Chapter 18 Competition "When did you become so sweet?"
Zhou Tinglan walked over to the woman in the pink dress and asked, "Miss, who is the groom you're talking about?"
"I am your groom. Even the swords forged by those students on the stage are not even one ten-thousandth as good as the ones forged by my groom."
"Really?" Zhou Tinglan raised his chin slightly. "Since you say your groom's swords are excellent, could you please have him come out and compete with my student?"
Although there are always people better than you, the tone she used when she mentioned the groom was obviously exaggerated. I wanted to see who the groom she was talking about was.
The woman in the pink dress straightened her back and said, "Let's compete. I happened to have brought him to the venue today."
I specially found a blacksmith from a nearby city, and I must give her a warning!
Zhou Tinglan saw the woman in the pink dress turn around and leave to look for someone. She looked at Xie Zechuan and asked, "What do you think about this?"
Xie Zechuan shook his head: "Although I don't know, you are the most powerful swordsmith I have ever seen in my life."
The woman in the pink dress soon brought back a man in a blue cloth shirt. When Zhou Tinglan saw the groom, he raised his eyebrows. It was the same blue cloth shirt again.
It seems that the previous tracking and the Flower Goddess Festival are related to her.
"You must be the horseman this girl mentioned who is good at forging swords."
After confirming his identity, the student on the stage had just finished his sword-forging demonstration, and Zhou Tinglan called over the student that Xie Zechuan had pointed out before.
"There's a girl's groom at the venue who wants to compete with us forging students in a sword forging competition. I'm planning to let you compete."
After hearing this, the student understood the whole story and promised, "Don't worry, I will definitely not bring shame to our forging class."
Zhou Tinglan was very pleased to see him so motivated and warned him, "The force of your hammer drop on the stage just now was not right."
Zhou Tinglan simply pointed out the problems that the student encountered during the presentation and patted the student on the shoulder: "Come on, I believe you can do it."
Some soldiers had already passed the news of the competition to the guests at the venue, and everyone's attention was focused on the center of the booth.
The moment the groom came on stage, there was a commotion among the guests below. The blacksmith, who was wearing a navy blue shirt, frowned at the people on the stage.
How could it be him? What was he doing in Beijiang City? With his personality, there was no way he was coming to Beijiang City to appreciate the sword-forging exhibition.
Moreover, when did he become so courageous that he dared to compete with the students in Miss Zhou's forging class in the sword-forging exhibition?
His thoughts were interrupted by the whispers of the other guests around him. The blacksmith didn't think about it any more. He was also looking forward to the competition later. Besides, the man's embarrassment on the stage had nothing to do with him. He had quarreled with this man a few days ago.
The forging furnace on the display stand was started again. The students always kept Zhou Tinglan's instructions in mind. Although there were still some defects in the hammering process compared to before, it was much better.
Zhou Tinglan nodded and turned to look at the groom on the other side. She soon found the problem.
The materials used by the groom when forging the sword were very sloppy, and the direction of the hammer was not fixed. Zhou Tinglan had only seen such mistakes in beginners of sword forging.
A cold snort came from the side. Xie Zechuan obviously also saw the low-level mistake made by the groom. What a joke. He accompanied Lan'er every day to watch her forge swords. Even if he didn't know how to forge swords, he knew the basic principles of forging swords.
"This is the amazing groom you mentioned who can forge a sword with his eyes closed." Xie Zechuan glanced coldly at the woman in the pink dress.
Zhou Tinglan saw the woman in the pink dress move her lips and her face turned paler after hearing what Xie Zechuan said.
"I don't know. I really didn't know he was such a shameless person. He told me he was a skilled swordsmith, so I did this."
What should I do? I really didn’t know he was a liar. I hope Xie Zechuan wouldn’t misunderstand me. Oh my god, what should I do?
The woman in the pink dress tried her best to explain to Xie Zechuan. Zhou Tinglan looked at the two of them and guessed in his mind that this girl might be fond of Xie Zechuan and was doing all kinds of things to make things difficult for her.
A handsome man is a disaster. He has a handsome face and attracts many men every day.
However, this was not the time to get angry with Xie Zechuan. The competition on the stage soon ended. The groom took the newly forged sword, whistled, and showed it to the guests below the stage, saying proudly: "Not bad, my sword is forged really well."
Zhou Tinglan went on stage and took the newly forged sword from her student. The corners of her lips curled up, and she raised the sword and touched the tip of the sword in the groom's hand.
"If you have the guts, let's try to chop each other with our knives. My little beauty, just wait and see the knife in your hand being broken by me."
The groom's arrogant words were still ringing in his ears when Zhou Tinglan chopped confidently.
With a clang, the groom looked at the half-broken knife in his hand in horror and was speechless for a long time.
“You you you——”
Why is this happening? The knife I forged is so perfect, they must be cheating!
Zhou Tinglan casually threw the knife back onto the forging table, his tone barely concealing contempt: "It was you who had the knife broken, not me."
The result of the competition was obvious. Some of the guests in the audience said that the coach was overestimating his abilities, and the coach's face looked unhappy.
Zhou Tinglan walked off the stage, and the groom rushed off the stage to catch Zhou Tinglan: "It's you! You tampered with my forging materials or the forging table!"
When Zhou Tinglan saw the coachman rushing down, Xie Zechuan immediately protected him behind him. He threw the coachman to the ground and stared at him coldly.
Zhou Tinglan heard the groom's words and walked out from behind Xie Zechuan. She looked at his angry face and said calmly, "The reason your knife hasn't been successful is that you were careless in selecting the materials when forging it, and secondly, your attention has never been on the knife in your hand, which has led to your frequent mistakes."
