The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 105 Shen Le: Have I learned how to fill people's teeth? !
……After one hour.

Shen Le had a sore back and got up from the kitchen floor.

The dishes piled up on the floor around me were all taken out from the cupboards beside me, from the cupboards on the floor, and from the cupboards hanging in the air.
"...Why isn't there a broken bowl? At least one with a big crack will do!"

Should I let him fall by himself?
It's not that he cares about the money, but mainly, if he drops it himself, there's no way to ensure it breaks in half...

The most likely scenario is that the bowl fell down and broken porcelain flew everywhere.

There were three or five large pieces of debris spinning on the ground, seven or eight small pieces of debris, and countless tiny pieces of porcelain and fingernail-sized dots flying out...

It would be an enormous amount of work to repair this.

【I’m coming! I’m coming! 】

The kitchen light crackled, and it was obvious that the small oil lamp had come over at some point, eager to help.

A ball of silver-white light floated and fell down, and Shen Le was shocked:

"Stop! Don't move! Porcelain is insulated! I've never heard that electric current can blow porcelain in half!"

[Then...I'll ask them to come?]

The ball of light floated in the air for a few times, swayed, and then rose back into the light. Shen Le sighed:
"No need, I'll pick a bowl and go ask for their opinions directly..."

I hope the little guys can be more helpful, otherwise, he will have to go to the boss lady and beg for a broken bowl...

Two minutes later, a puppet and an ink fountain gathered on Shen Le's workbench. The puppet's beautiful face and the ink fountain's conical lead weight pointed at two identical large bowls at the same time.

[Maybe I can break it in two,] Xiao Ling waved the thread hesitantly:

"But my thread might get worn off... You have to remember to change it for me!"

This loss is quite big. Shen Le turned his head to look at the little ink bucket, and the ink bucket buzzed without hesitation:
【This is easy! Watch me! 】

The lead weight flew up, pulling the ink line and making a splash on the bowl wall. Then, the lead weight flew out with a whoosh, passed through the door, and headed straight for the next door...

Rolled up a saw and came back.

Hang in the air, aim, and start sawing!
Shen Le stared at the saw in amazement. It made a squeaking sound as it pulled deeper into the bowl wall.

The force is even, the movement is smooth, and the saw body is straight and level without any deviation.

It was like an eighth-level veteran carpenter who had been working for decades, holding the saw with his old and steady hands, and sawing down firmly.

...This level is definitely beyond mine!

Even though I have undergone memory indoctrination and have decades of woodworking experience, experience is just experience. If it hasn't been transformed into muscle memory, I still can't do it!

"By the way, do you want to buy a saw blade?"

Shen Le suddenly remembered and turned to ask Xiao Modou, "A saw sawing a porcelain bowl, with hard against hard, hard against hard, the saw teeth will be worn a lot, right?"
Do I need to buy a new saw blade?
【Need not! 】

The little inkstone answered confidently. The lead weight flew out again with a whoosh, and after a moment, it rolled up the file.

The saw finished its work, perfectly sawing the porcelain bowl in half, and then lay down on its own, untying the fastening rope on its back. The file immediately jumped up, aimed at the saw teeth, and started to work with a squeaking sound.

The little inkstone raised the lead weight and shook it in front of Shen Le ostentatiously:

【See? Saw teeth need to be filed. After a few filings, you will have a sharp edge. Buying new saw blades all day long is such a waste. How can the country afford it! 】

...No, how did this rise to the national level?

Also, Xiao Modou, don't talk in such a pretentious tone!

I thought it was your masters, those two senior carpenters back then, who were educating me!

Shen Le held the handle of the ink fountain and turned it, forcing the ink line and the lead weight back to the reel. Then, he rolled up his sleeves and started to do the experiment:

Two large bowls, the same size, the same pattern, the same… or rather, the same thickness of the smell. The variables are perfectly controlled, and it’s time to start!

"Get to work! Repair the porcelain!"

