Chapter 147 Like lambs to the slaughter: We need someone as valuable as you right now…
Qin Xiangxiang and her group, carrying several boxes of relief supplies, took a train to Xingcheng, Hunan Province. After getting off the train, they boarded a transport vehicle from the city's transportation team. After clarifying the situation, they headed to the Hunan Boxin Warehouse, which also served as a temporary cultural relics processing room.
The Mawangdui archaeological excavation in 1972 yielded a large number of cultural relics. However, the archaeological conditions at that time were very rudimentary, and the various unearthed cultural relics were placed in a temporary processing room, where they piled up like mountains.
Professor Qi, one of the leaders of the Mawangdui archaeological excavation, is sixty years old and the head of the silk manuscript sorting team. His hair is gray and he wears thick-rimmed glasses. At this moment, he is in a dark warehouse, worrying about a pile of water-soaked and stuck bamboo slip fragments. These ancient artifacts are too fragile. They will break with the slightest touch of ordinary tweezers, which is a headache.
Qin Xiangxiang and her group arrived at the temporary artifact processing room and bumped into the female custodian who was holding the keys. Upon hearing that they were from the textile factory, the custodian's face immediately darkened.
"It's the Light Industry Bureau again, the textile factory? Get lost! I've already told you these textiles are fragile when exposed to light, so don't touch them carelessly! Stop causing trouble here! These are all thousand-year-old artifacts, they can't withstand being messed with!"
"If you cause any more trouble, we'll sue you for damaging cultural relics!"
Before Qin Xiangxiang and her group, people from various organizations had come to visit and learn, especially from textile and silk factories. Some of them were clumsy and damaged the textiles, which were all treasures! The female custodian felt distressed.
"Comrade, we just want to learn about ancient textile patterns. We don't need to see the actual artifacts, just let us meet the old professor. We'll just look at the photocopied materials." Qin Xiangxiang never expected to be met with such a cold reception on this trip.
But it doesn't matter, since their original intention wasn't to see the cultural relics, so photocopying the materials doesn't make a difference.
"Lady, please be lenient with us. We won't touch the cultural relics. Just let us learn. Our main goal is to use the past to serve the present and cultivate artists from our working class! We want to learn from ancient patterns, discard the dross, take the essence, and create a new aesthetic for workers and peasants!" Qin Xiangxiang smiled broadly. She was already beautiful and pleasing to the eye, and with that smile, her almond-shaped eyes became like crescent moons, making it impossible for anyone to be wary of her.
The female custodian breathed a sigh of relief and softened her voice: "We can't have too many people. Choose two or three to come in with me."
Qin Xiangxiang gave Yang Zhixia a wink, then took her tool bag, which included an industrial-grade magnifying glass, pure white acid-free cotton cloth, industrial adhesive, and industrial precision long tweezers.
She, Yang Zhixia, and an art student named Mo Jiahe followed the warehouse keeper into the warehouse.
Professor Qi, who was inside, didn't even look up when he heard that another organization had come to learn. He said in an icy tone, "Which organization is here to learn this time? We don't have time to receive them. Take a look for yourselves and don't touch anything!"
"They're all a bunch of troublemakers!"
When Xiao Zhang, the round-faced archaeology intern next to Qin Xiangxiang and the others, saw them, he smiled apologetically. He felt that Professor Qi's words were a bit too impolite.
Xiao Zhang: "You can look around as you like, but don't touch anything."
The warehouse was filled with a chilling, dark atmosphere, and the pile of things dug out of the tomb gave one the creeps. There was a musty smell everywhere in the air.
Qin Xiangxiang observed the cultural relics around her, but there wasn't much to see. These unearthed items, after thousands of years of corrosion, were no longer recognizable as they were. The waterlogged bamboo slips that Professor Qi was restoring looked like a pot of charred charcoal, which was quite sad.
Intern Xiao Zhang carefully moved the precious fragment of the Cloud Embroidery from the wooden frame, but his hand trembled and the precious fragment got caught on a burr, tearing open a shocking gash with a ripping sound.
