The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 796 Shen Le: Am I trapped in an infinite loop?
Shen Le was beaten by his mentor until he squatted on the ground, covering his head. The other professors around him either watched the video or looked at the documents, but none of them said a word to persuade him.

Just kidding, I hate rescue excavations and stuff like that!
Everyone has a lot to do: teach classes, attend meetings, work on projects, and mentor students.

I finally have a chance to catch my breath. I'm thinking about checking my child's grades tonight, or quietly writing a paper.

As a result, there was no rest, no social interaction, and the original rhythm was disrupted.

Everyone should have been able to travel at their own pace, but now they have to rush and scramble to get to this desolate wilderness...

Not to mention, rescue excavations, if you're lucky, might be related to a large tomb unearthed during some rough construction work at a site;

Bad luck—mostly bad luck—is directly related to the word "tomb raiding"!

It's one thing to let the tomb raiders clean up the mess they caused, but for their own students, who have studied archaeology and cultural heritage for seven years as graduate students, to cause such trouble, they deserve to be punished!
If it weren't for Shen Le's truly significant contributions to archaeology and cultural heritage, if it weren't for the inside story behind this matter, if it weren't for Shen Le's utmost efforts to preserve the cultural relics, if it weren't for the intervention of the Special Affairs Bureau...

Let his advisor beat him to death!

Beat them to death!
Anyway, he can't be killed... or even injured. Shen Le also needs to be careful not to hurt or exhaust his mentor...

The members of the Special Affairs Bureau watched for a while, chuckling to themselves, before some came forward to stop them and others to coax and persuade them.

Most importantly, the extraordinary energy index of those artifacts, measured by the Special Affairs Bureau, and a crucial video recording from the laboratory were released:
When they saw golden light fly out of the clod of earth and the sturdy storage box shatter into pieces without warning, everyone fell silent.

More than one professor and one doctoral student raised their hands to measure themselves against the glass of the safe deposit box, then gestured vaguely, as if comparing it to the thickness of the glass. Clearly, everyone was thinking:
If that golden light were to strike me, I'd probably end up with bruises all over my body... no, I mean, patches here and there.
Professor Han was speechless for a long while. After a long time, he gently patted Shen Le's shoulder, then gave it a hard punch:
Be careful! This thing could hurt you!!!

"I really won't get hurt..." Shen Le's smile was very stiff:
“But boss, the problem right now is that only I can touch these artifacts… For the time being, only I can go in and operate them. I need guidance, I need teaching, and I might need practice… these…”

He looked pleadingly at the professors present:
"I have a reason why I must fix them, and I need to fix them as soon as possible. I'm begging you, teachers..."

Silence fell again. After a long while, the head of the archaeology department next door stepped forward:

"Let's put the restoration aside for now. — Where did you find these things? Take us there right now!"

With this buffer period, the Special Affairs Bureau had already set up an access route. They erected plank bridges, secured ladders, and installed handrails—even running electrical cables inside, ensuring that the lighting in the cave extended all the way to the very back.

Shen Le walked at the front, calling out as she went:
"Be careful, it's slippery here! We're going downhill, so please keep your footing and hold onto my hand! Is it easy to see from here? Should we turn on another light?"

"Don't bother me!" The department head was in his fifties, which, in academia, meant he was in his prime.

Following Shen Le, he climbed up and down the stairs, jumping down the last four steps in one leap. He then walked across the narrow wooden plank bridge without needing to hold on; the two doctoral students behind him couldn't even keep up with him.

"Hurry up, move faster! It's been a whole day and night, who knows how much the excavation site has changed!"

After turning the last bend and stepping into the cave where Shen Le had dug out the object, he directed the doctoral students to set up the instruments.

They measured the air temperature, took air samples from inside the cave, collected various rock samples from inside the cave, and even lay on the ground, meticulously sweeping away the mud and dust from the ground bit by bit.
"Did you bring this up from down there?"

"Uh, no, it's possible I brought it in from outside..." Shen Le scratched his head helplessly:
"When I brought the thing up from below, I wrapped it up tightly with my mental energy, so there wasn't a single crumb! — Hey, be careful!"

