Fifty

Chapter 52: Who is Farting?

"Young Master, what on earth are these things?"
Duan Mingyu said with tears in his eyes, "This is all silver!"
"..."
"Alright, all of you get out. This Top Scholar needs to get to work, and from now on, no one is allowed to approach this room!"
Everyone nodded in unison, wearing expressions of earnest obedience.
As soon as Duan Mingyu closed the door, the entire team swarmed to press their faces against the windows. Instantly, the sound of window paper being poked through echoed continuously.
Duan Mingyu still gazed excitedly at the various powders in the chests—some black, some yellow.
He took out the yellow powder and gently sniffed it.
"Achoo!"
Duan Mingyu sneezed heartily, nodded in satisfaction, and then paced back and forth, getting busy.
"Fifteen percent sulfur, ten percent charcoal powder, seventy-four percent saltpeter, plus a certain amount of oil wax, asphalt, dry lacquer, rosin..."
For the entire day, Duan Mingyu paced back and forth in the room, adjusting dosages and refining components.
The team members peering through the windows gradually thinned out, though some still watched with rapt attention.
From time to time, a "bang" would sound from inside the room, prompting gasps and murmurs from the onlookers.
The sun sank steadily from east to west while the crowd continued to watch, the powerful popping sounds constantly tugging at their heartstrings.

Fan Fu was a blacksmith, but a rather unusual one, for he had over a hundred blacksmiths under his command.
These blacksmiths would forge anything—weapons, crossbows, taking all orders without exception. However, they swore allegiance to only one master—the Xie Sect.
In the past, Fan Fu led his men to forge weapons for the Yangwei Escort Agency. The pay from above was generous, so the blacksmiths lived quite comfortably.
However, the wealthy Master Wan had suddenly died of a grave illness, and the Yangwei Escort Agency had changed hands. Consequently, the blacksmiths, who usually never worried about food and clothing, suddenly found themselves struggling to make ends meet.
When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter; more than half the blacksmiths dispersed immediately, leaving only fifty or sixty men behind. Lacking a source of raw iron, the blacksmiths pooled some silver together, bought a plot of land, and worked and lived together. It truly felt a bit like a utopia.
Then one day, a man claiming to be from the Xie Sect arrived. His identity was beyond doubt: his waist token was shaped like a plum blossom with eighty-one petals, and the lower right corner bore the characters "Xie Xiande."
Xie Xiande's purpose was clear: to invite him out of retirement and have him pledge allegiance once more. Fan Fu was somewhat hesitant. Although they had previously belonged to the Xie faction, years of self-sufficiency had completely severed their ties with the Xie family. Leave this place and get embroiled in strife?
After Xie Xiande promised a very generous reward, the blacksmiths immediately split into two factions. One faction refused to come out of retirement, hoping to spend the rest of their lives peacefully in this place. The other faction reminisced about their former affluent living conditions and compared them to their current hard days, venting their grievances endlessly.
The final decision rested with Fan Fu. In the end, his decision was that those willing to stay could guard the fertile fields, while those unwilling could leave with Xie Xiande.
Xie Xiande eventually left disgruntled with thirty-some blacksmiths, and Fan Fu went with them. Fan Fu had not immediately agreed to pledge allegiance to Duan Mingyu; this trip was merely to observe Duan Mingyu's true capabilities and see if he was worth serving.
Xie Xiande knew clearly that those thirty-odd men were not worth a single finger of Fan Fu. It was not because Fan Fu's blacksmithing skills had reached a divine, unfathomable level, but rather because Fan Fu possessed the manufacturing method for repeating crossbows.
This crossbow could fire multiple bolts at once, so it was no exaggeration to say Fan Fu alone was worth an army of a thousand men. Xie Xiande had already secretly resolved that if he ultimately failed to recruit this man, he would send assassins to eliminate him.

On this day, the group arrived at the camp in the outskirts. Xie Xiande felt something was very wrong. Why did no one come out to interrogate them as they approached the camp? When he first came here, even Xu Zuye had to be verified and cleared by more than ten visible and hidden sentries before being allowed to pass.
Yet this time, the journey was entirely smooth, and the camp was completely deserted. Xie Xiande turned pale with fright. Could the Qin family have completely uprooted this camp?
This ominous thought surfaced in Xie Xiande's mind, refusing to go away.
He hurriedly led the blacksmiths behind him, taking three steps in two. When they reached the outside of Duan Mingyu's room, Xie Xiande finally let out a sigh of relief. "Damn it, you scared the old man to death!"
What were these fellows peeking at? Could the Young Master be playing a threesome?
At this thought, Xie Xiande coughed twice. Not a single person turned to look at him. He coughed fiercely two more times, and still no one paid him any mind.
Thus, Xie Xiande became even more convinced of his theory.
Fan Fu asked, "Master Xie, is there something wrong with your throat?"
"Ahem, the weather changes rather quickly, and this old man couldn't adapt all at once!" Xie Xiande said awkwardly.
Fan Fu nodded half-heartedly, then asked again, "Didn't you say you were going to take us to see Young Master Duan? Which of the ones swarming there is Young Master Duan?"
Xie Xiande blushed. "Not a single one of them. Young Master Duan is inside the room!"
"Oh?" Fan Fu looked thoughtfully at the besieged room, his expression shifting uncertainly as if calculating something.
Xie Xiande said, "Master Fan, please rest assured, my young master will certainly not treat you all discourteously!"
Fan Fu snorted. "Then I wonder what this Young Master Duan is doing inside the room? Since he won't treat us discourteously, why doesn't Master Xie go in and announce our arrival?"
"This, that... can we change the question?"
Fan Fu's long beard bristled. "No!"
Xie Xiande laughed bitterly. "What kind of mess have I gotten myself into..." If he reported uninvited, and it somehow caused Young Master Duan to become impotent or dispirited, that would be a terrible disaster!
Xie Xiande had no choice but to pat the shoulder of one of the team members, preparing to get to the bottom of it.
"Don't touch me! Look, look, it's going to blow again!"
"Bang!"
Xie Xiande was startled by the bizarre sound. "Who is it? Whose fart was so loud?"
Fan Fu stepped forward. "Based on my years of experience, this is the sound of firecrackers being set off!"
Xie Xiande said awkwardly, "Do firecrackers make a sound that loud?"
"Although this is just a guess, at least it's far more grounded than a fart. Back in the day when Fan was in the prime of his youth, I often mixed my own gunpowder, and the commotion it made was much louder than ordinary firecrackers!"
Hearing this, Xie Xiande's eyes lit up. "Could it be..."
Fan Fu chuckled evilly. "Who would have thought that this Young Master Duan is truly an extraordinary person, dabbling in such ingenious craftsmanship as well? Ah, Fan's trip here was well worth it!"
Just at that moment, a deafening explosion rang out right beside everyone's ears.
"Boom!"
Xie Xiande and Fan Fu were standing a bit further back, so they fared somewhat better. But the onlookers were frightened into scrambling in panic, fleeing for their lives in utter disarray!