Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

More and more, thicker and thicker, it quickly covered the ground and continued to spread outwards!

The tombstone inside the coffin was shaking violently, buzzing, as if it wanted to come out but was being held back by something.

Su Yuan quickly squatted down and took out a chisel and hammer from the toolbox. He also held the key that Zhao Huaishan had left behind in his left hand along with the hammer, while his right hand supported the chisel.

He placed the chisel into the crack between the bricks at the bottom of the coffin and then hammered it down forcefully.

when!

The brick cracked, clang, clang, the brick shattered. Holding his breath, he shoveled away the broken bricks, revealing the soil underneath.

Su Yuan pressed the chisel against the ground and continued hammering. The ground was very hard; it took several blows to dig a hole!

He had just placed the key in the pit when the dark shadows on the ground surged over and began pouring into it.

The bronze key was glowing, a dark bluish-gray light, which was drawing the shadow into it, slowly flowing downhill like water. The shadow grew thinner and thinner until it disappeared completely.

The key flashed one last time in the pit, then returned to normal; the whole process took less than two minutes.

After narrowly escaping death, Su Yuan felt utterly powerless and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. His hands trembled uncontrollably, dropping the hammer and overturning the toolbox.

He reached for the bronze mirror, turned it upside down, and looked inside. It was completely empty. There was no dark figure, no other shadows, and Old Hei was nowhere to be seen.

It's empty!

The tombstone inside the coffin fell silent, and the deities also stopped moving.

After recovering, Su Yuan picked up the bronze mirror and put the keys and other items in his pocket. He then put the chisel and hammer back into his toolbox and organized them.

I had just stood up when my legs buckled, and I stood there trembling, holding onto the coffin for a while. The coffin lid couldn't be closed anymore…

Looking around, he thought in disbelief, "That's it?"

Once my legs stopped shaking, I picked up a flashlight, grabbed my things, and started walking back the way I came. I was much faster, and stopped at the fork in the road.

To the right was the path they had taken to get here, to the left was a path they hadn't taken before. Su Yuan wanted to give it a try. The bronze mirror was cool in his pocket. After walking a few steps to the left, he saw light ahead.

It's the sunlight outside!

Su Yuan rubbed his eyes and quickened his pace; the light was getting brighter and closer.

Still feeling tense, Su Yuan adjusted to the sunlight at the crack's exit. Once his eyes adjusted, he saw a person standing outside.

It's Qian Weidong.

He leaned against the car door, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his face full of worry. There were probably a dozen cigarette butts on the ground. As soon as he saw Su Yuan come out, he quickly stubbed out his cigarette and said excitedly:

"You... came out?"

"Um…"

"Great! How is it?"

Su Yuan, dragging his weary body, replied, "It's sealed off..."

His body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground. Qian Weidong quickly stepped forward to help him up, nodding slightly, his eyes reddening. He opened the car door and helped Su Yuan into the car.

"Get in the car, it's been most of the day, let's go back!"

They helped Su Yuan into the passenger seat and placed the toolbox at Su Yuan's feet.

Su Yuan instinctively checked his pockets; nothing was missing. Reassured, he sat down to recover his strength and ease the pressure from the crack.

Qian Weidong started the car with a smile and drove back. Su Yuan leaned back in his seat, staring straight at the weeds outside the window.

More than twenty minutes after the car departed, Su Yuan took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to his mother:

"Mom, it's fixed."

I waited for a while but didn't get a reply.

He put his phone away, closed his eyes, and fell asleep as the car bumped along the mountain road.

Su Yuan was woken up by Qian Weidong when the car was already parked in front of the company.

It was already dark when I opened my eyes; the streetlights were already on. I checked my phone—it was 7:10. I had slept for almost two hours, and my neck was so stiff I couldn't turn it.

"arrive."

Qian Weidong didn't disturb him along the way, and woke him up, saying, "Director Zhang called and said he wants you to come over."

Su Yuan rubbed his neck, picked up his toolbox, and got out of the car. Qian Weidong didn't turn off the engine, rolled down the window, and said with a cigarette in his mouth:

"I'm leaving now, see you tomorrow!"

After the car drove away, Su Yuan stood at the entrance of his workplace, relieved that he had returned safely. He shook his head and looked at the two-story building.

The lights were on inside. Wu Zhenshan was sitting on a bench in the lobby on the first floor, drinking water and reading a newspaper. When he saw Su Yuan at the door, he quickly stood up and went out.

"I'm back!"

"Um…"

Wu Zhenshan smiled and carefully examined him from head to toe, as if checking if he was missing any parts. After looking him over, he nodded.

"Haha, go on up, Old Zhang is waiting for you."

Su Yuan grunted and went upstairs. The director's office door was still open. Zhang Weiyi was sitting behind the desk, holding a pen but not writing anything, seemingly lost in thought.

Seeing Su Yuan enter, he smiled and put down his pen.

"Please sit down, Xiao Su."

Su Yuan sat down in the chair. The toolbox was placed beside his feet, unopened.

"Is it sealed off?" Zhang Weiyi asked.

"It's sealed off."

Zhang Weiyi smiled and nodded without saying anything. He took out a cigarette from the drawer and lit it. Su Yuan said:

"I have something to ask you..."

Zhang Weiyi looked at him and nodded.

"That stele... the central stele of Yongle Palace, I saw it in the crack, the stele is still inside."

Zhang Weiyi flicked the cigarette ash into the jar: "That stele can't be taken out; it's become fused with the crack."

"What about Yongle Palace...?"

Zhang Weiyi thought for a moment and said:

"When the original stele was not there but the gap was there, the energy flow was interrupted. When the gap was sealed and the murals were repaired, the original body of the hall was still there. The original body has been taken back by the people above, and Yongle Palace will be fine from now on."

After sorting things out in his mind, Su Yuan asked again:

"And that large bronze mirror, whose is that standing thing on the ground inside the crack?"

Zhang Weiyi stubbed out his cigarette:

"That was placed by Zhao Huaishan to block the road. That mirror belongs to the Zhao family; it's specifically used to seal cracks in the interlayer."

Su Yuan touched the small bronze mirror in his pocket and asked softly:

"Then why was Zhao Huaishan able to seal the gap? Wasn't it said that only people with the surname Su could get in?"

Zhang Weiyi didn't answer immediately; his expression was somewhat complicated.

"Uncle Wu said that only people of the Su family bloodline can enter that passage, but Zhao Huaishan went in, and Uncle Wu also went in."

After listening to Su Yuan finish speaking, Zhang Weiyi took a puff of his cigarette and said:

"Wu Zhenshan went into the crevice, and so did Zhao Huaishan. But the place they went to is different from the final place you went into!"

"When Zhao Huaishan came back, he said he could only go halfway. He left something there. Did you see it?"

Su Yuan hummed in agreement, and Zhang Weiyi continued:

"There's more than one crack, and anyone can get in from the outside." Su Yuan sat there, his mind racing for a long time.

"And what about Uncle Wu's injury that time..."

Zhang Weiyi frowned and said, "Wu Zhenshan's incident... resulted in heavy losses! Let's not talk about it."

"What exactly was the title bestowed by Zhao Huaishan?"

Zhang Weiyi: "The road isn't meant to stop them from going back, but to prevent even more from crawling out!"

Su Yuan's mind went blank for a moment. No wonder Lao Hei had said that Xi had also said he wanted to go home. The one who went to A Wu to get the bronze mirror was Xi.

"How did you seal it? Did you use jade or something? Did you smash the monument?"

"I didn't smash it," Su Yuan said. "I sealed it with a key."

Zhang Weiyi frowned: "The key?"