nyslfriends Chapter 675 Immersed in Artistic Conception! The Stone Comes to Life!
Chapter 675 Immersed in Artistic Conception! The Stone Comes to Life!
Chen Fan shook his head and did not answer.
He didn't tell Morigen that during the carving process, he used his divine sense to perceive the wear and tear on every bone in the old man's body and the origin of every wrinkle.
The wear and tear on those bones are the marks of decades of bending over and chiseling stone; those wrinkles are carved by the wind on the grassland, stroke by stroke. He incorporated all these marks into the stone statue; what was carved into the stone was not just the appearance of Morigen, but also Morigen's entire life.
Next, Chen Fan began to carve every single person in the tribe.
Batu, Batu's wife, Old Mother, Batel, and Surina—each one is etched into the ground. In his eyes, each person has a unique texture. Batu's generosity is etched in the deep smile lines at the corners of his eyes; Batu's wife's resilience is etched in the large knuckles of her hands; and Old Mother's vicissitudes are etched in her cloudy yet gentle eyes.
When he sculpted Batu, he carved the traces of Batu riding horses across the grasslands in his youth into the leg bone of the stone statue.
When sculpting Batel, the trembling in the child's hands as he first learned to raise horses was carved into the statue's fingers. When sculpting Surina, the faint life force in her abdomen was carved into the statue's belly.
Each stone statue is lifelike and vivid. When the herders in the tribe received their own statues, they were speechless with surprise. Some even said that the stone was more real than their own shadows.
Only Batel said something to him privately that surprised him: "Uncle Chen, looking at these stone statues you've carved, it feels like you understand us better than we understand ourselves?"
Chen Fan paused for a moment, but did not answer.
But he knew in his heart that Batel was right. In the process of sculpting, he had indeed perceived everything about these mortals more deeply than they themselves did.
Those details, habits, scars, and scents that they themselves might not have noticed were all captured by his divine sense and engraved into the stone.
And his own artistic conception is also quietly changing in this daily carving.
Cause and effect are no longer the domineering power in sword intent, but the connection between all things in the world.
Batu's eyes are etched with wrinkles by the winds of the grasslands; the fetus in Surina's womb is the result of her marriage to Batel; and the textures on every stone are the cause and effect of tectonic movements.
From the vastness of heaven and earth to the smallest grain of sand, everything is governed by cause and effect.
Life and death are no longer about killing and ending, but about cycles and rebirth. The elders in the tribe grow old one by one, the children grow up one by one, Batel's child is about to be born, and the old mother's playing of the morin khuur will eventually stop, but there will always be a new player to take over that morin khuur.
Life and death are never two opposing ends, but rather the upstream and downstream of the same river.
"Stability" means finding one's place after thoroughly understanding the patterns of all things, and then settling down peacefully.
Between heaven and earth, stones have their place, horses have their place, and people have their place.
Chen Fan also found his place.
At this moment, he is a shepherd, a stonemason, a doctor, and an old man who is about to become a grandfather on the grassland.
He incorporated these insights bit by bit into the chisel, carving them into every piece of stone.
His technique became slower and more steady, each chisel stroke landing precisely in the most appropriate position, each chisel stroke carrying a subtle and ethereal artistic conception.
In late autumn, when he finished carving the last stone statue, Morigen suddenly called him over.
The old man sat on a stone stool in front of the tent, toying with the self-portrait that Chen Fan had carved in his hands. After a long silence, he slowly spoke: "Chen Fan, your craftsmanship has surpassed mine. I've been carving stones all my life, and I've never seen anything like this on stone. What you've carved into the stone isn't just the appearance, but also the soul. I can't teach you this skill, nor is it something I should be able to teach."
He paused, gently placed the stone statue on his lap, and looked at Chen Fan with his cloudy old eyes, a hint of inquiry in his gaze: "You are no ordinary person. I have lived on the grasslands for seventy years and have seen many extraordinary people, but I have never seen anyone like you. I will not ask about your background. But if you have anywhere to go, then go. You don't have to stay here all the time."
Chen Fan was silent for a moment, then bowed solemnly to the old man: "What you taught me was not a skill, but a lifetime of accumulated wisdom. I will never forget it."
Morigen grinned, tucked the stone statue into his arms, stood up, patted Chen Fan on the shoulder, and turned to go back to his tent.
When the first snow fell, Su Rina's belly was so big that she had to hold her back when she walked.
Batu's wife stayed by his side every day without leaving for a moment, and Batel even stopped raising horses, spending all his time in the tent with his wife.
He would occasionally lean close to Su Rina's stomach to listen for any sounds, and after listening, he would look up at Su Rina with a silly grin, which would make Su Rina blush and push him away.
Batu would come to Chen Fan every evening with a wine jug, sit on a wooden stake in front of his tent, and gaze absently at the gray northern horizon.
He drank more wine than in previous winters, sometimes finishing a pot of wine in half an hour without saying a word, just staring blankly at the horizon.
"Do you think this child is a boy or a girl?" Batu suddenly asked one time.
"Girl." Chen Fan said calmly, without looking up as he chiseled the stone in his hand.
"How did you know?" Batu turned to look at him.
"I guessed," Chen Fan said without explaining. Of course he knew, because he had already used his divine sense to detect the sex of the fetus when he took Su Rina's pulse. But he didn't want to say more.
Batu didn't press further, but took a swig of wine and grinned, "A girl would be fine too. Girls on the grasslands are no less capable than boys. My wife was just as good as me at riding horses and archery when she was young. If it really is a girl, I'll teach her to ride horses, teach her to shoot arrows, and teach her to live freely on this grassland."
After saying this, he suddenly fell silent again.
After a long pause, she wiped her face with her sleeve, her voice muffled: "If she can be born safely and grow up safely, I have no other wish in this life."
Chen Fan paused for a moment with the chisel in his hand, then continued to strike.
He recalled the countless concubines he had seen in the palace back then.
When they conceived the emperor's child, the entire palace was filled with celebration; when they lost the emperor's child, bloodshed ensued. No one in that deep palace had ever prayed as much as Batu for the safety of their child.
With each stroke of the chisel on the stone, a small stone horse gradually took shape in his palm.
This horse wasn't an old horse like Greymane, but a foal with long, slender, and strong legs. Its head was slightly raised, as if gazing into the distance.
He planned to give the pony figurine to Batu's unborn child.
As winter deepened, Chen Fan's life became increasingly simple.
With less time spent herding sheep during the day, he devoted more time to stone carving.
After winter set in, Morigen rarely went out, and when his old leg pain flared up, he had to stay in his tent for several days.
Every few days, Chen Fan would bring him some herbs. The two would sit in the tent and chat about the past on the grasslands, but most of the time they would just remain silent.