The Bronze Tripod hummed softly, as if in delight.
Shen Le closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he saw Professor Hou staring at him one moment, then turning to look at the newly repaired pottery basin the next, her expression extraordinarily complicated.
"What is it?"
"This pottery basin... are you taking it with you?"
Professor Hou forced a smile. Shen Le held his hands suspended above the pottery basin, listening to its heart and sensing its spirituality. After a long while, he shook his head. "No. It has no independent consciousness and will not become a spirit artifact, so there's no need for me to take it. Perhaps it would be more suitable displayed here?"
Professor Hou's smile became even more strained. After a long moment, she let out a long sigh. "You repaired it into this state..."
One hundred and eighty-seven fragments, filler, refiring—it had become a complete pottery basin. Yes, the basin was whole, and there was not the slightest trace of restoration left—
What the original fragments had looked like, where they had been bonded together—all of it had vanished, completely irreversibly.
Put a pottery basin like this in an expert's hands, and any expert would say, "Neolithic culture? Who are you kidding? This was fired yesterday, wasn't it? The heat hasn't even faded yet!"
"Anyway, I'm leaving it with you! Display it or do whatever you want with it—you decide!"
Shen Le took off running—time to slip away, on to the next one. Whatever they said about him behind his back at the Yangshao Culture exhibition hall was none of his business—
His next stop was Liangzhu Museum. Luckily, it was quite close to Zhuxi Town, only 130 kilometers in a straight line and less than two hours by car—should he