Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie didn’t imagine that his grandpa’s health could deteriorate so fast.

Zhang Tie remembered that it was over 2 years ago when he saw his grandpa last time before he was going to leave Youzhou Province for the Western Theater of Operations at the Xuanyuan command. In his second chakra rotating ceremony, Zhang Haitian had started to cough as he became humpbacked with a crutch in hand. Before he left Youzhou Province for the Western Theater of Operations, he paid a special visit to his grandpa. Zhang Haitian didn’t look bad then. Zhang Tie even left some tips and secret medicines to him. Therefore, he was outrightly shocked by such a piece of news.

It was Zhang Lin who came here to notice Zhang Tie. Zhang Lin was Zhang Su’s father, Zhang Tie’s eldest uncle, the eldest son of the eldest son of Zhang Haitian and the principal of Zhang family’s old mansion.

Of course, he was not new. After Zhang Tie promoted to a knight; especially after Jinwu Shipyard’s merger of Long Wind Shipyard, Zhang family’s core had shifted to Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang.

Jinwu Shipyard was now the largest shipbuilding enterprise in Youzhou Province, which could rank top 5 in Northeast Military Region. This enterprise was being managed by Zhang Tie’s uncles and cousins. Zhang Tie didn’t care about it at all; Zhang Yang just assigned a chief financial officer over there.

Compared to the scale of all-purpose medicaments managed by Jinwu Business Group, although Jinwu Shipyard was large, its annual profit couldn’t even reach 1 percent of that of Jinwu Business Group. Therefore, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang didn’t care about it at all. In the eyes of the two brothers, this shipyard was used to arrange their relatives on the side of their grandpa.

Zhang Haitian had 11 children, 5 female and 6 male. Zhang Ping ranked 8 at home. Therefore, besides two younger uncles and one younger aunt, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang had 4 elder aunts and 3 elder uncles. Plus the spouses of these uncles and aunts, they had over 30 seniors and 20-30 cousins at home. Additionally, due to the young age of Zhang Tie’s cousins, their reproductive abilities were in the peak. Therefore, the Zhang family could have a few more juniors each year. Unless their parents, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang could never tell how many relatives did they have without looking up the pedigree.

Zhang Tie was famous and powerful; of course, these relatives shared his glory. In case of trouble, after the merger of Long Wind Shipyard of Huaiyuan Palace, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang, through negotiation, determined to hand Jinwu Shipyard completely to their relatives on the side of their grandpa. If any relative wanted to share his glory, they could join Jinwu Shipyard directly. Those talents would find their own positions in this enterprise; those commoners could also find a job there. Near home, dear bonus and fair day!

Those able ones would naturally join Jinwu Business Group or hold higher positions in the officialdom; those commoners just needed to stay at their family firm. If Jinwu Shipyard which worth tens of millions of gold coins went bankruptcy in their hand, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang didn’t care about that either as they had already agreed through negotiation that they would take some money to establish a home fund, allowing them to maintain their lives and the decency of Zhang family. By then, Zhang members would feel embarrassed speaking ill of them.

Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang didn’t clarify it. However, their uncles were not idiots. They were clear that if Jinwu Shipyard went bankrupt in their hand, it would be impossible for the juniors on the side of Zhang Haitian to be favored by Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang. Even if they didn’t consider the business of Jinwu Shipyard for themselves, they had to consider it for the sake of their juniors. Therefore, Zhang members were running Jinwu Shipyard conscientiously these years. Zhang Su’s father Zhang Lin was the CEO of the shipyard; all the other uncles were in the board. All the major events of the shipyard were determined by the board. Over these years, although Jinwu Shipyard was not as prosperous as Jinwu Business Group, it was also developing steadfastly and could win about one million gold coins a year.

After a short greeting with Zhang Lin, Zhang Tie left some words to Mountain Lifting Hermit. Closely after that, he flurriedly boarded an airboat and left for Golden Light City together with Zhang Lin and Zhang Su.

Zhang Chengxu and Zhang Chengze were not entitled to go back home as the disciples of Iron-Dragon Sect; especially because of the poor health of their elders except for their parents. The disciples were strict. Even being the founder of Iron-Dragon Sect or his grandpa was in Youzhou Province, Zhang Tie would still not break the rule for them.

“Previously, father lived in Tiger Embracing City. However, as his health grows worse these days, he suddenly requested to go back to the old mansion in Golden Light City. Therefore, all the family members are now in Golden Light City…”

Zhang family originated from Golden Light City in Huaiyuan Palace. Now that the old man urged to go back home, it meant that he was going to leave his will and die there.

On the airboat, Zhang Lin was talking with Zhang Tie. Zhang Su listened beside them with red eyes. As Zhang Tie grew up in Blackhot City, honestly, he didn’t have a deep love for his grandpa. By contrast, Zhang Su was the eldest son of the eldest son of Zhang Haitian and was mostly favored by the old man since young. After hearing that his grandpa was going to die, Zhang Su felt most sad as his eyes were always red.

“I’ve just come back for a couple of days. Previously, I planned to pay a visit to my grandpa after dealing with the affairs in Iron-Dragon Sect. How could my grandpa’s health go worse so fast…”

“When dad knew that you had come back a few days ago, he was very happy as he directly got off the bed and took a walk by crutch in the garden. He even drank two bowls of millet congee with sugar. Previously, he was lying on the bed and ate less. We all thought that he was getting better. Unexpectedly, he was soon in a coma on the second day since you came back to Youzhou Province…”