Chapter 4: Face is earned by oneself

  "Come on, little master, help me quench this axe in the fire too!"

  "This hoe of mine..."

  Several farmers surrounded Qin Hai, and the way they addressed him changed from "young man" to "young master". The face is earned by oneself, and Qin Hai's move calmed down the scene. Everyone's respect for him was also born naturally.

  "Little Master, are those methods you used earlier difficult to learn?" Zhang Lao San cautiously walked forward, with a hint of embarrassment, and asked Qin Hai. As a craftsman, seeing such extraordinary skills, how could he not be envious? What he was uncertain about was whether Qin Hai was willing to teach him this technique, after all, techniques like these were very valuable.

  "What's this, Master Zhang wants to learn?" Qin Hai asked with a smile.

  Zhang Lao San became even more embarrassed, and he stammered: "This... I don't know if it's suitable either. Besides, I'm not very educated, I only finished elementary school, and I don't know if I can learn..."

  "If Master Zhang wants to learn, I'll teach you," Qin Hai replied with a smile. "You may not necessarily understand some theoretical issues, but with your rich experience, you will definitely be able to grasp it."

  "Hmm, I just need to learn from experience." Zhang Lao San said repeatedly, completely disregarding the fact that his words didn't match Qin Hai's tone. After speaking, he remembered something and asked in a low voice: "Young Master, do you think... I should arrange some kind of thank-you gift for teaching me these things?"

  Qin Hai waved his hand repeatedly: "How dare I, how dare I, I just learned a little bit of skin and hair, who dares to call himself a teacher in front of Master Zhang? We're just going to hone our skills together. Or let's do it this way, Master Zhang, there are some other farm tools here, help me set them up, and we'll temper all these farm tools."

  "Alright, alright, it's hard to come by." Zhang Lao San was extremely excited. For him, doing some work wouldn't make him feel tired at all. By doing these jobs, he could learn Qin Hai's skills, and that would be a huge gain.

  Fatso had been staying in the house for half a day and was now drenched in sweat all over his body. He sat under the tree, gulping down cool boiled water. The two young men, one tall and one short, admired Qin Hai's skills but didn't have the desire to learn from him. So Qin Hai went into the blacksmith shop with Zhang Lao San, starting to repair the farm tools one by one.

  Zhang Lao San's iron-forging experience was far superior to that of the fatty, so when it came to forging and tempering metal tools, Qin Hai didn't need to get involved. When they reached the stage of heat treatment, Zhang Lao San also let Qin Hai do most of the explaining, while he himself followed Qin Hai's instructions step by step, and in the process, grasped the essence of Qin Hai's heat treatment techniques.

  "Uh-huh, so this temperature is 900 degrees, right? I've memorized this color..."

  "Good, keep warm in the ash, and the ash should have a certain temperature..."

  "This water is called a three-nitrate solution and can be used for quenching this steel..."

  Zhang Lao San was eagerly absorbing the technology provided by Qin Hai, and in some places, he could even make new breakthroughs and propose some improvement suggestions, which made Qin Hai also nod his head repeatedly, secretly sighing that a true master was actually hidden among the common people.

  "Too good, too addictive!"

  When a farm tool in Zhang Lao San's hands had completed all the heat treatment processes and was taken out of the quenching solution, emitting a faint blue glow, Zhang Lao San became so excited that he almost lost himself.

  "Congratulations, old three! Congratulations!" He warmly congratulated Zhang Lao San, who was overjoyed. For a craftsman like Zhang Lao San, learning a new skill was a wonderful thing.

  "It's all because Master Qin taught well, I really misjudged him before. Master Qin is so young and has such great skills, he's truly a remarkable talent." Zhang Lao San didn't know how to praise Qin Hai more, previously he had shown disdain towards Qin Hai, now thinking about it, it was laughable, fortunately Qin Hai wasn't someone who held grudges.

  "Hey, hey, Master, I remember you said earlier that if our brother's iron shovel can chop bricks after being tempered by fire, you'll buy all of our farm tools. You're not going to go back on your word now, are you?" The fat man finally finished drinking water and came back to life, walking over with a swaggering gait, he said loudly to Man Qiang.

  "Of course I won't regret it!" Meng Ke said stubbornly, "As long as Zhang Lao San and this young master can deal with all these farm tools, I'll take them all."

  "Is everything ready? We can raise the price now." said the fatty.

  "What's the price? Didn't we agree on 2 yuan and 5 jiao for a iron shovel?" Several farmers rushed forward to reason. Such good farm tools, even if they didn't mention the previous bet, they were going to buy them anyway, but Fatso's behavior of raising the price made them unhappy.

  Fatso said, "Two blocks and five are the previous prices. We brothers didn't learn our skills well, and the things we made weren't satisfactory, so we had to sell them cheaply. Now there's this... Ah, right, buddy, what's your name?"

