Old Harden, can you handle having your vision-shifting abilities on all the time?

"XCMG? They haven't left yet?"

"Mr. Li, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Xu Xing smiled and said, "I was wondering if you're free tonight? I'd like to invite you to a casual dinner."

Li Jianjun paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "Since Xu Gong is treating, I'm definitely free! Let's go!"

The two drove to a Hunan restaurant near the restoration center.

Li Jianjun is from Hunan and likes spicy food, so Xu Xing specially chose a Hunan restaurant with a good reputation.

The dishes were served quickly. Xu Xing poured Li Jianjun a glass of wine and poured one for himself as well.

"Mr. Li, I apologize for asking you to come out today, but there's something I'd like to tell you."

Xu Xing raised his glass and toasted Li Jianjun.

Li Jianjun took a sip of wine and put down his glass: "Engineer Xu, we're from the same company, so just say what you need to say without being so polite."

Xu Xing put down his wine glass, not revealing the specifics of his relationship with Xu Yanle, after all, family scandals should not be aired in public.

He simply handed Xu Yanle's photo to Li Jianjun and told him that he had some conflict with this person and might come to the restoration center.

We'll have security guards stop people from interfering with normal work.

Li Jianjun readily replied, "The security level at the repair center is the highest in our company; not just anyone can come in."

I'll make arrangements with security, and if that person does come looking for me, we'll stop him outside and make sure he doesn't interfere with your work.

If he doesn't know what's good for him...

Xu Xing raised his glass and said sincerely, "Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Li. If he doesn't know what's good for him, just send him to the police station."

"No trouble at all."

Li Jianjun clinked glasses with him and said with a smile, "Xu Gong, you are the ace of our repair center. It is my duty to protect your working environment from interference."

The two drank a few more glasses and chatted about work in a very harmonious atmosphere.

It was already past nine o'clock when we left the restaurant.

Xu Xing called a designated driver to take him home.

For the next three days, Xu Xing lived a regular and peaceful life.

I arrive at the Chengxinzhai Restoration Center promptly at 8:30 every morning, and go home in the afternoon after checking on the restoration progress.

The restoration work on that Yongle blue and white porcelain plum vase with a sea dragon design has entered its final sprint stage. Xu Xing spends most of his time in restoration room number 0 every day, while Zhu Yong and Liu Jian do auxiliary work in the outer room.

The damage to that plum vase was more severe than expected.

The bottle broke horizontally into three large sections from the belly, with jagged edges and many small fragments missing.

The bottle mouth has a long, curved line extending from the rim to the shoulder, and inside there are intricate, branching branches.

There are multiple dents and scratches on the glaze, two of which have damaged the surface of the body.

The most troublesome part is that the five claws of one of the dragon patterns are completely missing and need to be redrawn.

But Xu Xing remained calm.

The main difficulties in restoring Yongle blue and white porcelain lie in two aspects: first, restoring the color of the blue and white glaze, and second, repainting the dragon pattern.

The blue and white porcelain produced during the Yongle period still used imported Sumali blue pigment. This pigment has a high iron content and forms unique iron rust spots and diffusion effects after firing, which are difficult for modern blue pigments to imitate.

However, Xu Xing had already accumulated a wealth of experience in restoring that Yuan Dynasty blue and white plum vase, and had a deep understanding of the formula and firing process of the cobalt blue pigment.

As for the dragon pattern restoration, he recently learned traditional Chinese painting techniques from Li Yuting, and with his spare time, he practiced the basics of line drawing and composition, which are now quite solid. With the help of X-ray vision, restoring the missing dragon claws is not a difficult task.

Xu Xing spent two whole days repeatedly adjusting the glaze formula and firing more than thirty test pieces before finally determining the formula that was closest to the original.

Then he began to glue the fragments together and restore the shape of the artifact. With the help of his X-ray vision, he precisely aligned, glued, and fixed each fragment, ensuring that the error in the restoration of the artifact was controlled within 0.2%.

