Chapter 173 A Mismatched Tenon and Mortise? The Mother-in-Law's Pupils Shocked!

silence.

Only the faint sound of the autumn wind rustling through the tops of the old locust tree remained in the courtyard.

Song Wan's slightly hesitant question seemed to still linger in the air.

This Peking University history professor, who was usually unfazed even by the collapse of Mount Tai, was now even breathing softly.

Her gaze was fixed on Lin Mo's calm and composed face.

Trying to find even the slightest hint of panic or forced bravado in the young man's eyes.

However, she found nothing.

Lin Mo maintained his usual nonchalant and composed demeanor.

He lowered his eyes slightly, his gaze sweeping once more over the three broken pieces of yellow jade in the sandalwood box.

Then, under the watchful eyes of everyone present, he slowly shook his head.

This slight movement was like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the tiny spark that had just ignited in the yard.

Jiang Ruoyun's heart sank.

Her eyes, which had been shining brightly because of Lin Mo's incredible power, instantly dimmed.

Even he can't do anything about it?

But on second thought, it makes perfect sense.

The jade's internal structure was completely brittle, and both industry giants pronounced it dead.

The fact that Lin Mo could see through its origins and the secret fire at a glance was already astonishing enough.

Asking him to piece together a pile of things that were about to turn to dust is asking the impossible.

Jiang Ruoyun bit her lower lip and quietly took half a step forward.

She silently positioned most of her body in front of Lin Mo, like a mother cat protecting her kittens.

However, before Jiang Ruoyun could speak up to defend her husband, Lin Mo's calm and collected voice rang out in the courtyard.

"The most common and sophisticated technique for restoring ancient jade is kintsugi."

He ignored Jiang Ruoyun's little gestures, and simply patted the back of her hand gently to reassure her.

"Using natural lacquer as an adhesive, mixed with glutinous rice flour, broken porcelain or jade pieces are reassembled."

"Finally, a layer of pure gold powder is applied to the surface of the seam to cover the cracks and even transform the imperfections into a kind of beauty with a sense of age."

Lin Mo calmly explained this highly respected traditional craft.

Zhou Yang, who was standing next to him, nodded subconsciously.

As a master of traditional Chinese painting, he naturally has a thorough understanding of these traditional crafts.

"That's right, the art of Kintsugi emphasizes following nature and not deliberately concealing flaws."

Zhou Yang sighed, his gaze falling once again on the piece of topaz.

"But this piece of jade cannot be repaired with kintsugi."

Lin Mo nodded slightly, picking up where Zhou Yang left off.

"Old Zhou is right, it won't work."

"The core of Kintsugi lies in the adhesive power of lacquer. However, during the long process of lacquer drying and curing completely, it generates a kind of inward contraction physical tension."

Lin Mo tapped the edge of the stone table lightly with his long, slender fingers, producing a muffled sound.

"Ordinary jade fragments are hard and can naturally withstand this pulling force."

"But this ripe chestnut, having experienced alternating extreme heat and cold, has had its internal structural stress completely destroyed."

"It's like a crispy biscuit that's been weathered for a thousand years now."

Lin Mo raised his head and looked calmly at Song Wan.

"If you force it to stick together with lacquer, what will happen the moment the lacquer dries and shrinks..."

"That tiny tension will directly tear the jade's outer layer at the damaged area to shreds."

"By then, this piece of jade will truly have turned into a pile of yellow sand."

Hearing Lin Mo's insightful and even precise analysis of the material's physical properties...

Wang Cunzun nodded repeatedly, his eyes full of approval.

"Young man, you're absolutely right! That's exactly what I was worried about!"

This leading figure in Tsinghua University's architecture department couldn't help but slap his thigh.

"The material's stress limit is what it is; using any adhesive that contains moisture or shrinks will only hasten its destruction."

Wang Cunzhuan sighed deeply, his tone filled with regret.

"So this is an unsolvable dead end!"

Song Wan sat upright on the stone bench, listening to the conversation between Lin Mo and Wang Cunzhuan, her eyes gradually becoming deep.

She had to admit that the young man's knowledge and understanding of objects far exceeded her comprehension.

