Chapter 34

Yang Kang busily said, "Yes, I want it. Find me a broken cardboard box to pack it."

"Alright!" Guo Pangzi replied, turned around, and brought over the broken cardboard box that had previously held the plum bottle. He threw it on the ground and said, "Be careful, don't cut your hand."

"Fatso, do you have any more porcelain like this at home?" Yang Kang asked tentatively. He felt that ancient porcelain meeting Guo Pangzi was like a precious jade being covered in dust. No, that's not right; if a precious jade met this fatso, it wouldn't be covered in dust, but rather reduced to a worthless stone.

"There definitely won't be any broken ones," Guo Pangzi shook his head. "If I accidentally break them, I'll definitely throw them away. There's a large bowl at the door with a long crack, which I can't use anymore, so I threw it there. I didn't know you had such a weird hobby." As he spoke, he looked at Yang Kang as if he were a fool.

Yang Kang had to correct his mistaken view and said, "My hobby is normal. This is ancient porcelain, an antique!"

"Sure, sure, sure, all old things are antiques." Guo Pangzi shook his head, somewhat mockingly, and asked, "The bowls and plates by my stove are also very old. Do you want to take a look?"

Yang Kang originally wanted to say that he wouldn't look at the tableware in his home, but then he thought, this fatso is very strange, and there might be ancient porcelain among his tableware. He immediately said, "I'll take a look later."

As he spoke, he carefully wrapped the fragments of the Yuan blue-and-white porcelain jar and placed them in the broken cardboard box. Then he went to flip through the fatso's cupboard. Fortunately, the bowls and plates in the fatso's cupboard, though not very new, were not antiques. Otherwise, Yang Kang felt that eating with such items would make him very uncomfortable.

Guo Pangzi was busy frying fish, turning the crucian carp until both sides were golden. Seeing Yang Kang standing beside him, he immediately pushed him away a bit to avoid oil splashing on him.

"You don't look like someone who can cook," Yang Kang said, very curious, and couldn't help but touch here and there. "Fatso, did you really get those two vases from collecting junk?"

He still had doubts about the origin of those two vases. Could he really get such things from collecting junk?

"Really, I got them from collecting junk. I'm just a junk collector!" Guo Pangzi said with a smile.

Yang Kang shook his head, not understanding this Guo Pangzi. Driven by curiosity, he couldn't help but ask, "Fatso, do you have any more broken vases at home?"

"I remember there's another broken bottle!" Guo Pangzi said, scratching his head.

"Where is it?" Yang Kang asked hurriedly.

Guo Pangzi, busy cooking the fish, said, "I don't know where it's under. I'll find it for you later."

"Will it be crushed?" Yang Kang asked, not without concern.

"Who knows? It's just one bottle, not very useful. If it's broken, it's broken!" Guo Pangzi said indifferently.

Yang Kang, curious, asked, "What do your vases look like?"

"They're the color of my grandmother's quilt—this kind of dark blue." Guo Pangzi pointed to an ordinary blue-and-white plate while speaking.

"Blue-and-white porcelain is very beautiful," Yang Kang said hurriedly.

"Is this blue-and-white porcelain the one that's very popular in that song?" Guo Pangzi saw that the tomato soup was ready, took a large bowl, and ladled the soup. Seeing Yang Kang standing beside him, he handed the soup to him and asked curiously, "The color of the sky after the rain?" As he spoke, he hummed a little tune of the blue-and-white porcelain.

"Yes, that's it," Yang Kang took the tomato soup and placed it on a small table, saying, "This is a treasure of Chinese culture, how can it not be beautiful?"

"From my perspective, it's not beautiful," Guo Pangzi shook his head.

"Then what do you think is beautiful?" Yang Kang asked in surprise.

"The two vases I gave you today are pretty good. I once saw a bottle that was very beautiful," Guo Pangzi said, pouring the shredded meat into the hot oil. "I once saw a very simple bottle, very beautiful, a kind of emerald green, no patterns, quite nice. It looked fresh and clean in the summer, right!"

Guo Pangzi, speaking to this point, immediately clapped his hands and said, "Just like you."

"Like me?" Yang Kang was confused. How could he be like porcelain? Or should he say, what porcelain is like him?

"That day you were wearing a silver-green outfit, standing by the roadside, that feeling... like the sky after the rain, then suddenly clear, like a jade tree in the wind." Guo Pangzi explained.

"Rain over the sky, clear blue?" Yang Kang almost exclaimed. The only blue that could achieve this effect was the Song Dynasty Ru porcelain, fine and blue, like ice and jade. As for Guo Pangzi describing him as porcelain, he pretended not to hear.

The glaze of Ru porcelain contains agate, with a green and lustrous color, thick and bright, far surpassing ordinary porcelain.

"Where did you see it?" Yang Kang asked hurriedly.

"I saw it once when I was a child, but I forgot where exactly." Guo Pangzi shook his head. "I only remembered it when I saw you."

"Fatso, please think hard!" Yang Kang said hurriedly. He had only seen Ru porcelain once, at the Palace Museum in the capital.

"I like beautiful vases," Yang Kang said.

"Alright, alright, I know you like beautiful vases. In the future, if I see any beautiful vases, I'll keep them for you, won't break them, and won't forget, okay?" Guo Pangzi coaxed him like a child.

"Those are antiques, if you break them, they're gone forever!" Yang Kang felt it was necessary to give this fatso a good lesson in antiques.

"Antiques are just old, broken things others have used!" Guo Pangzi sneered.

"I won't talk to you anymore!" Yang Kang felt very frustrated. He couldn't argue with this fatso.

"Let's not talk about this, let's eat!" Guo Pangzi didn't care and laughed heartily.

Guo Pangzi's cooking skills were excellent. The braised crucian carp was very flavorful, and even the ordinary stir-fried yam with shredded meat was very delicious. Even the most ordinary tomato soup tasted better to Yang Kang than what he had eaten before. These days, the best cooks are all fat.

Only those who love to eat will study various recipes and strive for excellence, creating delicious dishes.

Guo Pangzi's cherished plum wine also tasted very good, with a rich aroma and a slight sweet and sour flavor. Yang Kang liked it very much and, under Guo Pangzi's persuasion, drank several cups.

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