nycdaug Chapter 194 Exploring Ancient Pottery to Find a Turning Point
Chapter 194 Exploring Ancient Pottery to Find a Turning Point
Chapter 194 Exploring Ancient Pottery to Find a Turning Point
Exploring Ancient Pottery in Search of a Turning Point
Before the morning mist had dissipated, the bluestone streets were already glistening with moisture from the crowds of people celebrating the West Market Cellar Opening Festival.
Su Yunlan helped Xiao Yuhan off the car, her skirt, damp with dew, swept across the wheel spokes, leaving delicate, shimmering halos on the stone slabs.
The bronze wind chimes under the eaves of the collection pavilion tinkled, startling the glazed roof ornaments perched on the eaves, which shimmered with gold in the morning sun.
&34; Watch out for the threshold. &34; Xiao Yuhan lightly tapped the door frame with his black iron thumb ring, shaking off a few grains of old kiln ash.
Today, he specially changed into indigo-colored arrow-sleeved robes. The silver cloud patterns embroidered on the front of his robe echoed the black bird and gold patterns on Su Yunlan's dress. The beams of light shining through the courtyard made them shimmer and ripple as he stepped across the threshold.
Inside the museum, on the scattered ebony antique shelves, Xing kiln white porcelain gleamed with a cold, moonlit glow in the morning light.
Su Yunlan's fingertip hovered three inches above the exhibit, and the medical cabin's X-ray vision projected a tomographic image of the enamel layer onto the retina.
When she touched the late Tang Dynasty jade bowl, the spatial imprint suddenly became scorching hot—the ash at the bottom of the bowl contained specks of unburnt malachite glaze.
"Young lady, you have a good eye." An aged voice, carrying the scent of agarwood, wafted over. The crisp sound of the collector's sandalwood cane tapping on the blue bricks startled the dust floating in the beam of light.
The silver embroidery of a hundred kilns on his crane-feather cloak flickered with his steps, and the Yue kiln secret-color porcelain sachet hanging from his waist collided with the silver bracelet on Su Yunlan's wrist, producing a clear, melodious sound.
Xiao Yuhan took a half-step to the side without making a sound, shielding Su Yunlan in the shadows behind him.
This gesture made the money collector squint, and his cane suddenly turned towards the depths of the display shelf: "The clay for Xing kiln porcelain must be mixed with 30% red clay, and the glaze must be made from malachite from the Yin region of Zhongnan Mountain—but these secret recipes were burned to ashes in the flames of war in the fourth year of the Tianyou era."
The sachet in Su Yunlan's sleeve trembled slightly, and the medical pod emitted a high-frequency alert in her ear.
She gazed at the Ding kiln child pillow pendant swaying on the old man's lapel, and suddenly took out a clove knot that had been tempered by spiritual spring water from her spatial storage: "I heard that Old Qian acquired half a Jun kiln fragment in the south of the city last night. I wonder if he can identify the kiln transformation formula?"
&34; "I'll trade you the borneol from Zuixian Pavilion." &34; The cane slammed heavily on the Ru kiln celadon plate stand, startling the Xing kiln figurines on the shelf, causing them to shake and scatter a few specks of dust.
The money collector's withered fingers traced the sachet at his waist, and a half-burnt Canaan incense stick inside suddenly burst into sparks: "Or... that gold and silver incense sachet at your waist that can retain its fragrance for three months."
Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath lightly touched the antique shelf, causing the morning dew in the Longquan celadon vase with tubular handles on the shelf to fall in a flurry.
He bent down to straighten the ribbons of his wife's dress, which were tangled in the tassels of the sachet, his voice mingling with the lingering echo of the porcelain vase: "At its peak, the Xingzhou kiln produced thirty-six different glaze colors in a single kiln."
These words caused Su Yunlan's pupils to shrink slightly.
She recalled the molecular model that appeared in the space last night; the glaze crystals that decomposed and recombined in the medical pod coincided with the number thirty-six.
Without hesitation, he tore off the incense ball from his waist. The unburnt styrax pills inside the hollowed-out ball suddenly floated and spun, arranging themselves into a malachite molecular structure under the astonished gazes of everyone.
&34;This is...&34;The money collector's cane clattered to the ground, and his withered fingers grabbed the celadon paperweight that had rolled to his feet.
Suddenly, a soft sound of clay falling into a potter's bowl came from the darkness of the attic. A boy with his hair in a bun hurriedly shrank back into the shadows, the pottery blank he was holding still covered in fresh river mud.
Su Yunlan placed the incense ball next to the Xing kiln tea grinder, and the glaze fragments that had not been swept away in the grinding trough suddenly emitted a faint blue fluorescence.
As her fingertips traced the edge of the display shelf, the energy fluctuations from the medical pod projected a fleeting holographic kiln image onto the blue brick floor: "What I need isn't the secret formula, but the spark to reignite the Xing kiln."
The collector paused as he picked up his cane, and the gourd-shaped cloak embroidered with silver thread suddenly reflected a rainbow of light from a certain angle.
As he bent over, the pendant of the marbled porcelain necklace hidden in his collar slipped out, revealing half of a clay seal bearing the inscription "Tianyou Third Year".
The wind chimes on the eaves rang again, this time mixed with the sound of a boy tiptoeing out the door.
Xiao Yuhan's sword tassel swept across the pottery urn by the door, and the duckweed in the urn suddenly moved without wind, outlining a fragmented kiln-transformation pattern on the water's surface.
He gazed at his wife's profile, bathed in the golden light of the morning sun, the battle scars on her black iron thumb ring pressing deep red marks into his palm.
The dust floating in the collection pavilion suddenly froze, and the air currents created when the money collector picked up his cane caused the pearl hairpin at Su Yunlan's temple to tremble slightly.
