Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1680 A Lot of Good Things

Adding water to the ceramic plate on the table is to prevent the heat from the iron stove from transferring and scalding the table top. The copper kettle for boiling water should have been replaced with a silver kettle or an iron kettle, but it has not been found in Zhouzhi yet. The ethnic minorities in Liangshan area, like those in the snow-covered areas, prefer copper products.

Because it was night time, Zhou Zhi was afraid that everyone would not be able to sleep after drinking tea, so he used pine nuts, walnuts and buckwheat, which are specialties of Lianhe Township, to make a pot of buckwheat tea.

The tea sets are made of coarse porcelain fired in the village's wood-fired kilns. In another ten or twenty years, when the pollution in the small kilns in the countryside has been cleaned up, people will re-examine these porcelains and realize how precious they are.

In later times, only island countries still have such handmade kilns, and the products are sold at extremely high prices. They are highly sought after with names such as "wabi-sabi", "simple", and "antiquity", and are sold at skyrocketing prices.

In fact, in Zhou Zhi's opinion, the coarse porcelains on the table now, which are made of purple clay and decorated with traditional green and yellow glazes, and have the bottom deliberately left unglazed to prevent sticking, are the true "orthodox legacy" inherited from the Five Dynasties and the two Song Dynasties.

Aesthetics is everywhere, at least in Jike Azi's eyes, these things that look ordinary in daily life, after being selected and arranged and placed in this study, immediately become elegant.

"Many people dislike the feeling of being pressed down by thick, rough porcelain cups." Zhou Zhi poured tea for everyone: "Little do they know that in ancient times, there was a cup called 'hand-pressing cup' used to serve wine and tea to guests. Even after the production of thin porcelain became popular in the Ming Dynasty, the hand-pressing cup was still used."

"But I no longer use it to drink wine. Instead, I keep it as a teacup. Why? Because the thick-walled cup conducts heat slowly, so you don't have to worry about it getting hot when you hold it. It also feels textured and comfortable in your hand."

"Don't underestimate my cups. They are fired in the village's firewood kiln. They are all handmade from beginning to end. The lime glaze on the surface is made from local pottery powder and finely sieved. Combined with the purple clay body, it has the characteristics of Song Dynasty Ge Kiln wares. Although there are no gold or iron wires, it has the purple mouth and iron feet. The glaze color is also similar to the Ming Dynasty Yingqing. At least in my opinion, it is much better than the handmade porcelain from the island country."

"I only know that this kind of light blue porcelain is a little more expensive than the brown and green ones at Uncle Hikari. Is it 20 cents or 50 cents more expensive?"

"Uncle Rise said he could make porcelain with cracks. He said it very easily, saying that it was only necessary to apply a thicker glaze. When he was a child, he studied for seven or eight years and was beaten many times before he overcame this defect." Zhou Zhi just shook his head: "I didn't quite believe it, so I ordered a kiln from him according to the Xuanhe standard. If he can really make it, then I will have fun in the future."

"I thought it would cost a lot of money to decorate your room." Shama Ricong seemed to be quite knowledgeable: "I went to a furniture exhibition when I was studying in the capital. This kind of unpainted solid wood furniture with beautiful patterns and colors is very expensive."

"This is also a kind of investment." Zhou Zhi explained to everyone: "When you get married in the future, I suggest you customize a set of furniture like the one in my house. If it is a full set of Qinggang wood or apple wood, it will be worth a lot of money in the future."

"Regardless of whether it's valuable or not, this kind of furniture is really beautiful." Shama Ricong looked at the bookshelf formed by the two cupboards and said, "There seem to be a lot of these things in the countryside. Why didn't I see how beautiful they are before?"

"Because these things are placed in the kitchen, it's already dark, and with all the smoke and fire, the original color can't be seen." Zhou Zhi couldn't help laughing when he said this: "Of course you can't see it."

"But as long as it is hardwood furniture, it will definitely appreciate in value in the future, and among local hardwoods, Qinggang wood is definitely the best."

"So you collected a lot of those weird, bumpy wood?" Wu Renzhong couldn't help but feel curious: "Those bumps can't be used to make furniture?"

"Those are different. They are called gall materials. They have the most patterns and oil content, and are the best for making stationery. Many of them have been placed in the homes of fellow villagers for many years and have already aged well. When the small machine tool arrives in a few days, I will make a few for you to see and you will understand."

"It seems that in Brother Elbow's eyes, our Lianhe Township is full of good things." Jike Azi smiled. "It's not in my eyes, there are indeed good things everywhere." Zhou Zhi raised the cup: "For example, this bitter buckwheat tea has a unique flavor. Modern people pay attention to health and wellness. I ate a little too much barbecue yesterday. Today, I use this to scrape off the fat and cleanse my stomach. It's just right."

"This tastes pretty good." Shama Ricong nodded: "I can't sleep if I drink tea, but this shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"Hey! This is the second concept of buckwheat tea - it's called 'drinking substitute'." Zhou Zhi said, "It's a substitute for tea. It doesn't contain tea polyphenols. It's suitable for people like you who are sensitive to the stimulants in tea."

"Then your jar belongs to me. I will take it back to the city tomorrow." Shama pointed at the things she liked and asked Zhou Zhi for them. Now that everyone was familiar with each other, there was no psychological pressure to rob.

"So Lianhe Township does have a lot of good things, but due to transportation constraints, we can only try to find something that is not too affected by transportation, or has high added value and is easy for folks to learn."

"With these restrictions, there aren't many things left. We can only slowly observe and discover them in our daily lives."

At this point, everyone fell silent. If you really want to be serious, choosing a project is actually quite difficult.

But everyone knew that this was not something that could be accomplished overnight, and since they were all young, they soon put aside their worries and started laughing and chatting.

Everyone in Lianhe Township went to bed late that night. Although many of the villagers could not understand the Mandarin on TV, it did not stop them from watching TV with great interest.

During this period, there was also something in the world called "TV News", which collected the programs of various TV stations for the next week and published them into a newspaper, one issue a week, so that everyone could make arrangements in advance, and the sales of the newspaper were quite good.

Zhou Zhi wondered if he could order one, but the idea was interrupted as soon as it came to his mind. When the newspapers were delivered to this place, they would no longer be a forecast order but a review order.

The next morning, after eating egg tortillas, everyone started to go up the mountain with Lao Chi Ri to look for the location of the chicken farm.

Lianhe Township is a huge valley, which is shaped like a beast's claw. Before liberation, Lianhe Township was actually a settlement formed by a chieftain and his tribe guarding the entrance of the valley, and all the land in the valley was his property.

According to Lao Chi Ri, at that time the valley behind Lianhe Township was a lush primeval forest with abundant water and grass. Every year a new piece of land was burned to grow crops, and the previous piece of land would soon be covered with sheep grass to provide food for cattle and sheep.

I don't know since which year the climate began to change. Coupled with indiscriminate logging, the reduction of forests and the expansion of burned areas, the valleys that used to be productive have become geological disaster areas with frequent flash floods and landslides.

Without the protection of the forest, the topsoil is washed away, leaving behind desolate red clay, which suddenly loses its nutritional value.

In addition, water resources have become scarce, and the valley that still retains its original appearance is in the ditch farthest from Lianhe Township. The rest of the valley has long lost its original appearance.

Since the country began to implement aerial seeding afforestation, although the results have been mediocre in most places, Lianhe Township has become one of the few very successful places.