Chapter 47: Old Stories of the Porcelain Factory

Chapter Forty-Seven: Old Stories of the Porcelain Factory

Even though I haven't really thought about him much these past few days, the moment I see him, I feel so wronged.

The tall, handsome man patted her back and carried her a few steps: "Can you get down first? I smell terrible. I'll take a shower before you can carry me."

Li Yue sniffed: "Your hair does smell."

"How can field combat training not smell? It's impossible to shower and wash your hair every day. I have to set an example. Halfway through the training, it rained, and the tanks were running in the mud. We didn't have enough tents, and some soldiers slept on the grass. Fortunately, it's not too cold now."

Looking at his tired face, Li Yue said, "You've worked hard."

After saying that, he jumped down.

He was taking a shower. Li Yue glanced at her watch; it was 2 a.m.

She remained lying in bed, waiting for Ling Jianwei to finish her shower and feel refreshed. Wrapped in a bath towel, she took a dry towel and dried her hair as she walked into the room. Li Yue seemed to be asleep again.

The man chuckled softly, hugged her, and pulled her onto his lap.

His hair was still wet, with tiny water droplets clinging to the ends. Li Yue took a dry towel and dried his hair, then hugged his neck, buried her face in his shoulder, and closed her eyes.

"Are you sleepy?" he asked.

"Hmm, aren't you sleepy?"

"certainly."

"Then let's go to sleep first."

He smiled and responded, gently patting her back to lull her to sleep.

Li Yue was woken up by him when the first light of dawn, after only three hours of sleep.

The first time he took advantage of her while she was asleep, and in the past six months, he had woken her up countless times in the night.

He liked her when she was half asleep, so it would be easier for him to wake her up little by little.

Later, he whispered in her ear and asked if she had missed him a lot these past few days.

Li Yue hummed in agreement.

Of course, I really, really want to.

...

My sleep was intermittent.

The man was clearly tired and sleepy, but he would toss and turn after sleeping for a while, then fall asleep again. He woke up around seven o'clock and tossed and turned again.

By the time Li Yue fully woke up, the sun was high in the sky, past ten o'clock.

She woke up starving, removed Ling Jianwei's arm, got up and cooked herself a bowl of noodles.

Ling Jianwei woke up at 12:30.

Li Yue prepared a simple meal: water spinach with garlic, fried eggs with scallions, and opened a can of braised pork.

The weariness on his face had eased considerably; he was only wearing trousers and was shirtless as he walked out. Li Yue urged him to hurry up and wash up and get dressed, and he smiled, patting her head: "Yes, ma'am."

During the meal, Li Yue asked, "Are you going back to camp today?"

"No, we're not going back. Everyone's resting."

Are you tired now?

Ling Jianwei smiled slightly: "Want to do it?"

"No, no!" Li Yue said, feeling extremely frustrated. "I want you to take me somewhere."

"where?"

"nursery."

"?"

A moment later, Li Yue led him to see the two flowerpots she had repaired with cement the night before. The cement in the flowerpots had not yet dried completely, but it had already hardened.

“I want to plant some flowers and plants,” Li Yue said. “In the future, the factory will also have these broken flower pots that can be repaired and used. Also, we can make a flower bed in this open space in front.”

Ling Jianwei pondered for a moment: "But aren't there only saplings in the nursery? Shouldn't we go to the flower nursery?"

Li Yue said, "They said there are no flower nurseries nearby, only seedling nurseries, and there are flowers and plants in the seedling nurseries."

He tapped his chin: "Then let's go take a look."

The nursery is very large, divided into a sapling area and a flower and grass area. However, at this time of year, some flowers have already finished blooming, but the peonies are in full bloom, and their vibrant colors are quite beautiful.

Crown of thorns and roses can both be propagated by cuttings. Li Yue bought several plants, as well as peonies, herbaceous peonies, and orchids. In addition, there were cacti and succulents. The nursery staff explained that some of the succulents were collected from a nearby valley and cultivated and propagated...

Returning home laden with their harvest at 5 p.m., Li Yue smiled broadly and, without a word, rolled up her sleeves to borrow a hoe to dig and plant.

Ling Jianwei shook his head and said that he would build a flower bed in the open space in front of the house tomorrow, and told her not to rush.

Li Yue said, "Really?"

He said helplessly, "Otherwise what? Why are you here swinging a hoe, getting your hands covered in blisters?"

“It’s not that weak…” Li Yue said. “Then I’ll dig some soil into the flowerpots first and plant peonies, peonies, and orchids. They are very delicate and might die overnight.”

"..."

Li Jinqiu, who was taking care of the child outside the door, listened to their conversation and kept sighing, "You two are so loving and sweet, you are a model couple in our residential compound."

Li Yue smiled and took a shovel to shovel soil into the flowerpot.

Li Jinqiu asked curiously, "Isn't Xue Lian working in the same factory as you now?"

Upon hearing the name, Li Yue paused for a moment and then hummed in response.

"Her good news with your deputy factory director is coming soon. Sister-in-law Lamei is so proud now, saying that if she marries her off as soon as possible, her mission will be accomplished."

Another neighbor's wife came over and chimed in, "It seems like they're coming over today to send off the date."

Li Jinqiu: Really? It seems their family is quite anxious.

Li Yue thought to herself that they must really be attracted to each other, and she couldn't wait to get married on the spot.

-

The following Monday, Li Yue went to work as usual.

