Chapter Sixteen: Making Guns
On the way to Yucai School, Xiang Yu really did ride that lame rabbit. I drove and led the way. Fortunately, the road from the villa area to the school was wide enough and there weren't many cars. Both sides were also fields, otherwise it would have attracted a lot of attention.
I kept the car at around 40 or 50 miles per hour, and Rabbit was able to keep up with me with ease. It even had time to sulk with me, glancing at me and snorting every now and then. Since I always call it Rabbit, it seems to mind a lot.
In a secluded spot, I rolled down the car window and said to Xiang Yu, who was driving alongside me, "Brother Yu, how come the rabbit recognizes you? I don't recall having a single horse among my clients."
Xiang Yu said contentedly, "I don't know, as long as Xiao Hei is with me, that's enough. To be honest, I miss it almost as much as I miss A Yu."
I thought to myself, "Yeah, you've ridden them all." This rabbit is really unlucky; not only was it a horse in its past life, but it's also a horse in this one, and to make matters worse, it's ridden by the same person. And the same person, fine, but this one's huge! Wouldn't it have been better if you were Shi Qian's horse?
Just then, the traffic light turned red at the intersection ahead. I quickly slowed down, shouting, "Rabbit, slow down!" At the intersection, Xiang Yu gently pulled the reins, and Rabbit immediately stopped, much more easily than I had. But I noticed that Xiang Yu, unconsciously, kept stroking the horse's back with his right hand…
I laughed and said, "Brother Yu, you've got a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and you're still thinking about shifting gears?"
Xiang Yu then realized his little trick and blushed. He said, "It's all your fault! You taught me to drive a car, but you didn't teach me to ride a horse. Now I always feel like I have to pull the handbrake when I stop the car, or I feel like it's going to roll away."
After we crossed the intersection and drove a little further, I asked, "Do you need to take a break? You're using real horsepower, after all."
Xiang Yu said arrogantly, "How far have you run? Your chariot is fueled by gas; it won't move a meter without it. My horse, on the other hand, can run hundreds of miles even on an empty stomach."
I asked, "Back then, you guys mostly rode horses, so there must have been places like gas stations, right? Once inside—excuse me, could you fill up with 50 coins' worth of supplies?"
Xiang Yu laughed and said, "This is pretty much what a post station is like."
"So, are smoking and making phone calls allowed?"
"...Open flames are definitely out of the question, and we can't make any loud noises so as not to startle the livestock."
It seems that gas stations have been pretty much the same all along.
I said, "Are you sure you don't need to rest?"
Xiang Yu said, "No need. I think Xiao Hei isn't in as good a condition as before. He just needs to run."
"Now that we've found the rabbit, the horse problem is solved too. What are your specific requirements for the gun?"
"As long as it's heavy enough!"
This is no problem for me. If the forging technology at the end of the Qin Dynasty could do it, how could it be difficult for our generation that has crossed over into the next century? Although Xiang Yu's spear was meticulously crafted by a specialist back then, I reckon that the scraps that blacksmiths have on hand now are of better quality than what he had back then.
Upon arriving at Yucai School, Xiang Yu and I personally visited the blacksmith's home in Yao Village. The blacksmith's child had already been accepted into Yucai and was apprenticing under Tang Long. Initially, I thought Tang Long was misleading young people: what use is learning blacksmithing in a technologically advanced modern society? But I realized I was terribly wrong; blacksmiths still exist. And now they're called master foundries. They mostly serve military factories and the automotive industry. A renowned swordsmith can make knives that fetch tens of thousands of yuan, and on special occasions or as the first prototype, they're even more priceless. Furthermore, several world-renowned car brands have consistently used "fully handcrafted" as a selling point; besides seats and leather trim, they certainly need blacksmiths. After the frenzied era of mass industrialization, people have once again begun to believe in "handcrafted" products. Especially the wealthy; only things made by hand by their own hands are considered more reliable and imbued with a certain spirit. While sometimes not as precise as machines, they are more comfortable, safer, and more worthy of ostentation.
