My experience of grinding in another world

Chapter 139 Iron Ring
Thirty li northeast of Nanyang Prefecture City, there is a small Tangshan Mountain.

There is a river called Fenxi flowing around the mountain.

The Tangshan Army was stationed south of Tangshan and north of Fenxi.

On the official road, more than a dozen oxcarts carrying heavy goods slowly made their way toward Xiaotangshan.

Chen Mu sat on the right side of an oxcart, with bamboo baskets piled up on the back of the cart, filled with various seasonal vegetables, oil, salt, and seasonings.

The journey was smooth, and even though the oxcarts were slow, the convoy arrived at the Tangshan military camp before noon.

"Dawang, once you're in the camp, don't wander around. Just keep your head down and get to work."

“Although we are a labor camp, we still have quite a few rules.”

“If you break military law, I can’t protect you,” Sun Enqi said sternly.

"Understood, Seventh Uncle." Chen Mu lowered his head slightly, pretending not to dare to look the other person in the eye, and answered woodenly.

Sun Enqi nodded in satisfaction, looking his nephew up and down. Then he couldn't help but shake his head self-deprecatingly: "What a worrywart."

“My nephew is clearly an honest man; how could he possibly cause trouble?”

His expression softened, and he patted Chen Mu on the shoulder: "Come on, I'll take you to register and settle in, otherwise I won't be able to make you the iron bracelet."

"Iron bracelets?" Chen Mu was puzzled.

“Here, this is it.” Sun Enqi raised his left hand.

Chen Mu looked over and saw a one-finger-wide, dark iron ring on the other person's wrist.

"Our identification numbers are engraved on this. We can't receive our pay without it."

Chen Mu suddenly realized.

"It's probably a military identification tag."

"It's convenient to pay wages by name when they're alive, and convenient to erect a monument and bury them when they're dead."

Chen Mu pretended to understand but didn't quite, and nodded honestly.

He's just an honest kid from a remote mountain village now; he doesn't understand, but he doesn't dare to ask.

The two entered the camp and looked around; it was filled with densely packed gray and white tents.

"Seventh Uncle, where is Tangshan Army located?" Chen Mu asked curiously.

Sun Enqi smiled and shook his head: "The Tangshan Army isn't here; they're halfway up the mountain."

Are all these laborers here? So many people?

But... it's good to have many people! It makes it easier to hide.

……

Two days later.

A wide open space beside the Fenxi River, the garrison of the Dingyou Battalion's cooks.

Duoduoduo...

A series of heavy sounds rang out as a knife chopped through the wooden block.

Chen Mu held a thick-backed cleaver and with swift strokes, the root vegetables on the wooden block were quickly chopped into walnut-sized pieces.

With Sun Enqi's help, Chen Mu successfully integrated into the Dingyou Battalion's cook army and became a vegetable cutter.

Glancing at the short, chubby man next to him, who was covered in sweat, Chen Mu quietly adjusted his muscles, also causing sweat to secrete from his face and forehead.

"One cannot stand out from the crowd."

After observing the other person's speed in chopping vegetables, Chen Mu made slight adjustments.

Try to maintain a speed where the opponent cuts two while you cut one and a half.

"Perfect."

He needs to lie low and not attract attention; he must be a competent vegetable chopper.

"It's no problem now."

Once she had a set rhythm for chopping vegetables, Chen Mu focused her attention on her breathing.

The fifth-tier Cloud Mirage Form Refinement Technique has 360 variations in breathing techniques; if even the slightest mistake is made, one must start all over again.

"Luckily, I'm skilled at it."

He has been able to quickly get into a breathing rhythm.

Within my mind, amidst the mist, specks of silver began to flicker, change, and grow.

Chen Mu quickly became engrossed in it.

His hand movements remained unchanged, mechanically rising and falling the knife, rising and falling the knife, rising and falling the knife...

……

The short, stocky man next to me was named Zheng Yuan. As his name suggested, he had a round face, round legs, and a round belly. Even his nimble fingers were as round as radishes.

He was one of only two vegetable cutters in the Dingyou Battalion's cook army.

Zheng Yuan glanced at the dull-looking young man beside her and nodded almost imperceptibly.

The new helper is the head chef's nephew; we can't afford to mess with him.

He had initially worried that the other party would be sloppy and make him work harder. However, after two days of observation, he was surprisingly satisfied.

They're slower than me, but they don't slack off. In three to five days, they'll develop some strength and become a great partner.

