Start with a blacksmith shop.

On the TV screen, Ding Yan looked completely bewildered. What Xiao Lizi had said was utterly incomprehensible to her. What did she mean by growing vegetables in the desert? When had she ever said she was going to grow vegetables in the desert?

Confused, she asked her daughter, Xiao Lizi, via video call, "Sweetie, what do you mean by that? When did Grandma ever say we were going to grow vegetables in the desert?"

When Little Chestnut heard the question, she showed an impatient look and an expression that said, "You don't understand me," which was absolutely adorable.

"Hmph, I've always remembered what you said, Grandma. You yourself said that the yard is too small for you to grow vegetables, and you even have to be picky about what kind to plant!"

"Looking at all this desert land reminded me of my grandma, but my dad said there's no water in the desert, so we can't grow vegetables!"

After listening to Xiao Lizi's intermittent but clear explanation, Ding Yan understood what had happened. It turned out that something she had said earlier had been overheard and remembered by Xiao Lizi, which led to this scene.

Once you figure out what's going on, things will be easier. Ding Yan is quite experienced in coaxing children. As long as you say what the child wants, you can definitely make the child happy. Although this is a bit of spoiling the child, the older generation doesn't care that much.

Spoiling children is what the older generation should do; the task of not spoiling them is left to the parents.

"Alright, alright, our darling, don't be upset anymore. Grandma will tell you, Grandma has a way. All I want is for Grandma to grow vegetables for my darling in the desert!"

That's easy. I'll give your dad a task right now: have him research how to grow vegetables in the desert.

Once your dad solves this problem, Grandma will definitely plant my darling's favorite vegetables in the desert so he can eat his fill!

Li Zhenhua, who was driving ahead, felt terrible. The pressure had been shifted to his mother-in-law, but now it was back on him.

He did feel like singing at that moment; it was Ding Yan singing "Listen to Me, Thank You," and now it was back to him.

Li Zhenhua shook his head, then stopped listening to their conversation inside the car and focused on driving.

Inside the carriage, Xiao Lizi was chatting with Ding Yan. During this time, Xiao Lizi's mood improved through Ding Yan's teasing on the screen, while Li Yun, who was standing next to her, secretly covered her mouth and laughed.

She was genuinely overjoyed at that moment, watching the banter between her son-in-law and mother-in-law made her laugh uncontrollably.

The conversation continued for quite some time in the train carriage until Li Zhenhua arrived at his destination, at which point Xiao Lizi finally ended the call.

Li Zhenhua gradually brought the car to a stop. As soon as he stopped, Xiao Lizi in the back seat immediately climbed down and quickly ran to Li Zhenhua's side.

Little Chestnut knew the car had stopped, and before Li Zhenhua could unbuckle his seatbelt, she climbed up his leg and sat down.

Little Chestnut, who was sitting in his lap, didn't sit still. Instead, she stood up on Li Zhenhua's lap.

Little Chestnut stood up and immediately hugged Li Zhenhua's head with her little hands, then kissed him on the cheek. After the kiss, she stared at him with her big, watery eyes.

"dad……"

Hearing Xiao Lizi call him that, he realized he was really in trouble. It seemed that Xiao Lizi had really taken Ding Yan's words to heart.

But his youngest daughter's call of "Dad" made it impossible for him to refuse, and he couldn't bear to refuse her.

"Dad, you must have heard what Grandma said! Hehehe, can you do what Grandma said and research how to grow vegetables in the desert?"

I think Grandma will be so happy when she finds out you've figured out how to grow vegetables in the desert. Grandma promised Little Chestnut that she'd grow lots and lots of vegetables for me!

Faced with his daughter's request, what else could he do? He could only research it. Besides researching this technology, he had no other choice. He couldn't let his youngest daughter down!

He wanted to maintain the image of himself in Little Chestnut's heart. What image? Of course, the image of an all-powerful father.

"Okay, since Little Chestnut said so, then Daddy must do it. I can't let my darling pay the price and then not do anything, right? Don't worry, Daddy will definitely do it!"

Little Chestnut, who was still standing on his lap, immediately kissed him on the cheek before climbing down and running to the back of the carriage to find Li Yun.

Meanwhile, Li Yun, who was in the back of the car, saw Xiao Lizi running over and squatted down to pick him up.

Li Yun, carrying her daughter, walked to Li Zhenhua's side and smiled gently at him, saying, "You, you just spoil her! You do whatever your daughter says. What if one day she says she wants to go to the moon? Would you agree to that? What would I do then!"

He listened to Li Yun's words, but replied nonchalantly.

"What's wrong with going to the moon? We'll take her there sometime. It's not like we haven't been before. In Little Chestnut's eyes, I'm an all-powerful dad; there's nothing I can't do, haha..."

Seeing Li Zhenhua's state, Li Yun was at a loss with the two children. Only then did she remember that the spaceplane currently being used by the Kyushu Space Agency was built by her husband, and even more so, her husband had been on it.

Thinking about this, Li Yun really had a headache.

"Fine, I'm not going to bother with you anymore. No, I mean both of you. Do whatever you want. Let's see what you do when you fail to complete the task your daughter gave you!"

Li Zhenhua, however, did not take Li Yun's words to heart at all, but simply smiled at Li Yun without saying a word.

They didn't dwell on the issue further. Now that they had reached their destination, their main task was to get off the bus and explore, not to stay on the subject. Li Yun, who was holding Little Chestnut, didn't press the matter any further.

