"The salon is coming, the salon is coming."

As they spoke, they had already seen the fluttering dragon's head tail from all directions, and they came to the square between breaths, and began to converge towards the center of the White Tower.

These demon dragons are about fifteen meters long, the head is as big as a water tank, the body is streamlined distribution, from the head to the abdomen, the tail is getting thinner and thinner, the body is completely woven of bamboo and wood, the central axis of the body has a skeleton made of bamboo, like the spine of a snake connected to each other, the skeleton sticks out of a lot of wooden stakes, connected to the bamboo skin, as if the ribs on the skeleton are attached to it, outside the beam frame and the ribs, is the skin made of silk.

These outer skins are mostly woven of silk and satin cloth, thick and complex gorgeous and colorful, overlapping and complex dragon scales are woven by metal wire shuttle and convex, the python belly under the body forms a tire-like pale stripe, five claws and limbs hang down five-colored silk, starting from the head every two meters away, there will be a wooden frame made of grasping hands to appear, for the people dancing the dragon lantern to grasp the dragon body steadily, and lift up the body of the dragon.

In the dark night, it is like a dragon with a horn and gorgeous scales, meandering and flowing in the night sea, through the cover of the night, you can see the dragon's ethereal whiskers, fangs and eyes like lanterns, which is very real.

The most strange thing in this is the way the people of the Western Regions dance the dragon, the most important thing in the dragon lantern parade is to imitate the swimming habits of the dragon to play with the lanterns, the most common is to swim like a snake eel, or jump up and down like a fish and shrimp, and the state of the demon dragon swimming in front of you is like a snake winding circle, swimming forward in a spiral shape.

During this period, the lights in the dragon's body trembled and fluttered, but they never broke out of the body, and this kind of swimming dragon was mostly light in the body, and it could still remain stable in the spiral swimming, which was indeed strange.

"What's in the dragon's body? Shouldn't it be a light? Song Siyuan had already seen the strangeness of the dragon in front of her, and asked casually.

"It's really not a lamp, if it's a lamp, this spiral swimming method has already poured out the lamp oil and burned the dragon's body, and the dragon's body is made of a kind of fluorite, and of course it is very safe if there is no fire source." Nayi said.

"Is fluorite so full of light that it can shine all night?" Yue Guanchao asked.

Nayi continued to explain: "This kind of fluorite is a unique stone near Kunlun Mountain, and the night pearl is not a thing, the night pearl itself can emit light, thousands of years, the light of this fluorite can only last for a few hours, if the hour passes, it will become more and more dim, and finally completely extinguished, if you want it to shine again, you have to be exposed to the scorching sun for a few hours, and it will continue to shine at night......"

Although the hardness of this fluorite is not high, the brightness is very high, as long as it is exposed to the scorching sun for a few hours, the brightness of the lighting is not inferior to that of kerosene lamps and candles, and it is everywhere in the river, and it is not very expensive, and it is often used as lighting appliances by ordinary people.

Just cut the stone into a ball and pour it into a glass cover. You can put it in the sun, and it doesn't look like you feel anything during the day, but at night the light inside will gradually be released, as if a fire appeared in the glass cover, and it is very bright.

A few of these fluorite lamps can illuminate a room without darkness.

These fluorites save a lot of money compared to kerosene lamps, candles and torches, and at night, lighting tools can not be saved, and ordinary people still need to buy lamp oil to light candles, which is also a lot of money in a month. If you use this kind of fluorite, as long as the fluorite is not destroyed, you can always use it, put it in the sun during the day, and use it at night, without any cost at all, and everyone can go to the river to pick up the stone.

Fluorite has the characteristics of absorbing light, and it is very bright and beautiful, and not only the common people will use it, but also the landlords of Hotan will also use this fluorite to make a variety of gorgeous lamps, which are used to decorate their own houses and mansions, which can make the lights more beautiful when they are lit.

"What is placed in the body of this demon dragon is the fluorite that has been cut into balls, these fluorites are mostly attached to the skeleton spine and eyeballs, and under the leadership of the ribbon, they tremble in the dragon's body to form this flowing light, it looks as if the dragon's body is trembling, and the eyes are flashing and disappearing, which is extremely real.

"But where did all these fluorites come from? It can't be something that grows out of the river, right? Yue Erpao became curious about this kind of thing.

"It was left from the Kunlun Mountains."

Nayi and Keli are outsiders, and they don't seem to know the origin of fluorite very well, and when everyone was questioning, a gentle voice on the side came to them, and everyone looked back to see that it was the woman who invited them to drink herbal tea.

Yue Guanchao was about to say hello, but the woman took the lead in waving her hand at them, and said in a low voice, "Let's see if there is anything missing from your waist?" ”

After this reminder, Yue Guanchao immediately understood the reason for her greeting, and everyone began to grope behind their waists, and sure enough, some people's wallets were gone, the woman signaled to the man behind her, he took out a few wallets from his backpack, and the money bags looked like theirs.

