Poor young cop. The moment he heard someone had jumped into the river, he came sprinting over, sweating buckets. A huge patch of sweat had soaked through his short-sleeved shirt, turning the pale blue fabric across his chest dark blue.
At Shen Le's answer, the flush in the young cop's cheeks slowly faded. He looked at the Puppet, then at Shen Le, then up at the river ahead. He opened his mouth, seemingly unsure whether to praise him or reprimand him. After a moment, he managed to squeeze out:
"...Next time, make sure you know what you're looking at!"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh, I definitely won't jump into rivers at random again..."
"It's all right, it's all right. Move along, everyone!" The young cop waved to the crowd, shooing them away. Then he crouched down and held out a hand to Shen Le.
"Give me the thing first. Can you climb up by yourself? Good, grab my hand... One, two, three, up!"
Shen Le was hauled straight up onto the stone embankment. As he stood, the cop fired off a string of questions.
"How are you? Are you hurt? Did you lose anything? Your clothes are soaked through. Want me to take you home?"
"Oh, no, no!" Shen Le quickly checked himself. The soles of his feet weren't cut from the riverbed, and he hadn't scraped his arms or legs. His shoes were still there, and his phone and keys were still inside them.
"Don't worry, I'm fine! I live at 18 Nanhua Street, really close by. It's so hot today, I can just walk home. Sorry for the trouble!"
"18 Nanhua Street?" The cop stiffened and stared deeply at Shen Le, as if he wanted to see right through him to his bones. That was a huge mansion!
But after looking him over, all he saw was a bedraggled, soaking-wet guy. So he took out his phone and held it out to Shen Le.
"Glad you're all right. I'll get going, then. I still need to find out who dropped this Puppet. Throwing things from up high, honestly... Here, add me on WeChat. I'm Shi Guangbing, the community officer for this neighborhood. Get in touch if you need anything!"
Well, he was the cop responsible for this area. When it came time to renovate the house and buy equipment, he might need to purchase some controlled chemicals. It was always handy to know a cop. Shen Le quickly added him on WeChat, said goodbye to the young officer, picked up the Puppet that knew how to call for help, and hurried back to the Old Mansion.
After showering and changing, he set the Puppet on his workbench and carefully began to untangle the Silk Thread, inspecting it bit by bit.
The Puppet was probably a marionette, about sixty centimeters tall, with Silk Thread tied to all its joints. It had no major missing parts: its head, neck, torso, limbs, and all ten fingers were still there.
But the wood wasn't very good quality. It was probably Chinese Fir, and time had taken its toll, leaving plenty of damage. The Paint on its surface had become old and peeled away in large patches. There was a clear crack at the back of its head, and its torso was nearly split in two. A huge chunk had been knocked off its right forearm, and there was a hole rotted through its left thigh. Countless other bumps, dents, and stains covered the rest of it.
The Puppet's clothes were torn, frayed, and faded. But when Shen Le carefully spread out its skirt beneath the light, he could still see large peonies embroidered in silver thread, luxurious and brilliant, so lifelike they seemed ready to bloom.
As for the makeup on the Puppet's face, the years had dulled and faded it until it had nearly disappeared. Only its lively eyes and the vermilion teardrop at the corner of one eye still hinted at the peerless beauty it must once have possessed.
"Ah... You must have been beautiful once..."
Shen Le gently brushed his fingertip over that single teardrop and sighed. He calmed himself, untied the Puppet's Silk Thread one strand at a time, removed its damaged clothes, and laid out its head, torso, limbs, hands, and feet in order.
Then he dampened a rag and wiped, wiped, wiped and wiped...
"Ah, I can repair wood, at least. I studied the restoration of ancient architecture. If you want me to fix you up, I can do that. If you want me to carve replacement pieces and swap out the damaged parts, that won't be hard either. Replacing the Silk Thread is no problem. I just don't know if you'd accept Nylon Thread..."
As he wiped, he muttered softly, pretending he was talking to the Puppet.
"I can't do anything about the clothes. I don't know how to make clothes, so I'll have to buy some. I'll do my best to find a pattern and style like yours. As for the makeup, that'll be the last thing. If you think I'm bad at painting, then we'll just have to see if this Copper Fragment can help restore it..."
