Chapter 97 Another year has come
Chapter 97 Another New Year's Eve
The baby is born, both mother and child are safe!
Hearing the crying sounds from inside the house and the pleasant midwife pushing the door open, Li Yuan felt relieved.
There were no midwives these days, so if the fetus was in an abnormal position, it would easily lead to difficult labor, and it would be even more dangerous if it was twins.
He was already prepared to assist in the birth himself.
"Auspicious Dragon and Phoenix, congratulations!"
"Thank you very much, old man!"
Li Lin then felt relieved and breathed a sigh of relief. He took out three coins of silver and stuffed them into the midwife's pocket, then carefully entered the house.
Li Yuan went to stew some chicken soup and brought it in.
On the bed, Wang Juan's face was pale. The couple huddled together, teasing the wrinkled little thing.
"Sister-in-law, have some chicken soup."
Putting down the bowl, Li Yuan also went over to look at the two little guys who hadn't opened their eyes and teased them a few times.
"It's getting cold, second brother, remember to be careful when opening and closing the doors and windows, and keep an eye on the charcoal fire in the house..."
Li Yuan instructed.
Gaoliu County has four distinct seasons. It is already quite chilly in late autumn, so you naturally need to keep warm.
"Uh-huh."
Li Lin brought the chicken soup, blew on it gently and fed it to Wang Juan.
Without disturbing his brother and sister-in-law, Li Yuan went out and started busying himself in the kitchen.
He loves to eat and drink, and his cooking skills are not bad. Most importantly, he is willing to use a lot of ingredients, so the taste is naturally good.
After dinner, Li Yuan returned to the weapon forging shop and forged top-quality weapons as usual.
After the interval between wielding weapons was halved, he would change the weapons he wielded every day. During the day, he would mostly wield the Master Craftsman's Hammer and the Jade Bronze Hammer to assist in forging weapons and improve his forging skills.
At night, it is the basic diagram of Green Snake Spear Technique to change the root bones.
The progress of forging and bone modification do not affect each other, and both are improving.
"laugh!"
Beneath the thick smoke and steam was a red hammer weapon.
During this period, with the improvement of his forging skills, Li Yuan's speed in forging weapons further increased. After the Autumn Water Sword, he forged a total of four top-quality sharp blades.
Hammers are much harder to sell than swords. Li Yuan had only made swords before, and only tried to make a hammer on the fifth one.
[Pure Steel Tiger Head Hammer (Level 2)]
[The first top-grade sharp-blade hammer weapon made by the Arms Master...]
[Control conditions: Complete any hammer technique]
[Control effect: Hammer talent, Thousand-pound force, Armor-breaking horizontal training]
Three control effects, a standard hammer weapon, Li Yuan took a look and was very satisfied.
"Hammer talent!"
Li Yuan nodded slightly. With the effect of this palm control, he didn't have to fight against the hammer soldier anymore.
These days, he got a lot of weapons. If he hadn't screened out those that were not up to standard, the incense burner would have been full.
He can also borrow all kinds of weapons from the weapon forging shop's warehouse at any time.
With more weapons and reduced switching time, he naturally tried various combinations of weapons.
He discovered that when the same control effect reached three, there would be an immediate improvement. This feeling was hard to explain, but Li Yuan was very sure of it.
"There is a gap between talents."
Li Yuan felt a little bit excited.
The higher his talent, the faster he can practice martial arts, which is of great help to him in digesting the fundamental diagrams and controlling the effects of skills.
"I need to keep trying to stack different control effects..."
Li Yuan was in a good mood.
The blacksmiths in the forge room felt a great deal of pressure. Although they were still the same people and their attitude had not changed, they would unconsciously become nervous whenever Li Yuan was around.
The sound of iron hammering never stops all day long.
Li Yuan knew this, so he got off work very early every day and cleared the forging room by dusk.
Blacksmithing is hard work. Even a blacksmith with many years of experience will strain his muscles if he works hard. The tighter you push, the better. It is not the case that it may even have the opposite effect.
"It's not worth rebuilding a forge. Try to come less often in the future, and the wages can be raised."
After locking the forge room, Zhang Ben came over before Li Yuan left.
"You really are acting like a hands-off boss!"
Zhang Ben blew his beard and glared. When it came to reconciling accounts, he preferred to stay in the forge. Forging iron occasionally, wasn't that more comfortable than flipping through the account books?
"Didn't I teach you to find an accountant? Or, you can ask Sun Hao to help you."
Li Yuan was busy comforting her.
In his previous life, he only ran a small supermarket and had no experience in reconciliation, let alone interest in it.
"Fatty Sun? Humph, you can be assured that he will check the accounts, but the old man is not!"
Zhang Ben snorted angrily.
Li Yuan tried to comfort him, took some wine to his room, and said a lot of nice things to him before he finally calmed Old Zhang down. However, he still decided to send a few apprentices to help.
When he first took over the weapon forging shop, he did not transfer too many personnel. He just put his second brother into the warehouse and Sun Hao into the accounting office.
“Business has dropped drastically this month.”
Li Yuan nodded.
More than a dozen forces in the inner and outer cities were wiped out in one wave, and few ordinary people bought weapons.
"Once the Cao family left, our business in other counties has become unstable. Yesterday, a guard came back and said that the weapons they were escorting were robbed by unknown bandits!"
Zhang Ben slammed the table angrily:
"There's also the city. We finally managed to get through, but now it's in chaos, I don't know what will happen to it! Oh, and there's also the mine..."
Zhang Ben didn't stop talking once he started. Li Yuan was still listening and responding from time to time, but later he felt his scalp tingling.
