Chapter 539: Imperial Blacksmith

"Fruit Guy, you'd better tell the truth."

Zheng Xinyu didn't have a very good impression of Zhang Xin and didn't believe him. She put her hands on her hips and questioned him fiercely. If a subordinate did something out of line, it could ultimately cause the leader to suffer a loss of reputation. She was protecting Zhang Su's image.

"I really didn't rob him. I'm at least a small leader, you know. I have some food stored in my pockets... I saw that this knife was very similar to the one Brother Su uses, so, so I discussed it with that person and traded for it. This is all the truth. Many people saw it at the time!"

Zhang Xin explained hurriedly, but it made people feel very guilty.

"He indeed didn't rob him by force. I can testify. Um... it could be considered a forced trade."

Tan Huajun appeared in the aisle and said a word for Zhang Xin. She had witnessed the whole process.

"Forced trade... which means the other person wasn't actually very willing, right? You're really something!"

Zhang Su glared at Zhang Xin and said seriously: "As a leader, you must lead by example. Don't do such shameful things in the future! You should pay attention to the basic influence and don't let this kind of atmosphere spread."

"I know, I know, I'll remember it."

Zhang Xin accompanied him with a smile, as if granted amnesty.

Zhang Su didn't continue to pursue it. He understood the principle that "water clear of fish has no fish." Moreover, in the current environment, it was enough. He reached out to Zhang Xin: "Bring the knife here and let me see. It really is quite similar!"

"Here, here..." Zhang Xin hurriedly offered it with both hands.

Zhang Su took the military knife from Zhang Xin's hand, looked at it, made a "hiss" sound, frowned, and then touched his own waist, only to find it empty.

"You're not wearing a belt, what are you touching? Wait for me to get it for you!"

Zheng Xinyu took the scabbard off the tactical belt at the head of the bed and handed it to Zhang Su.

The two knives were placed together for comparison. Except for the degree of wear, they were practically twins.

"Big brother, this..."

Zhao Dezhu stepped forward. He also had a Kukri military knife. He pulled it out and placed it nearby for comparison. Triplets! The handling of the details was about the same. In terms of wear, the one Zhang Xin traded for was the most severe, and that was the only one without Zhang Su's exclusive "Z"-shaped lightning engraving.

"Brother Su, didn't you say this military knife was crafted by an old master? This, this... it's a mass-produced product, right? Did you order it online and then find someone to stamp a steel seal on it?"

Lu Yubo squeezed out a strange expression. He had wanted one very much at the time, but unfortunately, he lost to Zhao Dezhu when the military knives were distributed. He had been brooding over it ever since and still wanted one now. Even if it was a mass-produced product, it was a very high-end mass-produced one! "Get the hell out of here!"

Zhang Su glanced at Lu Yubo and looked at Zhang Xin: "Is this knife really that person's?"

"Yes." Zhang Xin nodded, then shook his head: "But I'm not sure how he got it. Maybe he picked it up on the way? That old man doesn't look like someone who plays with high-end knives."

"This thing isn't so easy to pick up... Is that person surnamed Ding?"

Zhang Su flipped Zhang Xin's knife back and forth. He was already certain that this knife came from the same craftsman as his own, but the problem was that he had never sold these knives to anyone! "Oh..." Zhang Xin was stunned and smiled awkwardly: "Seems like it."

"You damn... so you just know how to bully people and take advantage, right? How are you responsible for the screening work?"

Zhang Su was very dissatisfied with this. Robbing things or forcing trades were all fine; those behaviors didn't count for much, but the work of screening strangers absolutely could not be perfunctory!

"That uncle is surnamed Ding, I remember."

Zheng Xinyu raised her hand, as if answering a teacher's question.

"Ding, Ding, Ding, that's right, I remember now, his name is Ding Guoyong, yes, Ding Guoyong!"

Sweat broke out on Zhang Xin's forehead, but an even more sweat-inducing voice sounded from behind him.

"You're the one named Ding Guoyong. Damn, how do I remember his name is Ding Yongguo? Are you an idiot!"

Wu Baokang didn't know when he had circled nearby. He looked at Zhang Xin with great helplessness. His inner thought was: Kid, even if you have a good relationship with the King of Hell, don't ruin it like this!

"Damn, it really is Old Ding, haha!"

Zhang Su already had the answer in his heart when he heard Zhang Xin call him Ding Guoyong wrong. A smile appeared on his face, and some past events surfaced in his mind: "Let's go, take me to find Old Ding."

"No, no, can't I just call him up? How can a leader condescend to find an ordinary member below..."

"That's called 'condescending to lower oneself,' with the 'silk' radical and the 'Yu' from 'therefore'—it's 'lowering oneself,' not 'lowering nobility.'"

Zhang Su complained while putting on his tactical belt.

"Oh, in this situation, it's too late to learn culture now, haha." Zhang Xin laughed awkwardly.

"That's not necessarily true. The continuation of human civilization in the future depends on us. Are you going to sell fruit forever? Maybe when the time comes, you'll be a teacher teaching children to read and write?"

