Chapter 153 The Oriole: I Want You to Always Be Like This
"Why are you here again?" Chen Ao walked out of the foundry and looked Lou Cangyu up and down. "The inner workshop is at a critical moment. Is Xingguo workshop very quiet?"
The steward replied timidly, "It was Miss Wushuang who invited him."
"Oh." Shen Ao softened his tone and ignored him, waving his hand to signal the steward to speak further, "Wushuang has sent everyone away. Do you know the secret behind her method of fueling the fire?"
The manager shook his head vigorously, "When the stone was being melted, Miss Wushuang wouldn't let anyone near. It's quite amazing, though. What was inside was iron stone, but in just one day it was melted into highly pure steel slurry. The foundry workers were all amazed, saying they had never heard of or seen anything like it."
Chen Ao stroked his goatee. "Could it be some kind of evil magic?"
“People are shallow,” Lou Cangyu said, raising his head. “Just because you don’t know something or haven’t seen it before, you label it as evil magic? Instead of thinking about how to improve your skills in the inner workshop, you’re just gossiping behind people’s backs.”
Shen Ao was too lazy to say anything more to him, and then, remembering something, he said, "Since we need to help it burn, we must add something to the furnace. Has Wushuang gone out these past few days?"
The steward shook his head as he recalled, and Chen Ao's eyes flickered. "Wan Qixi, besides the items on the list, did the Western Region people who delivered the goods bring anything else?"
The steward affirmed, "Wanqixi and Miss Wushuang have never met in the neighborhood. That Western Region man is greedy and cowardly. Seeing you, Steward, fawning over him like a lapdog, he would never help Miss Wushuang in private."
Shen Ao thought it made sense. The military order was made by Wushuang, and if it was not completed, it would be her hand that was broken. What did it have to do with the inner workshop? If it was completed, the inner workshop would also have credit. No matter how you looked at it, it was a sure-fire deal, so why bother with so much?
Seeing Shen Ao leave, Lou Cangyu entered the inner foundry. It was freezing cold, and Wushuang was the only one in the huge foundry. She stood by the blazing furnace, her thin blue shirt unfazed by the cold. The firelight illuminated her fair, jade-like face, and the blazing fire in her eyes burned brighter than the flames.
Lou Cangyu approached step by step. He knew that Wushuang had sensed him. Wushuang dismissed everyone and left only him by her side. Lou Cangyu felt gratified. Wushuang knew that no one in the world could be trusted except Lou Cangyu. He would never betray the blood oath they had made.
Wushuang lightly picked up a few crumbs and slowly sprinkled them into the burning kiln. Before Lou Cangyu could even blink, flames shot up half a meter high. "Careful!" Lou Cangyu slid to Wushuang's side, pulling her into his arms with one hand and raising his cloak to shield her from the flying sparks with the other. Looking down at Wushuang's flushed face in his arms, Lou Cangyu's mind went blank. "Careful..."
"You've never seen white flames before, don't you want to see them?" Wushuang raised an eyebrow at Lou Cangyu.
Lou Cangyu turned around in a daze. The white fireworks that only existed in his imagination unfolded before his eyes like a magnificent feast, or like a meteor breaking through the sky and falling into a grand rain of meteor fragments, covering the entire night sky.
Wushuang stood beside him, seemingly already accustomed to the fireworks display. "It's like fiery trees brushing away the clouds, pear blossoms scattering across the sky, brilliant as falling stars, silver trees like a fire attack."
Lou Cangyu looked at Wushuang again and said, "What you said is so true."
“It really looks like…” Wushuang gazed at the endless white flames, “thousands upon thousands of pear blossoms.”
The white flames gradually dimmed, and large chunks of iron in the furnace visibly began to melt. Wushuang smiled at Lou Cangyu, "Aren't you curious about what I added in?"
Lou Cangyu showed no desire for a method to aid combustion. "Only you can do it in this world, and I only want you to be able to do it."
"I invited Guan Ye to the inner quarters. If she's willing, I can teach her everything I know." Wushuang paced back and forth. "She said if she comes, I'm afraid there won't be a place for me in the inner quarters. Lou Cangyu, can Guan Ye also create white flames?"
