Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

"I'll come over tomorrow with all the materials ready," Su Yuan said.

"Thank you so much, Master Su!" The stone tablet's voice carried a sense of reassurance.

Su Yuan got into the car, and Qian Weidong started the car and drove back. On the way, Qian Weidong asked him:

"This monument isn't within our unit's scope of cultural relic management, is it? And it wasn't an application from elsewhere either. Are you really going to repair it?"

"No, but it's been standing there for so many years," Su Yuan said.

"It's already come knocking on our door. If we don't fix it, it'll collapse and be useless, which would be a real shame."

Qian Weidong nodded and glanced at him, then said nothing more.

It was almost three o'clock when Su Yuan got back to the office and was about to go to his office.

Chen Xiaohe called out to him at the door of his office: "Su Yuan, come here and take a look at this."

Su Yuan walked over and saw that he was holding an envelope. He asked:

"What's wrong?"

"This was sent from the province, it's for you." Chen Xiaohe handed over the envelope: "I'll accept it for you first."

Su Yuan thought to himself, "From the provincial level? Could it be that there's something wrong with those drawings?"

Upon receiving the envelope, I saw the words "Received by Su Yuan" written on it, and the signature was from the Provincial Cultural Relics Exchange Center, in the same handwriting as Wang Jing.

He opened the envelope; inside was a postcard.

The front is a print of a Song Dynasty painting, one of the four paintings he repaired last time, featuring figures and ladies!

Several lines of text were also written on the back:

Master Su:

The four paintings from last time have all passed inspection. The expert group's evaluation was: the restoration was appropriate, the craftsmanship was standardized, and it met the principles of cultural relic protection.

I'm sending you this postcard as a keepsake!

Wang Jing

Su Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, turned the postcard over and looked at it. The two patches on the lady's face were no longer visible, and the printed image showed a complete face.

He put the postcard back in the envelope and put it away safely.

"What is it?" Chen Xiaohe asked, puffing on his cigarette.

"Just a postcard saying that the paintings that were repaired last time have passed inspection."

"Isn't that to be expected? How could your repairs not pass inspection?"

Chen Xiaohe looked disgusted, but Su Yuan just smiled and didn't reply, returning to his office.

He took out the bronze mirror and placed it on the table. Zhong Ming, Miao Deyu, and the others were talking about something when they saw Su Yuan arrive. Miao Deyu turned his face away and said in a muffled voice:

"Young man of the Su family, do you know that stone tablet? Your great-grandfather repaired it back then, didn't he?"

Su Yuan was taken aback. No wonder there were signs of repair. He quickly asked, "Did Great-Grandpa repair it too?"

Zhong Ming picked up the conversation and said:

"That's right. The base of the monument cracked once in the 1930s. Your great-grandfather patched it with lime, tung oil and hemp fiber. It's bound to crack after all this time."

Su Yuan thought of the things his great-grandfather had repaired, and how he had asked him to repair them again many years later.

If one generation can't finish repairing it, the next generation will continue to repair it. Many things are repaired, but decades later, they may still need to be repaired!

Su Yuan couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "This is the fate of a craftsman."

They outlive humans; one generation passes away, and they're still there. If they break down, the next generation comes to fix them…

Great-great-grandfather wasn't here today, and Zhong Ming and Miao Deyu went back and stopped talking. Only the bright spot in the middle remained.

He put the bronze mirror away, got up and left the office, went downstairs to the storeroom, and prepared to find the materials needed to repair the stone tablet tomorrow.

Lime, tung oil, and hemp fiber—these three things are all in the old warehouse; he has to go find them.

As they approached the bungalow, Chen Xiaohe saw Su Yuan and asked him:

"Su, what are you looking for?"

"We need lime and hemp fiber. Do you have any in the old warehouse?"

"Yes, come on, I'll go with you."

Su Yuan opened the door to the old warehouse. The musty smell was much fainter than last time because the door had been opened more often, allowing for better air circulation.

