The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 592 The armor still stands! But the Tang Dynasty is gone...

The Special Affairs Bureau's machines roared to life. While one officer was on the phone berating his own operatives, the other had already rolled up his sleeves and started cleaning up their mess.

"Suppress the trending topics! Suppress the trending topics!"

"Ignore the posts from real people, but immediately ban a batch of those paid troll accounts!"

"Put that video into the AI ​​and run it!"

"Make a long take! Hurry up!"

"They claim a company is preparing to film a similar short drama! This is a teaser! The content? Haven't you seen the popular 'Escape from the British Museum' from a while back? If you haven't, go check it out!"

"No, don't just make one segment, make at least three to five segments, including behind-the-scenes footage and explanations of filming methods, etc., make it as realistic as possible!"

"By the way, go through the material library and find some similar stories, then release some seemingly plausible but ultimately misleading information... to muddy the waters!"

Ugh, so tiring. Once a paranormal event is exposed to the public, it takes a hundred times the effort to cover it up and muddy the waters.

Why not just raise your wand and unleash a "forget everything" spell...?

Uh, wait a minute, these days, with the internet so developed and information spreading so fast, it's practically viral.

Trying to solve the problem with "complete oblivion" would likely exhaust the relevant staff to the point of exhaustion. Even with Apparition and Complete Oblivion running at full capacity, they still wouldn't be able to handle such a large-scale memory erasure...

No matter how kind and cooperative she was in front of Shen Le, the Special Affairs Bureau was ultimately a powerful department.

Moreover, given its special responsibilities, it possesses significant authority in propaganda, enabling it to directly block, ban, and delete numerous posts and even accounts.

Of course, the people in charge of publicity understood that "online incidents cannot be forcibly suppressed; the more posts are deleted, the more public relations disasters will occur." They skillfully adopted another method.

Although the short-term costs are a bit high, as long as the problem is contained at its source, the rest will be simple...

By the time Shen Le received the alarm and rushed into Professor Zhang's studio, the publicity campaign had already begun. The trending topics that had just emerged made a splash before disappearing completely.

By the time Shen Le and his team had finished preparing the new armor and transferred all the spiritual energy to the old armor, there were already sporadic short drama promotions online.
When Shen Le finally emerged from his busy day at the studio, the armor-clad assault incident, which had just started to gain traction, had veered off in a strange direction.

Only the bearded man remained, still diligently making and answering calls, his mouth parched.

"Yes, that's right, in conjunction with local cultural and tourism promotion..."

"What can we do? I didn't come up with this plan!"

"It's alright, my head wasn't broken, just a bit tiring... That guy who manipulates the armor by pulling the threads, his skills are pretty advanced, I filmed this scene fifteen or sixteen times..."

"How about it? Pretty cool, buddy! Shield in one hand, weapon in the other, I can hold my own against armor! — What? Is this armor for sale? No! Of course not! I want to keep it for myself!"

Ah, I'm so tired. Not many fans see the live stream, and the vast majority of those who call to ask questions are old friends and clients in the industry.

The vast majority of these people are high-net-worth individuals with rich social experience, high IQ and EQ, and are not easily fooled by propaganda.

If you just call them and give them a straight answer, that's fine. But if you play dead and don't respond, the rumors will only grow bigger and bigger...

He spent a whole day answering more than a dozen phone calls before he managed to get these old friends off the hook—he'd let the aftershocks linger in the WeChat group.

After finally finishing her work, she composed herself, went to Shen Le, and sat down with a half-smile on her face.
"Little Shen, this armor of yours has given me quite a surprise! Tell me, what happened? Did the owner of this armor come and try to steal it because he felt you hadn't fixed it properly?"

"I wish it were like that..."

Shen Le sighed sadly. He did hope that the spirit of that Tang soldier would not be forgotten and would find rest in his armor.
But nothing happened. He had repeatedly and carefully sensed it, and the Special Affairs Bureau had used various instruments to measure it specifically, but they couldn't detect any fluctuations unique to ghosts...

