HNYWEF -Chapter 80 Attitude

The knife was finished.

Zhou Xiong brought down the final few hammer strikes, lifted the blade to inspect it, then lowered it into the oil trough.

With a sharp sizzle, smoke billowed up, carrying a faint burnt fragrance.

He swished the blade through the oil, pulled it back out, and laid it on the workbench. Then he pressed a heavy weight across the entire edge, letting it cool slowly.

Zhou Yi stood nearby and watched everything from beginning to end.

From the moment the two pieces of steel entered the furnace, to forge-welding, shaping, and quenching.

The more he looked at the blade, the more he felt it was different from the one he had made.

Not a difference in shape.

But something harder to describe.

After staring for a long while, he suddenly spoke.

“Dad.”

Zhou Xiong didn’t look up. He was wiping his hands.

“Mm?”

Zhou Yi asked, “Why have you never taught me this kind of forging method?”

Zhou Xiong’s hand paused for a moment.

He lifted his head and looked at Zhou Yi.

That look—

Zhou Yi couldn’t quite tell what it meant.

Zhou Xiong tossed the rag onto the workbench.

“Teach you?”

Zhou Yi nodded.

Zhou Xiong looked at him expressionlessly.

“You haven’t even learned how to walk, and you already want to learn how to fly?”

Zhou Yi froze.

Zhou Xiong continued,

“You can’t even forge a single-steel blade without breaking it, and you still want to learn a craft even more complicated than this?”

Zhou Yi opened his mouth.

But Zhou Xiong didn’t give him a chance to speak.

“Everything I already taught you—have you truly mastered any of it?”

Zhou Yi stayed silent.

After a pause, Zhou Xiong asked,

“Your stance training. Is it solid?”

Zhou Yi nodded.

“Your straight punches. Have you practiced them thoroughly?”

Zhou Yi nodded again.

“And your blacksmithing. Can you control your strength evenly?”

This time, Zhou Yi didn’t nod.

Zhou Xiong looked at him.

“I examined the fracture on the blade you made. Your force was uneven—one side thick, the other thin. During quenching, the thin side cooled first, the thick side cooled later. The internal stress didn’t disperse properly, so the blade snapped the moment force was applied.”

Standing there, Zhou Yi’s face slowly turned pale.

He had thought the problem was that he hadn’t focused during quenching.

Turns out it wasn’t only the quenching.

He had already made mistakes while forging it.

Seeing the expression on his face, Zhou Xiong didn’t continue.

He walked to the workbench and picked up the newly forged blade.

Looked at it.

“This blade—do you know how much it cost to make?”

Zhou Yi shook his head.

Zhou Xiong said,

“Two pieces of steel. One barrel of oil.”

He set the blade down.

“The two you made used one piece of steel and one trough of water.”

Zhou Yi stood there in stunned silence.

Zhou Xiong looked at him.

“Those two blades sell for only around a hundred copper coins. This blade’s production cost alone is already close to a hundred.”

Zhou Yi lowered his head.

He stared at the floor, at the tips of his shoes.

His feet stayed rooted there, not daring to move.

At that moment, he suddenly understood something.

His father wasn’t unwilling to teach him.

He simply wasn’t qualified to learn yet.

When forging his blade, he hadn’t been serious. During quenching, he hadn’t paid attention. In the end, the blade broke, and his father had to compensate for it with a far more expensive method.

What right did he have to learn something harder?

Zhou Xiong stood beside him without speaking.

Just watching him quietly.

The smithy fell silent.

Only the crackling of the furnace fire remained.

After a long while, Zhou Yi lifted his head.

He looked at Zhou Xiong.

“Dad, I was wrong.”

Zhou Xiong said nothing.

Zhou Yi continued,

“It wasn’t just the quenching. I was already wrong when I forged it.”

Zhou Xiong nodded.

“As long as you understand.”

Zhou Yi stood there waiting for a bit.

Seeing that his father had nothing more to say, he cautiously asked,

“Then… when can I learn it?”

Zhou Xiong thought for a moment.

“When the blades you forge stop breaking.”

Zhou Yi blinked.

“Just… as long as they don’t break?”

Zhou Xiong replied,

“When they stop breaking, then we’ll talk.”

Zhou Yi stood there thinking for a long time.

Then he nodded.

Zhou Xiong said nothing more.

He turned around, walked to the workbench, picked up the new blade, and placed it on the rack.

Right beside the broken blade.

One new. One broken.

Zhou Yi stared at the two blades and suddenly asked,

“Dad, are we giving this blade to Steward Sun tomorrow?”

Zhou Xiong nodded.

“Mm.”

Zhou Yi asked again,

“Will he be able to tell the difference?”

Zhou Xiong suddenly narrowed his eyes and smacked him on the forehead.

“Tell the difference?”

Zhou Yi froze.

“If he can’t tell the difference, then how would he know it’s a good blade?”

Zhou Yi still didn’t understand.

Zhou Xiong looked at him, then finally shook his head.

“You’re still young—how are your eyes already this bad…”

Zhou Yi stood there thinking for a long time.

It felt like he understood.

But also like he didn’t fully understand.

Until sunlight fell across the new blade.

Under the light, the boundary between the soft steel and the hard steel became clearly visible.

Zhou Yi came back to his senses. He glanced once more at the broken blade on the rack.

One new. One broken.

The difference in quality was obvious at a glance.

He stared at them for a while.

Then suddenly, he felt that inside the smithy, only the furnace fire was still burning bright.