His withered fingers pinched the incense ball with its suspended molecular structure, and the kiln pattern embroidered in silver thread on his crane cloak flickered in the morning light.
&34; Xingzhou Thirty-Six Colors... &34; The old man let out a laugh that sounded like grinding pottery with a sandalwood wheel, and suddenly the tip of his sandalwood cane jabbed into a pottery urn at the bottom of the display shelf.
Ripples spread across the clear water in the urn, reflecting the spatial markings flowing across Su Yunlan's wrist. "Does my young lady know the star map that the old kiln worker carved on the altar before the last kiln was opened?"
Xiao Yuhan's sword tassel grazed the edge of the pottery urn, and the star-shaped patterns on the water's surface instantly shattered into duckweed.
His hand, warm and strong, encircled his wife's shoulder; the muscles beneath his indigo sleeves resembled an unsheathed blade. He had heard that at the height of Xing Kiln's prosperity, the kiln masters could determine the firing temperature by observing celestial phenomena.
Su Yunlan leaned on her husband's shoulder as the medical pod's X-ray vision system decomposed the porcelain pendant around the money collector's neck into a molecular pattern.
The spiritual spring bead hidden in her sleeve rolled to her fingertips, and she gently pressed it against the edge of the display stand while tidying her hair.
Several borage plants suddenly sprouted from the cracks in the blue bricks, and the morning dew on their pale blue petals shimmered with a malachite luster.
"Take it." The money collector suddenly tossed the incense ball back, the tip of his cane picking up the half-piece of pottery the boy had left behind. "The riverbed mud from the northern foot of Longshou Mountain, mixed with 30% red clay, can imitate the texture of Xing kiln." As his crane-feather cloak fluttered, he knocked over a Ru kiln brush washer, the splashing water droplets forming a winding stream on the blue brick ground. "As for the star map... perhaps we should ask the descendants of the tribe who can read the He Luo Diagram."
Xiao Yuhan frowned slightly, his fingertips tracing the fresh watermarks on the broken surface of the pottery.
Suddenly, a warning red dot was projected onto Su Yunlan's retina in the medical pod—minerals matching the composition of modern glazes were detected in the clay blank.
Just as she was about to ask further questions, Old Qian had already turned into the dark chamber behind the screen, leaning on his cane. Only the scent of agarwood mixed with the unburnt Canaan incense lingered among the beams and pillars.
"Look at this." Xiao Yuhan used his sword sheath to lift the duckweed from the earthenware jar. On the back of the duckweed leaves was a simple star map painted with ochre pigment.
Su Yunlan's spatial imprint suddenly became hot, and the medical pod automatically compared the star map with the molecular arrangement of the glaze that had been decomposed the night before, finding that they were 70% similar.
The creaking sound of a potter's wheel turning came from the attic, mixed with the suppressed gasps of a young boy.
Su Yunlan lifted her skirt and was about to follow the sound when Xiao Yuhan suddenly grabbed her waist and spun her around to avoid the toppled antique shelf.
The Xing kiln tea grinder crashed to the ground, scattering fragments of glaze that still glowed in the grinding trough across the floor, piecing together a fragmented image of the Twenty-Eight Mansions on the blue bricks.
&34; Be careful, it might be a trap. &34; Xiao Yuhan's black iron thumb ring grazed his wife's ear, knocking away half a pottery pellet shot from the shadows.
The mud ball shattered against the door frame, revealing the birch bark paper wrapped inside, the four characters "Dragon Head River Beach" still covered in fresh river mud and ink that hadn't dried.
As Su Yunlan crouched down to pick it up, the gold hairpin in her hair was suddenly blown off by the wind blowing in from outside the door.
The beak of the black bird carved on the hairpin is pointing towards the West Market, where the sounds of drums and music from the Kiln Opening Festival can be faintly heard.
She gazed at the fading glow of the star map on the blue brick ground, then suddenly grasped her husband's hand: "Let's go to the riverbank."
As the two stepped out of the threshold, the glazed roof ornaments on the eaves suddenly emitted a seven-colored halo.
Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath swept across the earthenware urn by the door, startling the koi carp inside, which leaped out of the water, its tail swirling in the air in a trajectory that coincided with the trajectory of the Tianji star in the star chart.
&34; Please...please wait a moment! &34;
A trembling shout came from the street corner.
Sun Jing, carrying a stack of pottery blanks, staggered after them, his coarse linen clothes still stained with the red clay unique to Longshou Mountain.
The pottery shards in the boy's arms collided with each other, producing a clear, chiming sound.
In his panic, he kicked a piece of broken porcelain in the crack of the bluestone slab and lunged towards Su Yunlan.
Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath blocked the boy's path, but the shard of pottery that flew out of his arms tore his sleeve.
Su Yunlan bent down to pick it up, and the medical pod suddenly scanned the inside of the ceramic shard with micro-engraved star patterns—which perfectly matched the molecular model that had appeared in the space last night.
"This is what my grandfather gave me before he died." Sun Jing wiped the sweat from his forehead and took out half a roll of yellowed sheepskin from his clothes. "He said the real secret of Xing Kiln is hidden in the legend of the Heluo people who make star-patterned pottery..." On the sheepskin scroll that the boy unfolded, the tribal totem drawn in cinnabar echoed the star pattern on the blue bricks.
Three cannon shots suddenly rang out from the direction of the West Market, startling the copper bell birds under the eaves of the Collection Pavilion.
As Su Yunlan gazed at the clouds stained red by the gunfire, she suddenly remembered the celestial glaze formula in her spatial storage that she had never been able to decipher.
The morning breeze rustled the edge of Sun Jing's sheepskin scroll, revealing half a corner of the two characters "Heavenly Fire" carved in oracle bone script.