“Okay, let’s go to the artisan district. By the way, did you ask where the artisan district is?” Luo Pipi glared at Shi Tou, her resentment towards him now running high.
“Right in the west of the city!” Stone answered with such smugness that Luo Pipi almost rushed up and slapped her to death.
Say it again!
"West of the city!"
Luo Pipi closed her eyes and remained silent for a while, then turned her head and started pushing the cart. She didn't speak; she absolutely couldn't speak now. If she opened her mouth, even she couldn't guarantee she wouldn't give Shitou a thorough dressing-down!
The slums are in the east of the city!
Around noon, Luo Pipi finally pushed the cart to the artisan district. The houses in the artisan district were very different from those in the commoners' district. Most of the houses here were made of stone, although some were clearly made of earth magic, looking somewhat like concrete buildings from the stone's previous life.
"The houses here are not bad, at least they look sturdy!" Stone jumped out of the car and nodded in satisfaction.
Luo Pipi was too exhausted to even complain; pushing a handcart was so tiring! The worst part was he didn't know how to push it at all, so he naturally had to put in several times more effort than others. But seriously, wasn't Shi Tou's requirement a bit too low? His only requirement for buying a house was… sturdiness?!
People like Luo Pipi, who grew up in an honest and unconventional world, cannot understand the pitiful expectations of children like Shi Tou, who grew up hearing about shoddy construction projects.
"Huh? Is this a real estate sales center?" The houses here are generally privately owned, but if you want to sell a house, it's better to find a real estate agent, provided you don't encounter one who cheats you.
"Are you two looking to buy a house here? Excuse me, are you craftsmen? According to the rules of Kodak City, if you are not a craftsman, you are not eligible to buy a house here."
Shi Tou looked up at the sky. Are all the real estate agents here so arrogant? Suddenly, she started to miss the passionate, fiery agents of her past life who practically worshipped buyers like royalty to sell a house… (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote with your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.) ^-^ No pop-up ads ^_^
Chapter 245 Poor Linda with tears in her eyes
Regardless of whether the intermediary is a big name or not, Stone is, after all, a fairly skilled blacksmith. If he really wanted to settle down here, it wouldn't be difficult at all. He just needed to forge a decent finished product. However, a problem arose: Stone had hoped that Luo Pipi would become a blacksmith, but in fact, the guy had never even seen a forge before.
Luckily, Stone had a bright idea and offered to help Luo Pipi. So, they found a blacksmith shop nearby, paid some rent, and Stone and Luo Pipi went into the forging room, while Liu Liu was responsible for watching the carts outside. Well, the accurate name should be the forging room, but the room was really too rudimentary. Stone looked at Luo Pipi with a sad expression.
Luo Pipi stared at Shi Tou for a while, then finally gave in: "You want me to start a fire for you, right?"
"Oh, darling, you really are a good man!" Stone's eyes were sparkling with hearts, but he almost got slapped to death by the furious Luo Pipi.
So, Stone behaved herself. She obediently picked out some iron blocks from the side. She had no choice; besides a few tattered clothes, she and Luo Pipi had practically no luggage. Even if there were plenty of good forging materials in the ring's space, she dared not use them, because she couldn't explain it!
Using what was available wasn't a problem; they just needed something passable to get by, it wasn't like they were trying to forge a divine artifact. After a moment's thought, Stone decided on the easiest method: refining an iron block!
She randomly picked a few impure iron blocks, too lazy to use the complicated refining method her father had taught her. She simply tossed the iron blocks into the forge, then quickly took one out of her ring...
"Whoa! What are you trying to do?!" Poor Luo Pipi was trying to start a fire, though her movements weren't very skillful. But the furnace here was always burning, year-round, and it used coal, so starting a fire wasn't difficult. She was just puzzled; in forging, the temperature of the fire was crucial, a fact even a complete novice like her knew.
Glancing at the not-so-hot flames inside the stove, she turned to ask Shi Tou a question. She then saw Shi Tou take a miniature version of a blast rocket launcher from his ring.
Waaaaah, the Huo family's divine weapon, the Blazing Rocket Launcher, is renowned throughout the entire Fallen Nether Empire. Although she had never seen a real divine weapon, she had seen the Blazing Rocket Launcher in Stone's hand once.
"Light it!" Stone excitedly pushed Luo Pipi aside. The thing in her hand did look a lot like the magical explosive rocket launcher, but it wasn't: "This is my new invention, a lighter!"
