In the narrow and cramped rental space,
Lin Chuan cursed under his breath, mentally sending his regards to the developers of the system.
The voice of the system resounded once again—
[Congratulations to the host, you have randomly obtained the profession: Antique Maker, you receive the exclusive ability of an Antique Maker: Antique Crafting Technique.]
[Using 'Virtual Reality' technology, generating a new world for you.]
[Host, please get ready!]
"Antique Crafting Technique... Bring it on!"
Lin Chuan muttered darkly to himself, thinking that experiencing a career life is like living, and life is also like that thing—rather than resisting, better to enjoy it!
If that was the case, then he might as well be unrestrained!
After all, who would be timid in the Virtual World?
As long as in reality he didn't forge antiques or buy fake goods, he wouldn't be investigated and taken away by the police.
Forging antiques isn't against the law, so writing about antique forgery techniques in a novel shouldn't be a problem, right?
At that moment,
Virtual and reality began to intertwine.
The moonlight outside the window gradually blurred in Lin Chuan's eyes, and the scene of the rental space faded before him, replaced by an ancient yard.
Lin Chuan's consciousness descended into the Virtual World.
Standing at the entrance of the old yard, the mottled wooden door with its smooth brass ring was worn by the years.
Pushing the door open, it creaked. Simultaneously, a strong scent of earth and charcoal rushed toward him, and looking up, he saw the shiny bluestone ground washed by the rain.
The green bricks on the wall had turned yellow, and several strings of wind chimes hung under the eaves, producing a clear and melodious sound as the breeze blew. Various ceramic prototypes also hung there, some as smooth as jade, others simple and classic.
"Brother Lin, you're back!"
At that moment, a maiden of about eighteen years old ran over.
She was wearing a simple sky-blue cloth dress that was elegant and graceful despite its simplicity. She carried a fragrance of soil, fresh and pleasant, though her face was dirty with mud.
However, her complexion bore a trace of sorrow.
"What's wrong?"
Lin Chuan, still unaware of the full situation, asked curiously.
"The ceramic merchants in our county have banded together and are refusing to buy our ceramics, driving us to a dead end. Now we can only sell independently, but the money we make is no longer enough to keep the Lin Family Workshop running," the NPC girl said.
"Why are they refusing to buy our ceramics?"
Lin Chuan furrowed his brows.
The girl lowered her head, speaking softly, "The son of the Ceramics Association president is a proponent of the overseas movement, which is the complete opposite of your ceramic philosophy. Yet every time, your ceramic work outshines his. Last time, in a drunken slip of the tongue, you said that not a single person in the entire county appreciated your work.
He took your words, exaggerated and spread them far and wide, which led to the current situation."
Hiss!
Lin Chuan couldn't help but take a sharp breath.
This beginning really has the flavor of an online novel.
"So, Lin Family Porcelain can no longer continue, am I right?" Lin Chuan asked the NPC girl.
"We probably can't hold out until the next month," said the girl, her voice quivering slightly with tears.
Lin Chuan contemplated for a moment, then said, "Then let's not hold out. Announce bankruptcy right now, give the workers a severance package, and make sure it's N+1. After all, we are a conscientious company."
"Ah?"
The girl was immediately stunned, "If we don't make ceramics, what can we do?"
"Let's switch to trading in antique ceramics," Lin Chuan said with a smile. "Being a ceramic family, the Lin Family, having some old pieces of porcelain passed down, that would be quite reasonable, wouldn't it?"
The girl was even more perplexed, unable to understand the nonsensical words Lin Chuan was saying.
Lin Chuan, however, quickly assumed his role in the virtual world: the owner of Lin Family Porcelain, and he familiarized himself with the basics.
But first,
he immediately changed the name 'Lin Family Porcelain' to 'Lin Family Antiques'.
Since his profession was that of an antique maker, he definitely had to deal with antiques!
As for the son of the president of the Ceramic Chamber of Commerce, Lin Chuan didn't give him the time of day. Switching from the ceramic circle to the antiques and curio circle, he aimed for a dimensional strike.
It is well known that,
gold thrives in chaos, and collectibles flourish in prosperity.
All circles have their own hierarchy of disdain.
And at the top of the ceramic circle's hierarchy of disdain is none other than the curio circle.
