flstandardbreds Chapter 193 The Rise of Pottery Industry Ushers in a New Era
Chapter 193 The Rise of Pottery Industry Ushers in a New Era
Chapter 193 The Rise of the Pottery Industry Ushers in a New Era
The ceramics industry is beginning a new journey
The bronze bells on the eaves trembled with starlight-like ripples amidst the sound of the ocarina. Su Yunlan clutched the fragment of celadon inlaid with a black bird pattern, and water droplets condensed in the ice mirror seeped into her palm through her fingers.
She gazed at the lights gradually dying out in the south of the city, then suddenly poured the calming tea onto the ice chest. In the rising white steam, the phantom of a shattered Jun kiln brush washer floated.
"Let's go to the west of the city tomorrow." She pressed the celadon shard into Xiao Yuhan's palm. Under the moonlight, the incomplete black bird pattern was perfectly integrated with the dark pattern on his brocade robe. "This pattern appeared on tribute porcelain from the previous dynasty, but now it's broken into the slag of Zhao's pottery workshop."
Xiao Yuhan ran his fingertip across the broken edge of the porcelain shard, and the black iron thumb ring struck the celadon, producing a clear and melodious sound: "Two years ago, the Ministry of Justice shut down private kilns, and half of the young and middle-aged men in the potter's village migrated to Lingnan."
As the clapper of dawn shattered the waning moon, the oxcart, its wheels crunching on the morning dew, came to rest beneath the mottled archway of the potter's village.
Su Yunlan lifted the bamboo curtain and saw three dilapidated dragon kilns set up in the yard where the rice was being dried. Faded blessing talismans hung from the cobwebs at the kiln openings, and the words "Fire Virtue Star Lord" on the talismans were stained with cinnabar tears by the rain.
“Back then, the eighteen kilns burned day and night, but now…” Village Chief Zhang, his back hunched, led them through the overgrown kiln site, his withered fingers tracing the crystalline salt seeping from the cracks in the kiln bricks. “Since the official kiln switched to firing enamelware, the clay formulas have all been locked up in the Ministry of Works. Last winter, the snow collapsed the last kiln, and Master Li and his team…” He kicked away the potter's wheel half-buried in the soil at his feet, startling a nest of gray squirrels as it turned.
Su Yunlan squatted down and picked up a clump of glaze. Suddenly, the X-ray fluorescence data from her previous life's laboratory appeared before her eyes: "Ochre with an iron content of 23.7% can be perfectly fired into Yohen Tenmoku when paired with Qingtan gray glaze." She suddenly pressed the celadon fragment onto the kiln brick, and in the morning light, the black bird pattern overlapped with the rust seeping from the brick seams to form a complete totem.
Xiao Yuhan took off his black cloak and spread it on the dusty ceramic stool. The black jade pendant hanging from his sword tassel swayed past the broken glazed square tablet: "I ask the village chief to summon the potters who are still in the village. I am willing to use my military merits as collateral to ask the Ministry of Works to return the clay formula."
"Absolutely not!" Village Chief Zhang's hand, gripping his pipe, bulged with veins. "Last month, potter Wang stole Guanyin clay and was beaten so badly by the patrol officers that he couldn't get out of bed for half a month..." His cloudy eyes suddenly fixed on the sachet swaying at Su Yunlan's waist. The fragrance powder leaking from the sachet was seeping into the clay with the wind, actually condensing into star-shaped spots of light on the ground.
As the sun began to set, Su Yunlan stood in front of Li Taogong's newly cultivated vegetable patch.
A man in his early thirties was turning over the soil with a hoe, his trouser legs covered in mud, but the rhythm of his turning over the soil clearly resembled the kneading technique used in pottery making.
She noticed a string of dried ocarinas hanging on the fence, with unwashed clay stuck in the holes.
"Master Li, do you know that the black bird pattern needs to be carved with a bone knife when the unglazed clay is almost dry?" She suddenly threw a piece of celadon at the ocarina, the sound of the impact startling all the gourds on the shelf. "Just like now—" The gold powder thrown out by the sachet vibrated with the sound waves and actually condensed into a spinning potter's wheel in mid-air. "When the clay is about to solidify, the most important thing is not to hesitate, just like the time when pottery is about to flourish."
Li, the potter, slammed his hoe on the cobblestones, sparks flying. "You make it sound so easy, madam! Two years ago, the Ministry of Works forcibly requisitioned the dragon kiln to fire glazed tiles. How many of the three hundred potters are left now?" He tore open his shirt to reveal a scar on his ribs. "This is the branding mark given by the official kiln supervisor, just because I secretly kept a sample of the celadon glaze after rain!"
Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath suddenly pressed down on the restless hoe, the cold gleam of the black iron reflecting the determination in his eyes: "When I was guarding the border, the vanguard battalion would share the last piece of wheat cake whenever they faced dire straits." He untied his jade belt buckle and slapped it on the millstone, and ten gold beads rolled out from the inner compartment. "These are the Black Bird Gold bestowed by His Majesty, as a deposit." The gold beads rolled through the gaps in the millstone and happened to stop on the fragrant mist and star map reflected in Su Yunlan's skirt.
As dusk settled over the ruined kiln, Li the potter, his trembling hands finally lifted the golden pearl.
Su Yunlan stared at Xiao Yuhan's empty jade belt buckle and suddenly noticed that the surface of the gold bead had the same black bird pattern as the celadon shards.
The evening breeze carried the sound of a broken pottery ocarina, and the broken pottery bell hanging on the old locust tree at the village entrance suddenly rang, startling the crows roosting in the tree and causing them to flutter their wings past the remaining shadow of the dragon kiln.
As dusk settled, the last rays of rust-red sunlight seeped into the cracks between the kiln bricks. Unconsciously, Su Yunlan's fingertips caressed the lingering warmth on Xiao Yuhan's jade belt buckle.
The ten black bird-shaped golden beads reflected firefly-like spots of light in Li the potter's palm, reflecting the gaunt woman peeking out from outside the fence—Li the potter's wife, Wang, clutching an apron patched upon patched, her knuckles white as if the porcelain had been unglazed for years.
"My lady!" Wang suddenly knelt down by the vegetable patch, startling the sparrows that were pecking at the food and knocking the ocarina hanging on the clothesline askew. "Last time, the officials broke three vines before letting you go home, and Little Tiger wet his pants as soon as he heard the gong..." The five-year-old child in her arms still had mud on his trouser legs, and the hideous burn scar on his neck rose and fell with his sobs, like a cracked, defective product.
Xiao Yuhan's sword tassel suddenly moved without wind, and the black jade pendant clinked against the half tiger tally at his waist.
Su Yunlan smelled the bloody scent floating in the air—the murderous aura that permeated his armor when he guarded the border, but now it transformed into a warm touch in his palm.
His right hand, calloused from the sword, gently tucked her dew-dampened hair behind her ear: "Back then, the vanguard camp went without food for seven days, surviving by eating the frost that had formed on the arrowheads."
Su Yunlan looked at the old wounds faintly visible beneath his dark clothes and suddenly remembered the unfinished cell repair agent in the laboratory.
The medical pod sealed in her space was humming, a sound only she could hear, but it only made the calming incense in the sachet stronger.
In the twilight, gold dust wove a fine net, enveloping the broken pottery bowl at Wang's feet, the remaining millet porridge at the bottom of the bowl glowing with an eerie light.
"This might help Little Tiger." She untied the purse embroidered with the swastika pattern and took out a jade-colored pill sealed with wax.
When the moonlight pierced through the pill, it revealed the phoenix tail-shaped patterns moving within—extracts from the snow lotus she had cultivated using the spiritual spring in her space. "Dispose of half a pill in the morning dew at dawn every day, and never expose it to light until the scars have faded."
Suddenly, Li the potter trembled violently. He grabbed a shard of pottery and slashed it across his palm. Blood dripped onto the black bird pattern and made a sound like it had been quenched: "Three years ago, when that kiln of secret-color porcelain was fired, the foreman stuffed clay into my mouth..." He swallowed a sob, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he was shocked to find that the bloodstain on his palm was scabbing over at a visible speed amidst the fragrance of medicine.
The night wind whipped up the tattered prayer charms, which slapped against the ruins of the dragon kiln. Suddenly, the jade bracelet on Su Yunlan's wrist emanated a chill.
This was a sign of a spatial warning. She looked at the thunderclouds gathering on the horizon and saw her shadow on the ceramic bell split into two overlapping halos—a white lab coat from a modern laboratory and an ancient silk skirt intertwined in the void.
"Tomorrow at 3:45 PM, at the Earth God Temple in the south of the city." Xiao Yuhan suddenly used the tip of his sword to carve a groove on the potter's wheel. The trajectory of the crack coincided with the Purple Palace in the star chart. "The Emperor bestowed twelve Black Bird Golds back then, and there are two left..." He suddenly turned his sword and pried open the bluestone slab under the millstone. The dormant field mice darted out, revealing half of a pottery jar wrapped in oilcloth.
