Is he teasing me

Chapter 401 Unveiling the Secret of the Plum Vase

Zhang Moyan didn't sleep much all night. Last night, after she discovered that the porcelain pieces of the Wang family's plum vase had two layers of base, Xiao Xingyu took the box into the workshop in the backyard and never came back.

When everyone was having breakfast, Xiao Xingyu and Xiao Guotao were not at the table. She asked Uncle Chai, and Uncle Chai said that the grandfather and grandson had already had breakfast in the studio. In short, it would be best for everyone not to disturb them.

Zhang Moyan had a vague feeling that the secret was about to be revealed, and now it was in this process, and the result still needed to be waited for.

I spent the whole morning bored and I don't know how many times I looked at my phone. It was almost ten o'clock when Xiao Xingyu suddenly called me.

"Mo Yan, come to Grandpa's place. We have made an important discovery."

Zhang Moyan immediately rushed to Xiao Guotao's yard, stepped over the threshold and walked into the rows of porcelain racks that looked like a warehouse. Xiao Guotao and Xiao Xingyu were already waiting for her at the workbench.

Xiao Xingyu came forward and held her hand: "Wait a moment, Old Madam Yuan is on her way."

"Okay." Zhang Moyan's eyes slowly swept over a plum vase glued together on the wide workbench. Judging from the shape of the vase, it should be the Sima Guang smashing vase of the Wang family. Why can we only judge it from the shape? Because the glaze layer on the surface of this plum vase has been thrown away, leaving only a bare body.

Soon, Old Lady Yuan, Wang Zhongguo and Xiao Wa arrived, and Xiao Weizhou and Xiao Huai were also called over by Xiao Guotao.

Xiao Guotao said to Zhang Moyan, "Sorry for the long wait," and waved for everyone to come forward. "Yesterday, Xingyu's wife discovered that there were two layers of clay under the glaze layer of this plum vase. Xingyu brought it to me for research overnight. After analysis, we suspected that the two layers of clay were made at different times. In order to find out why the embryo was made twice, we discussed and decided to grind off the glaze layer and the outer layer of clay of the plum vase. As expected, we discovered the mystery hidden inside. Look here!"

"Is this... sculpture porcelain?" Xiao Huai couldn't help but sigh in surprise.

"That's understandable." Xiao Xingyu stood aside with his arms folded, giving the spot to watch to others.

Zhang Moyan looked at the bottle body that Xiao Guotao pointed to, and saw a pattern carved on the grayish-white body with the method of intaglio. In fact, the structure of the picture was very similar to the previous "Sima Guang Smashing the Jar". There were several figures on the ground, but they looked like adults instead of children. There was also something like a big jar in the center of the picture, with a little girl's upper body outside and her lower body not inside.

"Brother Yu, what is this thing? The expression of the person on it is so weird. It looks so eerie!" Xiao Wa spoke his mind without any pretense.

But what he said was exactly how Zhang Moyan felt. This painting did not have the feeling of rebirth that Sima Guang's painting of breaking the jar had before. Instead, it exuded a thick, gloomy and suffocating temperament.

Old Madam Yuan and Wang Zhongguo were also confused and said, "What does this mean? Could this be the secret of the legendary azure-glazed porcelain that our family has?"

Xiao Xingyu was silent for a few seconds: "I think so."

Yuan Hongying, Wang Zhongguo and Xiao Wa were all perked up at the same time, and they changed their admiring eyes and looked at the plain bottle again.

Yuan Hongying asked excitedly: "What is the secret? What does this painting express?"

Xiao Xingyu and Xiao Guotao remained silent at the same time.

"Could it be..." Xiao Weizhou speculated with a cautious tone, "This is human sacrifice?"

"Human sacrifice?!" Wang Zhongguo was shocked, his hair stood on end, "This, this... How could this be human sacrifice?"

Xiao Xingyu lowered his crossed arms, took a complicated look at the gray-white plum vase engraving, and narrated: "There is a legend recorded in the handwritten copy of "Collection of Materials on Ancient Famous Kilns" of Tsinghua University. At that time, the emperor issued an imperial decree to fire new sky-blue porcelain. Two porcelain officials failed to fire the new kilns and were beheaded. The third porcelain official failed to fire two kilns. Finally, his 7-year-old daughter jumped into the third kiln and finally fired the sky-blue porcelain successfully."

Wang Zhongguo almost fainted when he heard this: "No, it's impossible! Is this what the painting is about? How can our ancestral secret... How can it be this?"