Everyone present was shocked. Xiao Zhang's face instantly turned pale, and Professor Qi exclaimed, "This is a two-thousand-year-old treasure!"
Xiao Zhang's hands were shaking so badly he almost lost his grip on the broken piece he was holding. He was so scared he almost peed himself.
Qin Xiangxiang quickly took out a piece of pure cotton cloth from her tool bag, walked over and held the fragment of the Chengyun embroidery in her hand, and said, "Comrade, you hold it."
Xiao Zhang took it, his whole body stiffened and he dared not move.
Qin Xiangxiang didn't have time to think about anything else at the moment. She took out an industrial magnifying glass and precision long tweezers from the textile workshop from her toolbox. "Is there a light?"
Professor Qi walked over with a work light at this moment. When he saw the industrial-grade magnifying glass in Qin Xiangxiang's hand, his pupils dilated instantly. This!
Under this magnifying glass, what followed was even more miraculous. The young and beautiful woman in front of me had a pair of exquisitely crafted hands. Her slender white fingers danced gracefully as she used a pair of fine, long tweezers from an industrial textile workshop to separate and reposition the threads wrapped around the splinter, as if performing surgery.
She even managed to restore the remaining threads!
Qin Xiangxiang has been skillful with her hands since she was a child. She is not proficient in other things, but she knows a lot about textiles, especially in repairing textiles. Zhou Aodong once said that when it comes to repairing textiles, no one can compare to his own daughter.
Qin Xiangxiang's secret hobby used to be mending fabrics. When it came to archaeology, she knew nothing about the artifacts in front of her, but when it came to repairing textiles, these professors were far inferior to her, the textile children.
The entire audience held their breath, watching her every move.
Professor Qi asked incredulously, "You managed to save the treasure?"
Professor Qi's face flushed with excitement. He suddenly realized that they had made a mistake. This time, the restoration of cultural relics required the help of the Light Industry Bureau, and they needed highly skilled personnel who were proficient in textiles and embroidery.
The young woman in front of me is simply a genius at restoring cultural relics!
Professor Qi's expression changed, and his voice became incredibly kind and gentle: "This lady, you were sent by your unit to assist in the repair of cultural relics, right?"
"We need someone as valuable as you right now!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "??????"
—We're just crabs that want to bathe in Yangcheng Lake.
"Thank you so much, comrade!" The intern next to Qin Xiangxiang almost knelt down.
Qin Xiangxiang quickly replied, "No, no, no, I am actually Qin Xiangxiang, the factory director of Feiyan Textile Factory. I brought the people from the factory here to learn about ancient printing patterns and see if we can learn from them... to make the past serve the present, improve the artistic aesthetics of our workers, and cultivate workers... artists."
Stared at by pairs of fierce green eyes, Factory Director Qin could no longer utter her high-sounding words, and she felt a chill run down her spine.
Because she knew these people weren't listening at all.
Qin Xiangxiang felt it was absurd. She had a kind of anxious feeling, like a lamb caught in a trap, which made her very uneasy. She changed the subject and said, "We brought a batch of industrial magnifying glasses, fine-tuning tweezers, as well as acid-free cotton cloth and sulfuric acid paper, specifically to support the protection of cultural relics."
"Director Qin, the fact that someone like you could come here is already a huge help to us!"
"Yeah yeah!"
"You are a very capable person. You are so young and beautiful. It is truly remarkable that you have become the director of a textile factory. You are different from other textile factory directors. None of them have your real ability!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "???" Were we talking past each other?
Professor Qi said decisively, "I'll take you to see the real thing!"
Qin Xiangxiang desperately wanted to shake her head. She had a growing sense of unease, which made her "lazy radar" start to go off incessantly.
"Well... actually... we're here to learn about patterns..." We're just passing through, like a group of crabs taking a bath, just wanting to travel far away, like the stinky tofu and weird-tasting broad beans at Orange Isle.