Su Yunlan's pupils contracted slightly. She saw the cobalt blue seeping from the crack in the pottery jar, shimmering with phosphorescence amidst the medicinal fragrance—clearly a characteristic of cobalt oxide mixed with bone ash glaze.
The data from the specimens she collected at the Jingdezhen kiln site in her previous life suddenly flooded her mind. As she squatted down, the jade hairpin in her hair accidentally snagged a few strands of her hair. The falling strands of hair touched the pottery jar and instantly ignited with a ghostly blue flame.
"Absolutely not!" Sparks flew from Village Chief Zhang's pipe. "Two years ago, Manager Zhao secretly kept the glaze recipe, and all seven members of his family..." His words were shattered by a sudden clap of thunder.
As lightning ripped through the night sky, everyone clearly saw the black bird relief on the village entrance archway open its glassy eyes, and rainwater mixed with rust rolled down from between the patterns on its wings.
Suddenly, Li the potter rushed towards the ruined kiln like a madman, grabbed a handful of damp clay and pressed it into his bleeding palm.
When the moonlight pierced through his fingers, star-like gold dust was released from the clod of earth, piecing together in the air the phantom image of half a fragment of the "Tao Jing" (Classic of Pottery).
The little tiger in Wang's arms suddenly stopped sobbing, reached out his scarred little hand to grab the spot of light, and giggled the moment he touched the gold dust.
"Madam Xiao!" As Li the potter turned around, his forehead slammed heavily against the potter's wheel, blood mixed with porcelain powder flowing into his eyes. "If I can gather all the glaze materials shown in the fragment of the 'Pottery Classic' in three days, I am willing to risk my life to test the fire!" He roared as he tore open his clothes, revealing a dark red birthmark on his chest—the shape of which was exactly the same as the black bird pattern on the celadon shard.
As the night rain pounded against the roof tiles of the dragon kiln, Su Yunlan was pricking her fingertip with a silver needle.
The moment the blood droplet fell into the sachet, the X-ray fluorescence analyzer sealed in the space automatically activated, projecting the composition of the pottery glaze onto her retina.
As she gazed at the flashing words "Silicon dioxide 72.3%, Calcium oxide 8.9%" in the data stream, she suddenly remembered the rare copy of "Tiangong Kaiwu" in the laboratory safe.
"Does my husband remember the former dynasty's archives in the west of the city?" She used the act of adjusting Xiao Yuhan's clothes to draw a chemical formula on his chest with her fingertips. "I heard that it houses the 'Illustrated Compendium of Pottery' from the Yonghe era." The torrential rain washed over the cracked earth of the potter's village, but it could not dispel the calming incense emanating from her sleeve. The fragrant mist condensed into arrow-shaped spots of light in the puddles, pointing straight to a certain place in the south of the city.
Xiao Yuhan's black iron thumb ring brushed against the back of her cold hand, and amidst the thunder, he whispered in her ear, "Tomorrow is the West Market Opening Ceremony, and the Collection Pavilion will be displaying newly acquired Xing kiln white porcelain." As he spoke, his breath stirred the hairpin at her temple, and the clinking of the beads startled the wild cat curled up beside the pottery jar.
The cat's eyes reflected the figures of the two, which transformed into a phantom image of them holding hands and painting overglaze colors together in the rain.
As the midnight drum pierced through the rain, Su Yunlan stood alone on the rooftop terrace of the inn.
She stared at the spatial imprint on her palm that shimmered with the changing phases of the moon, and heard the medical pod continuously emitting low-frequency alarms—this was the first time since her transmigration that an abnormal energy fluctuation had occurred.
Suddenly, the unused gold powder in the sachet automatically aggregated into a three-dimensional molecular model, which was actually the crystal structure of a rare glaze from the direction of the collection.
As the first rays of dawn pierced through the clouds, Su Yunlan stored the silver needles, which had been tempered by the spiritual spring, into her spatial storage.
The bronze mirror reflected her specially changed moon-white ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), the black bird pattern embroidered in gold thread on the hem of the skirt shimmering with the unique kiln-transformed luster of Jun porcelain under the sunlight.
The sound of Xiao Yuhan adjusting the carriage axle came from outside the building, mixed with the lively atmosphere of hawking flatbread at the morning market, startling the swifts that were building their nests under the eaves.