Zhang Tie's small shop could sell about five to six jars of rice brew every week. Although it was not a big income, it was still a good supplement for the Zhang family, who had always been frugal.
Rice brew was a traditional Chinese delicacy. It was not complicated to make. Its main raw material was rice. The processing process was also simple. First, clean the rice and cook it in a pot until it was half done. Then, the rice was scooped up and dried. After that, it was steamed in a steamer and dried. Finally, it was put into a clay jar and mixed with sugar and honey. Finally, it was sprinkled with cooking water, namely yeast liquid. After sealing the jar, it was allowed to ferment naturally. One month later, it could be opened and eaten. The rice brew not only retained the fragrant, sweet, soft and glutinous rice, but was also nutritious with a comfortable sweetness. It could not only satisfy one's hunger, but also had a refreshing taste. It could cool down one's body and nourish one's spleen and stomach. It was extremely tasty. Zhang Tie and his elder brother grew up eating the rice brew made by their mom.
Although the process of making rice brew was simple, each step was very meticulous. The Zhang family's rice brew had gained a good reputation among the nearby blocks and regular customers over the past ten years.
After working hard for a whole day on Saturday, Zhang Tie finally made seven jars of rice brew. After making the rice brew, he moved it to the warehouse behind the shop and stored it. After that, Zhang Tie rode his modified tricycle and went out twice. One time, he went to the rice shop to buy rice. After making rice brew, the rice in the jar at home would almost be used up. Therefore, every weekend, Zhang Tie would go to the rice shop to buy rice. After buying rice, he would also buy two catties of sugar. This time, Zhang Tie found that the price of rice in the rice shop had risen a bit. Last week, a 25 kg bag of ordinary rice cost 4 silver coins and 45 copper coins. Today, when he went to the rice shop, he found that a 25 kg bag of ordinary rice had already risen to 4 silver coins and 58 copper coins. Within one week, the price had risen by almost 3%.
Zhang Tie was startled. As commoners, they were extremely sensitive to the price changes of daily necessities. Zhang Tie remembered that the price of rice in Blackhot City had basically not changed in the past three years since he went to middle school. Last week, it was still 4 silver coins and 45 copper coins. How could it have risen so much in just one week?
"Alas, Zhang Tie, we have no choice. The price of rice has risen the day before yesterday, so we could only follow suit. We can't do business at a loss!" The owner of the rice shop was familiar with Zhang Tie. When it came to the price of rice, he started to complain to Zhang Tie. "70% of the rice in Blackhot City is brought in from outside. The farms and planting areas outside Blackhot City could not guarantee the food supply of this city. What can we do? The prices of these things are all decided by the big business groups. Not only rice, but also noodles have also risen these days. If you don't believe me, you can go and have a look elsewhere. They're all at the same price. Some are even more expensive … "
As the owner of the rice shop had been a regular customer for many years, Zhang Tie was not stupid enough to have a look elsewhere. The price of grains in Blackhot City was basically the same everywhere. The same bag of rice would have a difference of 1-3 copper coins at most in different rice shops in Blackhot City. If the difference was more than 5 copper coins, the bag of rice would not be able to sell. After so many years of dealings, Zhang Tie knew that this rice shop was run by a hardworking and shrewd Chinese owner. Therefore, he trusted him.
According to the price of 4 silver coins and 58 copper coins, namely, 458 copper coins, Zhang Tie bought three bags of rice, namely, 75 kg of rice, and put them on his small tricycle. This tricycle was modified from a second-hand bicycle with a pocket and a wheel. Not only did it look ugly, it also had a limited capacity. Three bags of rice and Zhang Tie alone were almost its limit. When he moved the rice, Zhang Tie carefully checked the needle holes and thread ends on the rice bags. After making sure that there were no traces of puncture or re-sewing, he became reassured. Some black-hearted rice shop owners and grain merchants would remove the needle and thread on the rice bags and re-sew them before re-sewing them. Therefore, as long as one was careful enough to check the needle holes and thread ends on the rice bags, he would be able to find out whether a bag of rice had been tampered with or not. Poor children matured at an early age. This was Zhang Tie's experience in buying rice over the years.
After buying rice, Zhang Tie bought 2 kg of sugar from a local grocery store not far from the rice shop before riding his tricycle back home. As expected, after the price of rice had increased by 3%, the price of sugar had also increased. However, the price of sugar had increased even more. Last week, the price of sugar had been 91 copper coins per kg, but this time, it had directly risen to 1 silver coin per kg. Looking around, the other shops also had the same price. Zhang Tie then bought 2 kg of sugar and put it in a cloth bag, hanging it on the handle of his tricycle. Riding that ugly modified second-hand tricycle, Zhang Tie staggered back home.
After returning home, he told his mom about the price of rice and sugar. After that, he gave her the remaining money. Seeing her take the money, after thinking for a while, he counted 10 copper coins from his own hand and gave them to Zhang Tie as pocket money.