After glancing at the other person's speed in chopping vegetables, Zheng Yuan shook her head slightly.

"He's a bit slower than me after all, so I might have to help him later."

"Fine, I'll help him then. After all, he's the chef's nephew." Fifteen minutes later, Zheng Yuan stopped and stretched her arms.

Looking at Chen Mu, who was still chopping vegetables, he couldn't help but shake his head: "With so many vegetables, you can't keep working like this without taking proper breaks."

"Newbie, you'll learn your lesson once you've suffered enough."

Fifteen minutes later, Zheng Yuan stopped moving her wrists again.

A slow, steady trembling sound reached my ears, and I turned my head in surprise.

"My stamina is still pretty good."

After 45 minutes, Zheng Yuan rested.

Duoduoduo...

Five quarters of an hour later, Zheng Yuan rubbed his lower back and rested again.

Duoduoduo...

Half an hour later, Zheng Yuanman was covered in sweat. Listening to the steady dripping sound beside him, even though he felt as if the cleaver had become twenty pounds heavier, he dared not stop cutting.

"Keep up the good work, we can't let a newbie outdo us."

Thinking this, he turned to look at the newcomer.

Then I saw that the other person's bamboo basket was completely empty.

Zheng Yuan: "..."

Chen Mu also came to his senses at this moment, looking at the bamboo basket with a slightly unfocused gaze.

"That's it? Oh."

Noticing the gazes around him, Chen Mu turned his head and saw Zheng Yuan's dumbfounded expression, as well as the two large baskets full of vegetables.

"It's over! Sigh..."

Doesn't this expose us?!
"Cough... I used to work as a chopping board chef for the banquet chefs in the village. You don't know, for such a big banquet, there were only two people chopping the boards." Chen Mu decided to try and salvage the situation.

Zheng Yuan said expressionlessly, "Oh, I used to work at Sihai Restaurant, and I was a head chef there too. You don't know, in such a big restaurant like Sihai, out of three master chefs, only two were head chefs."

Chen Mu: “…”

……

The matter was ultimately resolved perfectly after Chen Mu helped chop a basket of vegetables.

The short and stocky Zheng Yuan looked at Chen Mu with nothing but satisfaction in her eyes.

She even secretly advised Chen Mu not to cut so fast, but to learn to take reasonable breaks... supposedly a closely guarded secret of the Sihai Tower.

Chen Muxin accepted the instruction and followed the example, and then truly integrated into the Dingyou Battalion's cooks.

……

Two days later, at the entrance of Dingyou Camp's garrison.

A group of people gathered together, forty or fifty people lined up in a long queue, inching forward little by little.

Chen Mu lowered his head slightly, appearing honest and timid as he mingled in the middle of the group.

Today is the day they are all wearing iron bracelets.

The local laborers passing by were used to it; they would glance at it a couple of times and then walk away.

"Was it written on the spot?" Chen Mu stared at the tent at the front with surprise.

There was a long table there.

Two people sat behind the table: an old man with a goatee checking the books, and a middle-aged man in a gray outfit responsible for putting on iron bracelets.

Beside the middle-aged man was a bronze box, from which he would occasionally take out an iron ring.

Write two strokes on the inside of the iron ring with a brush, and then put it on someone.

"Special chemical corrosion?" Chen Mu understood.

He had initially thought it was carved out of thin air.

"At this point, the identity of laborer Sun Dawang has been successfully concealed." Chen Mu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

His infiltration was fraught with risks.

"Being able to wear the iron bracelet means that your identity verification has been completed."

This is good; it allows them to both travel north with the army to seize the Thousand Machine Order and avoid being controlled by the Tangshan army.

"Turning people into mummies, tsk tsk..." These natives' methods are truly terrifying.

"It's probably not some special magical artifact," Chen Mu thought, recalling Kui Tuo's description.

"Laborers are still the best."

“Those arrogant big shots wouldn’t care about being a laborer.”

Just then, the middle-aged man finished processing an iron ring, and he pulled up the left hand of the laborer in front of the table and put it on him.

Unwittingly, a tiny black line flashed out from inside the bracelet. If Chen Mu hadn't undergone seven transformations and developed exceptional eyesight, he might not have been able to see it clearly.

And then he just watched helplessly as the black line pierced the laborer's arm with a whoosh.

Chen Mu: “…”

"grass!"

There's one more chapter, probably quite late, so friends, don't wait up, read it tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)