Chapter 188 Luban Lock
A crowd had gathered in front of the ring toss stall. Cheng Jiaojiao bought ten rings and took a fancy to a chubby clay doll, but unfortunately, she couldn't win after several attempts.
Jiang Ling smiled as she took the ring, and with a precise throw, it landed perfectly on the chubby clay doll.
Cheng Jiaojiao clapped her hands happily: "Sister Jiang is so amazing!"
Jiang Ling handed the clay doll to her, "Here you go, do you like it?"
Cheng Jiaojiao smiled, revealing her little tiger teeth: "I love it! Thank you, Sister Jiang!"
A group of people walked forward with the flow of people. On the stage, the puppets were dressed in brightly colored clothes and were performing the story of "Borrowing Arrows with Straw Boats", which drew cheers from the crowd.
Boys like Xiao Ran and Xiao Yi are naturally interested in these things, but Cheng Jiaojiao wasn't interested and left after lingering for a while.
Jiang Ling walked up to a stall selling various bamboo crafts. She found them interesting and bought a small goldfish for Xiao Ran and a small dragonfly for Xiao Yi.
Cheng Jiaojiao chose a little rabbit, while Jiang Ling casually picked a small fan.
Just as he was about to take out his money, Zhao Jingxing had already handed the money to the stall owner.
They smiled at each other, and Jiang Ling didn't stand on ceremony with him.
She then picked up a small bamboo bird and handed it to him, saying, "Young Master Zhao, this is for you."
Zhao Jingxing was stunned for a moment, then reached out and took it. Before he could speak, Jiang Ling was dragged away by Cheng Jiaojiao to watch the acrobatic performance.
At this moment, a monkey is jumping through a ring of fire, a thrilling scene that makes everyone watching jump with fear!
It's customary to tip when watching a play. When the troupe leader came to them with a plate, Jiang Ling and Cheng Jiaojiao generously gave them a small amount of silver.
Zhao Jingxing bought some candied hawthorns and pea flour cakes from a nearby snack stall and shared them with everyone.
As they wandered deeper into the temple fair, the group took a short break at a tofu pudding stall.
We ordered five bowls of tofu pudding, one bowl each.
While waiting for the tofu pudding, Xiaoyi's gaze was drawn to a stall next to her.
The stall was filled with all sorts of wooden toys, some square, some round, some shaped like little houses—all kinds of ingenious toys I'd never seen before.
The stall owner was an elderly man in his sixties. Seeing Xiaoyi's curiosity, he enthusiastically picked up a very simple six-pillar Luban lock and greeted him:
"Young master, do you like this toy? It's called a Luban lock. There's a lot of knowledge involved; you'll need to use your brain to solve it."
Xiao Yi took the Luban lock, examined it from all angles, and tried to pull it out, but the wood was tightly interlocked and he couldn't pull it out no matter what he did, so he frowned in frustration.
Seeing this, Xiao Ran also came over and immediately recognized that this thing called Luban Lock was something similar he had seen at the carpenter's house in the village when he was a child.
“I know that. You have to pull out this short post first.” He pointed to one of the thinner pieces of wood.
Following his instructions, Xiao Yi gently pulled, and the originally perfectly fitting Luban lock indeed came apart with a "crash".
Xiao Yi was startled, thinking she had broken something, and quickly apologized.
"I'm sorry, sir, I broke it!"
The old stall owner laughed heartily: "Not broken, not broken! That's how you play with Luban locks. Once you unlock it, you've succeeded. It seems this young master has experience with them."
As he spoke, he picked up a twelve-pillar Luban lock with a significantly more complex structure and handed it to Xiao Ran. "Young master, try this? Can you solve it?"
Xiao Ran scratched his head. This was the only one he knew how to drive; he hadn't tried any of the others.
At this moment, Jiang Ling also walked over and immediately recognized the object in Xiao Ran's hand.
