Chapter 31: Tiangang Bracelet

Gu Zhao couldn't help but feel a mix of helplessness and amusement.

He never expected that the trees in the forest behind the village were actually small-leaf red sandalwood; he remembered the villagers going to that forest to chop branches and twigs for firewood to cook with.

"No wonder the steamed buns still carry a faint fragrance; it turns out they were burned using small-leaf red sandalwood as firewood." Gu Zhao rubbed his chin. "Did the Emperors of ancient times have such extravagance?"

At this thought, Gu Zhao's eyes lit up.

"I remember the furniture our family makes doesn't seem to use small-leaf red sandalwood, right?" Gu Zhao asked.

Gu Qi replied in a bad mood, "Small-leaf red sandalwood? Why don't you just use Huanghuali then?"

Seeing that Gu Zhao rarely showed interest in their family business, Gu Qi still explained, "Small-leaf red sandalwood and Huanghuali are too expensive and too scarce; acquiring stock requires fighting for it. Our family does make them, but they are basically made into ornaments to accompany other furniture for sale. Occasionally, a piece of furniture made from them becomes a store treasure."

"The materials we use for furniture now are imported wood from abroad; we basically use black rosewood, big-fruit rosewood, red rosewood, and black rosewood, and the like."

"I remember there's also chicken-wing wood and huangli wood." Gu Zhao asked, "Is the difference between huangli wood and Huanghuali great?"

"Goldfish and sharks are both fish; do you think the difference is great?" Gu Qi shook his head. "Chicken-wing wood and huangli wood are cheap woods used for affordable furniture; our family doesn't use these."

"Oh." Gu Zhao nodded as if he understood, then asked a question that nearly made Gu Qi jump up in frustration: "If I have a channel to find a large amount of small-leaf red sandalwood?"

Gu Qi looked at Gu Zhao with burning eyes, then asked, "You haven't transferred money to the other party yet, have you?"

Gu Zhao, "..."

"The other party hasn't tempted you to go abroad to Siam, Shan State, or the land of the Three Indians, has they?" Gu Qi's gaze carried worry; the Old Gu family had been single-line descendants for two generations, and he had only this one son.

Gu Zhao was speechless. "Are you so sure I've been scammed?"

"Whether it's Huanghuali or small-leaf red sandalwood, supply has always fallen short of demand; suppliers are fixed, and even buyers rarely show new faces." Gu Qi said. "Unless you pay a higher price, newcomers cannot get stock."

"If someone approaches you saying they can provide a large amount of small-leaf red sandalwood, do not hesitate; one hundred percent it is a scammer." Gu Qi stated firmly.

Gu Zhao chuckled, his thoughts shifting, and suddenly asked, "Does our factory have machines for turning beads?"

"Yes, our family also sells bracelets, so of course we have machines." Gu Qi asked, "What's up? You want to try your hand? I remember you didn't like these things before."

Gu Zhao nodded. "I like them now. Take me to look around tomorrow."

"Sure." Gu Qi had no objection; it was their own business, and since Gu Zhao was taking an interest now, he was quite satisfied. "Go to the office tomorrow; there's stock at the factory. I'll pick a piece of small-leaf red sandalwood for you, and Dad will personally turn a string of beads for you."

Gu Zhao asked, "Can we carve on the beads?"

"Of course we can, but it's best not to carve; the grain of small-leaf red sandalwood itself is already very beautiful." Gu Qi said. "Whatever you carve is adding feet to a snake."

"Carve a Tiangang Talisman on the beads." Gu Zhao sat up straight, somewhat excited. "Just a shallow layer is enough, then I'll fill it with cinnabar!"

Gu Qi looked at Gu Zhao with an expression of speechlessness. "If you want to carve a magical artifact, why not use peach wood or jujube wood? Why must you use small-leaf red sandalwood?"

"Does the factory have peach wood and jujube wood?" Gu Zhao asked.

To be honest, he was also curious: why do Daoist wooden magical artifacts generally use peach wood and jujube wood? Is there really something different about these two types of wood compared to other woods?

If possible, he also wanted to try making a magical artifact with peach wood and jujube wood and see how it differed from using small-leaf red sandalwood.

"Of course not." Gu Qi shook his head. "Our family doesn't do religious magical artifact business. If you want to use peach wood, Old Li next door makes solid wood furniture; his factory has walnut wood. Will that do in a pinch?"

Gu Zhao lay back on the sofa. "Northeast Tiger and your Land Rover are both 'Tiger'; why don't you use Northeast Tiger to make do?"

