My fishing raft will ask for help.

Chapter 148 Hiding in the room to secretly smelt

"Mom, where's Dad? Did he get another job?" Zhou Miao looked around and, not seeing her father, asked.

Wang Xiuying took a pair of scissors, opened the styrofoam box, and put the fish inside into the freezer.

"Well, I was originally planning to deal with your stuff, but Uncle Zhang's son has a girlfriend and they're already engaged."

"Well, we just bought a house, and we need your dad's help with the renovations."

"After you said you wanted to buy a boat and make your dad the captain, he lost interest in the renovations."

"But your Uncle Zhang is different. They are sworn brothers. Since they both came to your door, your father naturally had to take on the job."

Zhou Miao thought for a moment before realizing who Uncle Zhang was that his mother was talking about.

I don't have a deep impression of them; they only visited during the Chinese New Year.

The family network of the previous generation has little to do with his generation. This is mainly because Zhou Miao has been working outside the village since graduating from university, and hardly anyone in the village knows him.

This is also related to his personality; he's not a social butterfly and only has a few friends.

"Oh, I see. Looks like I'll have to buy the tools myself to melt it down and sell it for money."

Zhou Miao came back for this very purpose: since his father didn't have time, he would do it himself.

In fact, he was very interested in this matter.

I believe that most people, unless they are from a particularly wealthy family and treat small sums of money as pocket money, would be very interested in doing something like this when faced with a batch of gold and silver.

"You don't need to buy the tools, your dad has already bought them. He was planning to secretly get up at night these past few days to melt down the gold and silver, but then you came back."

Zhou Miao's eyes lit up upon hearing this: "Where are the tools? I'll go to my room and try them out first."

"Just put them in your room upstairs. Because your dad is busy with other things, he didn't have time to set up the cellar or the cabinets, so those things are all hidden in your room."

After returning with a car full of treasures last time, Wang Xiuying first cleaned up Zhou Miao's room and stuffed all the treasures into it.

Zhou Jiguang even secretly changed the lock cylinder of the door, because the key was almost never needed for the door in the past.

Over the years, I've long since lost track of where the key is.

Now, apart from Wang Xiuying, even Zhou Jiguang himself can't enter this room.

The two went up to the third floor. Wang Xiuying took out her key from the hidden compartment of her wardrobe where she kept her money, and then opened the door.

Upon entering the house, the first thing Zhou Miao saw was not his treasure, but a brand-new electric stove.

Wang Xiuying pointed to the electric furnace and said, "This is the electric furnace your dad just bought. He said the highest temperature can reach 1,150 degrees Celsius, which is just right for melting gold."

Gold has a melting point of over 1,060 degrees Celsius, and silver is even lower than 1,000 degrees Celsius. This electric furnace can easily melt gold and silver at its highest temperature.

The crucible inside has a capacity of three kilograms, which is not large, and it will take quite a while to melt this batch of gold and silver.

But the fact that it's convenient to use at home is enough, and Zhou Miao isn't in a hurry for the time.

He looked at the other items; there were crucible clamps and two square molds.

There was also a wooden board and some stone bricks for insulation.

"Oh, right, your dad also bought these things, saying he needs to add some when melting down gold and silver."

Wang Xiuying seemed to have thought of something, left the room, and after a while came back with a transparent bag. There was a label on the bag with the words "borax" on it.

This substance is not needed when smelting pure gold and silver, but Zhou Miao's gold and silver had been in water for too long, especially the silver, which had oxidized on the surface.

Adding some borax during smelting can not only remove impurities but also reduce oxidation losses.

"Dad has already prepared everything!" Zhou Miao immediately laughed.

It's clear that Dad is also very interested in melting gold, but now that everything is ready, he has to put the matter on hold because he's too busy.

"Mom, bring over a bucket of water and a scale. I want to test if this electric stove works."

"OK."

Wang Xiuying was equally curious, after all, she had never seen anything like melting down a large yellow croaker in her life.

Zhou Miao found the air conditioner remote, turned on the air conditioner first, then laid the wooden board flat, arranged the bricks, and finally put the electric stove on it.

He adjusted the electric stove to make sure it wasn't shaking before plugging it in.

At this moment, Wang Xiuying also arrived with a bucket of water, quickly brought over the electronic scale, and then closed and locked the door.

"Ah Miao, is there anything else Mom can help you with?"

Zhou Miao glanced at her enthusiastic mother, chuckled, and pointed to the wardrobe: "Could you get me two silver bars first?"

"Shouldn't we smelt the gold first?"

"Let's try it out with some silver first. If it doesn't go well, the loss won't be too great."

"That's true."

Then, Wang Xiuying took out a small box from the wardrobe, which was full of silver bars. After thinking for a moment, she took out a box of large yellow croakers.

Zhou Miao suspected that the person who hid this treasure had melted it down themselves, because silver dollars were used more in that era, and such silver bars were not common.

Based on the capacity of the crucible, he first took two silver bars and weighed them on the electronic scale.

It weighed 1236.2 grams in total. He took one off, and it weighed 611.7 grams. Obviously, the weight of each silver bar was not fixed.

It weighed 1236.2 grams in total. He took one off, and it weighed 611.7 grams. Obviously, the weight of each silver bar was not fixed.

Out of curiosity, Zhou Miao took out the large yellow croaker and weighed it, finding that its weight was quite standard.

Then, Zhou Miao turned on the electric furnace, set the temperature to 1,000 degrees Celsius, put in the two silver bars, and poured in a little borax.

The electric furnace slowly heated up, and the white crucible gradually turned red, radiating waves of heat.

Fortunately, the room was air-conditioned, so Zhou Miao and Wang Xiuying weren't hot.

A metallic smelting smell permeated the room, and it had a slightly unpleasant odor, but it wasn't strong. This was probably the smell of impurities from the calcination of oxidized silver.

Because it was daytime, out of caution, they could only keep the door closed and stay inside the room.

As the crucible was heated to 1,000 degrees Celsius, the silver bars inside melted into liquid.

Zhou Miao used crucible tongs to pick up the crucible and poured the liquid inside into the mold next to it.

The liquid in the crucible was poured out completely, leaving no residue.

After putting the crucible back, Zhou Miao and Wang Xiuying focused on the liquid inside the mold.

Seeing that the liquid had solidified quickly, Zhou Miao picked up the mold and put it into the bucket.

"Sizzle~"

A plume of white steam rose, and the scalding silver inside the mold cooled down rapidly, solidifying into a large silver bar in no time.

Zhou Miao picked up the mold and quickly touched the solid silver bar inside. He found that although the temperature was still a bit high, it was no longer hot enough to burn his hand. He then gently tapped the stone brick with the mold, and the silver bar inside immediately fell out with a thud and hit the stone brick.

"Ah Miao, is it done already?" Wang Xiuying picked up the silver bar curiously and found that the melted silver bar was much brighter in color and had a distinct metallic luster.

"Yes, Mom, put it on the scale and weigh it to see how much wastage there is."

Knowing that he had succeeded in smelting, Zhou Miao decided to smelt gold next. He then adjusted the temperature of the electric furnace to 1,100 degrees Celsius and put in four large yellow croakers.

"Ah Miao, it weighs 1228.5 grams. What was it weighing before?" Wang Xiuying asked, placing the silver bar on the scale and looking at the number.

Zhou Miao tapped on his phone, which was lying on the bed. It showed the weight he had just recorded: "It was 1236.2 grams, less than ten grams lost. This batch of silver seems to be very pure!"