75: Chapter 75 Forging Steel Billets

As soon as Hu Gualing stepped into the laboratory, he felt the air temperature rise sharply.

Moreover, the rhythmic thumping sound became clearer, and it felt increasingly familiar to him... it was just like walking into Wang Dachui's Forging room in the game.

With this absurd feeling, he followed the sound and looked over.

He saw a workbench a short distance from the iron door.

A man was hunched over the workbench, holding a hammer in both hands, slowly and heavily bringing it down.

Thump!

Hearing this sound, Hu Gualing was dumbfounded.

If this wasn't blacksmithing, what on earth was it?

Although this happened to confirm his guess, but... this was a research institute at a prestigious university, where the hall exhibited high-end items like superconducting Materials and memory metals. Yet, such a large laboratory inside was being used for blacksmithing?

No matter how you looked at it, that was quite outrageous!

However, the facts were right before his eyes; not only were there hammers, anvils, and tongs, but besides him and Wu Yingying, the only other person in the room was this man who was currently Forging.

"So... he is Teacher Zhang?" Hu Gualing asked, looking at Wu Yingying with a strange expression.

"Yes."

Wu Yingying nodded, sighed softly, and whispered: "This is the special hobby of my teacher that I told you about outside. Although Teacher says it's to test Materials, we all know... he just purely likes blacksmithing. Otherwise, he wouldn't leave the Forging press unused and always insist on swinging the hammer himself... Plus, he is extremely focused when he does this and doesn't like to be disturbed, so let's wait for a moment."

"Oh, okay." Hu Gualing replied blankly, thinking to himself, a dignified professor actually likes blacksmithing? This hobby is indeed special enough... He couldn't help but start observing carefully.

In fact, this Zhang Zhongqing was not young; judging by his graying hair that swayed slightly with his movements, he was likely at least fifty years old.

Perhaps it was because of his long-term blacksmithing that his body was not as frail as other researchers who spent their time doing research work. Although his arms holding the hammer were not robust, they had taut and powerful muscle lines, which was why Hu Gualing had overlooked his age at first glance.

On the workbench in front of him lay a metal object, which looked like a rough steel knife blank.

He held the hammer with an orderly rhythm, his movements unhurried. Every strike on the rough steel knife blank was precise and powerful, emitting a thumping sound that, to Hu Gualing's ears, felt like it had a special rhythm.

Teacher Zhang was extremely focused on his blacksmithing. Sweat dripped from his forehead, soaking his white shirt into patches of varying shades of moisture, but it didn't distract him in the slightest. His gaze, through his glasses, shone with determination and patience.

It had to be said that compared to Wang Dachui, Teacher Zhang treated the blank with more seriousness, as if he were creating a work of art, clearly possessing more of a Great Master's demeanor.

Of course, it was just the demeanor...

Hu Gualing's blacksmithing skills could be considered entry-level, so naturally, he had developed a bit of an eye for it. It wasn't hard to see that while Zhang Zhongqing's movements were aesthetically pleasing, his efficiency was much slower than Wang Dachui's frantic hammering.

Moreover, in terms of quality... blacksmithing wasn't like calligraphy or carving; there was no saying that slow work yields fine results. On the contrary, the shorter the time it took to forge the blank into a finished product, and the fewer times the metal needed to be reheated, the better the final product would be...

Hu Gualing couldn't help but compare Zhang Zhongqing with Wang Dachui in his mind.

But in his view, this was nothing; after all, Teacher Zhang's main job was that of a professor, and blacksmithing was just his hobby. Not to mention anything else, just the fact that he could still lift a hammer at his age was enough for Hu Gualing to admire him.

Wu Yingying was worried that Hu Gualing would be bored waiting, and just as she wanted to say something to him, she turned her head and found that Hu Gualing was observing Teacher Zhang's Forging process with great interest, so she couldn't help but ask curiously: "Are you interested in this too?"

"I know a thing or two." Hu Gualing chuckled. After all, he had Level 4 Forging, so it wasn't wrong to say that.

Wu Yingying, however, was somewhat skeptical. How could someone have trained in sports, known design, and even understood blacksmithing since they were young!

Hu Gualing didn't explain, because he noticed that the Forging of that steel knife had reached its most critical moment.

An average person might not be able to tell, but Hu Gualing had clearly noticed that as the hammer in Zhang Zhongqing's hand struck the steel blank, the Forging effect was getting weaker and weaker.

This was because the steel blank had been away from the high heat for too long, and its hardness was slowly recovering. Even if the Forging force remained the same as before, the resulting effect would weaken.

Furthermore, Zhang Zhongqing was not a professional manual laborer, but an elderly professor. His physical strength was clearly insufficient at this moment, and the force with which he swung the hammer had also decreased.

Therefore, his most correct choice now was to put the steel blank back into the furnace to soften, and he himself could take a break while it was reheating, waiting until his strength recovered before continuing to forge.

The only downside to doing this was... this steel blank, which was clearly reaching its limit for reheating, would have reduced hardness and toughness in the finished product after this additional round of heating and Forging...

Zhang Zhongqing seemed to know this as well, so instead of stopping, he actually accelerated the movement of his hammer.

He gritted his teeth, a look of strain appearing on his face. The hands, backs of his hands, and arms holding the hammer all had veins bulging due to excessive exertion.

Thump, thump, thump, the hammer struck repeatedly. Clearly, Zhang Zhongqing wanted to finish it in one go, striving to complete the Forging process before the steel blank completely hardened.

However, Hu Gualing's expression was somewhat tense. Because he could hear that although the intervals between these few strikes were shorter than before, they appeared hurried, clearly indicating that the rhythm was lost. Given Teacher Zhang's current physical state, he was afraid that...

Just as Hu Gualing thought this, an accident suddenly occurred. As the hammer came down, it slipped from Zhang Zhongqing's hand, hit the concrete floor, and sparked a trail of fire.

Zhang Zhongqing was pulled by the momentum and stumbled, his forehead heading towards the workbench.

"Teacher!"

Amidst Wu Yingying's terrified and nervous gaze, Hu Gualing didn't care about anything else and instinctively used [Lazy Donkey Roll] followed by [Lazy Donkey Roll], rolling five times across the cluttered lab, and quickly arrived at Zhang Zhongqing's side to support him.

After Zhang Zhongqing narrowly escaped the danger, he hadn't even snapped out of his focused state, and the first sentence he spoke was actually: "Quick, give me the hammer!"

Hu Gualing was speechless for a moment; what time was it, and he was still thinking about beating that piece of scrap metal?

If the other party wasn't a respectable intellectual, he would probably have started cursing by now.

However, considering he was Wu Yingying's teacher, and plus Hu Gualing greatly admired his focus, after helping him stand steady, he didn't say much. He bent down, picked up the hammer, and weighed it in his hand.

'Hmm, the feel is not bad, it's just a bit light.' Thinking this, Hu Gualing gripped the hammer tightly and began to forge the unfinished steel blank on the workbench.