The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 151: The gray hair that never came (Subscription Request)
Shen Le stood in the small bedroom, squatted down and stroked the bronze mirror, then looked up at the couple with a frown.

His vision was limited to the dressing box, or perhaps to his wife, and he had no idea what his husband was doing outside day by day.

However, judging by her husband's increasingly sad expression and the affection in his eyes when he gazed at his wife's sleeping face, Shen Le always felt that he should at least not have changed his heart.

But if he didn't change his heart, why would he drink every day to drown his sorrows? Shen Le felt that he was not well-educated and had no idea why...

He couldn't guess that the husband, a man named Jing'an, didn't tell the truth to his wife.

He hugged his wife tightly with his arms, buried his cheek in his wife's soft hair, took a deep breath, and refused to let go no matter how much his wife struggled.

After a long while, he tightened his arms, turned his face to the side, and pressed it against his wife's cheek. The tears of the two people blended together and did not dry for a long time.

This was the first time Shen Le saw such an intimate hug, and it was also the last time he saw it. After letting his wife go, the husband found the smallest round box on the dressing table, stuffed it into his arms, and rushed out:

"Perrin! Wait till I come back!!!"

He did not come back. Perrin, heavily pregnant, waited at home day after day, from sunrise to sunset, and from dusk to dawn.

What I waited for was a hurried knock on the door in the middle of the night, and a warning in a low voice:

"Run! Run! Run! Jing'an has been caught for rebellion. He will be beheaded in a few days. The government will come to arrest you soon! Run away quickly, run far away!"

With a thunder, heavy rain came down.

For a moment, Shen Le felt as if his chest was hit by a heavy hammer and he had difficulty breathing.

So that's how it is. It turns out that the husband, who was hesitant to speak, was facing the choice between life and death.

Rebellion, or in the late Qing Dynasty, in the context of Shen Le's usual use, should be to participate in the revolution, to participate in the uprising. In that era, before the dawn, it was completely and utterly fatal.

It is noble to face death with a noble heart, but how many men, faced with their pregnant wife, can make up their minds to abandon the warmth of their family and devote themselves to the country?
How many people would be so cruel as to say to their heavily pregnant wives who were happily expecting to give birth: I am going to join the uprising, and it is very likely that I will die in this uprising...

Shen Le felt that he certainly couldn't say it. And the husband obviously couldn't say it either, so he tossed and turned day after day, drowning his sorrows in alcohol...

In that era, so many people sacrificed their lives...

However, as a generation that grew up in peace and benefited from the sacrifices of their predecessors, Shen Le looked at the family in panic after receiving the bad news, but was unable to help at all.

He watched Jingan's mother cry out in grief, and her whole body went limp;
Watching Jing'an's father close his eyes and look up, tears streaming down his face;

Seeing Perrin biting her lips, holding her stomach, her face was pale, beads of sweat kept rolling down, it was obvious that she had a miscarriage, but she was still holding back the grief, and asked the visitor:
"Did he...did he have any last words?"

"Yes." The man nodded solemnly and handed over a small round box. Under the candlelight, the messenger opened his palm and Shen Le recognized it:

That round box was the pastel porcelain box that Shen Le had just restored. It was only an inch in diameter, and the two round fairy peaches on the top of the box were fresh and lovely.

It was originally Peilan's lip balm box. Because of its small size and exquisite painting, it has always been loved by its owner.

However, when Perrin opened the lid of the box with trembling hands, what she saw was not half a box of remaining lip balm, but a stack of white silk folded very thinly and tightly.

Shake open the white silk, the silk surface is dripping with lip balm, the vermilion is like blood:

"I am an unfilial son..."

The last words she left for her father were only a few short sentences, and what followed were long passages expressing the love her husband left for her.

The writing is gentle and the emotions are lingering, with tears and ink flowing together. Shen Le turned his head away after reading half of it, tears welling up in his eyes, and only a few words kept lingering in his mind:

"I love you very much, but China is now in a state of war and a crisis could break out at any time. When the time comes, will I have to watch you die, or will you have to watch me die?