"But now it seems that it was only on that armor that the will of the Tang soldiers had solidified into a spiritual essence..."

And this spirituality, after he dug the armor out of the sand and repaired it bit by bit, grew and strengthened, eagerly opening its eyes to see the world.

When he saw a group of people around him with short hair, buzz cuts, and crew cuts, wearing strange clothes and speaking strange accents, that armor probably exploded...

Whether it's to kill the enemy or to rush out to find his master, he has to take down these people in the room first. If it weren't for the bearded man's considerable fighting prowess, he probably would have had his head broken on the very first strike?
"That's it..."

The bearded man felt a little disappointed. The difference in the amount of information that a suit of armor and a heroic spirit could convey was simply too great.
If the spirit of a hero from the Tang Dynasty were to open his eyes, he would have endless questions to ask. Not only him, but professors from all over China who study the history of the Tang Dynasty would line up here.
But a full suit of armor, well...

Many questions are probably pointless to ask...

"Will it still be on my armor in the future?"

Shen Le's lips twitched. Looking at the bearded man's expression, he was full of interest. He showed no fear at all about the armor he had created jumping up to attack him; on the contrary, he was full of anticipation.

From what you're saying, you're really looking forward to it coming again, and you don't care if it ambushes and beats you up again, as long as you're not injured, corrected, or killed.
"...It's best not to." He answered slowly, each word deliberate and serious.

"This is too uncontrollable... I don't think the Special Affairs Bureau would want to see this situation either, suppressing public opinion for us every few days."

Turning my head, I saw two special agents next to me raising and lowering their heads, almost as if they were using their chins to help hammer the armor plates:

"And I think the reason it's wearing this armor is probably because its original body hasn't been repaired yet, and it's using something else in a hurry. Who would want to use someone else's body when they have their own to use!"

Especially since your armor isn't exactly antique; it's from last week! Last week!

"It's not like your clothes are from the Shang and Zhou dynasties..."

The two exchanged playful banter and jokes about antiques for a while before Professor Zhang took his leave. Shen Le sighed, rolled up his sleeves, and continued working.
Most of the armor plates were simply crafted, simply drilled, and simply treated for rust prevention.

Shen Le did not detect any lacquer components on it, and speculated that the anti-rust process of the nail plate might have used bluing, with some grease applied normally.

In short, Shen Le's next task was to piece them together, one by one, to create a complete suit of armor...

“If you have a problem, talk to me… communicate with me… don’t jump up and hit people all the time… and don’t break down all the time…”

While muttering to herself, Shen Le's fingers flew across the paper, threading ropes, weaving, and tying knots.

Ahead, two clay figures, one on the left and one on the right, are holding onto the iron armor to prevent it from suddenly jumping up;
On the left and right sides, a row of clay figurines are holding helmets and shoulder-mounted. The posture is less like using their bodies as the frame of armor and more like using their arms and chests to control their range of movement.
On the table next to them, a large screen was turned on, playing a documentary that Shen Le had carefully selected after consulting with professors at the research institute, to popularize some common knowledge about the robot.

Whether you can understand it or not, just try your best to take a look...

He worked diligently, head down, doing his craft. He'd glance at the weaving plan on the screen, thread the rope a few times, look again, and thread it a few more times.

The skirts around them fluttered, eager to be seen; their long, black hair stretched out and shortened repeatedly.
【No! No!】

[Don't put it through this hole!]

[Go left! The one on the left! No, it's going in from above and coming out from below!]

【Shen Le, follow my hairline and thread the needle! It'll definitely be faster than you trying to thread it yourself!】

"do not……"

Shen Le was at his wit's end. He gripped the nail plate with his right hand, his ring and index fingers parting and opening to hold the leather rope between them, while his left hand swung to brush away the hair:

"You guys stay away! Last time, someone got their hair tangled in the hole and didn't have time to pull it out. When they were untying the knot, it broke!"
"Let me do it myself! It's okay if I'm slow, I'll get the hang of it after a few tries! If you keep yelling at me while I work, I still won't get it right even after ten or eight tries!" The women in the skirts don't have bodies—correction, they don't have human bodies, so naturally they don't have scalps, hair follicles, or anything like that—

These hairs, these spiritual hairs, every single one that breaks is one less!

