Reborn, I Conquer the World Alone

After a long morning, Jin Feng finally completed the fusion of memories, gaining a deeper understanding of his host and this world.

From the host's memories, he had heard of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the Taihang Mountains. The language, culture, and place names were not much different from his previous life, but for some unknown reasons, the history was entirely different. For instance, the Great Kang Dynasty, which had been ruling this world for over three hundred years, did not exist in the history of his past life.

The host had grown up in Xihewan, and most of his knowledge about the world came from the village schoolteacher, which was limited at best.

To buy grain, Jin Feng had to travel to the town, a round trip of over twenty miles on difficult mountain paths. By the time he returned, it was already mid-afternoon. The diligent Guan Xiaorou had already cleaned the house and washed the bedding, which was now drying in the yard.

Seeing Jin Feng return, she hurried over to take the bag from his shoulder. The bag wasn't heavy, containing less than ten pounds of wheat—the money Guan Xiaorou had given him could only buy this much.

"Why is it so light?" Guan Xiaorou was puzzled. She opened the bag and saw the wheat, her heart sinking. She had expected Jin Feng to buy cheaper grains like millet or sorghum, but he had bought wheat. This small amount of wheat would only last them a few days, even if they ate just once a day. What would they do after that?

Though she felt a bit resentful, she didn't dare question Jin Feng. Silently, she carried the bag to the kitchen. When she came out, she brought a bowl of water, offering it to Jin Feng with both hands.

After walking for half a day, Jin Feng was indeed very thirsty. He took the bowl and drank the water in big gulps. Guan Xiaorou took the empty bowl and handed him a towel.

"Xiaorou, you don't have to do this," Jin Feng said, feeling a bit uncomfortable with such attentive care.

"Before I came, my mother told me many times that if someone was willing to take me, I had to be diligent," Guan Xiaorou said, her head lowered. "It's my good fortune that you agreed to take me in. This is what I should do."

Jin Feng knew that these beliefs were deeply ingrained in Guan Xiaorou's mind and would be hard to change anytime soon. He decided not to push the issue and instead walked into the small blacksmith workshop on the west side of the yard.

The workshop was tiny, less than thirty square meters. Jin Feng opened a wooden box and took out a fist-sized piece of raw iron, examining it carefully.

From the host's memories, Jin Feng knew that after the old blacksmith passed away, the host had tried his hand at forging a few times to make ends meet, but each attempt had ended in failure. Whether it was a kitchen knife, a chopping knife, or a sickle, the blades always chipped.

The metallurgical technology in the Great Kang Dynasty was extremely primitive. Most blacksmiths followed a simple process: they heated the raw iron until it was red-hot and then hammered it into shape. Given how straightforward the process was, and considering the host had grown up in a blacksmith's shop, he should have been able to produce at least serviceable tools, even if they weren't as refined as those made by more experienced blacksmiths. However, the host's repeated failures led Jin Feng to suspect that the last batch of raw iron the old blacksmith had purchased was of poor quality.

Upon inspection, Jin Feng's suspicions were confirmed. The raw iron in the box was full of impurities. Without proper refining, any tools made from it would inevitably fail. To produce usable tools, Jin Feng would need to improve the furnace and bellows to achieve a high enough temperature to melt away the impurities.

Guan Xiaorou, after putting the bowl back in the kitchen, followed Jin Feng into the workshop. After standing silently for a while, she gathered her courage and said, "Husband, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

"What is it?" Jin Feng asked, looking up.

"I was thinking of going back to my parents' house tomorrow to borrow a loom from my sister-in-law..."

"Borrow a loom?" Jin Feng immediately understood Guan Xiaorou's concerns. He tossed the iron block back into the box and said, "It's not proper to go back to your parents' house to borrow things the day after getting married. Don't worry, I won't let you go hungry."

"Husband, that's not what I meant... Please don't be angry..." Guan Xiaorou stammered, looking like a frightened deer.

"I'm not angry," Jin Feng said, patting her shoulder reassuringly. "Trust me, things will get better."

In his previous life, patting someone's shoulder was a simple gesture of comfort, but in Guan Xiaorou's world, it was an intimate act. She blushed deeply, too shy to look at Jin Feng. The embarrassment momentarily eased her anxiety, and she asked softly, "Husband, what are your plans for the future?"

"I plan to go hunting in the mountains."

"Hunting?" Guan Xiaorou was taken aback. She wouldn't have been surprised if Jin Feng had said he wanted to study or continue blacksmithing, but hunting?

"The iron we have at home is of poor quality, and the furnace needs to be upgraded to remove the impurities," Jin Feng explained, pointing to the furnace. "It will take several days to upgrade the furnace, so in the meantime, I'll need to catch some rabbits to sell and buy more grain."

Guan Xiaorou glanced at Jin Feng's slender frame, deeply skeptical of his ability to hunt, but she didn't dare voice her doubts. She simply nodded and remained silent.

Hunting wasn't just an excuse to comfort Guan Xiaorou; it was a plan Jin Feng had come up with on his way back from buying grain. Xihewan was located in northern Sichuan, less than a hundred miles from the famous Jianmen Pass. The area was surrounded by vast mountains teeming with wildlife. Making a crossbow and hunting a few rabbits wouldn't be too difficult.

Once he upgraded the furnace and bellows, making money would be easy. However, Jin Feng didn't explain all this to Guan Xiaorou. Instead, he gently pushed her toward the door, saying, "You don't know how to organize things here, so I'll take care of it. You can go and tend to other chores."

"Okay," Guan Xiaorou nodded obediently, though still worried, and went to tidy up the yard.

Jin Feng, meanwhile, began working on making a crossbow. In his previous life, during his graduate studies, his advisor had been an avid crossbow enthusiast. Over the four years of his graduate program, Jin Feng had spent countless hours at the shooting range with his advisor, becoming quite skilled with a crossbow and familiar with the structures of various types of crossbows and ballistae.

However, once he started working, Jin Feng realized it was much harder than he had anticipated. The tools in the blacksmith shop were too primitive. Even though he chose to make the simplest type of crossbow, by the end of the afternoon, he had only managed to roughly shape the bow.

By evening, Jin Feng had his first meal in this world—a wedding feast. There were no elaborate ceremonies, no congratulations from family and friends, just him and Guan Xiaorou. The meal was simple, even crude: a small pot of wheat porridge and a plate of greens seasoned only with coarse salt.

The wheat porridge didn't taste good; the bran in it was rough and unpleasant to eat, making Jin Feng uncomfortable. But Guan Xiaorou, sitting across from him, ate with great relish. At home, she usually ate wild vegetables and chaff, with the occasional meal of millet being a rare treat. Wheat porridge was almost a luxury for her, something she hadn't tasted since being labeled a "burden."

She savored every bite, holding each mouthful in her mouth for a long time to fully appreciate the sweetness of the wheat. After finishing one bowl, she set down her chopsticks. The bowl was scraped clean—not a single grain of wheat or drop of porridge remained.