Instead of doing this, I might as well fight for my life and maybe I can win a stable future for you..."

Those predecessors, those revolutionaries, all thought and acted in this way, right? That’s why they kept going forward, regardless of their own safety…

From a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society to a modern society, so many ravines have been filled with countless flesh and blood.

With our flesh and blood, we built the Great Wall to keep the invaders out, so that our country and our people can stand tall in the world again...

"I understand." After a long while, Peilan tightly grasped the white silk and bowed to the two elders:
"Father, Mother, it's time for us to go. Pack up your belongings and leave here as soon as possible. Don't let down the people who came to report this!"

Shen Le watched them pack up their belongings and hurriedly move out of the mansion. The large family that had lived together was scattered in an instant;

Watching Perrin give birth to a child in a remote cottage, with her forehead pressed against her son's cheek, tears streaming down her face;

Watching the sound of a cannon, the dragon flag slowly fell to the ground amid cheers. The next year, the emperor announced his abdication, the world was spinning, and Perrin held the child and cried loudly:

"Only ten months, only ten months! Jing'an, in only ten months, you will see victory! Only ten months..."

Yes, it fell before the victory of the revolution, and even before the largest and most iconic uprising. In fact, there was only less than half a year between the sound of the cannon and the news of Jing'an's death...

But during that half year, it was the blood and flesh of so many people with lofty ideals that ignited the prairie fire that swept across the country!

However, Shen Le knew that this was just the beginning, far from the end, and far from victory.

Friends and relatives were scattered, elders died, and Peilan, who had lost her lover and most of her family wealth, finally settled down in Binhai City after many years of wandering.

She lost most of her family property and the protection of her family, but she still had the identity of a teacher at the Women's Normal College. In Binhai, it was not difficult for her to find a decent job. "Live a good life." Seeing her teaching and raising her young son, she finally regained her smile, and Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief:

"There will be many more hardships in the future. It will take many, many more years to see the dawn of a new China. But Binhai City... maybe, perhaps, we can always walk to the new China in peace and stability, right?"

The memory of the powder box seemed to end here. The light and shadow faded, and Shen Le was placed back at the hotel table.

Shen Le let out a long sigh, and stroked the porcelain pieces and broken pieces in front of him, feeling filled with emotion:

He found these little guys bit by bit from different sources and different cities.

Some are in antique shops, some are sold on street stalls, and the largest one is in the old professor's collection and has never been returned.

In the memories he read, all the items in the dressing box had always been with the mistress and had never been separated. So, what kind of separation caused them to be scattered everywhere?
Shen Le didn't know. And if he wanted to know the answer, there was undoubtedly only one way:
修！
Keep repairing!
Work hard to repair them and restore them. Only in this way can the cute little guys have enough intelligence and pass on enough memories!
Relying on Mr. Chen's studio, Shen Le devoted himself to restoration and worked on multiple fronts. He added color and glaze to the porcelain boxes;
Cleaning, filling and gluing of bronze mirrors;

Wooden combs and brushes are repainted, glued with mother-of-pearl, painted, polished, cleaned, and polished;
Of course, there is also the mother-of-pearl wooden box used for the competition. Whether Mr. Chen wants to repair it or not, whether he wants to repair it himself, is Mr. Chen's business. Shen Le must repair this one himself!
Half a month passed in a flash. Just when Shen Le felt that the restoration was almost done and he could hand in his homework, he received a call from Professor Lin. The timing was so accurate that Shen Le suspected that the old lady must have had spies in the studio:

"Xiao Shen, how's it going? Is the mother-of-pearl box repaired?"

"Almost fixed..."

In fact, it was a job of wiping and polishing, and there was only one last pass left. If the old lady insisted on checking, it would be fine;
The old lady was willing to give me a little more time, thank God, and let me do it again.