The craft of mending porcelain was still widely used until the 1950s. When Shen Le was a child, there was a saying in Binhai City:

"People from Jiangxi mend bowls by themselves." This refers to the craftsmen who mend bowls in Binhai, almost all of whom are from Jiangxi. Porcelain is produced there, so there are many craftsmen who mend bowls...

But it is hard to see now. Shen Le looked up a lot of information and videos before he understood the process of porcelain mending:
The first step in mending porcelain is to make a shallow hole in the bowl. It should not be too deep, otherwise it will penetrate the bowl wall and damage the bowl.

It also cannot be too shallow, otherwise the rivets will not be long enough to provide enough force to hold the two sides of the tile together.

The appropriate depth is about two-thirds of the thickness of the tile...

By the way, the rivet hole must be slanted, in the direction of the crack, at an angle of 45 degrees. Only in this way, the two ends of the rivet are folded inwards, and the two tiles can be fixed together.

Those who think that they can just aim at the tile and drill straight in can rest now...

In the early years, porcelain repairmen used a drill bit, which was a long drill rod with a heavy stone weight underneath. Below the stone weight was a small and sharp diamond drill bit.

This thing has a long drill rod, slow rotation speed, low drilling accuracy, and the drill bit is almost dead on the drill rod. Replacing the drill bit is time-consuming and laborious, so it has been abandoned a long time ago.

Later, the leather drill was invented, with three leather ropes stretched in opposite directions and rotating smoothly. However, the shortcomings of slow rotation speed and low drilling accuracy were not greatly improved.

Finally, the porcelain menders invented the bow drill. A long mending bow was placed horizontally on the drill rod. The wire on the mending bow was wrapped around the drill rod, and the drill rod was rotated by pulling the mending bow left and right.

The diamond drill bit at the bottom of the drill rod can penetrate deep into the porcelain and drill small holes one after another...

But that was before liberation!
At this point, Shen Le certainly wouldn't ask for trouble anymore!
He is not a inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, and he does not need to inherit the porcelain mending technology, including the bow mending technology, to perform it on the streets or in shops or make videos for people to see.

All he had to do was hammer in the rivets—hammer them in perfectly, that's all!

Shen Le found a new porcelain bowl from the kitchen, which he bought after moving in, and picked up a handheld electric drill. He changed the drill bit and aimed it at the porcelain bowl...

“Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…sizzle!”

Oops, I used the wrong direction of force and the drill bit went straight past the edge of the porcelain bowl and almost drilled my hand!

"Zizi, zizi, zizi...bang!" Oops, it went through!

Come back somewhere else!

“Sizzle, sizzle… snap!”

It penetrated through, and there was a big crack...

"Sizzsssssssssss..."

This time it was a little better than last time, and it didn't drill through. However, my hand holding the electric drill was not very steady, and fine cracks could be seen around the hole, which were caused by the deviation of the drill bit.

Then I lifted the bowl and looked inside with a strong flashlight. I saw a small hole dug inside the bowl. The hole was small but the inside was large...

Shen Le exhaled, inhaled, and practiced the skills. After practicing the skills given by the copper sheet three times, his hand holding the electric drill became more stable, and his eyes looking at the porcelain bowl became sharper.

Come on, it will work this time!

Shen Le continued to work hard. He practiced Qigong over and over again, relying on the blessing brought by Qigong practice, and consumed three or five porcelain bowls in a row.

After they had drilled transparent or opaque holes all over their bodies, Shen Le finally found the trick:
The electric drill cannot be pushed in continuously, it should be like a dragonfly touching the water, once touched, then moved away. Drill once, then retract; drill once more, then retract again...

It is better to go slow than fast, and it is better to go shallow than deep. Try little by little, and drill deeper little by little.

"I feel like if I continue like this, I'll be able to drill holes perfectly in people's teeth when I do root canal treatment..."

Regardless of whether he will have the opportunity to perform root canal surgery on people in the future, Shen Le has finally succeeded in practicing on porcelain. He can make holes on the wall of a bowl with a 45-degree angle and a depth of half to two-thirds of the wall of the bowl.

Three times in a row!

