Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

They fell silent after they finished speaking. As Su was tidying up her tools, Xiao Jue's voice came from behind her.

"Master Su, how old were those little guys you just repaired?"

"This is from the Han Dynasty, about two thousand years ago."

Su Yuan said, and Xiao Jue clicked his tongue twice:

"Two thousand years... They slept on the shelf for so long without waking up, why did they suddenly wake up today?"

Su Yuan wasn't sure either: "Maybe it sensed something."

"Why didn't I sense it?"

After Xiao Jue finished speaking, Su Yuan didn't respond; he knew it wasn't because of that.

The vibration when I woke up in the dormitory did not come from the terracotta figurine. The terracotta figurine was just woken up and fell down. The source of the vibration was elsewhere!

Su Yuan walked around the warehouse, stopping in front of each shelf and touching the legs of the shelves with his hand.

He touched the wall, then squatted down and touched the ground.

After searching around, I found nothing.

But Su Yuan knew it wasn't an illusion, except that Chen Xiaohe's reflection in the bronze mirror was brighter than usual.

He returned to the brocade box containing the bronze mirror and turned the mirror towards himself.

"Mr. Zhong, where did that tremor come from?"

Zhong Ming's shadow appeared, and after a moment of silence, he said, "East."

Su Yuan's heart skipped a beat. East? Was it the side where he had sealed off the gap before?

"Is there some unusual movement in the crack?" Su Yuan asked hurriedly.

"It doesn't seem like any unusual movement." Zhong Ming's voice was also uncertain. "It's more like something is moving around in the interlayer, and its steps are so heavy that they shook the warehouse."

"Is something about to happen inside? Surely not!"

Su Yuan was startled by what he heard. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost 8:30, so he didn't ask any more questions. He put the bronze mirror in his pocket and left the storeroom.

He saw Chen Xiaohe waiting in the corridor. When he saw Chen Xiaohe come out of the warehouse, his eyes lit up and he strode over.

"Su, is it fixed? I just saw Sun Guoliang."

Su Yuan hurriedly asked, "Hmm, he arrived so early?"

"I arrived, stood in the corridor for a while, and then went to Director Zhang's office."

Chen Xiaohe said, "I heard him asking Director Zhang about your situation, like whether you had seen anyone or something."

"What did Director Zhang say?"

Director Zhang said: "You don't need to worry about Xiao Su's matter. I will let you know if anything happens."

Chen Xiaohe imitated Zhang Weiyi's tone of voice very well, and Su Yuan mentally gave Zhang Weiyi a thumbs up.

"Is there anything else, Brother Chen?"

"Also, Sun Guoliang asked why the people from the Ninth Division were looking for Su Yuan. Director Zhang simply replied, 'I don't know!' and then Sun Guoliang left."

After Chen Xiaohe finished his vivid account, Su Yuan's heart skipped a beat. Sun Guoliang was inquiring about Gu Yuanhang!

He saw Sun Guoliang at the corner of the corridor of the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, so it is very likely that Sun Guoliang also saw him.

Sun Guoliang is now trying to confirm whether Gu Yuanhang's appearance at the Provincial Cultural Relics Restoration Center was because of Su Yuan, and whether the two had met.

Su Yuan didn't tell Chen Xiaohe any of this, not wanting to cause him any trouble. He simply said, "I understand, Brother Chen. Shall we go eat?"

"I've already eaten, you can go by yourself."

Chen Xiaohe pursed his lips and waved his hand, while Su Yuan went to the cafeteria to eat breakfast by himself.

Chef Li Xiulan thoughtfully served him a large bowl of millet porridge, along with a dish of pickled vegetables and two steamed buns.

"Xiao Su, eat more. You can't skip breakfast."

"Thank you, Aunt Li."

Su Yuan sat in the cafeteria, eating slowly, and went through the events of the morning in his mind.

These things seem unrelated, but Su Yuan felt as if there was a thread connecting them.

