Blacksmith Luo had also come here as a refugee back in the day. Wang An didn't know his specific name—or more accurately, he had forgotten it.
Regardless, the elders in Kaoshan Village called him the Blacksmith, while the younger generation collectively referred to him as Uncle Luo.
Blacksmithing was Uncle Luo's side hustle. Mainly, in a small village these days, if one relied solely on blacksmithing for a living, they would inevitably starve to death unless some special circumstance occurred.
Uncle Luo lived in a relatively remote area, but within five minutes, Wang An arrived at his house.
At that moment, Uncle Luo was hammering away fiercely at a red-hot piece of iron.
Seeing Wang An enter the yard, Uncle Luo didn't put down his work, but simply shouted with a smile
"Little Fourth of the Wang family is here."
Wang An also greeted him with a smile, "Yeah, you're busy, Uncle?"
Uncle Luo nodded, smiled, and continued wrestling with the piece of iron before him.
After observing, Wang An discovered that Uncle Luo was hammering the iron into the shape of an ice chisel.
After a while, once the iron was no longer red, Uncle Luo finally put down his tongs and hammer and said to Wang An with a smile
"What do you want forged, Little Fourth?"
Accordingly, Wang An first took out a cigarette and lit it for Uncle Luo, then explained that he wanted to make a few spiked collars.
As he spoke, Wang An used a twig to draw on the ground.
A collar had to be something that could be put on and taken off, so what Wang An drew were two semi-circular spiked collars.
Uncle Luo took one look and knew exactly what Wang An wanted to make.
Looking at the pattern on the ground, Uncle Luo pondered for a moment and said
"Unless you use hot riveting, these iron spikes won't stay put."
Wang An also knew that while this thing looked simple, it was indeed difficult to execute without electric welding.
However, what Liu Guilan had said had given Wang An great inspiration, and on the way here, he had already thought of how to do it.
Thus, Wang An said
"Uncle Luo, look, how about we do it like this: we use two long iron strips. On the outer layer, we punch holes and push iron nails through, and the inner layer holds the heads of the nails in place. Then we lock the two iron strips together. What do you think?"
Wang An's words were simple and clear. As an expert blacksmith, Uncle Luo instantly grasped the key point.
Upon hearing this, Uncle Luo nodded with a chuckle
"You young people really do have sharp brains. With this approach, the job isn't difficult at all."
But immediately after, Uncle Luo suggested
"I still have a few ice chisels to finish, and those folks are in a hurry to use them. If you can do it yourself, why don't you start on them? I'll just charge you for the iron afterward. How does that sound?"
Wang An thought about it and nodded.
This time of year was when every village was most frantic about ice fishing, because this season was the genuine "lean period" between harvests.
When there was no grain to eat, one had to find ways. Mountain foraging and hunting weren't tasks everyone could do, but ice fishing was something any human could manage.
Those who could partner up would chip the ice together; those who couldn't would have the whole family, young and old, join in.
The main issue was that chipping ice required a great deal of physical strength.
Therefore, during this period, the demand for ice chisels increased significantly.
In reality, an ice chisel wouldn't normally break; one could say it was an object of eternal durability.
However, the problem was that they were easy to lose. It wasn't that people stole them, but rather that with a moment's distraction, the tool would slip into the ice hole.
A proper, heavy ice chisel, once it fell into the river, had almost zero chance of being recovered.
So, one could only treat it as lost.
As for the collars, they absolutely could not be too heavy, and since they required two layers of iron strips, neither layer could be too thick.
But none of this was difficult for Wang An.
If it weren't for the lack of materials and proper tools at home, Wang An would have turned around and gone home on the way here.
And so, Wang An and Uncle Luo each got busy.
In truth, with the right tools and materials, everything is fast. In less than half an hour, Wang An had finished one spiked collar.
Just as Wang An was making the second collar, Mu Xueli and Wang Li actually arrived.
After a brief greeting, Mu Xueli explained the situation.
It turned out that after Wang An left Mu Xueli's house, Mu Hua and his wife had a rather unpleasant disagreement with Mu Xueli over whether or not to go hunt the tiger.
In the end, however, Mu Hua had the final say and agreed to let Mu Xueli go.
Then Liu Ruxin sent Mu Xueli to find Wang An to see what preparations needed to be made over the next couple of days; after all, every bit of preparation reduced the amount of danger.
Thus, Mu Xueli had come over on horseback.
Since Wang An wasn't at home, Mu Xueqing told Mu Xueli to find Wang Li.
After all, the three of them always entered the mountains together, so if Wang An was preparing, Mu Xueli and Wang Li should also be involved.
That was how the two of them ended up here.
But for Wang An, their arrival was actually quite good, because now there were people to help with the work!
Immediately, the three of them started working together.
For some reason, even when the workload is the same, things are faster with more people.
Taking the collars as an example: one person making three alone versus three people collaborating to make nine—the speed was simply different.
Unsurprisingly, the former was slow and the latter was fast.
However, the corresponding issue was food. If one person was full after eating three bowls of rice, three people eating nine bowls...
To put it bluntly, that would definitely not be enough to eat.
Soon, while bragging and chatting, the three of them finished ten collars.
When it came to payment, Uncle Luo didn't ask for much, charging only 30 cents per collar. This was mainly because the iron nails were expensive, and Uncle Luo had to buy them himself.
After settling the bill, the group carried the finished collars toward Wang An's house.
Passing by the small convenience store, a group of people were discussing something animatedly. The topic was: that damn tiger had injured people again.
Not only had it injured people, but five dogs had died.
Fortunately, the injured person hadn't died, and they weren't from Kaoshan Village, but rather the two hunter brothers from the Old Ma family of Yangshu Village.
The three of them listened briefly and continued walking home.
However, after hearing the news, none of the three had any desire to keep bragging.
The reason was that although the Old Ma brothers weren't sharpshooters, the eldest had been in the army and was a recognized expert among the surrounding villages.
The second brother wasn't a coward when it came to hunting either; his marksmanship was also very good.
For such figures—and brothers at that—to be injured by this tiger showed just how powerful and difficult to kill this tiger was.
Yet, Wang An and his companions were about to go hunt it.
Who in their right mind would still be in the mood to brag? If it were you, would you be?
(End of Chapter)