Shen Le wanted to continue, but by this point, he was already dizzy, his limbs ached, and he couldn't concentrate at all. He had no choice but to fall back on the bed, practiced the Qi nine times, and fell asleep.

That night, my dreams were filled with disturbances and bizarre things:
"Sizzsssssssssss..."

“Sizzle, sizzle… snap!”

"Clap! Clap! Clap!"

"Stop tormenting me..."

Shen Le got up with a gloomy face, still feeling a buzzing in his head, as if there were saw blades and electric drills making a fuss inside.

When he went to have breakfast, the landlady looked at his face and couldn't help but advise him:
"Mr. Shen, don't exhaust yourself too much... We have some water-glow fruit here to nourish your spirit. Would you like to have one?"

She brought out a small plate.

In the sweet white fruit plate, there were three unknown fruits arranged in a triangular shape. They were slightly larger than the local cherries but slightly smaller than the largest cherries:
The skin is pink and slightly transparent, looking very cute. It is slightly elastic when pinched, just the maturity that Shen Le likes.

——Too soft, overripe, and easy to rot;

It's too hard, either too raw or too sweet in the mouth, without the sour and sweet freshness...

This fruit should be good.

Shen Le tentatively picked up a fruit stem and put the fruit into his mouth.

With a slight lick of the tongue, the juicy fruit burst with a "pop" sound, the skin burst, and the juice flowed out.

Shen Le:!
What kind of fruit is this? It's too sour!!!
The pain made his facial features squeezed together, he grimaced, and hissed. Every time he took a breath, a chill entered his nose, throat, and brain; and when he took another breath, there was another stronger chill!

"Is there concentrated mint juice in this fruit?!"

The proprietress was watching from the side, chuckling softly. After Shen Le stretched his neck and swallowed the fruit with difficulty, she handed him a glass of water and asked him to rinse his mouth:
"How is it? The refreshing effect is good, right?"

“…It’s really good…”

The taste is really hard to describe. This taste seems to be dominated by a strong flavor:
Just tell me whether it refreshes you or not!
The taste of the water-gold fruit is really hard to describe. If you ignore the efficacy and only consider the taste, if you put it in a fruit store, no one will buy it even if it rots.

But it is undeniable that after eating one water-shining fruit, the buzzing feeling in Shen Le's head was indeed much better. The saw blade and the electric drill went from fighting to the saw blade buzzing and the electric drill responding with a buzzing sound.

He stuffed the other two into his mouth without chewing and swallowed them. Almost immediately, a cool feeling burst out from his chest and abdomen, spreading throughout his body and rushing up to his brain.

Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief and quickly closed his eyes to practice. Once, twice, three times, the cool feeling flowed through his body along with his internal energy, especially in the meridians near his head, where it lingered for a long time.

Ah! Comfortable!

It feels like applying peppermint essential oil or medicated oil all over the forehead. It is cool, refreshing and invigorating.

All the headaches, dizziness, and malaise I had before, it's all gone!

More importantly, this internal version of "peppermint essential oil", or "wind oil essence",... does not irritate the eyes!

"Thank you very much!"

Shen Le sincerely nodded and thanked the proprietress. Although the taste of this fruit is a bit strange and explosive, it is undeniable that it is indeed a special spiritual fruit:

He would never mistake that faint spiritual feeling!

As for the price of spiritual fruits, according to the exchange list of the Special Affairs Department, the crystal fruit is 50 points per piece.

Every one!

One crystal fruit is equal to one pound of Leiling mutton, the inferior version of the mutton served by the lady boss...

One point can be stably exchanged for 10 RMB, but the reverse exchange is basically not open.

In other words, if the fruit the boss lady gave him was the same price as the crystal fruit, he would have spent at least 1,500 RMB on this small plate of three fruits...

Apart from the daily three meals of rice, meat and vegetables, the supply of spiritual fruits was not originally included in the agreement between him and the landlady.

This favor cannot be declined. Shen Le bowed slightly and said solemnly:

"I really don't know how to thank you. Anyway, if you need my help, please tell me!"

(End of this chapter)