Zhuo Yu Feng Yang Chapter 30

Chapter 30: The jade is cut from the original stone, and the dark line begins to appear

The buzzing sound of the cutting machine in the processing area makes people’s eardrums tremble.Jiang Zhuo held the rough stone he had just bought for 3,000 yuan and walked straight to an idle small cutting machine in the corner. Compared with the roughness of the large machine, this machine was more suitable for fine cutting and could preserve the integrity of the seed material to the greatest extent.

Lu Jingyang followed beside him, holding the sandpaper in his hand, his palms sweating from nervousness: “Do you want to open the window and take a look first? If you cut directly, it would be bad if you hurt the jade flesh.”

Jiang Zhuo shook his head and lightly traced his fingertips across the surface of the original stone. That was the best cutting plane marked by the system: “No, the jade meat of this piece of material is wrapped very evenly. Cutting along this line will not damage the core.”

He skillfully fixed the rough stone on the console, adjusted the cutting depth, and pressed the start button.The grinding wheel slowly fell, and the moment it came into contact with the stone surface, fine stone chips were splashed.Lu Jingyang held his breath and stared at the incision without blinking, not even daring to take a breath.

As the grinding wheel slowly advanced, a faint grease sheen came out bit by bit along the cracks in the stone.

“Yes!” Lu Jingyang whispered, his voice full of surprise.

Jiang Zhuo turned off the machine, picked up a small brush, and carefully swept away the stone chips from the incision.Under the warm yellow light, the jade flesh at the incision is white and moist, like solidified mutton fat, and the partially blurred maroon color is just like the stain of rouge, so delicate that no trace of impurities can be seen.

“Perfect!” Lu Jingyang leaned over, looked at it with a magnifying glass for a long time, and slapped his thigh with excitement, “The quality of this jade is so good, it matches the glaze color of the enamel bottle perfectly!”

People around heard the movement and gathered around.The jade dealers who had just laughed at Jiang Zhuo for buying scraps were now turning red and white, with regret in their eyes. Such mutton-fat white jade seed material was hard to find in the market, but he had picked it up for 3,000 yuan.

“Brother, do you want to give up on this material? I’ll offer you 100,000!” A fat boss squeezed in, rubbing his hands and speaking in an urgent tone.

“One hundred thousand? You’re sending a beggar away! I’ll pay you two hundred thousand!” Another person immediately raised the price.

Jiang Zhuo put the rough stone into his backpack and glanced at them lightly: “Not for sale.”

After saying that, he pulled Lu Jingyang, who was still excited, and turned around to leave.The sounds of price increases came and went from behind, but the two of them turned a deaf ear and quickly walked out of the convention and exhibition center.

After getting in the car, Lu Jingyang had not yet calmed down from his excitement. He was unzipping his backpack and kept chanting: “Three thousand yuan for two hundred thousand, this is a huge profit! And the clear color of this jade is tailor-made for that porcelain bottle!”

Jiang Zhuo started the car, but his eyes fell on the rearview mirror.A black car was following them slowly.

“Don’t make any noise.” Jiang Zhuo’s voice deepened.

Lu Jingyang was quiet for a moment, followed his gaze to the rearview mirror, and his expression changed slightly: “Is it the person with Scarface?”

“It should be.” Jiang Zhuo tightened his grip on the steering wheel, “That rough stone is probably more than just a good piece of jade.”

He remembered the hateful look Scarface looked at him when he was taken away by the police in the woolen area just now.Lu Chen also said that this group of people was suspected of smuggling jade – this piece of seed material might have slipped through the net in their smuggled goods.

“Then what should we do?” Lu Jingyang was a little nervous, but he straightened his back, “If it doesn’t work, should we call the police?”

“No need for the time being.” Jiang Zhuo shook his head, “They have been closely watched recently and they dare not come out in the open. Besides, I would like to see what is involved behind this.”

He gently stepped on the accelerator, and the car slowly accelerated and turned into a secluded road.The black car in the rearview mirror hesitated for a moment and didn’t catch up.

Lu Jingyang breathed a sigh of relief: “They didn’t follow.”

