Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

Upon entering, Su Yuan saw a pot still sitting on the stove, the millet porridge still warm when the lid was lifted. He silently ladled out a bowl, took a steamed bun, and sat down by the window to eat.

Halfway through the meal, the door opened, and Chen Xiaohe walked in. He paused for a moment when he saw Su Yuan.

"Why are you still here?"

"Have a meal…"

Chen Xiaohe glanced at the porridge in the pot, then at Su Yuan: "Hey, it's almost noon. Did you eat breakfast or lunch?"

Su Yuan kept his head down and ate his meal without replying. Chen Xiaohe didn't ask any more questions either. He also served himself a bowl of porridge and sat down opposite him.

The two men ate their porridge face-to-face, neither speaking. Chen Xiaohe finished it in a few gulps, then took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Um, I heard about what happened tomorrow..."

Su Yuan looked up at him, and Chen Xiaohe's eyes flashed:

"Old Wu told me that you need to go in."

Su Yuan didn't speak and continued drinking his porridge, while Chen Xiaohe coughed lightly:

"Hmm, I've never been inside that place, but I know what that thing looks like."

"I went on a mission with Lao Wu once before and saw something similar, not the one inside the Yongle Palace wall... it was an old house, the back wall was cracked, and something was crawling out!"

"Old Wu wouldn't let me see; he pushed me out and went in himself."

"When we came out, he said the scar on my arm was from this kind of thing, and he didn't want me to go because he was afraid I'd get hurt too..."

Su Yuan thought about Wu Zhenshan's centipede scar and remained silent. Chen Xiaohe then said:

"He said something to me that day: 'Those who do this kind of work will eventually have to pay the price...'"

He stubbed out his cigarette, stood up, and with a look of reluctance and sympathy, took away the bowl: "You... be careful!"

After Chen Xiaoshuo left, Su Yuan sat there and finished the remaining porridge and steamed buns, then washed his and Chen Xiaohe's bowls before leaving.

I saw someone standing at the dormitory entrance. It was Zhao Cheng, still wearing his navy blue work uniform, holding an envelope. Seeing him return, I said:

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

"What is it?"

Zhao Cheng handed the envelope to Su Yuan: "This is from Director Zhang. He said it was sent by your father and he received it for you yesterday."

Su Yuan took the envelope and replied:

Thanks.

Zhao Cheng didn't leave, but looked at Su Yuan and said:

"I know what that smell on you is."

"What?"

"The one I told you about last time, I smelled it on your dad too," Zhao Cheng said. "It smells like rust, but not ordinary rust. It's the kind of smell that comes from being buried for a long time and mixed with the soil, an inseparable sense of antiquity."

Su Yuan stared at Zhao Cheng, his heart trembling slightly.

"You and your father both have them, and the sword you repaired also has them!"

Su Yuan stood downstairs, watching Zhao Cheng's retreating figure disappear into the alley after he finished speaking. He opened the envelope; inside was a piece of paper, in his father's handwriting:

"Yuan'er, if you go in tomorrow, take this with you. It was left to you by your great-grandfather. Your Uncle Wu knows where it is... Dad."

Su Yuan flipped the paper over and saw a diagram drawn on the back, showing the terrain of the unit, the main gate, the main building, the warehouse, and the row of bungalows behind it!

The westernmost room of the bungalows was circled, with the words "Here" written next to it.

Su Yuan put away the letter, went into his dormitory, tidied up his toolbox, and after a moment of hesitation, sat on his bed and took out a bronze mirror.

The shadows in the mirror were still there, quietly huddled together. The old man at the front, bent over, asked...

"Master Su..."

"Um."

"Um, what will we do if you go in?"

Su Yuan hummed in response: "What?"

"It's just... if we have any problems in the future, who will we ask to fix it?" The old man's voice trembled slightly: "Your skills are excellent; I'm afraid someone else won't be able to fix it!"

Su Yuan looked at the reflections in the mirror; some were moving, some were still, but they were all looking at him. His heart trembled slightly as he picked up the mirror.

"Come find me again when I get out."

The bronze mirror was silent. Su Yuan picked up his toolbox and went downstairs, heading straight to the back of the office.

Behind the warehouse were five gray brick bungalows in a row. Su Yuan walked to the westernmost one. There was an old, rusty lock on the door. He took the key out of his pocket!

—His father sent an envelope containing a small brass key, which he quickly unlocked and entered the house.

It was dark inside and had a musty smell.

Su Yuan reached for the light switch on the wall, pressed it, but the light didn't turn on. He took a flashlight from his toolbox and shone it on.

The room, which was about ten square meters, was piled with all sorts of things: wooden boxes, cardboard boxes, canvas, hemp rope, and so on, all covered in a layer of dust!

In the innermost corner against the wall, there was a rusty green metal cabinet.

Su Yuan walked over and opened the cabinet door, where he saw an old blue work uniform hanging inside, with a small, carved wooden box underneath.

Inside is a copper sheet about two millimeters thick, slightly larger than a matchbox, with an irregular shape.

It looks like it was knocked off something!

There was a seal script character engraved on it, and Su Yuan shone a flashlight on it and examined it carefully for a long time.

"Su!"

It was another character, Su, just like the one carved on the jade. Turning the copper plate over, I saw several scratches on the back, as if someone had carved it with something, the winding lines connected together.

Like a map.

Su Yuan stared at the lines for a long time but couldn't figure out what they were. He first put the copper piece in his pocket and placed it with the bronze mirror and jade.

He put the wooden box back in the cabinet, closed the door, and casually glanced back. When the beam of his flashlight swept across the corner of the wall, he saw something.

There was a pile of old-fashioned blue bricks at the base of the wall. His professional instincts kicked in, and he went over to take a look. There were words engraved on the bricks.

Su Yuan squatted down and saw that the top brick was engraved with the inscription "Built in the third year of Yongle". It was the same brick as the ones dug out from under the stage in Xinzhou!

He examined each piece one by one with a flashlight. The second piece was from the seventh year of the Xuande reign, the third from the thirty-sixth year of the Kangxi reign. The fourth piece… had no date.

Instead, it was engraved with a person's name—Zhang Shouyi.

Su Yuan felt a chill run down his spine, secretly alarmed:

"Isn't Zhang Shouyi an ancestor of Old Zhang? How did these bricks get here? Who brought them here!"

He stood up and shone the flashlight upwards again, discovering a square hole in the wall that had been sealed with bricks.

Su Yuan stared at the hole for a few seconds, lost in thought, when suddenly the bronze mirror burned inside his pocket!

His instinctive reaction wasn't to reach for it, but to turn around and leave...

I returned to my dorm in a daze, and as soon as I put down my toolbox, I took those three things out of my pocket.

The bronze mirror, jade, and bronze pieces were all laid out on the table. As soon as the bronze mirror faced upwards, the reflections began to appear:

"Master Su is back!"

"I'm back..."

"What did he take? A copper plate..."

Su Yuan ignored them, turned the copper sheet over, and the curved wires were clearly visible under the flashlight!

These lines aren't drawn randomly; they follow a pattern, varying in thickness, with breaks in some places, resembling rivers, roads, and even... cracks.

"A crack in the interlayer!?"

Su Yuan suddenly thought of the crack, spread his hands, and stared at the lines for a long time.

Looking at the three items on the table, all of which were related to his family, he couldn't help but think of A-Wu!