The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 767 The Hometown's Water and Soil, The Children of the Hometown

It turns out that spirituality and spirituality are not the same thing.

The ancient pottery house possesses a profound and weighty spirituality, with an inner radiance. The pottery house accessories that Shen Lexin has recently fired are lively and vibrant, as if they might stand up at any moment and dance on their own.

Shen Le painstakingly pieced them together, applied fish glue to the gaps, and secured them with special clamps. He had barely finished his work when he turned to get a drink of water, and then heard a "thud."
As I turned my head, the fish glue stuck in the middle burst open... burst open... burst open...

The fragments of the ancient pottery house stood firm and unmoved in their original positions; the accessories that Shen Lexin fired had protruded by about half a centimeter, even pushing open the clamps.

The fish maw glue stuck in the middle stretched out in a long, visible strip, looking almost like a heart-wrenching scream:
"I don't want to go near it! I don't want to become one with it!"

Ah this...

Is it bad to have too much spirituality? Or should we reduce it by half, or even a third?

Shen Le went back and forth, trying seven or eight more times. Too much spirituality wouldn't work; it would struggle on its own and absolutely refuse to merge with the ancient pottery house.
A lack of spirituality is also unacceptable; without it, the ancient pottery house cannot be sustained, and its original power cannot permeate it.

Add water when there's too much flour, add flour when there's too much water. In one go, the ratio of local porcelain clay to spiritual porcelain clay was adjusted to a distorted parameter of 235:765, finally managing to stop them from fighting each other.

Then Shen Le discovered that although they stopped fighting, they also wouldn't merge, refusing to merge no matter what. It felt like the south and north poles of two magnets, stubbornly resisting each other, mutually repulsed...

So where exactly does the difference lie?

Shen Le pondered deeply, his brow furrowed in frustration. After much deliberation, he finally picked up the phone and called Mr. Zhao, the "Porcelain Demon" of Jingdezhen, as well as several other teachers he knew who specialized in porcelain restoration.

"I have a question. When repairing porcelain, is it best to use porcelain clay from the original place where the porcelain was made?"

"Are you kidding me? Have you forgotten everything you learned in school?" The teachers at this school, those who had taught Shen Le, were the ones who criticized him without any restraint, completely disregarding Shen Le's current abilities and social status.

"What are the principles of repairing broken porcelain? Please repeat them: What are the principles?"

“Yes…the principle of authenticity, the principle of minimal intervention, the principle of reversibility, the principle of prioritizing rescue…” Shen Le answered honestly. The teacher continued to press:

"Then tell me, what's the point of finding porcelain clay from its place of origin, firing the parts, and then gluing them on?"

"Alright..." Shen Le respectfully gave up. There was no other way; that's how cultural relic restoration and museum restoration work.

I'd rather use plaster to create its damaged parts, exposing large patches of white, than make a seemingly flawless piece of porcelain!
The point is to let visitors see what it originally looked like!
He thought for a moment and then called another big shot—this big shot was also a restoration expert in the museum. The difference was that, in addition to working hard during the day, he often took on private jobs after get off work.

We meticulously restore the artifacts acquired by various private collections and wealthy individuals. This doesn't adhere to the traditional standards of artifact restoration; we restore them to look beautiful and flawless.

When he received the call, the expert was very patient and gave him detailed instructions:
"Different regions and different clays result in different elemental contents, leading to different colors. For example, Cizhou ware uses Hebei Daqing clay, which has a high aluminum content, resulting in a grayish-white, coarse, and loose body..."

Even though Shen Le specializes in ancient building restoration rather than porcelain restoration, he can recite this knowledge point without a single stumble.

Yaozhou ware uses clay from Fuping, Shaanxi, which contains 2%-3% iron and has a grayish-yellow body color.

Jun ware uses clay from Yuzhou, which has a silicon content of up to 70%, resulting in a thick and heavy body.
Jingdezhen is known for its binary formula of kaolin and porcelain stone, with the AlO content increasing to 19%-23% during the Yuan Dynasty;

Longquan ware uses purple clay, which contains 4%-8% iron, resulting in a cinnabar base.

Dehua kilns use high-quality kaolin clay with a potassium oxide content of up to 5%, resulting in a translucent body...

"Generally speaking, when repairing various types of porcelain, it's best to use the same type of clay, preferably from the porcelain clay of its original production area," the expert continued to advise.
"Just like Ru ware, even though they're both Ru ware, the aluminum oxide content in Ru porcelain from Baofeng, Henan is 27.71%, while that from Xuzhou, Jiangsu is 28.08%. It may seem like a difference of only 0.3%, but upon closer inspection, subtle differences can be observed..."

