Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 428 427 Identifying Jade
November 1959, 11, the second day of the tenth lunar month, Tuesday, sunny.

Tang Zhitong got up as usual, sent his sisters to school in the morning, and on his way home, he saw someone selling persimmons.

Persimmons mostly grow in mountains and hills. They do not occupy fertile farmland and do not require regular care. They can be picked directly after the frost.

The persimmons at this time are especially sweet and are a rare and affordable fruit in the city between autumn and winter.

The store carried baskets of persimmons to the street early in the morning. Citizens who went out to buy groceries in the morning were picking and choosing. Some office workers stopped their bicycles and squeezed into the crowd to buy three to five kilograms of persimmons, apparently intending to take them home to satisfy their children's cravings.

Last time, classmate Xiao Wang brought some home, but he ate them all before Zhang Guifang could make them into persimmon cakes.

For this reason, Zhang Guifang also said that persimmon cakes would taste better with sugar icing on them.

When Tang Zhitong came across this, he simply squeezed into the crowd, picked and chose, and bought ten kilograms.

The reason for the selection is that some persimmons have been pecked by birds. At present, the damaged ones will be left for the last disposal. Unlike decades later, many people like the ones bitten by insects and pecked by birds, which means that they have not been sprayed with pesticides...

On the way home after buying persimmons, Tang Zhitong "bought" another cart of firewood.

When he returned home and saw the firewood and coal in the corner, Tang Zhitong felt like he was almost turning into a little squirrel. He had been trying hard to stock up on supplies for the winter recently.

"Mom, I bought some persimmons. You can make them into persimmon cakes." Tang Zhitong threw the firewood on the ground and then carried the net bag into the house.

"Why did you buy so much?" Zhang Guifang was a little surprised.

"There aren't many snacks in winter, so I'll make some persimmon cakes and eat them slowly. I bought some firewood and will put it away first." Tang Zhitong put the persimmons down and left them there. Persimmon cakes are not difficult to make and are a manual job, so he gave it to Zhang Guifang and went to do the physical labor.

After stacking the firewood, Tang Zhitong looked at the cabbages tied in the yard, squatted on the ground and smoked a cigarette.

In order to make the cabbage more compact, Zhang Guifang tied a straw rope around the cabbage a few days ago. Now it is a lot bigger than when she first tied it.

"Mom, it's been sunny recently. Let's water the cabbages today?" Tang Zhitong finished smoking his cigarette, threw it on the ground, stood up and stomped it out, and asked.

"Okay, water less. Too much will cause the roots to rot." Zhang Guifang looked up at the sky and instructed.

"Okay!" Tang Zhitong agreed happily, took the shoulder pole and bucket, and went to the water station to fetch water.

This is not the first time that Tang Zhitong has done this job, and it is not the first time that his family has grown cabbage. When the cabbage is about half a month away from being harvested, it can be watered for the last time, which can effectively make the cabbage gain weight, but not too much water. One reason is to prevent root rot, and the other is to prevent the cabbage from having too much water, because too much water will make it difficult to store in the winter.

While Tang Zhitong was watering the vegetables, Zhang Guifang was concentrating on peeling the persimmons with a kitchen knife.

In order to save trouble, Tang Zhitong secretly scooped up some of the stored water when his mother wasn't paying attention, so he had to carry less water twice.

After watering the fields and filling the water tank, Zhang Guifang was still struggling with the persimmons.

"Mom, you take a break, I'll do it." Tang Zhitong washed his hands and went over. There was only one kitchen knife in the house, and this job could not be done by multiple people at the same time.

"No need, just peel the skin and feed it to the chickens." Zhang Guifang peeled a persimmon, put it in the basin, and instructed her son.

"Okay." Tang Zhitong is a well-behaved boy who does whatever his mother says.

There are a lot of persimmon peels, so the old hen and three hens at home can have a full meal today.

Persimmon cakes are actually not difficult to make and you can make them at home.

Choose hard and crisp persimmons, wash and peel them, and then expose them to the sun.

In order to save space, some families with limited space would tie the persimmon stalks with cotton thread, while others would string the persimmons together with needle and thread and then hang them up to dry.

No matter which method is used, after ten days of exposure to the sun, the hard persimmons will gradually shrink and the color will change from light to dark.

When the surface of the persimmons turns slightly white, they can be collected and stored.

That is not mold, but white frost formed by the analysis of sugar.

When Tang Zhitong was a child, when he ate persimmon cakes at that time, he would first lick off the layer of icing, and then take a bite into it. The inside was like a runny egg, with syrupy sugar flowing out, and it tasted particularly sweet.

However, Tang Zhitong, who has seen the world, is not interested in such sweets. He buys and makes them just for his family to eat.

