Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

She wore a coarse cloth dress, her hair was styled in double buns, she was slender, but her eyes were large.

Gazing towards the city gate, towards the road home, Su Yuan softly called out:

"Awu..."

Awu turned to look at him as she listened. His eyes were exactly the same as those of the terracotta figurines in the warehouse, except that they now held a light within them.

"You've come..."

Awu smiled, and her smile was exactly the same as the one on the terracotta figurine's face.

"I've been waiting for you for so long..."

Su Yuan looked closely at A Wu and noticed that her hair was casually tied up with a wooden hairpin in it, which was different from the palace maid he had imagined!

Without the fine silks and satins, gold hairpins and jade ornaments seen on television, she is now just an ordinary person, a girl waiting for someone to come home.

"you…"

Su Yuan didn't know what she was going to do. A Wu looked at him and smiled, saying:

"You look just like him..."

Su Yuan asked reflexively, "Who does it look like?"

"Like the person who promised to pick me up...and like the one who came a few years ago."

"The one who came a few years ago? Was it my dad?"

"Hmm... when he came, I thought it was him."

Awu continued:

"Later I realized it wasn't true; the way he looked at me was different from how you look at me..."

"Why is it different?"

Awu didn't answer him, she just pushed open the door:

"Come in."

Su Yuan followed her into a small courtyard, which was quite clean. There were two pomegranate trees in the corner, which were in bloom, and several clothes with many patches were hanging on the windowsill.

"Is this your home?"

Su Yuan remembered that it wasn't like this last time, so he asked A Wu. She turned to look at him, her eyes looking a little strange.

"This is a dream, a dream I had!"

Su Yuan looked around and sat down beside the pomegranate tree in the courtyard:

"For over a thousand years... I've had this one dream, in this one place."

Su Yuan stood there blankly, speaking very softly:

"Don't you want to... dream about something else?"

Awu smiled and shook her head:

"I'm afraid if I dream too much, I'll forget this place. If I forget this place, I'll be lost and never be able to come back..."

Su Yuan's heart was in turmoil as he moved to squat down beside her:

"Awu".

"Um?"

"What is that bronze mirror?"

Awu was silent for a while, then she reached out and pulled something out of her bosom—a bronze mirror!

The palm-sized round object had four characters engraved on the back. Su Yuan took it and looked closely: Su Yuan's Seal! It was his name, but not his handwriting. It was in Tang Dynasty regular script, with strokes that had an ancient and simple charm.

He was taken aback, thinking:

"Could this be... the bronze mirror Zhao Cheng mentioned in the other pavilion...?"

All I heard A-Wu say was:

"This was made by my father. I later found out that after I entered the palace that year, he had a craftsman make it and sent it to me through someone. He said that when he came to that family to pick me up, he would use this to recognize me..."

Su Yuan stared blankly at the mirror:

"You've been carrying it with you the whole time?"

"It was usually hidden away. Later, I died in the palace... They buried me, and this mirror was buried with me."

Su Yuan listened patiently to her finish speaking, then, remembering what Zhao Cheng had said, asked A-Wu:

"Then how come it's been unearthed again?"

Awu looked at him and smiled, saying:

"I've been waiting for you..."

Su Yuan's heart was racing, and A Wu covered her mouth and smiled:

"The mirror is buried in the ground, and so am I, but I don't live in the terracotta warrior; I often stay in the mirror!"

Su Yuan's heart skipped a beat:

"You...you mean?"

"That terracotta figure is me, yet it is not me."

Awu said:

"My father made it according to my instructions. When he burned it, he dripped his heart's blood into it, so I can stay inside the terracotta warrior and also in the mirror."

"But the mirror is my home..."

Su Yuan looked at the bronze mirror in his hand and asked A Wu:

"That thing that came before... what wasn't human? What was it after?"

Awu replied:

"It wants to take my bronze mirror!"

"Then... what is it?"

Awu didn't answer, but stood up and dusted herself off.

"Let's go, I'll show you..."

Su Yuan stood up after her: "Where are we going?"

Awu walked to the door, turned back to look at him, and said, "Look at the place I've lived in for over twenty years."

Then they arrived at the streets of Chang'an, which were even more bustling than before. The sun shone brightly, making the whole street look golden. Awu walked ahead as if she were taking a stroll.

Su Yuan followed behind, looking around as they walked. There were shops on both sides of the road.

Silk shops, porcelain shops...

Some people were soliciting business at the door, while others were haggling inside; the air was filled with various smells.

The aroma of flatbread, the muttony smell, the sweetness of face powder, and even the stench of horse manure…

"This is the East Market, a place for the rich."

Awu told him that Su Yuan's eyes were blurry from looking at all those shops!

A foreign man walked by leading a camel, which was loaded with goods, but no one knew what they were.

A child was chasing after a candied hawthorn vendor, shouting as he ran. A bullock cart passed by him, and on the cart sat a woman dressed in silk with thick powder on her face!

Su Yuan smiled relaxedly at A Wu, and A Wu said:

"When I first arrived, I thought it was lively, but I stopped feeling that way later."

She continued leading Su Yuan forward, passing through the East Market and heading north. The crowds were growing larger and more congested, and Su Yuan finally saw the door!

It was very large and tall, with rows and rows of copper nails nailed to the vermilion door panels. The soldiers standing at the door were all wearing armor, holding spears, and their faces were stern and motionless.

"This is the palace."

Awu said that Su Yuan was standing there looking at the door, which was closed. Awu didn't stop, but led him to the side and around to a small door!

The door was open, so small that two people walking side by side would be cramped. There were no soldiers at the door, only an old man sitting by the door, dozing off.

Su Yuan followed A Wu inside, and it was a completely different world from the outside. There was no bustling prosperity of the East Market, no wide and bright main streets, only narrow alleys and high red walls.

It gives off a somewhat oppressive feeling!

Awu, who was walking ahead, slowed down her pace:

"This is where I am."

Su Yuan looked at both sides and saw rows of small houses, with doors next to doors and windows that were pitifully small. Some people were washing clothes at the door, some were doing needlework by the window, and some were squatting under the wall sunbathing.

They were all women, dressed in coarse cloth clothes similar to A-Wu's, and their faces were expressionless!

"This is the Yeting, the living quarters of the palace maids."

Su Yuan followed her and continued walking forward. When the women saw A Wu, some nodded, some smiled, and some acted as if they hadn't seen her at all!

An elderly woman was airing out her quilts when she called out to her, "Awu, don't you have any work to do today?"

"Yes..." A-Wu replied, "I'll go later."

The old woman glanced at Su Yuan with a strange look in her eyes:

"Who is this?"

Awu didn't answer, and the old lady didn't ask again. She continued to air out her quilts. Su Yuan followed Awu to a small room. It was very small, with just a bed, a table, and a cabinet.

Looking at the small space, Su Yuan asked her:

"here it is…"