Chapter 157 How Brass Heaven and Earth Will Kill Me
—Brass? Xiao Ma's eyebrows twitched in surprise. Xingguo Workshop was smelting brass.
"Cang Yu, are you a ghost?" Ji Fang said angrily, "You don't even make a sound when you walk."
Lou Cangyu chuckled dryly a few times, "You guys were happy about dividing the silver, and I was right behind you, how come you didn't even notice? Tell me, how's Guan Ye's miscellaneous copper sword coming along?"
Before Ji Fang could speak, A Jiu interrupted, "The sword hasn't even entered the Heavenly Furnace yet, and there's still no explanation. When did you start caring about these things?"
Lou Cangyu showed no embarrassment. “If I don’t ask, you say I’m indifferent to what’s going on in the neighborhood. If I ask, it seems like I shouldn’t be involved. It’s so hard to be a person. Why don’t you teach me what to do?”
Ajiu said calmly, "You are the adopted son of the Fang family, so it is only right that you care about your own affairs. I misspoke."
Lou Cangyu snorted, "How dare I? Everyone knows you're a favorite of the Emperor now. You're interfering in my affairs; I'm the one who should be reflecting on my actions." He then took a step forward, "I heard from Huangpu Ying that he melted down a few. Let's go take a look."
"I'm not going." Xiao Ma took a deep breath. "I'm tired, so sleepy..." Xiao Ma said, turning his back and yawning. "You guys be quiet when you come back."
Feng Shisan, resting his chin on his hand, scrutinized Xiao Ma as he returned to the east wing. "Strange," Feng Shisan muttered. "He would never miss these things on a normal day. Why is he sleepy so early? Did he steal a chicken in the middle of the night?"
Ajiu gazed at Xiaoma's hesitant steps and remained silent.
In the foundry, Guan Ye bent down to look at the copper slurry from the molten copper sword. The slurry was copper-colored, and its texture was thick and difficult to stir. When the slurry was poured into flocculent pieces, it was indeed pure brass slurry.
"How heavy is the brass here?" Guan Ye asked in a low voice.
Huangpu Ying rolled up his sleeves and wiped his sweat, his brows furrowed as if he was puzzled. "It's strange, five swords yielded seven or eight pounds of brass... the ratio is a bit off."
Experienced blacksmiths know that brass is brittle and not suitable for forging weapons. When it is used to forge weapons, it is usually used for handles or decorations. Blades and blades rarely contain brass. The handles of mixed copper swords are made of brass. It is estimated that seven or eight ounces are enough for one sword. Five swords would yield seven or eight pounds of material. So, one sword would use more than one pound of brass? Huangpu Ying had been a blacksmith for more than ten years, so he could naturally detect the abnormality.
"Master Guan?" Huangpu Ying called out, "What do you think?"
Guan Ye pondered. If this were the case for every sword, melting down a thousand miscellaneous copper swords would yield far more than eight hundred catties of brass—it would amount to over a thousand catties. The question was, where would the extra few hundred catties come from? And… should she report this to the Salt and Iron Bureau? Or… did the Salt and Iron Bureau already know…?
"Should we report this to the shop owner first?" Huangpu Ying asked again.
"No rush..." Guan Ye bit her lip, "It's only been five rounds, maybe..."
Huangpu Ying suddenly understood and laughed, "That's true, you've thought it through perfectly. Five swords alone don't prove anything. The craftsmanship in the inner workshop is often rough, and imbalances in the blending are not uncommon. Let's wait until the swords are melted in the Heavenly Furnace before making a decision." Looking up, he saw several swordsmen approaching, so Huangpu Ying clasped his hands in a fist salute to them and turned to leave.
"Brass, huh?" Lou Cangyu strode forward, waving a hand to clear away the steam rising from the molten metal. "Why don't you just throw it all into the furnace? How long will this furnace take to melt?"
Seeing that no one answered him, Lou Cangyu's eyes darted around Guan Ye's face. "I know, you want to try them out first. What? You suspect there's something wrong with these swords?"
Guan Ye calmly stirred the liquid. "What problems could there be with military supplies? These swords were all forged in the inner workshop. Go tell Wushuang that there's something wrong with their stuff?"
Lou Cangyu's face turned pale. "When these swords were forged, Wushuang was still nowhere to be found. You can't blame her."
Ji Fang squatted down, staring intently at Guan Ye's movements without blinking. "We can finish on time, right?"
Guan Ye nodded, and Ji Fang showed a happy expression. "If Guan Ye says it's okay, then it's definitely okay." He then put his hands together, looked up at the sky, and said, "Heaven above, please don't let anything else go wrong."
