Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

Su Yuan looked in that direction and saw a Taoist priest in a blue robe, with his hair in a bun and holding a whisk. He had gentle features and a smile on his lips. This was the real person behind the shadow!

And that crack, just like the one on the shadow, almost split the body in two.

There were traces of black dog blood on the ground!

The wall really did have cracks; the plaster around the cracks was peeling up and crumbling at the slightest touch. Su Yuan touched it with his hand and quickly withdrew it.

"It's... the ground layer is damaged."

Wang Wei's real shadow stood beside him:

"There were several other cracks on the wall, none of which hurt anyone, but this one struck me directly."

"Could you explain in more detail how these came about?"

After Su Yuan finished asking, Wang Weizhen recalled:

"That year, one late autumn night, someone broke in and chiseled at me."

"When he was chiseling, I felt something else helping him. I couldn't see what it was, but I knew it came from the very center of the main hall!"

Upon hearing this, Su Yuan looked up at the center of the hall and froze...

The painting "The Court of the Immortals" depicts more than 300 immortals in a grand procession, but the position of the main deity in the very center is empty. A large section of the wall, along with the figures and clouds, has been removed, revealing the mud bricks underneath.

Wang Weizhen continued:

"I don't know how it disappeared; I'm not here every day. But that thing that helped him, like a shadow, wasn't like us—it was alive!"

Su Yuan hurriedly took out the bronze mirror from his pocket and looked at the mirror. There were fewer shadows today. Suddenly, he noticed an exceptionally dark shadow in the far corner, motionless.

He remembered what A-Wu had said about not being able to steal the bronze mirror, and a chill ran down his spine!

He was terrified, but thinking of A-Wu, he looked at his reflection in the bronze mirror and said:

"I can fix it!"

"I need to prepare pig's blood, lime, hemp knives, and Xuan paper; it will take some time."

"How long will it take?"

Su Yuan circled the painting, noting that the cracks had penetrated into the clay body and needed to be reinforced with grout, filled, and then aged.

"Less than half a month!"

Wang Weizhen sighed:

"You are the fourth person willing to repair me. The first three didn't even finish repairing me; they either ran away or were taken away by it while they were repairing me..."

"What...what is it?"

Wang Weizhen replied to Su Yuan:

"It should be... a gap!"

"The 'crevice' in 'crevice' refers to something that grows from a crack in the interlayer. It wants to devour me, devour everything edible here, and then turn into a human..."

Su Yuan's mind went blank for a moment. He looked at the bronze mirror again. The darkest shadow was still motionless in the corner, but Su Yuan saw that it looked like it was smiling!

He was trembling slightly, thinking about many things, and finally uttered two words:

"I'll fix it!"

Wang Weizhen remained silent, but Su Yuan noticed that the corners of the mouth in the painting curved upwards slightly. Su Yuan turned and walked out of the hall, muttering before he left:

"May I call you Pure Yang Master?"

Wang Weizhen paused for a moment, then nodded:

"OK…"

As Su Yuan took a step forward, the scene before him blurred again. When he came to his senses, he was already standing in the warehouse. Wang Weizhen's shadow was still in front of the shelf, but it was much fainter than before!

"Thanks…"

As soon as he finished speaking, the shadow gradually turned into points of light and disappeared, leaving only Su Yuan in the storeroom. He then took out the bronze mirror and discovered the darkest shadow on its surface.

—Gone!

Su Yuan watched Wang Weizhen's figure completely disappear from the warehouse before turning around and knocking on the door of the director's office.

Director Zhang was reviewing documents when he saw him enter and only said one word:

"explain."

Su Yuan sat down and placed the bronze mirror on the table, surprisingly getting straight to the point:

"Something's happened at Yongle Palace!"

Director Zhang put down his pen, took off his reading glasses, and looked at him. Su Yuan then recounted everything that Master Chunyang had said in detail.

The murals were chiseled away, the main god's image was dug up, and there were traces of black dog blood mixed with cinnabar left at the scene, as well as that eerie existence called the Gap!

After Su Yuan finished speaking, the office was silent for less than half a minute. Director Zhang picked up the bronze mirror without any emotion, examined it repeatedly, put it back on the table, and then lit a cigarette.

"You believed it?"

Su Yuan was taken aback: "What?"

"You believed everything it said?"

Director Zhang took a drag of his cigarette, looking at him with a strange expression. Su Yuan quickly and instinctively tried to explain:

"It has no reason to lie to me..."

How do you know it's not lying to you?

One sentence left Su Yuan speechless. He truly didn't know, but instinctively chose to believe. Director Zhang lit a cigarette and looked at him:

"Xiao Su, do you know why the first three restorers didn't finish the job?"

Su Yuan shook his head; all he knew was that someone had been taken away by that gap.

"Because they're like you, believing whatever they hear! Those things never lie, but they never tell the whole story either, only giving you half of it!"

"The rest is up to the listener's imagination, and as they fill in the blanks, they get so caught up in it they can't get out!"

After hearing what Director Zhang said, Su Yuan felt a sudden shock and thought of his father.

Was my father the same way back then, blindly trusting others, and ultimately... falling into the abyss? But wasn't it because of Ah Wu Yao?

"Then what should I do?" he asked, looking down at his head.

Instead of answering directly, Director Zhang asked a seemingly unrelated question: "Is your mother here?"

"They're here."

"How's your dad?"

"Much better."

"That's fine!" Director Zhang stubbed out his cigarette and picked up his pen again. "Don't touch the Yongle Palace matter yet. I'll go and ask about it first."

"Ask whom?"

Director Zhang glanced at him and said only, "Ask whoever you should ask!"

Su Yuan wanted to press further, but Director Zhang waved his hand and said, "Go out."

He had no choice but to pick up the bronze mirror, get up and leave. Just as he reached the door, he heard Director Zhang's voice behind him again: "Xiao Su."

"Um?"

"Next time those things talk to you, don't just listen..."

Su Yuan stopped and waited, wanting to know what would happen next, but Director Zhang didn't continue and just waved his hand at him.

He left the director's office and walked towards his own office, his mind a complete mess!

What can he do if he doesn't listen? He's so socially awkward that he struggles to even communicate with living people, let alone argue and confront those inhuman beings.

"Su Yuan?"

Su Yuan looked up and saw Lin Xi standing at the door of his office, holding a folder in her hand, with a concerned expression.

"You don't look well, are you alright?"

"N-nothing!"

Su Yuan instinctively avoided eye contact, and Lin Xi didn't ask any further questions, simply waving the folder in her hand:

"Director Zhang asked me to organize the warehouse files, but there are some things I don't understand, so I wanted to ask you."

Su Yuan wanted to refuse, but swallowed the words back and whispered, "What?"

Lin Xi smiled, opened the folder, pushed it in front of him, and pointed to a page:

"What does the mold-casting method described in this bronze artifact file mean?"

"It's a casting method using ceramic molds..."

Su Yuan tried hard to calm his nerves and slowly explained:

"First, a mold is made, which is then cast into a ceramic mold. Molten copper is poured in, and after it cools, the ceramic mold is broken up, so..."