Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

He walked over, squatted down, and wiped the mirror with his hand. The bronze color was also bluish-gray, just like the sword. His face was reflected in the mirror, but it was very blurry, as if through a layer of mist!

The small bronze mirror in his pocket got hot, and he suddenly had an idea. He took it out and put the two mirrors together, with each mirror reflecting the other.

After inserting the small bronze mirror into the ground, Su Yuan stood up and looked around, discovering that there were actually engravings on the wall.

It's lines of text!

Some parts were deep, some shallow, but he could see them all clearly. He shone his flashlight closer to examine them more closely:

"In the third year of Yongle's reign, he was granted a title."

"In the seventh year of the Xuande reign, the title was restored..."

"In the thirty-sixth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, he was granted a second title."

"Sealed in the 21st year of the Republic of China."

Reading line by line, I saw that the very bottom line was:

"Zhao Huaishan was dismissed in 1990!"

Su Yuan's hand stopped on that line. He suddenly remembered, wasn't it said that only people with the surname Su could enter? Zhao Huaishan... and Old Wu had also entered the crevice... what's going on!

He continued looking down and saw another line of text. The text was carved very lightly, as if it had just been carved.

"In 2024, Su..."

He felt a jolt of electricity run through his body. This year? The passage about Zhao Huaishan in his father's diary flashed through Su Yuan's mind!

Looking at the unfinished characters, the last stroke was drawn out very long, as if it had been interrupted by something.

Su Yuan stared at the unfinished character, took out the copper plate from his pocket, stuck it on the wall, and gestured towards the character.

The lines on the copper sheet matched the marks on the wall. Holding the copper sheet, he took out the talisman of the Pure Yang Master from his pocket and held it in his palm.

Then he took out the small green stone and the jade from his pocket, and finally picked up the small bronze mirror from the ground, holding all five items in his hands...

Su Yuan's back and forehead were covered in cold sweat. He stood in front of the large bronze mirror, holding a flashlight in his mouth to shine it ahead.

The space ahead grew larger and larger, the beam of light reaching far into the distance, its depth unknown. The earthy smell grew stronger, along with another indescribable odor!

He picked up his toolbox, took a deep breath, and whispered:

"Old Black..."

There was no response from the bronze mirror. Following the beam of light, I took a step forward and found that the soil beneath my feet was soft, and a little bit of blurry light was seeping in from the crack behind me.

Su Yuan closed his eyes and calmed his tense body...

The path inside became increasingly difficult to traverse.

As Su Yuan walked, he felt the soil beneath his feet getting softer and softer. When he stepped down, he would sink a little deeper, and when he lifted his foot, he would kick up a cloud of dust.

The flashlight beam flickered in the darkness, not shining very far, as if it had been swallowed up by something.

He stopped, gripped the toolbox with his arm, took the flashlight from his mouth, and shone it forward.

—The beam of light disappeared after it traveled two or three meters!

There was clearly nothing in front of him; the light seemed to have been cut off. Su Yuan raised the flashlight higher, but it was still the same.

The bronze mirror suddenly felt hot, and his hand trembled. He watched as a dark shadow floated up in the mirror, slowly rotating in the center. It was Old Black. Su Yuan called out softly:

"Old Black?"

The shadowy figure didn't answer, it just stopped, and then veered slightly to the left!

Su Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, wondering if this was some kind of directions. He tried taking a few steps to the left, and the bronze mirror burned him again.

Seeing the shadow veer to the right, he quickly took two steps to the right. This time, the bronze mirror was no longer hot, and then the shadow sank down as well.

Clutching the object and the bronze mirror in his hand, Su Yuan continued cautiously forward. Every few steps, he would glance at the mirror's surface; the dark shadow would occasionally rise, shift slightly, and then sink back down.

He followed its instructions, turning left and then right.

The soil underfoot was sometimes soft and sometimes hard. Sometimes it would crunch when you stepped on it, like stepping on dead leaves, but there was nothing underneath!

About half an hour later, another fork in the road appeared ahead.

One way goes left, the other way right. The left side is so narrow that only one person can pass sideways, while the right side allows two people to walk side by side.

Su Yuan stopped looking at the bronze mirror. The dark shadow in the mirror surface floated up, paused for a moment as if thinking about something, and then veered to the left...

Without hesitation, he trusted Lao Hei and walked to the left, squeezing in sideways. He bumped his toolbox against the earthen wall, causing clods of dirt to fall down.

After walking a dozen or so steps, the path widened again, and a small hole appeared ahead. It looked quite dry, just big enough for one person to squat down.

Su Yuan hurried over and squatted down to rest for a while. The hole was about a meter square. He also found a recess in the corner with a wooden box about the size of a palm inside!

Su Yuan reached in and took out the box, which was covered in dust. He blew on it and coughed twice from the dust that rose up.

Inside the lid was a blue cloth, and underneath it was a piece of yellow paper that was almost torn apart. Su Yuan carefully took out the paper and unfolded it.

Three lines of small regular script were written on the paper with a brush, the handwriting very neat:

"If you, the one who comes after, can see this piece of paper, it means you've chosen the right path, and you'll find this key useful. Zhao Huaishan, 1990."

And how to use this key.

Su Yuan breathed heavily, staring at the words for a few seconds. Zhao Huaishan had come in and seen this road and left something there!

Inside the box was a copper key about the size of a fingernail, with the character "Su" engraved on it.

It's Su again...

Su Yuan muttered to himself as he put the cloth and paper back into the wooden box, closed the lid, and put it back in its original place. He then put the key, the copper piece, the jade, and the small green stone into his pocket.

He crawled out of the hole and returned to the narrow path. He had only taken a few steps when the bronze mirror in his hand became hot again!

Su Yuan watched as the dark figure rose up, this time neither veering to the left nor to the right, but remaining fixed in the middle.

Su Yuan looked on in confusion. The road ahead was straight with no forks, but the dark figure remained motionless in the middle and did not sink back down.

After waiting a few more seconds and still not moving, Su Yuan took a step forward, but the shadowy figure didn't move. He continued to walk slowly forward, and the shadowy figure remained still.

Su Yuan immediately tensed up, knowing that Lao Hei might have noticed something!

After putting the bronze mirror in his pocket and walking for about twenty more minutes, the road ahead suddenly became very wide, and the flashlight beam could shine very far, illuminating something.

Su Yuan wiped his sweaty and dusty eyes with his sleeve and saw that it was a wall.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be an old-fashioned blue brick wall. The wall was very high, with no visible top or end on either side. It just stood there, blocking the wide road!

There is a crack on the right-hand wall that curves from top to bottom, wide enough for a person to crawl through at its widest point.

Su Yuan stood in front of the wall and shone his flashlight into the crack, but it was pitch black and he couldn't see anything.

The bronze mirror in his pocket suddenly felt warm, like the warmth of a hand warmer. He took the mirror out and looked at the dark figure in it—it was gone!

Instead, a blurry human figure stood in the middle of the mirror, looking at him.

It's not Old Black! It's something else!

Su Yuan stared at the figure for a few seconds, his heart pounding. The figure moved slightly, veering to the left, just like when he had given directions before.

Su Yuan's legs trembled with nervousness. He looked at the crack and then at the mirror.

The figure veered slightly to the left, as if to say... go inside?