Chapter 5: At This Rate, I Might Really End Up a Street Sweeper
Zhu Rong had finally managed to land the job after showing off a bit of his knowledge, unfortunately for him, it wasn’t quite what he was hoping for.
Inside the forge, his gaze shifted between the broom, the bucket full of water, and the bear like man standing there with a carefree expression.
’B*stard, so this is what you meant by an important job?’
He felt like his patience was being tested again and again, and he was this close to grabbing the broom and smacking the man in front of him.
After being hired, he asked what position was available.
After all, he remembered that this forge had four workers, and staff shortage had always been a big issue here in his previous life.
He was sure he could land a decent spot, enough to earn some silver coins a day, but who would’ve thought the other side would stick him with cleaning the workshop, dressing it up as some "important job to gain initial experience"?
Not only was this job way beneath his status as Saint Blacksmith, it also paid just five copper coins a day.
Even sweeping the streets would probably pay a lot more than this at this point.
Bao Dashi, seeing Zhu Rong’s unhappy expression, smiled and said:
"Come on now, don’t pull a face like that.
This’ll help you settle in around here and earn a little something every day.
Don’t you think that’s a fair compromise?" he said, as if he’d done him a huge favor.
’At this rate, I really might as well sweep the streets...’
Zhu Rong wanted to snap back, but just then another person approached the two of them.
Seeing him, a strange emotion flickered in Zhu Rong’s eyes.
"So this is where you were. Stop wasting time and go finish that blade.
If you keep leaving it like that, you’ll have to start from scratch," said the man who had just walked in.
Just like Bao Dashi, he was a big guy, maybe a few centimeters taller.
Zhu Rong recognized this man immediately. How could he not?
After all, this person was Han Tiezhang, the owner of this forge.
In his past life, this was the man who’d taken him in at the forge, and also the one from whom he learned his first real smithing skills.
Sure, he had the basic forging techniques of his family, but those didn’t even come close to what this man had taught him.
Han Tiezhang too was a descendant of a blacksmithing family, a well known one from a province neighboring Lushan.
He’d never really known why a member of that family was running a small forge like this one, but back then, he hadn’t asked too many questions either.
Even if it was just for a while, Han Tiezhang had been his forging master, one of the very few he’d had in his past life.
And now, seeing him again, Zhu Rong couldn’t deny he was happy about it.
"Ah, damn, I almost forgot, I was just giving this new guy a quick tour," Bao Dashi said, introducing Zhu Rong to his boss.
"Hm?"
Han Tiezhang, who up till now hadn’t paid much attention to the kid, thinking he was just a customer, looked at him properly. And upon doing so, couldn’t help but say,
"Ah, so you’re the new clean up boy? he asked with a smile.
"..."
Zhu Rong was seriously starting to consider finding somewhere else to make money.
He could already feel that if he stayed here too long, he really would end up as a sweeper.
In the end, before the situation got unnecessarily complicated, he spoke up directly.
"I didn’t come here to sweep floors. I’m a blacksmith too, and I want to forge," he said, his tone firm.
Han Tiezhang, who a moment ago was laughing, stopped and gave the boy a long, slow look from head to toe before saying,
"A blacksmith? Kid, I’ve been doing this job for more than half the years I’ve been alive, and I can tell at a glance if someone’s ever worked a forge or not.
Your body’s nowhere near trained, let alone having the strength to lift a proper hammer."
"Right now, you’re more suited to forging little ornaments, and you tell me you came here to forge? Do you even know what we do in this workshop?
We forge weapons," he said, pointing toward Bao Dashi’s unfinished double edged blade.
"That’s not something you could forge with your current body. You’d only end up hurting yourself,"
he said, shaking his head.
At those words, even Bao Dashi, who had returned to his station, nodded before picking up where he left off with his work.
Zhu Rong had nothing to say about his physical condition.
When he checked his body to see if he still had his meridian deformity, he immediately noticed how lacking his body was in terms of strength.
Right now, he was basically a normal person with little to no training, and honestly, it left him a little speechless.
Because it meant that his current self hadn’t even done the basic body-strengthening training, the kind that didn’t require any Qi.
He was basically an ordinary person with barely any training at all.
He really wanted to slap his past self.
He’d already suffered for this in his previous life, and even now, after being reborn, he was still dealing with the consequences.
’Tch, no point crying over spilled milk,’ he told himself, shaking his head as he turned to Han Tiezhang.
"I’m lacking in strength, that’s true, but it’s not something that can’t be fixed.
That said, I’ve got the technique. Give me a chance, and I promise you won’t be disappointed," he
said with a confident tone.
Oh?
Han Tiezhang’s expression shifted slightly as he saw the confident look on the boy’s face.
He could tell that expression wasn’t an act, but absolute certainty.
Certainty in one’s own skills.
It wasn’t something you could easily fake, and for someone like him, who’d been in the trade for years, he could tell the kid was dead serious about what he was saying.
"Ha ha ha! I like your confidence, kid," he said, giving Zhu Rong a slap on the shoulder that nearly sent him to the ground from the simple gesture.
"Alright then, you wanna be tested? Here’s what we’ll do,
I’ll let you pick one of three items to forge, and you’ll have a time limit to get it done.
If you can forge even one of them decently within the time limit, I’ll hire you as a blacksmith."