In fact, Gu Yu has no story to tell. It is probably the hard experience of a left-behind child whose parents died and who was raised by his grandfather.
Grandpa is not a local. He only settled here in the 1980s. He doesn't know how to farm, but he does a good job of cooking. In addition to selling it himself, he provides it to the Ziyang Temple on Phoenix Mountain.
But later, the commercial development of Taoist temples got better and better, and the handmade incense could not meet the demand, so they turned to an incense factory. That kind of big incense that is straight, long and thick can be sold for 900 yuan per stick.
Gu Yu has learned this craft since he was a child, and he really likes it, and he is quite good at practicing it. He studied hard, was sensible and diligent, and was admitted to a university in the provincial capital. But after two years of studying, his grandfather suddenly became seriously ill.
Without much thought, he dropped out of school and went home to take care of him personally. But unfortunately, my savings were exhausted and I owed some foreign debts. Grandpa passed away, leaving only this small courtyard and a room full of incense.
The only luck is that he didn't encounter any bullshit disputes, and inherited the inheritance quite smoothly.
In Gu Yu's situation, it's actually very embarrassing. A college student who hasn't finished his studies is not as real as a college student or even a technical school student. Baicheng is a small place, and there are not many jobs, so he can't even go to a decent place.
After much deliberation, I turned my heart away and decided to become a mountain peddler. There are places to protect, low cost, and just suffer.
I am not afraid of suffering, stand upright, go up the mountain during the day, and do odd jobs at night. It has been more than a year now. Not only paid off the debt, but also saved a little money.
"Tat-tat-tat!"
The wall clock on the wall is like a machine running out of oil, moving the needle unwillingly. Gu Yu turned off the computer, went to the kitchen to get a basin of water, and began to wash his hands.
His fingers were long and slender, and his nails were neatly cut. He didn't use soap, but he slowly rubbed them in the water, as if he wanted to wash every inch of his skin.
After that, he pushed open the door of that room.
Together, the lights seem to illuminate another world, neat, compact, and with a different sense of mystery. There are huge wooden shelves on three sides, on which are placed bottles and cans, each with labels, there are hundreds of kinds. There are two large boxes piled up in the corner, and in the middle is a square table full of strange tools.
This is Gu Yu's studio, and no second person has ever been allowed in.
Xiao Zhai ordered the refreshing fragrance, and he had to make it as soon as possible. The so-called refreshing fragrance is a kind of medicinal fragrance that can clear the mind, refresh the mind and concentrate the attention.
It is best to make incense at night, without disturbing or being disturbed by others. It is said that incense has ten virtues, such as being sensitive to ghosts and gods, purifying the body and mind, making friends in tranquility, sneaking out in the dust, and being able to brush away filth and so on.
Quiet is fundamental.
Gu Yu turned around in front of the wooden shelf, took down a few bottles and cans, and then sat down at the table. This sitting, the temperament of the whole person has changed, calm, focused, and a little turbulent.
Oh, the waves are calm and the wind is peaceful, the waves that go by light boat.
According to the saying on the Internet, making incense is burning money, because almost every kind uses agarwood and sandalwood. These two goods are terribly expensive, and they are not real.
But what he inherited was his grandfather's incense recipe, which seemed to come from a very unique faction, and the old man improved it. Shen and sandalwood are rarely used in these prescriptions, and most of them are common materials. For example, Xingshenxiang is formulated with calamus calamus, atractylodes atractylodes, mint, vine, white cardamom, borneol, and a round-leaf grass from Phoenix Mountain.
Except for the extremely tedious processing of incense powder in the early stage, incense making is roughly divided into five steps: mud mixing, molding, shaping, drying in the shade, and cellaring. Those jars are full of ready-made face powder and sticky powder, so he just mixes the mud directly.
To put it simply, it is to mix sticky powder with fragrant powder and knead it into a uniform ball like dough. The sticky powder is mostly made of elm bark. It has no peculiar smell and good stickiness, but it can't be put in too much.
Like many incense sticks in temples, after burning, the incense ash twists continuously, which is because there is too much sticky powder, which is bad incense.
Gu Yu first took a porcelain bowl, put in the prepared powder, added water little by little, and stirred little by little. Until the water is clean, the powder becomes a dough-like thing. He then used a spoon to repeatedly press from the four sides to the middle to fully mix the dough and increase the density.
So far it is very simple, the following is the key step, forming.
