lamp making
"Hmm?"
Hearing this, Zhao Mingyan's sleepiness suddenly disappeared.
She sat up straight and looked down at the half-dry painting. The silhouette in the lantern in the painting was motionless, as was the shadow of Tan Linshuang cast on the ground beside her.
Comparing the two, she smiled.
"Then, my husband, do you want me to lock you up in a lantern?"
She half raised her head and glanced at Tan Linshuang sideways, with a mischievous smile and some nonchalant tone in her eyes, so that Tan Linshuang couldn't tell for a moment whether she was talking to him or not.
Or... the truth?
"If my lady really has this ability, I am willing to be locked up in a lantern by you and become a shadow under the flames."
After hesitating for a while, Tan Linshuang bowed his head with his hands clasped together, and the sincere smile on his face did not seem to be a lie.
Zhao Mingyan didn't care and stood up quickly, "Let's go to the servants' quarters of the South House."
"Um?"
When they reached the door, Zhao Mingyan found that Tan Linshuang had not followed, so she turned around and looked at him.
"Why go to the South Residence?"
Tan Linshuang stood there, frowning.
Zhao Mingyan could clearly feel that he was somewhat repulsed.
Reject Nanzhai, or reject going to Nanzhai?
Zhao Mingyan explained seriously, "Although the South House has been vacant for a long time, the servants' courtyard is still in use and stores a lot of bamboo. Bamboo is indispensable for making lanterns."
Hearing this, Tan Linshuang smiled silently, "It seems that my lady is already familiar with each courtyard in the mansion."
"Not really. The Tan Mansion is just too big." Zhao Mingyan said with a hint of meaning.
She wasn't sure if Tan Linshuang had heard her, but he followed her and said, "Besides bamboo, what else do you need? I'll ask Ayun to prepare it."
"Rice paper, paste, candles, paints..." Zhao Mingyan listed them one by one.
Half an hour later, Zhao Mingyan was already chopping bamboo and setting up a frame in the servant's yard of the South House.
Tan Linshuang watched from the side with his hands folded, asking a question or two from time to time.
Although he owns the largest bamboo forest in Fushun County and grew up with bamboo, he has never chopped bamboo himself, nor has he ever weaved anything with bamboo strips.
When he was a child, he had only seen his father weaving little rabbits with tender bamboo strips to please his mother. Seeing that the rabbit was round and cute, he reached out to grab it, but his father slapped his little paw away and said to weave a little chicken for him. He refused and insisted on weaving the rabbit. His mother smiled and gave it up, waiting for his father to weave another chicken for her.
At that time, his father was sitting on a small stool like Zhao Mingyan is now. He first split the selected bamboo, then further split it into thin strips, and then took it between his fingertips to bend and twist it to weave out the prototype.
His eyes suddenly became moist.
"cough!"
Clearing his dry throat, he broke the silence and asked, "Were lanterns originally made of bamboo?"
Zhao Mingyan paused, pondered for a moment, and then spoke slowly, continuing his movements. "This has to start with the origin of lanterns."
"Lanterns originated in court sacrifices during the Han Dynasty, used to ward off evil spirits. In Buddhist texts, bamboo is often used as a metaphor or symbol to illustrate profound Buddhist teachings. For example, the founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, was said to have a 'Bamboo Grove Hermitage.' In some Buddhist temples, bamboo is also made into various ritual instruments and props. Bamboo carries profound religious and cultural significance."
"So, lanterns were originally made of bamboo."
Tan Linshuang understood, "First came the bamboo, then the lanterns."
Zhao Mingyan nodded, and a round lamp frame began to take shape.
After some careful revisions, she began to mount the picture, using the ordinary rice paper that Ayun had sent her.
"Papering can be seen as dressing, putting on appropriate floral clothes for the lanterns."
"People shouldn't wear random clothes, and the same goes for lanterns. Black, blue, and purple are rarely used for wallpaper, unless they're used to color a figure's hair. Otherwise, use as little as possible."
"These colors are darker and difficult to let light through, right?" Tan Linshuang guessed.
Zhao Mingyan smiled and nodded, cut the rice paper into regular pieces, pasted the lamp frame on, and then pasted gold thread on the edge. It was not only beautiful but also could cover up the flaws on the edge. This is called "pressing the edge."
The next step is to color it, just like the painting, red and green.
Tan Linshuang bent down and took a closer look, and found that Zhao Mingyan had a good way with color matching. The tones were not completely saturated and the brightness was slightly higher. Even without candlelight, they could reflect a hazy beauty under sunlight.
He is worthy of being the successor of lanterns!
He praised sincerely in his heart.
When he saw the spinning figure in the lantern, he was even more amazed, "Why is the little person inside moving?"
"You've never seen a revolving lantern?" Zhao Mingyan raised his eyebrows and smiled.
It turned out to be a revolving lantern!
Tan Linshuang remembered that when his parents were still alive, one year during the Lantern Festival, his father bought a revolving lantern for him and his mother.
His mother's lamp was of fairies scattering flowers, while his was of a galloping horse.
No matter it is a fairy or a horse, once it is lit, it will come alive under the firelight.
"How did you do that?" Tan Linshuang was extremely curious.
He had wanted to ask this question before.
"It's not a trick, it's just the use of heat." Zhao Mingyan said.
"Heat?" Tan Linshuang didn't quite understand.