No sooner said than done,
In the virtual world, Lin Chuan always belonged to the action takers, and he had already calculated that he needed to make fakes... ah no, he had already planned which piece of antique porcelain he was going to craft.
The Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl.
This piece of porcelain wasn't particularly old, but its market price ranged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan, so, Lin Chuan planned to use it as practice.
Thus,
Lin Chuan began to roam the county's antique market.
For antique replication, the first step is replication.
Common methods include using old pieces for new painting, new clay for old glaze, remaking old pieces, and refiring.
After touring the antique market, Lin Chuan found a batch of Douli bowls from the Qing Dynasty with white clay bodies approximately 21cm in diameter and 7.5cm in height, which roughly matched the size of the 'Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl'.
Of course, this is the virtual world.
It was a gift from the system.
So, Lin Chuan decided to use the 'old piece for new painting' method for replication.
The so-called old piece for new painting commonly involves using white bodies from the middle and later Qing Dynasty or the Republic of China, painting over them with overglaze famille rose, which from the perspective of the body's quality, makes it difficult to discern authenticity.
Having only Qing Dynasty white bodies was not enough.
As the saying goes, 'one spoon of Qing, two spoons of Song, three spoons back to the cavern's peak'.
To turn modern crafts into ancient curios, one cannot do without technology and arduous work.
Lin Chuan went to several more places,
and bought back chemical items like hydrofluoric acid and potassium permanganate, and he even gathered a few traditional Chinese medicinal prescriptions.
This left NPC girl Qing stunned: "Brother Lin, are you sick?"
"Not sick, this is key to making money."
Lin Chuan smiled.
Replication was the first step, the second was aging them.
Done ingeniously, even bowls pecked by chickens at home can have experts holding them under a magnifying glass for a good long while, showing a thoughtful expression.
With everything ready, it was time to start working!
Back at 'Lin Family Antiques,' Lin Chuan took out the newly acquired Douli bowl white bodies and began the replication.
First step, painting.
The 'Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl' belonged to overglaze painting.
Therefore, Lin Chuan took out the prepared Douli bowl blank and the colorful pigments and started to draw patterns on both the inside and outside walls of the bowl.
The 'Antique Crafting Technique' had endowed Lin Chuan with the necessary skills, so painting patterns was not difficult for him.
Soon, he had finished painting.
The next step was the second firing.
Lin Chuan skillfully placed the glazed Douli bowl into the kiln for the second firing.
This process is called glaze firing.
The temperature and duration of the glaze firing must be strictly controlled to ensure the glaze fully melts and fuses tightly with the Douli bowl blank.
At the same time, glaze firing can also enhance the vibrancy and durability of the painted colors.
After the firing, when it had cooled down,
Lin Chuan and the NPC girl Qing were able to see a Douli bowl with skillful and refined painting, brightly colored with a fish and algae pattern.
The exterior wall of the Douli bowl featured four fish in blue, green, black, and red.
On the interior wall were patterns of colorful flowers, birds, and butterflies; with lush branches, clusters of blossoms, fluttering butterflies, and birds leaping onto branches, it constituted a vivid tableau of a floral and avian scene.
After polishing, the third step followed.
Aging the piece.
There are many methods for aging.
Such as pressing, polishing, capping, hand sanding, water grinding, oil grinding, acid soaking, mixed soaking, oxidizing, smudging with oil stains, burying in earth.
There are also methods like boiling in tea, smoking with incense, and applying fine charcoal ash.
Of course.
Nowadays, many low-grade imitations, in order to cut costs, generally use potassium permanganate applied on the glaze to create an aged effect.
Relatively higher-quality imitations will use a traditional medicine soak to create the effect of old porcelain.
However, not many people can master these aging techniques proficiently.
Lin Chuan was using this method to replicate the 'Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl'.
Before that,
he gently chipped the rim of the bowl, creating a 'chicken claw pattern'.
After that, Lin Chuan placed the Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl into a well-mixed medicinal solution, added a small amount of alcohol, and dropped in a tiny bit of potassium permanganate.
He waited quietly for the process to complete.
"Brother Lin, this porcelain already has significant artistic value. Why are you soaking it?" Qing, who still didn't understand what Lin Chuan was doing, asked curiously.