Luo Pipi watched stiffly as she put that thing into the stove, not knowing what she was doing. Suddenly, the temperature in the whole room soared, and she immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
"Alright, you can continue!" Stone put her giant lighter (although it was a miniature version of the Explosive Rocket Launcher, it was still as long and thick as a child's arm) back into her ring space, then squatted down and stared intently at the iron block inside. Sure enough, the iron block was melting rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Luo Pipi stared at the stone in disbelief: "Hey, didn't you know that we can't use our own equipment?"
Stone looked up at Luo Pipi as if he were an idiot: "Are you stupid! How am I supposed to play without my own equipment? As long as they don't find out, that's fine. Besides, do you expect me to forge a divine weapon for them on the spot?"
"Isn't that right? Then what do you want to forge?"
"Iron!" Stone looked around and found that although the blacksmith's workshop was simple, it had everything it needed. Of course, they were all low-grade and inferior products, but at least they were usable, right?
"Iron needs to be forged?" Luo Pipi was bewildered. She was increasingly unable to understand stones. This was understandable; although she considered herself knowledgeable, she was truly a novice when it came to forging. In her eyes, iron was simply a dark lump that could be dug out of iron ore. [~]
Although Shi Tou was being perfunctory, she still harbored a twisted mentality towards her finished product due to the rigorous training she had received since childhood.
"Hey, are you done yet? It's just a piece of iron, right?" Two hours later, Luo Pipi finally couldn't take it anymore; heaven knows she was completely soaked.
Stone was taken aback: "Oh right, I remember now, you're the blacksmith, which means you forged this thing?"
Taken aback by the stone's sudden question, Luo Pipi stared at her dumbfounded.
"Alright, that's settled then! Anyway, it's not me who's going to lose face!" Stone quickly entered the final cooling process and threw the now red-hot iron block directly into the cold coolant, instantly filling the entire room with a piercing sound.
Luo Pipi took several large steps back, covering her ears tightly with both hands: "Oh my god! This sound is awful!" Noise! It's definitely noise!
However, the stone closest to the noise had a look of rapture on its face. Perhaps the sound was indeed harsh to others, but to a child like her who had grown up in the smelting furnace of the dwarf kingdom, the sound of the sudden collision of hot and cold was simply heavenly music.
Normal iron ore is pitch black, while the iron blocks in this blacksmith's shop are gray. Iron blocks refined from stone have a silvery-gray color. Of course, this is not pure iron; true pure iron should be a bright silver color, extremely beautiful.
Nevertheless, Stone's—or rather, Luo Pipi's—craftsmanship was still praised by everyone. This time, the agent not only didn't make things difficult for them, but also took them to see suitable houses in the surrounding area.
The requirements for the stone are not high; the house just needs to be sturdy. However, since they are ostensibly a blacksmith's family, the house must have a blacksmith's workshop, and ideally, a small storefront as well.
The agent carefully recommended several suitable apartments to them, but Shi Tou glanced at them briefly and said he had no objections. At first, Luo Pipi thought the guy was acting strangely again, but then she realized what was going on.
Stone has her own ring space, so the condition of the house isn't really her concern. Anyway, for Luo Pipi and Liu Liu, the ring space has already been exposed; at worst, the three of them will live there every day. Similarly, the forging room is the same. Although it's the artisan area, the conditions simply can't compare to the top-quality forging room that Stone meticulously crafted.
Having figured things out, Luo Pipi calmed down. In the end, she chose a house very far in the back, without any shops facing the street. The house was neither big nor new, but its only advantage was that it was quiet!
Quiet is good; that way, even if the stones make a lot of noise inside the house, we won't be afraid.
With this in mind, Luo Pipi negotiated the terms with the agent and bought the house for 3 silver coins.
"Luo Pipi, those people are looking at us so strangely!" Stone pouted, tossing the half-finished iron block up and down in his hand. Of course, the iron block was no longer hot by now.
"Because with your forging skills, it's impossible for you to have fallen to this state." Luo Pipi knew, of course, that he was being suspected, but he figured they probably just suspected him of pretending to be poor. It wasn't a big deal.
"By the way, this house doesn't have a shop, so how are we going to sell things?"
“Trading area! Idiot!” Luo Pipi settled Liu Liu in, then looked at the empty house she had just bought and sighed, “You and Liu Liu can stay here and clean up the house while I go buy some things.”
Watching poor Luo Pipi push the broken cart away, Shi Tou turned around to play with Liu Liu; she had no intention of cleaning the room!
"Little Liu Liu, I'm your Stone Sister, don't you recognize me?" Stone blinked, trying her best to be cute to the little boy.