"Her?" Lou Cangyu scoffed. "Besides swinging a sledgehammer, what else can she do? If she had that ability, she wouldn't have just stood by and watched..." Lou Cangyu abruptly stopped, glanced at Wushuang, and dared not continue.
"What did they say about the white fireworks that had melted meteorites?"
"The furnace god appeared and forged the sword into a weapon."
"What about Guan Ye? Does she also believe it was the furnace god's intervention?" Wushuang asked again.
Lou Cangyu didn't understand why Wushuang was always so veiled in her curiosity about Guan Ye. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "She has doubts, but... what can she do?"
Wushuang whispered with her back turned, "Perhaps she has been pondering what produced the white flames. Just because she can't figure it out now doesn't mean she'll never figure it out."
"What did you say?" Lou Cangyu didn't quite hear him.
Wushuang suddenly turned around and looked at Lou Cangyu, saying, "Since Guan Ye is unwilling to come to the inner workshop to help me, then let her go and refine brass. I want to see how much she can refine. Perhaps one day when she can't refine any more, she will come to beg me."
Lou Cangyu was puzzled. "Refining brass should be easier than forging swords, right? And you even swore an oath to cut off your arm..."
"Why don't we wait and see?" Wushuang smiled. "I'm also curious to see how Guan Ye will do it."
Lou Cangyu felt a surge of jealousy, brushed a stray hair from Wushuang's cheek through his palm, and glared at Wushuang with his dark eyes, "You always ask about Guan Ye, aren't you curious about what I can do?"
Wushuang slid her hair aside, swayed slightly, and took a few steps forward. She smiled sweetly at the stunned Lou Cangyu, "Do you know what I like most about you?"
"What?" Lou Cangyu asked expectantly.
"I don't need anyone to guess what I like most about you; I can see right through you at a glance." Wushuang moved like a nimble deer among the kilns. "I want you to always be like this."
Lou Cangyu stood there, stunned. He could understand every word, yet it seemed as if he understood none of them.
"Miss Wushuang, Boss Wanqi's men have come to deliver Tieying."
Seeing that it was a familiar face who often came, Wushuang lazily raised an eyebrow and said, "Put your things down."
Song Mian pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat, and gave Wushuang a humble smile. "Boss Wanqi is unavailable today, so I've come to deliver iron ore to your workshop. I wonder..." Song Mian glanced around the foundry, then suddenly saw the swordsmen from Xingguo Workshop again. "Should we move the iron ore to the warehouse, or..."
"Just leave it here." Lou Cangyu clearly recognized the person who had come. He was Song Mian, the one Guan Ye and the others had mentioned who had jumped into the sea but hadn't died. Lou Cangyu strode over to Song Mian and looked him up and down, his face covered in dust. "Given Wushuang's speed, there will be a hundred good swords by tomorrow. Why move them to the storeroom?"
"Oh, oh." Song Mian stuffed the handkerchief into his clothes. He recognized Lou Cangyu as a member of Xingguo Ward, but he had never spoken to this swordsman. For some reason, the way the young man in the black robe with sword patterns looked at him... was vaguely frightening. His eyes were fixed on him, as if... a sharp sword. Song Mian stared back for a moment, feeling a chill run through him, as if a sharp sword was piercing through him. He had no connection with him whatsoever, so why did he feel this way?
"Do you come to the inner quarters often?" Lou Cangyu asked again. "What's your name?"
Song Mian swallowed hard. "This humble one is Song Er."
Lou Cangyu scoffed inwardly. He'd heard Guan Ye Ajiu say that Song Mian's grandfather had once been a high-ranking official, yet even as a descendant of officials, he was reduced to toiling incognito, always subservient to him, never daring to look him in the eye. So what if one was born into nobility? Even the highest echelons of society could be trampled underfoot. Conversely, Lou Cangyu, raised on a deserted island, was destined for greatness.
"Song Er," Lou Cangyu repeated his name, "Wanqi Xi is now doing business with the imperial court. It's your good fortune that you can work for him. Work hard, cherish the present, and don't cause trouble, understand?"
"Yes, yes..." Song Mian replied haphazardly, "I... went to move the goods."
