Yonghe Road

Chapter 26 Stunt
"It's not just you and An Hongdou. Is it possible that you are destined to live a lonely life?"

Xie Anmin's curse rang coldly in his ears.

If Xie Anmin hadn't still held the IOU, Zhong Ziqi would have been furious. But Xie Anmin's holding of the IOU was like holding his weak spot, silencing him.

He could only comfort himself in his heart, how could it be possible? Once he repaired the amber silver bracelet and put it on An Hongdou's wrist, An Hongdou would be reconciled with him as before. In his opinion, the breakup message was just a girl's willful pampering.

When Zhong Ziqi had his amber silver bracelet repaired by the inheritor of the Hanyang She ethnic group's intangible cultural heritage of silver forging, and wanted to take a photo to show An Hongdou as soon as possible, he found that An Hongdou had blocked him on WeChat.

At that moment, Zhong Ziqi savored Xie Anmin's words. No matter whether he would live alone in the future, An Hongdou and he were doomed.

At that time, when the car finally arrived in Hanyang after two or three hours of trekking, Zhong Ziqi had not yet experienced the heart-wrenching feeling of being suddenly dumped by the girl he loved. He still had a secret longing for her. Holding the broken amber silver bracelet in his hand, he followed Xie Anmin into an antique old street and came to a shop.

The shop's facade is unassuming, yet exudes a calm and ancient atmosphere. The shop's signboard, made of unadorned wood and engraved with the characters "She Family Silversmith," appears solemn and ancient.

As the two walked into the store, they were greeted by a subtle smell of heated metal in the air, mixed with old wood and leather, filling the entire store with a unique craftsmanship atmosphere.

The first thing that catches the eye is the photos and design drawings of traditional She ethnic group silver jewelry hanging on the wall opposite the shop door, showing the long history and exquisite craftsmanship of She ethnic group silver forging, as well as the tool racks on the wall, which are filled with various silver forging tools: hammers, pliers, carving knives, crucibles, bellows, etc., arranged in an orderly manner. Each tool is polished to a shine, showing traces of their frequent use by the owner.

In a corner of the shop, some raw materials are piled up, including silver blocks and bars of different purities, as well as a charcoal stove used to forge silverware. Charcoal is piled next to the stove, ready to be lit and heated at any time.

In the center of the shop stands a long wooden workbench, its top covered in a thick black felt, speckled with silver flakes and tool marks. A bright incandescent lamp hangs above, providing ample illumination for the delicate silversmithing. An experienced craftsman, wearing a pair of reading glasses, stares intently at the silverware in his hands. His hammer taps gently, producing a crisp, rhythmic sound.

The master craftsman's technique is skillful and precise. He is using a tiny carving knife to carve intricate patterns on the surface of the silverware. Each line is smooth and delicate, demonstrating his superb skill. His other hand firmly grasps the silverware, gently turning it with the strikes of the hammer to ensure a more even carving.

Occasionally, he would stop to wipe his glasses with a cloth or carefully examine a detail of silverware, ensuring that every detail was flawless.

When he stopped again, he saw a young man and woman standing in the shop. Both of them were good-looking and their appearance was eye-catching.

The old craftsman pushed the frame on his nose and asked, "Do you want custom silverware or silver repair?"

Xie Anmin glanced at Zhong Ziqi, who quickly took out the amber silver bracelet wrapped in blue-dyed cloth and handed it to the master. The master took it, looked at it, and said, "What a pity, it's broken."

"Master, can you fix it?" Zhong Ziqi asked.

The master replied, "Everything in the world can be repaired, except a broken heart."

When Zhong Ziqi found out that he was blocked by An Hongdou, he suddenly realized the philosophical subtlety of the master's words.

At that time, standing in the shop, Zhong Ziqi just carefully asked the master craftsman what methods were used to repair the amber silver bracelet and how much the craftsmanship fee would cost.

The old master took out the detergent and soft-bristle brush, carefully cleaned the silver bracelets on both sides of the broken amber silver bracelet, put it in front of the reading glasses and observed it carefully. After making sure there was no grease or dirt on the surface, he told Zhong Ziqi that if the crack was small, you can choose soft soldering, that is, use silver soldering wire and soldering gun for soldering, align the two broken silver bracelets correctly, put a small piece of solder on the solder joint, and then heat the solder until it melts and covers the solder joint, and wait for the soldering point to cool completely on the surface.

But obviously, the body of this amber silver bracelet is relatively thick and the fracture is also relatively thick, so it needs hard soldering, that is, the welding point works under high pressure or tensile conditions, using silver welding wire and higher temperature solder.

