Castle of Black Iron

The two-story log cabin, number 3B210, for the north covering 210 square meters cost 71 gold coins and 40 silver coins...

The two single-story log cabins, number 3A80, for the west covering 80 square meters each cost 36 gold coins and 80 silver coins...

The two-story log cabin for his lab, number 3B90, for the east cost 30 gold coins and 60 silver coins...

Besides them, Zhang Tie ordered many other items from Longe, which indicated that he was certainly planning to reclaim wasteland and settle down in the wild.

Zhang Tie ordered whole sets of simple modular furniture, various living utilities, and all sorts of bottles and jars. Many items in that list made Longe confused as to what Zhang Tie planned to use them for. However, now that the youth had officialy made an order, Longe would be happy to note everything else down. Big customers like Zhang Tie were rarely seen, but when pioneers were in need, his business group would satisfy them.

In addition, Zhang Tie ordered four wild seeds planting bags, two sets of toolkits, one LV 2 metal processing platform, two tons of rice, two tons of flour, one ton of dried meat and milk slices, and one ton of various foods, such as preserved fruits and cans that could stay edible for a long time

All the items that Zhang Tie ordered finally became codes like those of the log cabins on a form in Longe’s hand. After saving over 10 silver coins, Zhang Tie needed to pay 237 gold coins to purchase those items.

”Do you have any special requirements?”

Seeing Zhang Tie paying for the items without any hesitation, Mr. Longe showed a more enthusiastic smile.

”One single package of these items should not be heavier than 500 kgs!” Zhang Tie requested. ”The heaviest materials should be able to be moved by 2-3 people! We don’t have enough people to build the log cabins.”

”No problem, don’t worry about this. For the convenience of wild transportation, the maximal weight of a single package is 418 kg. As long as you have enough time, any house can be assembled by a single person. Do you have any more questions?”

”How long will it take for you to prepare all of these items and send them to my warehouse?”

”We will deliver the first batch in an hour!”

”Fine, I’ll wait for you in the warehouse!”

...

With a smile on his face, Mr. Longe took away the order and Zhang Tie’s gold coins. In this age, all the gold coins circulating among humans were unified. Each gold coin weighed 25 grams and was made of pure gold. Therefore, the weight of 40 gold coins was 1 kg. The total amount of gold coins that Zhang Tie had paid weighed almost 6 kgs. No wonder Mr. Longe kept smiling. This was really a great business.

This was also the largest trade that Zhang Tie had experienced ever since he was born. Thinking that he had spent over 200 gold coins with a golden roc on them which were delivered by the Golden Roc Bank, Zhang Tie was so thrilled that even started sweating.

Mr. Longe walked out and the bank clerk, who had received Zhang Tie just now, came with a handbag. ”Besides the 237 gold coins that you’ve requested to pay, there’re 4763 gold coins. You can count it here!”

It was not difficult to count the rest of the money as these gold coins were well sealed and packaged in columns, 40 gold coins for one column. Zhang Tie counted and found that there were 119 columns and 3 gold coins inside which weighted about 120 kg in hand. This much wasn’t heavy to him at all.

”This handbag is our gift. Also, as you have withdrawn a great amount of cash from our bank, if you need, we can have a car escort you to where you want in the Blackhot City!”

Zhang Tie looked at that average handbag in his hand. Although 120 kgs’ gold coins looked very heavy, they actually only occupied a small part of the bag which could not be easily identified. He shook his head.

”No need, thanks...”

The Golden Roc Bank arranged for all the customers who came here to deal with businesses and withdraw cash with great consideration, especially paying attention to details. For instance, that handbag gifted by the bank to Zhang Tie was an average handbag without any label on it, which could easily hold 120 kgs inside. When one lifted it in hand, nobody would know it contained 4763 gold coins inside.

When Zhang Tie about to leave, that young bank clerk arranged for him to leave through another door in the service room. This way, the people who saw Zhang Tie enter the service room with nothing in hand would not able to see him leave with a handbag. It indirectly guaranteed his safety.

Leaving the Golden Roc Bank, Zhang Tie carried over 120 kgs’ handbag on his shoulder; he left Avenue Bright on agile steps. After reaching a bus stop and getting on a trolleybus, he arrived at another boisterous place in Blackhot City 20 minutes later.

Usually, those figures who were born in the upper class in Avenue Bright rarely came here because any set of clothes or leather boots in the stores there were luxuries that would cost people selling here their one years’ salary, without eating or drinking.

