Chapter 193: Miracles Through Hard Work

Soya was completely smitten with black pottery. Every morning she tidied up her house, and every afternoon she would bring a small stool to Yang Shuzhen and study with a group of young people. Since she wasn't an official apprentice at the association, Yang Shuzhen didn't make any special arrangements for her learning. Moreover, due to the irregular schedule, the little girl just showed up wherever she could and listened to whatever was being taught.

The black pottery craft can be roughly divided into three main parts: material selection, processing, and firing. The quality of the selected material is crucial for the final product. The quality of processing depends on the artist's skill, but the firing process is the most critical. Whether a piece of pottery can be called black pottery largely depends on how it's fired.

After three days of instruction, the association had already divided the new apprentices into groups based on these three stages.

That afternoon, Soya happened to see Zhu Juan standing in the yard with her hands on her hips, directing a group of young men who were preparing river mud collected from the riverbank. The county of Bangye is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Nuomin River, and the river mud there is quite fine. According to the requirements for black pottery, the river mud must be aged for at least five years through frost and wind. Only fully aged mud is less likely to crack and is easier to use.

Thus, material selection is a dirty and laborious task, and Yang Shuzhen had assigned the strongest of the hundred people to this task without any hesitation.

Watching Zhu Juan bossing around the young men, who were covered in mud and looking dismayed, Soya couldn't help but smile. The incident of Zhu Juan's monkey-shaped pottery had already become a joke among the association members.

Originally, Zhu Juan was quite displeased with the group calling her pottery monkey-shaped. But when she saw the annoying little mute girl smirking at her, her face darkened again.

Hmph.

She wondered what was so special about that little girl.

Zhu Juan looked at Soya's slightly yellowed ponytail and flicked her own long, coarse braid. She glanced at Soya's white shirt and her chest, then at her baggy trousers and backside, and sneered.

"Hey, the little vixen you were talking about, could it be her?"

A round-faced girl next to Zhu Juan tugged at her sleeve, looking at Soya with disdain.

"Yes, that's her!" Zhu Juan squinted and said.

"She's so pretty..." The girl started to compliment, but when she saw her sister's displeased expression, she quickly swallowed her words.

"Pretty my foot! Look at her. Xiaojing, tell me, does she compare to me at all? A yellow-haired girl with no more than five taels of meat on her chest, and her backside looks like a peach. She's not fit for bearing children. Hmph." Zhu Juan sneered at Soya and then averted her gaze.

"..." Zhu Jing, who had learned tailoring from her master and worked for over a month before arriving in Bangye, remained silent.

Looking at Soya, who was completely ignored by Zhu Jing, she patted her elder sister's rough arm and, with a flushed face, said, "Yes, Sister, you're right!"

The words were insincere, but Zhu Juan took them seriously.

Puffing up her chest with pride, Zhu Juan watched Soya carry two finished bottle bodies from a small house to the kiln and thought of a plan. She grabbed her sister and pulled her away.

"Sister, where are you going?"

"Mom isn't here right now. I'm going to tidy things up!"

"Hey, Sis, isn't that inappropriate?"

Before Zhu Jing could refuse, Zhu Juan had already dragged her off like a kite.

...

The kiln used by the association was originally for burning tiles and was quite small. However, it was built by old tile makers for repairing houses and was fully equipped. Although it was only about ten square meters, it had all the necessary features—old craftsmen never compromise on their tools.

Now, with the added responsibility of teaching black pottery firing, the kiln was fired continuously during the day.

Soya had become familiar with the kiln masters over the past few days. When she brought her two bottles, which she had made herself from selecting clay, pulling and fixing the molds, they were praised.

The bottles were well-made. Although the surfaces were plain without any decorations or carvings, they were quite ancient-looking. More importantly, the clay was thinned and refined, and the bottles were nearly two feet tall and as thick as a large bowl, yet extremely light to the touch.

Though they did not reach the thin-as-egg-shell quality of top-notch black pottery, for a beginner who had only been practicing black pottery for less than ten days, making such bottles was remarkable and showed a deep understanding of the clay's properties.

While the kiln master praised her, Soya smiled with her eyes closed and gestured happily.

The house was filled with antique cabinets, but after searching through two warehouses, the little girl couldn't find anything suitable to display.

Seeing that Li Xian's room and living room cabinets were empty, she decided to make some bottles and jars herself to fill them.

This was the real reason she had become so obsessed with black pottery.

For practical purposes, ordinary black pottery is finished after high-temperature firing and cooling. But for aesthetic purposes, there's much more to consider.

According to Yang Shuzhen's teachings, Soya went into the drying room, found a good spot, and then immediately left— it was too hot, and she was sweating heavily.

Standing by the kiln and wiping her sweaty forehead, Soya heard someone call her from behind.

