The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 263 I really don’t want to teach these students with special abilities!

Even though he saw a glimpse of the secret in the scroll, Shen Le did not immediately start to solve the puzzle. Instead, he continued to work patiently under the guidance of Teacher Zhang:

Pinch a corner of the backing paper with each hand, and slowly, use force as evenly as possible to peel up the backing paper, evenly, smoothly, and completely.

Occasionally, there are some places that are difficult to peel off, so I use my mental power to stabilize the backing paper, and then penetrate the mental power into the gap between the backing paper and the layer below, and gently separate them.

Holding his breath, he peeled off the paper gently and evenly for three minutes before completely removing it and putting it aside:
"Well done." Teacher Zhang stood by attentively, from constantly giving reminders, to saying something occasionally, to remaining silent and watching intently.

It was not until Shen Le completely peeled off the tattered backing paper that he let out a sigh of relief and praised:
"Now we are going to take off the fortune paper. The fortune paper is close to the center of the painting, so be especially careful when you do it!"

The paper for mounting calligraphy and painting is the layer of paper that is placed close to the center of the painting. Teacher Zhang watched Shen Le select tools and asked casually:

"Why is the fate paper called fate paper?"

"Because the fate paper has a protective effect on the heart of the painting, once the fate paper is peeled off, the heart of the painting will lose its color and life, as if it had lost its life, hence it is called fate paper." Shen Le recited fluently.

Teacher Zhang nodded slightly, but was not completely satisfied, and continued to ask:
"Then why does the painting lose its color and spirit when the fate paper is removed?"

"Uh……"

It was a pity that Shen Le could only recite these questions from books and papers without having his own understanding.

When asked by the teacher, he paused with his hand in the air, his eyes scanning the center of the painting, trying hard to recall:
why?
why?
Why is it?
"Because the painting, whether it is silk or paper, is slightly translucent. Pasting the life paper on the back of the painting can reflect the light back, making the colors of the painting more vivid..."

After thinking for a while, Shen Le gave the answer tentatively. Teacher Zhang nodded with satisfaction:

"That's about right. So when you're restoring ancient calligraphy and paintings, you have to pay attention to the color of the paper you're restoring the painting. You can't just use new rice paper. You have to dye the paper two colors lighter than the painting."

Shen Le opened his mouth and quickly closed it. Two light colors, how many are two light colors?
Based on spectral imaging and spectral scanning, he can view the results, adjust the brightness, and increase or decrease the brightness directly on the computer or print it out.

However, for him, this "two light colors" is like facing a set of 64 lipstick colors, and he can't tell which one is which...

"Oh, dyeing fate paper and the like, this is all about experience, you will understand it after seeing and dyeing it more."

Teacher Zhang took one look at him and immediately knew what he was hesitating to say. Basically, all new students have this experience. He was asked at least a dozen times in each class:
"It's okay. When you get to this stage, take out all the ancient paintings you bought and lay them out. Then, I'll watch you do it dozens of times, and you'll understand."

Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief. He held a needle in one hand and a pair of curved tweezers in the other, and carefully picked up the paper from the corner:

"Uh, teacher, I can't pick up this fate paper..."

He tried to peel off the four corners one by one, but couldn't. He didn't know how the life paper was pasted in the first place. It was much harder to peel off than the backing paper, which could be peeled off easily!
"Do I need to water it again? Or should I use a towel to suffocate it for a while? How dry should I wring the towel?"

"Oh, no need." Teacher Zhang leaned forward, stretched out his hand and gently rubbed the corner of the paper once, and then rubbed it again.

As his fingers moved, a layer of wet paper on the center of the painting curled slightly and separated from the center of the painting:
"The touch of a needle and awl will never be as good as your own fingers. Use your eyes to see, use the touch of your fingers to control the strength, rub gently, and rub the paper apart - all right, you do it!"

Shen Le is really not good at this method of "looking with eyes and touching with hands" and passing levels purely relying on experience.

He estimated that he would need to practice for at least five or six years, or practice intensively for a year under the supervision of a teacher, to reach the level where he could paint effortlessly without losing his concentration.

Shen Le took the corner of the paper from Teacher Zhang, held his breath, and pulled it back little by little:

Don't break...

If it breaks, you have to separate it from the broken part, pull it again, and rub it again. It is very likely that you will be criticized by Teacher Zhang several times again...

Pull, pull, pull a section open, put the opened part on the back of the painting, move your fingers forward, hold the previously opened part, so as to avoid the force point being too far away and the force being transmitted unevenly...

"Slow down, slow down!" Teacher Zhang stared at his movements closely, giving instructions without stopping, his eyes full of wonder:

"Don't keep your right hand so tense! Relax a little! You're going to break it--Eh!"

Under Shen Le's hand, the piece of life paper that had begun to show signs of breaking bulged slightly at the bottom, as if it was gently supported by some force.