You can also add silver interfaces at the fractures to connect the fractures together, and then perform welding and polishing.

However, the welding method has a shortcoming, which is that it is not beautiful. Just like a rope that is broken and then connected, there will be a lump. Even the best craftsman can only make the lump appear as small as possible, but cannot make it disappear.

Zhong Ziqi then asked if there was any more aesthetically pleasing way to repair the bracelet, as he didn't want Huifang to discover the broken amber silver bracelet. The master craftsman suggested the gold-and-silver method, which involved gluing the joints and then securing them with gold and silver hoops, but this method might not be as strong as welding.

Regardless of the method, the processing fee is not expensive, a few hundred dollars is enough.

No matter how little money was needed, it had to come out of Xie Anmin's pocket, so Zhong Ziqi turned around and glanced at Xie Anmin. Xie Anmin was looking at some finished silverware in front of the display cabinet. When she heard the conversation between the master craftsman and Zhong Ziqi suddenly interrupted, she turned around and saw Zhong Ziqi looking at her eagerly, and she couldn't help but feel a little pitiful.

"Master, please fix it as you see fit. The labor fee is up to you. If you really can't fix it, you can make an identical one."

Xie Anmin said to the master, the main thing is that you have no shortage of money.

"If I kill two identical ones, I'll have to at least..."

Before the old master could finish his words, Zhong Ziqi interrupted him, "Master, please fix it."

After all, repairing it would be cheaper than making a new one. Zhong Ziqi didn't want to owe Xie Anmin too much money.

The master craftsman asked the two to leave the amber and silver bracelet and return for it in a few days, but Xie Anmin declined. Han Yang was quite far from Baile Village, and she didn't want to make another trip. The best solution was to buy time with money. So, she paid a little more and received the repaired amber and silver bracelet that afternoon.

Xie Anmin also saw a silver bracelet with a "double dragon playing with a pearl" in the store and bought it immediately.

Although the silver forging technique of the She ethnic group combines the traditional Chinese silver carving craftsmanship with the unique style of She ethnic culture and is a precious intangible cultural heritage, it is just silver after all. No matter how expensive it is, it is not as expensive as the luxury goods in luxury stores. For Xie Anmin's consumption level, it is really not worth mentioning.

In addition to the "Double Dragons Playing with a Pearl" silver bracelet, Xie Anmin also bought several exquisitely shaped silver items in the store.

Seeing Xie Anmin's generosity and her extraordinary temperament, the old master asked her about her background. Xie Anmin did not hide it and said frankly that she was a writer.

The identity of a writer inevitably carries a halo, so the master quickly asked his son to come out of the shop and demonstrate to Xie Anmin the "body-carving" technique in the She ethnic group's silver forging skills. This is a silver forging technique that increases the ductility of silver by controlling the purity of the silver material and the thickness of the silver blank, and then uses a special chisel to carve it, so that the blank has a concave and convex shape.

The master's son was a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties. He crafted the silverware almost in one go, forming the objects in one piece. Xie Anmin and Zhong Ziqi were so impressed by the master's son that they couldn't help but applaud.

While repairing the amber silver bracelet, the old master proudly introduced to Xie Anmin and Zhong Ziqi that his son's craft had a vivid name called "Yi Zhang Da", which was a unique skill that even he himself could not do.

It is true that the disciple is better than the master, and the waves behind push the waves in front forward.

When Zhong Ziqi and Xie Anmin returned to Baile Village from Hanyang, it was already dark.

At the Zhong family's house, the food on the table was heated up again and again. Huifang asked Lin Yingying to eat first, after all, she was pregnant. Lin Yingying's belly was already showing, and after getting through the morning sickness, her appetite began to increase. But Zhong Ziqi didn't come back, and Lin Yingying was unwilling to pick up her chopsticks. She didn't want Zhong Ziqi to eat the leftovers. Fortunately, Zhong Ziqi's voice was heard outside the door: "Mother, sister-in-law——"

When Zhong Ziqi came back, the deserted house suddenly became lively.

The family sits down to eat.

Lin Yingying served soup to Zhong Ziqi, and Zhong Ziqi noticed that her wrist was empty. Although their family gave a lot of betrothal gifts, the money all went into Lin Dangdang's hands, so Lin Yingying had no dowry.

After dinner, while Huifang was washing the dishes, Zhong Ziqi took out the repaired amber silver bracelet from his pocket and handed it to Lin Yingying: "Sister-in-law, this is our family heirloom for you."

(End of this chapter)