Lin Chuan smiled, "Having artistic value alone isn't enough; it also needs to have historical value."
"Ah, what do you mean?"
"After it's soaked, it will become a Qing Dynasty porcelain, a piece worth a few hundred thousand." Lin Chuan raised an eyebrow.
Qing's eyes bulged, her mouth agape: "That much? That's way more profitable than making ceramics!"
"Of course," Lin Chuan laughed.
After the soaking was complete,
Lin Chuan carried out a series of finishing processes and then, with Qing, brought the 'Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl' to the most famous treasure appraiser in the county for an evaluation.
As expected,
the treasure appraiser studied this newly fired 'Qing Kangxi Five-colored Fish and Algae Pattern Douli Bowl' carefully, quite astonished, and immediately offered to purchase the bowl for a high price of 400,000.
But Lin Chuan did not sell the bowl to this appraiser.
This bowl, I'll have to find a way to sell it to the son of the Ceramic Chamber of Commerce's president, otherwise I wouldn't be doing justice to the 'good intentions' behind his attempts to trip me up.
Afterward, Lin Chuan went on to forge various kinds of antiques.
Calligraphy and paintings, bronze wares, jade, wood antiques... Gliding through with cheats, without ever trying his hand, he made a resounding name for himself in the antiques circle and was hailed as a grandmaster-level master.
Cough, a master forger, that is.
But the philosophical question of 'real versus fake' is hard to delve into.
The ultimate realm of antique forgery: As long as no one says it's fake, then it's real!
The Virtual World's Experience Life came to an end.
Lin Chuan's consciousness returned to reality.
The multiple simulations in the virtual world allowed him to get somewhat used to this kind of mental burden.
The System's voice rang out—
[Host, you have gained the ability: Antique Crafting Technique.]
[Also, based on your "Antique Maker Career Life" experience, a novel titled "Last Week's Antique" has been automatically generated with approximately 1.06 million words and is currently being exported for you. It will be completed in about 10 hours. Please check for it.]
[Please pay attention, Host!]
["Last Week's Antique" requires reaching 20,000 Popularity Value (Average Subscription) to unlock the next Experience Life career.]
[Keep it up!]
"Twenty thousand average subscriptions... damn it!"
Lin Chuan spat dismissively and went straight back to sleep.
To find even a few books with twenty thousand average subscriptions in Sailing Novel is like looking for a needle in a haystack, is it that easy to achieve?
Sleeping, sleeping, there's everything in dreams!
The night gradually faded.
The rising sun of the early morning cast its golden rays, enveloping the old alleyways in a hazy golden light, while green-gray bricks were covered with a spotty layer of moss, which glinted with dew under the sunlight.
Outside the rented room's window, a gentle breeze blew past, bringing a hint of coolness along with the distant fragrance of flowers and plants, occasionally mixed with few cheerful and clear bird chirps.
'Bang bang bang—'
The iron door of the rental was knocked heavily, breaking the silence of the morning.
Lin Chuan woke up from his sleep to the Little Landlady's shouting outside the door, "Mr. Director, get up, I have something urgent to discuss with you!"
"What is it?"
Dressed only in his boxers, Lin Chuan opened the iron door to let the Little Landlady into the room.
Having no work today, the Little Landlady wore a loose white T-shirt that hid her denim shorts, creating a 'missing lower garments' look that revealed her pale, long legs as she dangled them in front of Lin Chuan.
Lin Chuan's sleepiness was shaken off quite a bit.
The Little Landlady flashed a bright smile, pulled Lin Chuan to sit down, and placed two breakfasts on the table. She blinked at Lin Chuan.
Lin Chuan paused, "Didn't you say you had an urgent matter?"
"Yeah, the urgent matter is to get you up for breakfast," the Little Landlady laughed.
"Thanks."
Lin Chuan looked at the breakfast on the table, then back at the Little Landlady, and asked with a smile, "Is that really all?"
The Little Landlady giggled, her face revealing a hint of playfulness, then took out a bracelet and said, "There is something else. This morning, a customer sent a message asking if this Century-Old Red Agate Bracelet is for sale. I wasn't sure what to do, so I came to ask for your opinion."
Lin Chuan glanced at the Century-Old Red Agate Bracelet and frowned, "Isn't that the one Aunt Liu gave you?"

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