It was this support that stopped it from breaking, and Shen Le gently pulled it up. He passed over a broken part of the painting, and continued to pull, passed over another part, and continued to pull...

Alas, the abilities of practitioners are really unreasonable.

I wish he had this ability!
Teacher Zhang was full of envy and jealousy while guiding Shen Le, peeling off the horoscope papers one by one.

The area of this painting was quite large, and the painting had cracks and holes in the center. No matter how careful Shen Le was, he could not avoid breaking the paper into five or six pieces. The five or six large pieces of paper were placed aside to dry. The small pieces of paper stuck to the back of the painting could only be picked up with a needle and rubbed with hands, rolled into thin paper rolls, and thrown away directly.

"Okay! The next thing is to fix the heart of the painting!"

Under the center of the painting, the hole in the center of the painting is particularly eye-catching against the backdrop of the attached water-based oil paper. Under the guidance of Teacher Zhang, Shen Le first picked up a sharp little horseshoe knife and prepared to scrape next to the hole:
"Wait a minute, teacher. The reason I scraped the slope on the hole was so that when I patch the silk, the two layers on the edge would overlap and not be too thick.

I'm using a new method to make them grow well, right? I don't have to scrape the slopes anymore?"

This question made Teacher Zhang feel a tightness in his chest.

Yes, in theory, if you want to make the newly added silk "grow" together with the original silk, you don't need to apply glue or scrape a slope to let the two layers of silk overlap;
But, but...

As a student, how come you always use various superpowers to challenge the traditional restoration methods?
"Let me see how far you've come in practice! Will the patched area be bumpy? Will it be difficult to put pen to paper or absorb ink?"

In order to make himself feel better, Teacher Zhang had to raise his voice. Shen Le rushed to the cabinet next to him, took out a stack of repaired old silk, and respectfully presented it to the teacher:

"Teacher Zhang, please give it a try... If necessary, I can repair it on the spot and let you try it out!"

…What should I do? I feel even more suffocated…I really don’t want to teach these students with special abilities…

Teacher Zhang first took up a magnifying glass and a microscope and observed carefully. Very good, the part where the silk fibroin solution "grew" was not much different in smoothness from the original part, at least under the microscope;

Then dip the brush in ink, dry brush, burnt brush, thick brush, light brush, mix pigments, azurite, cinnabar, and gamboge...

He painted stroke by stroke on the old silk that Shen Le had mended.

While painting, I concentrated on feeling the touch of my hands, carefully observing the way the ink and paint spread, and the speed at which they were absorbed by the silk...

"It should be OK." After a long time, Teacher Zhang nodded slowly to show his approval.

In fact, there is a slight difference. After all, the properties of the newly condensed part of the silk protein are different from those of the part that has been aged for a long time or artificially aged.

However, even if you use traditional methods to fill it in, scrape it thin, scrape it into a slope, then fill it with silk, and then apply paste, the touch will still be different.

This difference can be smoothly adjusted by the painter if he pays a little attention when adding the strokes. If you are more picky, it will be nitpicking.

"That's all for today. Tomorrow, I'll check the patch you made. I see you've done some preparation. If it passes the inspection, you can use it!"

Shen Le respectfully escorted him out. As soon as the door closed, a head popped up over there:
"How's it going? How many days will it take to finish? - You're too nervous. You won't even let me watch you fix my painting! Are you afraid that I'll scare your teacher?"

Of course, what if you suddenly say, "This painting was like this and that when I first got it hundreds of years ago," or get excited and simply reveal your true form...

I am responsible for Teacher Zhang’s heart!

Shen Le rolled his eyes at him. However, arguing was useless. He just used one trick and talked about something else:
"I have great news to tell you today! I have found the secret in the painting! Come with me and see!"

Three minutes later, the two looked at each other in bewilderment at the dried backing paper on the table next to them.

"Can you tell what it's saying?"

"Shi goes to Gu, Gu goes to Jing, Jing goes to Tun, Tun goes to Jie..."

The Alloy Boss muttered something, his fingers moving in the air:

"Dou moves to the tail, the tail moves to Zhang, Zhang moves to the wing, the wing moves to Kui..."

Shen Le was almost dying of anxiety watching from the side. In his eyes, the pattern drawn by the alloy master was a complete mess with no rules at all.

But he was still absorbed in painting. He stopped and frowned in thought:

"It feels like a map, or an instruction on how to get to a certain place... Look, the first section is the directions of the sixty-four hexagrams, and the second section is the directions of the twenty-eight constellations...

What on earth is this! Why can’t I see it? Why is there a piece missing? "

"The paper is torn! It's rotten!" Shen Le was very confident when he said this:

"It was already like this when you gave it to me! No matter how carefully I unmounted it, I can't create something out of nothing!"

The two of them stared at each other for a long time. Then the Alloy Boss slapped his thigh and said:
"Where's that silverfish monster? Was it eaten by it? Catch it and interrogate it!"

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(End of this chapter)