Zhou Tinglan raised the corner of his mouth as he uttered his final words: "In short, you will never be better than me, or even better than the students I taught. Besides, the one you are competing with is not the best forger."
When the guests heard Zhou Tinglan's words, they nodded in agreement and said, "Miss Zhou's words are insightful, but they are indeed true."
The groom wanted to argue, but there were no guests around to support him. His mouth was straight, his knuckles were faintly white, he looked around, as if he saw someone, and suddenly rushed towards somewhere.
Everyone was puzzled, and then they saw the groom grab a man wearing a navy blue cloth shirt from among the guests.
"Please help me explain. I don't usually forge swords like this. They must have done something to me."
"Let go." The blacksmith in the navy blue shirt shouted, "Do I know you well?"
The groom argued cunningly, "We are relatives. Now that I'm in trouble, you're turning your back on me, right?"
"Who are you related to? You're so forgetful. Have you forgotten that we had a fight a few days ago?"
The blacksmith in the navy blue shirt didn't even look at the groom. He said to Zhou Tinglan, "Miss Zhou, I recognize this man. He's a blacksmith from a nearby city. He runs a blacksmith shop, not a groom."
Oh~ Zhou Tinglan glanced meaningfully at the woman in the pink dress again: "Then what is the quarrel you mentioned?"
"I'm the blacksmith who signed up for the weapons factory on the same day as Miss Zhou. Knowing I wasn't qualified enough, I didn't sign up for the forging class. This person is a distant relative. He was a guest at my house a while ago, and we had an argument over forging."
Zhou Tinglan asked curiously, "Could you tell me the reason? It's okay if it's inconvenient."
The blacksmith in the navy blue shirt waved his hand. "What's so embarrassing about that? I was forging swords when he came to visit me. Although I wasn't in the forging class, I was privately friends with some of the students there and received their instruction in swordsmithing. This man saw me using materials and started yelling at me for being wasteful. Why was I using more than I could have used?"
He pointed to the forging table the groom had just used and continued, "Miss Zhou also saw how this man forged the sword. The swords forged by cutting corners look like this."
The blacksmith in the navy blue shirt spoke with such precision that he revealed the groom's true skill in forging swords. Before Zhou Tinglan could say anything, a loud slap was heard.
The woman in the pink dress couldn't bear it any longer, so she quickly stepped forward and slapped the groom.
"How dare you lie to me? Give me back the silver."
The groom felt that the blacksmith in the navy blue shirt had insulted him and was slapped in the face, which made him even angrier. He pushed away the woman in the pink dress in front of him and started arguing with the blacksmith.
The woman in the pink dress was so angry when she was pushed away that she wanted to go forward to argue again, but was stopped by Zhou Tinglan.
Zhou Tinglan looked at her calmly and said, "Aren't you afraid of getting hurt by mistake if you just go up like this?"
"But..." Is she just going to let herself be deceived?
"If you want to cause trouble, wait until the swordsmithing exhibition is over. My swordsmithing exhibition does not welcome troublemakers."
The pink woman was so angry that she stomped her feet and stood there unwilling to leave. She stared at Zhou Tinglan.
The hateful woman who kidnapped General Xie, she wants to see how she will run this sword-forging exhibition!
The groom and the navy blue blacksmith were asked to leave the venue by the soldiers sent by Xie Zechuan, and he ordered the groom not to enter or leave any forging place in Beijiang City from then on.
The venue returned to calm, and next began Zhou Tinglan's sword-forging demonstration.
After a few words of instruction to Xie Zechuan, she went on stage first. Zhou Tinglan picked up the forging materials on the forging table. The action of dropping the hammer might seem a bit rough if done by others, but hers had a unique beauty.
A blazing flame ignited in the forging furnace, reflecting on Zhou Tinglan's face, making her even more beautiful.
Xie Zechuan noticed her every look when she was forging the sword on the stage. Lan'er was the most charming woman he had ever seen. She was so beautiful!
After the knife was completed, all the guests in the audience were impressed by Zhou Tinglan's skillful knife-forging skills.
Zhou Tinglan showed the guests below the stage her newly forged long sword. Without saying a word, she placed the sword at the ends of her hair and blew gently, and a few strands of black hair fell down.
She then took out a few pieces of hard iron and chopped them off with her knife, leaving the cut surfaces smooth and unobstructed.
It can be said that "iron is cut like mud and hair is broken by blowing."
Zhou Tinglan asked the soldiers waiting nearby to pass the sword around for demonstration, and then said, "This sword was forged using my unique sword-forging technique. Everyone can see its specific effect."
The guests in the audience were amazed and applauded.
What a good knife! They had never seen such a complete fracture before.
"Miss Zhou, are you still accepting disciples? I want to learn swordsmithing from you."
"Miss Zhou, I also want to learn from you."
“…”
The venue suddenly became a meeting to seek disciples, and Zhou Tinglan shook his head to indicate that he would not accept disciples.
"If you like the knives I forged, you are welcome to buy them from any blacksmith shop in Beijiang City."
There were wails from the audience. Zhou Tinglan walked off the stage and returned to Xie Zechuan's side. Seeing him in a daze, he said with amusement, "Why are you like a piece of wood?"
Xie Zechuan turned his head to look at her, Zhou Tinglan's figure reflected in his eyes: "You are so beautiful, I am almost mesmerized by looking at you."
"When did you become so sweet?" Zhou Tinglan smiled and pinched Xie Zechuan's cheek.
Xie Zechuan was just thinking that he was like that, when unexpectedly a voice interrupted their conversation. He turned around unhappily and saw a young woman in a pink dress.
"What are you doing?"
Hugging and kissing in public, how shameless!
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