Zhao Mingyan explained: "When the candle inside burns, it generates heat. The rising heat drives the paper to rotate, creating the illusion that it has 'come alive.'"
"At first glance, it's like a quick tour."
"I see!"
Although Zhao Mingyan spoke calmly, Tan Linshuang was pleasantly surprised.
"Husband, this is for you."
Zhao Mingyan handed him the lantern and said, "Actually, this kind of lantern has existed since the Song Dynasty. They were carried by caravans along the Silk Road, out of the Central Plains, and spread all over Portugal."
“It’s not a rare thing anymore.”
Having said that, Tan Linshuang still found it strange. After taking the lantern with both hands, she looked at it from head to toe, concentrating so much that she even forgot to thank Zhao Mingyan.
"If it's not ignited, it's really mediocre..." he muttered.
Zhao Mingyan didn't comment, wiped his hands, and sat down to pack his things.
"Hey! Madam."
Tan Linshuang's face suddenly brightened. She squatted down and asked, "How about replacing the rice paper with silk? Would that make the light and shadows even more dreamlike?"
Zhao Mingyan blinked. The Su lanterns in the Song Dynasty were made of silk, so using silk to make lanterns was not rare nowadays, but... it seemed that he had never seen a revolving lantern made of silk.
At least, she had never seen it in Shu.
"Is there any silk at home?" she immediately asked Tan Linshuang.
Tan Linshuang smiled. "Silk can be seen everywhere in our house. The red curtains on our bed are made of silk."
The shadows of swaying bamboos cover the quiet window, and birds chirp in pairs in the sunset.
"Madam, what are you doing?"
In the evening, Tan Linshuang was lying on the bed wearing only his inner clothes. The red gauze curtain that was originally hung on the bed frame was now draped over him, covering him tightly from head to toe. If it weren't for his graceful posture, he would have looked like a corpse.
Zhao Mingyan grinned, trying not to sound like a villain. "Making lantern clothes with silk is not as easy as using rice paper. To avoid wasting silk, I want to give it a try first."
"Try it on me?" Tan Linshuang narrowed his eyes.
He didn't know what kind of magic potion Zhao Mingyan had fed him, but he actually let her control him.
Zhao Mingyan set out her paper, brush, inkstone, and pointed at the setting sun shining through the window. She said to him, "I want to paint the various colors of the sunset shining through the red curtains onto you, and use them as a reference for my design of the silk revolving lantern."
"Am I a colorful flower? Whether it is the sunset glow or the morning light, the light shining on me is all the same color." Tan Linshuang said angrily.
"Husband, you are wrong."
Zhao Mingyan shook her head, raised the brush in her hand, pointed it at Tan Linshuang's face, and then moved it slowly. "Husband, light is colorless, but when it shines on the earth, the earth has different colors. This is what my father told me."
"Now that the sun is setting, the light gradually dims from your husband's feet to his head, so your husband's feet are the brightest and his head is the darkest."
"It's the same exposed skin, but because of the different brightness and darkness of the light, your husband's face and feet appear different colors."
"If your husband's skin is a white sheet of paper, then his face is gray and his feet are orange."
Tan Linshuang frowned slightly and lowered her eyes to look at her feet. She could only see that her feet were covered by the red gauze curtain and were barely visible. However, compared with the area above her feet, the color was indeed brighter because the light shining there was the strongest.
"Been taught a lesson."
He smiled, supported his head with one hand, and looked at the sunset outside the window. Suddenly, he realized that as the light changed, the color of the leaves was quietly changing.
The ultimate beauty of lanterns should be like this, swaying with the flames, mottled and colorful, presenting a flowing colorful picture.
He suddenly felt that the window with swaying tree shadows was like a lantern.
Little did he know that in Zhao Mingyan's eyes, he, who was half-bright and half-dark under the red silk tent, was like a lantern, a lantern with a picture of a beautiful woman.
The beauty lies down, with a light veil covering her body, the rosy glow of the sunset in her eyes, looking lazy and affectionate.
Zhao Mingyan suddenly stopped writing. She bit the tip of the pen, feeling that she could not capture the spirit of Tan Linshuang.
Drawing people is indeed the most difficult thing!
The difficulty lies in that the shape is easy to describe but the spirit is difficult to capture.
You still have to get to know the other person deeply before you can explore his inner self.
Immediately, Zhao Mingyan put down the brush and walked to the bed.
"Husband."
She reached out and lifted the red gauze curtain, and with a gentle push, she let Tan Linshuang, who was in a trance, lie on her back on the pillow.
"Isn't my wife painting?"
Tan Linshuang was slow to react and her eyes were still a little hazy.
With his half-open collar and half-exposed collarbone, he is truly a picture of a beauty.
Zhao Mingyan sat on it and untied his belt. "Be a good person first, then paint."
Tan Linshuang narrowed his eyes slightly, grabbed her hands that were busy unbuckling her belt, and said weakly, "Madam... you're a little heavy."
"Then let's change positions."
Zhao Mingyan lay down beside him nimbly and continued to untie her belt.
"Ahem... Madam, my body..."
"Husband!"
Zhao Mingyan decisively interrupted him, "Your illness wasn't brought in from your mother's womb, but was caused by the shock of your parents' accidental death. So, it's not incurable."
"Yet you resist taking the various tonic soups and medicines sent by your grandmother and uncle, and you're also unwilling for me to seek medical help for you. Don't you want to get better?"
"Or...you're not actually sick at all?"
"You're faking illness!"
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