Guan Ye glanced at the group. She had only seen Xiao Ma earlier when he was handing out silver, but he hadn't come along. She had felt something was off when she saw him today. He should have been anxious and restless when he heard about the brass melting, so why was he nowhere to be seen?
The remaining copper swords will be thrown into the furnace in three batches. Guan Ye has calculated the timeline and is confident that she can deliver the brass to the Salt and Iron Bureau on schedule. However… how much can she actually deliver? Possessing brass is a serious crime, but if she delivers the full amount… will she be plunged into an even deeper quagmire? And is the depth of this quagmire something Xingguo Ward can fathom? Xingguo Ward, which has been lying dormant on a deserted island for a hundred years, has returned to Rongdu because of a meteor sword. Is Xingguo Ward truly recalled to revitalize the military equipment of the Great Jin Dynasty? Or could there be… another hidden agenda?
Guan Ye watched as the sword slaves tossed hundreds of swords into the Heavenly Furnace. Joy filled their faces; they carried silver coins, their hearts burning with the same fervor as the furnace's flames. In the rising smoke of the furnace, the swordsmiths saw a bright and promising future, and the swordsmen saw a radiant future. Guan Ye rubbed her eyes; she saw it too. She saw the wild deer bursting out of the mist from the Pei residence on Canglang Island, and she also saw… Cui Jin's single eye, faintly visible behind the mist. That terrifying single eye stared intently at Guan Ye, possessing the power to control all things. Guan Ye calmly confronted it, refusing to back down an inch.
Guan Ye also saw... Xiao Ma, who was hidden in the crowd. He finally couldn't hold back and came to the foundry as well. In the dark mass of people, he looked up for a moment and then quickly looked down. As if he noticed that Guan Ye was staring at him, Xiao Ma was about to turn around when Guan Ye called out to him.
"Little Ma!" Guan Ye caught up with him in a few steps and grabbed his collar. "Why are you running?"
Xiao Ma rubbed his hands awkwardly, then breathed warm air into his mouth. "Did I run away? It's too cold outside, I just wanted to go back inside and warm myself by the fire."
Guan Ye grabbed Xiao Ma's hand. His hand was hot and sweaty, showing no sign of coldness. Xiao Ma pulled his hand away and put it behind his back, looking around as he said, "With so many people watching, aren't you afraid that Ajiu will chop off my hand? Let's go."
"I wanted to catch you yesterday. I have something to tell you." Guan Ye glanced at Tian Lu and lowered her voice, "About your family..."
"I don't want to know," Xiao Ma interrupted hastily. "I... I'm not in a hurry to know." He then dashed away as if fleeing, before turning back to look at Guan Ye. "Thank you for remembering me."
"Little Ma!" Guan Ye called out to him, "There's something wrong with the miscellaneous copper sword."
Xiao Ma's expression hardened, and he hesitated, "I don't know any casting techniques, so there's no use in you telling me this."
“Brass.” Guan Ye didn’t care about anything else. “I know where the brass that wasn’t in the case of the counterfeit coins is.”
—The missing brass… Guan Ye has been found. A buzzing sound filled Xiao Ma's ears; the foundry was noisy, and suddenly Xiao Ma could hear nothing anymore.
"This liquid..." Xiao Ma asked doubtfully, "...contains the brass that went missing from my house?"
Guan Ye nodded. “A mixed copper sword yields eight ounces of brass according to the formula. We tested five swords, and the brass slurry you see weighs more than six pounds. That means one sword can yield one pound and three ounces of brass. A thousand swords would yield an extra five hundred pounds. Five hundred pounds... isn't that the amount that went missing from your house?”
Xiao Ma was stunned for a long time. Yes, that's the number. The five hundred catties of brass that the Ma family lost... were in these thousand swords? Why... why is this happening?
"Why..." Xiao Ma murmured, unsure whether he was asking Guan Ye or his deceased grandfather, "Why are they among these swords?"
“These swords belong to the guards outside the city,” Guan Ye continued. “The guards won’t need weapons for eight or ten years. By the time they go to the battlefield, the Great Jin will probably have no soldiers left. At that time, no one will care if the weapons are fake. Using the missing brass on the guards, the person who came up with this idea must be quite cunning.”
