it, right?"

"All the places that cost money are closed..." Zhao Shixi cried even more aggrievedly, wailing:

"Grandpa, I'm afraid I won't have the chance to spend it in this lifetime."

"What nonsense is this kid talking about?" Zhao Shouzheng patted his head and consoled him:

"There's still a long life ahead of us. There will always be a chance to spend it..."

Zhao Hao secretly rolled his eyes when he heard this. Is there anything so comforting?

Sure enough, instead of feeling better, Zhao Shixi threw himself into his uncle's arms and burst into tears.

He shook his head, ignored his bad nephew, and took Zhao Shizhen into the yard.

~~

The yard was quiet.

Zhao Hao originally thought that the five Yangs had all gone out to meet up with their classmates and had not returned yet. However, when he habitually poked his head towards the west room, he saw the five Yangs all hunched over their desks, each studying very hard.

Wang Wuyang and Yu Shenxing were practicing contemporary writing. Yu Shensi quietly asked Hua Shuyang questions, while Wang Dingjue held his head in his hands, thinking hard, and no one knew what question he was struggling with.

Today is New Year's Day holiday...

Zhao Hao couldn't help but secretly gasp in amazement, a top student is a top student, they usually play around and have a wide range of interests, it seems like they never have a serious time.

But learning is my biggest hobby.

Seeing that they were studying behind his back again, Zhao Shizhen couldn't wait to start thinking, so he whispered, "Uncle, if there's nothing else, I'm going to read too."

"Hmm..." Zhao Hao nodded and laughed softly, "There really is something going on."

Zhao Shizhen had no choice but to follow Zhao Hao to the east room again.

Before leaving, he glanced through the window at the shadowy figures reading inside and felt as if he had lost his wallet...

But when the two of them entered the house and sat on the kang, and listened to Zhao Hao's explanation of his plan, Zhao Shizhen immediately felt as if his lost wallet had returned, and someone had stuffed several hundred yuan of money into it. It was heavy and very satisfying.

Because Zhao Hao wants to design something.

What is the purpose of his study? Isn't it just to invent something?

Zhao Shizhen stared with wide eyes as he watched his uncle draw on the paper with a pencil; he pricked up his ears to listen to his explanation, fearing that he would miss a word.

"This thing is made up of three parts. A bottomless cylinder with twelve small sticks as thick as fingers inside. Then there is a lotus root slice that can be put through the sticks and move in and out of the cylinder freely. Finally, there is a three-foot-long pole that passes through a small hole in the cylinder and is connected to the lotus root slice..."

As Zhao Hao spoke, he added the last stroke and said, "It should be like this..."

Looking at the scribbles on the paper, he felt ashamed of his kindergarten-level drawing skills.

"Is that so? Is that so?"

However, Zhao Shizhen was born with a strong ability to understand. Not only could he understand what he read and heard completely, but he also re-drew a very standard design for him.

"Yes, yes, that's it!" Looking at the familiar honeycomb briquettes mold on the blueprint, Zhao Hao happily patted his nephew's thigh and said, "You're such a genius! In the future, I'll rely on you to build my Italian cannon!"

Of course, considering the actual situation of manual casting, he omitted the sleeve outside the long rod. Although this makes it a little troublesome to make coal cakes, it does not affect the quality of the finished product.

"This looks like a mold for making rice cakes." Zhao Shizhen looked at the blueprint and said, "I can make a wooden one first. Please have a look at the result, uncle."

"That's what I mean." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile. After seeing the Zhuge crossbow and cannon-shaped fireworks made by Zhao Shizhen, he had no doubt about his nephew's hands-on ability.

~~

Zhao Shizhen worked very efficiently and was busy all night.

The next morning, he gave the finished wooden mold to his uncle for review.

Zhao Hao pulled the wooden handle and saw it stretched and retracted freely. He couldn't help but exclaimed in delight: "What a clever nephew!"

