Moon Emperor

Chapter 170
But what makes Su Yan more regretful is that although he was very envious of Mojing boy, Nie Yinniang fell in love with him as soon as he met, and he loved him very much.

But in the end, the two did not stay together until the end of their lives, because Mojing boy is a mortal, and after Nie Yinniang found a good job for her husband, she drifted away and became a fairy.

Su Yan was not at all surprised by the Taoist attire of the mirror grinder in front of him, and would not think that he must be some kind of practitioner.

In fact, since ancient times, there have been many Taoist priests who worked part-time as mirror grinders, because the materials needed for mirror grinding, such as lead, tin, and mercury, are not common, but they are the most basic raw materials in Taoist alchemy.

And the alchemy priests who are exposed to these raw materials on a daily basis naturally have the convenience of being close to the water and getting the moon first.

There are even Taoist priests who grind mirrors and sell pills along the street by the way, which can be regarded as grinding mirrors and selling pills.

The most famous Taoist priest grinding mirror in history should be Lu Zu Lu Dongbin. It is recorded in "Biography of Tang Talents Lu Yan":

"I also tasted the burden of the situation in the city, and quenched the ancient mirror for Jia Shangshu. I suddenly disappeared, and left a poem saying: The green snake in the sleeve is flying in the daytime, and the fairy fruit in the cave is bright in Changchun. You must know that eating a cloud outside of things is not grinding a mirror in the dust. people."

In addition, there is also a saying about the clappers knocked along the street. Because most of the people who need to polish their mirrors are women, they will come out to call people to grind their mirrors after hearing the sound, so this clapper has a nice nickname, "Jinggui".

Although he has a certain understanding of the profession of mirror grinder for a long time, today is the first time that Su Yan has seen a real mirror grinder with his own eyes.

So as soon as he became interested, he planned to follow the past to have a look.

After following for a while, when we arrived at a slightly secluded street, the middle-aged Taoist who yelled along the street also noticed something was wrong due to the decrease in the flow of people. He turned around and looked at Su Yan strangely, "Do you want to polish the mirror?"

Su Yan shook his head, and he replied honestly: "I've never seen anyone grind a mirror, and I want to see how it's done."

This made the middle-aged Taoist look at him even weirder.

Just at this time, a wooden door not far from the right street was ajar, and a young lady beckoned to her. She called softly, "Mirror grinder, here is a mirror to be polished."

This young lady looked only twenty-eight years old, she only leaned out half of her body cautiously, and her expression was still quite shy.

Although this world has not been poisoned by Neo-Confucianism, young women who have not left the boudoir still obey the defense of men and women, and do not easily contact strange men.

Taoist Mo Jing went straight forward, ignoring Su Yan.

The young lady skillfully handed out a bronze mirror from the door opening, "How much do you want now?"

The Taoist picked up the dim bronze mirror with a lot of green rust and looked at it, "Liuwen."

Xiao Niang easily agreed, compared to the benefits of polishing the mirror, the six cents was quite worthwhile.

So the Taoist priest Mo Jing put down the clapper, untied the wooden box behind him, and a long bench tied next to the wooden box.

He squatted down halfway, took out the scraper, the square, the mirror brick, the mirror medicine, etc., and sat on one end of the bench, ready to start grinding the mirror.

At this time, Su Yan leaned forward with interest, causing the girl to shrink back a little, and she looked at the boy curiously.

Such a handsome young man is rare even in this city of Hangzhou.

The Taoist took a look at Su Yan, but he didn't chase him away. He just put the square table on the other end of the bench, and then put the rusty bronze mirror on the square table to fix it.

The so-called "jue" is a square mirror holder similar to a chessboard. Because the mirror grinder walks around the streets with a negative game, it is also called "Mr. Negative Game".

After fixing the mirror, the Taoist priest picked up the scraper and carefully cleaned up some uneven places on the mirror surface, scraping off the green embroidery that can be scraped clean first.

After finishing the preliminary cleaning, the Taoist priest picked up a clay pot and carefully smeared some off-white fine paste on the mirror surface with a spatula.

This is the mirror grinding medicine unique to mirror grinders. The formula is kept secret from ordinary people, after all, it is their ability to eat.

According to the information Su Yan checked in his previous life, the raw materials should include: alum (six qian), mercury ([-] qen), white iron (tin, [-] qian), antler ash ([-] qen).

These things can be made into mirror grinding medicine through several processes such as mixing, grinding, and elutriation.

Moreover, there are actually more than one formula. Su Yan can't guarantee whether the formula used by the mirror grinding Taoist in front of him is the same as the one he knows.

The smearing does not need to be too uniform, the Taoist put down the clay pot and scraper, and picked up the mirror tile instead.

This polished mirror brick is made of fine marl pottery, round in shape as a whole, with a smooth and flat polished surface, which looks like a stone mirror.

Its function is to act as a grinding tool. The Taoist holds the groove on the back of the mirror tile and grinds it finely on the bronze mirror surface. As each position is carefully ground, the ointment will naturally be even.

On Su Yan's side, he watched the Taoist grinding the mirror very engrossed.

He felt that every movement of the other party had a natural rhythm in it.

Just looking at this simple and effective movement and listening to this subtle friction sound, Su Yan's mind suddenly calmed down, as if he forgot that he was in a busy city and that he was still on the way.
The young lady behind the door didn't think there was anything interesting about the polished mirror, or she was usually interested in looking at it, but now her attention was no longer there, she just stared at the boy's profile.

Taoist Priest Mojing was expressionless, but Su Yan could see a kind of piety in his eyes. He didn't seem to regard this behavior as a boring and dull job, and obviously devoted himself to it.

In this way, inside and outside the door, the three of them focused on each other, and time passed quickly.

The Taoist breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and put down the mirror polishing brick in his hand.

At this time, the bronze mirror still looks not bright, because there is a layer of delicate ointment mixed with embroidered green on the surface.

But in fact, the grinding process has been completed. The Taoist picked up another clay pot and carefully poured some off-white powder on the mirror surface.

This is also a kind of mirror grinding medicine, but it is used for polishing. According to Su Yan's knowledge, the raw materials should include: deer parietal bone (burned ash), alum (dried), silver mother sand, etc.

The Taoist priest took out a towel and wiped it on the bronze mirror surface. Soon, the place that was wiped clean revealed a bright and clean mirror surface.

The sunlight shone on the mirror surface, reflecting beautiful light spots, and even the girl's eyes were attracted back at once.

Su Yan felt a sense of satisfaction when he saw this mirror. It was really no different from the glass mirrors of later generations, and his face was reflected in it.

Moreover, the craftsmanship of this Taoist priest is also very good, and this effect can be achieved without repeated grinding two or three times.

Generally speaking, a polished bronze mirror like this can stay bright for half a year to a year, after which it needs to be re-polished.

(End of this chapter)