"What do you mean, your secret stash?"
Zuo Changlu immediately looked astonished. "When did Youzi say he was giving it to you? I kept it back then. It was mine to begin with, all right?"
His expression promptly darkened. "Are you trying to pocket my things?"
Wu Tiejiang had the urge to slit his own throat in apology right then and there.
How did it become yours? It's been in my ring for sooo many years, and I couldn't even bear to use it. How did it become yours out of nowhere?
But...
"N-no... I wouldn't dare."
"That's more like it..." Zuo Changlu said. "That Dragon Tendon is dozens of zhang long. After you finish forging the two hammers, you'll still have four or five meters left."
"Brother Zuo."
Wu Tiejiang bowed and cupped his hands, his voice choked with tears. "My nephew said the chains only needed to be ten meters long. That Dragon Tendon is seventy zhang-two hundred and ten meters long... Take away twenty meters, and there should still be a hundred and ninety meters left. How do I end up with only four or five?"
Zuo Changlu snapped, "So you really are trying to skim some off, Wu Tiejiang! My son clearly said a few dozen meters would be enough..."
Then he sighed. "Put a mechanism in the middle so he can swing it out ten meters, twenty meters, or thirty meters... Wouldn't that do?"
Wu Tiejiang's heart ached so badly he could die. "Then exactly how many meters do you want?"
"Fifty meters apiece. A hundred meters altogether, leaving you a hundred and ten. Surely that's acceptable?"
Zuo Changlu said angrily, "I've always known craftsmen like you tend to hold back their customers' good materials. To think that you, Wu Tiejiang, would be that sort