Duan Yan was visiting this shop for the first time.
The Duan Family Ironworks stood on the eastern outskirts of town. Its location could hardly be called ideal, but a smithy had no need to rely on a bustling district to do business. After all, people did not buy iron tools on a whim. Most customers decided what they needed first, then made plans to come and purchase it.
From outside, it was impossible to tell how large the shop really was. An iron-ring sign hung above the entrance, while a tall banner stood prominently outside, visible from a great distance. One of the shop’s large windows was open to the street, allowing passersby to see the forge, bellows, anvil, and other tools used for smithing. On ordinary days, someone would work there, hammering iron in full view of the public.
This was the smithy’s workshop, though only a portion of it was put on display. Most of the workshop was separated off by a door and served as the true production area. The visible section was merely a small demonstration station, where customers could watch as their purchases were altered if they found anything unsatisfactory.
Farther in, behind the wide-open entrance, was the salesroom for the iron goods. The shelves inside were arranged by category, displaying farming implements such as hoes, sickles, and picks; household ironware such as kitchen knives, fire tongs, door rings, and iron pots;
carpenters’ tools such as chisels and plane blades; equipment used by butchers for slaughtering pigs; chisels and crowbars for stonemasons; and iron goods for merchants, such as counterweights for scales...
There were far more items than those listed. In short, nearly every iron implement needed in daily life could be found in the shop.
There were also items that ordinary commoners had no use for, though those were not put on public display.
These cold iron objects could easily inflict serious harm, and with all manner of them piled together, the place carried an imposing, oppressive air.
And the man who made his living among them, dealing with such hard, unyielding objects every day, was broad and powerfully built. His gaze was like sparks flying from hammered iron, and his entire body seemed steeped in a rusty tang reminiscent of blood. How could anyone not feel intimidated in his presence?
When the three of them arrived at the shop, they saw no one smithing and no one guarding the salesroom. It was still too early for the place to have closed for the day.
Gou San’er led them straight into the salesroom. At the far end, he lifted a curtain and went through a door. Turning left, they found themselves in a spacious courtyard. Five or six rooms stood along each of its two sides.
The layout of the ironworks was much like that of the shops run by merchants along the streets—business in front, living quarters behind. The only difference was that, because this property occupied so much land, the storefront alone was already far larger than an ordinary shop, while the rear courtyard was practically a small residence in its own right.
In the area around Rock Town, Duan Yan’s original body had been a local power. He was not quite the biggest figure around, but he was certainly a man of some renown. On closer inspection, his various businesses were actually quite numerous.
Apart from a large residence in the city, he owned this sizable ironworks in the eastern part of town, as well as three farms in the countryside.
One was in Liu Village, where Song Fengsui lived; another was in Tianshui Village; and the third was in Little Yan’er Village, where the Duan family resided.
At present, however, the only estate where he could probably still exercise any real authority was the one in Tianshui Village. The Liu Village estate had been handed over by his original body to Chen Hu some time ago, and he had seldom concerned himself with its affairs over the past two years. Most matters there were handled by Chen Hu.
As for Little Yan’er Village, that was the original owner’s rural hometown, where his parents lived. Although the fields and farmstead in Yan’er Village had initially been set up by the original owner, Father Duan had contributed quite a bit in the beginning, and many of the estate’s plots belonged to him as well. Since the original owner had never gotten along with his family, he hardly ever went back unless necessary, so Father Duan naturally had the greater say in managing the estate.
Looking at things this way, the only place he could truly have complete authority and the final word was Tianshui Estate.
For someone barely in his twenties to have accumulated the properties he now possessed was already exceedingly rare. Yet aside from having some ability of his own, the most important factor was that he had relied on his family.
The Duan family was already one of the wealthier households in Little Yan’er Village, and Father Duan had served as the village head for several years. The original owner had been able to secure the exclusive right to operate the town’s iron shop because, during his tenure as village head, Father Duan had maintained close relations with the then town inspector and managed to obtain the opportunity for him. Without that connection, how could the original owner ever have gotten the chance to rise to prominence?
Unfortunately, the original owner was young and arrogant, convinced that he was extraordinarily capable. Chen Hu had also repeatedly whispered flattering and instigating words in his ear, causing his pride to swell even further. He became increasingly disrespectful toward his father.
Back when Father Duan was still the village head and the original owner was still young, the family had been able to keep him somewhat under control. Later, Father Duan fell from the mountains and broke his leg. After recuperating for a long time, he finally recovered, though he now walked with a slight limp.
While he was still suffering from his injury, the Qian family in the village—in other words, the family of Qian Saner, the butcher—took advantage of the situation and seized Father Duan’s position as village head.
Father Duan was already depressed from both his injury and the loss of his position. Yet his only son never once comforted him. Instead, he even said that his father was old and useless now, and that from then on, he would have to depend on him. This infuriated the man so badly that he fell seriously ill.
As a result, whenever father and son saw each other now, they immediately became red-faced and hot-tempered, seemingly determined to remain estranged for the rest of their lives.
“Big, big!”
“Damn it, small again! Zhang Laoer, have you been tampering with the dice, you little bastard? You’ve cleaned me out of every last bit of silver today!”
“You must’ve had too much to drink and gotten drunk. Now you’re blaming the dice?”
“Drunk? I’ve never even seen the word! Bring over two more jars of wine. I’ll drink until—” He suddenly noticed someone and hurriedly changed his tone. “Big brother.”
Long before he reached the rear courtyard, Duan Yan could already hear the clatter of dice, the boisterous drinking, and the loud bragging coming from the direction of the kitchen. The place was in an uproar.