Shen Le listened attentively. Although he didn't need to memorize all of this knowledge, knowing more would come in handy someday.

He would wait until the expert finished a lecture and paused to catch his breath or drink water before continuing to ask questions:

"So, do we need to find the original mine where these artifacts were extracted for porcelain clay? Or will something similar be fine?"

"Of course, something close enough is fine! Artifacts from hundreds or thousands of years ago, let alone mines, they've all disappeared, where are you going to find them?"
"By the way, when you measure the elemental content in cultural relics buried underground for many years, remember that adjustments must be made before using them as a reference to find the corresponding clay. Um, there are a few papers you should write down..."

It's so great to have a teacher to give me directions!

It's so great that a teacher provided a reading list!!!
Shen Le buried himself in his work, diligently studying the books. Only after thoroughly understanding these papers and books did he get up again, take the old pottery shard to the adjacent laboratory, and remeasure its elemental content.

Well, after adjusting the values, we can roughly estimate the elemental content of the old pottery pieces, and from that, infer the approximate origin of the clay. As for whether we need to pinpoint the exact original mine...

Asking teachers at schools or museums wouldn't solve this kind of problem. Shen Le thought for a moment, then steeled herself and called Mr. Zhao, the "Porcelain Demon" of Jingdezhen:
"Um... could you please tell me..."

"No time! Don't want to talk about it! I'm too busy!"

Click, the call ended. Shen Le held the phone, shaking his head and smiling bitterly:
Sure enough, sure enough, what goes around comes around. He handed over the porcelain pagoda firing plan to Mr. Zhao, and also the task of firing a large number of porcelain pagodas to regulate the mountains and rivers and prevent the accumulation of calamity energy.

Although mass-producing porcelain ritual implements would help Mr. Zhao's lineage enhance its spirituality, strengthen its power, and even accumulate merit, thus nurturing more small porcelain demons, however…

There are so many similar products out there, it's getting so tiresome...

And it's not just a matter of one or two hundred items; according to Shen Le's previous estimate, over a thousand items would be an understatement...

Although this plan would greatly benefit Mr. Zhao, it couldn't stop him from seeing Shen Le for a period of time and finding her unbearable to look at.

Shen Le smiled wryly for a while, then had no choice but to ask Gu Yulin to call the special affairs bureau personnel stationed in Jingdezhen to inquire when Mr. Zhao could rest.

Then, I asked someone to send a box of spiritual fruit and a box of spiritual pills by express delivery, as a gesture of apology. After the items arrived, and I learned that the other party's expression had softened somewhat, I called them to ask for their advice.
When restoring ancient porcelain, if we want to awaken and harmonize its spirit, do we need to find the original mine where the clay was taken and take clay from that place to fire the parts? Or is it enough to just use the nearby mine?

"Well, generally speaking, anything nearby will do—although different regions produce different kinds of porcelain, things within a certain area are generally similar." When talking about his area of ​​expertise, Mr. Zhao immediately became animated and began to speak fluently:
"After all, thousands of years have passed, and several porcelain clay mines near Jingdezhen have been emptied out. Even within the same mine, the spiritual energy differs between the center and the surrounding areas, and between areas near mountain peaks and water veins. You can sense that, right?"

Actually, I can't really sense it, but since you've pointed it out, I can try to sense it more carefully in the future. Shen Le nodded silently:
What if my requirements are more specific?

"Then we'll try to find an original mine pit, or one that's nearby." On the other end of the video call, Mr. Zhao lazily shrugged.

"Or, could you bring the item over here? I can help you see where it's made. Maybe I'll recognize it!"

"Thank you so much! I'll try my best to find it, and if I really can't find it, I'll definitely ask for your help!"

Shen Le bowed gratefully. Mr. Zhao waved, hung up the phone, and went back to his busy work amidst the smoke and heat. Shen Le took a deep breath and began to look up information, make phone calls, and inquire about the situation.

Just as he was about to set off himself to collect soil samples for testing at the possible mine site and called Gu Yulin, Gu Yulin desperately stopped him:
"I'll help you contact them! I'll help you find someone to take samples! You should just stay home!!!"

"What's wrong?"

Shen Le was taken aback. After thinking about it, he realized that the incident he had caused earlier had been too big, putting too much pressure on the Special Affairs Bureau. He felt genuinely apologetic.

