Xie Bin was stunned for a moment when he heard the old man's words, and then he reacted, it turned out that the engraving process was more complicated than engraving. After the old man's guidance, Xie Bin knew that if he wanted to engrave, he must first write the words to be engraved on the paper, and then polish the stone chapter surface, and then rub the font on the chapter surface, and only then can he go under the knife according to the rubbing font, so the font of the writing and engraving masters directly determines the level of the seal.

However, the old man began at the age of eleven, serving tea and water to his master to sharpen the knife to learn calligraphy, until now he is sixty years old, and after fifty years of hard work, he has long been able to go directly without rubbing. If you usually don't even need to write drawings, it's no problem to use the knife directly, but this is because Xie Bin's stone is too precious, so the old man wrote a few strokes in advance as a reference.

Although Xie Bin never draws when carving, he can't engrave the seal, because engraving is a more delicate job, the requirements are very strict, and the font is not the same as the normal writing, if there is no trace of rubbing in advance, it is difficult to engrave. This is the old man, only dare not to rubbing, there are really few people with this level in China, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is unique.

Looking at his seal and then at the drawing, Xie Bin asked with a smile: "Teacher, your handwriting is very good, why are those two in the living room?" ”

The old man laughed when he heard this, "I knew you were going to ask this question, let me tell you, those are the two characters that I wrote not long after I learned to write with a brush, and the seal was printed after I completed my skills, it is completely a memorial, how about it?" I didn't expect that. ”

Xie Bin couldn't help but smile when he heard it, but then listening to the old man's experience, Xie Bin could only be full of emotion. The old man is not like Xie Bin who has been in elementary school like Xie Bin, and he can go to school, he was a completely illiterate stupid boy when he was young, and he was favored by the master with a bit of cleverness. After following the old master, the old man took advantage of the interval between miscellaneous work to start learning words and practicing calligraphy, you can imagine, how a child who doesn't even know his own name became a seal carver who is familiar with several ancient characters?

Looking at Xie Bin's admiring expression, the old man was also full of emotion, and waved his hand at Xie Bin, "Come, write two words and see, if you want to learn seal carving, this calligraphy must be passed, and it is also the most basic kung fu." ”

Xie Bin nodded, and he was not polite, Li Jingjing sharpened the ink, the little girl took the paper skillfully, and Xie Bin picked a large block brush, which was also wolf's. After a little thought, he wrote on the smooth rice paper "Xiang Chen Jiuwan Fang Lan Qi, taste the thousand-year-old Pu'er feelings" 14 characters in Liti.

The style of Lishu is slightly similar to that of the seal characters, which are relatively simple and solemn. It's a pity that Xie Bin doesn't know how to write seals, otherwise he would have to save a lot of effort.

Looking at these fourteen words, the old man nodded, "Yes, it's much better than what I wrote at that time, even better than what my master wrote, yes, I heard that you still have carving skills, and there must be no problem in knife skills, then what you need is to learn ancient characters such as seal characters and golden scripts." Don't be like some people who copy a big dictionary and don't know why, just write it by analogy, and ignore the meaning of the word. ”

Xie Bin nodded hurriedly, thinking that this is also himself, otherwise how many young people would specialize in learning ancient characters in order to learn seal carving? In other words, now the computer engraves the seal, no matter what kind of font you have, it can be done in five or six minutes, and the price is very cheap. According to the old man's teaching method, learning such a one-handed effort, the energy spent is almost able to enter the Institute of Ancient Characters.

But he Xie Bin doesn't have anything else now, just a lot of time, and it doesn't hurt to learn this way, isn't it? Of course, learning these ancient characters, in fact, is not too difficult, after all, these have been compiled into books, and there are special large dictionaries, Xie Bin just needs to learn them, and he doesn't need to study any unfamiliar words and the like. With these books and dictionaries, Xie Bin is equivalent to stepping on the shoulders of his predecessors and looking into the distance, and he only needs to be constantly familiar with it. Besides, the commonly used characters - seal characters, are still partially similar to some modern fonts, as long as you find the trick, it is easy to learn.

What's more, Xie Bin has a very good foundation, which makes him much less labor-saving than ordinary people when learning seal carving. According to the old man, the difficulty of learning seal carving is not in the seal characters, but in writing brush characters. There is no trick to writing calligraphy, just lay a good foundation and practice hard. But who would spend years practicing calligraphy in order to learn seal carving?

In other words, looking at the old man as a seal carving master, it is very beautiful, in fact, in the entire industry, it is really rare to reach the level of the old man. Moreover, only when he reaches the status of the old man, can he be said to be famous, and more seal carving masters have been guarding a small room for decades, and then earning the living expenses that can only support the family, and even many people even have to change careers. Everyone wants to eat, and when you can't eat, you can give up your ideal hobbies for a while.

Looking at his seal, Xie Bin liked it in his heart, but looking at the appearance of this stone, Xie Bin asked the old man: "Teacher, do you want to carve a few faces, and then carve some patterns and other things to embellish it?" ”

The old man looked at the seal in Xie Bin's hand, shook his head and said: "No need, a good bloodstone does not need to be carved, and your body is full of blood and has no flaws. If you want to use the knife, just polish the surface after you go back, and keep it like this, but add some original natural charm. ”

Xie Bin listened, and then looked at the stone in his hand, sure enough, looking left and right, he really couldn't find a suitable place to go under the knife. No wonder Li Jingjing suggested that Xie Bin play with it as a strange stone, this piece of material is indeed a unique piece of good material.

