Chapter 722: The Delayed Scientist

It was clear that Wang Dazhu was full of tension and anxiety, obviously having little confidence in the rice transplanter.

Before Wang An could speak, Liu Guilan said from the side: "The two brothers have been tinkering with it since they got back. I feel like it should be about right."

It could be heard that Liu Guilan was forcing herself to believe, or rather, comforting herself.

Wang An looked at his parents and said with a chuckle:

"Just put your hearts at ease. We'll know tomorrow once we try it, won't we?"

Wang Dazhu looked at the rice transplanter and asked with a frown:

"If it doesn't work, haven't you just wasted your effort?"

Liu Guilan interjected: "Wasting effort is fine, I'm just afraid of ruining the land. We finally had the land divided; if we have to buy grain to eat at the end of the year, that would be so embarrassing."

Hearing the questioning voice over and over again, to be honest, Wang An was truly a bit impatient.

The main thing was that among all these people, not a single one looked favorably upon him or believed in him, and even his own parents were being endless about it.

Moreover, modifying a rice transplanter required adding or removing parts, but there were very few substitutes in this era. If you wanted to use certain parts, you had to find a way to make them yourself, but not only were the tools not handy, there was also no damn material.

This caused Wang An to feel flustered, or in Northeast dialect, "extremely fired up"! Consequently, without lifting his head, Wang An said with slight displeasure:

"If this thing doesn't work, starting tomorrow, I'll transplant the rice seedlings with you, alright?"

Parents know their children best; Wang Dazhu and his wife naturally understood immediately what Wang An's tone of displeasure meant.

So, upon hearing this, the couple couldn't help but look at each other.

Then Liu Guilan seemed to want to say something, but opened her mouth and said nothing.

After a while, Wang An looked up and, seeing his parents still watching, said with a helpless frown: "Don't just stand there watching; go do what you need to do."

Wang Dazhu was stunned for a moment, seemingly wanting to get angry, but seeing Wang An's very serious yet distressed expression, he held it back.

After thinking, he said:

"I've tinkered with this thing before. How about I take a look with you two?"

Hearing this, Wang An's mood instantly felt a bit better.

The main thing was that after an entire afternoon, Wang An had finally heard a word of support.

Wang An pointed to the gears above and said: "Father, look, this gear keeps shifting back and forth, so it's bound to miss seedlings. I've already wedged several layers of sheet metal here, but the gear shaft is slippery and there's nothing to block it, so the sheet metal won't hold."

To tell the truth, this was a problem that could be solved with a single electric drill, because you only needed to drill a hole in the gear shaft and insert a pin.

But let alone an electric drill, Caoshan Tun didn't even have electricity. Most importantly, the gear shaft was quite hard, and without a drill bit of sufficient hardness, it was useless.

Wang Dazhu squatted there and looked for a long time, then said to Wang An: "This thing is slippery, so it's definitely tough to wedge it. I think if we add two scrapers on top to keep pushing this gear, it should work."

Upon hearing this, Wang An's brain didn't turn around for a moment, and he fell into a state of bewilderment.

Seeing Wang An's puzzled expression, Wang Dazhu didn't speak, but picked up thick iron wire and pliers, and painstakingly bent them back and forth. Soon, Wang Dazhu had folded the thick iron wire into a very strange shape.

Immediately after, Wang Dazhu screwed this strange-shaped wire onto the angle iron on the left side of the gear shaft.

Following the same pattern, Wang Dazhu folded another such wire and screwed it onto the angle iron on the right side of the gear shaft.

When Wang Dazhu hooked these two wires together, Wang An was instantly shocked into silence.

The main thing was that with these two thick wires, it acted like a synchronizer, allowing the two moving gears to always stay engaged.

It could be said that it instantly solved the problem of gear dislocation.

Most importantly, even if some mud or grass roots got between the gears, it wouldn't completely jam the gears from turning. Although his father always loved to tinker with things, it wasn't until now that Wang An discovered his father was clearly a delayed scientist!

Just as Wang An was pondering why his father wasn't a scientist, Wang Dazhu suddenly said: "Xiao An, try it again and see if this works. It's getting dark soon."

Wang An nodded quickly and stood up, turning the wheels of the rice transplanter while observing the engagement of the two gears.

Sure enough, Wang Dazhu's method was simply perfect! It wasn't until all three rice transplanters were equipped with the "synchronizer" researched by Wang Dazhu that Wang An felt happy inside, but he complained to Wang Dazhu: "Father, why didn't you come back earlier? We've been tinkering all afternoon, and I was even thinking about taking the rice transplanter to the county seat to drill holes."

Having solved a big problem for his son and hearing his son's surface-level complaint, which was actually a need for him, Wang Dazhu instantly felt wonderful, so wonderful that a snot bubble almost popped out.

Although he held it back, the smile at the corners of his mouth and eyes couldn't be stopped. He pretended to scold Wang An in a stiff tone:

"You've been busy for half a day, don't you know to offer your old man a cigarette? You're getting more and more useless."

Wang An laughed out loud and said:

"Cigarette, must offer a cigarette, and it has to be a good one, hahaha."

As he spoke, Wang An took out the Classic Bingcheng, lit one for his father, gave one to Wang Li, and the three men began to puff away.

After half a cigarette, Wang Dazhu looked at the filter and asked Wang An with a puzzled face: "What kind of cigarette is this? Why do I feel like I've never smoked it before?"

Wang An asked with a chuckle:

"How is it? Is this cigarette good?"

Wang Dazhu nodded: "Yeah, pretty good, better than Mount Zhangbai, just not as strong as Mount Zhangbai."

Wang An chuckled and took out four packs of cigarettes, handing them over while saying: "Specially bought to honor you, Classic Bingcheng, 35 cents a pack."

Upon hearing this, Wang Dazhu was stunned first, then said with anger: "You spendthrift, these two packs of cigarettes are enough to buy a carton of Mount Zhangbai. It would be better if you bought two cartons of Mount Zhangbai with these four packs! That would be enough for me to smoke for half a month, you spendthrift."

Although he said that, Wang Dazhu put all four packs of cigarettes into the inner pocket of his clothes, and after putting them in, he carefully checked them.

Looking at Wang An's pocket, which had half a pack of cigarettes, Wang Dazhu blinked and suddenly said: "That, this cigarette isn't strong enough, give me another one."

Wang An: "..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 723 =====