After swallowing the craft spirit, Zhang Laifu collapsed to the ground.
Li Yunsheng hastily rose and helped him back up.
Zhang Laifu felt as if a balloon packed with nails had burst inside his stomach—first a fierce, swelling ache, followed by endless, stabbing pain.
"Now that the craft spirit is down your gullet, your soul and body must forge the craft essence together. This agony isn't easy to endure!" Li Yunsheng fetched a sheet of talisman paper and handed it to Zhang Laifu. "Brother Laifu, hold it tight!"
Zhang Laifu clutched the talisman paper, and Li Yunsheng began chanting an incantation:
"Fire shall not scorch the heart, cold shall not invade; advance and retreat in measure, breath smooth and staid; balance yin and yang to open the three apertures, a craft to carry that never burdens..."
Clenching the talisman paper between his teeth, Zhang Laifu reached out a hand, looked at Li Yunsheng, and stammered with difficulty, "Hear... hear..."
Li Yunsheng nodded. "You have to listen closely!"
He continued his chanting. What Zhang Laifu actually wanted to say was that this incantation was far too obscure—he couldn't understand a word.
Failing to grasp what Zhang Laifu meant, Li Yunsheng simply pressed on with the chant. Less than two minutes later, Zhang Laifu blacked out.
Now trouble had struck.
Li Yunsheng dared not wake him, nor did he dare move him. Disturbing him might disrupt his dream, which would ruin everything.
Yet it wouldn't do for Zhang Laifu to lie sprawled on the ground like this either. This was Zhuzi Street, one of the busiest thoroughfares in Heishakou.
Li Yunsheng hurried to light three more sticks of incense, able only to hope that Zhang Laifu would wake up soon.
Some people slept for a month to enter the craft, while others slept for only a few hours. Since this craft spirit of his was of such fine quality, he probably wouldn't sleep for too long.
A wooden box slipped out from Zhang Laifu's robes. Li Yunsheng picked it up and examined it.
It was a pale yellow wooden box, roughly the size of a mooncake tin from the Outer Prefecture. It had no lacquer, no oil, and hadn't been polished, yet when rubbed between fingers, it felt remarkably smooth and delicate.
This was no ordinary item!
Li Yunsheng held the box and studied it for a moment, then noticed Zhang Laifu's eyelids twitching intermittently.
In his sleep, Zhang Laifu saw specks of fire drifting back and forth before his eyes, coming and going repeatedly.
The flames were at times distinct and at times hazy, as if separated from Zhang Laifu by a barrier.
The pain in his stomach gradually faded, and Zhang Laifu steadily calmed down. The flames ceased dancing and lost their glare, transforming into a sheet of soft white light that expanded before Zhang Laifu until it filled his entire vision.
Zhang Laifu opened his eyes and looked at Li Yunsheng.
Li Yunsheng stepped forward, helped Zhang Laifu up, and pulled over a chair for him to sit down. "Brother Laifu, that craft spirit of yours is truly exceptional. You slept for less than half an hour."
Zhang Laifu wiped his sweat. He wanted to speak, but his tongue felt stiff; he wanted to stand and walk, but his legs were weak.
Li Yunsheng fanned Zhang Laifu with a folding fan. "Don't rush to speak or walk around. Let me ask the most crucial thing first: did you dream just now?"
"Did!" Zhang Laifu squeezed out a single word.
"Do you remember everything in the dream?"
"Yes!" Zhang Laifu nodded vigorously.
Li Yunsheng's brow smoothed out. "Good that you remember. Brother Laifu, you are a craftsman now. Your craft discipline lies in that very dream."
"Great!" Zhang Laifu was genuinely overjoyed. After catching his breath for quite a while, he finally managed a full sentence: "Craftsmen don't get pushed around!"
Li Yunsheng nodded with a smile. "Right, you won't get pushed around! Brother Laifu, what did you just dream of?"
Zhang Laifu pondered for a long time. "Fire. Lots of fire."
Li Yunsheng frowned slightly in perplexity. "Fire is hard to narrow down. Too many trades use fire. Blacksmiths use fire, cooks use fire, and brickmakers use fire too. Think again—was there anything else in the dream?"
Zhang Laifu rubbed his forehead, recalling the appearance of the flames in his dream.
"No rush, take your time thinking," Li Yunsheng said, lighting three more sticks of incense. "Some people become craftsmen and spend years without finding the right discipline. You really can't rush this."
"Years without finding the right discipline? Is that single dream the only way to find it?" Zhang Laifu truly hadn't expected such a thing could happen—becoming a craftsman and not even knowing what line of work he was in.