He had to pick up each broken hair one by one, soak them in a silk protein solution, and slowly repair them with magic!

Let's not get their help; he can handle it himself...

Luo Qun made a fuss, Xiao Ling sang, and the clay figurines peeked out and chattered, "Can we ask Professor Zhang next door to make us a suit of armor?" "Yes, I really want armor too."

In addition, the editing instructions playing in front of Shen Le and the documentary playing in front of the armor made the whole studio noisy and chaotic.

To outsiders, it appeared that only Shen Le was working, but only Shen Le himself knew how noisy the environment he was in was.

That's good, at least he's not lonely. Unlike before, when he first started repairing the wooden puppets, the empty mansion was empty except for him, and he could only add some sound by muttering to himself...

Repairing existing nail plates, repairing missing nail plates, and repairing newly made nail plates.

While tying knots in the leather straps, Shen Le patiently combed through the aura of the armor, ensuring that the unique scent of the ancient armor plates was evenly distributed throughout every part of the armor.

Otherwise, some are from the Tang Dynasty and some are from last week. To the naked eye of an ordinary person, there is no difference, but to a spiritual eye, it is simply unbearable.

It's like someone with vitiligo, their skin patched together with black and white patches. This pattern looks good on pandas, it looks good on cows, but on humans…

forget it……

Even for the sake of his own titanium alloy dog ​​eyes, Shen Le had to work hard to regulate the armor's aura and help it adapt to the newly added parts on its body.

While working, I was secretly happy:
This suit of armor is incredibly intelligent; it was only half-finished when it was able to attach itself to other suits of armor and wield weapons to attack people.

If it's fully repaired, it might become a tank, standing at the front line, invincible?

Great, great! Keep it up!
He painstakingly pieced together the armor plates, stringing them together to form a complete suit: chest armor, back armor, skirt armor, and greaves armor.

The arm guard has a rather unusual shape, so it needs to be handled with care and attention, and it also needs to be fitted with the shoulder pads.

The belt is badly damaged; the leather and metal ornaments are mostly broken. We'll leave it aside and deal with it later; there's no rush…

What I pulled out of the fish demon now appears to be half of a breastplate. It's covered in demonic energy; I'll have to figure out a way to separate it later…

Shen Le worked diligently for two days and finally finished weaving the entire suit of armor. He donned it over the clay figure, stepped back to examine it, and was very satisfied.

"It's pretty good, it looks good and it has good defense. I hope it stays put and doesn't cause any trouble... uh..."

The clay figure suddenly began to shake from side to side. The armor struggled and swayed, scraping against the clay figure with a rustling sound, and colorful chunks of clay were about to fall off.

Shen Le rushed forward, intending to take control of the armored vehicle, but before he could even place his hands on it, the clay figure shouted:
What are you doing?! The Tang Dynasty is dead! Dead! Dead!!!

The armored vehicle suddenly stopped. Shen Le's hands paused in mid-air for a moment, then he saw the clay figure quickly pull open the ropes, throw the armored vehicle to the ground, and stomp on it.
"The Song Dynasty has fallen, so what did I say? What did I say? I fought the Tartars with honor and integrity to the very last moment, sacrificing everything I could. I have a clear conscience!"
What else do you want?! If you want to go out and kill the Tartars and Tibetans, go yourself! Don't take it out on me!!!

The armored figure thrashed about on the ground a couple of times before lying flat and motionless. Shen Le quickly went over, picked up the clay figure with both hands, and moved it to the side:
Okay, okay, calm down. Everyone's the same before they're fixed up; everyone has moments of confusion and uncertainty. As a senior, please be a little more patient with your juniors.

