Castle of Black Iron

Chapter 168: Ugly stone

Views:

The exterior wall of the entire apartment building is a combination of dark red wall tiles and gray stone, which looks very refreshing and clean. There are also light yellow window sills on the windowsills of each floor on the street side of the apartment building. There are pots of flowers and plants planted in the guardrail next to the window sill. The main entrance of the apartment building faces Avenue Monet. There are more than ten steps down from the main entrance to the sidewalk. On both sides of the steps, which is the street-facing part of the first floor of the apartment building, there are two flower beds with several plants planted in them. A walnut, red maple and a bunch of rose flowers.

The black wrought iron door outside the apartment looks very strong and elegant, and the brass door handle on the door is spotless. In short, everything about this apartment building is in line with the requirements of a well-educated and well-paid wealthy person in Heiyan City. The image of the residence is clean, fresh and decent, and the surrounding environment is neither dirty, messy nor resplendent. In Zhang Tie’s impression, the traders who ran orders on the commodity exchange in Black Flame City, the doctors who circumcised themselves, the teachers like Jerome or Captain Colin in the school, or the black The decent businessman doing small business in Yancheng and the notary he met today probably live in such an apartment building.

There are many apartment buildings like this in Black Flame City, big and small, and they are the favorites of renters. That bastard Siesta once dreamed that one day he could make money to buy such a building, and then he could live in it in the future. The kind of life where he collects rent every month, and then uses the rent to randomly find women in Black Flame City every day.

Seeing Zhang Tie's dumbfounded look, Tang De said again, "Why, just a small apartment building scared you out of your wits?"

Zhang Tie looked at Tang De in disbelief, "You are not joking, you are still stimulated by something. As soon as I saw you today, I felt something was wrong with you. Let me see if you have a fever..."

As he spoke, Zhang Tie stretched out his hand to touch Tang De's forehead, but Tang De opened his hand with a "pop". Tang De looked at him fiercely, "Asshole, I'm just telling you You are a country bumpkin who has never seen the world. I bought this apartment building a few years ago for only a few thousand gold coins. Now it is even cheaper. Some people are gone after just one meal. This little money is nothing. Do you really think it is a big deal? ?"

Tang De said as he walked up the steps of the apartment building, took out the key and inserted it into the door lock. After turning it twice, he opened the door, "Come in quickly. I still have something to do." Explain to you!"

Zhang Tie scratched his head and followed Tang De in. Behind the door. It was a thick and soft doormat. The apartment building was paved with brown wooden floors. The floors were shiny and spotless. Zhang Tie looked up when he walked into the apartment building and saw that the highest top of the apartment building seemed to be a layer of beautiful and elegant triangular glass. top. There is plenty of light coming from above, and there is a spiral staircase in the building that leads directly to the highest floor. Starting from the second floor, there seem to be two households on each floor. The doors of the two houses faced each other on the stairway.

Tang De did not go upstairs, but walked past several pots of tall green plants on the left side of the stairs, then took out the key and opened a door, entering a residence.

As soon as Zhang Tie came in, Tang De locked the door with his backhand.

This is a house on the first floor of an apartment building. The room is fully equipped with furniture, sofas and various furnishings. All the furniture has a fresh woody fragrance, which smells very good. Before Zhang Tie could take a look, Tang De took him through an aisle in the room and came to a quiet study. He didn't know what Tang De had done. He gently pulled a bookcase in the study and slid away from the side. , a door was revealed behind the bookcase. When he opened the door again, Zhang Tie saw stone steps going down, which actually led to the basement of the room on the first floor.

Next to the stone staircase and on the walls around the basement, expensive 10,000-year-old fluorite lamps were hung. The light of the fluorite lamps rendered the entire basement a light green.

"Remember to close the basement door after you come in. When the door inside is closed, the bookcases outside will automatically slide back into place, and all the safes will be closed. Even if you have to use violence to break it open, it will take a long time..." Let's go. Tang De, who was in front, turned to Zhang Tie and said.

"Click!" After closing the door, Zhang Tie discovered that the basement door actually made a heavy and dull sound like a safe. The thick door was actually made of steel, but it was painted with a layer of wood paint. .

The basement is very large, more than 100 square meters. It is arranged like a temporary shelter. There are tables, chairs, several large and small lockers and other things. Zhang Tie did not expect it the most. The strange thing is that there are no less than four wardrobes of various sizes here, as well as a huge mirror. Why is Tang De preparing so many clothes here? Is he wearing them for himself to see

Tang De walked towards a chair and motioned for Zhang Tie to sit on another chair.

At this moment, Zhang Tie's heart was completely filled with curiosity. Everything the originally greedy grocery store owner did today was full of mystery.

