Grandma said, "Take this piece of steel over to your Uncle Jiang at the edge of the village. Ask him to add a bit of it to your chopping knife. In the past, whenever we needed to repair our hoes or axes, we'd just take the old tools to your Uncle Jiang's house to add a little iron and have them reforged."
Normally, just adding a little iron and reforging the tool would have been enough. But Grandma saw how roughly Li Xiang used his tools, constantly dulling or chipping the blade of his chopping knife, which was why she remembered this piece of high-quality steel they had "treasured" at home.
"This is the good stuff, you know. Your father found it back when he was working in the tunnels. He said it was a blade from some kind of machine used for boring holes, but it broke, so they threw it out, and he brought it home," Grandma explained, her words spilling out in a rush.
The mention of her son, who had died so young, naturally brought Grandma a great deal of sorrow.
The grief of the white-haired burying the black-haired is a pain only those who have experienced it can truly understand. Fortunately, Grandma still had Li Xiang.
Li Xiang actually had a vague memory of this object. He hadn't known what it was back then, but now, with the memories of two lifetimes and hearing his grandmother's "explanation," he instantly realized what it was. He was almost certain it was a Rock-Breaking Rolling Blade from a tunnel boring machine.
This type of steel was, without a doubt, the Rolls-Royce of steel—an absolute specialty steel.
Li Xiang bent over to lift the piece of steel, and his grandmother quickly called out, "Careful, careful, it's very heavy!"
"Don't throw out your back... Watch you don't drop it on your foot..."
"I'm fine, Grandma. Don't worry."
As his grandmother continued to voice her concerns, Li Xiang lifted the piece of steel. He was secretly astonished. 'How can such a small section be this heavy?'
Li Xiang estimated it weighed at least seventy to eighty kilograms, though it only looked like it might be thirty or forty.
"This is some good steel!" Li Xiang couldn't help but exclaim in praise.
Although the outside was rusted, it was only a shallow layer. When he wiped the dust from an inner surface with his hand—holy crap!—it instantly revealed a metallic sheen so bright it was like a mirror.
'Such a fine piece of steel. It must have broken off during the tunnel excavation, and the project managers probably wrote it off, allowing his father to get a lucky find.'
In reality, his father had only managed to snag this lucky find after slipping someone a pack of cigarettes. The other half had been taken home by another coworker, who had also offered up a pack of smokes.
But the year after he brought it home, his father passed away. The piece of steel had remained untouched ever since, becoming one of the few mementos his father left behind.
Since he was going to use the steel to repair his farming tools, Li Xiang figured he might as well fix a few more while he was at it. He gathered the old chopping knife, sickle, axe, and Iron Pickaxe, loaded them onto his tricycle cart along with the Rock-Breaking Rolling Blade, and rode off to the edge of the village to find Uncle Jiang.
Uncle Jiang's full name was Jiang Jianguo. He and Li Xiang's father had been very close back in the day; you could say they were childhood friends.
The Jiangs were now the only family with a different surname in Li Family Village.
In the past, Li Family Village had families with three different surnames. The Lis were the most numerous with over thirty households, followed by the Hes with seven or eight. The Jiangs were the least common, with only two households.
Now that most people had moved away, Jiang Jianguo's family was the only one left in Li Family Village with a different surname.
"Uncle Jiang, are you home?" Li Xiang parked his cart at the entrance to Jiang Jianguo's home. Seeing no one around, he shouted.
Soon, a rather tall, middle-aged man emerged from the house. He walked with a confident stride, looking to be in his early forties and younger than Li Xiang's father. He was quite handsome, though his temples were already streaked with white.
'Uncle Jiang has gotten old, too,' Li Xiang sighed to himself.
"Li Xiang! When did you get back?" Jiang Jianguo was thrilled to see him.
"On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival." Li Xiang glanced around and asked, "Are Aunt Jiang and Cai'Er not around?"