Let me see, the body paint got scratched off? No worries, I'll put on some more mud and paint, and make you look beautiful again!

After a while of coaxing, the clay figure finally quieted down and stopped struggling to stomp on the armor. Even so, it was still yelling at Shen Le:
【I want to choose the color myself! I don't want the original color. That craftsman had absolutely no aesthetic sense; he only knew how to combine red and green!】

"no problem!"

I want the best clay! I want it sifted by you yourself!

"Ok, Ok!"

I want to embellish my image!

"That's enough!" Zhong Xiaomei finally spoke up to stop them. Gilding? There are dozens of horse-riding terracotta figures, and none of the others are gilded, but you're the only one?

How much more noble are you than other terracotta warriors?!

If everyone follows your example, how much money would Shen Le have to spend to gild all the terracotta warriors?

【Uh…】The clay figurine fell silent. It lowered its head, slowly moved to a corner, and curled up into a ball—not forgetting to show Shen Le the tiny cracks in its armor caused by the struggle on its chest and back.

Shen Le sighed and touched it, promising again that he would repair it, before turning to the armor:

The armor lay quietly on the floor, motionless. The helmet was rolled to one side, and the two arm guards to the other, in a very strange position.

Shen Le actually saw an expression of utter despair on its face...

"Alright, alright, alright. The Tang Dynasty fell, the Song Dynasty fell, and even the Ming Dynasty fell, but the Chinese nation has not perished—the Chinese people have stood up!"

The armored vehicle remained silent. Shen Le looked around, pushed over a wooden frame, placed the armored vehicle on it, and turned it towards the display screen:
"You can understand what we're saying? If you can understand, you can watch TV. Just watch the documentaries yourself—"

If you don't understand something, you can ask them, and they will explain it to you..."

Although the old objects are not yet fully restored and sometimes lack sufficient spiritual energy to communicate directly with, it seems that the spirits of the objects themselves can already communicate with each other…

A faint glint flashed across the armor, then fell silent and still. Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief, cleansed its breathing again, and washed its entire body with warm air before turning to do other things.

The metal ornaments on his belt were dug out of the sand; there were about twenty or thirty of them, of various sizes.

However, these twenty or thirty pieces are almost all broken, and if we were to piece them together... well, the current total area probably wouldn't be enough to make five complete pieces...

Generally speaking, the belt ornaments on Tang Dynasty officials' belts consisted of thirteen belt plaques for officials of the first to third ranks, and eleven belt plaques for officials of the fourth rank.

The fifth-rank officials had ten pieces, the sixth and seventh-rank officials had nine pieces, the eighth and ninth-rank officials had eight pieces, and even the copper and iron belt buckles used by officials outside the official ranks and commoners had seven pieces.

He had to piece these things together to create a complete shape, and then, one by one, set them onto the belt!
Shen Le sighed, cleared a clean surface on the workbench, and placed the acrylic tablet there.

All the metal pieces were laid on a flat plate, photographed, scanned, and measured one by one. They were then sent to various instruments to measure their metallic properties…

Good news, all of these metal ornaments are gold belt buckles.

The bad news is that it's not pure gold; it's mixed with a large amount of silver and a certain amount of copper... to the point that all the metal ornaments, in their uneven areas and on their fractured surfaces, have black and green rust marks.

The good news is that, despite the presence of a lot of silver and copper, these metal pieces are still quite malleable, and two of them are almost intact.

The bad news is that during the mid-Tang Dynasty, the use of gold belt buckles expanded to include officials of the fourth and fifth ranks. This means he would need to obtain at least ten, perhaps even eleven...

Good news: based on the gold belt buckle, he can roughly determine the rank of the armor's owner.

The bad news is that this certainty is not very accurate, because Emperor Dezong of Tang had previously issued an imperial edict promoting the ranks of the soldiers who were defending Anxi...

"Alright, whatever, let's repair this belt first... Once it's repaired, maybe this armor can come back to life?"

(End of this chapter)