When three short and one long beats of the copper gong pierced the night sky, Blacksmith Zhao and his son were dismantling the bellows of a blast furnace. The iron-smelting furnace, which had rendered great service to the Zhao family, was beaten down hammer by hammer, solely to salvage usable firebricks.
Zhao Jin looked up toward Xia Family Village. The torches on the distant city wall poured down like the Milky Way, tingeing the gray bricks nearby with a bloody glow.
"Master!" Auntie Zhao rushed out of the door, clutching a wooden box filled with the family's land deeds and valuables, her copper bracelets clinking against the door frame. "The Young Master has beaten the assembly gong!"
Chapter 68