Because Li Zhenhua had already promised her, she thought to herself that since Li Zhenhua had promised, he must be able to do it.

Afterwards, the three of them got out of the car and strolled around a tourist attraction in the desert. They then tried out various activities such as sandboarding and camel riding.

The three of them played until they were exhausted before returning to the car. Li Zhenhua then drove to the campsite they had chosen earlier and set up camp there that night.

Meanwhile, Ning Wei and his men, who were secretly following behind their car, had already made preparations for their security, and secretly surrounded their car in the middle of the campsite.

That evening, after the three of them showered and cleaned up in the car, they started cooking dinner outside. There was still some mutton they had bought in Dihua in the car's refrigerator. As for what to eat that night? Stewed mutton, of course.

Since arriving in Ningzi, they've been eating nothing but roasted meat. They hadn't had anything else for a long time. So, Li Zhenhua, who had eaten too much roasted meat, personally stewed some mutton and added some old-fashioned steamed buns he brought from home. Finally, their Dongshan stomachs got to taste Shandong cuisine again.

After the three of them had eaten and drunk their fill, they accompanied Xiao Lizi to look at the stars in the sky for a while under the car before finally coaxing their daughter to sleep.

After his daughter fell asleep, Li Zhenhua pondered the task she had given him on his own.

Growing vegetables in the desert! This is a very difficult task, and so far, there is no good solution in the world. There really is no way to manage deserts right now.

For a while, a university in China claimed to have developed a binding glue that could bind sand in the desert together, allowing crops to be planted in the bound sand, provided there was sufficient water.

However, Li Zhenhua believes that this method is not very practical because water is scarce in the desert, so where can one find water?

Another issue is the coagulating adhesive. This adhesive is unlikely to be cheap, and if the cost is too high, it will be truly impractical. These are the main problems in desertification control.

In Li Zhenhua's view, the most pressing problem to be solved is the lack of water in the desert.

There are oases in the desert, and crops can grow in oases with water. As for how to deal with the sand, the most important thing in the desert, Li Zhenhua believes that none of that is the main issue.

If the water resource problem can be solved, then most of the desert problem can be solved.

As for how to specifically make the desert no longer lack water, Li Zhenhua himself said that he really needs to think about it carefully!

From that day on, Li Zhenhua's daily travels included an additional task: whether he could retain his title as an all-around super dad.

In order not to shatter the great image in his daughter's eyes, he had to do his best to complete this task.

So he still didn't want to follow the example of the fish, and decided it was better to just be a good scientist and a good father.

The journey with missions made Li Zhenhua feel more fulfilled.

While Li Zhenhua was traveling, another group of people, including Snow Owl, who had traveled to Mars, finally used up almost all the food they had brought on their plane.

The food left on the spaceplane was almost gone, enough only for their return journey, and it had been more than five months since they left Earth.

For five months, they traveled all over Mars. Although "traveled all over" is a bit of an exaggeration, that's the truth.

The problem is that they knew too little about Mars when they came here. Even the information they had about Mars was generally not very helpful when they actually went to use it.

Therefore, they can only respond accordingly based on the actual situation they encounter.

During their time on Mars, they encountered far more dangers than they had on Earth. Don't assume that just because Mars is a barren planet, you won't face any dangers there.

It's only because they had good enough equipment that they were able to survive; otherwise, they would have died countless times already.

The most serious incident occurred when the three snowy owls, who were conducting data collection in a large crater somewhere on Mars, suddenly received an urgent message from the team members on the spaceplane.

It turned out that the aircraft's detection radar had detected a rather large meteorite heading towards their location, and judging from its appearance, the impact when the meteorite made contact with Mars would certainly be significant.

Snow Owl and his crew didn't even have time to pack up the various equipment they had set up before they hurriedly returned to the spaceplane at full speed.

If it gets too late, no matter how strong their spacesuits are, the final result won't be any better. They'll just end up like those who get hit by a meteorite on Mars and buried on the Martian surface.

As soon as Snow Owl and his companions returned to the spaceplane, it immediately took off, starting at top speed and quickly moving away from where they had landed.

Just as the plane had flown to a safe distance, a meteorite with a diameter of about 600 meters appeared in the sky and was hurtling toward the Martian land at an extremely high speed.

The scene of the meteorite hitting Mars happened right before Snowy Owl and his companions' eyes. The spot where they had been standing was then struck by the meteorite, creating a huge crater. Then, dust filled the sky, followed by all the phenomena caused by the meteorite impact.

That's why they discovered it in time; if they had discovered it later, they wouldn't have been able to escape.

As for why the discovery was so late, it's because they didn't place any monitoring facilities in Mars' outer orbit before they arrived. If they had an observation satellite, they wouldn't have been in such a passive position.

The meteorite was detected by the aircraft's onboard radar. If it hadn't been detected, they probably would have suffered some damage. While the aircraft itself would certainly have been unharmed, the fate of those outside the aircraft is uncertain.

In that situation, even if a particle cannon were used to shatter the meteorite, the fragments might still injure people, so running away was their best option.

Another difference is between Mars and Earth. Mars' atmosphere is only 1% the size of Earth's, so thin that it's practically nonexistent, let alone the burning up of meteorites passing through it.

Therefore, the arrival of the meteorite was sudden and unexpected, which caught them off guard.

Under these circumstances, they had no choice but to run away. As for the meteorite impact, it wasn't without its benefits; at least it gave them a better understanding of Mars.

When it comes to understanding Mars, no one would disagree that they are the most knowledgeable Earthlings.