Sena brought him lunch.
Su Li hadn't expected much from the food in a poor, remote village like this.
But as he looked at the bowl of stewed beans, soft and falling apart, and the piece of meat from some animal he couldn't identify, the aroma of herbs and fat wafting from it left him unable to find a single fault.
"Did... you make this?" Su Li asked, holding the wooden spoon and glancing up at Sena, who was peeking in through the doorway.
Sena still had that timid look on her face. She rubbed her hands over her apron as if she could start a fire by friction.
"Mm." Sena nodded, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "If... if it's not to your taste, I can go get you some pickles."
Su Li didn't answer. He lowered his head and took a bite.
The beans practically melted in his mouth. The meat was a little tough, but it had soaked up the flavor of the stew. Most importantly, some kind of wild herb had been added to the broth, masking the beans' earthy taste and bringing out a fresh, sweet flavor instead.
Her cooking was incredible.
Who would've thought that a girl with a pockmarked face and a stocky build could be so meticulous in the kitchen?
Su Li wolfed down the whole bowl of beans and meat in no time, then used a piece of dark bread to wipe the bowl clean.
"Delicious." Su Li set the bowl down and let out a satisfied belch. "Really delicious."
The girl's face lit up at once. She couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from rising, but she was too embarrassed to smile. In the end, she blushed bright red, grabbed the empty bowl, and hurried away.
"Um... there'll be more tonight!"
Watching her disappear faster than a rabbit, Su Li leaned against the firewood pile, rubbed his stomach, and contentedly narrowed his eyes.
Maybe life wasn't so hard after all.
He had food and drink, didn't need to think too much or worry about being schemed against, and all he had to do was trade a little labor for the kind of peace even the gods wouldn't give up.
If he could keep laying low like this until he was eighty, maybe he could even work that F-grade rating up to a C.
"Boy! If you're done eating, get your ass up!"
Old Buck's booming voice erupted in the yard, startling Su Li's laziness right out of him.
"Coming, coming." Su Li brushed the dust off his backside and resigned himself to getting up.
Blacksmithing looked like hard labor, but it was a skilled trade, too.
Especially when you had a short-tempered master going through menopause standing beside you.
"Straighten your back! What are you, a shrimp?"
"Put some strength in your wrists! Don't just use brute force! You need finesse! What do you think you're doing, hoeing a field?"
"Work the bellows harder! Didn't you eat? You've nearly put the fire out!"
All afternoon, the smithy rang with the clanging of metal and Old Buck's roars.
Su Li didn't take offense.
Old Buck might have cursed him constantly, but he was genuinely teaching him. From how to judge the quality of iron ore to controlling the heat, and how to put his strength into the work without hurting his back, the foul-mouthed old man taught him every step with painstaking care.
Su Li might have fifty years of experience, but this was his first time blacksmithing.
For the first few days, he felt like neither arm belonged to him. Every night, he'd lie on the dry straw in the stable, gritting his teeth just to turn over.
But he never complained.
Not only did he keep quiet, but even when his hands were trembling from exhaustion, he still got up at the crack of dawn the next day without fail, swept the yard, and filled the water barrel.
Old Buck had initially been looking forward to seeing the pretty boy make a fool of himself, but his attitude gradually changed.
His initial disdain turned into tacit approval. Sometimes, he even passed Su Li a couple of swigs from his treasured jug of rum.
The days went by.
Spring turned to summer, and the cicadas in Wading Village grew maddeningly loud.
A month later.
The once-pale, down-on-his-luck young master, who looked as if a gust of wind might knock him over, was gone.
In his place stood a sturdy, muscular man.
Su Li still couldn't match Old Buck's bear-like frame, but a thin layer of muscle had filled out his once-slim shoulders.
It was real, functional muscle, with smooth, taut lines that shifted beneath his skin as he moved.
His skin, once as white as flour, had turned a healthy wheat-brown from the sun and the heat of the forge.
But that hadn't diminished his looks.
If anything, the touch of roughness gave his previously almost-too-refined face a wild edge.
The "Sword Brows Starry Eyes" trait had undergone a strange transformation in this sweat- and soot-filled environment.
If Su Li had once been a delicate piece of porcelain, he was now a freshly sharpened sword.
Even just standing there to wipe off some sweat, he looked like he'd stepped out of a movie poster.
That afternoon.
The heat was like a blazing inferno.
Even the cicadas were too lazy to chirp, clinging to the tree trunks as if playing dead.
Old Buck had gone to deliver an order in the neighboring town: fifty spearheads made for the town guard. It was a big job, and the old man had set off early in his donkey cart. Before leaving, he'd repeatedly reminded Su Li to remelt the remaining scraps of iron.
Su Li was the only one left in the smithy.
The forge was roaring, its heat hot enough to roast a man alive.
Su Li couldn't stand the heat, so he took off his shirt and stood bare-chested before the anvil.
He swung the eight-pound hammer in his hands.
Clang!
The blow rang out.
Sparks flew everywhere.
Su Li didn't bother with the sparks that scattered across his skin. He'd long since gotten used to that level of pain.
He was completely focused on the glowing-red piece of iron on the anvil.
Sweat ran down his forehead, crossed his high nose, and dripped onto the scorching anvil. With a hiss, it turned into a wisp of white steam.
More sweat ran down his neck, over his two chest muscles as they rose and fell with his breathing, then over his sharply defined abs. It finally gathered at the waistband of his trousers, soaking the coarse fabric.
Every time he swung his arm, the muscles in his back contracted and relaxed with the motion.
What Su Li didn't know was this:
Several furtive figures were crouched behind the hedge outside the smithy.
They were a few of the village girls.
There wasn't much to do in Wading Village besides gossip about the neighbors or hear how many piglets someone's sow had delivered.
Ever since Su Li arrived, the smithy had become the favorite place for the village's young women and married girls to wander by.
They claimed they were there to borrow a needle and thread from Aunt Martha or have a chat with Sena, but their eyes always drifted toward the figure swinging a hammer in the back yard.
Today was something else.
Word that the handsome young blacksmith had taken his shirt off while working had spread through half the village's young women in just half an hour, as if it had grown wings.
"Hiss—"
A plump girl with a red ribbon in her hair sucked in a breath. She was holding a handful of sunflower seeds but had forgotten to crack them.
"My goodness, look at that waist... He's something else."
The tall, thin girl beside her had gone bright red, but still couldn't tear her eyes away. Both hands clutched the fence post.
"Don't shove me! Let me take another look!"
"Look at all that sweat... I want to go wipe it off for him."
"Give it a rest. Have you even looked at yourself in a mirror? You think he'd go for you?"
The girls crowded together, teasing one another as they greedily watched the figure in the yard.
Sena was among them, too.
Her friends had dragged her along.
She'd seen Su Li shirtless plenty of times already, since they lived in the same yard and crossed paths constantly.
But every time she saw him, her heart still raced. She couldn't stop that fluttery feeling in her chest.
Listening to her friends' unreserved praise and longing, Sena felt a strange emotion well up in her for the first time.
Pride.
And a secret sense of possessiveness.
It was as if she'd found a dusty gemstone that only she knew was precious. Now that it had been polished, everyone could see it and marvel at its brilliance.
"Ahem."
Before you continue