This is not the kind of insight a chef should have.

He's more like a master who's spent half his life immersed in the underground restoration room of the Palace Museum.

However, since he also said it couldn't be fixed.

In this invisible struggle today, she, as the mother, ultimately prevailed.

Song Wan lowered her eyelids slightly, preparing to say a few polite words to put the matter behind her.

But at that moment, Lin Mo changed the subject.

He didn't change his casual standing posture, but his aura instantly rose.

That's a true confidence, an arrogance that comes from looking down on the world after years of experience.

"Kintsugi (the art of repairing metal) is indeed impossible."

Lin Mo's voice slowly echoed in the quiet courtyard.

"But who says you have to use adhesive to fix this?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Cunzhuan and Zhou Yang, whose fates had already been sealed, were both stunned.

Even Song Wan suddenly raised her head, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes.

No adhesive needed?

How can you put something broken into three pieces back together without adhesive? Can you just use your willpower?

Jiang Ruoyun also turned her head in a daze, looking at her husband's well-defined profile.

Lin Mo didn't keep them in suspense. He stretched out a finger and pointed at the yellow jade in the wooden box.

"Although the inside of this jade is brittle, the patina and hard shell on the surface are still there."

"As long as you don't touch its cross-section, you can find support points inside and avoid its weakest point."

Wang Cuncun frowned as he listened. As an architect, he instinctively began to follow Lin Mo's line of thought and deduce the reasoning.

"Find internal support? How? This jade is only so big!"

A faint smile appeared on Lin Mo's lips.

"The only solution is to abandon all chemical or natural mucus."

"Using the purest physical structure."

He paused, his tone calm yet carrying immense weight.

"Pure gold and silver are melted at high temperatures and then drawn into wire."

"Draw it into extremely fine gold and silver threads, twice as fine as a human hair."

As Lin Mo spoke, he made a subtle pinching motion with two fingers.

"Then, using specially made micro-carving tools, we hollowed out the inner edges of the broken parts of these three pieces of jade little by little."

"Avoiding the outer skin, they painstakingly drilled extremely tiny mortises inside its crispy belly."

"Finally, gold and silver wires, finer than a hair, were used as the framework, interwoven to create a 'hidden tenon' that was fastened tightly."

"Using the ductility of gold and silver as a buffer, and the interlocking force of the mortise and tenon joint instead of glue."

"In this way, the three fragments of jade can be firmly locked from the inside, making it look perfectly fitted from the outside, as if it were made by nature."

After Lin Mo finished speaking, he picked up the glass of warm water that Jiang Ruoyun had poured for him earlier and moistened his throat.

It was as if what he had just said was just an ordinary, everyday thing, like "cabbage stew with tofu".

The other three people in the courtyard were completely dumbfounded.

Especially Wang's savings account.

He stood there dumbfounded, as if struck by lightning.

The repair process that Lin Mo had just described was replaying in his mind like crazy.

Do you use mortise and tenon joints inside jade?

Moreover, it was inside a jade stone whose internal structure was already completely brittle?

He has dedicated his life to ancient architecture and knows all too well the intricacies of mortise and tenon joints and the requirements for materials.

Wood is resilient and can withstand force, so it can be mortised.

Jade is inherently hard yet fragile, not to mention that this piece of jade is so fragile that it could crumble at the slightest touch.

The goal is to carve out mortises that are difficult to discern with the naked eye from inside its fault layers.

This requires not only superhuman mastery of tools.

Furthermore, it requires that the force applied by the hand at the moment of carving must not deviate by even one micrometer!

Even more terrifying is that they had to embed gold and silver wires, thinner than a human hair, into the tenons.

How is this possible?!

"impossible!"

"That's absolutely impossible!"

"To build mortise and tenon joints under the brittle jade skin?! And to connect them with gold and silver wires as fine as hair?!"

Wang Cundu was so excited that his breathing became rapid.

He grabbed Zhou Yang's arm and shook him violently.

"Old Zhou! Did you hear what he said?!"

