Ranking of Bounty Rewards

  Watching her departing figure, Zhen Ming was taken aback for a moment before coming back to his senses, realizing that the gift might have been given too abruptly, causing misunderstanding. He smiled wryly and put the gift box back into his pocket.

  After drinking soy milk, he rented a horse-drawn carriage and headed to Sun Langzhong's thatched cottage north of the city. Today was his second follow-up appointment.

  ……

  "Hey, how come your fat friend hasn't been here for so long?"

  Xing'er walked in from the door with a tray of tea and placed a cup on the table in front of Zhen Ming, asking in a crisp tone.

  At this time, Zhen Ming was covered in silver needles all over his body, with only one mouth that could move. He heard the words and said strangely: "Isn't he coming to Sun Langzhong's place every day? I haven't seen him for many days, and I thought he was helping Sun Langzhong pick medicine."

  "Helping to gather herbs? Hmph, sounds good, saying that every month they will send some tonic medicine to Moon Sister, but since sending a ginseng the size of a finger half a month ago, there has been no news."

  "What's wrong?" Zhen Ming was taken aback for a moment.

  "No, it's not that, said the dry father. The high-quality ginseng he brought last time was probably wild mountain ginseng from a few years ago. If sold to a pharmacy, it would be worth at least several dozen taels of silver. After giving it to Sister Moon to make a soup and eat, her body seemed to have improved somewhat. Now she suddenly doesn't want to eat it, and her condition is even worse than before. I don't know whether to thank him or blame him."

  Zhen Ming's bitter expression suddenly froze, remembering the encounter with the thief at the pharmacy entrance earlier. He hastily said: "Xing'er sister, quickly find Sun Langzhong to come and help me pull out the needle, I have an urgent matter!"

  Xing'er said gruffly: "What urgent matter can be more urgent than one's own illness? Lie down, when the time comes, I'll ask your father to remove the needle for you."

  "It's a matter of life and death!"

  "Is your life important or someone else's life important? Godfather said, don't pull out the needle until the time is right!"

  For the first time, he was scolded by a girl who was seven or eight years younger than him. Zhen Ming was so frustrated that he couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time, yet he had to admit that her words were indeed irrefutable.

  It was not easy to get to the time, and Xing Er called Sun Langzhong to remove the needle for him. Zhen Ming bitterly told him about the incident of stealing medicine from the pharmacy today, guessing that the thief was probably Fei Long, who had not been to the pharmacy for a long time.

  Xing'er listened and stared at him with a blaming face: "Why did you only say this now!"

  A life of hardship is beyond words.

  ……

  A group of people didn't even eat dinner, and hastily drove the horse-drawn carriage they had rented at a high price, rushing into Luoyang City. When they arrived at the gate of the government office, they gave the doorman two silver coins and learned that Fei Long had indeed been sent to the official prison.

  Another two silver coins were spent to grease the palms of the yamen runners, who then accompanied them to the prison cell. There, Fei Long was lying on the damp floor, his mouth bleeding and his buttocks bruised, with his clothes torn to shreds. He was groaning in pain as he saw Zhen Ming Su bring Sun Lang Zhong and Xing Er into the cell. His face showed a mixture of shame and regret, and tears streamed down his eyes.

  Xing'er scolded Fei Long, who was five or six years older than her, until he could only nod his head. Then she consoled him with some awkward and clichéd words of comfort, saying things like "good people will have good fortune" and "those who are meant to be together will find each other", which sounded like something an old lady in her seventies or eighties would say. Zhen Mingxu and Sun Langzhong couldn't help but burst out laughing at this, and the gloomy atmosphere of the prison was momentarily lifted by Xing'er's adorable antics.

  Fei Long's crime is serious or not, mainly is to spend a lot of money, not only to compensate the pharmacy owner for dozens of taels, but also to pay the court's trial fees for over ten taels.

  Sun Langzhong handed over some wound medicine he had brought with him to Fei Long, letting him apply it himself, and also said some words to comfort him.

  On the way back, Xing'er carefully checked the gold and silver jewelry of her three sisters at home, and finally sat in the car, looking out the window with a worried expression.

