Beast

After walking along the main street for a while, the two turned left and right, and what appeared in front of them was a courtyard wall with red walls and green tiles. There was a small gate on the courtyard wall that could allow horses to pass through. This was the king in Li Hongwei's mouth.

The back door of the master's mansion is reserved for the people below.

Li Hongwei sent the horse back through the small door of the mansion. He was not qualified to bring strangers in. Yang Qing waited outside the door for a while in a restrained manner, and then the two of them went straight to the Ba Forging Iron Shop.

"Look, there is the Eight Forged Iron Pavilion ahead. Come on, let's go in." Li Hongwei pointed to a foot-wide plaque with a black background and said with a smile.

The facade was deserted, with no pedestrians coming and going.

Eight wrought iron pavements are laid on the only shop street in the town. The house is made of marble, the stone surface is polished smooth, and the gaps between stones are tightly closed.

Li Hongwei led Yang Qing inside. There was a row of shelves inside the store. There were more than ten weapons on the shelves, including knives, swords, axes and other common weapons.

After talking to the young man who was looking after the shop, he learned that Wang Erli and his apprentice were in the blacksmith shop, so he led Yang Qing into the backyard. The shop in front sold some finished weapons, and the backyard was where the blacksmith shop and residence were.

There are three main rooms in the backyard, a wing room in the east and west, and an open space in the middle. There is a well in the open space and some jars and barrels are placed elsewhere.

The doors and windows of the east side room were all open, and the sound of blacksmithing could be heard from inside, with white steam coming out. This side room was a blacksmith shop. Before Li Hongwei entered the door, he shouted inside, "Master Wang,

Master Wang”

"Who is it?" A hoarse voice came, and then a middle-aged man with bare arms and a Chinese face walked out. This middle-aged man was about seven feet tall, with a Chinese character face and a black stubble.

With a strong build and bulging muscles in his upper body, he is none other than Wang Erli, the owner and master of the Ba Forging Iron Shop.

"Master Wang, it's me, Xiao Li," Li Hongwei replied with a smile.

"Oh, it's Xiao Li, what are you doing here?" Wang Erli spoke with enthusiasm and recognized Li Hongwei. Last time, several soldiers from Li Hongwei came here with the housekeeper to order weapons.

"I didn't expect Master Wang to still remember me. I came here this time to ask for your help with something." Li Hongwei said politely. Without beating around the bush with Wang Erli, he directly told Yang Qing that he was going to the blacksmith shop.

"Master Wang, this brother of mine doesn't have much money. You can ask him to do odd jobs for you here and be a little apprentice. When he is happy, he can just teach him a few times." Li Hongwei pulled Yang Qing over and said sternly.

"My brother is very hard-working and honest."

When Wang Erli heard that it was not about ordering weapons, he became lukewarm.

"I know what you mean. I had one here, and he just left a few days ago." Wang Erli said in a neither salty nor cool tone, looking Yang Qing up and down. "How old is he? Can he do any activities?"

"I'm fourteen. I can work. I can do any kind of work in my family." Yang Qing replied in a low voice, with a restrained expression and fear in his heart.

"Let's stay and work for a while. Let me tell you, I can only take care of food and shelter. I can't guarantee whether I can learn this craft." Wang Erli said with a pout, don't think about it, just make money and not lose money, no.

Just drive away.

"Then thank you, Master Wang. Don't worry, my brother will definitely do the job smoothly." Li Hongwei thanked Wang Erli. Seeing Wang Erli's expression, he gradually put a smile on his face.

"Thank you. It's enough for Xiao Li and Butler Wang to suggest that you come to my place to build weapons." Wang Erli waved his hand to win over the business. "Yang Qing, right? Come in with me."

"Yang Qing, you go with Master Wang and study hard with Master Wang. I will go back and take time to see you later." Li Hongwei said in an encouraging tone. After finishing the matter, he felt very happy to be able to help the neighbors in this way.

.

"I know, Brother Hongwei, thank you very much," Yang Qing said gratefully, hiding the fear in his heart.

Yang Qing was grateful to Li Hongwei. It was only with Li Hongwei's help that he was able to walk out of the village and leave the ordinary life of working day and night.

Yang Qing was afraid of the stern-looking Wang Erli, so he followed him into the blacksmith's shop uneasily. He saw a completely unfamiliar environment and came into contact with all unfamiliar people. Only he knew the fear in his heart.

There were two young men with bare arms working in the blacksmith shop. When they saw Yang Qing entering, they all stood up and watched.

"This is the new apprentice. From now on, you don't have to do the groceries. Just let Yang Qing do it." Wang Erli said calmly to the two young men.

The two young men nodded to show that they understood. They glanced at Yang Qing and stopped talking to him. They lowered their heads and got busy. They understood what Wang Erli meant by 'little apprentice', and they lost interest in talking.

Yang Qing grinned and wanted to say hello shyly, but was suppressed by the cold glance.

These two young men are Wang Erli's apprentices. The one with big eyes and short body is called Lin Bo, the one with triangular eyes and square chin is called Sun Tao. The young man looking at the shop in front is called Zhang Bin.

Next, Wang Erli began to tell him what he needed to do here, both in the blacksmith shop and outside the blacksmith shop. These tasks did not require any technical skills and could be done by long hands and strong strength.

The third main house was where Wang Erli's family of three lived. He told Yang Qing not to go in without greeting him. At night, he stayed in the west room, which was used as a utility room. There were beddings left by the former apprentice.

For a while, the uneasiness and fear in Yang Qing's heart had not disappeared. What Wang Erli said made him feel deeply humiliated. This feeling was a hundred times stronger than if he had no food, no clothing, no warmth.