Chen Xiaohe rummaged through the shelf near the door and found two snakeskin bags, one of which contained lime powder.

One bag contains hemp rope scraps, which are chopped hemp rope ends. Mixing this with lime can increase tensile strength!

The tung oil was in an enamel basin on the shelf, the rim of which was covered with a layer of dust. When the lid was lifted, the tung oil was still wet.

You can smell a pungent oily odor if you get close.

Su Yuan found a plastic bag, filled it halfway with lime, grabbed two hemp knives, and poured in a small half bottle of tung oil.

Chen Xiaohe asked him if he wanted to go together tomorrow, and Su Yuan said that Qian Weidong should go together tomorrow. Chen Xiaohe grinned at him and didn't say anything more!

After they left the warehouse, Chen Xiaohe locked the door behind them and, together with Su Yuan, carried the things back upstairs to the second floor.

The two placed the materials on the worktable, Chen Xiaohe waved and left, and Su Yuan washed his hands and walked up to A Wu with the bronze mirror in his hand.

"I'm going to repair a stone tablet tomorrow," Su Yuan said softly.

"It's not far from here; my great-grandfather also repaired that place back then."

The light in the bronze mirror flickered. Su Yuan reached out and touched the cuff of the terracotta figurine, asking:

Do you recognize that monument?

The light spot in the mirror flickered again.

Su Yuan waited for a while without hearing any sound, then turned around, left the warehouse, and closed the door.

At dinner, Su Yuan sat down opposite Qian Weidong with a bowl of rice topped with spicy chicken. Qian Weidong was having scrambled eggs with tomatoes, which he ate mixed with rice.

"Old Qian, how about we leave at eight o'clock tomorrow morning?"

"Okay."

As Su Yuan ate, he remembered something:

"Old Qian, do you still have that piece of paper you found in the car?"

Qian Weidong took out his wallet from his pocket, pulled out the yellowed old paper from a hidden compartment, and handed it to him, saying:

"I always carry it with me, so I know when you'll look at it."

Su Yuan took it and examined it carefully. Finding nothing particularly special, he said to him:

"This pattern is also on my great-grandfather's workbench, the one engraved on the cross brace, remember?"

Qian Weidong puffed out his cheeks:

"Did you mention it when you moved it? I don't remember exactly, but it was all left by your great-grandfather, so it must be useful."

Su Yuan returned the paper to Qian Weidong, deciding to leave it with him for now.

After finishing his meal and returning to his office, Su Yuan took out the bronze mirror and placed it on the table. He then took out his phone and sent a greeting message to his mother:

"Mom, are you and Dad alright? We've been so busy these past few days that we haven't been able to message each other."

He replied two seconds later:

"Yuan'er, your dad and I are fine. Just focus on your work and remember to eat on time."

"Um."

After replying to the message, I looked in the bronze mirror and saw several shadows in it. My great-great-grandfather was also there today, just squatting to the side without saying a word!

Su Yuan knew it didn't like to talk, so he didn't dare disturb it and instead went to Zhong Ming:

"Mr. Zhong..."

Zhong Ming floated over and looked at him. Su Yuan, who was lying in front of the bronze mirror, asked:

"What formula did my great-grandfather use to repair that stone tablet? Can I use it too?"

"Okay, the recipe your great-grandfather used was one part lime to three parts tung oil. Add the hemp fiber as needed, not too much and not too little."

"Too much makes it weak, too little makes it prone to cracking."

Su Yuan listened and nodded, then wrote the prescription down in his phone's notes app.

"There's one more thing." Zhong Ming floated forward a little more:

"The spirit of that stone tablet came today. You may not have noticed, but it stood by the storeroom window for quite a while and only left when you were packing up the materials."

Su Yuan walked to the window. It was already dark outside, with only a gust of wind blowing. He turned around and asked:

"It's gone?"