Chapter 404

Blacksmith Luo had also come here as a refugee; Wang An didn't know his specific name, or more accurately, he had forgotten it.

Anyway, in Kaoshan Tun, the older people all called him Blacksmith, and the young people collectively addressed him as Grandpa Luo.

Blacksmithing was Blacksmith Luo's side job; mainly, in this day and age, in a small village, if one relied on blacksmithing for a living, then without any special circumstances, one would inevitably starve to death.

The place where Blacksmith Luo lived was quite remote, but within 5 minutes, Wang An had walked to Blacksmith Luo's house.

At this time, Blacksmith Luo was fiercely hammering a red-hot piece of iron.

Seeing Wang An enter the yard, Blacksmith Luo didn't put down the work in his hands, just shouted with a smile:

"The little fourth from the old Wang family is here."

Wang An also greeted him with a smile: "Mm, busy, Grandpa?"

Blacksmith Luo nodded, smiled, and continued to struggle with the piece of iron in front of him.

Through observation, Wang An discovered that Blacksmith Luo was hammering this piece of iron into the shape of an ice chisel.

After a while, the piece of iron was no longer red, and only then did Blacksmith Luo put down the tongs and hammer in his hands and said to Wang An with a smile:

"What do you want to forge, Little Four?"

Consequently, Wang An first took out a cigarette and lit it for Blacksmith Luo, and then brought up the matter of wanting to forge a few spiked collars.

While speaking, Wang An drew on the ground with a twig.

A collar was something that had to be wearable and removable, so what Wang An drew were two semicircular spiked collars.

Blacksmith Luo glanced at it and knew what Wang An wanted to make.

Looking at the pattern on the ground, Blacksmith Luo pondered for a while and said:

"Unless you use hot riveting, these iron spikes won't stay put."

Wang An also knew that this thing looked simple, but without electric welding, it was indeed not easy to operate.

However, what Liu Guilan said gave Wang An great inspiration, and on the way here, Wang An had also figured out how to do this.

Consequently, Wang An said:

"Grandpa Luo, look, would it work if we did it this way: we use two long iron strips; the outer layer is punched with holes, then we insert the foreign nails, and the inner layer holds the nail heads in place, and then these two layers of iron strips are locked together. What do you think?"

Wang An's words were simple and clear; Blacksmith Luo, as a blacksmithing expert, instantly understood the key to it.

Blacksmith Luo, after listening, nodded with a smile and said:

"It really is you young people whose brains work well; with this setup, there's no difficulty in this work."

However, immediately afterward, Blacksmith Luo discussed and said:

"I still have a few ice chisels that aren't finished, and they are busy using them. If you can do it yourself, how about you do it yourself first? Then I'll just charge you for the iron. What do you think?"

Wang An thought about it and nodded.

Every year during this period, it was the craziest time for every village to fish, because this season was the genuine "time when the old grain is exhausted and the new hasn't ripened."

Without grain to eat, one had to think of ways; mountain trekking and hunting wasn't something everyone could do, but fishing was something anyone could do.

Those who could partner up would partner up to chisel ice; those who couldn't would have their whole family, old and young, go into action.

Mainly, chiseling ice was a job that really required a lot of strength.

Therefore, during this period, the demand for ice chisels would increase significantly.

Actually, an ice chisel was something that wouldn't break under normal circumstances; one could say this thing was a presence as durable as ten thousand years.

It was just that one had to know that this thing was afraid of being lost—not that someone would steal it, but that with a slight lack of attention, it would fall into an ice hole.

An ice chisel that was quite heavy, once it fell into the river, the chance of finding it was basically zero.

So one could only consider it lost.

A collar was something that absolutely couldn't be too heavy, and it had to use two layers of iron strips, so neither layer could be too thick.

However, for Wang An, none of these were difficult things.

If it weren't for the fact that there were no materials or handy tools at home, Wang An would have turned around and gone home on the way.

Consequently, Wang An and Blacksmith Luo each got busy.

Actually, with tools and materials, everything was fast, so in less than half an hour, Wang An had finished making one spiked collar.

Just as Wang An was making the second collar, Mu Xueli and Wang Li actually arrived.

After a simple greeting, Mu Xueli explained the ins and outs of the matter.

It turned out that after Wang An left Mu Xueli's house, the couple Mu Hua and Mu Xueli were quite unhappy about whether to go tiger hunting.

However, in the end, Mu Hua made the final decision and agreed to let Mu Xueli go tiger hunting.

Then Liu Ruxin sent Mu Xueli to find Wang An to see what preparations needed to be made in the next two days; after all, one more preparation meant one less danger.

Consequently, Mu Xueli rode a horse over.

However, Wang An wasn't at home, so Mu Xueqing told Mu Xueli to find Wang Li.

After all, the three of them had always gone into the mountains together, so if Wang An was making preparations, Mu Xueli and Wang Li should both participate.

Just like that, the two of them came.

However, for Wang An, the two of them coming was actually quite good, because there were people to do the work!

Immediately afterward, the three of them got busy together.

I don't know why, but for things like manual labor, even if the amount was the same, it was just faster with more people.

Take Wang An and the others making collars: one person making 3 alone versus 3 people cooperating to make 9, the speed was just different.

Without exception, the former was slow, and the latter was fast.

However, corresponding to this was the issue of eating: if one person alone was full after eating 3 bowls of rice, but 3 people ate 9 bowls of rice together.

Not lying at all, that damn thing definitely wouldn't be enough to eat.

Soon, Wang An and the others, while bragging and chatting, finished making 10 collars.

When settling the bill, Blacksmith Luo didn't ask for much, charging only 30 cents per collar; mainly, the foreign nails were relatively expensive, and Blacksmith Luo had bought them too.

After settling the bill, the few of them carried the finished collars and walked toward Wang An's house.

Passing by the small shop, a group of people were discussing heatedly; the topic was: that tiger had hurt someone again, damn it.

Not only did it hurt someone, but 5 dogs also died.

Fortunately, the person hurt didn't die, and it wasn't someone from Kaoshan Tun, but the hunter brothers from the old Ma family in Yangshu Tun.

The three of them listened simply for a few sentences and then continued to walk home.

However, the three of them, having heard this news, no longer had the desire to continue bragging.

The reason was that the hunter brothers from the old Ma family, although not artillerymen, the older one had been a soldier, and at the same time, he was a genuine top-tier hunter in the surrounding villages.

And the younger one hunting was also no coward; his marksmanship was also very good.

Such figures, and brothers at that, were hurt by this tiger; one could see how awesome and difficult to fight this tiger was.

But precisely, Wang An and the others were going to fight it soon.

If it were anyone else, who would still have the mood to brag? If it were you, could you?

(End of chapter)