Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1692 Beautiful Stone

Yes, there is another kind of stone besides flint that has a shell-shaped cross-section when struck, and that is agate.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Pi and his father Cao Cao went north to conquer Wuhuan. The local people presented them with an agate wine cup. Cao Pi saw that the cup was red like flying clouds and crystal clear, so he wrote "Ma Nao Le Fu" and said in the preface: "Ma Nao is a kind of jade. It comes from the Western Regions. It has intertwined patterns and looks like horse brain, so the local people named it after it. Some people tie their necks, and some use it as a decoration. I have this beautiful jade, so I wrote a poem about it. I ordered Chen Lin and Wang Can to write it together."

Agate is actually a type of chalcedony mineral. Like flint, it is a silicide, but it is often mixed with opal and cryptocrystalline quartz. As a result, it appears as a trigonal crystal banded block. It is often in a dense block and forms various structures, such as breast-shaped, grape-shaped, tubercle-shaped, etc. The most common structure is a concentric circle structure.

Agate has very rich colors. It is hard but brittle. Concentric circular waves centered on the stress point can be seen on the cross section, which is commonly known as shell pattern. Its sharp edges can scratch glass and have very high hardness.

When he was in the northern border, Zhou Zhi had seen too many agates. The textures of those agates were generally ring-shaped patterns with chalcedony as the core. The layers were fine and dense, the colors were bright and rich, and they were full of magical geometric beauty.

Among the stones found on Tuziri, there is one that is similar to the agate commonly seen in Zhouzhi or the Yuhua stone picked up on the banks of the Yangtze River, but the whole stone is red, with only the chalcedony core being white, which is a typical characteristic of agate.

The second type, after being knocked open, showed a bright red cross-section, mixed with some persimmon red or coral-colored water plant patterns, and some patterns were shaped like flames. Zhou Zhi was not sure whether this type of stone was agate.

The third color is very pure, and no patterns can be seen at all with the naked eye. The cross-sectional features are like glass, and the color inside the weathered skin is slightly darker than persimmon red.

This kind of stone is very similar to another kind of stone that Zhouzhi is familiar with, which is the material for making imperial beads that has been lost for a long time - Nanhong.

Nanhong was originally a kind of stone produced in Gansu. Because its color is very similar to coral, it was discovered and used as a substitute for precious coral to make utensils.

Due to its extremely scarce output, the Gannan Red mine was soon exhausted.

However, at this time, a new mineral source was discovered in Baoshan, Yunnan Province, which is the Baoshan Nanhong.

The color of Baoshan Nanhong is lighter than that of Gannan Hong, and the large-scale mining industry also quickly exhausted its production, leaving a lot of broken pieces. Later, there was even a saying that "no cracks, no Baoshan".

Zhou Zhi collected scattered red coral beads from many sources, and finally put together a string of them. He then combined them with the scattered pieces of the empress's court beads from the Forbidden City and the bright yellow ribbon given by Grandpa Qi, and finally restored a string of red coral court beads as a belated wedding gift for Xu Anxin. However, the girl didn't like it very much, so he replaced it with a Hetian jade carving.

During this process, Zhou Zhi became very familiar with Gannan Red and Baoshan Nanhong. Therefore, when Tuziri threw the stone just now, the coral red light reflected on the cross-section of the stone was immediately captured by Zhou Zhi.

But now, after looking carefully, Zhou Zhi discovered that there are differences between these stones and the traditional Nanhong.

In addition to the two types mentioned above, there is another type of stone that is liver-colored, very heavy in texture, lacks "water head", and has no aesthetic value.

There is a kind of stone that is black and red, which is called the best flint material by Tu Ziri. This stone is similar to a piece of red and black glass, which Zhou Zhi has never seen before.

There is one kind of stone that is similar to the pure coral stone just mentioned, but there is a difference in water head between the two. One is closer to coral, looks like glass but is not transparent, and one is like cherry with plenty of water head, but the color is naturally lighter. There is also a completely transparent glue or rice soup-like stone, dotted with small red water grass flowers. Zhou Zhi estimated that this kind of stone should be the edge product of the cherry-like stone, but it is also a pure guess.

To sum up, excluding the black and red stones that the Yi people like to use as flints, and the liver-colored stones with too strong stone properties, the remaining types, from the ice-flowering ones, to the cherry-shaped ones, to the persimmon-shaped ones, to the ones with mixed flames, and to the ones with chalcedony cores and agate patterns, all have their own characteristics.

These stones have not been processed and are covered with a thick stone shell. The beauty inside can only be seen through the cross-section.

Zhou Zhi looked toward the Meigu River at the foot of the mountain and recalled his experience of picking up rain flower stones by the Yangtze River. He felt as if he had a good pastime to kill time again.

"These stones are all beautiful." Zhou Zhi asked, "I wonder if there are any in the river below?"

"There are plenty of them in the river." Tuziri said nonchalantly, "They just look good but are useless."

"Oh? Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because it's been washed by water for too long, so the fire has been completely driven away. It's not as good as the one on the mountain."

"Is there such a saying?" Zhou Zhi turned his head and looked around. He found that there were several large stones in the pile of stones picked out by the Yi people. "Please help me carry those large stones away. I think these red stones are very beautiful. When the time comes, send them outside and let scientists help analyze their composition."

"Elbow, Tuzi, come and eat!" At this time, the soup was ready, and Lao Chi Ri invited everyone to eat together.

The lunch was shockingly simple, consisting of steamed buns brought up by Zhou Zhi and Gillie Abi, shredded kohlrabi, and a pot of soup cooked by Lao Chi Ri.

The soup is cooked with stream water and the Yi people's dried pickled vegetables, some red beans, two chopped pink pumpkins found on the mountain, some pumpkin tips as vegetables, and finally a bottle of "Soul Sauce" fried in Zhouzhi and brought up the mountain by Lao Chi Ri, sprinkle a handful of salt, and a big pot of soup is ready.

The soup tasted quite good, and together with the steamed buns and pickles, the villagers all enjoyed it very much.

Zhou Zhi knew that there was a rumor in the village recently that the laborers who participated in the construction of the orchard would have meat to eat every day. All the villagers who participated in the construction of the orchard looked very proud when they heard others asking about it. This rumor really made Zhou Zhi feel a little ashamed.

It's a pity that Zhouzhi hasn't seen any place selling fried meat in Meigu County and the Autonomous Prefecture. It seems that this stuff is still in the home-made stage and I haven't seen it sold outside. Sausages and bacon are not easy to preserve in Lianhe Township. They will dehydrate and become jerky in minutes and lose their flavor.

Zhou Zhi also thought about making moldy tofu, but it still ended in shameful failure, because the climate did not seem to be suitable for the growth of yeast, or the strain was different from that of Jiachuan. The tofu here could also grow hair and become moldy, but after being coated with white wine, salt, chili powder and five-spice powder and put into the bottle, it seemed that it lacked the secondary fermentation process of Jiachuan tofu to release water. Instead, it turned into relatively drier tofu blocks in the bottle, and the aroma of the secondary fermentation did not come out. Half a month later, it still tasted like moldy tofu with salt, chili powder and five-spice powder, and they had not been integrated at all.

Although Gillette Abi praised the "fermented tofu" and the children liked to eat it, Zhou Zhi thought it was a Waterloo in his cooking career.