  Back in the thatched cottage, Xing'er told Yue'er about Fei Long stealing medicine and going to jail. Without saying a word, Yue'er turned around, went back into her room, took out a box containing her personal savings and gold and silver jewelry, handed it over to Zhen Mingshu, and begged him to think of a way to rescue Fei Long from prison.

  Sun Langzhong also took out a few taels of silver, but unfortunately, it was just a drop in the bucket, and the amount that still needed to be compensated was still a large sum.

  For the time being, no one can come up with so much silver.

  Yuè ér yī liǎn nèi jiù, zhēn mìng sū mò mò de jiāng tā nà shǒu shì xiāng zǐ fàng zài tā miàn qián de zhuō zi shàng, yuè ér tái qǐ tóu, yī liǎn bù jiě de wàng zhào tā.

  Zhen Ming said with a bitter smile: "Miss Yue'er should focus on taking care of her own body, don't worry about Fei Long's affairs, I'll think of a way."

  Xing'er curiously asked from the side: "What can you think of? Just looking at you, you're a complete pauper."

  "Xing Er!" Yue Er pulled her hand from the side, with a face full of blame.

  Xing'er muttered: "It's obvious, look at the clothes he's wearing, does he look like someone who can take out dozens of taels of silver?"

  Zhen Ming's face turned sour, and he smiled awkwardly: "As the saying goes, don't judge a person by their appearance, and don't measure the sea with a bucket. Haven't you heard the phrase 'don't show off your wealth'?"

  "You don't have much of an appearance either."

  An Yu's one sentence thoroughly defeated Zhen Ming, and his smile froze on his face.

  ……

  "What are you asking this for?" Wei Chi Jing De asked with a puzzled face, Zhen Ming had come to the blacksmith's shop early in the morning and was asking him about the refining of the reward list, which made him somewhat perplexed.

  Zhen Ming smiled wryly and said, "Nothing much, I heard Zhu Zi and the others talking about the reward list yesterday. Lately, things have been a bit tight financially, and I'm in urgent need of money, so I thought I'd try my luck."

  "Are you relying on luck?" Wei Chi Jing De laughed, "Do you think refining alloys is an easy thing? Temperature, proportion, mineral selection, and air supply all require precise coordination. Otherwise, even if the method is correct, the resulting product will still be scrap metal. In our shop, only one old master has successfully refined high-quality iron in over a decade of work. You're just a novice apprentice who's been here for a month, what makes you think you can refine an alloy better than high-quality iron?"

  "There's no absolute in life, so it doesn't hurt to give it a try."

  "This smelting alloy requires a lot of manpower and material resources, it's not a joke. The pillar had accepted the smelting reward back then, and had made a military order, if the smelting couldn't be completed within the specified time, not only would he have to compensate for the losses during the smelting process, but also face corporal punishment of thirty strokes. Do you think you have this confidence?"

  "What does it take to qualify for the reward?"

  Wei Chi Jing De saw that he was determined to take the challenge, and having witnessed his trick of lifting a stone lion with one hand, he was also somewhat curious about where he got the confidence to refine an alloy better than refined iron, so he explained it to him in detail.

  There are three types of Refining Bounty Boards, one of which is to refine a new hard alloy. According to the current highest alloy standard of the Iron Forge, if Zhenming Ru takes on the refining bounty task, the refined alloy must be harder than fine iron.

  The other two options are the development of new weapons and the improvement of production equipment.

  These two options are much easier than alloy smelting, but the reward is at most a dozen or so taels of silver.

  During this time, the person who takes over the wanted list can mobilize all human and material resources of the blacksmith shop.

  After inquiring about the details, Zhenming reluctantly accepted the alloy smelting reward list and made a military order. If he couldn't smelt an alloy with higher hardness than fine iron within two months, not only would he have to compensate for all the losses of manpower and material resources during the smelting period, but he would also be punished with sixty lashes.

  Since Zhuzi received a reward of 100 taels ten years ago, the current reward has accumulated to 200 taels.

  After taking one hundred and two silver coins as the cost of refining, Zhenming didn't stay in the blacksmith shop for long. He left the door, rented a horse-drawn carriage and rushed to the Luoyang government office.