In the afternoon, a notice was written in chalk on the small blackboard on the bulletin board. The gist of the notice was that in order to protect the factory's property from being privately owned, employees must obtain the office director's written consent before taking any porcelain out of the factory, even broken or damaged pieces.

Although this wasn't just directed at Li Yue, when Li Yue saw the notification, she felt like she had swallowed a fly.

Sister Li clicked her tongue and said, "I reckon it won't be long before the deputy factory director's wife is firmly in the position of office director."

Li Yue shrugged. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Sister Li's guess was correct. A month later, there was a personnel reshuffle at the factory. Zhong Xuelian became the office director, while the original office director was transferred to the workshop as a supervisor.

At this time, Li Yue had been working at the factory for exactly three months. Her rotation was over, and she had gone through all the procedures. Her goal was to participate in the restoration work of Ru porcelain, so she wrote an application to be transferred to the restoration team.

But her application has yet to be approved.

A week later, the head of the restoration team finally found Li Yue and spoke with her.

The team leader, surnamed Xie, was a middle-aged man in his forties who spoke in an official tone: "Xiao Li, we have received your application. We heard that you have performed very well over the past three months, working diligently and conscientiously, which is excellent."

Li Yue smiled and said, "Thank you for the affirmation, team leader. It's all thanks to the factory's excellent training."

"However, the restoration work is very meticulous and complex. It's not something you can do just by knowing the process. Otherwise, anyone in the factory could join the team."

Li Yue's heart sank, and she instinctively felt hopeless.

“We’ve seen your designs and the bottles you’ve made on the potter’s wheel, and they’re exquisite. Plus, you have a certain artistic background, so we think you’re better suited to train in the crafts group right now. You can train for a while first, and we’ll ask you for help if we need anything.”

In other words, they explicitly refused to let her join the restoration team and assigned her to the ordinary porcelain craftsmanship team instead.

Although she didn't think they should take her in as a matter of course, since she was indeed a newcomer and hadn't accomplished anything significant, Li Yue couldn't help but feel frustrated.

While eating, I took my lunchbox to my mentor and talked about the result of my application being rejected.

Wang Yuanshan sneered: "When you applied, I told you not to have too much hope."

"After my rotation ended, I needed to find a suitable permanent department, so I submitted my application with a 'let's give it a try' attitude." Li Yue asked, "Does this team not hire new people?"

Wang Yuanshan said, "Of course, not just anyone can join that group. The members are all from the factory's leadership, and there are also people from the county's Ru porcelain association serving as consultants. They are responsible for research and experimentation, but in reality, many people can't even throw the clay properly. When conducting experiments, they bring in people from the grassroots level to throw the clay and fire it. They are responsible for mixing the clay slurry and glaze; outsiders don't know the formula. They also control the temperature themselves."

Li Yue understood that they didn't want people with shallow backgrounds to join, but some rumors made her have all sorts of doubts about it.

She couldn't help but look at him: "Master, can I ask you a question?"

Wang Yuanshan said, "Ask whatever you want."

Were you also part of the Restoration Team before?

"Not really, I just helped them with some things."

"Then, I heard that you were transferred from the process design group to the workshop because you spoke up for an old craftsman," Li Yue said. "Did that old craftsman really leak the formula for the bean-green glaze?"

Wang Yuanshan gave her a meaningful look: "Do you believe it?"

Li Yue shook her head: "I didn't experience it firsthand, so I don't know. But I heard that he has returned to his hometown and hasn't worked in any other porcelain factories."

Wang Yuanshan fell silent.

Li Yue asked again, "Master, what happened? Can you tell me?"

Wang Yuanshan was eating a cornbread bun and didn't really want to talk about it.

Li Yue: "Master, I'll bring you braised pork tomorrow."

Wang Yuanshan said, "Your applications have all been rejected, and you still have the mind to inquire about this matter."

Li Yue nodded: "They have all sorts of things to say, but they're not detailed enough. I'm really curious to know."

Wang Yuanshan coldly curled the corner of his mouth: "That old craftsman is actually the factory's chief process engineer."

Li Yue was stunned.

More than a decade ago, when the state issued the task of restoring Ru ware, it did not only authorize this one porcelain factory to do it; other porcelain factories were also conducting research. Since the ancient techniques and formulas had long been lost, researchers used modern methods to study its chemical composition and then determined the formula through blending.

Among them, the research on bean green glaze was the easiest. After firing several kilns, the finished product of one kiln was closest to the existing Song Dynasty bean green glaze Ru porcelain bottle. Therefore, the formula has been refined based on this one.

However, other porcelain factories have also reproduced this glaze color. During an exchange activity, the factory's chief craftsman, in the spirit of craftsmanship inheritance, had a detailed exchange with the other party.

Later, after his improvements, he produced a porcelain bottle that was closer to Song Dynasty porcelain. However, the factory director was eager to report and claim credit before another porcelain factory, so he took the porcelain bottle to relevant experts for appraisal.

However, the chief engineer believed it was still far from perfect and suggested further improvements. He therefore tried to stop the factory manager, and during the argument, the chief engineer accused the factory manager of being short-sighted and focused on quick results…

Later, the factory obtained expert approval before other factories, who believed that the porcelain factory had basically reproduced the ancient Ru porcelain with bean-green glaze. Not long after, the factory dismissed the chief craftsman on the grounds that the formula had been leaked during exchanges.

Because Wang Yuanshan stood up for him, he was also transferred from the process group to the workshop to do some manual labor.

He still had to support his family and couldn't afford to lose this job, so he had no choice but to accept it.

...

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Author's Note: Second update tonight.