"Hey, little mute."

Turning around, she saw Zhu Juan and an unfamiliar girl walking over.

Zhu Juan had always been rude to her, and Soya didn't like interacting with her. However, seeing the round-faced girl behind Zhu Juan, Soya smiled. She noticed the girl peeking at her from behind Zhu Juan and smiled again, ignoring Zhu Juan's provocations and walked away.

Seeing that Soya had ignored her, Zhu Juan felt frustrated. Her well-prepared ridicule fell flat, and she was left feeling uneasy.

"Hey! I misjudged you! Turns out you're not just a mute but also deaf! Hahaha... Hah... Hah, hey..."

Seeing her sister's embarrassed expression, Zhu Jing gently tugged at Zhu Juan's sleeve. "Sis, why are you picking on someone who can't speak? Let's go, I want to check on Dad and Big Brother."

Zhu Juan, feeling embarrassed and annoyed, was further irked by her sister siding with an outsider. Thinking about the little vixen's figure and Li Xian's monkey-shaped figurine, she was infuriated and uncomfortable.

"No way!" Seeing Soya's departing back, she stamped her foot and kicked up a cloud of dust. "Today, I must teach her a lesson! Look at her, just a cleaning maid, what's there to be proud of?"

"Hey, Sis!"

Ignoring her sister's attempts to stop her, Zhu Juan, with a glint in her eye, walked straight into the drying room.

In the hot and stuffy drying room, she immediately spotted the two bottles. Seeing them made her even angrier, as she felt she wouldn't be able to make such round bottles even if she practiced for a year. She stormed out of the drying room, grabbed a handful of charcoal ash, wrapped it in newspaper, and went back inside to smear it on the bottles.

Seeing the charcoal ash making the smooth and delicate bottles messy, Zhu Juan felt much better. She imagined Soya's reaction when she saw the ruined bottles and chuckled with satisfaction.

The thrill of her successful plan made her feel dizzy.

Outside the drying room, Zhu Jing, who had been waiting anxiously for her sister, finally couldn't hold her worry any longer and rushed inside. Seeing Zhu Juan lying on the ground with a foolish grin, she screamed.

"Help! It's bad! My sister is suffering from heatstroke!"

...

To ensure high quality black pottery, the kiln needs to fire for a whole day and then seal the kiln door to let the carbon seep into the clay and cool for a day and a half before the pottery can be considered finished.

The next afternoon, Soya, humming a silent tune, arrived at the kiln. As she approached the drying room, she saw a pale Zhu Juan, supported by the girl from yesterday, waiting there. Zhu Juan looked like a large dog with its eyes fixed on Soya, and her face was pale with sweat.

Soya, unable to meet that intense gaze, quickly lowered her head and walked into the drying room. When she found the place where she had left her bottles, she saw that the bottles were now covered with small bumps, as if they had been through an allergy. Her eyes widened in shock.

When she used the kiln hook to pull out the still-hot bottles and saw their appearance, tears began to well up in her eyes.

At that moment, a weak, mocking voice came from nearby, "Haha... haha... What are these? Caterpillar bottles?"

Soya wasn't foolish; she immediately understood who was behind the mischief.

She threw the kiln hook to the ground and stormed over to Zhu Juan, pointing at the bottles with a questioning look, then thrusting her finger at Zhu Juan's nose.

Zhu Juan pushed her hand away. "Yes, it was me. So what? Do you want to eat me?"

Seeing the accused admit to it, Soya bit her lip tightly, tears welling up in her eyes.

Determined, she stepped forward and pushed the culprit responsible for ruining her bottles, but she only ended up falling on her backside

.

Seeing her distress made Zhu Juan even happier. "Oh, I accidentally spilled some charcoal ash on your bottles yesterday. What? You don't like them rough? If you don't like them, I'll wash them for you!"

Before Soya could get up, Zhu Juan scooped a ladle of water from a large jar beside the drying room and threw it directly at the bottles.

The bottles had just been removed from the drying room and were still extremely hot. Since the clay had completely dried and hardened, the bottles would definitely crack when exposed to water at such a high temperature.

"Ah!"

Seeing the stream of water headed for her bottles, Soya reached out, and tears began to fall.

Psssh~!

Bang!

The sharp sound of boiling water was followed by two explosive sounds as the bottles shattered.

Soya sat on the ground for a long time, wiping her tears before finally getting up. She silently walked to her shattered bottles, picking up the pieces that were still hot to the touch. She couldn't help but recall the times she had been bullied before, which she had seemingly forgotten.

Just as she was about to burst into tears, she noticed something and froze.

Curiously, she picked up a small shard and observed the color and texture, which were distinctly different from ordinary black pottery... Her long eyelashes, wet with tears, fluttered a few times.

For a moment, she was dazed.