  The last sentence was what Fatso said to Qin Hai, someone helped him so much, but he didn't even know the other person's name, it's a bit unreasonable. Besides, Fatso was also thinking about pulling Qin Hai in as a partner, doing farm tool business together in the future, so Qin Hai's name must be asked.

  "My name is Qin Hai, how should I address you brothers?" Qin Hai asked back.

  "My name is Ning Mo." The fat man replied, and then pointed to the two companions of different heights: "This one is called Yu Haitao, this one is called Miao Lei."

  "Sorry, sorry." Qin Hai bowed to the three of them, causing them to be flustered for a moment. In those days, traditional operas were rare, and this bowing gesture was unfamiliar to everyone.

  "Right, I didn't finish yet..." After exchanging names with Qin Hai, the fatty turned his head back to those farmers and said: "You see, our steel is the best. The steel here at Zhang Lao San's isn't as good as ours. Our quenching technique is also the best. Can you say that our iron hoes can be sold cheaper than Zhang Lao San's?"

  "Several uncles, Ning Mo said that makes sense too. Such a good iron shovel, you can't buy it for three dollars in an agricultural materials company, right? If Ning Mo and his friends sell at too low a price, it's disrupting the market, I'm afraid Master Zhang won't be happy either." Qin Hai stepped forward to help Ning Mo explain.

  They had already adjusted their expected price in their hearts, Qin Hai was right, such a good steel mouth, an iron shovel selling for three dollars is not expensive at all, if it's any lower, then Zhang Lao San's blacksmith shop would be out of business. At first, they were holding onto the price and wouldn't let go because they didn't want to compromise with Ning Mo and his group. Now that Qin Hai has spoken up, they're backing down, saying: "Since Master Qin has spoken, we don't have anything else to say. However, you young people can't just set whatever price you want, it can't be higher than Zhang Lao San's price here."

  "What's the big deal, our steel is better than Zhang Lao San's." said Gao Ge Zi Yu Hai Tao in a low voice. These young people were not as polite as Qin Hai, they directly called Zhang Lao San by his name without any respect for his age.

  "Alright, Yu Haitao, the price is almost there."

  Qin Hai came back to work on this side. Ning Mo and others saw Qin Hai had spoken, so they didn't insist, agreeing to sell the remaining seven or eight tools after quenching and tempering at a price similar to that of Zhang Lao San's ironwork shop to Man Muo and his group.

  Next, everyone took turns using Zhang Lao San's iron furnace to heat-treat the tools. The group worked until nearly evening before finishing their tasks. Not only did they repair the farm tools they had bought last week, but they also purchased the remaining eight pieces of Ning Mo's farm tools. Man Ke handed over 27 yuan and 50 cents to Ning Mo, then left with his companions in high spirits.

  "We've made a fortune!" Watching the rustic couple walk away, several young people were overjoyed. This deal was too easy to make, and every agricultural tool had been marked up in price, which meant they had earned extra money out of thin air.

  "Come on, Qin Hai, this is yours." Ning Mo was the leader of the three young people and also in charge of distributing the money they earned from doing business. He took out a large red envelope from the money and handed it to Qin Hai. Yu Haitao and Miao Lei saw the scene and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. In total, there were less than 30 yuan, but Ning Mo actually gave Qin Hai 10 yuan, which was quite generous.

  However, the two thought about it and realized that if Qin Hai hadn't lent a hand today, they wouldn't have even earned the 27.5 yuan, let alone possibly losing money. Qin Hai's display of skill made them admire him to their core, and with his abilities, taking 10 yuan would seem reasonable.

  Ning Mo's thoughts in his heart were the same as Yu Haotao and Miao Kai, but he had an extra thought, which was to think about meeting with Qin Hai later and seeing which unit he belonged to, whether he could be pulled over to cooperate with himself. Since he had made up his mind to pull the other party into partnership, he would naturally not be stingy with some benefits.

  Qin Hai looked at the big bundle in front of him and waved his hand, saying: "I won't take it. You've put in so many materials, but you won't make much money from it. I just lent a hand casually, it's not worth taking this money. However, Ning Mo, you should thank Master Zhang more. Strictly speaking, you are competitors, but Master Zhang not only provided you with the furnace, but also personally helped you with the work. You've used so much coal and fire from Master Zhang, you should show some gratitude."

  "No need, no need." Zhang Lao San shook his head hastily after hearing Qin Hai's words. To be honest, at first he really didn't want to help Ning Mo and the others with this matter, because Ning Mo and the others selling farm tools actually took away his business. But later, he learned such a good quenching technique from Qin Hai, so this little competition with Ning Mo and the others was nothing. If anything, he should thank Ning Mo and the others instead.

  "Old Zhang, Qin Hai is right, we used your coal fire, so we should thank you. However, my brother and I don't earn much, so these three dollars are for you to buy cigarettes." Ning Mo treated Old Zhang differently than Qin Hai, not as generously. He pulled out a two-dollar bill and a one-dollar bill, handing them over to Old Zhang's hand, which was considered payment for the coal fire.

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  The orange without draft is unbearable...