He just hadn't figured out what that line was yet!

After finishing breakfast, Su Yuan returned to his office.

There's a restoration task today. Zhao Cheng has already placed the task sheet on his desk. It's a Ming Dynasty bronze incense burner. The task requires cleaning the hardened rust on the surface and repairing a missing section of the burner's leg.

He took the task sheet to the warehouse and saw the bronze incense burner on the worktable.

The incense burner is small, easily lifted with the palm of your hand. It is dark brown all over, with a thick layer of hardened rust covering its surface.

The body of the censer is in the standard style of the Xuande censer of the Ming Dynasty, with a round and bulging belly, two ears pointing upwards, and three short legs.

One of its legs was missing a small piece, as if it had been knocked off by something!

After reviewing it, Su Yuan felt that the workload wasn't too heavy and could be completed in a day or two.

He first took photos of the incense burner to record its original state, and then began cleaning it.

He first used a bamboo skewer to remove the loose rust on the surface, and then gently scraped away the hardened lumps with a scalpel.

This step must not be rushed, otherwise it will damage the original outer shell of the furnace. So Su Yuan did it very slowly, cutting it one piece at a time, like unraveling a ball of thread!

When Su Yuan was halfway through cleaning, he felt the furnace body tremble.

Su Yuan quickly stopped wielding his knife and stared at the bronze incense burner. A muffled voice came from within:

"Be gentle, Master Su...it tickles..."

Su Yuan was taken aback. The sound was lazy, like someone who had just been woken up from a nap.

"Itchy? What's itchy?" Su Yuan asked it, and Minglu replied in a muffled voice:

"Your knife...it scraped my bone...could you find a way that won't itch?"

Su Yuan smiled, put down the scalpel, and tried a different approach. He used a cotton swab dipped in distilled water to apply to the hardened rust, allowing the water to slowly seep in and soften the rust layer before cleaning it.

This will be much slower, but the spirit of the incense burner will no longer feel itchy.

"Hmm... this is good, Master Su..." Xianglu mumbled, then fell silent, probably having fallen asleep again!

Su Yuan found this incense burner quite interesting; it was completely different from Xiao Jue's talkative nature, being a slow-paced one.

He continued cleaning, moving much more gently than usual, afraid of waking that lazy fellow again.

Su Yuan stayed in the warehouse all morning and didn't come out until lunchtime!

When he went to the cafeteria for lunch, Zhao Cheng sat down next to him with his lunchbox and said in a low voice, "Director Zhang wants you to go to his office this afternoon."

"What is it?"

"He didn't go into details, but I guess it's related to your teacher Zhou's Ninth Division," Zhao Cheng said. "If I'm not mistaken, they need to process the paperwork for you."

Su Yuan nodded.

At 2 p.m., Su Yuan first went to Zhang Weiyi's director's office.

Zhang Weiyi sat behind his desk, several forms spread out in front of him. Seeing Su Yuan enter, he pointed to the chair opposite him and said:

"Sit down, Xiao Su, fill this out."

Su Yuan picked up the form and looked at it. It was a personnel registration form with the heading: "Registration Form for Members of the Expert Group for the Restoration of Nine Special Cultural Relics".

The table contains standard information: name, age, education and major, work experience and major achievements.

Su Yuan filled in the forms one by one, and when he got to the "Special Abilities" section...

He looked at Zhang Weiyi and asked:

"Director, what should I fill in here?"

Zhang Weiyi leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment: "I'll just fill in whatever I know."

Su Yuan hesitated for two seconds, then wrote four words in that column: "Synthetic device".

It's not that you can hear ancient objects talking, nor that you can sense spirits; it's that you can communicate with objects through synesthesia!

These four characters are vague enough, yet precise enough; those who understand will know what they mean.

Zhang Weiyi took the form and glanced at it, his gaze lingering on the words "synesthetic devices" for a moment before he stared at Su Yuan:

"Alright."