Lou Cangyu turned around with a flick of his sleeve and saw Wushuang staring at him intently. He suddenly felt a little nervous. Looking back at Song Mian, who was already busy, he said in a low voice, "Wanqi Xi comes from the Ghost Market and is cunning. His people should not be underestimated either."
Wu Shuang smiled playfully, but the look in her eyes made Lou Cangyu feel increasingly uneasy. Song Mian, carrying a large bag on his shoulder, couldn't help but look at Lou Cangyu again. Seeing that he and Wu Shuang were looking at each other with different expressions, Song Mian vaguely realized something. He stumbled and almost slipped off his bag. The inner neighborhood was eerily quiet; he should visit Xingguo Ward more often.
Xingguofang
Within a few days, Guan Ye had already ordered a thousand miscellaneous bronze swords to be cut in half. Under the furnace, the broken swords were piled up like a mountain, just waiting for Guan Ye's order to put them into the furnace for melting.
Guan Ye picked up a few broken sword fragments, carefully examined the color of the broken edges, fiddled with them a few times with her fingertips, and brought them close to her nose to smell them deeply. Feng Shisan watched Guan Ye's actions, opened his mouth several times but then swallowed his words back. His wallet was limited, and if he lost another bet, he wouldn't even have his underwear left.
"What's wrong?" Ah Guan, with a smile on his face, also picked up a piece. As the saying goes, "a trade is like a mountain," and although his swordsmanship was superb, he couldn't see much difference when faced with ore.
Guan Ye's gaze remained fixed on the broken edge of the mixed copper sword. The broken part was a deep copper color, and she could smell the mixed iron ore. It looked normal, but... Guan Ye rubbed her fingertips together, as if something was wrong. Since she couldn't see anything, she could only... put it in the furnace and refine a few more before making a decision.
Guan Ye called out to Huangpu Yingdao, "Let's try refining five batches using our ordinary furnace first."
"Only five?" Huangpu Ying asked, puzzled. "The Heavenly Furnace can melt a hundred or so swords at a time. Wouldn't it be faster to use the Heavenly Furnace?"
Guan Ye shook her head and said, "The Salt and Iron Bureau asked us to extract 800 catties of brass from a thousand swords. We'll have to try it first to find out exactly how much is in them."
Huangpu Ying seemed not quite to understand that the court's word was law, and that whatever they said should be done. But for some reason, Guan Ye's words carried an undeniable force. Huangpu Ying nodded heavily and waved to signal the sword slave to start the furnace.
Ajiu put down the broken sword. "You suspect that these miscellaneous copper swords can't be refined to produce that much brass?"
Guan Ye held up the broken sword in her hand and presented it to A Jiu. "You're a swordsman. What do you think of this broken sword?"
Ah Jiu looked closely, recalling the broken edge of the Pei family's Golden Sword. Pei Chong's Golden Sword was broken into three sections. He remembered Guan Ye mentioning that the three sections had two breaks. One break was smooth, as it was cleaved straight by Lu Wenting's sword, while the other break was rough, clearly indicating that it was broken by the opponent's force.
A glance swept over the mountain of broken swords before him. The breaks were all rough, yet these swords had all been cleaved by swordsmen in the past few days. Ji Fang had even complained that the old wounds on his palms were about to crack from the impact. If they had been cleaved by swordsmen, the breaks should have been smooth... Unless... these miscellaneous bronze swords were all broken by the swordsmen's powerful impact...
Even if Ajiu was ignorant of ore and forging techniques, she knew the difference between cutting and breaking. Weapons can protect people or kill people. When sharp weapons clash, the stronger one wins. If a weapon is cut by the opponent, it means either the skill is inferior or the weapon is inferior. If you lose, there is nothing to say. But if a weapon is broken by shock... then it is not that the weapon is inferior, but like the sword in Xingguofang... it means that someone has tampered with it.
“These swords…” A-Jiu’s body tensed. “Is there a problem?” Seeing Guan Ye’s silence, A-Jiu whispered again, “Is it really that they can’t forge the brass the court wants?”
"No." Guan Ye lowered her voice. A terrible thought flashed through her mind, but she was still unable to confirm it. "If I'm not mistaken, the brass that can be refined from these thousand miscellaneous copper swords is probably more than eight hundred catties."
—Not just the amount the imperial court wants?
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