"This is 'gold and silver inlay'! This is the ultimate 'gold and silver inlay' craft, combining the pinnacle of micro-carving techniques!"

Zhou Yang also gasped, his glasses slipping down to the tip of his nose without him even bothering to push them up.

Gold and silver inlay is a top-level inlay technique originating from the Bronze Age.

Patterns are engraved on the surface of the object, then gold and silver wires are inlaid and polished smooth.

But what Lin Mo just said is a hundred times more terrifying than traditional gold and silver inlay.

He not only had to work on the jade, but also had to make hidden tenons inside the jade, in places invisible to the naked eye!

"This craft only exists in the secret archives of the Ming and Qing dynasties; it has been lost for over a thousand years!"

Wang Cuncun beat his thigh in anguish.

"Modern machines might be able to achieve the required precision, but if you were to cut into such brittle jade, the vibrations of the machine would instantly shatter it!"

"No one in this world could achieve this by hand!"

"Nobody's here!"

Wang Cunzhuan confidently drew his conclusion, which echoed in the quiet courtyard.

Jiang Ruoyun was startled by the old man's crazy appearance and instinctively hid behind Lin Mo.

But a sense of pride inexplicably rose within her.

Although she couldn't understand those sophisticated handicraft terms.

But the fact that this man could drive a top professor at Tsinghua University to the brink of madness on the spot shows how incredibly handsome he is.

Despite Wang Cun's excitement, which almost made him jump up on the spot, Lin Mo's expression remained unchanged.

He simply watched quietly as the old scholar, so passionate about traditional crafts, became obsessed with them.

Then, Lin Mo put down the water glass in his hand, and a gentle smile appeared on his lips.

His tone was light and cheerful, with a hint of casual laughter.

"What a coincidence."

Lin Mo slowly dusted off non-existent dust from the cuffs of his white shirt.

"I happen to know a little bit of this skill."

Silence, deathly silence.

Wang Cunzhu opened his mouth wide, but the rebuttal he was about to shout was stuck in his throat, making a strange "clucking" sound.

Zhou Yang's hand trembled, and his jaw almost dropped to the ground.

Song Wan remained seated at the stone table.

The moment she heard those words, the hands that were holding the teacup quietly loosened.

The last trace of scrutiny, defensiveness, and haughty aristocratic demeanor lingered in her eyes.

At this moment, it was utterly and irrevocably shattered.

Instead, there was extreme shock.

And an undisguised, fervent appreciation, like looking at a peerless piece of jade.

She finally understood why her proud and arrogant daughter would willingly stay in this small courtyard house washing rags.

The young man in front of me was wearing an ordinary white shirt.

He was not some ordinary person who knew a little about cooking or miscellaneous skills.

He is a bottomless treasure trove!

They can casually describe a skill that has been lost for thousands of years as "I just happen to know a little bit of it".

The confidence behind this nonchalant attitude is enough to crush all the scions of prominent families in Beijing's elite circles.

Song Wan took a deep breath.

The lingering scent of aged wood in the air now felt strangely comforting.

She stretched out her fair and slender hands and, with extremely gentle movements, closed the lid of the sandalwood box.

"Clatter".

The sound of the brass lock snapping shut was crisp and pleasant.

Song Wan withdrew her hand and slowly stood up.

Her eyes changed completely.

It's no longer that kind of tentative probing with thorns, nor is it that kind of aloofness from a wealthy matriarch.

Instead, it carries the gentleness and kindness of an elder looking at a peerless genius.

There was even a hint of satisfaction, like a mother-in-law finding her son-in-law more and more pleasing to the eye.

"Good eye."

Song Wan looked at Lin Mo and didn't hold back her praise.

"Good insight."

She paused slightly, and the smile on her lips melted away the frost like a spring breeze.

"There are even better methods."

Song Wan straightened the collar of her coat and glanced at Jiang Ruoyun, who was standing next to Lin Mo and still looked a little dazed.

Finally, she spoke in an extremely natural tone, full of the warmth and humanity of everyday life.

"Lin Mo, the shop is closed for lunch anyway."

"Could you do me the honor of cooking a couple of simple home-style dishes for me, your elder?"