Gu Nian never imagined that the antique shop her grandfather left behind would become the “starter village” of her life. Then a Republic-era clock began sobbing about the secret from 1949 hidden inside it, and a Tang dynasty sancai camel spread glowing wings in a moment of danger. That was when she discovered she could hear the “voices” of cultural relics.
To save the old shop, which held memories of the past, and help the county museum’s blue-and-white porcelain bowl find its swapped-out original, this girl who can talk to artifacts has no choice but to take a demanding path to maturity. She studies cultural relic restoration, ventures into Sanxingdui to decipher the weeping of the bronze sacred tree, travels to Dunhuang to catch the fading tears of the flying apsaras, and ultimately knocks on the gates of the Palace Museum.
Here, the ink in A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains can run wild, a clock made by Qianlong’s calligrapher holds an artisan’s obsession, and even the taotie patterns on Shang and Zhou bronze vessels conceal the codes of guardians who have watched over the world for millennia. When Dunhuang manuscripts lost overseas all cry out together, and a Sanxingdui gold mask resonates with an Egyptian pharaoh’s mask beneath the moonlight, Gu Nian finally understands: cultural relics remember everything about humanity, and the bond between people and these objects has long been inscribed in the genes of civilization.
This is an adventure in restoration: mending the cracks in artifacts and restoring forgotten history. It is also a journey of mutual salvation: humanity protects the lives of cultural relics, and in turn, they safeguard the memories humanity must never lose.
