Chapter 53: Making Old (Five)

  This yard has no door and doesn't look good, after splitting the firewood, Xie Xuan dismantled a broken door board from the house and blocked it at the entrance of the yard.

  They had been bustling in and out for half a day, but the house was still filled with snoring sounds. Li Lao Da was not affected at all, which made Xie Xuan so angry that he was itching to do something, but since Qin Feng had taken charge, he could only obediently work.

  "Little fatty, crush all the coal balls and throw them into the stove, that fire is too small!"

  Most northern families have a stove, and the coal ball furnace obviously can't satisfy their own temperature needs. Qin Feng moved the iron pot that had already been boiled to the stove, and together with Xie Xuan, they smashed all the coal balls and threw them in.

  There were several pieces of coal that had been burned into balls as fire starters, and with the addition of the dry firewood brought by Xie Xuan, the long-unused stove was quickly ignited. The flames spread rapidly through the ventilation holes used for adding fuel.

  Seeing the "gurgling" water bubbles rising, Qin Feng picked up the stone from the stove and gently put it into the iron pot, then tightly covered the lid.

  "Feng Ge, you... what are you doing? This... this stone can't be eaten, can it?"

  Xie Xuan, who was squatting beside the stove adding firewood, suddenly looked stupid, and it wasn't until now that he understood the purpose of this pot of boiling water. However, at the same time, his heart became even more confused.

  If Qin Feng hadn't been so composed all along, Xie Xuan would have thought he was crazy, putting stones in a pot to cook, not to mention that Xie Xuan had never seen it before, nor had he ever heard of it.

  "You little scamp only knows how to eat?"

  Qin Feng glared at Xiao Pangzi with a bad temper, he was also somewhat nervous at this time. After all, the operation process now is what his master had told him, Qin Feng himself hadn't tried it before, and whether or not he would succeed, he didn't have any confidence in his heart.

  "No, this fire is still not big enough, Little Fatty, go pull the bellows!"

  Qin Feng pulled out an industrial thermometer from his pocket, which he had bought together with the chromium nitrate solution and would be useful in several subsequent steps.

  He opened the lid a bit, Qin Feng inserted the thermometer inside to test it, picked it up and took a look, then handed the thermometer to Xie Xuan, saying: "It's still short of several tens of degrees, this thing is for you, when the steam in the pot reaches 212 degrees, don't heat it anymore."

  Xie Xuan, holding the thermometer, looked somewhat at a loss and shouted to Qin Feng, who was turning around and walking out of the house: "Hey, Brother Wind, I...I don't know how to use this thing."

  "Just put one end of the metal in and it's fine, no big deal."

  Qin Feng walked out of the house without looking back, raised his head to glance at the sky and muttered to himself: "It's easy to talk about doing something, but it's really hard to do it!"

  Ignoring Xie Xuans loud shouting in the kitchen, Qin Feng walked straight out of the yard. In northern April, it was still a bit cold, and now it was already past 9 oclock. The streets seemed unusually deserted, and Qin Fengs figure quickly disappeared into the night.

  After about half an hour, Qin Feng returned to the yard, but he went out empty-handed, now his hands were holding a glass jar each, which seemed to be filled with something, constantly swaying.

  "Hey, I'm telling you, Xiao Pang, with this kung fu, you've run a lap around Africa!"

  Carrying a glass jar into the kitchen, Qin Feng suddenly became cheerful. Originally fair-skinned Xie Xuan was now pitch-black all over his face, except for a pair of teeth, and there was no longer any white spot to be found.

  "Brother Feng, Old Man Feng, you've finally come back!"

  Seeing Qin Feng, Xie Xuan was heartbroken. When had he ever done this kind of work? On one hand, he was burning firewood and on the other hand, he was pulling the bellows, and in the end, he couldn't forget to test the steam temperature. He was so busy that he wished he could grow two more hands.

  "Xuanzi, don't be sad, once you've mastered this skill, you'll never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of your life."

  Qin Feng carefully put down the glass jar in his hand, leaned over to the stove and took over the thermometer, put it in the water for a try, and suddenly showed a happy expression on his face.

  "Xiao Pang, you're really the one who eats this bowl! " Qin Feng patted Xiao Xuan's shoulder and said: "Remember this process in your heart, and remember the temperature too."

  "Feng Ge, I remembered it long ago. Isn't the temperature of steam just 212 degrees?" Xie Xuan didn't understand what was going on, but he wasn't confused in his heart. He knew that Qin Feng did this for a reason.

  "Alright, no need to burn it for now." Qin Feng looked at the fire and saw that it was almost done, so he called out to Xie Xuan to stop.

  Watching Qin Feng carry a ceramic basin from the house, he poured the contents of the two jars into the basin separately. He couldn't help but ask curiously: "Feng Ge, what's in these two jars? Where did you get them?"

  "Hey, don't get so close, you'll get it on your skin."

  Qin Feng stopped Xie Xuan, who was approaching, and said: "These two are concentrated hydrochloric acid and concentrated nitric acid. Remember, the concentrated hydrochloric acid is 40% and the concentrated nitric acid is 60%. When they are mixed together, it's called aqua regia!"

