Looking at her distant figure, Zhen Mingku's face was stunned, and it took a while to come back to his senses, and he understood that this gift was only a little abrupt and misunderstood, so he smiled self-deprecatingly and put the gift box back in his pocket.

After drinking the soy milk, he rented a carriage and rushed to Sun Langzhongcaolu, outside the north of the city, and today was the day of his second follow-up visit.

……

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

Xing'er, who walked in from the door with tea, put a cup of tea on the table in front of Zhen Mingku, and asked crisply.

At this time, Zhen Mingku's body was full of silver needles, and only one mouth could move, and he said strangely: "Doesn't he come to Sun Langzhong every day?" I haven't seen him for many days, and I thought he was helping Sun Langzhong collect medicine. ”

"Help with the medicine? Hmph, that's a nice thing to say, I said that I would send some tonic medicine to Sister Yue'er every month, but since I sent a finger-sized ginseng half a month ago, there has been no news. ”

"Ginseng?" Zhen Ming was stunned for a moment.

"But no, my godfather said, the Korean ginseng he sent last time seems to be a wild ginseng of the last year, if it is sold in the pharmacy, it can be sold for at least a few dozen taels of silver, and after cooking soup for Sister Yue'er and taking it, her body looks better, and now she suddenly doesn't eat it, and her condition is even worse than before, and I don't know whether to thank him or blame him."

Zhen Mingbitter was suddenly stunned for a moment when he heard this, remembering that he had met a medicine thief at the door of the pharmacy just now, and hurriedly said: "Sister Xing'er, you quickly find Sun Langzhong to come and help me pull out the needle, I have something urgent!" ”

Xing'er said angrily: "What urgent thing can be urgent to get rid of your illness?" Lie down, and when the hour comes, I'll ask my godfather to pull out the needle for you. ”

"Human life is a matter of heaven!"

"Is your life more important or someone else's? Godfather said, it's not too late to pull out the needle! ”

The first time he was reprimanded by a girl who was seven or eight years younger than himself, Zhen Mingku couldn't cry or laugh, but he had to admit that her words really made him irrefutable.

Finally got through the hour, Xing'er called Sun Langzhong to pull out the needle for him, Zhen Mingku told the story of the drug thief he met in the pharmacy today, and guessed that the drug thief Bacheng was a fat dragon who had not come to the medicine store for a long time.

After hearing this, Xing'er glared at him reproachfully: "Why didn't you say it until now!" ”

Zhen was speechless.

……

The group didn't even have much to eat, so they hurriedly drove the carriage rented by Zhen Minghard into Luoyang City, arrived at the yamen, gave the official at the door a tael of silver, and heard that Feilong had indeed been sent to the official prison and locked up.

It took another tael of silver to dredge the officials and took them to the prison, at this time the fat dragon was lying on the damp floor of the prison, there were blood stains on the corners of his mouth, and the clothes on his buttocks had been beaten to shreds, and he was humming and moaning, seeing that Zhen Mingku took Sun Langzhong and Xing'er and others to see him, his face showed a look of shame and regret, and tears flowed from his eyes.

Xing'er gave him another lecture that hated iron and steel, and reprimanded the fat dragon who was five or six years older than her to nod, and then it was a lame comforting word, saying that auspicious people have their own nature, and good people have good rewards and other empty words that I don't know where to learn, but it seems to come out of the mouth of an old woman in her seventies and eighties, and Zhen Mingku, who heard it, and Sun Langzhong on the side couldn't help laughing.

Feilong's crime is not serious, the main reason is that he has to spend a lot of silver, not only to compensate the owner of the pharmacy for dozens of taels, but also to pay the government more than ten taels for the trial.

Sun Langzhong gave some of the trauma medicine he brought to Feilong, asked him to wipe it by himself, and said something to make him feel at ease.

On the way back, Xing'er carefully counted the gold and silver jewelry of the three sisters in the family, and finally sat in the car, looking out the window, frowning.

Back at the grass house, Xing'er told Yue'er about Feilong's theft of medicine and imprisonment, Yue'er didn't say a word, turned around and went back to the room to take out the box containing the body and gold and silver jewelry she had saved since she was a child, and handed it to Zhen Mingku, begging Zhen Mingku to find a way to save Feilong from prison.

Sun Langzhong also took out a few taels of silver, but it was a pity that the salary was a drop in the bucket, and the amount of compensation was still a big cut.

For a while, no one could have scraped together so much money.

Yue'er looked guilty, Zhen Ming silently put her jewelry box on the table in front of her, Yue'er raised her head and looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Zhen Mingbitter said: "Miss Yue'er still concentrates on taking care of her body, don't worry about the fat dragon, I'll think of a way." ”

Xing'er asked curiously on the side, "What can you think of?" At first glance, you are a poor bastard. ”

"Apricot!" Yue'er pulled her hand on the side, with a look of blame.

Xing'er muttered: "Originally, look at the clothes he is wearing, does he look like a person who can come out with dozens of taels of silver?" ”

Zhen Mingku's face was embarrassed for a while, and he smiled awkwardly: "As the saying goes, people can't look good, and sea water can't fight, haven't you heard the saying that wealth is not exposed?" ”

"You don't have a good look."

Xing'er's words completely defeated Zhen Mingku, and her smile froze on her face.

……

"What are you asking for?" Wei Chi Jingde asked with a puzzled face, Zhen Mingku came to the blacksmith shop early in the morning and asked him about the refining of the bounty list, which made him a little puzzled.

Zhen Ming smiled bitterly and said: "It's nothing, I heard from the pillars yesterday that they talked about the bounty list, and recently they are a little short of money, and they are in a hurry to use the money, and they want to see if they can try their luck." ”

"Trying your luck?" Wei Chi Jingde laughed, "Do you think refining alloys is an easy task?" Heat, proportion, beneficiation, and air supply all need to be matched in the slightest, otherwise even if the method is right, the smelted things are also waste slag, and the old craftsmen who have worked in the store for more than ten years are only a pillar who has refined refined iron. ”

"There are no absolutes in the world, so it's okay to give it a try."

"This refining alloy requires a lot of manpower and material resources, but it's not a joke, the pillar received the refining bounty that year, and it was a military order, and it can't be refined within the specified time, not only to compensate for the loss of the refining process, but also to pay for thirty canes, do you think you have this certainty?"

Zhen Ming asked bitterly: "How can I meet the requirements for receiving the bounty?" ”

Seeing that he was determined to take over the list, and had seen his trick of hanging the stone lion with one hand, Wei Chi Jingde was also a little curious about where he got the confidence to refine a better alloy than refined iron, so he explained it to him in detail.

There are three kinds of refining bounty lists, one of which is to refine a new hard alloy, according to the highest alloy standards of today's blacksmiths, if Zhen Ming Ku takes on the task of refining the bounty, the refined alloy must be above the hardness of refined 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 refining, but the bounty is at most a dozen taels of silver.

During this period, the person who takes over the bounty list can use all the manpower and material resources of the blacksmith shop.

After asking the details, Zhen Mingku took over the alloy refining bounty list, and made a military order, if he could not refine an alloy with a higher hardness than refined iron within two months, he would not only compensate for the loss of all manpower and material resources during the refining period, but also be punished by a cane of sixty strokes.

Since the pillar received a bounty of one hundred taels ten years ago, the bounty has now accumulated to two hundred taels.

After taking a hundred taels of silver as a refining fee, Zhen Mingku did not stay in the blacksmith shop for long, went out, rented a carriage and rushed to Luoyang Yamen.