Riding the wind of rebirth

"I remember this material also has persimmon and cherry materials, right?"

"Yes, now the persimmon material is further divided into brocade red and ox blood red, and the flame red is further divided into rose red."

“Cherry red is not subdivided based on color, but it is also divided into gelatinous and icy reds.”

"Is this the way you want to make money for the people in Lianhe Township?"

"That's what I thought at first," Zhou Zhi said, "but later I learned that all these minerals belong to the country. Even if these minerals washed out by surface water can be compared to Hetian jade, which can be picked up by villagers and exchanged for money, Hetian is an example. From the Warring States period to the new China, no one has ever made a fortune there."

"This is what I want to remind you." Godfather nodded: "This development path may not work."

"So it's better to take the normal development path." Zhou Zhi smiled slyly, "As for Nanhong, just think of it as a reward from God for my long time working in Lianhe Township. Try to buy as much as possible before the price goes up. If one day this thing is speculated on by someone like the pair of chicken blood stone seals you gave me, I will get rich too."

“Hahahaha…” Godfather knew Zhou Zhi was joking, “If I had known the price of bloodstone would go up, I wouldn’t have given it to you.”

"Godfather, I heard from Elbow that you have quite a collection." Mai Xiaomiao looked at the strange stones displayed all over the room and asked, "Are these all?"

"Our collection is different from yours." Godfather said with a smile: "Our stones are just large pebbles picked up from the Yangtze River. The stones themselves are not good materials, and there is no distinction between material quality. The only thing that wins is that the patterns can evoke people's imagination and are vivid and lifelike."

"The more beautiful and magical the pattern is, the higher its value, right?" Mai Xiaomiao asked.

"It also depends on the vision and aesthetic taste of the person who plays with the stone. People with poor associative ability will not recognize good things even if they are faced with them." The godmother laughed and said, "There was a strange stone at home before. We thought it was ordinary, but it was chosen by Elbow. When we went to his house next time, the stone had been turned upside down. Then Zhou Zhi told us that the outline of the pattern was like the silhouette of a great man. We took another look and found that it was indeed very lifelike."

"Yes, I've seen that stone before. This time, Elbow even placed a badge he found at a ghost market under the stone." Mai Xiaomiao agreed: "It does look very similar to the silhouette."

"Come, let me introduce it to you." Godfather is very proud of his collection, and it is natural for him to show off at this time.

"The Yangtze River Stone mainly comes from the various stone raw materials provided by the complex geological structure of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Yangtze River. According to statistics from collectors, there are almost 34 kinds of stones." Godfather took everyone to see his collection: "Rivers such as the Jinsha River, Min River, Dadu River, and Qingyi River all have the characteristics of abundant flow, huge drop, and narrow river valley. The geological structure is complex, the landform is rugged, and a large number of sedimentary rocks, igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks are distributed in the basin, which naturally forms an ideal 'automatic processing line'."

"The rocks in the upper reaches of these rivers have been weathered naturally, transported by the river water, and polished by the water, forming the Yangtze River pebbles with rich colors, strange patterns, and a wide variety of species. When the Jinsha River and the Min River merge in Yizhou and enter the Sichuan Basin, they meander like a dragon and a snake in the hills of southern Sichuan. The flow rate of the river begins to slow down, and these pebbles brought from the plateau by the river water and 'processed' by the river water are deposited on both sides of the river."

"From Yizhou to Yuzhou, there are more than a hundred large and small dams on both sides of the river, and we have thirty to fifty of them in Manzhou."

"Now we have roughly formed three schools of stone appreciation." Godfather was very proud: "This standard was also set by our Stone Association, and it has now become a universal standard." "The first type is called quality-color stone, which is mainly composed of Yangtze River red jasper, purple jasper, yellow wax stone, green mudstone, black jade, etc., with fine texture and bright colors. You can appreciate it for its shape or its quality and color."

"This type of stone material is generally scarce and relatively expensive."

"Then our Nanhong Shuizi should actually be considered a kind of colored stone, right?"

"Well, Nanhong is a type of agate. Except for its smaller size, it also meets the standards of a quality colored stone."

"Colored stones are best maintained with oil, preferably inorganic oil or mineral oil. When oil penetrates deep into the stone, it can fully reveal the color deep inside the stone, making the black darker, the yellow yellower, the red redder, the green greener, and even making the stone translucent or slightly transparent, making it look like new and gorgeous."

"But smaller colored stones are like the bracelets on your hand. You can just play with them with your hands. Over time, they will achieve the same effect."

"Yeah, that's what Elbow told me."

"The second type of Yangtze River stone is pictographic stone. People appreciate them for their peculiar shapes. If the material is fine-textured stone such as red jasper, yellow wax stone, or chlorite, you can appreciate both the shape and the quality, and you can also use oil for maintenance. But if it is quartz sandstone, siltstone, or even limestone like Taihu stone, the material of this type of stone is relatively coarse, so it cannot be maintained with oil. It is best not to use any maintenance, and just appreciate the shape."

"The largest remaining type of Yangtze River stone is pattern stone. The geological composition of pattern stone is very broad. Almost all Yangtze River stone species classified according to geological composition can form pattern pictures, so they can all be collected and appreciated."

"Patterned stones are like calligraphy and paintings. This type of stone is appreciated for the 'text' or 'picture' on its surface. If it is stained with oil, the color inside the stone will show through, which will cause interference, reduce the contrast of the picture, and cause artificial pollution to the natural calligraphy and painting."

"However, as a type of water-washed pebble, the Yangtze River pattern stone has a strong affinity for water. Most picture stones have a rough surface and fine pores. In a dry state, the color is lighter and the contrast is not very strong. After being filled with water, the water droplets fill the pores, and the tension of the water droplets has an amplifying effect, so the color will be bright, the contrast will be improved, and the viewing of the picture will be improved."

“Yes, the water seeds we picked up need to be bottled with water and kept in order to look better.” Mai Xiaomiao agreed.

"However, as a picture stone placed on a display stand or exhibition table, you can't always apply water. Even if you apply it, it will evaporate quickly." Godfather said, "So stone lovers need to find a substance that can replace water to show the beauty of the stone picture, but will not evaporate like water, nor will it penetrate like oil to maintain the stone."

"Wow, this material is a bit hard to find, right? Is it suitable for some kind of transparent quick-drying organic paint?"

“Hahahaha,” Godfather laughed, “It’s not that complicated. In fact, at the beginning, my fellow stone friends had the same idea as you, Xiao Miao, and used banana water to apply it, but later they found the most suitable substitute, which is duck egg white.” (End of this chapter)