After receiving the 10 copper coins, Zhang Tie smiled like a flower and said to his mom, "Thank you, mom!" Today, his mom was much more generous. Normally, she would only give him 5 copper coins at most.
Mom let out a sigh and frowned. "If the price of rice and sugar increases, then the price of our rice brew will also increase. Since the profit is small, if we don't increase the price, we won't be able to continue our business. If we increase the price, then we might lose some old customers! Alas... "
Seeing his mom's frown, Zhang Tie became excited and blurted out, "Mom, don't worry. I will definitely let you and dad live a good life in the future. I'm already different from before!"
"Mom knows. Our little Guoguo is already an adult. Of course, you're different from before!" His mom smiled and reached out her hand to touch Zhang Tie's head.
Hearing the meaning behind the word "adult" in his mom's tone, Zhang Tie became embarrassed again. "Mom, it's not what you think. I mean, I..."
"Well, well, mom knows that Guoguo has already grown up and is a filial kid. Let's not talk about this anymore. Hurry up and send this rice soup to Grandma Teresa. If it's too late, we won't be able to make it today!"
After being interrupted by his mom, Zhang Tie didn't finish his words. Lowering his head, Zhang Tie moved the remaining jars of rice soup onto the ugly tricycle. Feeling a bit depressed, Zhang Tie rode the tricycle towards another place. Thinking about how he had almost blurted out that he had the Castle of Black Iron, he blamed himself for being too impulsive. If this secret was known by his family members now, besides making his parents worry about him and bringing about many unpredictable risks, Zhang Tie really couldn't think of any other benefits for his family. Riding the tricycle, Zhang Tie made up his mind to completely bury this secret in his heart. If he had the ability, he would directly let his family enjoy the benefits of the Castle of Black Iron. There was no need for them to worry about him. No matter for himself or his family, the fewer people who knew the secret of the Castle of Black Iron, the better it would be.
Blackhot City was a newly developed industrial city. It didn't have much historical background. One of the advantages of a newly developed city was that, at the beginning of its planning, Blackhot City had fully considered the convenience of urban traffic. Therefore, many roads were very spacious. Especially on some trunk roads, the sidewalks, the non-motorized driveways, and the motorized driveways were clearly divided. Riding on the modified, second-hand tricycle, Zhang Tie quickly traveled on the non-motorized driveways in Blackhot City. Admiringly watching the cars passing by him from time to time, Zhang Tie imagined that one day, he could also get a car and take his family members or a beautiful woman like Miss Daina for a ride in the city.
Before the Catastrophe, the steam engine was a technology that had been eliminated by human beings for hundreds of years. It was said that at that time, human beings had already invented various advanced mechanical equipment and technologies. As a result, the steam engine had been thrown into the garbage heap of history, never to be seen again. Among those advanced technologies, some were like myths to Zhang Tie — for example, various machines that could fly in the air, ships that could run for hundreds of years without adding fuel, means to send people to the stars, devices that could easily communicate with each other from millions of miles away, and devilish weapons that could easily wipe out a city or even a country with a single mushroom, and so on. When the teachers talked about these, they would sigh with emotion. Listening to them, Zhang Tie's eyes were filled with stars. The human society before the Catastrophe was really unimaginable. However, after the Catastrophe, human beings lost everything. They had no choice but to dig out the steam engine from the garbage heap of history. From the simplest condensing steam vacuum pump to the most complicated high-pressure steam turbine, all these obsolete devices that had been dug out from the garbage heap of history started to glow with youthfulness once again. They supported human beings to stand and run in this age that was different from any other age. Just like those cars that were installed with small, exquisite two-stage reciprocating steam engines, they sped through the city.
In Blackhot City, commoners used their feet and the city's public transportation. Some salaried people might buy a bicycle. For example, Zhang Tie's family modified such a weird-looking, second-hand tricycle to deliver goods. However, the real rich people would only use cars, which were worth thousands of gold coins. For them, cars were not only a simple means of transportation, but also a symbol of status and power. In Blackhot City, after so many years, there were still less than 1,000 private cars. Those who could sit in them were either rich or noble. At least in Zhang Tie's school, Zhang Tie didn't find any family members or teachers who could afford such a car. Even for Captain Kerlin, as the most terrifying one-eyed man in Blackhot City, even though his salary was not lower than that of commoners, if he wanted to buy a car, he might have to live for 50 years without eating or drinking.
Since he was a child, all the superficial knowledge about machines and tools that Zhang Tie had learned at school was related to steam engines. As a man who was born with a desire to conquer this world, Zhang Tie had two big dreams for the future at the age of 15: one was Miss Daina, and the other was a beautiful private car. The combination of the two dreams gave birth to the heaven-like life that Zhang Tie had dreamed of. Every day, he would drive his car with Miss Daina and find a beautiful and secluded place to communicate with Miss Daina about the movement of human pistons related to steam engines. He would also test the anti-seismic performance of the car tires and seats.
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