There was much more trouble than he had imagined.
"It's not easy to be a hands-off manager!" Zhang Ben fell into a deep sleep. Li Yuan rubbed his brows and closed the account book.
The business of the weapon forging shop spread to nearby counties and even touched the provincial capital. It had guards and mines outside and more than a hundred apprentices and helpers inside.
It’s not that he can’t do it, but he’s not interested in it.
"Practicing martial arts requires money, which is why I took over the weapon forging shop, but I am doing this for the sake of practicing martial arts, so I must not put the cart before the horse."
After closing the door, Li Yuan made up his mind and prepared to find someone to take care of the business.
For now, neither Sun Hao nor the second brother can support the Weapon Forging Shop and needs a transition.
……
The next day, Li Yuan hosted a banquet for Yuan Pingjun at Yizi Restaurant.
The head of the Yuan family is not handsome at all. He is of sturdy build, only slightly less than Qin Xiong, with a rough appearance and a full beard.
The two had met several times before and had a good chat.
After knowing Li Yuan's purpose, he agreed without hesitation.
"Master Yuan can take 30% of the profits from the forging shop."
The conditions Li Yuan offered were not too painful. It was normal to find someone to cooperate with when one could not eat the meat.
"The business of the weapon forging shop involves six counties, with at least 400 people inside and outside the county, not counting the mines. If Brother Li wants to be a hands-off boss, 30% of the profit is not enough."
Yuan Pingjun shook his head, but before Li Yuan could back down, he stated his bottom line:
"Yuan can only take 20%, but there are conditions."
"Brother Yuan, please speak."
Li Yuan was very cautious.
"I have a son with an above-average physique. He has loved practicing martial arts since he was young, but his talent is not that strong. He will most likely not be able to enter the Divine Weapon Valley next year."
Yuan Pingjun was very calm:
"The Divine Weapon Valley has a rule that each inner disciple can recommend one person to join the sect, either as a menial disciple or to join the Divine Guards."
"With the relationship between the Yuan family and the Divine Weapon Valley, can't we even get a quota for a menial disciple?"
Li Yuan frowned.
The menial disciples of the Divine Weapon Valley not only have to do menial chores, but also have to pay silver every year to support the inner disciples, so the quota is not precious.
"Yuan has more than one son..."
Yuan Pingjun sighed:
"To be honest, Brother Li, I have one wife, nine concubines, thirteen mistresses, and nearly forty children..."
"..."
Li Yuan thought about it and decided that he really didn't have anyone to recommend, so he nodded in agreement.
The profit of the weapon forging shop is 10%, which is at least a hundred taels. This business is worth doing.
"Brother Li is straightforward!"
Yuan Pingjun raised his glass to toast:
"In that case, Yuan will take over the business of this weapon forging shop. The profits will not be even a cent less than when Cao Yan was here!"
"Thank you, Brother Yuan!"
Li Yuan picked up the wine and drank it all in one gulp.
He once again felt the status of Shenbing Valley in Zhelong Mansion, or rather, the status of Han Chuijun.
At the same time, I feel relieved.
As long as he is still in the Divine Weapon Valley, the business of the weapon forging shop will not decline.
……
……
Li Yuan felt quite relieved that he gave up 20% of the profits and got rid of the chores and possible troubles that might follow.
After the banquet, he returned to the blacksmith shop. These days, he would stay in the shop from time to time. Firstly, it was convenient for practicing martial arts. After all, he felt itchy and sore in his bones, and he was afraid that he would shout loudly.
Secondly, it was also for Cao Yan’s secret room.
"Where is the secret room?"
Walking in the backyard, Li Yuan was thinking.
These days, he has searched through Cao Yan's belongings and the things left in the house countless times, but he still hasn't found any clues about the secret room.
"I can see the precious light of any weapon from five meters away. Cao Yan's secret room..."
The weapon forging shop covers a large area, and it is obviously unrealistic to dig three feet into the ground. Li Yuan believes that the mechanism of the secret room must be in the backyard.
Li Yuan sighed in his heart, but he was not in a hurry.
"After the Weapon Control Scroll was promoted to the third level, the distance of sensing the precious light increased to five meters. After it was promoted to the fourth level, it is estimated that it will increase a lot."
From time to time, he knocked on the wall and stomped on the floor tiles. Li Yuan felt that the secret room could not be buried too deep:
"If you still can't find it after you are promoted to the Military Commander, dig the backyard first!"
These days, he did not use the silver from the weapon forging shop, but the materials had been accumulated almost enough. He decided to withdraw some silver tomorrow and get promoted to the rank of Military Commander first.
He was very interested in Cao Yan's secret room.
"call!"
Li Yuan raised his head and swallowed a pill of Bu Yuan Dan, then pushed the door open and went out. He felt that the night was even colder, with snowflakes falling as the north wind howled.
In the light snow, Li Yuan gently shook the wooden spear, enduring the soreness and itchiness that penetrated his bones, moving his qi and blood, mobilizing his internal strength, and accelerating the changes in his bones.
After a while, he couldn't help but groan, jumped into the large vat filled with irregular iron sand in the corner, and pushed it frantically to relieve the itching.
……
Yuan Pingjun was very efficient and within a few days, he sent people over, led by the housekeeper who had come to help Li Lin move.
Although Zhang Ben was unhappy and wary, he still chose some people to stay.
With the help of the Yuan family, the business of the weapon forging shop stabilized. Li Yuan no longer had to worry about anything and immersed himself in blacksmithing and practicing martial arts.
In a blink of an eye, it is already around the end of the year.
(End of this chapter)