Will This Puppet Come Alive After Being Repaired?

"So... is this your memory..."

Shen Le sighed softly, stroking the puppet's cheek. The eighties—that was over thirty years ago. In those thirty years, has your owner, that little boy, ever looked for you again?

Has he ever played with you since?

Or, after you were locked away in a box, had he already forgotten you?

Was the man who roared "Just throw it away!" and tossed you from the room directly into the river the same boy who, thirty years ago, cried out "Xiao Lin is my friend" and refused to let go even as his fingers were cut and bleeding from the string?

Regardless, the past is gone, and there is no point in dwelling on it. Shen Le sighed again and again. He found a basin, soaked the puppet's clothes, and then, grabbing a rag, washed the puppet thoroughly, inside and out. After setting it out to dry, he picked up his phone and began browsing Taobao:

"Chinese Fir... Chinese Fir... Chinese Fir..."

Thanks to the omnipotent Taobao, raw Chinese Fir is easy to buy online. Whether you need blocks, strips, or planks, it's all there. Four 2cm by 2cm, 30cm-long strips cost only ten yuan with free shipping. The sizes are versatile, customizable, and cheaper in bulk.

Shen Le estimated that the wood needed to repair this puppet would cost, at most, no more than 50 yuan.

Of course, that was only because the puppet was made of Chinese Fir, which is cheap. If it were Huanghuali, Red Sandalwood, or Wenge Wood... the cost of the wood would be one thing, but buying it online, you might not even get the real deal.

Fortunately, Shen Le didn't have to worry about buying Rosewood for the time being. He swiped through, placing a pile of orders: timber blocks, paint, silk thread, nylon thread, and various woodworking tools, among other things. While waiting for the deliveries, he got a good night's sleep and then began the cleaning process:

Step one: Use clear water and a rag to clean the surface. Remove the dust and years of grime from the puppet.

Step two: Use sandpaper to sand away the old paint on the puppet's surface...

"This work is truly exhausting..."

Shen Le held the puppet's head in one hand and the sandpaper in the other, gritting his teeth as he sanded with a continuous "shhh-shhh-shhh" sound. He would sand for a few moments, let go, shake out his wrist, sand a bit more, let go, and continue shaking his wrist...

"My sander... no, I have to go order a sander... If I keep going like this, I'm really going to end up with tendonitis..."

Sanding is truly not a job for a human! Fortunately, this puppet was mostly smooth, flat surfaces, so a sander could handle it. If it were those exquisite, complex carvings that required manual sanding, life would be unbearable...

Even so, he remained patient and worked hard. The sooner he repaired it, the sooner he could charge the Copper Fragment; the sooner it was charged, the sooner he could discover the Copper Fragment's new abilities.

To take a step back, he also felt quite sympathetic and curious about this puppet that could cry "Help!" and provide him with memories. If he fixed it early, maybe the puppet would come to life and help him out with chores?

He put down the sandpaper and picked up a Chisel Knife. Sanding could wait until the sander arrived, but removing the rotten parts had to be done by hand...

Shen Le lifted the bedsheet, looked at the table he was using as a workbench, then stood up and glanced around, hissing as he drew in a sharp breath. Huali, Huanghuali, Suanzhi, Red Sandalwood, Dalbergia Wood, Wenge Wood...

"My great-grandfather, or rather, his ancestors, were truly wealthy... This whole room of furniture is made of Rosewood... Using it as a workbench and fixing a Woodworking Clamp onto it, I just can't bring myself to do it..."

In the bedroom, opposite the canopy bed, was a Huanghuali vanity. Against the wall stood a Suanzhi half-table. In the outer room, under the window, was a Huali round table inlaid with Marble, surrounded by four round stools. To the right of the round table, leaning against the wall, was a Dalbergia Wood Zither Table...

No matter which one he chose, screwing a Woodworking Clamp onto it and leaving a deep mark just to hold the repair object would be an act of utter sacrilege!

He simply pushed the door open and went outside, searching room by room. The third courtyard, east and west sides, upstairs and downstairs, the side rooms; the second courtyard's main hall and side rooms; the first courtyard's carriage hall; after finishing the West Road, he went to the East Road, the study, the water pavilion by the Lotus Pond, and the Wangxian Tower in the third courtyard...

Searching high and low, every piece of furniture was either in the Ming or Qing style, made of one type of Rosewood or another, decorated with carved lacquer, inlaid mother-of-pearl, or covered in cloud patterns, scrolling vines, pomegranate seeds, bats, and peaches.

If he took these to the market, even without going to auction houses like Sotheby's or Christie's, selling them for tens or hundreds of thousands would be child's play.

Shen Le wandered all the way to a row of small bungalows behind Wangxian Tower, likely servant quarters, before he found a large square table. It had a flat surface, four straight legs, no carvings, and no decorations. Even the material was just some kind of hard miscellaneous wood—Shen Le couldn't quite identify it, perhaps Walnut Wood, Jujube Wood, or Elm Wood.

The tabletop was 1 meter by 1 meter, 2cm thick, and about 70cm high. Every detail was perfectly suited for his workbench.

The only problem was—

"Do I really have to carry this over myself?"

From the West Road to the East Road! Through courtyard gates, down alleys, over thresholds, up and down, twisting and turning—a conservative estimate of a hundred meters.

Such a large square table was hard to lift with his hands, and carrying it on his shoulder made his center of gravity unstable. It would be easy for two people to move, but for one person to shift it? It was a nightmare!!!

However, being a stranger in his hometown, Shen Le really didn't want to open the door and call someone to help him move a table. In the end, he found a rope, tied the table up with two horizontal and two vertical loops, strapped it to his back, and hauled it to the only room with air conditioning. Then, he fixed the Woodworking Clamp to the square table, secured the puppet's head in the clamp, and picked up the Chisel Knife to carve away the rotten parts:

Scrape, scrape, scrape. The 6mm flat chisel dug into the puppet's head, shaving along the edges of the cracks. With every stroke, fine, black, crumbly debris fell away. After a dozen strokes, a "click" sounded, as if he had hit something semi-hard.

Shen Le wrinkled his nose, released the puppet's head, turned it upside down to tap it, and then used a Brush to probe inside and clean it thoroughly. Following his movements, a small pile of things spilled out from the depths of the crack:

Sawdust, sawdust, and more sawdust. Sawdust, shriveled insect eggs, and a halved...

Cockroach carcass?!

"Holy crap!"

Shen Le felt as if he'd been burned; he shook the puppet's head in his hand vigorously, then shook it again. Only after confirming there were no living creatures inside—and that the cockroach carcass was so old it had shriveled into an unrecognizable shape—did he clean the table and put the puppet's head down.

"Poor thing... how long have you been forgotten? You've had a hard time all these years, haven't you..."

Chisel Knife, Iron Crowbar, Steel Needle. He used them one by one, cleaning out the cracks in the puppet's head and the holes where the silk thread passed through. Putting down the Steel Needle, Shen Le rubbed his palms together, feeling a bit excited:

"Just wait, I'll have your head fixed in no time!"

Once the head was repaired, or once the whole thing was restored, what kind of surprise would this puppet have in store for him?