Jiang Zhuo did not let down his guard.He knew all too well the methods of this smuggling gang.

Returning to Xianyunzhai, Jiang Zhuo immediately locked the rough stone into the safe.When he turned around, he saw Lu Jingyang squatting on the ground, carefully collecting the cut stone chips.

“Why did you pick this up?” Jiang Zhuo raised his eyebrows.

“There might even be jade powder in these stone chips,” Lu Jingyang raised his head and smiled with crooked eyebrows, “keep it, maybe it can be used to make paint and reglaze the porcelain in the future.”

Jiang Zhuo looked at his serious look, and the tension in his heart suddenly relaxed a little.He walked over, knelt down, and collected the stone debris with Lu Jingyang.

The piece of mutton-fat white jade seed material in the safe quietly exudes a warm luster in the dim light, like a key hiding a secret, waiting to be opened.

On the other side, in the shadow of the street corner, Scarface covered his wrist that was still aching achingly, staring in the direction of Xianyunzhai with sinister eyes.The boy next to him whispered: “Brother, this boy is too tough and has been targeted by the police. Do we still want to rob him?”

“Grab it! Why don’t you snatch it!” Scarface spat, with a stern tone, “That piece of material was requested by the ‘Xuanshi Guild’ by name. If we lose it, we will all die! We will sneak in in the dark tonight and steal it out without anyone noticing!”

The younger brother looked troubled: “But that kid’s skills are extraordinary, and there seems to be a hidden whistle nearby…”

Scarface snorted coldly: “No matter what the whistle is, if it dares to block my way, I will deal with it!”

The two figures quickly disappeared into the night.

At the same time, in another hidden black car, a man put down his binoculars and whispered into his Bluetooth headset: “Mr. Lu, Scarface and his gang plan to sneak into Xianyunzhai tonight to steal seeds.”

On the other end of the phone, Lu Chen’s voice was cold: “I know, send more people to guard, don’t let Jingyang notice. When they take action, they will take the stolen goods directly.”

“Yes.”

As the night gets darker, the hustle and bustle of the antique street gradually fades away. On the street corner near Xianyunzhai, two groups of forces, one bright and one dark, are at war with each other.A battle over seed materials is quietly brewing.

Lu Jingyang nodded and reported the precise values: “The notched corner of the bottle mouth is 3.1 centimeters long, 2.2 centimeters wide, and the bevel edge is 0.8 centimeters. Ultra-thin jade pieces of 0.3 millimeters need to be cut to embed them perfectly.”

“Yeah.” Jiang Zhuo nodded, and the blade slowly cut in against the texture of the seed material.Hetian jade has a delicate texture, but it is also crisp and tender. It may collapse with a little force.He controlled his strength just right. Wherever the blade crossed, there was only a very light “chi” sound, and a piece of jade as thin as paper was cut off.

Lu Jingyang leaned over, looked at it with a magnifying glass for a long time, and exclaimed: “The thickness is so amazing, you can see the cotton wool lines in the jade when you hold it up to the light, which matches the transparency of the porcelain bottle.”

Next is sanding.Jiang Zhuo first used coarse sandpaper to grind out the rough outline of the jade piece, then changed to finer sandpaper to trim the edges little by little, and finally wiped it repeatedly with polishing cotton.Lu Jingyang was responsible for dealing with the chipped corners of the enamel bottle. He used a micro drill to carefully clean the remaining porcelain chips in the chip, and then used a sanding rod to polish the chip edge into a slope.

“Now we need to do the matte treatment.” Jiang Zhuo put down the tool and pointed at the surface of the jade piece, “The natural luster of Hetian jade is oily, while the enamel glaze has a glass luster. Direct bonding will cause uneven reflection, so the luster of the jade surface must be weakened.”

He took a fine abrasive cloth, dipped it in a small amount of distilled water, and gently rubbed it in circles on the surface of the jade piece.The movements were as gentle as stroking fragile cicada wings. Lu Jingyang watched from the side, not even daring to breathe.After a quarter of an hour, the oily luster of the jade pieces faded away, turning into a restrained matte texture. When viewed against the light, it was almost as reflective as the glaze of a porcelain bottle.

