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Chapter 27: Ancient Book Restorer

Wei Xian, nearly sixty years old, was a dedicated and responsible private tutor.

He taught in twenty-minute sessions with five-minute breaks in between. The pace was faster than at school. Perhaps because they were more relaxed at home and it was one-on-one instruction, the learning speed had also increased significantly.

Mi Yang would first do his own homework on the side. The lessons were mainly for Bai Luochuan; he was just an auditor.

Mi Yang listened as he slowly finished his homework. Mr. Wei even specially checked it for him, flipping through a few pages and nodding in satisfaction. “Mi Yang’s writing is good, and he got everything right.”

Bai Luochuan had also finished his exercises and showed them to Wei Xian. Wei Xian also praised him, “Good, no mistakes this time, and you’ve corrected the problem from yesterday.” He then gave Bai Luochuan a few similar problems. Seeing the young master Bai start writing, he said to Mi Yang, “You can rest for a while today. Don’t get too tired. Go and play!”

Bai Luochuan looked up at him, holding his pen and stopping his writing.

Mi Yang looked around and said, “Grandpa Wei, can I sit in the back and assemble a model for a while? I won’t talk.”

Wei Xian nodded in agreement. He was always lenient with students who were good at their studies and well-behaved.

The tip of Bai Luochuan’s pen, which had stopped, started moving again, and he buried his head in his work.

Mi Yang went to the back and picked up the box of Lego bricks. He found a round, soft carpet, sat down, and began to assemble them seriously.

During the World Cup last year, Lego bricks had suddenly become very popular. Initially, they were given as a free gift with a drink mix called “Gao Le Gao.” During the World Cup, if you bought a can of “Gao Le Gao,” you would get a small soccer player figure that you could assemble into various poses, which was quite interesting.

Mi Yang and Bai Luochuan had played with them for a while last year, assembling more than a dozen soccer player figures. Bai Luochuan was active and couldn’t stay still at home. But when it snowed heavily in the winter here, they couldn’t go out. Mrs. Bai had a large box of Lego bricks mailed over to coax them into practicing their manual dexterity. However, it only snowed heavily three times last year, which wasn’t enough to keep the young master Bai indoors. The model was only half-finished before being set aside.

Mi Yang had nothing to do, and the tutoring session was over, so he sat in the back and started to assemble things freely.

Lego bricks were small and could be assembled in any way; you didn’t have to follow the instructions. Mi Yang grabbed a small handful to practice. He was very fond of these small, handmade toys. In his previous life, to earn money, he had worked for a while making real estate models, which were much more complicated than this. This was true entertainment.

He assembled for a while and made a few small animals. The peacock and the cheetah were the most realistic. The hippopotamus was a bit too round, but with two front teeth, it was still quite interesting.

Seeing that there was a half-finished model in the box that Bai Luochuan had started, it was a model of the Temple of Heaven in the Forbidden City. There was also a blueprint next to it. Mi Yang picked it up and started to assemble it according to the blueprint. He was good with his hands and was the fastest at playing with models. He could basically get the gist of it with a single glance. His fingers moved nimbly, as if the small, fragmented bricks were made of plasticine. Whatever he thought of, he could form it in the next second.

Wei Xian had deliberately chosen this box of bricks and placed it in the study for a reason.

He usually used it as a reward. If they did well on their problems, they could play with it for a few minutes. At first, he had intended for Mi Yang to practice his manual dexterity and for Bai Luochuan to use it to temper his personality. After all, the two children were still young. They wouldn’t learn anything if they were cooped up all the time. It was better to combine education with entertainment. But now it seemed that Mi Yang was happily treating this as a pure reward, and as for the young master Bai’s personality… as long as Mi Yang was in the study, it was basically controllable.

Wei Xian couldn’t help but sigh to himself. It was still easier to handle two of them. When it was just the young master Bai alone, he was really a handful.

The young master Bai would look to the side after writing for a while, looking as if he couldn’t sit still. Mr. Wei looked at the time and said, “Luochuan, you can take a break too. You’ve studied well today.”

Bai Luochuan immediately went over to Mi Yang’s side and sat on the carpet with him, playing with the small toys. He thought the little peacock was exquisite and beautiful and even held it up for the teacher to see. “Grandpa Wei, look at this!”

Wei Xian took it and examined it, praising him with a smile, “Not bad, you’re very skilled!”

Bai Luochuan looked as proud as if he had received the compliment himself. After showing it to the teacher, he immediately took it back and placed it on the bookshelf behind him. He stood there and admired it for a while, very satisfied.

