Du Zhonglin listened to this and stood stunned for quite a while before asking with some difficulty, "Could there really have been no exceptions back then? Was there definitely no He Xiangu?"
Chu Chen replied, "The legend of He Xiangu existed long ago. However, although the legends of the Eight Immortals were widespread during the Yuan Dynasty, their names had not yet been fixed. He Xiangu, Cao Guojiu, or Zhang Guolao might be absent, while Xu Shenweng, Feng Sengshou, Zhang Silang, Yuan Huzi, and others might appear instead. They all shared one characteristic: all eight immortals were male, with no females."
"As for the current order of the Eight Immortals, it was only finalized after Wu Yuantai's Eight Immortals' Origin: Journey to the East in the Ming Dynasty."
"How could this be!" Du Zhonglin could not accept the result at all. He abruptly rose from his chair and paced back and forth beside it. The anxiety and helplessness on his face pained Chu Chen terribly.
To prevent anything from happening, Chu Chen hurried over and comforted him, "Old sir, calm down first. Don't let this affect your health, or it won't be worth it."
"But... this is my retirement money! How can I calm down?"
Du Zhonglin looked utterly desperate. Still unwilling to give up, he picked up the meiping vase and explained, "Teacher Chu, look at this brown-spot decoration. It had already appeared on Yue ware from the late Western Jin Dynasty. Yuan Dynasty Longquan kiln ware inherited and developed this technique, giving celadon, a single-color-glazed type of porcelain, a more varied appearance. Isn't this meiping vase the best proof?"
"And look at the firestone red on the exposed-body sections. Against the surrounding celadon glaze, the color is so vivid and eye-catching! How could a fake possibly be made