The subtle and soft luster on the lacquerware is sometimes determined by polishing it once or twice!
"Oh, is it fixed?" The old lady seemed to not accept the term "almost" and corrected him calmly:

"If it's fixed, it's fixed. If it's not fixed, it's not fixed. There should be an estimate of how long it will take. So, is it fixed?"

"...No! Teacher Lin, please give me two more days!"

"Okay, two days is enough." The old lady on the other end of the phone smiled with satisfaction:
"I'll give you two more days to bring the things to me. Bring me the mother-of-pearl box and all the things you have repaired during this period.

If you don’t do a good enough job, or if you don’t do as well as my son, you can forget about the dressing box.”

"...Teacher Lin, don't worry! I will definitely not embarrass you!"

Oh no! Mr. Chen had given the mother-of-pearl box to Master Jiang, a carpenter, to make half a month ago.

Can my craftsmanship catch up with Master Jiang’s?

Or, if he couldn't catch up, could the old lady, with her sharp eyes, tell that her son had asked someone to play for him?
Shen Le was not sure. He could only seize every opportunity to make the final finishing touches on the mother-of-pearl box.

At the same time, I shamelessly asked Master Jiang, who does wood restoration, various questions, such as:

"Master Jiang, why did you use wool balls for this matte part?
I read in the "髹饰錄" that it is to use a ball of hair dipped in water, mixed with fine tile ash and rubbed repeatedly, and it is said that the hair of a young girl is the best..."

"Haha..." Master Jiang laughed proudly.

It is difficult for a master chef like him to accept apprentices. It is even more difficult to accept satisfactory apprentices. It is even more difficult to accept satisfactory apprentices who will not steal his business.

It would be fine if he didn't accept apprentices, but the problem is that if he didn't accept apprentices, he would have no place to show off his skills. No one would look at him with admiration or listen to his bragging.

It was rare that Shen Le was willing to ask him for advice, so he was happy to show off. He patted the table, picked up a ball of wool and a ball of cotton wool, and showed them to Shen Le:

"It's actually a question of fineness and strength. We use 2000-grit water sandpaper and 10000-grit abrasive paste to continuously improve the fineness;

Wool is finer than hair, so it is easier to polish. The wool that was not treated before is not good for dipping fine tile ash, and it will shed. The treated wool balls can be used now.”

"What about the girl's hair?"

Shen Le kept asking. Master Jiang laughed again. For some reason, his smile was a little vulgar:
"They say that girls' hair is fine, soft, and more flexible, so it's easier to use. But I think... that's just a gimmick!"

"The same gimmick as Havana cigars?" Shen Le understood immediately:
"In this case, it is better to use modern industrial products!"

In terms of quality and quality control, it is much more reliable than those gimmicky products!

He thanked Master Jiang profusely. Master Jiang accepted it with a smile, and suddenly came closer and lowered his voice:
"I heard from the boss that you are a capable person?"

"how?"

"Well..." Master Jiang rubbed his hands, a little nervous:
"There is something, could you please take a look at it..."

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　　Yesterday, I was looking up the story of martyr Lin Juemin. After Lin Juemin was arrested in Guangzhou, his father-in-law Chen Yuankai happened to be working in Guangzhou (how could he not be arrested?), and he quickly sent a message back to ask his family to hide.

　　Then, Lin Juemin's father and his clansmen sold the mansion and fled quickly. Where did they flee to?
　　Their family originally lived in Yangliu Lane, one of the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys. Lin Juemin's wife and her family moved to a small, remote house in Zaoti Lane, Guanglufang, one of the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys. They just ran away... They ran away...

　　The total area of Sanfang Qixiang is only 0.45 square kilometers...

　　Being able to escape like this really shocked the cat for the whole year...

　　The Qing Dynasty is about to fall...

　　(In fact, it did fall very quickly. The Huanghuagang Uprising was in April 1911, Lin Juemin was heroically martyred in May 4, the Wuchang Uprising was on October 1911, and the Qing Emperor Puyi abdicated and the Qing Dynasty fell in February 5...)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)