After the bonding was completed, he began to repair the glaze defects and repaint the dragon pattern.

Adding details to the dragon claws is the most challenging part, requiring the most skill.

Xu Xingxian used a 3D scanner to scan the symmetrical area of ​​the missing part and reconstructed a complete model of the missing part on the computer.

Then he used the finest wolf-hair brush to dip into the prepared cobalt blue pigment and painted the dragon claw pattern stroke by stroke on the repaired body.

He drew every scale and every claw tip meticulously.

With the aid of X-ray vision, he could clearly see the penetration depth and distribution of the cobalt blue pigment on the surface of the porcelain body, ensuring that the newly painted patterns were completely consistent with the original patterns in terms of microstructure.

After completing the repainting, Xu Xing carefully placed the plum vase into the medium-sized electric kiln and set the firing curve.

The firing temperature is 1180℃, and the temperature is maintained for 35 minutes, then the temperature is allowed to drop naturally.

The entire firing process takes seven and a half hours.

At 5 p.m. on the third day, the electric kiln completed the cooling process and emitted a beeping sound.

Xu Xing put on thick, heat-resistant gloves and opened the kiln door.

When the Yongle blue-and-white porcelain plum vase with a sea dragon design was taken out and placed on the worktable, the entire restoration room No. 0 seemed to light up.

The vessel is dignified and elegant, with a rich and deep blue-and-white glaze. The rust spots and diffusion effects are natural and realistic, blending perfectly with the original glaze.

The added five-clawed dragon pattern blended seamlessly with the surrounding original patterns under the light, showing no difference in color or brushstrokes.

Xu Xing used a magnifying glass to inspect every inch, and after confirming that there were no problems with any of the repaired parts, he removed the alloy bracket, filled the remaining gaps with epoxy resin, and finally polished it.

When the last step was completed, he put down his tools and let out a long sigh of relief.

"It's done."

He took out his phone and dialed Wang Benquan's number.

"Mr. Wang, the Yongle plum vase has been restored. When would you like to schedule an evaluation?"

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Wang Benquan's delighted voice: "I'm coming right away!"

In less than fifteen minutes, Wang Benquan, along with Zhou Wenyuan and the assessment team, arrived at Restoration Room No. 0.

Upon entering, their eyes were immediately drawn to the perfectly preserved Yongle blue-and-white porcelain plum vase with a sea dragon design on the worktable.

Zhou Wenyuan walked over quickly and examined it carefully from various angles.

They then took out various testing tools and began to conduct detailed tests.

UV lamp, fiber optic sidelight, high-power microscope, colorimeter, portable XRF...

All the equipment was put into use.

This time, Zhou Wenyuan's examination lasted a full hour.

The final restoration result was as expected, meeting and exceeding the first-level compliance standard of the national "Administrative Measures for the Restoration Qualification of Movable Cultural Relics", and was internally rated as excellent.

This means that Xu Xing has earned tens of millions again this time.

Wang Benquan patted Xu Xing on the shoulder, "I will personally handle the subsequent handover of this item. I have already notified General Manager Zhao, and he will send someone over tomorrow to handle the formalities."

He paused, then took out a gold-embossed invitation from his pocket and handed it to Xu Xing: "Mr. Xu, this is an internal invitation from Chengxinzhai to an antique auction that will be held in Yanbei in a couple of days."

Xu Xing accepted the invitation. The cover was made of dark red velvet, with gold lettering that read "Chengxinzhai Antique Special - Yanbei Station," along with the time and location.

"This year's antique auction features exquisite antiques collected by Chengxinzhai through various channels, covering various categories such as porcelain, calligraphy and painting, jade, and bronzes, as well as some damaged antiques restored by our restoration center."

Wang Benquan explained, "As an internal employee, you can enjoy a 10% discount, but you need to be there in person to do so, as the company has fixed rules."