It's 11 PM.
In the shabby office, I lay on the desk, pretending to write something under the light of the desk lamp.
In the shadowy corner behind him, Song Laosan was using a piece of metal he had disassembled from the desk to loosen the screws on the rear window guardrail.
"Cough cough!"
I vaguely saw flashlight beams flashing outside, so I coughed twice to warn Song Laosan.
A few seconds later, the door was pushed open, and Su Jiaming led two people into the room, frowning as he looked at me: "There are lights in this room, why aren't they on?"
"I can't write anything when the light is too bright, and my memory is also easily affected. It's a problem I had when I was in school."
Compared to Su Jialiang, I was more afraid of Su Jiaming, this unpredictable madman. I pretended to be calm and asked, "Master Liang gave me three days, and only a few hours have passed before you come to check up on me. Isn't that a bit too hasty? I was just memorizing these things and needed quiet. Your actions are disrupting my train of thought!"
"I'm not here to inspect, I'm here to bring you some late-night snacks."
Su Jiaming waved his hand, and the person behind him also placed a bag containing lunch boxes on the table.
Although he claimed to be there to deliver something, Su Jiaming casually approached the table, glanced at the contents of the papers, and squinted at me: "Kid, you're not messing with us, are you? What is this corpse mud? I told you to write about bronze artifact forgery, and you're writing fantasy novels instead?"
"You need to provide evidence when you speak! Don't pretend to know what you don't!"
I looked up and stared directly into Su Jiaming's eyes: "Anyone who does archaeology knows that at the bottom of many Spring and Autumn and Warring States period tombs, there is a thin layer of putrefied mud. This is formed by the decomposition of human corpses and various cloth burial objects. Ancient people often used cinnabar in funerals, and many unearthed Shang and Zhou artifacts have put putrefied mud and cinnabar on them. If you mix putrefied mud into the transplanted rust and stick it on bronze artifacts that have already been rusted, it will be enough to fool many unskilled amateurs!"
Su Jiaming looked at me with a skeptical expression: "Really?"
My description of the corpse mud is true, so I'm not afraid of being investigated: "Of course it's true. It's obvious that your Su family only knows how to fabricate things and doesn't study history. Besides, you've never robbed a tomb before, right? That's why you wouldn't know about corpse mud and wouldn't be able to get your hands on it!"
Su Jiaming scoffed, "Nonsense, I can make a few copper pots and sell them for exorbitant prices. Who would bother digging up dead bones underground? Besides..."
Before Su Jiaming could finish speaking, Su Jialiang's voice suddenly came from the doorway: "Third brother, what are you doing here?"
"Big brother, you're here!" Su Jiaming's arrogance subsided considerably upon seeing Su Jialiang: "I was worried this brat might misbehave, so I came to keep an eye on him!"
"Nonsense! Duan is a guest I invited, not a prisoner I arrested. What right do you have to look after him? Get out of here!"
Fearing I might extract something from Su Jiaming, Su Jialiang scolded him and sent him away. Then he smiled at me and said, "I heard your conversation with my third brother. The Duan family is indeed as renowned as they say. This 'corpse mud into rust' is the first time I've ever heard of it! I wonder if your Duan family has any other methods besides corpse mud?"
"Yes, for example, a complete transformation."
I pushed the paper in my hand over: "This method involves first making a wax model using the genuine article, and then using the wax model to cast a silicone rubber mold. The finished product is indistinguishable from the genuine article."
“That’s too simplistic. You don’t need to write down such a common method.” Su Jialiang took out a cigar. “It’ll be tiring for you to write, and boring for me to read. Don’t try to stall for time. I said I’d give you three days, and that’s not a minute more.”
"Mr. Liang, I haven't even finished speaking, and you're already so quick to dismiss me. Isn't that a bit too hasty?"
I leaned back in my chair and said, "Demolding is just the first step in these processes. Next, we need to buy a large number of cheap ancient copper coins from the market, then melt them down to cast bronze. During the process, we also need to add lead to the molten copper and adjust the proportions. I wonder if you have ever used this method of making new bronze?"
Su Jialiang is a master forger. It's rare to meet someone as skilled as me, so I became interested in chatting with him: "In the past, when we got damaged bronze artifacts, if they were valuable, we would only repair them."
I lit a cigarette as well: "This method is too old-fashioned. It's fine for dealing with old collectors who don't like using technology, but it's easy to give yourself away when dealing with collectors who like to examine things. My new technique for making antique bronze, even with instruments, can at most determine that the age is slightly off, but it can never determine that it's a pieced-together item."
Su Jialiang didn't waste time discussing this matter with me: "I'm an expert in bronze casting. Although I haven't used your method before, it's definitely not anything new. Besides, you know that the main step in forging bronze is the rusting process."
"That book contains many methods for identifying bronze artifacts that are fake. The method that matches the transformation is to polish the inner shell after casting to make its thickness similar to that of the genuine article. Then, copper shavings are stirred with acid and used to coat the entire bronze artifact. It is then placed in a heated clay kiln and baked for half a month."
I paused for a moment: "The rust on bronze artifacts made this way is solid and doesn't show through, and even the mold lines and mold marks can be imitated. However, this kind of bronze artifact is also a semi-finished product and still needs further processing. As we all know, the green rust on bronze artifacts is easy to imitate, but the red spots are difficult to make. Most people's imitations of red spots are dull in color and can be easily rubbed off with a hard object."
When I told Su Jialiang about this, he leaned forward unconsciously, clearly very interested in the matter.
I continued, "Genuine red spots are extremely hard and difficult to remove, so knowledgeable people will look for these spots first when buying bronze artifacts. We can remove red spots from worthless, broken bronze artifacts, carve grooves into imitation bronze artifacts, and then attach genuine red spots using an ancient adhesive. This ancient adhesive is fire-resistant, made from natural materials, and the patina applied with it has no odor; it looks as if it grew naturally on the bronze artifact. It is unaffected by high temperatures or scraping."
Su Jialiang scratched his nose: "Which dynasty or era are you referring to with this ancient prescription?"
"Gu Fang is a personal name. It is said that he was a fifth-rank official in charge of the lost-wax casting bureau during the Yuan Dynasty. The lost-wax casting bureau was the Yuan Dynasty's government office in charge of lost-wax casting and was also responsible for official replicas. The glue I mentioned was invented by this official. To make this glue, the bronze artifact needs to be soaked in water first, and then left to stand in the air. It uses verdigris, which is what we call basic copper carbonate, as one of the raw materials, and is mixed with nine other materials such as corpse mud. It is said that the patina applied with this glue has not been detected by anyone so far."
I paused for a moment: "The method for making this glue is very complicated. I thought about it for a long time before I could recall the general idea, but before I could even put it on paper, you guys kept bothering me, and now I've almost completely forgotten it."
"Oops! This is my fault! Please forgive me!"
Su Jialiang immediately put on a smiling face and quickly led his men away: "Don't worry, I will pass on the word that no one is allowed to disturb you tonight, but I must see the formula for the ancient glue by tomorrow morning at the latest!"
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