Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

"Something's blocking the way," Su Yuan said, taking a sip of hot water. "We need to use lime to dissolve it."

Old Liu didn't ask any more questions after hearing this. Su Yuan finished his tea and stood up to go find lime. There was no quicklime in the village, only slaked lime, which was used for building houses. It was all packed in woven bags and placed behind the small shop at the village entrance.

Su Yuan bought a bag of [items], and then borrowed an iron basin and a wooden stick from Lao Liu.

He poured lime into the basin, added water, and stirred. The quicklime didn't heat up, and after stirring for a long time, it was still just a basin of white slurry. He added more water, stirring the lime water into a thin paste, but it wasn't enough!

—Lime alone isn't enough; we need to add something else. Su Yuan thought for a moment, then ran back to Old Liu and asked for a bag of alkali powder. Old Liu didn't know what he wanted to do, but he gave it to him anyway.

Su Yuan poured the alkali into the lime slurry and continued stirring. This time, he stirred it well and hurriedly carried the basin back. Qian Weidong helped him carry the toolbox and went down into the secret passage.

This time it was much faster. Su Yuan carried the basin to the wall, picked up a brush, dipped it in lime mortar, and started brushing it onto the black mass!

Apply one layer, wait a while, and then apply another layer.

The lime slurry seeped in, and bubbles began to rise from the surface of the black substance, like dough rising. When the bubbles burst, black water oozed out, with a fishy smell!

After brushing it five times, the surface of the black substance began to drip down, falling to the ground in clumps. Su Yuan poked it with a crowbar and continued brushing.

By the seventh time I scrolled through it, a piece of the dark mass collapsed, revealing a square corner of bluestone with characters carved into it.

Su Yuan leaned closer and saw the three characters "Mingfengtai" (鸣凤台), with a line of smaller characters below that read "Built in the third year of Yongle" (永乐三年)!

"This is the monument!"

Thinking of this, Su Yuan quickly grabbed the corner of the stele and pulled it outwards. This time it loosened and the stele slid out a bit. He pulled hard again, and this time half of the stele came out.

He could see the stele now; it was a single piece of bluestone, over a meter high and half a meter wide, with the front covered in regular script characters. He didn't have time to read what was written; he wanted to pull the whole stele out first.

This monument is very heavy; Su Yuan couldn't lift it by himself!

Qian Weidong rushed over to lend a hand, and the two of them lifted the monument out together. After leaning it against the wall, Qian Weidong saw that there was no longer any threat, so he went out first. The monument was covered in black mud, sticky and slimy, but the words were still legible.

Su Yuan quickly took out a cloth and wiped it, and saw that the inscription began with:

"A Record of Mingfeng Terrace in Xinzhou"

Below is a description of the construction process of the stage, including who paid for it, who designed it, and who was in charge of the workers. The foreman's name was Zhang Shouyi!

Su Yuan was stunned for a moment:

"Zhang Shouyi? Old Zhang's grandfather?"

He continued reading, and the last sentence of the inscription read:

"Now that this stage is completed, it will serve the villagers, and operas will be performed there for four hundred years without end!"

"Four hundred years?"

Su Yuan thought:

"From the third year of Yongle to the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi, there were 292 years. From the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi to now, there have been 328 years. In total, there have been 620 years."

"Two hundred years more than the four hundred years written on the monument!"

Su Yuan stared at the stele without speaking, knowing that she had been trapped for four hundred years. The time distortion here was very complicated. At this moment, the bronze mirror in his pocket moved slightly and was warm!

The sound from behind the wall also came through, much clearer than before:

"They're out..."

Su Yuan turned to look at the wall. It was still there, but the black thing behind the wall had completely dissolved. Black water was flowing all over the ground and seeping down the cracks between the bricks!

Behind the hole in the middle of the wall, you can see a square space inside, like a small hut.

"Who are you?"

Su Yuan asked excitedly, but the voice didn't answer. However, the woman in theatrical costume in the bronze mirror moved. She walked forward from the center of the mirror, getting closer and closer, her face growing larger and larger.

Su Yuan could see her face clearly now. She was about thirty years old, with round eyebrows drawn in a curved shape and red lips painted on. She was a standard female role in Peking Opera!

The beads on the phoenix crown jingled and sparkled as she said:

"I am this stage. I've been here since the day it was built, and I've been performing there for about four hundred years. Later, it was sealed off..."

"Who issued the seal?" Su Yuan asked her, only to hear her continue:

"I don't know, it seems like a few decades ago some people came and built this wall down here, and I haven't been able to get out since..."

Su Yuan looked at the red brick wall and asked:

"If I tear down the wall, will you be free?"

She didn't answer, but after a while she said, "You smell like A-Wu."

Su Yuan was taken aback: "You know A-Wu?"

"I don't know her... but I know her, and I've smelled her scent before."

She paused for a moment:

"The things in the interlayer all know her, saying that she waited for thirteen hundred years, and finally, she has found her."

Su Yuan remained silent, then she said:

"You've finally made it..."

Su Yuan didn't know how to respond to that, so he picked up a crowbar and started demolishing the rest of the wall. This time it was much faster; the crowbar went in and a section collapsed with a single pull. Bricks clattered down, and hearing the noise, Qian Weidong came in to catch them and piled them on the ground.

The demolition took more than ten minutes, and the entire wall collapsed!

The small hut behind the wall came into view, about three or four square meters in size, with a brick arched roof. The ground was rammed earth, with a half-meter-deep square stone pit in the very center.

—This monument used to stand there.

Su Yuan stood in front of the hut without going in. The woman in theatrical costume emerged from the bronze mirror, not like a human walking out, but floating out. She was just a blurry ball of light that rose from the mirror and landed back into the hut!

She stood in front of the pit and looked at it, saying:

"I've stayed here for over four hundred years..."

Su Yuan stood outside watching; her silhouette was semi-transparent. Su Yuan asked her:

"Can you still sing?"

She turned her head and replied:

"able…"

"Then sing it..."

She turned around and stood facing the empty wall for a few seconds, then began to sing:

"Heaven and earth may pass away, but this sorrow will last forever..."

The sound wasn't loud, but it echoed through the dark passage, layering upwards. It was an old-fashioned opera tune, the same one Su Yuan had heard last night! Su Yuan stood there listening, and Qian Weidong also stood still, forgetting to light his cigarette!

After singing the last line, she circled the secret passage several times before slowly dispersing. She turned around and looked at Su Yuan:

"Thank you!"

Su Yuan quickly shook his head: "This... is the right thing to do..."

She smiled, but her smile was different from A-Wu's; A-Wu's smile was a shallow, curved one. Her smile was that of a female role performer, with her eyebrows and eyes curving upwards and the corners of her mouth turned up, like someone on a theatrical stage.

"Your cooking is really good!"

She gave a compliment that startled Su Yuan. She covered her mouth and smiled before continuing:

"It's all over the place in the mezzanine. Everyone's saying that the new guy, Su Yuan, has good cooking skills, but he talks too much!"

Su Yuan thought of A Wu, unsure of what to say, and then she smiled again:

"I'm leaving..."

She turned and walked into the wall. The blurry light passed through the brick wall like water. Su Yuan stood there, took out the bronze mirror, and clutched it...