The workshop reeked of mud and glaze, mixed with a faint, almost imperceptible, stench of blood. Supervisor Wang stood like a rock, blocking the doorway, his murky eyes fixed intently on Jiang Chan's every move. He crossed his arms, his lips curling into an undisguised expression of contempt and surveillance.
Jiang Chan sat with her head down in front of her father's low table, which was stained with dark red blood. On the table were several rough yellow papers, a piece of charred charcoal, and several small piles of mineral powder of different colors.
She picked up the charcoal stick, her hand trembling slightly, drew a few strokes on the paper, then stopped, her brow furrowed, as if trying to recall something. She picked up a bit of blue mineral powder, smelled it, then shook her head and put it down, her eyes blank and helpless.
"What are you dawdling about?!" Supervisor Wang roared impatiently. "The head manager only gave us three days! If you can't remember, I don't have time to waste with you!"
Jiang Chan's hand trembled in fright, and the charcoal stick drew a crooked black mark on the paper. She looked up, her face pale, her eyes filled with terror as she stared at Supervisor Wang. Her voice was thin and trembling: "I...I was thinking...that 'starter' Father mentioned...it seems...it seems to be some kind of stone powder...grayish-white...the taste...a bit astringent..."
"Grayish-white stone powder? Astringent taste?" Supervisor Wang frowned. He was a former thug, what did he know about kiln firing! But he dared not disobey the head manager's orders. He walked gruffly to the corner where the raw materials were piled up, rummaged around for a bit, grabbed a piece of grayish-white ore, and slammed it onto the table in front of Jiang Chan.
Is this it?
Jiang Chan picked up the ore, brought it close to her eyes for a closer look, and even scraped off a little powder with her fingernail. Then her eyes seemed to light up, with a hint of uncertain surprise: "It seems... a bit like... but... but it seems a little different..." Her brows furrowed again, and she fell into deeper "confusion".
"There aren't that many differences! This is it!" Supervisor Wang waved his hand impatiently. "Hurry up and tell me! How much to add? How to add it?"
“Father…Father seemed to say…to add…a lot…” Jiang Chan gestured timidly, “More…more than usual when mixing glaze…several times more…” Her voice trailed off, filled with self-doubt, “I…I can’t remember…maybe I’m wrong…”
"Several times more? Are you kidding me?!" Supervisor Wang glared and slammed his large hand on the table, sending dust flying everywhere.
Jiang Chan shrank back in fright, almost bursting into tears: "I...I don't know...I...I just...just tried to think...how about...how about we try it once? Just...just try it as I said? What if...what if it works?" She raised her head, her eyes filled with a humble pleading and obsequiousness, "Please...just try it once...if it doesn't work, we'll think of another way..."
The foreman stared at her for a few seconds. The little girl was so scared she almost wet her pants; she didn't seem to be lying. Besides, the head manager was in a hurry, so he figured he might as well try anything! He snorted, "Fine! Just one try! If you ruin the clay, I'll skin you alive!" He turned and went out, yelling for the servants guarding outside to fetch the clay and glaze.
Soon, several plain white, thin-walled porcelain blanks and the prepared basic sky-blue glaze were delivered.
Jiang Chan took a deep breath, trying hard to control the trembling in her wrist. She picked up a wooden spoon, scooped up a large spoonful of grayish-white potassium feldspar powder, and deliberately let her hand shake violently, scattering the powder everywhere. She carefully poured the powder into the basin of basic celadon glaze. After pouring a full spoonful, she seemed to think it wasn't enough, and then added another half spoonful with trembling hands.
The foreman, Wang, frowned as he looked on: "So much? Are you sure?"
Jiang Chan's hand froze, and the spoon almost fell into the glaze basin. She nodded frantically, then shook her head, her voice trembling with tears: "I...I don't know...Father...Father seemed to say to add this much...Should...Should we reduce some?"
"Reduce my ass!" Supervisor Wang was furious at her spineless appearance. "We've already added it! Stir it well! Hurry up! Don't dawdle!"
Jiang Chan said "Oh," picked up a wooden stick, and began to stir vigorously in the glaze basin. The glaze became cloudy, and the originally clear sky blue color was diluted by a large amount of grayish-white powder, making it look dull and grayish. She stirred very slowly and clumsily, as if she were doing something extremely difficult.
After stirring, she picked up a plain white porcelain blank and began to glaze it with a brush dipped in glaze. Her movements were clumsy, and the glaze layer was uneven. The foreman, Wang, watching from the side, rolled his eyes and muttered, "Clumsy! Useless! Just like your deadbeat father!"
Jiang Chan lowered her head, bit her lip, and silently applied the glaze, covering several porcelain blanks with that glaze that looked a bit off.
"Alright!" Supervisor Wang snatched the last glazed porcelain blank, glancing at it like it was trash. "I'll personally deliver it to the kiln! You damn well better think this through! Write down the secret recipe for me! Not a single word is allowed to be omitted!"
He carried those porcelain blanks coated with the "special" glaze as if they were treasures, or as if they were hot potatoes, and hurriedly rushed out of the workshop, running towards the kiln.
Jiang Chan was the only one left in the workshop.
The look of fear, helplessness, and awkwardness she had just displayed vanished from her face in an instant. She straightened up, her eyes as cold as a deep pool, utterly calm. She walked to the low table, picked up a charcoal stick, and began to write rapidly on a new sheet of yellow paper.
The handwriting mimicked the original owner's timid and crooked style, but the content was exceptionally clear. She "recalled" the process of the Su family's ancestral secret recipe, but the key point—the glaze ratio—clearly stated that "a large amount of potassium feldspar powder needs to be added, and the amount should be three to five times more than usual."
She even clumsily circled the words "potassium feldspar powder" to indicate that it was a "starter." As for the temperature control of the kiln firing, she wrote it extremely vaguely, only saying "according to the usual method," avoiding the subtle key points recorded in "The Record of Changes in Sky Blue Glaze."
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