Jia Jinmeng had liked Purple Clay Teapots since he was a child. When he grew up, he took a master, specializing in learning the craft of making Purple Clay Teapots, and he studied for ten years.
Jia Jinmeng's master was an old-fashioned Purple Clay Teapot grandmaster, who believed skill should not be lightly passed on. For the first three years, Jia Jinmeng was basically just a servant in his master's household.
Serving tea, handing water, sweeping and doing all the housework—he took care of it all. Only after three such years did his master start teaching him basic knowledge, and it was only in the fifth year that Jia Jinmeng was allowed to fire a kiln and make teapots on his own.
Now that Jia Jinmeng was forty, he was already a Purple Clay Teapot master who far surpassed his teacher. The industry praised him lavishly, but Jia Jinmeng still had one deepest regret.
