As soon as Pei Zhengnian returned to the team, he went straight to find Tian Chengyi.

This matter was extremely important, so Tian Chengyi personally came to oversee it.

In the makeshift office,

Tian Chengyi rubbed his forehead in silence.

Xiong Lei and Sun Xuelin exchanged helpless looks as they watched Pei Zhengnian.

“So, that’s why you were so attentive to your sister-in-law just tonight?”

“Didn’t the regiment commander say so?”

Pei Zhengnian looked at Tian Chengyi.

“If you want your wife to treat you well, you have to spoil her.”

Tian Chengyi nodded. “Absolutely. Comrade Xiao Shen must have been deeply moved by your particularly thoughtful gesture today.”

Pei Zhengnian thought for a moment.

“When I left today, she seemed like she wanted to say something but held back.”

“Probably wanted to tell me something but was too shy to say it.”

Tian Chengyi slapped his thigh. “Exactly, that’s it.”

“A woman’s heart is touched in that very moment.”

“You’re doing great, keep it up.”

Pei Zhengnian nodded, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Thanks for the guidance, Commander.”

“I’ll keep it up.”

In Xiong Lei’s innocent eyes, a sudden understanding flashed: so this is how the commander won over his sister-in-law. I’ve learned something.

Sun Xuelin felt like banging his head against a tofu block in frustration: two big, straightforward men discussing how to cherish their wives—one dares to say it, the other dares to do it.

Meanwhile, the system spying on them quickly live-streamed this brilliant conversation to its host.

After reading it, Shen Nanchu fell silent.

After a long pause,

Shen Nanchu said, “So, system, am I not good to the male lead?”

System: “How could that be? Host, all the credit goes to the male lead, so how could I treat him badly?”

Shen Nanchu: “Exactly.”

Shen Nanchu didn’t pay much attention to this little episode.

Pei Zhengnian got busy.

Shen Nanchu followed closely behind and started working hard as well.

Thanks to careful tending this year, the tea seeds on the mountain were growing very well.

The related arrangements that had already been made now needed to be put into action.

The raw material for the shampoo was tea dregs.

Tea dregs are the residue left after pressing oil from the oil tea seeds.

In autumn, when the oil tea fruits ripen, they are harvested, sun-dried, and shelled to extract the tea seeds.

After drying, the outer shells of the tea seeds are removed, leaving the tea seed kernels.

The kernels are pressed to extract tea oil, and the remaining solid residue is the tea dregs.

The process of producing tea dregs isn’t difficult; the only challenge lies in the pressing.

If there were a mechanical press, pressing the tea seed kernels would be straightforward.

But Wang Family Village was poor!

Let alone a mechanical press, they couldn’t even afford the legs of one.

Such is the sorrow of a poor village.

Using traditional pounding presses driven by manpower to crush and squeeze out the oil is cheaper but extremely labor-intensive and exhausting.

So, Shen Nanchu decided to place the tea dregs production by the river.

By setting up a waterwheel there, the water’s power could drive a hammer, repeatedly striking the wooden press wedges to squeeze oil from the tea seed kernels.

Although this method yields less oil than a mechanical press, Shen Nanchu wasn’t after oil extraction efficiency.

This saved a lot of manpower.

The wisdom of our ancestors is powerful.

There are always more solutions than difficulties.

Waterwheels were nothing new to the people of Wang Family Village.

But the one Shen Nanchu wanted to build was a giant waterwheel—its axle, spokes, and blades all made of wood. At this scale, every detail mattered.

This waterwheel had to be three times larger than the usual ones, or it simply wouldn’t generate enough power.

Wang Family Village had never made a waterwheel this big before; they had no idea how to handle such dimensions.

Wooden items that required precision couldn’t just be built and adjusted on the fly.

Wang Dazhi could handle making the smaller ones—he knew how.

But something this large? Wang Dazhi had never built one this big. He didn’t know how!