Liu Liu looked at the stone with a blank expression. He wasn't exactly young anymore, but at five years old, he was still quite innocent. Perhaps it was because he had lived in the secluded town of the Strange People since he was little, and perhaps it was because he couldn't hear or speak?
"Stone!" Stone pointed to his face. "I am stone! Do you understand?"
Liu Liu remained bewildered.
Stone patiently introduced himself to Liuliu again and again until Luopipi returned, covered in sweat.
"I said, have you been playing with Liuliu all this time?" Luo Pipi was dumbfounded. After she bought the furniture herself, the dilapidated house was at least a little cleaner. She never expected that she had completely underestimated Shitou's laziness.
Stone pouted, "I used to be the little princess of the Dwarf Kingdom, with seven older brothers! Later, I became the second young lady of the Huo family. Do you know how good my sister is to me!"
"So what?" Luo Pipi gritted his teeth.
Stone rolled his eyes, bent down and hugged Liuliu in his arms: "So, I'm going to take Liuliu to find something delicious!" As soon as he finished speaking, Stone and Liuliu disappeared from the spot.
Outside the ring space, Luo Pipi was furious, her face turning ashen. But seeing the still chaotic house, she could only patiently start tidying up. Of course, cursing was inevitable as she did so.
In a secluded corner of the Kodak City trading district, even more pitiful than Pipi was little Linda. According to her agreement with Stone, she was supposed to enter the city alone and then wait for Stone to buy her again at the human trafficking center in the trading district.
But she waited and waited, until the sun was high in the sky, until it began to set, until the moon rose...
Stone, oh stone, where are you now?
Looking up at the bright moon, Linda realized she had forgotten her money. Alone, she squatted in a corner, calling out to Stone with deep affection.
/(tot)/~~(To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)^-^ No pop-up ads ^_^
Chapter 246 Linda in the Slave Quarter
"Where do you think Linda will be waiting for us?" Stone was usually quite clueless, but this time she was unusually serious.
Of course, there's a reason for this. Although Stone could hide inside her ring space and not come out, she still needed to eat and drink. The ring space originally contained a lot of food; if only Stone were eating, it would probably take years to finish it. But previously, Stone wasn't the only one in the ring space…
Most importantly, Stone's cooking skills are really terrible. Unless she wants to eat pig feed every day, she has no choice but to obediently come out of the ring space.
As soon as she emerged from the spatial dimension, Luo Pipi's piercing gaze shot towards Shi Tou. Poor thing, she had barely slept a wink all night cleaning this house. And to make matters worse, the moment Shi Tou saw her, he blurted out, "Huh? Didn't you go see Linda?"
Luo Pipi immediately knelt down before the stone!
Damn it, she's completely forgotten about Linda, okay?!
Coming to her senses, Luo Pipi immediately grabbed Shitou and carried Liuliu towards the trading area. Earlier, at the city gate, in order to make their identities less conspicuous, they had Linda enter the city alone, and then pretended to bump into her by chance, buying Linda to be their maid.
Fantasy is beautiful, reality is cruel.
They had originally agreed to meet in the trading area on the afternoon of the day they entered the city, but Stone and Luo Pipi shamefully broke their promise.
By the time they remembered this incident, Linda had already disappeared.
"Hey, do you think Linda might have sneaked away?" Luo Pipi squinted and looked around, but couldn't find a figure that resembled Linda.
Stone looked up blankly at Luo Pipi: "I signed an unequal master-servant contract with her." The implication was clear: Linda must be crazy to run away!
"Understood, let's continue the search!"
Luo Pipi sighed. Although Kodak City wasn't as bustling as the capital, the trading area was still quite lively. This was because within a ten-mile radius, there was only one large city, and only one trading area within it.
After wandering around the trading area like a headless fly for most of the day, I finally saw a strange scene in a corner of the trading area.
"Stone. What do you think that's doing?" Luo Pipi rubbed his eyes, but still looked incredulous.
"Huh?" Following Luo Pipi's finger, Shi Tou was dumbfounded: "Human trafficking?"
Luo Pipi turned her head and looked at the stone with a deep look: "I suddenly have a bad feeling."
"What?"
They pulled Stone to a nearby food stall, and Luo Pipi decisively ordered a lot of snacks from the owner, filling the entire table. Then, they put Liuliu on a stool next to them and explained what had just happened to Stone in a low voice.
It turns out that human trafficking was very common in the Fallen Empire a long time ago, but this practice has long been abolished, at least it can no longer be seen in the bustling cities near the capital.