The woman seemed to be afraid that they would misunderstand, and continued to explain: "We have been following you just now, and we found that there are many children around you, and they have been drilling around with sugar gourd drills, and it is estimated that some little beggars want to take away your wallets while you are walking, and we really guessed correctly, he took several of your wallets along the way, and I didn't find your wallets until they left." ”

Then, the woman looked at the little beggar Nunu in the distance, Yue Guanchao looked in the direction she signaled, and really saw a few children in robes, as soon as they saw their eyes staring, their eyes dodged, and they disappeared into the crowd.

Yue Guanchao weighed his money bag: "Thank you, although there is not much money in it, in the end it has recovered some losses." ”

After that, he introduced all the companions, and they could be regarded as mutual acquaintances and mutual understanding.

After getting to know each other, Yue Guanchao also understood that this woman's name is Gu Xixi, and the man behind him is called Gu Baiyue, the two are Jinlan brothers and sisters, and they are illusionists in southern Xinjiang who wander the rivers and lakes.

After inquiring about the situation, Yue Guanchao found that they had no fixed place to live and often traveled to southern Xinjiang, thinking about it selfishly, they had been to so many places in southern Xinjiang, and they must have known a lot of strange things about southern Xinjiang, so they simply asked about fluorite.

Gu Xixi thought for a moment and said slowly: "Fluorite is related to Hetian jade in Kunlun Mountain. ”

From ancient times to the present, there has always been an ancient saying in the jade market, the world's beautiful jade comes out of Hetian, and Hetian's beautiful jade comes out of Kunlun.

When many people mention Kunlun, they will first think of the dragon of China, the roof of China, and then the ethereal legend of the Queen Mother of the West and King Mu of Zhou.

There is a way to rely on the mountains to eat the mountains, rely on the water to eat and drink, Kunlun Mountain is not only the sacred ancestor of the Khotanese people, but also a good place to eat and drink, and make a fortune.

The Kunlun Mountains are rich in jade, these jade are mostly concentrated in the Altun Mountains and the Karakoram Mountains, under the meltwater and geological movement of the Snow Mountains, the jade is constantly washed into the river by the snow water, precipitated in the sediment accumulated by the Kashgar River, and is constantly washed and polished in the river water, forming a smooth and round appearance, which is the extremely precious Hetian jade.

Since the Qin and Han dynasties, the Central Plains opened up the Silk Road, these Hetian jade also entered the Central Plains through camel caravans, the nobles themselves have the habit of wearing jade, the Central Plains also has the custom of gentlemen wearing jade, and the precious jade of Hetian soon became the preference of the aristocratic class and swept the world.

At that time, there was still Khotan in the Hotan Oasis, and they were able to use Hotan jade to open the way to communicate with the Han Dynasty, relying on the jade trade with the Central Plains, Khotan became the richest country on the south coast of the desert, and the jade culture extended from Hotan also made Khotan a fusion of southern Xinjiang culture.

In the long historical years, the number of Hetian jade in the collection, is also decreasing, in order to adapt to different seasons and terrain, and Khotanese craftsmen and people, also developed a variety of methods of collecting jade, produced from the river Hetian jade, mainly divided into stepping jade method, jade fishing method.

Let's talk about the jade method first.

The jade method is mainly suitable for the spring and summer flood season, most of the jade is at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains extending out of the Yulong Kashgar River and the Karakash River, the river originating from the snow mountain, as soon as the temperature rises in spring and summer, a large amount of snow water will melt on the snow mountain, at this time the snow water rolls down, they will wash the gravel river mud along the way into the Kashgar River at the same time, will also wash the jade into the Kashgar River through the tributary river.

At this time, the Kashgar River will become chaotic from clear after the sediment is mixed in, and if you look at it in spring and summer, it must be rolling waves, mud and sand rushing, and the visibility of one meter below the water may not be reached.

At this time, if the craftsman wants to pick jade, he can only use the jade method, the people of southern Xinjiang have the ability to step on jade in the river, as long as they walk in the chaotic river water, even if they can't see the situation in the water, they can also rely on experience to feel that the stone under their feet is jade or ordinary river bottom gravel, and the experienced old craftsman never makes a mistake, it can be said that he is a touch of a quasi.

Let's talk about the jade fishing method!

When the spring and summer snow and flood season is over, the snow-capped mountains in autumn and winter will stabilize, and the river will change from turbid to clear.

Under the clear river, you can clearly see the jade fragments precipitated in the sediment, after the spring and summer snow washing, sand and gravel polishing, the jade at this time is mostly irregular oval shape, the surface is smooth and round, there are few sharp edges and corners.

When fishing jade, the craftsman will scatter the net pocket on the river, and then tighten the cable on both sides of the river, the force generated by the river erosion, will continue to rush the Hetian jade block into the net pocket, they pull up Lan Sheng against the direction of the water flow and drag it forward, and when the strength in the hand gradually sinks, you can go down to the river to scoop up all the sediment, after picking inside, the rest is the Hetian jade pieces.

No matter what method is used, there is this kind of fluorite that appears with Hetian jade.

They are mainly distributed between the Yulong Kashgar River and the Karakash River, mainly immersed in the sediment, large and small, large such as heads, small such as fingers, immersed in the river bank or piled up in the sediment, belonging to the associated stones of jade.

It can be said that wherever Hetian jade can be found, fluorite will definitely appear.