"What? Cast a whole new set?!"
Shen Le's voice nearly cracked. The old ones hadn't even been restored yet, and the first thing you said was to cast a new set?
Casting a set of chime bells was a massive undertaking, Dean! Even if we weren't short on money—if the little stash we had on hand was enough to cast eighty or a hundred sets of bells—that didn't mean I could just cast one because I said so!!!
It had to start with mold-making and sand casting, proceeding step by step to produce a set of chime bells with beautiful tones, conforming to the twelve-tone equal temperament, and matching the artifacts in both appearance and size—
Did you even consider how huge a project that was, Dean?!
Work like reproducing the Marquis Yi of Zeng Chime Bells was qualified to be listed as a national key project!
Back when that set of chime bells was reproduced, the Cultural Relics Bureau had taken the lead, joining forces with the Hubei Provincial Museum, the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and seven other institutions. They had worked their asses off for four years before getting it done!
And now, with just a flap of your lips, you wanted me to "cast a new set"?
"What's the big deal?"
Dean Wang rolled his eyes at Shen Le. Pulling out his phone, he rapidly brought up several papers and sent them straight to Shen Le's WeChat:
<Research into the Restoration of the "Dayu Bell" of the Marquis Yi of Zeng Chime Bells>
<Conservation and Restoration of Yong Bell M1:2 Unearthed from M1 at Wenfeng Pagoda, Suizhou (Tomb of Marquis Yu of Zeng)>
<Research on the Form and Sound Restoration of Warring States Chime Bells from Nine Linked