"I know you must have many questions in your mind, can you ask them now?" Tang De said, looking at Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie scratched his head depressedly, "What are you doing today? Why do you think you are a little weird?"

"Because I am leaving Black Flame City soon, so things here must be settled!"

"You want to leave?" Zhang Tie looked at Tang De in shock, "Why?"

"Because of you!" Tang De looked at Zhang Tie with a smile on his face, "Originally I didn't know when I would be able to leave Black Flame City, but because of you, I will be able to leave soon, you know? , I haven’t been back home for more than 30 years. Originally, I thought I might have a chance to go home when I am in my final years, but because of you, I can go home decades earlier, so thank you. you!"

"Because of me?" Zhang Tie was even more surprised.

"Can you stop staring with your eyes wide and pointing your finger at your nose? You're really a bitch like this!" Tang De smiled and said, "Do you still remember the book "Abrasive Arithmetic" you gave me? Do you know how much he is really worth?"

"This, that book can improve and exercise mental strength, it should be very precious!"

"It's not as simple as being precious!" Tang De shook his head, "Do you still remember the story about the ugly stone I told you before? That ugly stone is the one in the book "Abacus."

Zhang Tie still remembers the story of the ugly stone. It was one of the many stories Tang De once told Zhang Tie. There was an ugly stone that was discovered by a stonemason in a mountain village. Because the stone was very hard, the stonemason I used that stone to make an anvil and found it very useful. I continued to use it for decades. Once, a more skilled blacksmith came to the mountain village and also discovered the stone. He thought that the stone might be some kind of iron ore. , so he cut a small piece, took it back, beat it into horseshoes, and sold it for dozens of copper plates. The blacksmith was very happy.

After the blacksmith left, another more skilled swordsmith discovered the stone. The swordsmith thought that the stone might be meteorite, so the swordsmith cut another piece from the stone and tried to use it after he returned. The material on the stone was used to create a sharp sword. The sword was sold for hundreds of gold coins. Later, a senior watchmaker discovered the piece of meteorite and cut a piece back. The master watchmaker used the meteorite iron to make a sharp sword. Several meteorite iron series pocket watches were made from the metal, and those pocket watches were eventually sold for thousands of gold coins.

After the master watchmaker, another master sculptor discovered the stone, so the master sculptor moved the stone away. After some carving, the stone was already worth tens of thousands of gold coins. Finally, the stone was discovered The most valuable thing is an emperor. The emperor re-smelted the stone and used the metal smelted from the stone to make the imperial seal, worth hundreds of millions...

The moral of this story is that different things have different values in the hands of different people.

Zhang Tie understood, but at the same time he was confused.

"Just like the human body exercises muscles, mental exercise is mainly carried out through visualization. The things that need to be visualized for mental power are all secrets in the esoteric. And all visualization is hard, rigorous and requires extremely high level of effort. A profound conscious activity of mental stability and continuity, which has very high requirements on people's will and character. Before this, I have never seen anyone who can carry out mental exercises before the age of twelve. , I have never heard of a cultivation method that can help children and teenagers improve their spiritual power. "Abacus Mental Arithmetic" seems simple, but it can increase the age of a person's spiritual power cultivation from twelve to six years old. , even started at the age of five, and its threshold requirements are very low. As long as they can do abacus, almost everyone can apply it. Although the effect of "Abacus Arithmetic" is a little weaker, through the visualization and "Abacus Arithmetic" The accumulation and improvement of mental power can even lay a solid foundation for more advanced mental power training in the future. This is the true value of "The Magical Calculation of the Pearl". This is a book that can be accessed and learned by people as young as children. It’s a method for improving mental power, and it’s also an enlightenment textbook for spiritual power cultivation. Do you know its value now?”

"This... it seems a bit useless to allow a few people to cultivate spiritual power from an early age!" Zhang Tie smirked.

"Is it of any use?" Tang De's eyes widened, his voice rose an octave, and he became angry all of a sudden, as if he had been insulted. He no longer cared about his image, jumped up from the chair, and violently shuddered. and hit Zhang Tie on the head.

"Asshole, are you a pig-headed person? Of course an idiot like you will be useless if you learn it, but have you ever thought about it, if there are ten million, one hundred million, one billion, or even dozens of Chinese people, Hundreds of billions of people can learn this method. How effective will it be? How many people who can no longer improve their spiritual power can more easily exercise and improve their spiritual power, and can advance and break through cultivation more easily. Bottleneck, it can allow many Chinese teenagers to lay a good foundation for spiritual cultivation from an early age, how much this foundation will help them in the future, because of this, how many more geniuses and strong men will the Chinese have in the future, you idiot!" Tang De knocked Zhang Tie again and then sat down with a heavy breath and angrily.