So being a blacksmith is a promising career, but your skills should at least be enough to make something like a handlebar bow. As for where you'll get your bicycle, you can learn another skill from Shi Qian…
The blacksmith, of course, recognized me. He knew I was their child's boss, and he was incredibly attentive, insisting on taking us out to eat without a word. Because of Yucai's completely free education policy, I was very popular in the neighborhood, and had a history of being practically dragged out to meals by parents. These days, farmers have money too; inviting you to dinner is no longer just about slaughtering a pig, but hailing a taxi straight to a fancy restaurant like Baxianlou. Bottles of liquor costing five or six hundred yuan are served one after another without batting an eye.
I took the tea the blacksmith handed me and got straight to the point: "I want you to make a gun."
The blacksmith's face immediately fell: "I'll fight you if you want, but do you have any bullets?"
I was taken aback before realizing he had misunderstood, and I said with a black line on my forehead, "I was talking about the guns we used in the past—" I gestured with my hand, "the kind with a point at the front."
Good heavens, he thought I wanted him to give me 81-bar ammunition, and he actually dared to agree. It seems that kids are easy to control in my hands. I'd probably give him some uranium-235 and ask him to make me an atomic bomb out of sheet metal without hesitation.
The blacksmith immediately relaxed: "That kind of gun?"
"Can we fight?"
"It's a piece of cake, just make a mold."
I said, "This gun has to be heavy, 130 pounds."
“Weight isn’t the problem, it’s just that the rod needs to be thicker—who would use something this heavy?”
Xiang Yu said, "Me!" He showed the teacup to the blacksmith, "This size is fine, but it's best if the work is fine."
The blacksmith patted his chest and said, "Leave it to me. This is a craft passed down from our ancestors. During the War of Resistance against Japan, we provided a lot of support to the front lines with red-tasseled spears and broadswords!"
I laughed and said, "I'll give you a few 'Loyalty to the Country' school uniforms after everything is done." They were first-generation school uniforms, made from labor camp uniforms, and there were still quite a few left in the warehouse.
The blacksmith quickly waved his hand: "Forget it, I appreciate the thought, but it wouldn't be good if people thought I had turned over a new leaf."
I laughed: "When can I pick it up?"
The blacksmith stroked his chin and said, "For an ordinary person, it would take at least a month or two, but Teacher Xiao's matter can't be delayed, so let's do it in three days."
Xiang Yu nodded in satisfaction, knowing that even working non-stop, it would take three days to complete this amount of homework. I never imagined I'd experience the joy of exploiting students' parents. Back in my elementary school days, our teacher was quite the expert in this area. You could tell his current situation just by looking at the class personnel: the year he broke his leg, the son of a director at our city's orthopedic hospital became class monitor, but the following year, his position was taken over by Li Ermao, the son of a food factory manager. Li Ermao's good fortune didn't last long either, because our teacher's wife had an ectopic pregnancy. While it wasn't Li Ermao's fault, his mother happened to be a gynecologist. So, Huang Sanya, who was last in her class, took over the class monitor's mantle. What saddened us even more was that our beloved homeroom teacher's family seemed to have suffered another misfortune: that year, Huang Sanya was re-elected…
Because my dad was just an ordinary worker, I was always in a situation where few people cared for or loved me during my long elementary school years. Later, my dad had a brilliant idea and said that we also had relatives who were leaders: my eldest uncle worked at a crematorium—I didn't dare tell our teacher.
I put 2,000 yuan on the table and said to the blacksmith, "I'll trouble you if it's not enough."
The blacksmith was shocked: "How can you take money from a teacher? Besides, this is too much."
I firmly left the money behind, saying, "I can't let you pay for everything too." Lessons learned from the past: taking advantage of students won't lead to having children. Baozi and I are getting on in years; we can't afford to go through that.
After leaving the blacksmith's house, Xiang Yu said, "I need to spend more time with Xiao Hei these three days to build up our understanding."
I said, "And while you're at it, fix your habit of shifting into reverse." If you were to fight Lu Bu, and you were to turn your horse around with one hand holding the spear and the other shifting into reverse, you'd definitely get stabbed off.
Just then my phone rang, and I saw it was calling from the bar. I said, "Looks like there's a new girl here. Want to come along and check it out?"
Xiang Yu said, "I won't go. I'll just take a ride. Pick me up when you come back later."
When we arrived at the bar, Sun Sixin seemed used to it. Before I could ask, she pointed inside.