Watching Zhang Guifang peeling the skin bit by bit with a kitchen knife, Tang Zhitong thought of a thing called a "peeling artifact".

The production of the skin-beating device is not difficult, and Tang Zhitong plans to find something for his mother-in-law to do later.

Given the current domestic economic conditions, there is not much market for skin-peeling devices in China, and the main market is abroad.

The profit from this thing will not be very high, but the advantage is that almost every household needs it. As long as the price is right, people with a better life can buy one, or even several, one for peeling vegetables and one for peeling fruits.

After lunch, Tang Zhitong took a short rest and said hello to Zhang Guifang, saying that he was going out for a walk.

In the past, Tang Zhitong always went north, but this time he went south.

A few years ago, in addition to the charity sites in the south, there were many temples, such as the Reclining Buddha Temple, Long'an Temple, Tianlong Temple, Ma Shen Temple, Anhua Temple, Lusheng Temple, Maitreya Temple, and Dragon King Temple.

In addition to the temple, there is also Shejiaguan.

When it comes to Shejiaguan, not many people may know about it, but when it comes to Yuan Chonghuan’s tomb, many people know about it.

Yuan Chonghuan was executed by Chongzhen. It is said that he was cut more than 3,500 times and died amidst curses.

It is said that no one dared to collect his body. Only a hero named She stole the body at night, buried it outside Chongwenmen, and guarded the tomb for the rest of his life.

After his death, this man was buried next to the commander-in-chief's tomb, so people called this place Shejiaguan, an ancient courtyard facing the street.

After liberation, the area was vacated and houses and factories were built. Someone wrote to the leaders, calling for the protection of the tomb of national hero Yuan Chonghuan so that the ancient monument of Yuan's tomb could be preserved.

There is too much that cannot be said, except that he had a close relationship with the big boss, and he had helped the big boss before. Later, he was blessed and was able to enjoy a peaceful old age and help his descendants.

Later, his granddaughter Run moved to Myrtle Beach and was "asked" to leave Shijia Hutong in 08. She even filed a lawsuit for this.

The Reclining Buddha Temple is right next to Shejiaguan, and Tang Zhitong wants to go to the Reclining Buddha Temple to look for someone today.

As mentioned earlier, the Reclining Buddha Temple was converted into a jade factory after liberation. In fact, it produces more than just jade. There is also a glass factory here, which mainly produces some craft glassware. Like jade, its products are not aimed at ordinary people.

"Uncle, I'm looking for Ma Keqin from the jade factory." Tang Zhitong took the initiative to hand a cigarette to the uncle who was guarding the door.

"Oh, who are you to him?" The old man took the cigarette, looked at it, and put it on his ear. "I'm his younger brother." Tang Zhitong saw that the old man didn't want to light up the cigarette, so he didn't take out the match.

"Go into the east wing of the courtyard and take a look." Although this is a factory, the management is not strict. The old man waved his hand and let people pass.

"Okay, thank you." Tang Zhitong bowed and walked in leisurely.

Ma Keqin is Ma Kejian’s biological elder brother and Qiaoer’s biological father.

Tang Zhitong heard from the older generation that Uncle Ma had high hopes for Ma Keqin and wanted to pass on his skills to him, but Ma Keqin had never been interested in entering the kitchen since he was a child.

At that time, there were some jade craftsmen on the east side of the flower market, and some of them would set up stalls during market hours. As time went by, Ma Qin became interested in this kind of stone.

After repeated beatings proved ineffective, Uncle Ma gave up and simply followed his son's wishes and sent Ma Keqin to be an apprentice.

As the saying goes, interest is the best teacher.

Mark is a quick learner, has good skills, and is even luckier.

After working for a few years, he was recruited into the jade factory during the liberation. He got a stable job, got married and had a child.

It can be said that everything is going smoothly.

"Brother Keqin." After Tang Zhitong entered the courtyard, he didn't ask anything. He looked at the doors of the east wing rooms one by one. After finding Ma Keqin, he called out directly.

"Eanzi? Why are you here?" When Ma Qin heard someone calling him, he took the jade away from the grinding wheel, stopped stepping on the pedal, looked up and asked.

"Hey, I'm taking a break today, so I came to see you about something." There was more than just Ma Keqin in the room, so Tang Zhitong didn't go in.

"Wait." Ma Qin said nothing, put down the jade, washed his hands in the bucket beside him, and stood up and left the water stool.

Water stool, the jade craftsmen in Sijiu City call it water stool. Its specific working principle is somewhat similar to the restraint of a bowl repairer, which achieves its purpose through rapid pulling to form high-speed rotation, and then friction.

"What's the matter?" Ma Qin asked after walking out of the room.

He and Tang Zhitong are much older than each other, and although they don't interact much, the two families have a good relationship, and he won't just sit there and watch if something really happens.

