Upon hearing her husband's words, Ye Xiaoer, who was cooking, stuck her head out from the kitchen with an apron on, slashing at her husband, her face full of suspicion:
"I don't know either. It was like this when I came back, people who usually don't talk to me were suddenly coming up to chat. I was also wondering what was going on."
Father Lin placed his briefcase on the shoe cabinet and went into the kitchen, helping Mother Lin while chatting about the matter.
After talking for a while, neither of them could figure out what was going on.
As for Lin Yi, the person at the center of it all, he was busy at his desk in his room.
On the desk were a large pile and several smaller piles of various broken porcelain pieces, and what Lin Yi was doing was picking out pieces from roughly the same period.
However, since he got back, a few hours had passed, and he could only sort out all the blue-and-white fragments.
As to whether they were from the same period or type of porcelain, he couldn't tell.
Even so, Lin Yi was exhausted, mainly because some of the porcelain pieces were so bland that they didn't show any patterns at all.
Therefore, Lin Yi couldn't figure out what these things were.
"Damn! This isn't work for humans!"
Particularly aggravated, he tossed a gray-white porcelain piece aside in frustration and couldn't help but pause his work.
Rubbing his somewhat throbbing head, he grumbled.
Just at this moment, with a creak, Lin Yi's door was pushed open from the outside, and the next moment, his dad walked in:
"What are you doing? It's so quiet; your mom and I thought you were asleep. Are you studying? Why cram at the last minute? Come out and eat. Hey?? What's all this on your desk? Porcelain fragments? Where did you get so many broken pieces from?"
Originally thinking that Lin Yi was studying hard at his desk, upon approaching, he saw that the kid was fiddling with porcelain pieces, causing Father Lin to be speechless.
I guessed there was no way this kid could be studying so diligently. Turns out he's messing around with these things.
"Hey? Wait a minute, don't you usually dislike this stuff? Every time I asked you to accompany me to Antique City, you were quite unwilling."
When Lin Yi saw his dad had noticed, he awkwardly smiled:
"Hey, I'm just thinking that I shouldn't let my old dad's hobby get lost with me. Haha, dad, maybe you could take a look? I've been trying to sort them out for ages but can't. You're the 'expert' in this field, surely this won't stump you."
Originally just a cheeky remark, but suddenly Lin Yi's eyes lit up. It didn't matter if he couldn't sort them out because his dad, who's been studying porcelain fragments for over a decade, was here.
With dad's help, wouldn't sorting these fragments be a piece of cake?
Sure enough, after hearing Lin Yi's flattery, coupled with the allure of the porcelain fragments in front of him, his dad immediately approached the desk to take a closer look.
"Hey, seems you have some insight, knowing your old man has some expertise in this. I'm not bragging, but my level of expertise in this area is definitely up there with those so-called experts!"
With that, Father Lin paused a moment and then sighed:
"Ah, but it's a pity. The box of Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white fragments I painstakingly acquired was hidden away by your mom again the other day. Otherwise, I'd let you see what quality stuff really is!"
Saying this, Father Lin had already pulled out a pair of white gloves from his pajama pocket.
Just from this level of dedication, even having gloves in his pajamas, one could see Father Lin's obsession with this field.
However, his words only made Lin Yi, standing beside him, awkwardly chuckle.
That box of Yuan blue-and-white fragments wasn't hidden by mom; it was disassembled and recreated by his system...
Of course, since his mom was taking the blame, Lin Yi heaved a sigh of relief.
Anyway, as long as Lao Lin wasn't drinking too much, he wouldn't dare bother Empress Dowager Ye.
Thunk~
Just as Lin Yi was secretly chuckling to himself, he suddenly felt a flick on the back of his head, causing him to wince in pain.
Before he could speak, he heard his dad reprimand him with a voice full of exasperation:
"You brat, can you learn something useful instead of wasting your time? What are you doing, trying to categorize these?"
Seeing his dad look like he was about to throw a punch, Lin Yi resisted the urge to call upon Empress Dowager Ye for help and instead rubbed the back of his head in grievance, saying:
"Oww, dad, I'm about to take the college entrance exam. If I don't get good grades, it's on you! Didn't I sort all those with the same color patterns together? Didn't I do well? There's nothing wrong, right?"
Hearing this, Father Lin was utterly speechless, picking out five randomly sized fragments from the pile Lin Yi had sorted out as 'blue-and-white,' pointing as he spoke:
"This is what you sorted? It's nothing! Not mentioning anything else, just look at the colors and pattern styles; they're not right. These ones and these ones are clearly Qing Dynasty workmanship, while these and these two clearly hail from the Republic era."
Saying this, Father Lin picked out the three Republic era pieces, pointing at the larger one as he explained:
"Now look at this, with the curvature of this fragment and the portion of the pattern it shows, it's clearly from a large object like a vase, whereas these two are clearly from small bowls or plates!"
Listening to his dad's explanation, Lin Yi was dumbfounded and simultaneously regretting, realizing he had wasted his afternoon. He should have just given these two bags of fragments to his dad. What a misstep!
Though lamenting internally, his hand couldn't help but give his dad a thumbs up, and with a face full of admiration, he spoke:
"Wow, an expert really shows their class with just one move. No wonder you're called an expert in this field, and it's well-deserved! Sigh, I still have a lot to learn, but I've decided, tonight I'll carefully watch how dad identifies these pieces!"
Knowing full well that his son was trying to flatter him, Father Lin still enjoyed the praise, chuckling as he patted Lin Yi on the shoulder, saying with a smile:
"Hmm, you can be taught. Wait a minute, brat, are you tricking your old man into working for free?"
...
[To be continued....]