"This is a twelve-column Luban lock. There is a certain order to disassembly. Generally, you should disassemble the short columns first and then move the long columns."
A glance was enough to tell it was a set of twelve pillars; a hint of surprise flashed in the old stall owner's eyes.
"This young lady is an expert!"
Xiao Ran did some research, but still couldn't figure it out.
Jiang Ling pointed to a pillar, and Xiao Ran tried it and successfully pulled it out. Then, under Jiang Ling's guidance, she quickly disassembled the twelve-pillar Luban lock into a pile of wood.
Xiao Yi's eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands and cheered, "Sister Jiang is so amazing!"
Jiang Ling smiled and said, "Disassembling it isn't difficult; the difficult part is putting it back together."
The old stall owner was also somewhat surprised, and his eyes held a hint of appreciation as he looked at Jiang Ling:
“Young lady, you know your stuff. I’ve been running this stall for so long, and there aren’t many people who can unlock the twelve-pillar Luban lock.”
Jiang Ling's gaze swept across the stall, noticing that it displayed all sorts of Luban locks, indicating that the stall owner was a successor in this art.
Since it's about preserving traditions, we should support it.
“If you like them, we’ll buy a few. These things are great for developing spatial imagination and logical thinking.” She played with a lot of these kinds of educational toys when she was a child.
The old stall owner was overjoyed to have met such a knowledgeable connoisseur. He took out an "Eighteen Arhats Lock" made of eighteen wooden strips from under his stall and handed it to Jiang Ling, his tone carrying a hint of challenge:
"Young lady, if you can unlock this lock and put it back together exactly as it was within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, you can choose any one of these Luban locks on my stall as a prize from me!"
These words immediately attracted the attention of many people around.
In this era, literacy rates were already low, and people who could master such ingenious toys were extremely rare. Many people had never even heard of Luban locks, so this stall was always rather deserted.
At that moment, seeing a pretty young woman about to take on the most difficult challenge, everyone curiously gathered around.
Jiang Ling calmly took the Eighteen Arhats Lock, examined it carefully in her hand for a moment, and nodded:
"The lock has eighteen pillars. It looks complicated, but the principle is actually similar to that of the twelve-pillar lock. It just has a few more mortise and tenon structures."
Her fingers deftly turned the lock, first finding the outermost movable pin, and with a gentle pull, "click," the pin came off.
Then, her movements became faster and faster. The wood seemed to come alive in her hands, and it was disassembled piece by piece. In the blink of an eye, the Eighteen Arhats Lock was turned into a pile of wood of varying lengths.
The people around were stunned and let out low gasps of amazement.
Cheng Jiaojiao had been watching Jiang Ling's movements from the beginning, and her eyes widened even more as she watched Jiang Ling disassemble a square piece of wood into small strips.
"Sister Jiang, it's like you're performing magic!"
"It's easy to disassemble, but difficult to put back together." Jiang Ling put down the disassembled wood and began to assemble it according to the mortise and tenon structure in her memory.
It's been a few years since I last played it, so it feels a bit unfamiliar.
She first arranged the long pillars into a frame, then inserted the short pillars one by one, precisely aligning her fingers with the mortise and tenon joints, occasionally adjusting the angle. In no time, the scattered wood gradually restored the shape of the Eighteen Arhats Lock.
"It's done!"
Cheng Jiaojiao was the first to cheer, and the people around her joined in the applause.
The old stall owner was even more incredulous. He picked up the Eighteen Arhats lock and examined it carefully, confirming that every tenon and mortise fit perfectly.
He has been setting up his stall here for many years, and this is the first time he has ever seen someone unravel and restore this prized possession of his stall so quickly and accurately!
You should know that the Eighteen Arhat Lock was only developed a few years ago!
If this girl isn't exceptionally talented, could she also be a descendant of Lu Ban (a legendary carpenter)?
"Does the stall owner's words still stand?" Jiang Ling asked with a smile.
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