When Duan Yan walked over, he saw a roomful of rough-looking men gathered bare-chested in the kitchen yard. The stench of liquor mingled with sweat, creating a sour, overpowering stink.
There were currently only four people in the rear kitchen yard. One was Zhang Wang, the man with the thick tongue who had just asked for more wine. He was mainly responsible for watching the shop and selling ironware.
Another two were Tie Da and Tie Er, a pair of twin brothers. Both were broad and burly, with a pair of enormous, bulging ox eyes that looked rather intimidating. Their minds, however, were as simple as a straight line, and they were none too clever. On ordinary days, nearly all the blacksmithing was done by the two of them.
The last one was Wang Quan.
“Why has big brother come over at this hour?” Wang Quan asked. “Have you eaten dinner yet? I’ll have the kitchen butcher a chicken or duck for you. Brother Hu only brought back grain from Tianshui Village this morning, along with some chickens, ducks, and rabbits. They all look nice and plump.”
When the men saw Duan Yan arrive, they fell quiet for a moment. Then, as though nothing had happened, they went right on shouting for someone to prepare good dishes for the evening.
Clearly, the original Duan Yan had spent his days drinking and gambling with them. That was why the men under him felt no need to hide what they were doing, nor did they see anything wrong with drinking and gambling while they were supposed to be minding the shop.
Duan Yan stopped himself from frowning. Given his own temperament, he naturally couldn’t stand the sight of this. Still, in order to maintain the habits of the previous owner, he held back from immediately changing his expression and scolding them.
He merely said, “It’s sweltering, and you’re all huddled together here without feeling the heat? Every one of you reeks. If you have enough free time to drink and gamble, why don’t you go take a bath?”
Hearing this, Tie Da slurred, “Big Brother, how can you complain that we stink? Weren’t you the one who used to lead us like this?
“After working at the forge, there’s nothing better than drinking with your whole body slick with sweat. Get drunk and go straight to sleep—don’t even bother wiping your face. When you wake up, you’ll smell like old pickled vegetables. Now that’s what I call living!”
Tie Er promptly chimed in, “Real men are supposed to be like Big Brother and hate bathing! That’s how you get a proper man’s smell!”
Song Fengsui, who had just come in from behind, stopped dead at those words and instinctively held his breath.
His lovely eyes flickered as he looked at Duan Yan in disbelief.
Feeling the scrutiny of the person beside him, Duan Yan’s back stiffened. Awkwardly, he said, “That’s not true…”
“Have the two of you drunk yourselves stupid?” Gou San’er came striding over, his face black with anger, and started cursing before he had even reached them. “When has Big Brother ever been like that? You two are just lazy, and now you’re trying to pin it on him because he called you out!”
It really wasn’t fear of stupidity that was the problem—it was fear of stupid people who loved to play the fool’s straight man.
His scolding had been perfectly clear. Even Tie Da and Tie Er, who were not particularly bright, understood it. They had always disliked Gou San’er, who had often been provoked into targeting them by Chen Hu. Now that he had dared to curse at them, they immediately exploded.
“You’ve only been following Big Brother for a few days. What makes you think you’re so capable? How many of Big Brother’s habits do you even know?!”
“Big Brother doesn’t wash his feet, and he changes his socks only once every three days! When it’s hot, he lets his bird hang free and doesn’t wear underwear! He eats sheep’s penis three times a month! And when he reads dirty books, he only reads the ones about pretty boys—and they have to be illustrated, too… You know any of that, you little brat? Who do you think you are, coming here and lecturing us?”
For an instant, the back courtyard by the kitchen fell deathly silent.
Duan Yan suddenly felt that there wasn’t much point in being alive after all.
If he had really died in that car accident, perhaps it would not have been such a bad thing.
Tie Da had racked his brains to list every habit of Duan Yan’s that he knew, determined to outdo Gou San’er and prove who was truly closer to Big Brother.
His wide mouth had launched a volley of arrows without warning. The arrows were clearly aimed at Gou San’er, yet every one of them struck Duan Yan instead.
Everyone in the room was so shocked that they did not know what to say. Only his biological younger brother, Tie Er, remained on high alert, waiting for his brother to run out of things to say so he could immediately back him up.
Yet it was as though his punch had landed in cotton. After Tie Da finished speaking, Gou San’er stood there with his mouth hanging open, unable to utter another word. No one said a thing.
Tie Da looked at Gou San’er, who had gone completely rigid, utterly baffled. Then he glanced at Duan Yan, whose face had darkened until it looked almost charred.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“Big brother, say something.”
Not just Gou San’er—even Wang Quan, standing nearby, wanted to kneel down and beg this big-mouthed fool to stop talking.
The quick-witted Zhang Wang stole a glance at Song Fengsui, who was as beautiful as a celestial being, and nearly picked up an iron shovel to dig a hole in Duan Yan for him to crawl into.
A flurry of wild punches could even bring down a master. Even someone as clever as Gou San’er was left completely speechless.
“Truly as close as brothers, always so attentive and observant—you know everything.”
It was Song Fengsui who finally spoke languidly, breaking the strange atmosphere in the back courtyard.
When he finished, he gave Duan Yan a meaningful look. “I won’t say anything about the other things, but you really should eat less sheep penis. Rather than believing in those supposed benefits, you’d be better off finding a doctor and getting yourself properly checked out~”
Duan Yan: “………”
He closed his eyes. It wasn’t even something he had done—so why was he the one losing face?