  Actually strong acid needs a special container to hold it, but Qin Feng didn't have any good containers on hand, so he could only rummage through the house and find a ceramic basin, who knows what it was used for before, maybe planting flowers or something.

  Xie Xuan scratched his head and said with a bitter face: "What's this about concentrated salt acid and concentrated nitric acid? Feng Ge, I don't understand!"

  Qin Feng looked at Xie Xuan with some helplessness and said, "You little devil, you'd better study chemistry well in the future. This thing is a strong acid, its corrosiveness is many times stronger than sulfuric acid. Got it?"

  "Sulfuric acid? This... I know this!"

  After hearing Qin Feng's words, Xie Xuan involuntarily took two steps back, his eyes wide with wonder, and asked: "Brother Feng, where did you get this thing from?"

  In the mid-1980s, a foreign film called "Song at Midnight" was shown domestically, in which the protagonist's face was disfigured by being splashed with sulfuric acid, and the ugly image scared many people.

  Xie Xuan's chemistry grades were a mess, but he learned about the power of sulfuric acid from that movie. His face suddenly turned a bit strange, could it be that Feng Ge was preparing this stuff to rob someone?

  Qin Feng casually replied: "The school lab has a lot of this stuff. This is industrial sulfuric acid, it's not worth much money."

  On his way back, Qin Feng had already set his sights on the Shi Cheng University of Science and Technology, which was not far from Li Tianyu's home. It was just that the sky was still bright at that time, so he didn't take action yet.

  Of course, Qin Feng made it sound easy, but stealing the two glass jars of strong acid was not an easy task, and they almost got caught by the school patrol team.

  Chromium salt solution can be purchased from outside, but strong acid is not something that can be bought casually, and a unit certificate must be issued to purchase it. This risk is unavoidable.

  As he spoke, Qin Feng's hands didn't stop, and after the two strong acids were mixed together, a pungent yellow smoke emerged from the ceramic basin.

  Qin Feng put down the glass jar and used a ladle to scoop out the malachite ore from the pot, directly placing it into the basin. The scorching hot stone met with the strong acid, making a "sizzling" sound, and the smoke became even thicker, irritating Xie Xuan's eyes to the point of tears streaming down.

  "Alright, let's go!"

  Qin Feng also couldn't stand the smell in the kitchen, pulling Xie Xuan out, it took more than half an hour for the smoke in the house to dissipate, but that foul smell filled the entire courtyard.

  "What's the big deal about this, Brother Feng?"

  Xie Xuan wasn't stupid, he had already seen some clues, Qin Feng seemed to be using this method to change that stone, but there was something mysterious inside that Xie Xuan couldn't see through.

  "Xiao Pang, soaking jadeite rough in strong acid can dissolve the impurities between jadeite grains, without these impurities, the clarity of the jade will become transparent... even dogshit-quality jade can turn into glass-like quality..."

  Qin Feng intentionally cultivated Xie Xuan, explaining in great detail, "Actually, the soaking step is best not to heat up the jadeite. That's used when adding color, but we don't have enough time and can't wait that long, so let's just take a shortcut."

  "How can this be? Is a piece of crap going to turn into glass?"

  Xie Xuan's mouth grew wider as he listened, his face filled with incredulity, and he exclaimed: "Feng Ge, if we have this skill, aren't we going to get rich?!"

  After following Qin Feng for two days, Xie Xuan still couldn't tell the difference between various grades of jadeite. Although the price of domestic jadeite jewelry is not as high as that of Hetian jade, the value of top-grade jadeite carved from glass-like material starts at 100,000 yuan.

  "What's wrong with you? This is called cheating. Cough, saying it's an old trick sounds better, but this is actually faking it. What's real can't be fake, and what's fake can't be real, get it?"

  Qin Feng tapped on Xie Xuan's head, who was dreaming of getting rich, and said in a bad mood: "After being soaked in strong acid, the internal structure of the jadeite will be severely damaged, making it unstable, and its bright color will slowly fade away. If the craftsmanship is more delicate, the fading time will be around three to five years..."

  Qin Feng took a glance at the kitchen, pondered for a moment, and then said: "We're just doing rough work, only looking at the present without considering the future. I reckon that after twenty or thirty days, the damaged structure inside the jade will be completely exposed, and it might even shatter if we don't touch it..."

  At this point, Qin Feng's expression turned serious. "The most important thing is that some jade made with chemical corrosion agents will contain radiation, which is harmful to wear on the body. Xie Xuan, this method goes against heaven and humanity, it can only be used to deal with unscrupulous merchants, and should not be used lightly..."

  Jade was once very popular in the early years of this century and the 1920s and 1930s, with huge profits from counterfeiting. After some people's continuous polishing, they left behind a formula that was passed down to Qin Feng.

  According to Zai's account, this craft was not well-known even in the 1920s and 1930s, and he himself had only obtained it by chance from a disciple of Qianmen.

  So Qin Feng has reason to believe that the third wave of jade craze in the country has just started, and those who specialize in selling fake goods have not yet studied this method, which is also his confidence in the layout behind.

  "Feng Ge, I know, but how come I feel like we're just swindlers?"

  Xie Xuan didn't quite understand, but he remembered Qin Feng's words firmly in his heart. No one could have imagined that the largest jade merchant in the country would start from such a dilapidated small courtyard.