Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

"I am a pottery pot from the Han Dynasty, used for holding wine. The tomb owner was a minor official who loved to drink. After his death, his family placed me next to him as a burial companion."

The pottery pot recalls:

"Later his grave was robbed, and I was smashed... Then those little creatures picked up my fragments and put them back together."

"But no one helped me piece it back together or repair it; it's been broken like this for hundreds of years..."

Su Yuan glanced at the row of little creatures. They were squatting on the ground, their round eyes fixed on the pottery pot, as if waiting for something.

The pottery pot continued, "These little guys are the 'spirits' hidden in the interlayer."

"They specialize in collecting scattered fragments; they can't repair anything, they can only gather the fragments together."

"They have been guarding me all these years, keeping these fragments for me."

Su Yuan squatted down, supported the leader, and stroked the little creature's head. Its fur didn't feel like real fur.

It feels cool and smooth to the touch, and has a beautiful sheen!

The little creature seemed to enjoy being petted, and it squinted its eyes and made purring noises.

"Thank you," Su Yuan said with a smile.

He was genuinely grateful; he hadn't expected to find such a cute little thing in the hidden compartment.

The little creature in his hand opened its eyes, looked at Su Yuan, and suddenly said something like a child:

"You're welcome, Master Su. There are still a lot of broken parts in the interlayer. Would you like to repair them all?"

Su Yuan paused for a moment, then said with a wry smile, "We'll take it one at a time later. It's not possible today; I have other things to do!"

The little creature nodded, turned around, and ran off with its companions, disappearing into the mist in a flash.

The pottery pot stood quietly in place, without making a sound. Su Yuan wrapped it in a soft cloth and put it in the toolbox, planning to find a suitable place to put it after he left.

The three continued walking forward.

After walking for less than ten minutes, the fog suddenly thickened, and I could barely see the path beneath my feet...

Su Yuan stopped and thought it was time to use the guiding incense. He took one out of his toolbox and lit it with a lighter.

Once lit, the incense stick emitted a small, dark red spark, and a wisp of smoke rose into the air. The smoke was pale blue in color and stood out conspicuously against the grayish-white mist.

The wisp of smoke didn't rise; it drifted forward, like a thin rope extending from the tip of the incense stick into the depths of the mist.

Wherever the smoke reached, the fog dispersed in a crack.

"Let's follow the smoke."

Su Yuan said to Shen Yue and Xiao Meng, and the two nodded and followed the wisp of blue smoke forward.

Fortunately, there was nothing harmful in the fog. Although it wasn't as good as the outside air, it was still fine for normal breathing.

The fog automatically dispersed in front of the blue smoke, revealing a narrow path. Thick fog surrounded the path, and even the gray-white ground was clearly visible on the path itself.

Su Yuan was very impressed with the person who developed this fragrance!

After walking for about half an hour, the blue smoke suddenly turned a corner and drifted to the left.

Su Yuan and the others followed suit and turned the corner. Suddenly, the fog in front of them dissipated, revealing an open space.

In the center of the open space stood a huge stone pillar!

It was several times larger than the stone pillar on the earthen platform I saw last time, with a diameter of at least two meters and a height so great that the top could not be seen. Most of the pillar disappeared into the mist.

The surface of the stone pillar is covered with words and patterns.

Su Yuan took a closer look and saw that the characters were in the style of Han Dynasty clerical script. The content was not very complete and could only be roughly understood.

It turns out that this was a record left by a sorcerer from the Han Dynasty, who said that he had entered the ruins and saw indescribable things inside.

What the unspeakable thing is is not recorded in the records.

Below, a line of smaller characters is engraved, lighter in color than the one above, as if it was added later: "Those who enter the ruins must carry guiding incense; without incense, they will lose their way and not return."

Su Yuan felt a chill run down his spine. Luckily, Teacher Zhou and the others knew about the guiding incense; his great-grandfather had left it behind!

Without the guiding incense, once you enter the market, you won't be able to get out...

At this moment, Awu moved in the bronze mirror, her little hand pointing eagerly in the direction behind the stone pillar.