“It’s wonderful.” Lu Jingyang couldn’t help but admire, “Now the luster of jade and porcelain are almost integrated into one, and you can’t tell them apart unless you look carefully.”

Jiang Zhuo said nothing and picked up the bottle of reversible epoxy resin glue.The advantage of this kind of glue is that it has moderate viscosity, and if there is a better repair plan in the future, it can be removed non-destructively with a special solvent, which fully complies with the reversible principle of cultural relic restoration.He used pointed tweezers to dip a very small amount of glue into it, and applied it evenly on the slope of the notch and the back of the jade piece. His movements were so precise that not a trace of glue dripped.

“You fix it.” Jiang Zhuo raised his eyes and looked at Lu Jingyang.

Lu Jingyang immediately put on his white gloves and used a little force with his fingertips to accurately insert the jade piece into the missing corner of the bottle mouth.He breathed very lightly and adjusted the position of the jade piece bit by bit until the seam between the jade piece and the porcelain bottle was so tight that not even a thin seam could be seen.

“Hold it for three minutes and wait for the glue to initially solidify.” Jiang Zhuo warned.

Lu Jingyang nodded, lightly covering the jade piece with his palm, staring intently at the seam.The warm sun shines through the window, falling on his lowered eyebrows and the side of Jiang Zhuo’s face.On the long table is a porcelain vase that spans a century, a warm and transparent piece of jade, and a silent understanding between the two young people.

After three minutes, the glue is initially set.Jiang Zhuo took a small piece of absorbent cotton, dipped it in a special detergent, and carefully wiped off the trace amounts of glue that spilled from the seams.Looking at the enamel bottle again, the missing corners of the bottle mouth are perfectly filled with jade pieces. The clear maroon color echoes the red glaze of the bottle with the lotus pattern on the bottle. The matte-processed jade surface and the enamel glaze are integrated into one. Not only does it not destroy the overall beauty, but it adds a touch of “a match made in heaven” charm.

“Next, we’ll deal with the punch line.” Jiang Zhuo felt relieved and pointed to the 12-centimeter diagonal punch line on the bottle. “The glutinous rice porcelain clay reinforced with the carcass has dried completely. Now, the punch line is sealed using the process of repairing porcelain with gold.”

He took out the gold foil that he had prepared, picked it up with tweezers, put it in the palm of his hand and beat it gently.The gold foil gradually stretched under hammering, becoming as thin as cicada wings.Lu Jingyang took a fine brush, dipped it in special gold glue, and applied it carefully along the lines of the punch line.

The gold glue dries quickly. Jiang Zhuo covered the gold foil on the punching line while it was hot, and pressed it gently with a soft brush to make the gold foil and the punching line fit perfectly.The excess gold foil was carefully removed, leaving only a gold line as thin as a hair, winding along the red line, like a dormant golden dragon, echoing the five-clawed dragon pattern on the bottom of the bottle.

As the sun sets, the restoration work finally comes to an end.

The Yongzheng enamel vase with flower and bird patterns has regained its dazzling brilliance.The jade pieces on the mouth of the bottle are inlaid with nature, the golden threads are shining, the lotus pattern and the ribbon bird are lifelike, and the five-clawed dragon pattern on the bottom of the bottle is faintly visible under the light.

Lu Jingyang held the porcelain vase and turned it around in the light, his eyes full of amazement: “This is not a restoration, it is simply an artistic re-creation! Jade inlaid with porcelain, gold threadwork, it’s amazing.”

Jiang Zhuo looked at the porcelain bottle with a faint smile on his lips.He thought of the scent of ink in the secret compartment of the vase, and of the injustice done by the pottery inspector a hundred years ago, and suddenly felt that this restoration was not only repairing the cracks in the porcelain vase, but also continuing to write down a dusty past.

The night outside the window is getting darker, and the lights of Xianyunzhai are bright and warm.The repaired enamel vase stood quietly in the center of the table. The ribbon bird on the vase seemed to be fluttering its wings towards the light.