Xiao Wa pointed at the thing that looked like a jar but was not a jar and half submerged the little girl, and asked loudly: "So what is this thing?!" Xiao Huai: "It's a kiln for firing porcelain."

"what?"

The house was as quiet as after a bomb was dropped. Zhang Moyan, Yuan Hongying, Wang Zhongguo and Xiao Wa were horrified and could not believe it for a long time.

After a moment, Zhang Moyan asked in confusion: "Why do you have to sacrifice people? Grandpa, you have also fired a few pieces of celadon glaze porcelain, so you shouldn't have used human sacrifice, right?"

Xiao Xingyu affirmed: "Of course not. Murder is against the law. There is no way that grandpa could be so cruel."

Xiao Guotao said slowly: "The firing process of celadon glaze porcelain is very difficult to observe, and there are many legends. Agate in the glaze is a common saying. There is also a less popular folk legend that people were sacrificed. However, these two have no effect after my years of experiments."

"Ah?" Xiao Wa was shocked, "Master Guo Tao, you have used people..."

Before he could finish his words, Xiao Xingyu glared at him and he quickly covered his mouth and stopped talking.

"Of course not," Xiao Guotao said, "Agate is mainly composed of silicon dioxide. I have tried to mix agate with glaze and fired it, but there was no effect. I think it is probably because agate was also a precious gem in ancient times. This legend is to increase the nobility of the celadon glaze porcelain. As for human sacrifice, although I have never used human beings, I have tried to add various animal bones into the kiln to fire them together, and adjusted various proportions and changed various possible temperatures, but I did not succeed. The celadon glaze porcelain I accidentally fired has nothing to do with these two raw materials. It is more due to luck!"

After listening to what Xiao Guotao said, everyone understood and breathed a sigh of relief.

Yuan Hongying lowered her head and smiled bitterly. She stretched out her old hand and gently touched the plum vase. She said with some sadness: "Finally the truth is revealed. It turns out that our family really has the secret of the celadon glaze porcelain. Perhaps one of our ancestors also felt that this secret was incorrect, so they sealed it with new clay. Perhaps it was from that time that our Wang family began to leave the porcelain industry."

"Your Wang family ancestors were very wise!" Xiao Guotao said, "Compared with our family, the Chen family of Tongchuan, and the Geng family of Hangzhou, your Wang family has lived a happy and peaceful life for hundreds of years and has never suffered any losses from the celadon porcelain."

Yuan Hongying held Xiaowa and Wang Zhongguo's hands and nodded with mixed feelings.

"Moyan," Xiao Xingyu put his arm around Zhang Moyan's shoulders, his voice soft and serious, "There is one important thing I wonder if you have noticed?"

Zhang Moyan subconsciously held her breath: "What is it?"

Xiao Xingyu stared at her, gently tapped the little girl on the plum vase with his index finger, and swallowed: "When you were kidnapped by the kidnappers, they must have wanted your mother to exchange you for the plum vase. Your mother didn't agree, not because she didn't want you, but because she was trying to save you."

Zhang Moyan felt as if she was hit by a bullet in the heart. She stood still, unable to move.

Xiao Xingyu's eyes gradually turned red as he looked at her. "I think Zhang Shunqing must have figured out the secret hidden in this bottle. He also told your mother the secret, which is that in order to produce celadon porcelain, you need to sacrifice a little girl. We naturally don't believe in this inhumane remedy, but the Japanese may not believe that! If they knew about this method of sacrificing a little girl, they would definitely try it. And they just happen to have a little girl on hand, right?"

Zhang Moyan couldn't stop her tears from flowing out, one after another. She felt like a huge bell was roaring in her head. She had great difficulty breathing and her heart felt like it was being pulled together and ached.

  It was hard to describe her feelings at that moment. She felt strong regret and resentment, sad and happy, sad and excited... It turned out that she was not a child abandoned by her mother! Her mother loved her! She loved her! At this moment, the beautiful woman who smiled at her gently in her dream finally emerged from the shackles of darkness, hugged her with a warm and gentle glow, and made every cell in her body boil and tremble with love!

Suddenly, a series of messy footsteps came from far away.

"Oh no, oh no!" Uncle Chai's shouting interrupted Zhang Moyan's sudden realization.

Xiao Weizhou walked out quickly and asked, "What happened? Why are you so flustered?"

Uncle Chai said breathlessly: "Oh no, Chen Guanfu, Chen Guanfu brought a few Japanese to our Xiao Sheng's museum!"