Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

Having said that, he pulled Old Master Xu away, leaving Su Yuan alone in the hall. He stood before the mural and took out a bronze mirror from his pocket:

"I know you're there..."

There was no response, so Su Yuan braced himself and continued:

"I know you can hear me!"

Still no response. Su Yuan placed the bronze mirror on the ground, mirror side up, and aimed it at the crack.

"If you don't want me to fix it, come out!"

Something moved in the bronze mirror. It wasn't the usual reflection, but a dark mist that appeared deep within and floated to the center of the mirror.

Su Yuan's heart pounded as he stared at it: "You're the Gap?"

The dark figure didn't move, but a hoarse voice emanated from it, muffled and seemingly coming from the depths of an abyss:

"You will be the fourth..."

Su Yuan trembled slightly, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath:

"Where did those three go?"

After a moment of silence, the dark figure stirred, as if laughing:

"you guess!"

Su Yuan squatted in front of the bronze mirror, his palms and back sweating with fear, but he didn't back down. He thought of Old Wu's scar, his father's eighteen years of sitting still, and Ah Wu…

He stood up: "I've decided to fix this!"

The shadowy figure remained motionless and silent. Su Yuan gritted his teeth:

"Try stopping me if you dare!"

The shadowy figure made no threat or speak, and slowly sank down. Su Yuan waited for a moment, but there was no movement. He then put the mirror back in his pocket, squatted down, and opened the toolbox.

He carefully examined the crack again, thinking about the steps to take, planning to start working on it as soon as the materials arrived tomorrow. Looking at the portrait of Chunyang Zhenren, he felt that something was strange about it!

At 5:30 the next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Su Yuan got out of bed.

The guest room was arranged by the temple. He had a small room with a hard bed and a table. He didn't sleep well last night.

I kept feeling something moving on the wall, so I got up and looked twice, but there was nothing there.

But I could feel that the bronze mirror was always warm at night and never cooled down!

After getting dressed, I pushed open the door and went out. There was an old locust tree in the yard, which I didn't know how many years it had been growing. Its canopy was so big that it covered half of the yard.

A stone table and several stone benches were set up under the tree. Qian Weidong was already in the courtyard, squatting beside one of the benches smoking. Seeing Su Yuan come out, he stood up and stubbed out his cigarette.

"Up so early?"

"Can't sleep? You can't sleep either..." Su Yuan walked over: "Where's your stuff?"

Qian Weidong pointed to the corner of the courtyard: "I had Lao Zhao deliver it last night."

Several things were piled up in the corner of the yard.

A bag of lime, a plastic bucket with a lid containing pig's blood, and a bundle of hemp knives, the kind that are chopped up, scattered in small pieces.

There are also a few reams of old Xuan paper, wrapped in kraft paper!

Su Yuan walked over and squatted down to examine each item one by one. The lime was in the form of lumps of quicklime. He opened the lid of the pig's blood and smelled it; a fishy smell hit his nose, indicating it was fresh.

The ramie knife is used to cut ramie fibers and is used for mixing lime.

He opened the Xuan paper and looked at it. It was old paper from the Red Star brand, which had been stored for at least twenty years. Because of its strong water absorption, the fibers had already softened!

Qian Weidong said from the side:

"Everything was prepared according to your instructions. Old Zhao spent a long time gathering it all."

"Zhao Cheng?"

"Yes." Qian Weidong nodded.

"He said these things are hard to find now, especially pig's blood, which he could only get by going to the slaughterhouse."

Su Yuan didn't say anything. He put his things away, stood up, and patted the dust off his knees.

"Let's begin."

The main hall was even darker than yesterday, so Su Yuan and Qian Weidong started moving things inside, placing them one by one at the base of the murals. After Qian Weidong finished moving them, he left, saying he was going to have tea with the old man in the temple and that Su Yuan could call him if he needed anything.

Su Yuan didn't stop him; he was even more eager to be alone!

He first stood in front of the wall and looked at the crack again.

The base layer was extremely loose. He gently pressed his finger against the plaster next to the crack; this was the most troublesome part. The base layer is the foundation of the mural, like the bones of a person. If the bones are loose, no matter how good the skin and flesh are, it's useless!

The ground layer of Yongle Palace is a typical example of Song Dynasty construction.

A layer of coarse mud, a layer of fine mud, a layer of white lime, only two or three centimeters thick in total. It's several hundred years old. The moisture rises, the salt crystals push outwards, the fibers inside have long since rotted from being chiseled, and it's been filled with ink!

Su Yuan first poured quicklime into an iron basin, added water, and stirred it with a wooden stick. Quicklime heats up when it comes into contact with water, and the basin bubbled and sizzled, emitting a pungent smell.

He stirred it for about ten minutes until the lime was completely dissolved, then added some water and stirred it into a thin paste.

Then pour in the pig's blood!

When the pig's blood was poured out of the bucket, the fishy smell became even stronger. Su Yuan frowned and sniffed, stirring it with a stick.

When lime and pig's blood are mixed together, the color changes from white to pink, from pink to red, and finally becomes dark red, almost the same color as bricks. This is the ancient method!

Lime mixed with pig's blood, once dried, becomes hard yet resilient, even stronger than cement.

But this is how our ancestors plastered walls hundreds of years ago. After mixing it, they added hemp fiber. While the hemp fiber was being added, Su Yuan put on rubber gloves and rubbed it in with his hands!

Short pieces of ramie fiber, mixed into the lime slurry, act as a reinforcing structure. Like the steel bars in concrete, without them, the lime will crack when it dries. He rubbed it for a long time, making sure each piece of ramie was coated with the slurry and didn't clump together.

Finally, the consistency needs to be adjusted. If it's too thin, it will overflow when poured in; if it's too thick, it won't go in. Su Yuan used a stick to pick up a little bit and watched the speed at which it dripped down.

—It's dripping too fast; it's too thin.

He added some lime powder, stirred it well, and tried again. This time, the dripping was slower, and it stuck together.

"Alright..."

Su Yuan took a small shovel and filled the grout into a plastic bag. He cut a small hole in the corner of the bag, and this was his grouting tool. Don't underestimate this simple method; it works well!

He found the widest crack at the base of the wall, stuffed the corner of the bag inside, and started squeezing.

The grout flowed from the corner of the bag, slowly seeping into the cracks. Su Yuan squeezed it out very slowly, little by little, afraid that pouring it in too forcefully would push up the plaster on the wall. Some cracks were very narrow, some only as thin as a hair, so the grout flowed slowly; he had to wait!

He just waited there, holding the bag and not moving.

After about ten minutes, his leg went numb, so he changed his position, kneeling on one knee to continue drinking. Halfway through, the bronze mirror in his pocket moved slightly; it was still warm…

It wasn't a slow, wobbly movement; it suddenly sank, as if something had bumped into it from the inside!

Su Yuan's knee hit the ground, making him wince in pain. He freed one hand to touch it; the bronze mirror was scorching hot. He said:

"Stop fooling around... I'm working..."

The bronze mirror sank again, but Su Yuan ignored it and continued grouting. The grout level in the crack slowly rose, filling the empty space little by little from the bottom up. When he reached the middle of the crack, the bronze mirror stopped moving and getting cold!

Su Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. He picked up the grouting bag, moved it to a different position, and continued grouting.

This dredging lasted all morning!

During this time, Qian Weidong came by and brought him a pot of tea. He saw him kneeling on the ground, seemed to want to say something, but then left without saying anything, putting the teapot aside and walking away.

When Su Yuan finished filling the last gap, it was already past noon, and his hands were shaking, not because he was scared.

I'm tired!