Yang Qing didn't want to stay in this blacksmith shop anymore. Wang Erli treated him like a servant or a slave, guarding him like a thief. Before he came, he expected that this place would definitely not be as comfortable as home, but he didn't

I thought I would be treated with such contempt by others.

I took a deep breath and suppressed the unspeakable impulse in my heart. I was able to get out only with the help of Li Hongwei. How could I live up to my parents if I went back when I encountered some difficulties? My family would become a joke in the whole village.

If you can't even bear this grievance, then you are destined to live in a big village farming.

Yang Qing put the baggage in the utility room in a low mood. There were scattered debris in the utility room. A thin, black-stained bedding was spread on the earthen bed in a small corner. Looking from a distance, it looked like

The kennel is average.

Looking at this utility room, Yang Qing suddenly felt homesick. He shook his head and threw it behind his head, turned around and walked out. He remembered his father's words before leaving, that he must be diligent.

As the saying goes, there are three major hardships in the world: forging iron, punting, and grinding tofu. Punting: the boat is sailing in the wind and waves, and there is always the danger of capsizing and killing one's life. Forging: enduring the heat day and night by the furnace, living is like going to hell.

If you hit the iron hammer, you will sweat profusely. Selling tofu: you sleep at midnight and wake up at five o'clock, and do the work of a donkey, and you can only earn a small amount of money to survive.

The side room of the blacksmith shop is wider, with an iron furnace in the middle, and connected to the iron furnace is a large bellows. Next to the iron furnace, there is a square pool and iron piers, with black iron slag scattered around.

Blacksmithing seems simple, but it is not easy to learn. It is easy to get started, but it is very difficult to master it. Wang Erli's three apprentices have all studied for two or three years, and now they can barely read and make some ordinary iron tools.

The coke in the iron furnace has turned dark red, and most of the water in the pool has turned into water vapor and spread out from the lifted roof. A shovel was formed. This was completed by Wang Erli's apprentice. Wang Erli was giving instructions and occasionally taking over the lead.

After hammering it a few times, the process of building it was taught to his apprentices. If it was too complicated, he would not let his apprentices read it and do it. If the building was broken, it would be his Wang Erli's money that was lost.

Yang Qing didn't see the building process. He hadn't arrived at the Eight Forging Iron Shop at that time. By the time Yang Qing came out of the utility room and entered the iron shop, the building had come to an end, and Yang Qing hurried forward to help clean up.

"This hammer weighs more than ten kilograms. How much strength is required to swing it?" Yang Qin sighed in his heart, picking up two hammers and not knowing where to put them.

"The hammer must be lowered cleanly. If you hesitate, the hammer will fall unsteadily." Wang Erli and the other three gathered together and looked at the newly made shovel. Wang Erli scolded him from time to time. "You two don't have eyes. This obviously leaves a mark."

Can’t you see there are too many, and there’s this, this…”

Seeing Wang Erli's somewhat angry face, Yang Qing did not dare to go forward and ask. He turned his eyes around to find a place that was conspicuous and would not hinder his walking. Not knowing Wang Erli's habits, Yang Qing could only do this, and finally placed Wang Erli's third

Next to the shelf where the person is standing, there are semi-finished products and a small jar of white powder on the shelf.

He gathered the irregular-shaped iron blocks on the ground to the corner, carried four buckets of water from the yard to fill the pool in the blacksmith shop, and swept away the iron slag on the ground.

After Yang Qing finished all this, Wang Erli and the other three dispersed. Yang Qing could hear the conversation between them, but could not understand it.

"Just put it away before turning on the stove in the afternoon. Let's go eat first," Lin Bo, who had big eyes, said flatly. Yang Qing finished all the groceries for them, and he was pleased with him. "Just call me Brother Lin."

,This is your Brother Sun”

"Brother Lin, Brother Sun" Yang Qing said hello with a smile. Yang Qing could feel the change in the attitudes of Lin Bo and Sun Tao.

"We are eating here at noon, you eat with us." Sun Tao was very impressed by the words "Brother Sun" and was embarrassed to keep a straight face.

Wang Erli looked around and saw that the floor was quite clean, so he turned around and walked out of the blacksmith shop.

The lunch meal was ready. A beautiful woman in her thirties, well-dressed, brought a basin of steamed buns and a basin of soup to the yard, and sent a portion to the shop in the front room with Zhang Bin. I saw too much Yang.

Qing, went into the room and took out a pair of dishes and chopsticks.

The steamed buns are made from real noodles, and the soup is cabbage soup, with a few oily flowers floating on the clear soup.

Yang Qing and the three of them all ate in the courtyard. Lin Bo and Sun Tao had long been accustomed to the life here, and they all filled up the soup and took a steamed bun and squatted in the courtyard to eat.

Wang Erli walked into the room, and Yang Qing became less restrained. He also filled the soup and took a steamed bun and started his first meal at Ba Forging Iron Shop in Shuangxing Town.

"Yang Qing, after you finish eating, clean the furnace and sweep out all the burnt coke and ashes," Lin Bo said vaguely, chewing the steamed bun in his mouth.

"Well, Brother Lin, where can I dump it after cleaning it up?" Yang Qing readily agreed, knowing that these were all his jobs, and Lin Bo took the initiative to ask questions that he didn't understand.

We got acquainted a lot while chatting. Lin Bo and Sun Tao were both talkative people. They didn't dare to talk nonsense in front of Wang Erli, and they had no scruples about Yang Qing.

During the meal, Yang Qing learned from Lin Bo and Sun Tao that the previous apprentice was about the same age as him and was from the country. He came here to be lazy and did not work, but Wang Dali drove him away. Before leaving,

He was even beaten.

"Being lazy and not working" was the reason Lin Bo and Sun Tao told him. Yang Qing was confused when he heard it, and he couldn't figure out whether he told it to him on purpose.;