Start with a blacksmith shop.

Li Zhenhua was sitting in the pickup truck, while Liu Xiaodong was driving.

Guo Shugui was holding a portable filming device he had bought earlier, with the lens pointed directly at Li Zhenhua.

What are the three of them doing? Of course, they're going to buy raw materials. This time, Li Zhenhua wants to use the most basic materials to forge relatively effective knives.

It's the same company that bought the stainless steel before, and it's the same warehouse.

But this time they didn't need much; they only bought thirty catties of pig iron and some additives. This time, Li Zhenhua was truly starting from scratch.

After buying the raw materials, Li Zhenhua went to the market and bought two large crucibles and an electric furnace that could reach a temperature of 1800 degrees Celsius.

With this furnace, his electricity bill will be much higher than before.

The three of them spent the morning browsing the market, buying everything Li Zhenhua saw, thought of, and deemed useful.

I returned to the blacksmith's shop at noon, ate something simple, and just as I finished eating, the person delivering the furnace arrived.

After watching the workers install the furnace and waiting for them to leave, Li Zhenhua couldn't wait to turn on the power switch for the furnace.

The furnace began heating up, and the temperature inside was displayed on the external screen.

Li Zhenhua opened the furnace door, took out a crucible, put some pig iron in it, and then put the pig iron into the furnace to start heating.

In his view, the state and temperature of the pig iron inside the crucible are displayed in real time.

When the temperature reaches 1563 degrees Celsius, the rectangular iron block in the crucible...

It began to slowly melt downwards, gradually turning into a semi-liquid state.

Li Zhenhua quickly grabbed a pair of tongs from the side, used them to hold the crucible, and took it out.

The iron block in the crucible turned into a semi-liquid state, and the bright red molten iron swayed in the crucible with Li Zhenhua's movements.

Li Zhenhua peered into the crucible, and the temperature of the crucible made his face turn bright red as he approached.

Li Zhenhua took a wrought iron rod from the side, inserted it into the crucible, and began to stir the semi-liquid iron in the crucible.

The pig iron was thoroughly stirred, and Li Zhenhua used a blower to blow air into it as he stirred it.

Guided by his eyes, he precisely sprinkled a measured amount of mineral powder into it. Then, under Li Zhenhua's guidance, iron, manganese, and carbon oxidized.

As the temperature gradually decreases in the crucible, the semi-liquid inside becomes increasingly difficult to stir.

Li Zhenhua saw the eyes signaling that he should pour out the half-liquid.

After the contents were poured out, Li Zhenhua waited for a long time before the iron solidified again.

Looking at the text prompt floating next to the solid, Li Zhenhua knew that he had succeeded this time and successfully replicated the steel-frying method.

All of Li Zhenhua's actions were faithfully recorded by Guo Shugui.

Li Zhenhua took the iron block that had just been forged and immediately put it into the blacksmith's furnace to heat it.

After half a day of effort, Li Zhenhua finally obtained the raw materials for the hundred-refined steel.

This is neither pig iron nor wrought iron, but a type of wrought steel with a slightly higher carbon content.

Now that the raw materials are available, Li Zhenhua doesn't plan to wait until tomorrow to start the next process.

He couldn't wait any longer and took the red-hot steel from the furnace and placed it on the air hammer.

Modern blacksmiths are truly fortunate to have such a powerful tool for forging iron.

Without air hammers, the process of folding and forging wrought iron would be extremely painful and lengthy.

The red-hot steel changed shape under the air hammer; in a short time...

What was originally a rectangular piece of steel has now been hammered into a rectangle that is half the thickness of its original shape.

Li Zhenhua then used a cutting machine to cut the rectangle he had forged in half.

Two rectangles of the same length were stacked together and spot-welded in the middle with an electric welder.

The raw material was put into the blacksmith's furnace again, and soon it was heated red-hot once more.

Li Zhenhua continued to forge the raw material, repeating the previous process.

Li Zhenhua worked until seven o'clock before finally stopping.

Guo Shugui, who had been following behind Li Zhenhua and filming, was rubbing his arm, which was tired from maintaining one posture for a long time.

"Fatty, Guoba, that's enough for today. You've been running around with me for a while now."

You've had a long day, go home and rest early.

We'll stick to the same schedule tomorrow, and try to complete half of the workout sessions in one day.

Guo Shugui put down the camera, stretched a bit, and then said:

"I never expected that I could buy things in the morning and start working in the afternoon."

I thought you were just doing preparations today, and that the official start would be tomorrow!

Liu Xiaodong also looked at Li Zhenhua, his eyes conveying the same meaning as Guo Shugui's.

"Haha, now that everything is ready, I'm getting a little impatient, aren't I?"

My thought is, this surgery has been dragging on for so long, I hope it can be done as soon as possible.

We still need to send the knife to the organizing committee of the knife-forging competition by express delivery.

It's already the middle of the month, and it was supposed to be delivered before the end of the month.

After hearing this, the two understood why Li Zhenhua was in such a hurry to start work.

"Alright, now you're in a hurry? You weren't this anxious when you were dealing with that batch of knives!"

Liu Xiaodong complained to Li Zhenhua, his expression revealing a hint of mockery.

However, Guo Shugui's expression showed some disapproval when he heard what Liu Xiaodong said.

"Just say 'Hua Zi,' why are you bringing up a dinner knife?!"

I had been telling them about tomorrow's plans, but now they're arguing again.

Seeing the two bickering to themselves, Li Zhenhua had no energy left to try and stop them.

Today's busy day left him feeling exhausted. He was physically fine, but mentally he was a bit tired.

"Alright, you two can stay here. When you leave, remember to close the shutter door for me."

"I won't stay with you guys any longer, I need to go get some sleep, I'm really exhausted today."

After saying that, Li Zhenhua went upstairs to the second floor, and soon after, he fell asleep.

The two people downstairs saw how tired Li Zhenhua was.

It's really a bit hard to get used to. He's usually such a workaholic, this kind of state is rare for him.

"Hey, Fatty, let's go buy Hua Zi something to eat."

He went to bed at this time; he hadn't even had dinner yet!

Liu Xiaodong looked at Guo Shugui with an expression of mutual agreement and replied to Guo Shugui.

"You're such a clever little devil, how do you manage to think the same way as me?"

Upon hearing this, Guo Shugui immediately objected. He was the son of one of the top real estate developers in the country...

He's about the same size as Principal Wang, yet this fat guy claims he shares the same thoughts?

"Seriously? Otherwise, I'll make sure the construction site stops using your materials tomorrow!"

As he spoke, Guo Shugui put on a look that seemed to say, "Come and beg me!"