Su Yuan quickly went around the stone pillar and saw a road behind it, the road surface was no longer gray and white.

The road is paved with stones that emit a dark red light.

The blue smoke from the guiding incense drifted along the dark red road!

"Could this be the way to the 'Ruins'?"

Su Yuan asked, and A Wu nodded her little head, her small hand gesturing, this time pointing to the guiding incense in Su Yuan's hand, and then said three…

"Is it only a journey of three incense sticks' worth of distance?" Su Yuan guessed.

Awu Guangying shook her head and said with difficulty, "One-third..." She then pointed to herself and made a closing motion.

Su Yuan stared at her gestures and suddenly understood:

"You mean, within the distance that can be covered in a third of an incense stick's time, there's a fragment of your remnant soul?"

Awu nodded vigorously.

Su Yuan glanced at the incense stick in his hand, which had burned less than a third of its length. He took a deep breath and, together with Shen Yue and Xiao Meng, stepped onto the dark red road.

The road surface felt hard underfoot and had a warm, oppressive feel to it, as if something was burning and heating up underground!

After walking for less than ten minutes, some things appeared on both sides of the road: low stone platforms.

On each stone platform was an object, some were pottery, some were bronze, and some were jade, and all of them were perfectly intact!

Shen Yue and Xiao Meng looked at each other, unable to believe that there were other things inside.

After looking at them, Su Yuan could sense that these things were not real cultural relics; they were things hidden in the interlayer, a manifestation of some kind of force.

Awu moved again in the bronze mirror, pointing her little finger to a stone platform to the right front.

Su Yuan hurriedly looked over and saw a bronze mirror on the stone platform, which looked exactly the same as his bronze mirror!

No, it's not exactly the same, it's smaller. Looking at the mirror, it's only the size of your palm.

Su Yuan walked over quickly and saw that the bronze mirror, which was in the style of the Han Dynasty, had a crack on its surface.

She hurriedly brought the jade ring on her hand close to the small bronze mirror.

The jade ring began to heat up, and the Spirit-Locking Pearl also lit up!

Looking at the crack on the surface of the small bronze mirror, a ray of light drifted out from within.

Just like last time, it circled twice in the air like a firefly before drifting towards the bronze mirror on Su Yuan's chest, merging into A Wu's light and shadow...

Awu's figure suddenly brightened, and her body outline became clearer.

This time, she didn't use any gestures, but instead spoke a sentence directly, and her voice was much clearer than last time!

"Su Yuan... I... can... feel myself!"

Su Yuan was stunned, while Shen Yue and Xiao Meng stood guard on the side, their faces showing great relief.

Su Yuan rubbed his face with his hand, not bursting into tears of joy like last time, but his heart was so happy he felt like he was jumping for joy.

He hurriedly picked up the small bronze mirror from the stone platform and put it into the toolbox.

The blue smoke from the guiding incense was still drifting forward. Su Yuan looked at the length of the incense stick; it was already more than half burned.

"Let's go back!"

Shen Yue looked at the guide incense and said something. Su Yuan saw that he was speaking very seriously and nodded. The three of them walked back along the original path.

As Su Yuan stepped off the dark red road and onto the gray-white ground, he looked back.

The road is still there, but the thick fog is slowly closing in, gradually covering it again.

The incense sticks had burned down to their last bit, and the blue smoke had become very thin.

The three followed the blue smoke for more than forty minutes before finally seeing the exit crack.

The moment Su Yuan's foot touched the warehouse floor, the guiding incense burned out, and the last wisp of blue smoke dissipated in the air and disappeared!

When Zhao Cheng saw that they had all come out, he hurried over and asked:

"You guys stayed inside for quite a while this time. Did you find anything?"

Su Yuan smiled and pointed to the toolbox: "I found a small bronze mirror, and there is also a remnant of A Wu's soul inside."

Zhang Weiyi walked in at this moment, holding a mobile phone in his hand, with a message he had just received on the screen.

He looked at Su Yuan, his expression not good.

"What's wrong, Director?" Su Yuan asked hurriedly.

Zhang Weiyi handed the phone to Su Yuan: "We have news about Wu Zhenshan!"