He had spent his whole life as a carpenter, yet never crafted a waterwheel of this magnitude.

Squatting by the creek, he drew and redrew diagrams on the ground with a twig, but he just couldn’t get the measurements right.

“It’s too big. The mortise and tenon joints won’t line up. If it spins, it might fall apart,” Wang Dazhi sighed.

Zheng Tongwei thought he had it figured out.

How hard could it be to calculate the dimensions?

Full of confidence, Zheng Tongwei did some calculations and gave Wang Dazhi the numbers.

Wang Dazhi spent days working according to Zheng Tongwei’s figures. The waterwheel was built, but before it even touched the water, its frame wobbled and twisted—and eventually collapsed.

Wang Jianguo and Wang Dazhi were so worried that their mouths were practically blistered from stress.

When Shen Nanchu heard about this, she felt a bit helpless.

“Master math and science, and you’ll never be afraid to travel the world.”

There was some truth to that saying.

“Uncle Dazhi, what’s the largest diameter waterwheel you’ve made before?” she asked.

“Six chi,” Wang Dazhi answered. (Note: “chi” is a traditional Chinese unit of length, roughly one-third of a meter.)

Shen Nanchu nodded, pulling a pencil and a yellowed notebook from her pocket, then began calculating.

“Since the old waterwheel spins smoothly, let’s scale it up proportionally.”

She spoke as she sketched on the paper.

“The new waterwheel’s diameter is eighteen chi, three times bigger. So every beam and blade must be lengthened by the same factor.”

Wang Dazhi frowned. “But what about the thickness of the mortise and tenon joints? If we scale those up three times too, can the wood bear the load?”

Shen Nanchu smiled slightly.

“The stress points on the joints can’t be simply scaled up. They need to be adjusted according to mechanics.”

She pointed at her rough sketch.

“Here, thicken by two fen (a small unit); here, shorten by one cun (another small unit). This way, it’s sturdy without making the waterwheel too heavy.”

Zheng Tongwei stood nearby, initially dismissive, but as he listened, his expression slowly changed.

He stared at Shen Nanchu’s calculations for a long time but still couldn’t understand them.

Unable to hold back, he finally asked,

“What principle are you using to calculate this?”

“Scale ratio!” Shen Nanchu answered without hesitation.

“It’s in the elementary school textbooks—around sixth grade, I think!”

She sized up Zheng Tongwei.

“What, you don’t know it?”

That last question wasn’t very hurtful, but it was deeply insulting.

“I graduated from high school! How could I not know?” Zheng Tongwei puffed out his chest, acting like he’d known all along and was just waiting for her to say it.

“Comrade Zheng, you know it?”

“Then why did the windmill fall apart when I built it according to the measurements you gave me a few days ago?” Wang Dazhi quietly threw him under the bus.

Wang Jianguo added another jab,

“Just because you’ve learned it doesn’t mean you can use it!”

“A lot of kids in our village have already started elementary school, and they don’t even struggle with this!”

Zheng Tongwei: “……”

He—he just forgot, that’s all.

It’s all Shen Nanchu’s fault for bringing this up for no reason.

Made him look so foolish.

【Disgust Meter +50】

The sudden surprise left Shen Nanchu a little dizzy.

It’s been a long time since she earned any disgust points.

Who would’ve thought that today Zheng Tongwei would hand them over to her on a silver platter again.

Since he’s being so cooperative today, Shen Nanchu decided to have some fun teasing him!

∑(O_O||)

Shen Nanchu: “What? You’re a high schooler and you don’t even know elementary school stuff?”

Zheng Tongwei——FirStBlOOd

【Disgust Meter +80】

Shen Nanchu: “You’re not lying, are you? You haven’t even been to high school?”

Zheng Tongwei——DOUbleKill

【Disgust Meter +160】

Shen Nanchu: “Wait, no, scratch that. You probably haven’t even been to elementary school, right?”

Zheng Tongwei——TripleKill

【Disgust Meter +240】

……

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep