Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

Su Yuan thought that he might need to repair the coffin and the collapsed area, so he brought some water and wood.

Driving off in that Santana, Chen Xiaohe rolled his eyes at Su Yuan from inside the car, offered him a cigarette, and said:

"If you get scared when you see that thing later, light a cigarette to boost your courage!"

Su Yuan didn't refuse; he was also wondering what he would think when he saw the stark white bones...

After leaving the main road, we drove west along a dirt road for about a kilometer. The surroundings became increasingly desolate under the headlights of the car.

Su Yuan's back was soaked with cold sweat!

He remembered the ghost stories his mother used to tell him when he was a child, and they really were...

"arrive!"

The sound of phosphorescence startled Su Yuan again, and he shone his flashlight over to take a look.

The grave was a brick mound, but because it was close to the mountain, a falling stone smashed a hole in the mound. The coffin had long since turned into rotten wood, and two stones were pressing down on its leg bones!

It was clear that no one had come to pay their respects to the deceased for many years; the collapsed area revealed stark white bones.

Chen Xiaohe kept the car lights on and didn't approach the burial mound. Standing in front of the lights, he said, "You go take a look. I won't go over now. I'll help you mix the mud later."

Su Yuan had no choice but to take a flashlight and go over himself. Trembling, he moved aside the large rocks and bricks at the collapsed area and saw that one of the leg bones was obviously bent!

The crack from the impact extended from the middle all the way to the bone; it looked painful.

Su Yuan couldn't bear to look at its skull, and since it hadn't been hit, he felt a little better, though his hands were still trembling.

Chen Xiaohe just stood there watching Su Yuan pack up, while he himself was smoking heavily!

After Su Yuan put on gloves and removed all the coffin fragments, broken stones, and bricks from inside, he turned his face, took a deep breath, and reached out to touch the leg bone.

The icy chill was palpable even through his gloves. He carefully removed the leg bone and examined it closely under the flashlight.

It cracked badly, but thankfully it didn't break or shatter!

Chen Xiaohe took out three cigarettes from his pocket, lit them, stuck them in the ground, and muttered something under his breath:

"Just passing by, please forgive me if I disturbed anyone..."

Su Yuan couldn't help but ask him, "When did you start believing in this?"

"From the moment you take this job!"

Su Yuan shook his head and focused on his work.

Place the leg bone on a piece of plastic film that you brought, and gently sand the edge of the crack with a bone file under the car headlights. Smooth down the raised bone fragments, and then inject diluted adhesive into the crack, gradually straightening the bone.

Finding the copper wire too stiff, he switched to using silk thread to secure it, and then wrapped it with raw lacquer and hemp cloth!

This is a method he borrowed from lacquerware restoration, used for reinforcement.

The phosphorescent flame hovered over his shoulder, silently watching Su Yuanxiu.

Su Yuan's forehead was covered in sweat, but his hands remained steady. He knew that each crack had to be treated carefully, otherwise it would crack again in the future.

"alright."

More than half an hour later, Su Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and put the leg bone back in its original position.

Then they took out the prepared wood, an old wooden board that was two centimeters thick and half a meter square. When they compared it with the coffin, it was just right to cover the gap!

Su Yuan didn't use nails or a hammer when securing the coffin; instead, he used long screws to tighten them, afraid of shattering the coffin lid again.

Finally, Chen Xiaohe and he mixed some mud to fill in the gap in the burial mound. Although it wasn't the original, at least it wouldn't be exposed to the sun anymore.

An hour later, it was finally done. The phosphorescent flame brightened a bit, circled Su Yuan twice, and its voice was no longer as eerie as before, but had become somewhat human.

"Master Su, it doesn't hurt anymore...it really doesn't hurt anymore! Thank you so much, and you even fixed my sleeping place..."

Chen Xiaohe shuddered beside him:

"Alright, alright, thank me and hurry back. If you stay any longer, I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life!"

Phosphorus smiled and said, "Goodbye!"

He floated into the burial mound. Su Yuan wiped the sweat from his face, thinking, "Never to see each other again..."

On the way back after packing up, Chen Xiaohe suddenly said, "Hey, Xiao Su."

"Hmm?" Su Yuan looked at him with disdain, and Chen Xiaohe asked:

Were you scared just now?

"Afraid…"

Chen Xiaohe smiled and didn't say anything more. It was already 11 p.m. when they got back to the office. Su Yuan was so tired that he went back to his dormitory and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The next day, the bronze jue and bronze Buddha were restored and documented. After discussing with Zhang Weiyi, it was decided that it would be more appropriate to archive the smaller jue.

Another day passed, and Su Yuan was about to open the warehouse door when he heard Xiao Jue speaking:

"Brother Buddha, you said that the new guy went to the warehouse again today?"

"I went there, I went to check out Zone 3 downstairs several times."

"What's in District Three?"

"Nothing special, but what he wanted to see wasn't the object itself, but the floor under a shelf."

Upon hearing this, Su Yuan hurried inside and asked, "What's there?"

He remembered that wooden box, which was placed on the shelf in the third section. What was Sun Guoliang looking for in that area?

After a moment's thought, the Buddha statue said to Su Yuan, "There's a secret underneath the shelf where you put your jade ring box. I'll tell you..."

Su Yuan quickly grabbed the key and went to the old warehouse at the back, entering the third section.

I took a closer look this time and found that some shelves had a few pieces of porcelain, all from the Qing Dynasty, which were not particularly valuable.

I squatted down in front of the wooden box shelf, carefully looking for different places, touching them with my hands, trying to find the place where the bronze Buddha statue was supposed to be grounded!

"Stop touching it, the stuff has already been moved. Even if Sun Guoliang comes in, he won't find anything."

The sound of bells came from the bronze mirror.

Su Yuan hurriedly took the bronze mirror out of his pocket. The center of the mirror was lit up. Zhong Ming stood at the front, with three or four shadows squeezed behind him.

A long, thin shadow peeked out and said in a shrill voice:

"That guy surnamed Sun stood outside that second-floor storeroom for quite a while last night when you weren't there!"

"I thought he was going to go in, but he didn't. He stood there for ten minutes and then left."

Su Yuan didn't know, and hadn't heard Chen Xiaohe and Xiao Jue mention it, but no one can stay in the same place forever.

Then another short, stout shadow chimed in:

"He wouldn't dare go in; Miss A-Wu is in the storeroom. Although A-Wu isn't fully awake yet, her spiritual pressure is there, and the person who keeps things there will be hesitant!"

Su Yuan was taken aback: "A-Wu's spiritual pressure?"

Zhong Ming turned around and glared at the two shadows, and they immediately fell silent.

Turning back to Su Yuan, he said, "Didn't you already know that Tang Dynasty terracotta warrior was unusual?"

Su Yuan got up and locked the old warehouse door. Still puzzled, he returned to the second-floor warehouse, looked at the mirror, and then whispered to A-Wu:

"Can she stop Sun Guoliang?"

"It's not that she's blocking it, it's an aura emanating from her. This warehouse is located at a node connecting to the mezzanine, which was moved from the warehouse below. The spiritual energy flowing through here is stabilized."

Zhong Ming's shadow paced back and forth a couple of steps before continuing:

"Miss Awu has stayed at this point for so many years, her spirit has become one with the energy of this place."

"People who keep unclean things around will find it unbearable to stay too long because their energy fields clash."

Su Yuan listened in silence, then gently touched the cuff of the terracotta figurine, causing the jade ring to warm up slightly.

Su Yuan asked in a daze:

"When...will she wake up?"