The daughter of the big family in the small town, Zhao Mansion, is about to get married. After finishing the furniture, she is ready to hire a painter with a high salary.

Hearing the news, painters from Shili Ba Village rushed to Zhao's mansion. After listening to Master Zhao's request, they shook their heads one after another. Furniture must be brushed with pure raw lacquer.

Furniture with raw lacquer is resistant to high temperature, oxidation, and wear, but it is labor-intensive. It takes time to brush a table with pure paint oil, and four sheets can be brushed with tung oil. The price is high. Brush with tung oil, a table costs only four yuan, while pure paint costs eight yuan. Therefore, some ordinary families choose to brush furniture with tung oil, and those who can afford raw paint are large families.

These painters can only paint, not cut raw paint, let alone cut paint. I 'm afraid they have never seen a lacquer tree.

Old Qian of Qianjiazhuang studied lacquer at the age of fourteen, and now he has been lacquer for almost twenty years. His grandfather specialized in planting lacquer trees and cutting lacquer for sale. He also learned the unique skill of cutting lacquer to make raw lacquer. Cutting lacquer is time-consuming, laborious, low-yield, dirty and tiring. Strange to say, others touch some lacquer and their lips are swollen like Pigsy. Raw lacquer splashed on Lao Qian's skin, but it was fine. It seems that Lao Qian was born to be a lacquer.

The news that Zhao Mansion had hired a painter at a high salary also reached Old Qian's ears, but he kept quiet and was still busy with his own work every day.

Under the recommendation of his peers, Zhao Manor came to invite Old Qian.

As soon as he entered Zhao Mansion, Old Qian's eyes were opened, and the furniture was dazzling, all of which were precious wood. Huanghuali saves a crabapple flower dragon and phoenix bed, a sour branch three-screen mandarin duck bed, two eight immortals table, Huanghuali top box cabinet, dresser, a standing coat mirror cabinet, eight grand master chairs and armchairs each...

After agreeing to work, Lao Qian did not dare to be careless, so he cut the paint himself and prepared the raw lacquer. Processing is twisting paint, also known as filtering. On a sunny and windless day, Lao Qian and his grandfather cooperated and put the middle section of the white ocean cloth, which is more than four feet long, in a large bowl. The original paint was slowly poured into the white ocean cloth, wrapped in the cloth, and the two of them squeezed one end of the cloth tightly and gently twisted it. Then move the white ocean cloth to the paint rack, twist the white cloth tightly, and the paint is filtered into the paint bucket. Filtered paint is called pure paint, and there are no impurities at all. The raw paint is dull, so it needs to be added with tung oil. The preparation ratio is very important, and it took Lao Qian a long time to master. After mixing well, you can paint directly.

Lao Qian observes the roughness and hardness of the wood surface and chooses the appropriate sandpaper to polish until it feels smooth and has no protrusions. Brush the primer first, and adjust the consistency of the primer according to the density of the wood. Hardwood has high density, raw paint is thinner, and softwood should be thicker. Brush the paint twice, subject to covering the first paint, and then use water sandpaper to gently and evenly polish along the direction of painting. Finally brush the paint a third time, and use finer water sandpaper to dip in water to polish.

When old Qian was painting, he was immersed in his work and even slept in Zhao Mansion. Seeing that it was about to be completed, that night, Zhao Mansion caught fire. After Old Qian woke up, he didn't care about putting on his coat and rushed into the furniture room.

With everyone's efforts, the fire was extinguished, and several houses were burned down in Zhao Mansion. Fortunately, all the valuable money was snatched out.

The furniture in the courtyard was dark all over. After Old Qian wiped it with a towel, it shone brightly in the moonlight. "Using raw lacquer is fire-resistant!" Everyone praised.

"As long as you're here, it's fine." Master Zhao comforted his family, looked at Old Qian's burned hands, and asked the housekeeper to take a large silver bill and hand it to Old Qian.

"My surname is Qian, but I'm not greedy for money." Old Qian shook his head and refused to accept the money. "I only take what I should take, and the work is not finished yet." Old Qian smiled naively.

The next day, Lao Qian tied the gauze and finished painting the last piece of furniture.

Miss Zhao got married as scheduled. The Zhao Manor would send some money every year, and the old money was returned... Since the appearance of chemical paint, it was simple and convenient to use, and neither the owner nor the painter was willing to use raw paint. Raw paint cut with old money could not be sold, and no one used raw paint anymore. But every spring, Lao Qian would receive a large order to use raw paint to brush furniture such as benches and single beds. After painting, Lao Qian would send it to the school or nursing home according to the address.

From the beautiful handwriting on the order, it can be seen that the owner of the order is the married Miss Zhao.