The department head was already crouched at the entrance of the hole, holding a probe in one hand and a flashlight in the other, with half of his body sticking out of the hole. Two doctoral students were there: one was squatting around his waist, gripping his belt tightly, and the other was holding his ankles.

Helpless, Shen Le had no choice but to reach out and hook his hand. A gentle breeze rose from the ground, firmly supporting the department head's upper body so that he wouldn't have to rely on his waist strength to thrust against the hole.

The department head started by swiping and scraping soil off the cave wall, one swirl after another, muttering to himself as he did so:
“Natural soil layer…natural soil layer…this is still natural soil layer…hmm, the soil layer here is a little different…”

After collecting soil samples, snapping photos, and taking water samples from the cave, he rubbed his hands together, then rubbed the ground with his shoes, contemplating climbing down, when Shen Le finally couldn't take it anymore:

"Director, just tell me what you need! I'll get it for you! There's really nothing left down there! There's really nothing left!!!"

"Your word doesn't count. ...Fine, you can leave now. We'll take care of things here!"

Okay... alright. Under the department head's unceremoniously urging him to leave, Shen Le, turning back every few steps, finally rounded the bend. As he left, he kept muttering to himself:

"Don't worry, I've set up an array here. The water below won't flow, and the cave won't collapse..."

There are four jade pieces around the cave; they're part of an array I set up to stop the water flow, not artifacts! Remember to return them to me!

Leaving behind the most crucial information, Shen Le was shoved out of the cave and returned to the restoration workshop outside. The moment he stepped into the workshop, a huge form was shoved into his hand:

"We've calculated it." The professors specialize in lacquerware restoration, bamboo slip restoration, ironware restoration, and silk restoration, each with their own area of ​​expertise.

Professor Han, Shen Le's advisor, couldn't contribute anything to the research, so he took on the role of coordinating and summarizing the information.
"To fully restore these cultural relics, if you do all the work yourself, with the help of us, it will take at least six months, including the preliminary experiments and preparations."

"Of course, this is assuming you work eight hours a day, make no mistakes at any step, and don't have to redo any experiments or operations. If even one step goes wrong, it could take one or two years!"

Shen Le understands this all too well. The difference between skilled and unskilled operators, or even just a matter of luck in the experiment, can be worlds apart.

I remember two senior female students from the same year as him, who both needed to conduct bacterial culture tests on the restored artifacts to determine what bacteria were on them so they could target and kill the bacteria. Well, one of them passed the test on the first try, or at most on the second. In the petri dish, the bacteria were clearly visible under the microscope, in small clusters and large patches.

Another person was doing experiments, failing three or five times, eight or ten times, and you could often hear her wailing, "Why did I die again~~~"

As a result, the senior student who was good at doing experiments often finished her experiments in the morning, went to the library happily in the afternoon, and even had time to have dinner with her boyfriend in the evening.
That senior student who struggles with experiments worked from morning till night, from night till late, until she was disheveled and her eyes were lifeless. Don't ask, the answer is: the results are still not in…

"I'll try my best, I'll try my best." He nodded vigorously, almost raising his hand to swear:
"Boss, trust me, I have mental and magical support, my success rate will definitely be higher than those newbies! It's just..."

He took a closer look at the form. Wow, it was densely packed with information, from various experiments and tests to arranging each item to be repaired into the repair equipment.

Vacuum freezing, soaking in preservative solutions, soaking in this or that liquid, brushing with this or that reagent...

According to the schedule, from today until six months from today, he will work approximately twelve hours a day, seven days a week.
These days are getting tough... I need to think of something!
Shen Le thought for a moment and actually picked out a few tasks from the table that could be expedited or that could be shifted to others. First point:
"Exactly, around these bamboo slips, silk scrolls, and other cultural relics, in the water where they've been soaked, to culture bacteria and such, could you arrange for other senior brothers and sisters to help with that?"

This stuff is very close to biology, but quite far from cultural relic restoration. Professor Han hasn't done much of this field.

Professor Han was willing to help, but his word didn't count. Turning his head, he saw an unfamiliar Special Affairs Bureau staff member step forward, bring out a computer, and pull up a few lines of data:
"Currently, it seems that these bodies of water do not contain much extraordinary energy, and it has not exceeded the standard. Non-cultivators should also be able to do it."