"Brother Keqin, have a cigarette." Tang Zhitong offered a cigarette to Ma Keqin first.

After Ma Keqin held the cigarette with his rough, thin hands and lit it, Tang Zhitong revealed his purpose: "Brother Keqin, I want to ask you how to identify jade."

"Aren't you doing your job well? Why are you learning this?" Ma Qin was surprised.

"It's just my personal hobby." Tang Zhitong said casually.

A few hobbies are nothing more than for the sake of money. Last time when Tang Zhitong was talking about Hami melon with classmate Xiao Wang, he wanted to learn about jade materials.

Although Hami is still far away from the jade producing areas, it will become a transit station for jade after the road is opened.

If I have the chance to go to Hami, won't I buy some to stock up? This thing probably isn't that expensive right now, but it will be extremely expensive in a few decades.

If you want to make money from this, you must have some vision and know how to distinguish so as to avoid being cheated. So Tang Zhitong thought of Ma Keqin.

"Okay. Come with me." Ma Qin didn't ask any more questions and happily led Tang Zhitong to a corner nearby.

In the corner there was a pile of discarded scraps from jade carving. Mark Jian, holding a cigarette in his mouth, squatted down, reached in and rummaged through it for a while, then picked out a few pieces and held them in his hand.

There was a layer of dry powder on the scraps. Ma Keqin handed the scraps to Tang Zhitong, acting like a master teaching his apprentice: "Go wash them in the bucket over there."

"Okay." Tang Zhitong took the material, washed it happily, and brought it back.

Ma Keqin reached out his hand to Tang Zhitong, wiped it on his apron, held it in his palm, and said, "The best way to identify jade is to look at it more. We process Hetian jade here. The Hetian jade is the most outstanding in quality, and the mutton-fat jade is divided into sub-jade and mountain jade. The pieces I chose are very representative. You can pick out which ones are mutton-fat jade by feeling first."

Tang Zhitong said nothing, and looked at the crooked melons and cracked dates in Ma Keqin's hand one by one.

Apart from the shape, the only difference is the color.

As a jade novice, Tang Zhitong couldn't tell them apart at all, but he could be sure of one thing: there were no artificially dyed inferior jade materials, no glass or plastic products in these scraps.

Since you can’t tell the difference, just guess!

Tang Zhitong picked out the two pieces that looked the best to him based on his feeling: "Brother Keqin, I like these two pieces the most."

"One is wrong. Your intuition is good. Let me explain the difference to you in detail." Ma Qin nodded, threw away the cigarette butt, and took the strange scraps to explain to Tang Zhitong one by one what kind of material this is and what its characteristics are, what kind of material that is and what its characteristics are.

Tang Zhitong was listening attentively like a primary school student. He had to pay attention as this had a bearing on whether he could make some money in the future.

After Ma Keqin finished speaking, he placed a few scraps in Tang Zhitong's hand and said, "Take it. Go back and do as I say. Look at it more and try it out more."

"Can I take these?" Tang Zhitong looked at the scraps in his hand, confused. Although the shapes were a bit strange, they were all carefully selected by Mark Qin. In the hands of a skilled craftsman, maybe he could carve out earrings from them.

"You can take them. A pile of them will be thrown away every few days. If you have nothing to do after get off work, you can come and pick them out and practice your hand feeling." Ma Keqin said as if it was a matter of course.

"Okay! Brother Keqin, how much is this Hetian jade now?" Tang Zhitong said happily. Not only can he practice his skills, but he can also pick it out and save it openly. Such opportunities are rare. I just don't know if these guys in the jade factory will be heartbroken if they continue to work for a few decades.

"Seed jade is a bit more expensive, more than 40 yuan per pound, mountain jade is about 30 yuan, and the others are just a few yuan." Ma Qin quoted the price.

"Sold by kilogram?" Tang Zhitong was very surprised. He didn't expect the price to be so low. Decades later, good mutton-fat jade was sold by gram!

"Only good materials are sold by kilogram, the others are sold by ton. However, we do fine work here and do not process materials of poor quality." Seeing Tang Zhitong's surprise, Ma Keqin explained cheerfully.

"Wow, that's great, really great." Tang Zhitong was happy. Here came the way to make money.

This thing is great! Not only can you earn hundreds of thousands of times more, it is cleaner than antiques, and it is not regulated, so you can sell it anywhere, and you don’t have to worry about being accused of “losing” it.

I'm going to the Northwest! Tang Zhitong made up his mind secretly.

"Eanzi, you play first. I have work to do." Ma Keqin thought that Tang Zhitong was just having fun and didn't take it too seriously. He planned to go back to work.

"Okay, Brother Keqin, you go ahead and do your work. I'll stay here for a while." Tang Zhitong said, pointing at the pile of discarded scraps.

(End of this chapter)