When she was younger, Aunt Jiang had been a great beauty and was also from the Miao Race. Uncle Jiang was a handsome man himself, so it was no surprise that their daughter, Jiang Cai'Er, possessed a devastating, city-toppling beauty.
Jiang Cai'Er was nine years younger than Li Xiang. Because their families were so close, Li Xiang had often led her by the hand as they ran all around the village when they were children.
The Miao Race has two kinds of surnames: their own native ones and Han surnames. Han surnames were introduced later, while the native Miao surnames are quite diverse.
Jiang Cai'Er's mother's surname was "Kuaye," an authentic Miao Race surname.
So, regarding her official ethnicity, Jiang Cai'Er could have been registered as Han like her father or as Miao like her mother. However, for the sake of future benefits and preferential policies, her ID card undoubtedly listed her as belonging to the Miao Race.
"Your Aunt Jiang went to the fields to pull weeds. Cai'Er's attending high school in the county seat; she probably won't be back until the National Day holiday."
"Oh, right." Li Xiang quickly pulled out a cigarette and offered it to Uncle Jiang. He then took out a lighter and lit it for him personally.
"Not a bad smoke." Uncle Jiang took a deep drag and then, satisfied, blew a smoke ring toward the sky in praise.
Li Xiang explained why he had come, heaving the block of specialty steel off his cart as he spoke.
Uncle Jiang's eyes lit up, and his energy seemed to surge. "I know this piece of steel," he said. "Your father used to brag to me about it. It's just... sigh..."
Li Xiang fell silent, knowing his uncle was grieving for his father. They had been the best of friends, after all.
"Uncle Jiang, could you take a look and see if it's possible to forge-weld some of this into my old farming tools?" Li Xiang asked.
With the cigarette still dangling from his lips, Uncle Jiang rubbed his hands together and mumbled, "I'll give it a shot, but it's probably going to be tough."
Then, the only blacksmith in Li Family Village got to work.
With considerable effort, he finally managed to slice off a small piece with a power cutter. He tossed it on a scale; it weighed a little over two kilograms. He then put it in the furnace to be melted down.
But even after heating it for a long time, only the surface glowed a dull red. Uncle Jiang carefully removed it from the fire and struck it a few times with a large sledgehammer, but the block of steel remained incredibly hard.
Li Xiang said, "Let me give it a try!"
He reckoned he was much stronger than Uncle Jiang, so he hefted the large sledgehammer and brought it down with all his might!
CLANG!
The hammer met the red-hot steel with a deafening sound, sending sparks flying in all directions.
However, when they looked closely, they saw only a slight dent in the steel block.
"Holy crap, this thing is insanely hard!" Li Xiang said, surprised but also thrilled. The hardness of the steel far exceeded his expectations. 'If I used this to forge a brand-new High-Density Blade, just how sharp would it be?'
Uncle Jiang looked disappointed. "My forge just doesn't get hot enough," he said, "and I don't have a power hammer. How about this? I'll recommend someone to you. Go into the county seat and find Blind Lei's Blacksmith Shop. Let him do the Forging for you. He's got better equipment, a hotter furnace, and a power hammer. It'll be much easier for him than it is for me."
Uncle Jiang gave him the address and told Li Xiang to mention his name for a small discount on the smithing fee.
"Thanks, Uncle Jiang."
Li Xiang got back on his tricycle cart and headed for the county seat.
He found Blind Lei's Blacksmith Shop. The man was, indeed, blind—but not completely. He was a one-eyed dragon.
He had originally worked at a large steel mill, but an accident had cost him his right eye, leading to an early retirement.
After retiring, he returned to his hometown and opened this smithy.
It was his hobby; he loved to smith.
The moment Blind Lei saw it, he thought, 'Well, I'll be damned. A Rock-Breaking Rolling Blade from a tunnel boring machine.' Judging by the model number, it was an import. A hunter's thrill shot through him, and his entire body surged with energy.