Seeing that it was noon, the old man said to Li Jingjing: "Jingjing, call and order a few takeaways." ”

When Xie Bin heard this, he hurriedly refused, "Teacher, you don't need to eat takeout, I'll take charge of it at noon today, it's also a teacher's banquet." ”

The old man probably didn't have much confidence in Xie Bin's craftsmanship, but it was not easy to refuse Xie Bin's kindness. Just as she was hesitating, Li Jingjing said with a smile: "Uncle, everyone has a good fortune today, Brother Xie's craftsmanship is really good." As he spoke, he beckoned to Xie Bin, "Come on, the kitchen is here." ”

Xie Bin smiled at the old man, and then followed Li Jingjing towards the kitchen. Looking at Li Jingjing's slender figure and walking forward, Xie Bin hummed a few words in his heart, secretly thinking that this little lady usually called him Xie Bin directly, but now he actually called Brother Xie. Not to mention, this girl is still very tempting to laugh, well, this figure is not bad, no worse than Xue Yuying.

Xie Bin stared at Li Jingjing's back, smelling the fragrant fragrance, his mind was a little distracted, thinking wildly, and almost hit Li Jingjing's back carelessly. Fortunately, Xie Bin braked in time, but even so, he was still quite close, and Xie Bin's nose almost pressed on Li Jingjing's back. Gently twitching his nose, it was really fragrant and faint, but it made Xie Bin's heart tickle like a cat.

The kitchen is quite complete and clean, and it looks like someone comes to clean it up often. On the way here, Li Jingjing said that the old man's wife went early, and now she lives alone. I just don't know if it's the nanny or the daughter-in-law who came to help the old man clean up the house.

Xie Bin did it, and Li Jingjing also helped, but this girl was worse than Liu Wenqing, she couldn't help anything, but she did her best, and in the end she was really embarrassed, so she simply stood at the door of the kitchen and watched Xie Bin do it.

Qiao'er girl was probably also curious, so she snuggled up to Li Jingjing's lap and watched.

Not to mention, Xie Bin's cooking skills do have a good-looking side, especially the knife skills, which is called a sharp rope, a kitchen knife "da-da-", waving it like a sewing machine is working, and the two girls who look at it secretly admire, of course, Qiao'er is really admired, Li Jingjing, this girl is a little insincere, although she is also a little admired, but she secretly hummed a few words, thinking about why you are a big man to learn such good cooking skills.

Well, this is standard jealousy, looking at the cooking skills that should have been their forte, being surpassed by a big man like Xie Bin, it is normal to feel uncomfortable. It's like when a big man breaks down while driving a car and is at a loss, his female companion rolls up his sleeves and picks it up three times and two times. When a man praises on his lips, he will definitely mumble in his heart.

But in this society, men who can cook are about to catch up with women, and many girls don't think they go into the kitchen much since they were young. In the past, a young couple also rented a house at Liu Wenqing's house, but neither of them could cook, they bought three meals a day, and after a month, more than half of their salary went to the cashier of the hotel.

This is even more true of a lady like Li Jingjing, her level of eating is not to be said, her mouth is very open, don't think about it. In a large family like hers, there are cooks who specialize in cooking to provide them with three meals a day.

Xie Bin made a potato beef stew, a tomato scrambled egg, a braised pork ribs, a cold white fungus, and a sauerkraut vermicelli soup. In order to take care of the old man's teeth, Xie Bin stewed the beef very badly, making the kitchen full of aroma, if Xie Bin wasn't still there, it is estimated that the two girls, one big and one young, would have to try it first. Xie Bin knows that Li Jingjing, a girl, likes to eat beef the most.

At a meal, several people had a great appetite, especially the sauerkraut vermicelli soup, which was drunk to the bottom of the pot. Qiao'er patted her bulging belly and said to Xie Bin: "It's much better than my mother's cooking, uncle, can I go to your house to eat every day?" ”

A few people laughed, Xie Bin smiled and nodded: "Yes, but there is a fee." ”

"Charge, look for my dad about the charge," the girl believed it and said seriously.

After lunch, the old man carved Xue Yuying's piece of material again. However, this piece of material needs to be carved in shape, and this time the old man didn't do it himself, but asked Xie Bin to try it.

To be honest, Xie Bin played with wood very well, but this was the first time to carve stone. Fortunately, Bloodstone is relatively soft and can be slashed directly without exposing his own abilities.

The old man has a ready-made carving knife here, Xie Bin washed his hands, brought an apron and sat in front of the workbench. This piece of material is the size of a fist and needs to be carved into a square seal, and this size must be grasped. The difficulty of repairing the four sides is not too great, the difficulty lies at the top.

According to Xie Bin's own plan, he wanted to carve a sheep at the top, because Xue Yuying belonged to a sheep, which could be regarded as a fit for his life. However, in the traditional themes of the carving world, sheep are not used much, and even fewer are carved on seals, even if there are sheep buttons, which are issued by the imperial court to the leaders of other ethnic minorities.