Chapter 117: Kintsugi

"Kintsugi?"

Xiao Sizi repeated the uncommon word.

"That's right, it means repairing with gold."

Lin Xuan walked to the multi-treasure cabinet leaning against the wall, rummaged inside for a long time, and pulled out a small porcelain jar sealed particularly tightly.

Then he took out a small bag of finely ground glutinous rice flour.

He reached out and lifted the lid off the porcelain jar.

A slightly sour and astringent resin scent drifted out.

Inside the jar was a sticky, dark brown liquid.

Natural lacquer, the tree sap cut from lacquer trees.

Lin Xuan took a bamboo stick, picked up a bit of raw lacquer, and showed it to Xiao Sizi.

He poured the raw lacquer into a small porcelain dish, then sprinkled in an appropriate amount of glutinous rice flour according to a certain ratio.

Lin Xuan held a bone knife in his hand, stirring quickly inside the porcelain dish.

The raw lacquer and glutinous rice flour slowly mixed together, and the stickiness grew greater and greater.

Finally, it became a lump of very dark paste.

Xiao Sizi propped her chin with both hands, her two little feet swaying gently in the air.

Her eyes blinked not once as she stared fixedly.

Lin Xuan picked up a shard of broken porcelain with a sharp, jagged edge.

Then he used the bone knife to scoop up a tiny bit of the mixed lacquer paste and spread it evenly on the fractured surface of the porcelain.

Next, he picked up another adjacent fragment and carefully and cautiously aligned it with the position.

Once clicked into place, it fit perfectly with no gap whatsoever.

Then he applied a little force to squeeze the fragments together.

The excess lacquer paste oozed out from the seam.

A piece of non-woven fabric gently wiped away the excess lacquer paste that had oozed out, and that was it.

In total, five or six fragments were slowly pieced together one by one in Lin Xuan's hands.

More than half an hour passed.

The black-glazed tea bowl, originally shattered into pieces, returned to its complete, whole shape.

Only many black, crisscrossing lacquer line marks remained on the bowl wall, looking particularly conspicuous.

"Is it done?" Xiao Sizi asked.

"It's still very early."

Lin Xuan held the tea bowl in his hand and walked to a large wooden cabinet in the corner of the workshop.

He pulled open the cabinet door.

Inside the cabinet were several bowls of clear water, and a damp, stuffy air floated out.

"The way raw lacquer dries is different; it cannot be placed under the sun to dry.

"Instead, it must absorb moisture from the air to harden. This cabinet is called a Yinfang, and the humidity inside is very high."

"It must be placed inside for several days, waiting for the lacquer liquid to dry completely."

17

Lin Xuan placed the tea bowl into the Yinfang and closed the cabinet door.

Days passed one by one.

By Friday evening, the sky slowly darkened.

—

After finishing her pinyin homework, Xiao Sizi sat on the high stool as usual, watching Lin Xuan work.

The Yinfang cabinet door was opened once again.

Lin Xuan took out the black-glazed tea bowl.

After several days of drying in the shade, the raw lacquer had completely hardened.

The broken porcelain shards were firmly stuck together.

Lin Xuan picked up a small piece of water sandpaper and dipped it in a little clear water.

Following the black lacquer lines on the tea bowl, he ground slowly, stroke by stroke.

Shasha, shasha...

The gentle friction sound echoed back and forth in the quiet workshop.

Lin Xuan's technique was extremely steady, controlling the force just right.

The protruding lacquer marks were slowly ground flat until they became level with the black-glazed surface.

Touching it with a hand, it also became smooth and rounded.

After wiping the surface water clean, the most critical step arrived.

He took out a very fine wolf-hair brush and dipped it in a little red undercoat lacquer.

He carefully traced the ground-flat crack bit by bit.

Waiting until the red lacquer became slightly sticky, in a semi-dry state not yet fully dry.

Lin Xuan opened a very small Glass bottle on the table.

The bottle was filled with sparkling pure gold powder.

He switched to a clean soft brush, gently dipped a little gold powder, and held it suspended above the tea bowl.

He flicked the brush handle gently with his finger.

Fine gold powder drifted down, sticking firmly to the red lacquer lines.

Next, take a cotton ball and gently rub in circles on the surface to sweep away the excess gold powder.

"Waaaaah————"

Xiao Sizi let out a cry of surprise.

The broken teacup, once covered in deep black scars, had completely changed its appearance.

The black glaze was as deep as the night sky.

Several pure gold lines wound their way along the bowl's walls.

Like cracks split by lightning in the night sky, or like a golden branch growing with great vitality.

The original cracks were not covered; the flaws were all exposed on the outside.

Yet it had created a sense of imperfect beauty that grew again after being shattered by time.

It looked noble and full of Zen meaning.

Lin Xuan took off the gloves on his hands and pushed the transformed teacup in front of Xiao Sizi.

"Mingda, do you think it looks good?"

"It looks good! Even better than before it broke."

Xiao Sizi nodded vigorously, tracing patterns in the air with her small finger.

Lin Xuan smiled and reached out to rub her small head.

"This is the meaning of Kintsugi."

"In this world, many things break due to various accidents; it could be a teacup, or it could be a person's body."

Many people think that once broken, it is ruined, useless trash that should be thrown away.

But the act of Kintsugi tells us that breaking does not mean reaching the end."

Lin Xuan pointed to the longest gold line on the teacup.

"As long as one is willing to spend time and heart to repair it well, facing those remaining wounds, not hiding, not avoiding."

"Those scars left from the past will eventually become unique gold lines, helping you walk out into a completely different new life."

Xiao Sizi stared blankly at the teacup covered in intersecting gold lines.

A small hand instinctively covered her own chest.

Through the soft sweater, that heart was beating very strongly.

Thump, thump, thump...

Full of rhythm, radiating vibrant life everywhere.

But in the past, it was not like this at all.

Memories buried deep in her heart suddenly surfaced.

Back then, the scent of medicinal herbs in the deep halls of the Taiji Palace of the Great Tang never dissipated all year round, so bitter it made one feel nauseous.

The bed carved with dragons and painted with phoenixes always seemed particularly large, and particularly cold.

She clearly remembered that back then she could always barely catch her breath.

The Imperial Physicians with long beards knelt on the ground, their whole bodies shaking terribly.

They cried out to the Father Emperor, saying that the Jinyang Princess was born with a congenital weak qi illness.

They also said her fate was naturally like this, and she would probably die young and pass away early.

Back then, she was exactly like this teacup that had fallen and shattered into five or six pieces.

Ragged and missing a piece, before she could even grow up, she would completely turn into a handful of yellow earth.

But fortunately, she met the Sky Screen.

And she met Lin Xuan.

A layer of mist gradually covered Xiao Sizi's eyes.

She recalled when she first arrived in the modern world, Lin Xuan had hurriedly taken her to the hospital, undergoing one examination after another.

She also remembered those colorful, bitter-tasting but disease-curing modern pills.

She remembered Lin Xuan personally heating milk for her every night, and remembered that morning when he held her hand to register for elementary school.