Chapter 25: The Excellent Tool for Living at Home

  Is it fifty or at cost price?

  This time, Man Kui, Ning Mo and others were completely overturned in their hearts.

  Ning Mo and others were all delighted, secretly admiring Qin Hai's ruthlessness and darkness. At the same time, they calculated that if this dagger was sold for 50 yuan, how much profit they could make, and whether they could buy a box of Zhonghua cigarettes to celebrate soon.

  He had an impulse to take advantage of the situation, thinking that this little Qin master's glorious image in his mind had completely collapsed, turning into a ruthless businessman who would stop at nothing. He first let Ge Dongyan try out the dagger, and when he found out how much Ge Dongyan loved it, he quoted an exorbitant price, wanting to take advantage of him mercilessly.

  "Master Qin, this price is too outrageous! You city folks earn a lot of money, your monthly salary is just five bucks, and you dare to ask Dongyan for fifty with just one knife?" Man Mu couldn't help but protest.

  Qin Hai smiled and pointed at Ge Dongyan, saying: "Uncle Ge, ask Ge Pai Zhang, is my fifty not upright or generous?"

  Ge Dongyan stretched out his hand to stop the barbarian who was about to retort, saying: "Xī Shū, you're wronging Little Qin master, this knife selling for 50 yuan is indeed very generous."

  "What? This little good steel, selling for fifty is still being generous?" Man Kun looked at his nephew in disbelief, thinking to himself, could it be that there's something fishy about this dagger, or has Qin Hai cast a spell on my own nephew?

  "Hey, Uncle, you don't know the difference between steel and steel. The steel used on our equipment is worth thousands of yuan per kilogram, according to those engineers. My old dagger that you broke was made from a piece of scrap steel left over from repairing equipment, and I still paid 30 yuan for it. This dagger made by Little Qin uses even better steel than my old one, and with the craftsmanship, selling it for 50 yuan is really a good deal."

  "Is this true?" Meng Mu turned his head and looked at Zhang Lao San, seeking confirmation from him.

  Zhang Lao San shook his head and said, "I really don't understand this, but I've been forging iron for so many years, and I've never seen such good steel. Some of the good steel used in the factory sells for hundreds of yuan per kilogram, I've heard of it before, since Ge Pai Zhang says so, there must be a reason."

  "That's for sure, you don't know that we've taken out all the family property from the factory to refine this steel." Ning Mo listened and understood the hint, and quickly stepped forward to help Qin Hai boast.

  "Is this steel smelted by you yourselves?" Ge Dongyan however grasped the core of Ning Mo's words in an instant, and asked Qin Hai.

  Qin Hai nodded and said: "Ge Pai Chang is a knowledgeable person. Do you think this good steel should have been available to our agricultural machinery factory in the first place?"

  "Is it troublesome to refine this steel?" Gu Dongyan asked again.

  Qin Hai Dao said: "It's hard to say it's difficult, because the raw materials are not easy to find. We also spent a lot of effort to match these ingredients. But, saying it's easy is also easy..."

  "What did you say?" Gu Dongyan asked back.

  "If someone can provide us with chromium, molybdenum, tungsten and titanium raw materials, we will provide the formula and process, and it is also possible to smelt better steel than this."

  "Haha, Little Qin is indeed a clever person. By the way, everyone hasn't eaten yet, right? Zhang, are there any good restaurants nearby? I'd like to invite all of you masters for a meal." Ge Dongyan praised Qin Hai and then extended an invitation to the crowd.

  "Why did he say Qin Hai is a clever person? What did Qin Hai say?" Yu Haitao asked quietly, pulling Miao Lei along.

  Miao Kai shook his head: "I didn't hear it either, Qin Hai seemed to have only said that if someone could provide the raw materials and so on, there was nothing else."

  Ning Mo patted each of them on the back and said, "Guess what guess, listen to Qin Hai's words and you won't go wrong. Let's go, that soldier said he'd treat us all to a meal, let's take advantage of him."

  Under Zhang Lao San's guidance, the crowd arrived at a small restaurant not far from the blacksmith shop. Ge Dongyan said a few words to Man Kui, and Man Kui took Zhang Lao San away to arrange food with the restaurant owner. Ning Mo and others sat down around the table, and Ge Dongyan naturally sat next to Qin Hai.

  "Little Qin, I understand what you mean, but the supplies in our troops are all accounted for and can't be provided to your local area. What I meant earlier was just asking if you could make two more decent daggers, I want to get one each for our company commander and the combat advisor above us. You don't know, these two people are both obsessed with knives, if they see that I have a good dagger and they don't, they will definitely try to take it from me by force." Ge Dongyan spoke to Qin Hai like a henpecked wife.

