Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

Chapter 87

The day after the stitches were completed, Matt moved his laptop to the forge's office area and started editing videos.

He categorized the footage by process and imported it into the editing software—material preparation, forging, bending and forging, shaping, heat treatment, fixture printing, and assembly of the finished product, creating a separate timeline for each step. The 2K footage shot by the camera was of sufficient quality, but Matt still spent a morning doing a rough cut, filtering out all the duplicate shots and poorly lit segments.

Lin Yuan glanced at the screen while tidying up the materials shelf next to him. Matt was adding background music to the forging scene, choosing a fast-paced electronic track that perfectly matched the drumbeats and hammering rhythm.

"The music is good," Lin Yuan said.

"I've been looking for a while." Matt didn't even look up, his fingers sliding across the touchpad. "Most forging videos on YouTube use rock or industrial metal, and I don't want to be like everyone else. This song's rhythm matches your hammering frequency, so I don't need to adjust the tempo too much."

Lin Yuan didn't bother him anymore. He rearranged the scattered sandpaper on the material shelf according to its mesh size, counted the remaining 1085 and 15N20 inventory, made a note in his notebook, and prepared to restock next week. Nelson and Jason's sword blanks were still in the corner of the workbench, covered with asbestos cloth, waiting for Matt to finish editing the video so they could continue working on them.

Matt spent the whole day cutting. When Lin Yuan was about to leave in the evening, he was still adjusting the colors, refining the contrast between the orange of the furnace flames and the cold white of the sword blade.

"You go first," Matt said, staring at the screen. "I'll finish this forging transition before I go back."

Lin Yuan didn't stand on ceremony with him, locked the gate, and called a car to go back to his dormitory.

The next morning, when Lin Yuan arrived at the forge, Matt was still slumped in a folding chair in the office area, his laptop screen lit up, the timeline of his editing software densely filled with footage. His hair was messier than usual, and the dark circles under his eyes were even more pronounced, but his expression was one of satisfaction.

"It's finished editing." Matt turned his laptop around for Lin Yuan to see. "First version, twelve minutes. Take a look at it first, and I'll fix any problems."

Lin Yuan took the computer and watched it from beginning to end. The opening featured a comparison between screenshots of the game's "Divine Skin Stitching Needle" and actual finished products, followed by the forging process—slow motion of the steel billet entering the furnace, hammering and stretching, steam bursting during folding forging, and close-ups of the cloud-like patterns emerging after pickling. The parts about tooling printing and assembly were fast-forwarded, and the background music was cut to a soothing piano piece during the finished product display. The sword blade slowly rotated on the black velvet cloth, and the cool white background and the layers of cloud-like patterns were clearly visible under the light.

"This equipment printing segment could be a little shorter." Lin Yuan pointed to a nearly one-minute 3D printer time-lapse video on the progress bar. "The audience doesn't have that much patience for this process; thirty seconds would be enough."

Matt nodded and made a note in his notebook.

"And in the last few shots of the finished product display, the lighting is too warm, and the blue tone of the sword isn't showing." Lin Yuan dragged the progress bar to the finished product display segment. "Did you add a warm-toned filter when you were color grading?"

"I added it. I felt that cool white was too plain, and I wanted to make it warmer."

"No need. The color is set as is; don't change it."

Matt made another note, then closed his laptop. "Okay, I'll finish revising it tonight. Export it tomorrow, and send it the day after."

"Youtube?"

"YouTube. The channel is set up, named LinyuanForge. After the first video is posted, we'll check the data and adjust the direction of subsequent content." Matt paused here, "You can let Zhang Yue handle things in China. I'll send her the finished product, and she can write the title and caption herself. The posting time will be synchronized with YouTube."

Lin Yuan took out his phone and sent Zhang Yue a message, telling her that the video was expected to go online the day after tomorrow and asking her to prepare the title and promotional text. Zhang Yue replied quickly, with only one line: "Received. I'll write the text tonight and send it to you for confirmation."

After dealing with the video, Lin Yuan began preparing his fishing gear.

Last time he went fishing by the river, he made plans with Peter and Frank to go again next week. Frank was quite direct then: "Come back next week, at a different time, and in a different spot. If you can still catch something after changing the time and location, then it's not just luck."

He wanted to verify whether the skills given by the system were temporary newbie perks or permanent benefits.

I already bought all my fishing gear last time: rod, reel, line, and lure. They're all in that olive-green tackle bag.

He took the reel off in his dorm room, re-oiled it, checked the brake pads on the spool, and replaced it with a 10-pound fluorocarbon line. The previous one he used was 8 pounds, and the line was coming out of the spool too quickly when a big fish was pulling on it. He felt that if he encountered a three-foot bigmouth bass again, the line might break.

On Friday night, Peter sent a message in the group chat, saying that we would meet at the usual spot at 6:30 am on Saturday morning, fish until noon, and then have a barbecue. Frank replied with an OK sign, and Robert said he would bring coffee. Lin Yuan, who was wearing a gray jacket and whose name he still couldn't remember, sent a screenshot of the weather, showing that Saturday morning would be cloudy, with stable air pressure and wind speeds of three to five miles per hour, perfect for fishing.

Lin Yuan replied with "Received" and then went to bed early.

At six o'clock on Saturday morning, before it was fully light, Robert's car was already parked downstairs at the dormitory building.

Lin Yuan got into the car carrying his fishing gear bag and insulated box. The professor was wearing a dark green windbreaker today, and there was a pot of hot coffee and two boxes of disposable paper cups on the passenger seat.

"We have more equipment than last time." Robert glanced at the fishing tackle bag on the back seat.

"I changed to 10-pound line. Last time when that bass was caught, I felt that 8 pounds wasn't enough."

Robert didn't reply, but a faint smile played at the corners of his mouth. He was probably thinking that a novice angler on his second try was already considering the matching of line diameter and fish size.

The car drove north along the country road for about half an hour before turning onto the gravel-paved side road. The mist on the river hadn't yet dissipated, and dewdrops clung to the water plants near the bank, shimmering with tiny silvery light in the morning sun. The bushes on the opposite bank were still the same as before, and a few water birds stood on the shallows. When they saw the car approaching, they flapped their wings and took flight, circling halfway before landing back down.

Peter had arrived. He was setting up his fishing chair on the riverbank and waved to them as the car drove by. Frank arrived a little later and was squatting by the water testing the temperature. Gray Jacket, further away, had already cast his first line.

"The usual spot?" Lin Yuan walked to the willow tree, carrying his fishing gear bag. The crooked willow tree from last time was still there, its shade covering a small portion of the river, with the water flowing around its roots to form a small backflow area.

"You can sit there." Peter took two cans of Coke from the cooler, tossed one to Lin Yuan, and said, "Let's spread out and see where the fish are today."

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