This place was animal trading market outside the south gate of Blackhot City. It was spontaneously organized by citizens to trade various livestock some dozens of years ago.

Compared to the flea market beside the railway station, this animal market was a boisterous scene on another level.

This place for trading various animals was located in a banyan forest beside the south city wall of Blackhot City. On the empty land many cages and boxes were placed, containing all sorts of animals. Simple booths stood connected to each other. Animal sounds, especially dogs’ barking could be heard everywhere in this street. In opposition to Avenue Bright which was filled with the fragrance of Chinese rose and lilac, this place was filled with the smell of animals’ urine and sh*t.

Big figures would never come to this dirty place, however, Zhang Tie really enjoyed wandering around here.

As human pets, cats and dogs were the most common animals here. As to others, there were various birds, some weird animals that had been caught outside the Blackhot City such as raccoons, monkeys, wolf cubs. Some other animals were brought here to purely satisfy a small amount of people’s curiosity and hobby to care for weird pets such as snakes, lizards, spiders, rats, beetles, and various mutated living beings.

There were also many kinds of horses and cattle here, occupying a relatively large trading area.

The greater part of farmers and pioneers outside Blackhot City were living on this animals trading market.

The golden wolves caught in the Prairie Crescent would also be sold here. On some notice boards in this market, there were rewards for bringing in special animals. No matter what beast you wanted, or what goods you had, it would only cost one silver coin to release a notice here. If anyone met your requirement, they would come here for you.

Several local snakes [1] were maintaining market order here and managing several information notice boards to survive themselves.

As no zoo was set in Blackhot City, this place was the closest thing. Before Zhang Tie had went to work in Donder’s grocery store, he had usually wandered around here. His dream as a child was to have a dog. However, his dad complained that a dog would dirty their home and influence the rice brewing business, therefore, that dream had not been fulfilled.

Even if Zhang Tie was carrying over 100 kgs’ of gold, he realized that this dream of his childhood could still not be realized even now. It was easy to buy a dog, but he might not have enough time to look after it. No matter where he left the animal to stay alone, the apartment or somewhere else, it would still be irresponsible of him, and unfair to the dog.

After circling around the market, Zhang Tie came to a place in the banyan forest. This place was the favorite place of many pioneers and farmers who settled down in the wild because the things sold here would always bring people pleasure and sweetness. With only a disposable investment of a few coins, you would get endless sweetness in the future without having to take care of it.

They sold bees here.

Because many plants in the Castle of Black Iron had bloomed or would bloom, they needed insects’ pollination to bear fruits.

Zhang Tie wanted to try whether he could bring many animals in the Castle of Black Iron at once. Besides that, he also had a small ambition to succeed in mutating and evolving an animal...

After some considerations, Zhang Tie found that the three requirements could all be satisfied if he brought a hive of bees in the Castle of Black Iron.

The bees sold here were greatly different from those raised by professionals. They would always use relatively sophisticated movable-frame beehives while the beehives here were cylinder ones, suitable for lazy people. These cylinder beehives were made completely of sawed-off pine trees whose diameter were about 0.5 m or so.

After sawing the trunks to right sizes and cleaning off the insides, they did some simple processing and treatment by fixing a couple solid wooden bars in the hollow part of the trunk, thus turning them into the simplest cylinder lattice beehives.

From their looks, they were absolutely like tree stools or wine barrels which could be casually put in the wild or hung under the eaves. In blooming seasons, people could collect honey for several months or half a year. Although the honey collection was much more irregular and lower in frequency, it was very convenient.

As for those farmers or pioneers who lived in Blackhot City, as long as they hung one beehive like this under their eave and raised a hive of bees, their whole family would not worry about having no sweet food. With two more beehives, they could even make some money from it.

Each beehive contained a hive of bees, a honeycomb which was as large as a bowl mouth, and a queen bee. Only after a couple of looks, Zhang Tie bought a beehive which was even bigger than a wine barrel. Together with bees, it cost him 16 silver coins in total. After paying 17 silver coins, Zhang Tie asked the seller to send this beehive along with the bees into that warehouse which he had rented out.

The seller only needed to rent a three-wheeler to carry this beehive through the Blackhot City, which would cost him less than 30 copper coins. So seeing Zhang Tie give him a whole extra silver coin, he was very happy. Therefore, he even gifted Zhang Tie a set of tools used for cutting honey and a screened hat that could prevent people’s faces from being stung by bees.

After finishing his arrangements, the moment Zhang Tie wanted to leave here and return downtown, he saw a familiar person - Samira.

[1] Local snakes: influental gangsters in the area