She walked very fast, but he could still see the look on her face, which was the look of the little white rabbit when he saw the big bad wolf, panicked.

The day before yesterday, she greeted him with a smile, but after not seeing him for a day, she was like a different person.

He glanced at the gate of the courtyard where she lived, and Old Man Song was not there.

There were no other pedestrians on the road.

With a stomach full of doubts, he slowly followed Zhang and walked for a while, until he parted at a fork in the road, and walked in the direction of the blacksmith shop.

When I arrived at the blacksmith, the shop was not yet open.

Entering the shop through the back door of the blacksmith's shop, the rest of the blacksmith shop was still asleep.

In the smelting room, the furnace fire was still slowly bubbling with cyan flames, and next to the furnace was a pile of ore that the Fat Dragon had found.

He walked up to the pile of ore, took out his phone, picked up one of them, opened it, opened the folder of "Special Functions", selected one of the apps called "Spectral Searchlight Gauge", and clicked to open.

There was a sound of the scanner spinning on its axis, and a beam of light with changing colors shone out of the camera on the back of the phone, scanning back and forth on the surface of the ore.

After a while, a three-dimensional 3D map of the shape of the ore was slowly constructed on the screen of the mobile phone, and as the scanning deepened, the 3D map was gradually painted with various colors.

Next to the screen, the elements and chemicals represented by the various colors are listed.

Red: pyroxene (34%); White: Silicon dioxide (28%); Grey: manganese dioxide (30%); Black: Tungsten trioxide (6%)......

After a while, a line of text popped up on the screen: "The rest of the components account for about 3%, which is more complicated, and it may take a long time for all the scans to be analyzed, do you need to continue the analysis?" ”

Zhen Mingku clicked on the option to stop scanning.

At this time, Wei Chi Jingde's voice sounded behind him: "What can you think of?" ”

Zhen Mingku put the mobile phone in his arms, turned to look at Wei Chi Jingde at the door, and said with a smile: "I'm thinking." ”

"Don't forget that you only have half a month left."

"I know."

Wei Chi Jingde's eyes stared at the small pile of jet-black slag behind him that had failed to be smelted, and said: "The pillar said that you have been trying to find a way to smelt these fire-weary ores these days, although this thing is not within the scope of government control, but it is a violation of the criminal law to mine ore without permission." ”

Zhen Ming asked puzzledly: "Could it be that the gang leader wants to sue me to the government?" ”

Wei Chi Jingde laughed silently: "You are a member of my mining gang, what is the benefit of suing you to the government for the mining gang, I just want to kindly remind you, lest you even know what is going on when you break the law and go to prison, in fact, since my grandfather's generation, I have been looking for a way to smelt this kind of fire-disgusting mine, but unfortunately I have never been able to find the trick, I don't believe that anyone can find a way to smelt in just one month, I advise you to find another way." ”

Zhen Ming smiled bitterly: "How do you know that you can't smelt if you don't try, one method won't work, maybe another one will work, by the way, I may have other things to do these days, I may not be able to report every day, and I want to ask you for a leave." ”

Wei Chi Jingde said indifferently: "I don't care if you come to the blacksmith shop to report or not, but if you can't hand over what I want after a month, don't blame me for not being merciful." ”

……

When Zhen Mingku, holding a strange iron box that had just been built, came out of the Weichi blacksmith shop, it was already more than six o'clock in the afternoon.

The shops on both sides of Luoyang Avenue have closed one after another.

Zhen Mingku casually bought a few fragrant meat buns at a roadside stall and ate them, filled his hungry stomach all day, and turned around and entered a scholar's four treasures shop that was about to close.

"Boss, how do you sell your best paper?"

"High-grade bamboo paper, one or two lines of silver and three feet, ordinary mulberry paper, one or two lines of silver ten feet, inferior hemp paper one or two lines of silver thirty feet, which one do the guest officers want?"

Zhen Mingku almost didn't suspect that there was something wrong with his ears, although he didn't know what this high-grade bamboo paper looked like, just looking at the price was about to catch up with a piece of silk.

"What paper is so expensive?"

"It's not expensive, this store is a century-old shop, the family has been making paper for a living for generations, doing business is paying attention to the fair price, Tong Suo is not deceitful, the whole Luoyang, the store's high-grade bamboo paper is second to none of the high quality, the production process is unique, there is no semicolon, the guest officer can not buy it in other places, and you come early, otherwise when those readers come, I am afraid that you can't buy it if you want to."

While the shopkeeper introduced, he took out his so-called high-quality bamboo paper.

Compared with the delicate and smooth coated paper of the 21st century, this so-called high-quality bamboo paper is too rough to wipe the buttocks.

Even the so-called high-grade paper is of this quality, not to mention those low-grade paper, Zhen Mingku had no choice, so he had to buy two taels of silver high-grade bamboo paper, let the shopkeeper cut it into dozens of pieces of paper the size of a super-generation mobile phone, package it, and then leave the store.

……

Out of the store, Zhen Mingku looked up at the sky, it was almost time for the Zhang family to close the stall, holding a bunch of things, and walked in the direction of Luohe in the south of the city.

On Zhang's tofu stall by the Luohe River, the tofu stall has also been cleaned up, and Zhang's familiar figure has long been gone.

Looking at the empty stalls, Zhen Mingku was inexplicably a little lost, sat on the river embankment and was quietly stunned for a while, then stood up, patted his buttocks, and went home.

……

On Luoyang Street, pedestrians on the road are in a hurry.

On each side of the street, at a distance of 100 meters, there was a government sign with portraits of wanted criminals and executed prisoners, and no one could recognize the prisoners even if they stood in front of them, except that gender was the only characteristic that could be determined.

In addition to these portraits, the others are some official notices that praise virtues, whitewash the peace of the world, and the people have enough food and clothing.

Usually, Zhen Mingku's interest in even glancing at these notices is not interested.

But today, when he passed by one of the signs, he suddenly stopped, took a few steps back, and returned to the sign with a surprised expression on his face.

On the billboard, there is a gang notice written on fine bamboo paper.

It reads: "Salt Gang Reward: If anyone can provide clues about the official silver that was robbed two months ago, a reward of 1,000 taels of silver." ”

One thousand taels of silver, according to the house price in Luoyang, this is the price of a big house, which is equivalent to winning the lotto.

He stared at the notice for a moment, then reached out and tore it off and tucked it into his arms.

At this time, a government notice that had been concealed was revealed on the billboard.

It was an inferior mulberry paper with two heads painted on it.

The inscription on the underside of the portrait reads, "Abduction and trafficking of women and children is a heinous crime and punishable according to the law," and judging from the date signed above, the two men were executed at midnight the day before yesterday.

Zhen Ming glanced at it bitterly, didn't pay much attention, and was about to turn to leave, but stopped and looked into an alley behind the billboard.

In the alley is a row of food and rice shops, and in front of one of the largest stores, the "Five Grain King", a small black donkey is tethered to a large tree.

He recognized the little donkey at a glance, and a hint of curiosity flashed in his eyes, and he hesitated for a moment, then turned and walked towards the little donkey.