The Color-Changing Plate (Continued)

Amid his excitement, Yuan Hongjian picked up the plate and examined it repeatedly. Suddenly, a tiny pattern on the plate caught his attention!

As luck would have it, Yuan Hongjian had studied Arabic for a while because of his work before retirement. He recognized the decorations on the stone at a glance: they were neat Arabic words reading, "In memory of so-and-so." Besides that, he also discovered that the decorations on the outermost rim, which looked like a lace border, were carved in Arabic as well.

The more Yuan Hongjian looked, the more excited he became. Having systematically studied antiques for some time, he knew that the Arabic inscriptions on the plate were no simple matter. Could the plate be far more valuable than he had originally imagined?

After consulting the literature, Yuan Hongjian discovered that during the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, it had been quite popular to use Arabic characters as decorative patterns on porcelain. Thus, he deduced that this plate must have been made before the Qing Dynasty.

With this discovery, Yuan Hongjian was so delighted that the corners of his mouth nearly reached his ears. Could it be that I stumbled into a huge bargain this time?

To get to the bottom of the matter, Yuan Hongjian took the plate to the shop. That was how the scene Uncle Wu had mentioned that morning came about.

Yuan Hongjian asked, "Teacher Chu, could you take a look? What exactly is this plate made of?"

Chu Chen pondered for a moment before saying, "It should be made of resin."

"But I clearly poked it with a red-hot iron needle. If this plate is made of resin, why didn't it give off black smoke?" Uncle Wu and Yuan Hongjian were somewhat puzzled by Chu Chen's answer.

Chu Chen