"I promise I won't run away this time! I'll just stay in the country! — I swear I won't get into fights, and if anyone attacks me, I'll leave it to you to deal with!"

"It's not about that." Gu Yulin's face was sallow, with dark circles under his eyes. The young man in his early twenties had pitifully drooping eye bags.

He looked at Shen Le earnestly, almost prostrating himself before kowtowing to her on the spot:
"You have no idea, things have been getting worse lately. Our team at the Special Affairs Bureau is running around like crazy, and we're almost overwhelmed!"

"What's the matter?"

Shen Le looked at his face and realized that he really looked like he had been working 996 for half a year, or even 007 for two months.

If you do the math, he's been staying home and working for less than two months. How did Gu Yulin manage to ruin himself like this?
"It's just... the resurgence of spiritual energy." It's the same old problem, but as the situation has worsened, many new problems have arisen:

"People's physiques will be better, making cultivation easier; spiritual herbs and flowers will grow better; and various animals will be more likely to become demons. With your porcelain tower regulating the earth's energy and dissipating malevolent energy, it's indeed less likely for strange occurrences to happen, but..."

However, it's not just humans and various monsters that are more likely to appear when the spiritual energy revival imagery is activated!

There's another type, and yet another type that's more common and more prone to problems...

"Every day, there's trouble here and there." Gu Yulin expressed his exhaustion:

"The key is that people always die! Animals always die too! With the revival of spiritual energy, the probability of all sorts of strange occurrences has increased dramatically!"
"You have no idea how busy we've been lately!"

"Oh, is it that serious?"

Shen Le was bewildered: "I didn't feel anything at all..."

He worked from home every day, and the landlady delivered meals to his door, or he would walk over to eat. The streets were quiet and peaceful, and nothing seemed amiss...

"Of course you can't feel it!" Gu Yulin cried out in anguish:
"Your territory is bustling every day, with countless transformed monsters opening shops and doing business. You can find all sorts of small things that can take shape! Other places are different—the wilderness, the old city, the factories…"

Just a few days ago, that was just a few days ago, someone popped up in the office building, and it took us a long time to calm them down..."

Shen Le was already feeling a headache for him. Nobody wanted to suddenly have an extra workload, but the revival of spiritual energy and the changes in the world were easy, while the cultivation of cultivators took time.

Before this, any unusual activity was handled entirely by the Special Affairs Bureau personnel and other cultivators...

Gu Yulin looked at Shen Le with a bitter expression:

"I used to be your personal contact person, but now that you're short-staffed, you've pulled me into the mix again. I've been running around non-stop these past few days..."

Please don't wander off, okay?! Stay home, and if anything happens, we have backup support...

"But all I know is striking with lightning and throwing a fireball!" Shen Le exclaimed in horror. I can't exorcise demons! I can't summon ghosts either!
I can't even draw talismans, not the kind you need, unless you quickly send me the correct talisman!
"Enough! Enough!" Gu Yulin breathed a sigh of relief:

"We only need backup military support! Your support alone is equivalent to several of our teams, freeing up our manpower to handle other matters..."

Shen Le comforted him for a few words, promising that he would definitely not run around and would stay at home, so as not to increase Gu Yulin's workload.

As for the sampling and testing of the kaolin ore, that can be left to other professionals; Shen Le just needs to wait for the results…

The results came quickly. Based on the data provided by Shen Le, three samples of porcelain clay were swiftly delivered to him, awaiting his study of their compatibility.
"It's pretty close... I should have just walked there myself, it's only a short walk..."

These three samples of porcelain clay all came from the Yue region—more precisely, from places like Shangyu, Yuyao, Shaoxing, and Ningbo today.

Starting from Zhuxi Town, it's just a matter of turning the steering wheel, leaving in the morning and returning home in the evening.

Shen Le arranged the three large boxes of porcelain clay into an equilateral triangle, carefully placed the old pottery pieces in the center, closed his eyes, and felt the flow of this nascent spiritual energy.
"I can feel it! This one, from near Dongqian Lake, is closest to the energy of the old pottery pieces, and its spirituality is most compatible!"

So... is it really just hometown stereotypes?

The water and soil of my hometown, the funerary objects made from my hometown, protect the souls of the children of my hometown...

Shen Le picked up several pieces of old pottery and carefully placed them into the box of porcelain clay. For the first time, all the pottery pieces vibrated rapidly, impatiently moving towards the box and trying to burrow into the clay.

"Wait! Slow down!"

(End of this chapter)