As he spoke, Shen Le had a sudden thought. He took out the Copper Fragment and pressed it against the Puppet's face. A wave of heat seeped from the fragment into the Puppet, then flowed back from the Puppet to Shen Le's fingertips. The next moment, his vision went black and the world spun around him—
"Thud!"
A muffled thump. Shen Le felt his entire field of vision shudder several times. Dust rained down, making it almost impossible to open his eyes. Before he could make out his surroundings, a furious roar exploded in front of him—or above his head.
"All you do is play, play, play! You do nothing but play all day! You don't do your homework! You don't read your books! What's so fun about this stupid Puppet?!"
"Xiao Lin isn't a stupid Puppet..."
A small, frightened voice rose in defiance. Shen Le turned his gaze and saw that he was standing in a cramped little room. It had a cement floor and walls painted white on top and green below. A bare incandescent bulb swayed from the ceiling, no more than fifteen watts. It was unmistakably a scene from the 1980s.
Huh?
Had I traveled through time?
Shen Le rubbed his eyes and looked around. In the corner, a boy of seven or eight stood in front of a wooden chest, his arms wrapped protectively around his chest as he clutched a Puppet. It was about half as tall as the boy. Its bright red brocade skirt was in tatters, but the large silver-threaded flowers were still visible. Its makeup was faded, while the vermilion mark at the corner of its eye stood out vividly. It was the very Puppet Shen Le had pulled from the river.
The boy's face was red, but he held his chin high and glared defiantly at the adult man before him.
"Xiao Lin is my friend!"
"Fine, fine. So you're talking back to me now!" The man's face darkened as he strode forward and yanked the Puppet right out of the boy's hands. Another step brought him to the window. He reached out to push it open.
"I bust my ass at the factory every day, then take odd jobs all over the place after work, and this is what I get? You don't do your homework properly and play with a Puppet all day! I'm throwing it away today. Let's see what you'll play with then!"
"Grandpa left Xiao Lin to me!" The boy jumped desperately, grabbing hold of the Puppet's Silk Thread and winding it around his hand.
"I promised Grandpa I'd become the best Puppet master ever! I'll take Xiao Lin everywhere to perform! Don't throw it away! Don't throw it away! Waaaaah—"
Weeping loudly, he tugged with all his might to pull the Puppet back. The Silk Thread dug deep into his flesh, and even when it drew blood from his fingers, he refused to let go. Unable to bear watching, Shen Le reached for the Puppet and tried to reason with the man.
"Don't do that..."
His fingers passed straight through the man's arm, like smoke, unable to touch it at all. Shen Le froze for a moment, then swung his arms, shouted, and even tried to ram into them. No matter what he did, he couldn't affect the father and son in any way.
"Could this... just be a memory? I'm here, but no one can see or hear me, and I can't do anything. I can only watch?"
Shen Le lowered his arms helplessly. In the room, the father and son were still arguing.
"What do you mean, a Puppet master? There's no future in being a Puppet master these days! Is a troupe going to hire you? Is a theater going to hire you? I work myself to the bone to put you through school, just so you can go out on the street and play with Puppets?"
"I'm really good at performing! The kids all love watching!"
"They can love watching all they want, it still won't do! Even if you want to join the Children's Palace, you have to study your way in! We have no connections, so you have to at least finish high school before you can figure out a way to get into the Children's Palace! If you end up like your old man, who only finished middle school, all you'll be able to do is work at a neighborhood factory!"
The father and son argued back and forth several times. In the end, the father was the one who gave in.
"All right, all right! I won't throw it away, but you're not allowed to play with it either! Let go! I'll lock it up!"
Carefully, he unwound the Silk Thread from his son's hand, picked up the Puppet, and tossed it into the chest. The lid fell with a thud, followed immediately by the click, click of a lock.
Shen Le's vision instantly went black, then brightened again.
When his vision returned, he was back at the workbench. The disassembled Puppet lay sprawled across the tabletop, its head and limbs scattered here and there.