A visit

The area around Green Marsh Source is relatively warmer, probably because it's surrounded by mountains, so they didn't feel cold even after working there for most of the day.

It wasn't easy to come out like this, Jian Mo simply dragged Wu Jiong along and worked until nightfall before heading back.

When they returned to the tribe, a new batch of wet wood had already been put into the kiln, along with the glaze shards he had made.

Amidst his busy work, Qing Kuo looked up at him and said, "The kiln is already sealed. You'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to see it."

Jian Mo: "No rush, I just happened to be passing by and wanted to take a look."

Qing Kuo waved his hand. "If there's nothing else, you can go back now. You've had a long day, go back and rest."

Jian Mo took the advice and went home after wandering around for a while.

Life in the tribe was peaceful. After dinner, Jian Mo washed up and went upstairs to the second floor. She sat next to the giant wolf that Wu Jiong had transformed into and quickly fell asleep.

He slept soundly that night, without even a dream, so when he was woken up the next morning, he was completely dazed.

"... What?" Jian Mo stared at the scene before her, unable to process what she was seeing. "The glaze has been fired?"

Qing Kuo: "Yes! Some of them burned out, some didn't. I brought them all, take a look!"

Jian Mo nodded hesitantly.

He held three pottery shards in his Qing Kuo, bluish-green hands. All three shards had mottled colored glazes. Because the base color of the pottery shards was grayish-white, Jian Mo could be roughly distinguished by the colors of the glazes, which included red and blue.

Upon closer inspection, he jolted awake, completely waking up. "It actually sintered!"

Qing Kuo: "Only these three pieces were fired out of the sixteen glaze shards. The remaining glaze shards were in the same condition when they were fired as they were when they came out of the kiln."

Jian Mo threw back the covers. "Let me see."

"Here, for you." Qing Kuo took the other dusty glaze shards out of the basket, then couldn't help but say to him, "Hurry up and put your clothes on before you look at them, don't get sick."

Jian Mo glanced at the brazier burning in the corner of the room. "It's alright, it's warm in here."

Qing Kuo: "Everyone else is fine, but you might not be. Hurry up and put it on."

Upon hearing Jian Mo had no choice but to put on the animal skin robe first, and then take the glaze shard for a closer look.

These glaze pieces were glazed at the same time, sent into the kiln at the same time, and taken out at the same time. Logically, there should be little difference between them. I don't know why some were fired successfully while others were not.

Jian Mo led Qing Kuo downstairs and hurriedly pulled out the notes she had written yesterday.

He numbered the glaze shards, of which only three—numbers nine, ten, and eleven—were successfully fired.

He took out the wooden pieces and examined the glaze formula, quickly discovering that only these three glaze pieces contained alkali.

Jian Mo stared at the formula and suddenly realized that the glaze layer was actually a glass layer, and that alkali could lower the melting point of the glaze.

Glaze slurry is actually a mud slurry, which should contain quartz components.

The alkali actually lowers the melting point of quartz!

That was incredibly difficult.

Jian Mo wiped the sweat from her forehead; thinking about this stuff was really taxing on her brain.

Jian Mo stared at the glaze shards and sighed, "I knew the glaze felt familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. It's like glass; no wonder it's waterproof."

Qing Kuo was completely confused. "What is glass?"

Hearing the commotion, Wu Jiong came in, looked at the excited yet exhausted Jian Mo, and then at the puzzled Qing Kuo: "Tell me slowly."

Jian Mo: "Sigh."

After calming down a bit, Jian Mo said somewhat shyly, "Let me organize my thoughts first."

Qing Kuo poured him some water and sighed, "I didn't understand a single word you said."

Jian Mo held up a glaze shard. "Let's talk about glass first—glass is a transparent and hard material, and it should be possible to fire it using sand."

Qing Kuo: "Sand? The sand on the riverbank?"

Jian Mo nodded. "That kind of sand, if we want to make glass, we need to sift it and find the finest sand possible."

Qing Kuo understood a little, but then a new question arose, "Why are we making glass? Aren't we making pottery anymore?"

Jian Mo: "Glass is glass, and ceramic is ceramic. If the melting point of glass is low enough, we can fire both together."

Qing Kuo hesitated. "Then what's the point of firing it? Is it like pottery, fired to hold things?"

"No, no, no, it has a much better use." Jian Mo pointed to the window sealed with bark, her eyes sparkling. "We can install it on the window."

Qing Kuo and Wu Jiong followed his gaze to the window.

Qing Kuo was still not quite able to react.

Wu Jiong asked, "A transparent material—glass, colorless like water, yet hard like ceramic? Can it block the wind without affecting the light when placed in a window?"

Jian Mo nodded, looking at Wu Jiong with admiration. "Yes, can you imagine?"

Wu Jiong: "I can."

Qing Kuo rubbed his forehead. "You guys talk, I can't think of anything at all."

Jian Mo said happily, "It's okay, you'll understand once we've made it."

Chapter 32 Visit

Apart from Wu Jiong, no one in the tribe could imagine what glass was, nor could they understand Jian Mo's excitement.

Seeing this, Jian Mo simply discussed with everyone and suggested moving the pottery firing date forward. He also planned to fire some glass to show everyone.

The clay body is already dry; now we just need to apply another layer of glaze.

Jian Mo carefully prepared the glaze according to the previous recipe, applied a layer to the clay body, and then waited for it to air dry.

The tricky part is that he doesn't know how to make glass.

He had only seen videos of glassblowing, but that's not the same as glassmaking.

He couldn't quite figure out how to fire out a smooth, transparent glass.

Qing Kuo and a few others offered suggestions:

"Or should we first prepare a glaze, brush it onto the clay body, and then fire it?"

"Pour it into the kiln and fire it?"

"Should we air-dry it first? Or, like making ceramic slabs, we can thicken the glaze, make a glazed slab, air-dry it, and then fire it?"

After Qing Kuo and the others finished offering their suggestions, they all turned to look at Jian Mo.