Zhang Su smiled playfully, and then the group walked downstairs. On the way, they happened to run into Liu Yao and Yang Xinqi, who were going to notify them of the meeting, so a large group of people walked downstairs.

Walking out of the safety passage, Zhang Su looked up and saw two disheveled figures, one old and one young, sitting and dozing off next to a shop entrance in the distance.

They had just arrived and had nowhere to live. It would take some time to wait for allocation. It was good enough to have a safe place to take a nap, not to mention it was warm here, so the two leaned against the wall and fell asleep after a while.

People walking back and forth saw Zhang Su's group appear suddenly and hurriedly greeted them respectfully.

"Good morning, Leader Zhang. You haven't eaten yet, right? We've already started making it."

"Good morning, Big Brother Zhang. You got up so early!"

"Leader Zhang is busy with a thousand things, thank you for your hard work."

The flattery was endless. Zhang Su was their savior, and their reverence for their savior came from the heart, completely different from the perfunctory attitude they had toward Liao Youzhi.

Ding Yongguo was dozing off with his arms crossed. Hearing the noise, his eyelids trembled. He looked toward the source of the sound and found that a group of people had gathered. Just as he was confused, someone pulled him up and said solemnly.

"Get up quickly, the leader is here. You're new, right? At least go over and get familiar. If the Yama Legion hadn't rushed back yesterday, we would have been pushed over. Where would you have such a comfortable place to stay? Hurry, hurry, call that kid up, he's still sleeping!"

"Ah? Leader... oh, oh, I know, I know. Ziwen, wake up, Ziwen..."

Ding Yongguo woke up instantly when he heard the leader was here and pulled the young man named Ziwen beside him. However, Zheng Ziwen was too tired. He was awake, but still in a daze.

"Oh, Uncle, it's hard to find a place to sleep, don't bother me, what's the matter!?"

Zheng Ziwen, who was forcibly woken up from his dream, was very dissatisfied. He twisted his arm and frowned deeply. He had quite a temper upon waking up.

"Haha, Old Ding!"

Just at this moment, a pleasant voice sounded. Zhang Su had already arrived nearby. Seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar face, his heart was filled with mixed feelings.

The last time he saw Ding Yongguo was in August. He clearly remembered Ding Yongguo's state at that time: ruddy complexion, high spirits, a blacksmith's hammer dancing in his hands with great vigor, clanging and forging non-stop. Looking at him now...

He was at least twenty pounds thinner than before, wrinkles had appeared on his ruddy and full face, he was covered in dust and dirt, his hair was messy, and his clothes were tattered. The word "disheveled" was not enough to describe him. His shoes were in such bad shape that even Hong Qigong would want to give him his dog-beating stick.

Hearing the familiar voice, Ding Yongguo was stunned. He looked at the person coming with doubt in his eyes, his eyes wide open, and then narrowed them: "Zhang, Little Zhang, Boss Zhang?"

"What kind of talk is that? This is our leader, call him Leader Zhang, or Big Brother Zhang!"

People nearby heard the tattered middle-aged man actually calling their savior "Little Zhang, Boss Zhang," which was simply outrageous, and corrected him immediately.

"You, you... I, Leader Zhang, oh my, I didn't expect it! So you are the leader here? My god, haha... Amazing, simply amazing!"

Ding Yongguo was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly changed his attitude. At the same time, a warm current surged in his heart. He didn't expect to meet an acquaintance here, and a high-ranking one at that. Even more unexpected was that the other party would take the initiative to greet him. It was a surprise, a huge surprise.

He stood there at a loss, not knowing whether to step forward to get close or be respectful. He heard people say that the Survivor Alliance had become a thing of the past, and now this place had become the territory of Heavenly Horse Isle, including the Four Tigers of the North City, all belonging to Heavenly Horse Isle. And the person in front of him was the leader of Heavenly Horse Isle, which meant the leader of the entire northern forces of Qincheng, a truly big shot!

"Old friends meeting, no need to be so formal. Old Ding, come, meet my brothers."

Zhang Su stepped forward, squeezed Old Ding's sturdy shoulders, and then looked at the companions beside him: "I solemnly introduce to everyone, this skinny uncle is my former imperial blacksmith master. The knives, guns, and sticks I sold were basically all from Old Ding's blacksmith shop. We've been dealing with each other for... almost seven or eight years!"

Only then did the mystery in everyone's hearts unravel, and a look of realization appeared on their faces.

Lu Yubo pointed at Ding Yongguo with a strange expression, his fingers trembling: "You, you, you, so it was you! Those iron-sheet knives were knocked out by you?"

As one of the consumers of the iron-sheet knives and also a victim, Lu Yubo was very annoyed to see the unscrupulous merchant!

Ding Yongguo scratched his messy head with his calloused hands and laughed dryly: "Those... no, if you're talking about iron-sheet knives, they definitely weren't forged by me. They were all mass-produced products. I'm sorry... Little brother, the weapons I forge are definitely high-quality goods."

"Haha, Old Ding, don't mind him. When these little punks fight, they can only use those unsharpened toys, otherwise, one by one, they'd all be sent in. Maybe both you and I would be implicated. Let's not talk about that... I'm really happy to see you're still alive!"

