The frost and mist of late autumn had not yet cleared, and several blast furnaces at the Steelworks glowed red day and night. The heat waves spewed by the furnaces warped the air. Salt crusts formed on the exposed skin of the workers, and the sweat dripping onto the scorching stone slabs instantly evaporated into white smoke.
Xia Huai'an held a newly manufactured glass pane up to the light to inspect it closely, a human figure faintly reflected within the ripples on its surface. This was the first batch of flat glass mass-produced in Xia Family Village, though it could not yet be called a mirror.
"Master, Master Wu from the silver workshop has arrived!" Zha Zhonghe led a hunchbacked old man into the workshop, and a crisp, clinking sound came from the rattan box on the old man's back.
Chapter 99