Li Yunsheng nodded. "It really depends solely on that one dream; there are no other clues. Was there anything special about the fire in your dream?"
As Zhang Laifu wracked his brain, a vendor's cry drifted from the distance: "Wontons fresh from the pot!"
The wonton-selling craftsman was here again. The mouthwatering aroma of his wontons was so enticing that Zhang Laifu couldn't concentrate.
Perhaps having a bowl of wontons would give him some inspiration. Just as Zhang Laifu was about to go buy some, his gaze swept over the firewood beneath the stove, and he remembered the shape of the flames from his dream. "It wasn't this kind of fire. The fire I dreamed of was very small, nothing like this."
Li Yunsheng glanced toward the wonton shoulder pole. "Smaller than the fire under a stove... then it probably isn't in food and drink. Trades like charcoal-burning, brickmaking, and blacksmithing all use roaring fires, so those can be ruled out too. Brother Laifu, just how small was this fire?"
Zhang Laifu looked at the incense burner.
Li Yunsheng asked, "Was it about the size of an incense ember?"
Zhang Laifu shook his head. "Larger than an incense ember."
Li Yunsheng asked again, "Then about the size of a candle flame?"
Zhang Laifu considered it, but still shook his head. "A bit bigger than a candle flame. It kept floating back and forth right before my eyes."
At the mention of floating back and forth, Li Yunsheng thought of a particular kind of fire. "What color was it? Was it green?"
Zhang Laifu caught his drift. "It wasn't ghost fire. I've seen ghost fire before. This fire was steady and even, though a bit blurry, like..."
In broad daylight, such a fire was genuinely hard to find. While Zhang Laifu was still looking around, Li Yunsheng deduced a clue.
"Brother Laifu, could you be talking about a lantern?"
A lantern?
Zhang Laifu thought back to the back-and-forth drifting, the clear yet hazy glow in his dream, and nodded repeatedly. "It might just be a lantern."
"Brother Laifu, 'might' won't do. You have to be certain. There are plenty of shops selling lighting fixtures on Zhuyou Road. Take some time to go check them out and see if you have any resonance when you look at a lantern. If you truly feel a resonance after seeing one, only then should you learn the craft of that trade. If you enter the wrong discipline, turning back won't be easy."
A fedora, primed with snuff, planted with a drum-maker and a Heavenly Master... and the fruit it bore was actually a lantern-maker?
In any case, at least he had found his craft discipline.
Zhang Laifu took out ten silver dollars and placed them on the table.
"What does this mean?" Li Yunsheng was taken aback.
"I've become a craftsman, and you helped me a great deal. This is the reward I owe you."
Zhang Laifu stood up, intending to head to Zhuyou Road, but after barely two steps, he nearly tumbled to the floor.
"Brother Laifu, rest a bit longer. You've only just entered the trade, so your constitution is still somewhat frail."
Li Yunsheng refilled Zhang Laifu's tea and pushed the ten silver dollars back. "We're friends. I won't take your money."
Zhang Laifu insisted on giving it. "If I always bring you trouble without helping you earn money, what kind of real friend would I be?"
There was reason to his words. Holding the ten silver dollars, Li Yunsheng smiled. "It's always nice to enjoy the shade of a big tree. With these ten silver dollars, I won't need to set up my stall for three days. Brother Laifu, sit here a moment longer. I still have something important to discuss with you."
Li Yunsheng retrieved a wooden box from under the table. "This box dropped from your robes just now. I didn't open it, so I don't know what's inside, but the box itself is no simple thing. Do you know its origin, Brother Laifu?"
Zhang Laifu didn't hide anything. "When I used the bowl to grow craft essence, it didn't just produce this craft spirit—it also grew this wooden box. I figure it's just some miscellaneous odds and ends."
Li Yunsheng shook his head. "A bowl never yields useless scrap; everything that comes out is purposeful. To yield such a fine craft spirit and still have enough strength left over to produce this box proves you used a rare, top-tier bowl."
Zhang Laifu studied the box for a long time, unable to see anything special about it. "How do you use this box?"
Li Yunsheng didn't know either. "I can only sense some spiritual nature in it. As for its exact purpose, you'll have to figure that out gradually."
"What is spiritual nature?"
"All life shifts and changes; all things possess a spiritual nature. Craftsmen can perceive this spiritual nature, which is why they make things both quickly and well."
Zhang Laifu still didn't understand. "I'm a craftsman now too. Why can't I see any spiritual nature?"
"That's because you've only just begun. Your craft is too shallow; you still need to be tempered and honed."
Zhang Laifu stumbled to his feet. "That place is called Zhuyou Road, right? I'm going to get myself tempered right now!"
Chapter 35