Qin Ziwen said, "What you mentioned is indeed good, but are there any simpler ways to obtain springs?"
Li Yue suddenly realized, "Brother, you don't have a car, do you?"
"Woof woof." The golden retriever barked twice, wagging its tail.
"......"
Li Yue chuckled and leaned in, "No problem, I have one."
"Impressive." Qin Ziwen wasn't particularly surprised that he had a car. After all, this guy could afford to play with cold weapons and mountain pattern armor, so his family circumstances should be quite good. "I won't take it for free. I can exchange supplies with you when the time comes."
Li Yue grinned and proactively said, "No need. If you give me things, that would be looking down on me. My car isn't of much use anyway. Brother Qin, if you can take away the useful parts, it would actually be recycling waste."
Hearing that they needed to dismantle the car, Deng Guang volunteered. It was then that Qin Ziwen learned that Deng Guang had worked in an auto repair shop for several years when he was young, and still kept basic tools like wrenches and pliers at home.
Truly, there were talented people everywhere.
Everyone went to the garage, where the accumulated water hadn't completely drained yet.
Thick mud piled up on the ground, with messy footprints everywhere.
Li Yue led the two to stop in front of a skyscraper gray BMW.
"BMW M240i xDrive?" Qin Ziwen recognized the car and understood why Li Yue had left it in the garage.
This two-door coupe had a really low chassis and could only drive on smooth roads. Outside the residential complex was rugged, rocky mountainous terrain - it would probably stall within ten meters.
Li Yue said regretfully, "But the engine is a pity. Without specialized tools, we can't remove it."
After opening the car doors, they carefully inspected the interior water accumulation to make sure there were no snakes or insects. Deng Guang turned back and said, "I can remove it, but aside from the springs, other components might get damaged."
Li Yue sighed, "Take it apart. If we don't dismantle it now, everything will rust soon anyway. It's officially a water-damaged car now."
After working for two to three hours, they finally removed the springs from the suspension, engine, clutch, and other systems. During this time, passersby occasionally walked by. Qin Ziwen, holding a flashlight, noticed they weren't the only group dismantling car parts in the garage.
After finishing the work, Deng Guang put the oil-stained parts into a bag.
Li Yue said quietly, "Brother Qin, if you need high-strength metal, I know a source."
"Tell me about it."
"The steel wire ropes in elevators - these things are definitely strong enough! Think about it, just a few ropes can lift an elevator carrying over a dozen people. How strong must they be? The only difficulty is that the steel wire ropes are so strong they're hard to dismantle."
"I estimate we'd need to dismantle the entire assembly into individual pieces, taking them apart strand by strand slowly."
Qin Ziwen asked, "Can't pliers cut through them?"
"Difficult. Oh, by the way, Brother Qin, besides cars, springs are used in many places like under sofas, inside mattresses, bicycles, and household appliances. However, their strength isn't as high, but they should still be usable for making small animal traps."
"No problem, let's use the car springs for now. There are so many cars in the residential complex. We can purchase some later. Oh, there's something you might not know." Qin Ziwen told them about the residential complex's upcoming second transmigration.
Li Yue blurted out, "Will we go back then?"
Deng Guang looked at Qin Ziwen.
Qin Ziwen said, "There will be new people joining during the next transmigration, but it's not clear yet how they'll join. Take advantage of the current time to stock up on more supplies."
Li Yue's eyes dimmed as he understood.
Since new people would be joining next time, it most likely meant they wouldn't return to Earth. Otherwise, there would be no need to add new people.
"Thank you, Brother Qin. I'll stock up on more supplies."
Returning to his residence, Qin Ziwen found his younger brother planting something in the field. Looking closely, he saw two small cudrania wood plants, only about one meter tall with thin roots and branches.
Carrying the springs into the blacksmith shop, Qin Ziwen found Li Tieshan installing animal trap components. Seeing Qin Ziwen enter, he immediately put down his work.
"My lord."
"See if these springs are usable. If the dimensions don't fit, we can find ways to modify them."
Taking a random spring from the bag, Li Tieshan tried pulling it and marveled, "Excellent steel. I'm afraid even using all my strength, I couldn't make springs of this quality."
Qin Ziwen chuckled, "If you could make these, that would be miraculous."
These were the essence of modern industry. Trying to manually create springs with this level of strength and toughness would be incredibly difficult.
Li Tieshan then adjusted the spring dimensions to fit the animal trap. After working for a long time, the powerful animal trap was finally freshly completed.
Looking at the ferocious iron device placed on the ground, it emitted the cold metallic gleam characteristic of ironware under the furnace's glow.
The clamping rings were covered with sharp spikes and serrations, equipped with three springs. The side of the animal trap had a two-and-a-half-meter-long thin chain with a hidden clasp at the end, allowing the trap to be secured to nearby tree trunks.
Measuring the powerful animal trap's diameter, it was more than sufficient for trapping wild boars - it could even clamp a rhinoceros's leg.
"You've worked hard. Get some good rest." Qin Ziwen sighed. Li Tieshan hadn't rested much these past few days, from forging spearheads to making animal traps.
He had completed most of the main processes by himself.
Li Tieshan shook his head, "Reporting to my lord, I'm used to it. I heard my lord plans to go up the mountain tomorrow, so I intend to rush out another spearhead before tomorrow morning."
"Will you have enough time?"
"There's enough time. I have some extra wrought iron ingots left from making this animal trap. I just need to hammer them into shape and quench them a few times."
Thinking that having an extra spear when going up the mountain tomorrow would indeed increase safety, Qin Ziwen didn't try to dissuade him further. He just prepared a large bowl of salt water for him and added half a jin of meat to his dinner.
In the evening, the black-clothed man came as promised to complete the remaining transaction.
Xiao Meixue came with two fish and one shrimp, "The fish trap caught six small fish and three small shrimp today. Probably because of the recent flood, we didn't catch many fish."
Qin Ziwen happily accepted them and said to Xiao Meixue, "Sister-in-law, you can keep the fish trap. You can use it directly tomorrow."
"Okay." Xiao Meixue nodded. Deng Wen, following behind her, waved, "Goodbye, uncle."
After returning home, Xiao Meixue placed the fish trap in the kitchen and said to Deng Guang, who was smoking in the living room, "The fish trap only caught two fish today. Take out the four fish you caught and distribute them all."
Deng Guang took a deep drag and extinguished the last bit of his cigarette, "What's wrong with distributing them? How has Brother Qin usually treated us? Otherwise, with our five families, how would we divide just those two fish and few small shrimp?"
"That's not what I meant. Can you let me finish!" Xiao Meixue glared at him irritably, "Am I that kind of stingy person? Don't I know who's good to us? What I meant was, you distributed the fish you caught today, but what about tomorrow? When you go up the mountain tomorrow, what if we only catch two fish again? Wouldn't it be better to bring those four fish back and give them all to Xiao Qin?"
......