Chapter 1692 Beautiful Stone
Yes, in addition to flint, there is another kind of stone that has a shell-like cross-section after being struck, and that is agate.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Pi and his father Cao Cao went north to conquer Wuhuan. The local people brought an agate wine cup as tribute. Cao Pi saw that the wine cup was as red as flying clouds and crystal clear, so he wrote " "Ma Nao Le Fu", and said in the preface: "Ma Nao, a jade genus, came out of the Western Regions, and was intertwined with literature and science. It looks like a horse head, so people in the area named it after it. It may be used to tie the neck, or to decorate the neck. Yu Yousi Le, beautiful And it was written by Chen Lin and Wang Can. "
Agate is actually a kind of chalcedony mineral. It is a silicide like flint, but it is often mixed with opal and cryptocrystalline quartz. Therefore, it will appear as a trigonal crystalline band-shaped block, often in a dense block shape, forming various structures, such as breast-shaped, grape-shaped, nodule-shaped, etc. The most common ones are concentric structures.
Agate is very colorful, hard but brittle. Concentric circular ripples centered on the stress point can be seen in the cross section, which is commonly known as shell pattern. Its sharp edges and corners can carve glass and leave scratches. The hardness is very high.
When he was in northern Xinjiang, Zhou Zhi had seen too many agates. The texture of those agates was usually a circular pattern with chalcedony as the core. The layers were fine and dense, the colors were bright and rich, and they were full of magical geometry. Beauty.
One of the stones found by Tu Ziri is similar to the agate commonly seen in Zhouzhi or the Yuhua stone picked up on the bank of the Yangtze River, but the stone is completely red and only the chalcedony core is white. This is Typical characteristics of agate stone.
The second type shows a bright red cross-section after being cracked open, with some persimmon red or coral-colored waterweed patterns mixed in. Some patterns are also shaped like flames. This type of stone is still not agate, Zhou Zhi Not sure what to eat.
The third color is very pure, with no pattern visible to the naked eye. The cross-sectional characteristics are like glass. The color inside the weathered leather shell is slightly darker than persimmon red.
This stone is very similar to another stone that Zhou Zhi is familiar with, which is the long-lost material for making beads - Nanhong.
Nanhong was originally a stone produced in Gansu. Because its color is very similar to coral, it was discovered and used as a substitute for precious coral to make utensils.
Due to the very rare production, Gannanhong’s mineral resources were quickly exhausted.
However, at this time, a new mineral source was discovered in Baoshan, Yunnan Province, which was Baoshan Nanhong.
The color of Baoshan Nanhong is lighter than that of Gannan Red, and the large mining industry was also exhausted very quickly, leaving a lot of fragments left. Later, there was a saying that "there is no Baoshan without cracks".
Zhou Zhi collected scattered Nanhong beads from many sources, and finally managed to piece together a string. He then combined it with the pieces of the Forbidden City Queen's court beads and the bright yellow ribbon given by Mr. Qi, and finally recovered except for one Nanhong court bead. It was given to Xu Anxin as a late wedding gift, but the girl didn't like it very much, so she finally changed it to a Hetian jade carving.
During this process, Zhou Zhi became very familiar with Gannan Red and Baoshan Nanhong, so when he threw the stone away on Tuziri just now, Zhou Zhi immediately caught the coral red light reflected on the cross section of the stone.
But looking carefully now, Zhou Zhi found that there are differences between these stones and the traditional Nanhong.
In addition to the two mentioned above, another kind of stone is the color of pig liver, which is very strong in nature, lacks "water head" and has no aesthetic value.
There is a kind of black-red color, which is the best flint material in Tu Ziri's mouth. This stone is similar to a piece of red and black glass, which Zhou Zhi has never seen before.
There is a kind of stone that is similar to the solid coral color just now, but there are differences in the water head between the two. One is closer to coral and looks glassy but not actually transparent. The other has a cherry-like water head. It's enough, but the color will naturally be lightened a bit. There is also a completely transparent glue-like or rice soup-like stone, dotted with small bright red water plants. Zhou Zhi estimates that this stone should be an edge product of the cherry-shaped stone, but it is also purely a guess.
To sum up, excluding the black-red ones that the Yi people like to use as flints, and the pig-liver-colored stones that are too stony, there are several other types left, ranging from the ones floating on the ice to the cherry-shaped ones. , to persimmon-shaped ones, to those with mixed flames, to those with chalcedony cores wrapped with agate patterns, each has its own characteristics.
These stones have not been processed and are wrapped in a thick stone shell. Only through the cross sections can you get a glimpse of the beauty inside.
Zhou Zhi looked at the Meigu River at the foot of the mountain and remembered his experience of picking up rain flower stones by the Yangtze River. He felt that he had another good pastime to pass the time.
“These stones are all beautiful.” Zhou Zhi asked, “I wonder if there are any in the river below?”
"There are a lot of them in the river." Tu Ziri said nonchalantly: "It's just that they are of no use."
"Oh? Why?"
"I don't know, I guess. It has been washed away by water for too long, and the fire nature has been eliminated. It is not as good as the one on the mountain."
"Is there such a thing?" Zhou Zhi turned around and looked around, and found that he was picked by the Yi people. Among the pile of stones picked out, there were several large stones: "Please help me carry those big ones down later. I think these red stone monsters are beautiful. I will send them outside for scientists to help analyze." Analyze the ingredients.”
“Jiuzi, Tuziri, come over and eat!” At this time, the soup was ready, and Lao Chiri invited everyone to eat together.
Lunch was ridiculously simple, consisting of steamed buns and shredded kohlrabi brought up by Zhou Zhi and Gilliam Abi, paired with a pot of soup cooked by Lao Chiri.
The soup is boiled with stream water and Yi people’s pickled vegetables. Some adzuki beans are added, two pink pumpkins found in the mountains are chopped into pieces, some pumpkin tips are added as vegetables, and finally a bottle of Zhouzhi stir-fried is added. Okay, take the "soul soup" brought up from the mountain by Lao Chiri, sprinkle it with a pinch of salt, and a big pot of soup is ready.
This soup tastes pretty good. With the steamed buns and pickles, the folks all ate it very happily.
Zhou Zhi knew that there was a recent rumor in the village that the laborers who participated in the construction of the orchards had meat to eat every day. All the villagers who participated in the construction of the orchards really looked proud when they heard others asking about it. This rumor Zhou Zhi was really ashamed and helpless.
It’s a pity that Zhou Zhi hasn’t seen any places selling oily meat in Meigu County and Autonomous Prefecture. It seems that this stuff is still being made at home, and I haven’t seen anyone selling it for takeout. However, sausages and bacon are in the joint store. Hexiang is not easy to store either. It will become dehydrated and turn into dried meat in a matter of minutes, losing its proper flavor.
Zhou Zhi also thought about making molded tofu, but the result was still a shameful failure, because the climate does not seem to be suitable for the growth of yeast, or the strains are different from those in Jiachuan. The tofu here can also grow hair, but it is unlucky. Add white wine, wrap in salt, chili powder and five-spice powder and put it in a bottle After putting it in the bottle, it seems that the process of secondary fermentation of Jiachuan fermented bean curd is missing. Instead, it becomes a relatively dry block of tofu in the bottle. The aroma of the secondary fermentation cannot come out, and it is still moldy after half a month. The flavors of tofu, salt, chili powder, and five-spice powder didn't blend together at all.
Although Gillie Abi was full of praise for such "fermented bean curd" and the children also liked to eat it, Zhou Zhi thought that this was a Waterloo on his culinary journey.