Ji Yuan was her own advisor, so Zhao Hanzhang naturally didn’t hide it from him, stating frankly: “I’m not firing ceramics. This workshop is firing glazed ware.”

Ji Yuan reached out to clean his ear, “What did you say you’re firing?”

Zhao Hanzhang: “Glazed ware!”

Ji Yuan: …

He silently looked at Zhao Hanzhang without speaking.

Zhao Hanzhang spread her hands, “I’m serious.”

Ji Yuan said earnestly: “Sanniang, I’m serious too. Such matters are not to be joked about.”

Zhao Hanzhang looked at him silently.

The two stared at each other for a long while. Ji Yuan’s eyes gradually widened. He opened his mouth, and after quite a while managed to ask, “Does Sanniang know the firing method?”

Surely it couldn’t be a recipe from the master? He had been by Zhao Changyu’s side for many years and had never heard him mention it.

Zhao Hanzhang: “I don’t know, but Young Master Fu does.”

Ji Yuan was extremely surprised. Although very doubtful about the truth of this matter, seeing Zhao Hanzhang so certain, he decided to wait and see.

Ji Yuan began squatting in the workshop every day, even having work brought to the workshop to handle.

He wanted to see whether Young Master Fu truly knew, or was just casually fooling them to please their Sanniang.

Then he saw Fu Tinghan change into a narrow-sleeved fine linen robe, much lighter, and directly climb up and down with the craftsmen to fire and check the temperature.

Although he couldn’t see anything.

Fu Tinghan put crushed quartz sand and limestone into the furnace to melt. The craftsman stared blankly, and only when all the materials melted did he understand, “No wonder when the steward came to select people, he specifically asked if anyone could forge iron or melt iron water. So this is similar to iron-working.”

Fu Tinghan felt his face burning hot. Handing the subsequent work to him, he retreated to the side with his flushed face reflected by the fire, asking: “So you have rich experience in iron forging?”

“It’s alright,” the craftsman said, “My cousin is a blacksmith. I learned some things from my maternal grandfather before. Besides, watching this kind of work a lot makes it clear. It has similarities with our ceramic firing.”

Upon hearing this, Fu Tinghan asked: “There’s a blacksmith surnamed Lu in Xiping county…”

“Oh my, he’s my cousin! Has Young Master met him?”

Fu Tinghan nodded, “We met a few days ago in Xiping.”

The materials in the furnace turned to liquid. Fu Tinghan not very skillfully used a pre-made iron pipe to roll up a blob of glass liquid and pulled it out, placing it on a rotating rack while spinning and blowing air. The fiery yellow glass liquid slowly expanded and became transparent…

Ji Yuan also couldn’t help putting down his work and coming forward to watch.

Fu Tinghan blew for quite a while. After the glass liquid cooled somewhat, he lifted the iron pipe back to the furnace edge, put the blown glass sphere into the furnace, absorbed enough glass liquid, then pulled it out and continued blowing…

The glass sphere expanded more and more, finally stopping when it reached the size of a small flower vase.

Fu Tinghan felt quite tired. He looked at the glass vase at the end of the iron pipe, feeling he couldn’t blow anymore, so he lifted the iron pipe back and placed it on another kiln furnace, letting the fire melt the bottom of the glass vase. He clumsily smoothed the glass vase, then evenly cut off the glass opening connected to the iron pipe…

Once the glass cooled, the vase took shape.

Everyone in the workshop stared dumbfounded at this glass vase.

Fu Tinghan also stared at it blankly. This glass vase was round at the bottom and top, with the roundness uneven and even a bit curved, like a standing person with a stomachache bending over to clutch their belly.

His face reddened a bit. He hadn’t expected that lacking some equipment would result in such inferior glass. He quickly said to Ji Yuan: “I’ll smash it and blow another one.”

Saying this, he was about to smash the glass vase. Ji Yuan grabbed him, his eyes fixed tightly on this transparent glass vase, “No, you can’t smash it. This is an extremely fine vase!”

Fu Tinghan: …Did people in the Jin Dynasty all have such distorted aesthetics?

Ji Yuan’s eyes shone brightly as he stared at the glass vase, confirming again and again, “It really is like glazed ware—it can hold water and won’t leak?”

“Although it’s ugly, its performance will be fine,” Fu Tinghan had confidence in this point, “Wait until it completely cools, then Master Ji can try filling it with water.”

The glass cooled quickly. Ji Yuan carefully approached and inserted his finger into the vase opening, clearly seeing the finger inside the vase from outside. The surrounding craftsmen all let out sounds of amazement.

Ji Yuan was also amazed. He turned back, his eyes bright as stars, looking at Fu Tinghan, “Young Master Fu is truly talented!”

Fu Tinghan modestly said: “I don’t dare accept such praise.”

“You should accept it, you should,” Ji Yuan grasped his hands with both of his, extremely excited, “The master and Sanniang truly have discerning eyes. Young Master is an excellent person.”

Such a treasure—to produce it just like that, and in Sanniang’s workshop no less.

In this instant, many thoughts flashed through Ji Yuan’s mind. He wished he could immediately embrace this glass vase and return to find Zhao Hanzhang.

But at this moment there was still glass liquid in the furnace. He wanted to watch the glass-making process again, so he reluctantly held back and didn’t move.

Fu Tinghan also wanted to try again. Of course, not just him trying—the craftsmen needed to try too, since they would be the main ones doing this later.

Fu Tinghan’s manual skills were average, but his theoretical knowledge was rich. He might do mediocre work himself, but he could guide others!

Under his guidance, three craftsmen blew several glass pieces—all kinds of strange shapes—but after a few attempts they blew better than him.

Even so, they still didn’t look very good. Fu Tinghan simply had them cut the blown glass, melt it again, and flatten it into smooth glass mirrors.

Fu Tinghan took the smooth glass mirror and looked at his reflection, then shook his head, “The mixture ratio is wrong. The clarity isn’t enough. To make glass mirrors, the formula needs adjusting.”

Ji Yuan humbly asked for advice, “Is the formula difficult to adjust?”

Fu Tinghan thought for a moment, “Shouldn’t be very difficult. I’ll try it when I get back. But blowing glass is also difficult—hard to shape. It seems we’ll need molds.”

His brow furrowed tightly, “But to make glass molds, we’ll need steel. We’ll have to try adding copper, chromium, and tin when casting iron…”

Ji Yuan only understood “copper,” “Do we need a lot of copper?”

Fu Tinghan shook his head, “Not much, just for making molds.”

A nearby craftsman couldn’t help saying: “Young Master, why not try ceramics?”

Fu Tinghan: “Glass liquid and ceramic firing temperatures are similar. I’m afraid ceramics can’t withstand the high temperature of glass liquid.”

This was why he and Zhao Hanzhang wanted ceramic craftsmen—the melting temperatures of the two were similar. What they lacked was kiln craftsmanship, and they only had the ability to hire ceramic craftsmen.

But the craftsmen were very confident, especially Craftsman Ding, “Let’s try it. What if it works?”

Fu Tinghan thought about it and agreed, so he had them bring ceramic cups and bowls.

Ji Yuan watched as they carefully poured out a glass cup and a glass bowl together.

His eyes widened, but Fu Tinghan looked at the cup and bowl with dissatisfaction, “Not very attractive. We can think of ways to imprint patterns on them, or change the colors.”

The craftsmen agreed deeply, “Right, these molds still need refinement.”

Ji Yuan: …He thought they were already very good. Just with this skill, he could already see gold and silver flying toward him.

—