  Qin Hai Dao said: "Ge Pai Chang, if it's just one or two daggers, we can go back and search for some leftover materials in the factory. It should still be possible to make them. However, I have some good things here, I don't know if Ge Pai Chang is interested."

  "What else is good?" Gedongyan's curiosity was piqued.

  Qin Hai took another package from Ning Mo's hand and placed it in front of Ge Dongyan. When Ge Dongyan opened the package, he couldn't help but take a deep breath, as if his teeth were aching.

  It turned out that what was wrapped in the paper package was a strangely shaped iron trowel. This trowel had a foldable handle, which when folded up was no larger than a book, but when unfolded became a conveniently usable short trowel. Ge Dongyan didn't find this design surprising at all; what made his heart ache was that the steel used to make this trowel was clearly identical to that of the dagger in his hand.

  "With such good steel, you...you...you're actually using it to make a shovel!" Ge Dongyan almost wanted to take the shovel and hit Qin Hai on the head with it a few times. What's called wasting good material, this is what's called wasting good material! The steel used for this shovel could be used to make several daggers, and earlier Qin Hai had pretended to be serious saying that he needed to collect materials from the entire factory just to make one or two daggers."

  "Ge Pai Chang, we are a farm machinery factory, making iron hoes is our main business." Qin Hai said seriously to Ge Dong Yan.

  "But what are you doing with such a sturdy iron shovel? Are you going to use it to cut iron wire?" Ge Dongyan asked.

  Qin Hai nodded and said: "That's right, this iron shovel is indeed used for cutting iron wires."

  "What does it mean?" Gedong Yan was somewhat puzzled.

  Qin Hai stretched out his hand to Ning Mo again, and Ning Mo, like a capable machine cat, quickly handed over a small handful of scrap iron wire. Qin Hai put the iron wire on the ground, then unfolded the iron shovel handle, swung the shovel, and chopped at those scrap iron wires with force.

  The hardness of the iron wire can't be compared with that of nails, and a dagger made of this super strong alloy steel can cut off iron nails. This iron shovel cutting off iron wires is even more effortless. With one swing, a small bunch of iron wires was neatly cut into two pieces, scattering all over the ground.

  "What's the use of this?" Having just witnessed the miracle of the dagger shaving iron nails, Ge Dongyan was no longer surprised by the performance of the iron hoe cutting iron wire. He still had a puzzled expression on his face as he looked at Qin Hai and asked.

  "Don't be impatient, let me introduce you to the function of this shovel." Qin Hai said calmly.

  "Hey, Ge Pai Chang, come take a look. This shovel has a blade on one side that can be used to chop wood or cut vegetables. The other side has saw teeth, which can be used to saw through wood or even steel. The iron shovel's surface is reversible, and this end is a pickaxe head that can be used to excavate rocks. If you flip it forward, it can also be used as a bayonet. There's a clip here that can be used as wire cutters for general-purpose wire mesh... do you get it? There's also a set of clamps here that fit various sizes of hexagonal nuts..." Qin Hai explained to Ge Dong Yan while deftly manipulating the mechanisms on the iron shovel.

  "Ah, indeed it's not bad." Ge Dongyan had a taste of it now. The functions Qin Hai mentioned were really useful for a soldier. The iron shovel could be used to dig trenches, the steel pliers could be used to destroy barbed wire, and the pickaxe, steel saw, kitchen knife, wrench, and bottle opener were absolutely essential tools for a special forces operative's daily life and killing work. In comparison, the military dagger he had been fond of earlier now seemed like a useless piece of junk.

  Daggers are things used for close combat with the enemy on the battlefield. However, in a peaceful environment, opportunities to engage in white blade fighting have hardly ever arisen. The original dagger of Kaito Minami was mostly used for digging, and even during training, it couldn't be used because if you weren't careful, you might accidentally injure your comrades.

  But a multi-functional engineer shovel is different, in the barracks can be used to cut vegetables, open cans, repair equipment, in the wild can chop trees, dig holes, deal with wild animals. A dagger is a short weapon, an engineer shovel is a long weapon, if you encounter a wild boar or something in the mountains and fields, the combat effectiveness of an engineer shovel is absolutely much stronger than a dagger.

  "This is also something you've made?" Ge Dongyan snatched the entrenching shovel from Qin Hai's hand and played with it in the same way as Qin Hai, his eyes no longer having that disdainful look.

  "Of course it was us who made it." Qin Hai smiled and said, "How is it? Does it meet Ge Bao's standards?"

  "This is great, this is tailor-made for us. Little Qin, I'll take this shovel, just name a price, no matter how much money, I won't say another word!" Ge Dongyan exclaimed excitedly.