Lao Zhang doesn't like steel or electrical appliances. He spends all year with those woods that can't speak, and strokes their lines, like smoothing the fur of a domestic dog.
Of course Ah Chai never got this kind of treatment, he just watched Lao Zhang with his deep black eyes crunching or pinging wood.
Lao Zhang has never found a daughter-in-law in his life, and his only son was brought back from an orphanage. When his son grew up, he went to study engineering physics, but Zhang didn't stop him, which made Ah Chai somewhat admired.
The son also knew what his father was thinking, and the father and son hardly mentioned what patents he had taken or what new things he had designed. The two of them often tinkered with how to use wood to replace the cold shell of home appliances.
Later, when his son said that there was a big project in the country and he could not come back often in the future, Lao Zhang pushed him out of the house without hesitation and told him that if he dared to come back before the project was completed, he would be arrested by the police station.
The son left in disbelief, and Ah Chai's admiration for Lao Zhang was even higher.
Lao Zhang has two apprentices, one is Agu and the other is Kumquat.
Agu, a handsome young man, walked into Lao Zhang's courtyard one summer afternoon and showed him a yellowed book with a very serious expression. Lao Zhang didn't say anything, he vacated an empty room, and Agu stayed there.
Kumquat is a pretty big girl. On a cold winter morning, she walked into Lao Zhang's courtyard and handed Lao Zhang something with a delicate structure—A Chai couldn't tell—and then stayed there too.
From then on, the three of them gathered together from time to time to tinker with the wood, and the two apprentices listened to Master Zhang chanting mantras.
Ah Chai is not very interested in these things. He only knows that the rice made of Kumquat is delicious.
One day, ah Chai saw that ah Gu was chased and beaten by Lao Zhang in the courtyard. The latter chased AGU with a broom at an amazing speed, while the former shouted for mercy and fled everywhere.
Ah Chai thought for a while and then felt into ah Gu's room. A split wood iron composite fell to the ground. It looked like an individual's arm.
It grinned and retreated.
The three people at the dinner table that night were still in the same old way of getting along, and they were very harmonious. It's just that there is an additional ceremony after the meal. Agu and Kumquat kneel in front of the statue of Lu Ban in the main hall, listening to Lao Zhang reciting the scriptures.
Ah Chai dozed off to the side, and heard something like "The nature of trees is soft" "Defend one's own principles to protect relative laws", but he didn't understand.
The next day several guests came to the house, two Chinese and three foreigners. Lao Zhang talked with those people, and in the end he almost scolded the guests.
The guests left angrily, and Ah Chai saw that someone had quietly dropped a flashing gadget in the corner of the yard before leaving.
It opened the grass and looked at it, and a small red metal ball was staring at it.
Lao Zhang took the ball from A Chai's mouth and smashed it with a hammer.
On the third day, a few more guests came to the house.
Day 4…
Day 5…
A Chai was getting bored to death. Every morning, someone came to disturb a dog's sweet dream. Every day was a different person, and then watched them blast Lao Zhang out again and again.
A thing was thrown along a graceful arc and hit A Chai's forehead impartially.
The group of guys in gray robes rolled and crawled out of Lao Zhang's courtyard.
Ah Chai is annoyed, and today it's going to crunch the things that the unscrupulous guys littered.
Sharp canine teeth pierced into the soft mass of flesh, and cloudy blood drenched the pale eyeballs.
……
Lao Zhang kicked out the Sarkic sect lobbyists. I really don't know why these people think that the enemy of the enemy must be a friend, not to mention that he and the Mekhanite are not enemies, but their ideas just don't match…
He threw the broom back into the corner, and when he turned his head, saw Ah Chai swooping towards him like he was crazy.
Ah Chai's eyes were gouged out, bleeding and empty. Lao Zhang hesitated for a moment, then pulled out the wooden knife behind his waist and stabbed A Chai in the forehead with his backhand.
Iron wood is strong, but non-iron is better than iron. A Chai's head exploded in a tremor, and a mass of fleshy whiskers quickly rushed towards Lao Zhang's chest.
A thick metal-like collision sounded "dang", and the beard fell to the ground, like mud.
Lao Zhang took off his coat, and the wooden mirror on his chest was slightly black.
He put the removed wooden mirror over A Chai's body, and then dropped the cigarette butt that was about to go out.
The crackling flames sprang up, stirring up the bloody smoke, and Lao Zhang's back gradually drifted away in the filthy flames.
Like ten years old in an instant.
……
When Anderson came in, Gu Yang was concentrating on carving a piece of plum tree, and the phone beside him was buzzing unaware.
Anderson tapped the counter.
Gu Yang suddenly returned to his senses, glanced at Anderson, then looked at the phone again, and hurriedly picked up the phone: "Xiaoju… I won't be back for dinner at night, I have a job that I haven't finished… Eh, alright…"
Putting down the phone, he glanced at Anderson again, but said nothing.
Anderson smiled: "The church entrusted me to be a lobbyist…"
"I will not agree to anything that Master has not promised." Gu Yang tapped on the table lightly, "Although Master has been gone for a long time, I will not go against his last wish."
"Young people should look forward, the world is always changing with each passing day." Anderson said calmly.
Gu Yang stared at Anderson for a while, then got up and opened a hidden compartment on the wall, and took out a square box that looked old.
The lid slipped off, and an ancient and crude ink fountain lay quietly on the soft yellow cloth.
"Master gave this to me, you should know what this means."
"'The former carpenters did not deal with metal machinery, only because of the carpenter's tradition."
"Although Master is an enlightened person, his son even held a heavy position in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but he himself still has an inexplicable estrangement about machinery. I have never seen him use any modern tools on weekdays. I am different."
Anderson took a look around the well-established shop, where conventional woodworking equipment was readily available.
"You're right, people always have to look forward. If the carpenter just blindly followed what the predecessors left, it has already lost its meaning." Gu Yang rubbed the rough carvings on the ink bucket, his eyes seemed to be There are deep pools.
"The nature of trees is soft, tough and good at guarding. The skills handed down by carpenters are not used to start a war, nor to gather a group of believers, nor to find the secret of immortality. Carpenters have no gods, and the Gongshu—that is, Luban It's just a spiritual symbol."
"The carpenter will not be an enemy of the Church of Mekhanite, nor will it be an enemy of Anderson Robotics. We adhere to the principle that people do not offend me, and I do not offend others."
"The only thing I can promise is that in the war of prophecy, I will stand on your side. What we have more than ordinary craftsmen in our hands is destined to be our responsibility."
Anderson leaned in front of the counter. He reached out and dialed the wooden bell hanging at the door. A crisp and melodious sound like a wooden fish slowly swayed, but it was much thicker than a wooden fish.
"Is this ironwood?"
"The seeds handed down by the ancestors are born, not iron but better than iron, although soft but stronger than steel."
Anderson smiled and put his hands in his pockets.
"Mr. Zhang is a respectable person. I have eaten with him, but the final result was not very pleasant."
"I once thought that the carpenter who lost Mr. Zhang had long since fallen apart, but it doesn't seem to be the case now."
"I'll tell them what you mean. I'm glad we've reached a consensus for the future."
Anderson waved his hand in greeting and walked out the door. At this time, he was relieved from the task. He also wanted to visit this small town in this ancient oriental country before the flight arrived.
"Mr. Anderson." Gu Yang's voice came from behind.
"Even if the incense is exhausted, I will also be the last monk who guards the furnace."