"Come with me, I'll take you to the inner storeroom, where even more valuable things are kept."
...
Since we're already here, we might as well take a look.
Xianyu felt utterly hopeless, but Professor Qi's seductive tone made it seem like she was a con artist. Knowing it was a scam and that she was likely to be conscripted on the spot, she still ventured into the danger, like a lamb entering a tiger's den.
Seeing her factory manager being led by Professor Qi to the heavily guarded inner warehouse, Yang Zhixia's intense admiration almost overflowed. She tried her best to suppress her excitement and said, "Our factory manager is really amazing! When will I be able to have her abilities?"
"Our factory director, Qin, is a role model I will strive to emulate for the rest of my life!"
The female custodian, who had been rude earlier, was much gentler towards Yang Zhixia and the others. She smiled slightly and said, "You're from the textile factory? You're here to learn about patterns, right? There are a lot of people outside. Actually, we have a book here called 'Overview of Patterns of Excavated Fabrics from XXX.' It's a newly completed draft and hasn't been released to the public yet. You can borrow it for now to study."
"Have someone come and learn from them."
Yang Zhixia and the others were overjoyed: "Thank you so much!"
Qin Xiangxiang followed Professor Qi into the inner storeroom, where another elderly professor was studying a complex locket embroidery pattern. Professor Qi then led Qin Xiangxiang to see the cloud-riding embroidery and fragments of colored gauze preserved in a camphor wood box.
“These are only the size of a palm and have limited research value, but they still retain clear and vivid patterns from two thousand years ago. These colors, these patterns, look at these textures... you can learn from them.”
Qin Xiangxiang was immediately amazed. This was an ancient artifact that had survived for two thousand years! She had finally seen ancient textiles with her own eyes. Their crab bathing ritual suddenly felt more formal. It would be great if they could take a picture to preserve this moment.
"Old Qi, who is this?" Professor Zhang pushed up his glasses and turned his curious gaze to Qin Xiangxiang.
Professor Qi said, "Don't underestimate this young lady just because she's young. She's a truly skilled craftswoman, a talented textile worker. Aren't you currently researching the craft of Chengyun embroidery? Perhaps you could ask her for her opinion."
Qin Xiangxiang: "...Actually, I don't know much about textiles or embroidery."
"Really? Ladies, take a look at this intricate embroidery. How did the ancients manage to create such fine stitches? It's simply amazing. Two thousand years ago, they already had such complex and intricate techniques. It's unimaginable."
Qin Xiangxiang walked over and initially just glanced at it casually, but then she couldn't help but fall into thought. After she caught sight of the bronze hook needle that was unearthed alongside it, a vague idea came to her mind.
Crochet hooks, crocheting lace flowers, weft insertion hooks from textile factories...
"Professor, look at this crochet hook over there."
Professor Zhang exclaimed in surprise: "What? You're saying this is a crochet hook?"
Qin Xiangxiang: "???? Isn't that right?"
“This…we previously thought it was clothing and accessories that came with textiles.”
"Perhaps it's like this, using silk threads to create a embroidery loop?"
Professor Zhang quickly said, "Comrade, you've given us a very good insight. Let's take a look at these again..."
Qin Xiangxiang: "???"
Over the next few days, Qin Xiangxiang was led by several professors to study the textiles unearthed from Mawangdui, while Yang Zhixia and others taught the printing workers how to design patterns. Xue Haiyang and Li Jinling, the newlywed couple, took some time out of their busy schedules to play with their children.
"Comrade Qin, I really hope you can stay here and continue your research."
Qin Xiangxiang was numb, feeling like she was soaking in a pile of burial objects and was almost turning into a female zombie. "...I am the factory manager of Feiyan Textile Factory."
Professor Qi said, "Comrade Qin, you have made outstanding contributions to the research on textiles produced at Mawangdui! In the future, the museum will also record your name in the register."
"People will not forget your outstanding contributions."
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
—You damn man, I want to go home.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