Zhao Shizhen smiled shyly.

Wuyang, who was serving on the side, looked at the wooden mold curiously, wondering what it was used for.

"If you want to know, follow me to the backyard." Zhao Hao put on his shoes and went downstairs with great interest.

In the back yard, Gao Wu had already asked someone to push a cart of coal powder and pile it there according to Zhao Hao's instructions.

Next to the coal powder, there is a pot of loess, a pot of slaked lime, and a pot of sawdust.

Zhao Hao directed the guards to dig four basins of coal powder with a shovel, add water, slaked lime and loess and mix them evenly.

After completing these preparations, Master Zhao personally went into battle.

I saw him dip the mold tube in water and then put it into the mixed coal slurry.

After pressing it firmly with both hands, Zhao Hao picked up the mold and put it down in a clean place.

Then he used his abdomen to support the pole and lifted the cylinder with both hands, and a honeycomb briquettes the size of a bowl and as big as a lotus root were ready.

"Good!" Wang Wuyang immediately took the lead in cheering loudly.

Zhao Hao threw the mold to Gao Wu, asking him to continue making it in the same way, and then asked Wang Wuyang, "What's good about it?"

"Beautiful..." Wang Wuyang shrank his neck. Actually, he didn't understand it yet, but he couldn't delay in cheering for his master.

"What's so beautiful about it?" Zhao Hao took the handkerchief handed to him by Yu Shenxing and wiped his hands.

"Look at his round hole, it looks like a white lotus root lying in the mud." Wang Wuyang said with a wry smile.

"The lotus roots in your garden are black." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes at him.

Several junior fellow students started laughing, making the eldest senior brother feel embarrassed.

But he still had to give the eldest disciple face. Zhao Hao then changed the subject and said:

"Then let's call it 'coal lotus root' according to your words."

The disciples couldn't help but envy him.

Especially Hua Shuyang and Wang Dingjue, seeing that the name of their sect was given like this last time, and it was named like this again this time.

I couldn't help but sigh secretly, why didn't you join earlier so that we could be the senior brother?

Wang Wuyang was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes. His master really doted on him too much...

He secretly made up his mind that he would not let anyone else wash his master's calf-nose pants from now on, and he would wash them for his master for the rest of his life.

~~

"I think Master made this coal lotus root for roasting." Shandong people don't have so many tricks, and the fifth junior brother's focus is still on the coal cakes.

"Well, it's not food." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile.

Amid the laughter of the brothers, the fifth brother blushed and said, "What I mean is that burning it this way must be better than burning it scattered, but I can't guess what the benefit is."

"Then let's observe carefully tomorrow morning."

Zhao Hao instructed Gao Wu to add sawdust to the remaining coal slurry, and then carry the prepared coal cakes to the kitchen and bake them on the stove.

This way the coal cakes will be dry tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, it would normally take two or three days to dry, and Mr. Zhao doesn't have the patience to wait.

~~

It's still morning, and Zhao Hao is racing against time, so he certainly can't waste it.

He asked Zhao Shizhen to take the finished mold to find the blacksmith arranged by the princess...

Because it was New Year's Day, all blacksmith shops were closed, so Zhao Hao had to ask his godmother to make some arrangements.

When the two of them, led by Ji Sizheng, arrived at the home of the craftsman named Feng and explained their purpose.

The other party's mouth twitched when he heard this, and he couldn't help but protest to Ji Sizheng: "Eunuch, I am a silversmith, not a blacksmith who does rough work..."

"That can't be helped. The royal family doesn't have a blacksmith shop, so your business is the closest to it." Ji Sizheng said with a friendly and irresistible smile:

"You can make silver tools, so iron tools are no problem for you."

"That's not the same thing, eunuch..." After all, the arm was no match for the thigh. Feng the Silversmith whined and lowered his head and said, "I'll give it a try."

ps. The third update is here, please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~~