Chapter 60 Building the Kiln to Fire Tiles!

Caught in the act, Liu Tieniu was abruptly kicked by Wang Dazhi, sending him tumbling backward onto the floor where he upended a nearby chamber pot, instantly soaking himself from head to toe. "Ouch! It hurts like hell!"

Startled by the sudden commotion, Old Man Wang blurted out, "Who's there?"

Mrs. Wang shrieked, "There's a thief! Quick, catch the thief!"

Without a second thought, Liu Tieniu endured the agonizing pain, flung open the door, and bolted out of the house.

Fast as he was, his groin injury had yet to heal, and this frantic sprint nearly caused him to pass out from the excruciating pain.

Grabbing a lunchbox from the doorway, Old Man Wang rushed out and began flailing at the shadowy figure, yelling, "I'll beat you to death! Daring to steal from my house, take this!"

Mrs. Wang screamed at the top of her lungs, "Thief! Someone catch the thief..."

The piercing cries shattered the tranquil silence of the small mountain village, prompting neighbors living around the Wang residence to emerge from their homes.

"Old Wang, where's the thief?"

"Right here, I've got him pinned!" Old Man Wang shouted. "Come quick and help me hold him down!"

Before long, the 'thief' on the ground was thoroughly subdued.

Armed with a household oil lamp, Mrs. Wang held it up to inspect the intruder, leaving everyone present utterly dumbfounded.

"Isn't this Liu Lao-si's boy, Liu Tieniu?"

"My word, it really is!"

"He's beaten bloody all over his face. Is he dead?"

Hearing this, the surrounding villagers instinctively took a step back.

Ill blood had long existed between the Wang and Liu families, and Old Man Wang stubbornly declared, "So what if he's beaten to death? Who told him to come to my house to steal?"

Mrs. Wang chimed in, "Exactly, he got what he deserved!"

"Quick, someone revive him," urged an older village woman.

"Go fetch Liu Lao-si!"

Voices erupted all at once in a cacophony of discussion.

While someone pressed their fingers firmly into the philtrum beneath Liu Tieniu's nose to revive him, another person hurried off to carry the news to the Liu household.

Jarred awake from his sleep, Liu Lao-si looked utterly bewildered. "What nonsense are you spouting? My Tieniu is right at home sleeping!"

"Go see for yourself!"

Furious, Liu Lao-si snapped, "Could it be a lie when my son sleeps right in the same bed with me?"

He lit an oil lamp and cast its light across the bed. It was completely empty, and when he touched the bedding, it had already turned cold.

Liu Lao-si trembled from head to foot, panic flashing in his eyes, and he delivered a sharp slap to awaken his soundly sleeping wife. "Stop sleeping, you damn fool! Tieniu's in trouble..."

***

The next day, Zhao Zheng slept until he woke naturally.

The previous night, the three women had whispered among themselves until the early hours of the morning before finally drifting off, practically driving him crazy with their endless chatter.

After heading to the outhouse to relieve himself and staring up at the empty rafters, Zhao Zheng silently resolved, "No matter what, I must get these roof tiles fired over the next few days."

Firing roof tiles was not a particularly high-tech endeavor, nor was it as complex as pottery; it simply required shaping common clay and baking it until dry.

The real catch was the charcoal required.

Coal was not widely used in the Great Kang Dynasty, which made the procurement costs exceptionally high.

Consequently, blue bricks and white tiles were luxuries only wealthy masters could afford.

"I'll start by building a small stove out of stones, and in a couple of days, I'll push the handcart to the village market to buy some coal..."

Tying his trouser belt, Zhao Zheng walked into the kitchen to find a warming breakfast waiting for him: a bowl of duck egg drop soup sweetened with white sugar, a bowl of rice, alongside freshly pan-fried egg pancakes and pickled vegetables!

As for Zhaodi and Xiaoe, they were nowhere to be found, having wandered off somewhere.

Zhao Zheng sat down unceremoniously on the heated brick bed to enjoy his morning meal.

Not long after, the sound of footsteps echoed from outside, and Yang Zhaodi and Zhang Xiaoe rushed back into the house. "Father-in-law, something happened last night!"

"What is it? Why are you in such a flurry?"

When Yang Zhaodi recounted the entire sequence of events, Zhao Zheng was left completely stunned. "You mean to say that last night, Liu Tieniu snuck into the Wang house and turned Wang Dazhi into a eunuch?"