If it is to make incense sticks, in order to be lazy, people nowadays often stuff incense mud into the needle tube, and then squeeze it out one by one. This kind of incense is actually inferior, because the inside of the extruded incense stick is not dense, and the smoke will be relatively large when burned.
The best way is to rub it with your hands, making spices and making incense sticks, both of which are the greatest ways to make incense.
"Hoo..."
Gu Yu sat under the lamp, took a deep breath, and became more and more calm. He pulled a small piece of incense, put it on a wooden chopping board, and started rubbing it with one finger.
Don't rub it horizontally, you can adjust the direction and thickness of the incense sticks vertically.
He focused his attention on that finger, not looking at it, but feeling it. Feel the small piece of incense slowly stretching, thinning, and extending... It's like controlling it with your own mind.
This feeling is very subtle. Anyone who has practiced Tai Chi knows the strength of listening. Rubbing incense is similar, allowing the skin of the fingers to "listen" to the strength and response from the incense stick.
There is a saying: rubbing incense is to adjust the heart.
After all, it is still a static word.
Time passed by little by little, and the night was dark, Gu Yu finally got up and let out a long breath. It took a long time to knead a total of fifteen sticks, about ten centimeters long, and about the thickness of a toothpick.
He cut the incense sticks neatly, put them on flat paper, and covered them with a few white papers, so that the drying in the shade would be faster.
Wait until tomorrow, when the incense sticks are completely dry, and then send them to the small cellar in the courtyard. It will take about half a month for the flavors of the various spices to blend together and the smoke to diminish.
This is the first batch. You know, he is going to make sixty.
Therefore, the reason why there are not many people making incense by hand is because it consumes too much energy and cannot be used.
…
That night, Gu Yu made a total of thirty sticks and slept very late.
However, early the next morning, he still got up on time, packed his things and pushed the cart out without thinking about eating. As soon as he went out, the guy ran back to the house and took three insect repellent pills.
This kind of incense pill is harmless to humans, but snakes, insects, rats and ants are so disgusting that they almost avoid it immediately. He goes into the mountains every day, and it is necessary for him to carry with him. As for the original one, well... it has been given to the two girls.
"Little Yu, aren't you in a good mood?"
"Well, I didn't sleep well yesterday. Did you eat?"
"No, let's go to the mountain to make do."
"Hey, Lao Wang, you are selling souvenirs today, where are the meat skewers?"
"I didn't buy duck meat, so let's rest for a few days."
During the messy conversation, six or seven donkeys riding backwards came out of various alleys, lined up naturally, and rode towards Fenghuang Mountain.
They are all small traders with very irregular occupations. If you have odd jobs to make money today, you don’t go up the mountain, and if you don’t have work tomorrow, you continue to shoulder the burden. They sell everything from fake mutton kebabs to wholesale souvenirs to home-grown cucumbers and tomatoes.
This kind of business is basically contracted by people from Fenghuangji. Not to mention outsiders, people from Dongcheng, Nancheng, and Beicheng who want to go up the mountain will be kicked and kicked by the crowd, smashing stalls and driving people away.
Gu Yu silently followed behind, listening to all kinds of bragging from his uncles, and soon arrived at the old widower's yard. Everyone put the donkey away and went into the mountain.
Still queuing up, going up one by one, each has its own booth, and no one can compete for it. He was still at the end, and the one in front was a man in his forties, surnamed Fang, who was Fang Qing's father.
"Xiao Yu, I've been worrying about that girl's grades all the time, do you think you can get into the first high school?"
"I've read Qingqing's test paper. To be honest, the first grade is more difficult, and the second grade has great hopes."
"Oh, I wish she had a bit of your ability! Look at you, the student who studied back then was the first college student in our village."
"Uncle, don't worry. There's still a month left before the senior high school entrance examination, and you can make a surprise attack. Besides, the examination is all about performance..."
The first high school is the No. 1 high school, a provincial key school, and the second high school is one level behind. Gu Yu carried the burden and comforted the poor father all the way.
Whether her grandfather is alive or not, the Fang family has always taken good care of her, and Fang Qing is like her little sister. But she is really not interested in studying, even in the second high school, the probability is half and half.
The two talked and chatted, and it took a long time to reach the mountainside, and the people in front were no longer visible.
"Squeak!"
"Cuckoo!"
As he was walking, there was a cry from somewhere, and he was very impatient and flustered. The two stopped and looked left and right. Uncle Fang pointed to the side: "Over there!"
Gu Yu looked, but in the dense forest on the right, a big gray-haired squirrel got caught in the weeds, and not far away, there was a green snake swimming slowly.