Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

"Speak."

"Old Zhou... why did my mentor, Zhou Peiyuan, leave us back then?"

Old Wu paused for a moment while flipping through the newspaper, and his small eyes, unusually, no longer held that piercing gaze.

"You really want to know?"

"Um…"

Old Wu took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered one to Su Yuan, but Su Yuan quickly waved his hand and lit one for himself.

"He didn't walk away on his own."

"What do you mean?"

Su blurted out, and Old Wu exhaled a puff of smoke and continued:

"He was transferred. Something happened that year that was related to him. People from higher up came and investigated for half a month. The final conclusion was that it was a work error, so they transferred him to teach at a university."

"What is it?"

Old Wu looked at him without speaking, and Su Yuan waited a few more seconds before asking again:

"What does this have to do with me?"

Old Wu didn't reply; he just stood up and put out his cigarette.

"Go to work, Director Zhang is waiting for you."

After saying that, he left without even taking the newspaper. Su Yuan stood there, repeatedly asking himself:

"Does this have anything to do with me?"

With these questions in mind, Su Yuan walked to the door of the director's office. The door was open, and Director Zhang was looking at documents. Su Yuan knocked on the door frame.

"Come in."

Su Yuan walked in and sat down in a chair. Director Zhang glanced at him, put down his documents, and asked:

"Did you go to repair that terracotta warrior yesterday?"

"Um."

"How's the repair going?"

"It's fixed now, and she even said thank you..."

Su Yuan's voice was very low. After listening, Director Zhang took off his reading glasses and looked at Su Yuan. His eyes were different from Lao Wu's; they seemed to hold many things.

Did you hear that?

"Um."

Director Zhang smiled at him briefly, just for a fleeting moment, but Su Yuan saw it.

"Alright! From today onwards, the daily maintenance of the female figurines will be your responsibility."

Su Yuan exclaimed:

"Routine maintenance?"

"Yes, since she's willing to talk to you, you should talk to her more, ask her what she needs, what she's thinking, and what her obsessions are!"

"In our line of work, restoring cultural relics is a craft, but cultivating one's passion is the real skill."

Su Yuan wanted to say no, but he didn't, because he had indeed spoken to her, and she had responded!

Director Zhang glanced at him, as if she could tell what he was thinking:

"Is there a problem?"

No, no.

"That's good. By the way, Xiao Chen took the day off today. You can go to the warehouse yourself. Get the keys from Lao Wu."

Su Yuan stood up and walked to the door, stopping there:

"director…"

"Um?"

"Back in the day, Old Zhou..."

"Get out! Close the door behind you."

Su Yuan shut his mouth and went out. He opened the warehouse door, took a deep breath at the door, and then pushed the door open to go in!

The female figurine was still on the third shelf of that row. Su Yuan walked over and stood in front of her for a few seconds, not knowing what to say. He didn't like chatting with people in the first place, and now he was being asked to deliberately chat with an artifact.

He hesitated for a few seconds, then squatted down in front of her, looking her in the eye.

"Um... good morning."

no response.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

Still no response.

Su Yuan scratched his head awkwardly. Thinking about what Director Zhang had said, he tentatively asked:

Are you hungry?

He felt a little stupid for asking that question, and blushing, he looked up and saw that the eyes of the female figurine had moved!

She turned to look at him.

Su Yuan's heart pounded, and his ears rang as he saw her move her lips, forming the shape of two words:

I'm not hungry.

Su Yuan's mind was buzzing. He really wanted to leave immediately, but he held back and, as if possessed, continued to ask:

Did you cry last night?

"I didn't cry, seeing you stopped me..."

Su Yuan felt a tingling sensation all over his body, and mustered his courage to continue stammering as he asked:

"Do you... still want to go back to Chang'an? Is it... even possible to go back?"

The voice of the female figurine reached his ears:

"I'll be going back soon..."

Su Yuan was trembling all over, unable to say anything, when her voice came again:

"You seem to have something on your mind."

This wasn't a question; it was a statement of his true feelings. Su Yuan moved his lips but didn't speak. The female figurine's gaze towards him was warm:

"You smell of fear."

Su Yuan hummed in agreement, still unable to speak. The female figurine continued:

"You're not afraid of me, you're afraid of something else."

Su Yuan's fear lessened somewhat, and he didn't even know how he managed to say it:

"I'm afraid of people...and I'm also afraid of..."

Before he could even finish saying "you," he couldn't believe it himself, as he had never told anyone these things before!

When his mother asked him how school was going, he would only say it was alright. When his classmates invited him to dinner, he would make excuses not to go. When his teacher talked to him, he would always lower his head and mumble "uh-huh"...

Su Yuan never says I'm afraid.

But today he actually said it to a terracotta figurine. Awu looked at him without saying anything more, and Su Yuan looked down at his toes, at a loss.

The warehouse suddenly became quiet, with only the hum of the fluorescent lights...

After a long time, Su Yuan thought she wouldn't speak again, but unexpectedly, her voice came again:

"I used to be afraid too."

Su Yuan grew a bit bolder, and his gaze towards the female figurine changed, becoming distant, as if he were looking at something from 1,300 years ago:

"Back then, I was afraid of people, afraid of speaking... afraid of being scolded for doing something wrong, afraid of being beaten..."

She spoke slowly and deliberately:

"I wasn't afraid anymore after that..."

Why?

The warehouse lights suddenly went out again and then came back on. This time, Su Yuan only shuddered slightly, but wasn't too afraid. He listened quietly as A Wu continued speaking:

"Because there's no one left to be afraid of."

Su Yuan trembled slightly as he recalled what Old Zhou had said:

"The person surnamed Su is the only one she ever wanted to see in her life!"

Looking at her face, he suddenly felt that all the chaotic thoughts he had had last night didn't matter anymore. He tried calling her name:

"Awu..."

The terracotta figurine's eyeballs twitched!

"Can I call you A-Wu?"

She didn't speak, but the corners of her mouth seemed to curve slightly more, which gave Su Yuan a bit more courage, and he looked directly at her:

"Awu, you told me the other day that I smell like home. Can you tell me what that smell is?"

The female figurine stared at him, frozen in place. After half a minute, she opened her mouth:

"It smells like... someone is waiting."

Su Yuan relaxed a bit and listened to her continue:

"I smelled it when I was very young, in that small village outside Luoyang..."

"Every time my dad went out to work, my mom would wait at the door until the sun went down..."

"I only remember that when I was six or seven years old, my biological parents sent me to a new home... and then I lost contact with them!"

"That's what my mother smelled like back then."

Su Yuan felt a pang of sadness as he listened. A-Wu looked at him and continued:

"You smell like that, it means someone is waiting for you... and..."

His mother's face flashed through Su Yuan's mind; those who always asked during phone calls:

"Have you eaten? Do you have enough money? When are you going home?"

He always just says:

"It's alright, enough, we'll see!"

It turned out someone was waiting. He was about to say something more when the warehouse door opened. Su Yuan was so startled that he stood up abruptly and turned around.

A woman was standing at the door, her shadow stretched long by the outside light!