"However, firstly, we must take precautions and monitor the situation constantly. If the extraordinary energy exceeds the limit, the experimenters must evacuate immediately. Secondly, if the energy exceeds the limit, the experimental equipment will probably have to be converted to extraordinary uses..."

"No problem!" Shen Le was already patting his chest confidently.
“Each participating senior student will receive a protective jade talisman, deducted from my account! All experimental equipment will be paid for from my account first, I'll buy it then, okay?”

Anyway, bacterial culture isn't expensive... Well, a clean bench, sterilizer, sterilization chamber, constant temperature incubator, anaerobic culture system, shaker, optical microscope, colony counter, all together, would cost at most six figures.

As for petri dishes and culture media, he bought them in huge quantities. Shen Le spent a million yuan without even looking, covering even the work allowances of his senior classmates!
Based on the price he previously paid at Yuantong Temple for a bracelet to ward off demons, even a single jade amulet would cost more than that!
Of course, Shen Le had so much money that he didn't know what to do with it. As long as he could get rid of the detailed and tedious work that he wasn't good at, he could only thank his lucky stars.

After finishing the bacterial culture work, the remaining arrangements became much clearer. Shen Le still wanted to throw out a few more:
"These testing efforts—"

"If you can do it yourself, then do it yourself. It's never a bad thing to learn more." Professor Han had already reached out to stop them.
"With so many teachers here, they can teach you anything you don't understand. By the way, would you like to consider moving this lab?"

Relocation is definitely necessary. It's impossible for so many professors to run off to the middle of nowhere and settle down with Shen Le for half a year just for one of his projects—it's more like the other way around.

Anyway, Shen Le's portable lab was something he could easily take with him. So, several years after graduation, Shen Le happily returned to university life once again.
University is so great!
How comfortable!

The familiar environment, the familiar shady trees, walking on campus, there are young and energetic students everywhere, which makes people feel comfortable!
You can audit classes, events, the gym, the pool, and even the cafeteria. The cafeteria aunties' cooking, while not as good as the owner of Tianxianglou, has something familiar about it—

The laboratory setup was also very convenient. Although land on campus was extremely valuable, Shen Le's old house could be transformed in countless ways.

Inexplicably, a door appeared in the laboratory of the School of Archaeology and Museology. Pushing open the door leads to the ancient house, and turning two corners leads to the new laboratory.

The graduate and doctoral students who help Shen Le can come over with just one step, finish their work here, and then walk over next door to do their own experiments...

Everything was arranged perfectly. Then, Shen Le got stuck at the very first step:

"I need a batch of waterlogged bamboo slips to practice how to retrieve them."

"You must first prove that you have the ability to safely retrieve them without causing damage!"

"If I had this ability, I wouldn't need to practice! I have to practice!"

"The waterlogged bamboo slips that have survived to this day are extremely precious. I can't let you practice on them! You need to prove your ability first!"

Shen Le: "..."

Is it stuck in an infinite loop?

Even so, he knew it wasn't the school's fault. Although their school was one of the top schools in China, it wasn't the top institution in China for the restoration of water-damaged cultural relics—

Being near the water gives you an advantage, and specialization is key. To allow cultural relics to be submerged in water for extended periods requires a humid, rainy environment with a high water table. What about Hunan, Hubei, or Sichuan…?

In short, it's definitely not in the capital city area. They won't get much out of their school, and they won't have any practice materials!
What? You mean you're asking other research institutes for it?

"I want it, I want it, but you know..."

These national treasures are all of great importance, and they cannot be casually given to other people's students to practice on!
"...Alright, I'll go think of a way..."

Shen Le scratched his head, looking troubled. The school had done its best, and fortunately, he had other connections:
"Hey, Lao You, help me find out if any monsters collect this kind of thing..."

"Hey, boss lady, could you please help me find out..."

"Qingli, please help me out. I'm currently restoring antiques and need some practice materials..."

Several phone calls were made in quick succession. The next day, Shen Le received a message from the Dragon Palace:

Come!
(End of this chapter)