"Yes, I hear it's completely destroyed! Liu Tieniu was ruthless; he practically ripped the whole thing off!" Zhang Xiaoe reported.

Zhao Zheng drew a sharp intake of breath. "Liu Tieniu really harbored a deep hatred for Wang Dazhi!"

How could he not hate the man whose single kick had completely altered the course of his life?

"What about Yueying?"

"Her parents-in-law are forcing her to wait on Wang Dazhi," Zhang Xiaoe said anxiously. "Father-in-law, what do we do now?"

Zhao Zheng tapped his fingers rhythmically against the low table. "Well, now that Wang Dazhi is ruined, the Wang family line is essentially cut off. Old Man Wang is too old and likely incapable of anything anymore—even if he weren't, it would take a miracle for his old woman to spring back to life. So... things actually just got easier!"

He scraped up the last bit of rice in his bowl and stepped down from the heated platform. "Go tell Yueying to proceed according to the original plan..."

Zhang Xiaoe nodded and darted swiftly out the door.

Zhao Zheng smiled faintly. "Liu Tieniu, what a saint!"

Throughout the entire day, the village remained abuzz with wild gossip.

Since Wang Dazhi was the sole male heir of the Wang family, Old Man Wang and his wife had nearly fought to the death with Liu Lao-si's household.

Liu Lao-si was no pushover either, and rumors had it that the two families had fought each other to a miserable standstill.

Even the intervention of Village Elder Xu proved completely useless.

If Wang Dazhi's injuries could be treated, there might have been some room for negotiation, but Divine Doctor Sun examined him and declared the damage utterly shattered—unless an immortal descended from the heavens, nothing could save him.

Moreover, Liu Tieniu's attack had been so vicious that if Wang Dazhi's mangled tissue wasn't surgically excised immediately, his life would be in mortal danger.

After a morning of vicious infighting between the two hostile families, intervention by three village elders finally forced a decision to prioritize saving Wang Dazhi's life.

The three taels of silver compensation Liu Lao-si had barely managed to get his hands on were handed right back out before he could even warm them.

That afternoon, the Wang family had to push Wang Dazhi on a wooden handcart all the way to the township to save his life!

None of this drama concerned Zhao Zheng, who was busy gathering clay and using leftover stones from repairing the brick bed to construct a small kiln capable of firing up to a hundred roof tiles at a time.

Once that was set up, he used molds to shape the clay and laid them out evenly to dry across the floor inside the house.

Noticing him "neglecting proper business" yet again, the villagers laughed at him mockingly. "Old Zhao, you can't even afford a proper meal, yet you have the leisure to fire roof tiles? Can you even afford the charcoal?"

"Are roof tiles something people like us can afford to use? Didn't you see that even Village Elder Xu still uses thatch on his roof?"

Zhao Zheng merely smiled without a word, offering no lengthy explanations.

However, Yang Zhaodi and Zhang Xiaoe firmly believed in him. Even before the firing process had begun, Zhang Xiaoe was already letting her imagination run wild. "If Father-in-law fires these tiles, our house won't draft any more cold wind, right?"

"I've heard that once roof tiles are laid, no matter how hard it rains, it won't leak, and we won't have to worry about the roof collapsing under snow either!" Yang Zhaodi felt a surge of motivation just thinking about it. In this day and age, everyone else tried to do as little physical labor as possible to conserve their strength and wait out the winter, whereas their household was throwing themselves into work with all their might.

Yet it wasn't reckless exertion, but rather a genuine effort to improve their living conditions. Seeing the house change for the better day by day filled her heart with genuine joy.

"I can't say for sure yet, we'll know once the tiles are successfully fired," Zhao Zheng chuckled.

At that moment, Granny Zhou arrived as well. "Third Boy, I heard you're planning to make roof tiles?"

"Oh, Auntie, what brings you out here?" Zhao Zheng wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"I was idling at home anyway, so I thought I'd come lend a hand!" With that, the elderly woman rolled up her sleeves, completely unconcerned about getting dirty, picked up a lump of clay, and joined the work.

"Auntie, it's freezing out, don't catch a chill."

"Staying cooped up at home makes the cold seep right into my bones. Moving around is good for me; I've been busy my whole life and just can't sit still."

Unable to persuade her otherwise, Zhao Zheng brought out a small stool for her to sit on. "Well, take it easy then. Rest whenever you're tired, and if you get sleepy, go lie down on our heated brick bed for a while—it's wonderfully cozy!"