Zhang Su was very happy to see Ding Yongguo. In this world, there were very few people left who shared common memories with him from before the disaster. Zheng Xinyu had been with him for less than a year, Wu Lue and Zhao Xue for a longer time, about two years, but this old blacksmith had known him for seven or eight years.

In the years they dealt with each other, the two would get together every month or two, either Zhang Su would find Old Ding to place orders for weapons, or they would go fishing together, or eat and drink at a farmhouse.

A few years ago, Zhang Su also used Ding Yongguo's connections to flip a batch of local specialties. It wasn't much, but both of them made thirty or forty thousand, and they could be considered pretty good friends with mutual exchanges.

After a simple introduction, the people of the Yama Legion were very polite and shook hands with Ding Yongguo. Everyone knew that such a skilled old master would definitely be reused, and he was also an old friend of Zhang Su, so his status in the camp would go without saying.

However, the young man beside Ding Yongguo had been forgotten by everyone in the corner. Ding Yongguo was busy dealing with things and forgot to introduce him until Zhang Su mentioned it...

"Old Ding, who is this young man?"

Zhang Su looked at the young man beside him who was twisting his head and not looking at the crowd, looking very individualistic.

"Oh, look at me, I forgot. Ziwen, come quickly and greet everyone!"

Ding Yongguo hurriedly greeted Zheng Ziwen.

"Hello."

Zheng Ziwen turned around, nodded very perfunctorily, and then turned his head again, leaving the back of his head to everyone.

Slap! "What kind of attitude is that? Speak properly!"

Ding Yongguo felt his nephew was just talking nonsense and slapped him on the head, criticizing him very seriously.

The scene went quiet instantly. The junior's attitude was indeed very inappropriate, and the elder's lesson was spot on.

Zheng Ziwen pursed his lips, hummed in his throat, turned his head toward Zhang Su, and bowed and saluted: "Hello Leader, hello everyone!"

He probably felt he had been taught a lesson and couldn't save face, so he stood up and turned his body away again, still muttering in his mouth.

Others couldn't hear it, but Zhang Su heard it clearly, word for word.

"What kind of leader, only a few years older, really putting on an act."

"Hehehe..."

Ding Yongguo smiled awkwardly and explained: "Leader Zhang..."

"You'd better call me Boss Zhang, I like that title."

Zhang Su patted Ding Yongguo's arm. This title represented past events and made him nostalgic, but it felt different when called out by Ma Changshou.

"Hey, hey, alright, Boss Zhang. This is my nephew, named Zheng Ziwen. That, he just turned eighteen, doesn't know any better."

Ding Yongguo kept a smile while introducing, but it was very stiff.

Everyone around looked at the back of Zheng Ziwen's head and had only one thought: This nephew is truly difficult...

(Difficult: does not understand social conventions, unreasonable.) "Oh, nephew..."

Zhang Su sized up Zheng Ziwen: skinny build, medium height, about 1.74 or 1.75 meters, probably hadn't cut his hair since the disaster broke out, and his oily long hair was already hanging to his shoulders.

His stand-up collar leather jacket was tattered, and a part of a tattoo could be seen from the exposed part of his neck.

"Biological nephew?"

Zhang Su asked thoughtfully.

Ding Yongguo looked at Zhang Su, smiled helplessly, and nodded: "Yes, my second younger sister's child, biological nephew."

"Fine, that, Old Ding, take Little Zhao to tidy up. You two come with me in a while. You must tell me properly what's been going on with you lately!"

Zhang Su patted Ding Yongguo on the shoulder with both hands and didn't blame Ding Yongguo because of the young man's poor attitude. These were two different things.

An old friend he could talk to, a skilled old master—these two points alone made him overjoyed. But there was another point that others didn't know, and that was Ding Yongguo's combat power! Others didn't know, but Zhang Su had learned some of his knife techniques from Ding Yongguo. According to Ding Yongguo, his ancestors had famous knife masters, and he counted as half a martial arts family. Although this was a joke, his skills were solid, especially his basic moves, which were very comprehensive and best for building a foundation.

In other words, Ding Yongguo's combat value was online. Zhang Su welcomed such survivors. The only flaw was that biological nephew, who looked like no one cared for him. It was estimated that if it weren't for his reliable uncle Ding Yongguo, he would have died eight times already! "Damn, this is too awesome."

"Isn't it."

"This belongs to rising in the world..."

The onlookers around all cast envious eyes at Ding Yongguo. The King of Hell personally received and invited him—what a lofty honor! He had risen from a stranded survivor to the sky in one step! Some big sisters watching from the third floor were full of resentment. He's just a blacksmith, why is a blacksmith so popular? Can he polish an iron rod? I guarantee it will be polished until it's red and bright! They didn't know that the weapons Ding Yongguo forged had made great contributions to the Yama Legion. The one with the most kills was naturally the Kukri military knife at Zhang Su's waist, and the number of zombies released under its blade was countless, conservatively estimated at several hundred! (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 540 =====