Xiao Ma looked up at the furnace, a flicker of fear crossing his pale face. "If the scheme is so sophisticated, why not leave these swords to the Imperial Tomb Guard for all eternity? Why send them to Xingguo Warehouse? Melting them in brass would reveal the secret to the world, wouldn't it? Brass is regulated; how could hundreds of extra pounds appear out of nowhere? How will the Salt and Iron Bureau explain this to the court? These swords were forged in the Imperial Workshop; how will the Imperial Workshop explain that? And then there's..."
"Why did you have Xingguo Workshop melt down these brasses?" Guan Ye slowly coaxed, her eyes fixed on Xiao Ma.
The fear on Xiao Ma's face turned into a deep mockery. He suddenly burst into laughter, "A dead pawn on Canglang Island. I was just wondering, would the imperial court really summon Xingguo Fang back to court because of a Meteor Sword? Meteor Stone forges the Meteor Sword, and the Meteor Sword fulfills the dream of a meteor. Everything we've experienced lately is nothing more than a meteor streaking across the sky, a fleeting moment of brilliance. Once Xingguo Fang, once we release our final brilliance, we will disappear into the cosmos like a meteor trailing its tail, never to be mentioned again."
Xiao Ma thought the same as Guan Ye: the schemes of the predecessors were to be deciphered by Xingguo Fang, and then buried by Xingguo Fang. The visitors from the deserted island had no foundation and no future. They revitalized the game, only to be devoured by others.
"Guan Ye," Xiao Ma hesitated, "I...we..."
"What?" Guan Ye pressed.
Xiao Ma wanted to persuade Guan Ye to leave, but he didn't know how to say it. He wanted to tell Guan Ye that he planned to run away and disregard the lives of others, to go with Mei Xiaoqing to a place where no one knew them, and live a carefree life with the Ma family's wealth... These thoughts only flashed through his mind before Xiao Ma was already blushing and ashamed to face anyone. He had promised to share the good times and the bad, Ma Lin... had he forgotten?
"It's nothing..." Xiao Ma sighed inwardly, "What do you plan to do? Does Ajiu know about this?"
“He doesn’t know yet…” Guan Ye said in a low voice, “This is a big matter for your family. Of course, I have to protect it for you before I’m absolutely certain. That’s what I promised you. It concerns your family’s wrongful conviction. The evidence is right here. What do you plan to do now?”
"I..." Xiao Ma choked up, "I...I don't know, I'm afraid...there's nothing we can do."
Guan Ye stared in surprise at the dejected Ma Lin. Was this the same Ma Lin who had seemed ready to tear the sky apart the other day? "But right now..." Guan Ye said with difficulty, "We can't avoid Xingguo Ward anymore. Once the thousand miscellaneous copper swords are melted down..."
Xiao Ma took a deep breath, turned his head away, and dared not meet Guan Ye's eyes. "There are still the ward owner and the manager in the ward... They will definitely be able to come up with a solution. What can you and I do?"
Seeing Xiao Ma start to leave, Guan Ye stretched out her arms to block him, "You...want to escape?"
Xiao Ma's eyelashes fluttered, and Guan Ye noticed the evasive look in his eyes. Disappointment welled up on Guan Ye's face. "Xiao Ma, you're already planning to run away, to leave Xingguo Fang... isn't that right?"
Xiao Ma neither said yes nor no. He sighed, turned around, and after a moment of silence said, "You should go too."
"Go? Where to?"
Xiao Ma looked up at the sky shrouded in smoke. "The world is vast. Didn't your parents flee for many years with you? Whether you're alone or with A-Jiu... you'll definitely find a place... A-Jiu loves you so much. With him protecting you, he won't allow anyone to hurt you. Leave Xingguo Ward. They can't escape."
"If they can't escape, does that mean we can?" Guan Ye looked confused. "We all have one life."
Xiao Ma looked at Guan Ye. He had known Guan Ye for a long time, yet it felt like they had just met today. They were all bound by the same fate? How could Guan Ye actually believe such a hollow statement? Xiao Ma chuckled, "You don't really think the Blood Oath can bind everyone together, do you? To walk hand in hand through life and death, never to betray..."
"If anyone breaks this oath, everyone may kill him. If people don't kill him, then heaven and earth will destroy him." Xiao Ma laughed again. "If people are already dead, how can we kill those who break the oath? If people don't kill him, then heaven and earth will destroy him... This part is even more ridiculous. If heaven has eyes, how could it stand by and watch the Ma family suffer injustice? If heaven has feelings, how could it stand by and watch us wander and suffer all the hardships of the world... If I want to leave, then they want to kill me?" Xiao Ma suddenly drew his sword and pointed it straight at the sky. "Then I'll see how heaven and earth will kill me."
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