"Hey!?" Gu Qi raised an eyebrow.

Just then, Li Man and the housekeeper walked out of the kitchen carrying dishes. "Time to eat!"

The next day, Thursday.

Li Man went to inspect several stores, while Gu Qi took Gu Zhao to the furniture factory located in the suburbs.

Besides the office and workshop, the area with the largest footprint at the factory was the warehouse, divided into a raw materials warehouse and a finished goods warehouse.

Gu Qi first greeted the masters with Gu Zhao, then took him on a tour of the warehouse, finally retrieving a piece of small-leaf red sandalwood from the innermost room of the raw materials warehouse, a small storeroom requiring a card swipe.

"So secure?" Gu Zhao asked.

"The wood in just this one small room is worth more than all the wood outside; do you think we need to be this secure?" Gu Qi held a piece of wood and led Gu Zhao toward the workshop.

Gu Zhao thought back to what he had just seen in that small storeroom; there wasn't much, seemingly just ordinary wood, and he couldn't tell at all that these were actually the kings of wood: Huanghuali and small-leaf red sandalwood.

"If you want to try your hand, there's rosewood and black rosewood over there; take whatever you want to play with."

Arriving at the workshop, Gu Qi pointed to some leftover scraps nearby; these would normally be made into small pendants and the like, either given as gifts or sold, and he didn't forbid the factory masters from occasionally taking a few.

However, Gu Zhao had no interest in this. "I'd rather watch you turn beads. How many strings can these make?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to make two strings? One for me and one for your mother." Gu Qi snorted. "You actually have the nerve to ask me to make things to give to me?"

"But I'll draw talismans and consecrate them for you!" Gu Zhao argued convincingly. "I've cultivated successfully following Grandpa; consecrated magical artifacts can make you live a long life and be free of all diseases!"

Gu Qi chuckled but said nothing more.

As someone from the Yangcheng area, close to Hongcheng, they believed more or less in feng shui and fate; this was one of the reasons why Gu Zhao, having followed his grandfather in Daoist cultivation since childhood and occasionally acting mysterious, faced no opposition from Gu Qi and his wife.

Now that Gu Zhao seriously brought up drawing talismans and consecration, Gu Qi thought this counted as a good thing and a child's filial piety, so he stopped refuting him.

It was just a piece of small-leaf red sandalwood!

Next, Gu Qi didn't call any workers to help; except for occasionally asking Gu Zhao to lend a hand, he handled everything alone.

Cutting, drilling, polishing...

After polishing all the beads to fine detail, Gu Qi picked up three of them. "For each string, we only carve one bead, right?"

"Yes." Gu Zhao nodded repeatedly, then took out a Tiangang Talisman and spread it open, saying at the same time, "Two will do."

Gu Qi didn't speak; he just glanced at the talisman paper, put on his glasses, took a bead, sat aside, and began carving.

Gu Zhao came over to watch and saw Gu Qi using the small hole as a horizontal axis, moving the small knife across the bead's surface; lines quickly appeared on the bead's surface.

Moments later, a Tiangang Talisman took shape, forming a circle exactly on the bead's surface and filling it; at first glance, it felt as if the bead's surface was covered with Daoist runes, full of a mysterious artistic beauty.

"So beautiful!" Gu Zhao exclaimed.

"I specifically apprenticed to learn the craft." Gu Qi said proudly. "Yin-Yang line carving, relief carving, flat carving, round carving; your mere small-leaf red sandalwood incised line carving is too easy, okay?"

"Dad is awesome! Now watch me!"

While speaking, Gu Zhao took out the cinnabar and brush he had prepared in his schoolbag, dipped lightly, and began drawing the talisman; at the same time, magic power flowed through his body, entering the cinnabar through the brush, then merging into the red sandalwood beads.

The father and son worked in tacit coordination, and soon finished three beads inscribed with the Heavenly Gang talismans, then strung them together with the other beads to make three bracelets.

"Three bracelets?" Gu Zhao asked.

"There's one for you!" Gu Qi said, none too pleased.

Gu Zhao chuckled, "That's it?"

Gu Qi nodded, "Just one final polish and it's done."

Feeling the faint spiritual power emanating from the three bracelets, Gu Zhao was thrilled as well — this bracelet used a lot of cinnabar, so its effect was even better than the Heavenly Gang talismans drawn on yellow paper.

The Heavenly Gang Bracelet was complete!