Mi Yang played for a little while, then put away the bricks and sat at a small table on the side to listen to the lecture.

After looking at the bricks, Bai Luochuan was also much more obedient and seriously studied the following lessons. It seemed the textbook was already at the second-grade level.

Wei Xian assigned them different lessons. While Bai Luochuan was doing arithmetic, he had Mi Yang write a piece of calligraphy for him to see.

In front of him, Mi Yang no longer used his left hand to write. The old gentleman was teaching seriously, so he had to show a serious attitude towards learning. Besides, Wei Xian had seen many similar “little geniuses” in Shanghai, even five-year-olds who could win gold medals in calligraphy. When he first saw Mi Yang’s writing, he only thought it was good, but not stunning.

Calligraphy really required a bit of talent. Mi Yang could only say that his handwriting was beautiful among ordinary people, but it was just a shell. Upon careful scrutiny, it wouldn’t hold up.

But in any case, for a seven-year-old child to be able to write neatly was already very satisfying for Wei Xian. He stroked the white beard on his chin and nodded repeatedly. “Not bad, but these are all wrong. For example, this return stroke, it should be like this… Who did you learn from?”

Mi Yang couldn’t very well say that he had taught himself in his previous life, so he said vaguely, “The elders in my family taught me.”

Mr. Wei nodded. “This is fine for fooling amateurs, but to write seriously, you have to start from the beginning.”

Mi Yang nodded in agreement.

Wei Xian then went to get a copybook and had him copy it, tracing the characters with his finger as he taught him, “Since you like it, start with the basics. Practice with this copybook. This piece by Teacher Qigong is very good. Elegant, clear, simple, and quiet… The return strokes are flexible, contained but not exposed. Beautiful!”

As he spoke, he couldn’t help but admire it himself. Mr. Wei had two hobbies: tea and books. The tea had to be piping hot, clear, and of good quality. As for books, he was a voracious reader, loving to glance at all sorts of things, and he also liked to collect books. When he came, he knew that there were few bookstores here, so he had specially packed a full suitcase of books to bring with him. This copybook was one of them.

Mi Yang was interested. “Are there many people who learn to write like this?”

Wei Xian clicked his tongue. “Practicing calligraphy is a solitary affair. You have to be able to endure loneliness. Let alone Mr. Qigong’s writing, even the great masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, their good works have been passed down for so many years. Everyone knows they’re good, but how many people seriously study them? People these days, there are many who praise but few who learn. If you can write diligently for ten or twenty years, you’ll be excellent.”

He assigned the two children some in-class homework, then sat back at his own desk and continued to read. As expected of a bibliophile, the book in his hand was already a bit loose, but he still held it with great care, turning the pages as lightly as possible.

Mi Yang looked up and his gaze lingered more on the old book in Mr. Wei’s hand. It was a copy of “A Study of Ancient Calligraphy Styles.” Mi Yang had good eyesight and saw that the publisher printed on the bottom of the cover page was Wenwu Publishing House. He had happened to restore a book just like this before. If he wasn’t mistaken, it should be the 1964 edition, an antique book from thirty years ago. It had been read many times, and no matter how well it was cared for, some pages were starting to come loose.

Mi Yang’s heart itched as he looked at it, and he couldn’t help but glance at the old book a couple more times.

When he had introduced himself in the first class of the third grade, he hadn’t been wrong. His hobbies were indeed handicrafts and writing.

However, among his hobbies, writing was only a slight interest. What he truly loved was handicrafts—the restoration of ancient books. For this reason, he was also very interested in calligraphy and painting. When he was in school, he had even learned a lot of chemistry and biology, and had experimented with paper dyeing a few times, coincidentally creating a type of restoration paper of quite good quality. But these were all interests that had developed to aid in the restoration of ancient books. Whenever he saw a damaged old book, Mi Yang felt that they were “sick books,” and the way he repaired them with his tools was like performing “surgery.” Seeing the “sick books” recover in his hands gave him a special sense of intimacy and accomplishment.

When Mi Yang was in university, he had wanted to major in library science. He was good with his hands, and there was an ancient book restoration department, which he loved the most. But it was difficult to find a job in this field. Not even two of the graduates from this major could stay in the field; they all changed careers. Mi Yang’s family didn’t support it either, and after some discussion, Mi Yang had to give it up.

However, he hadn’t completely given up on this little hobby. He had done a lot of similar work on his own. The reason he had been able to pay off his mortgage early was thanks to his skill in “handicrafts.” After making a name for himself, he had taken on a few private orders and earned a lot of money.

If he hadn’t rewound and started over in the blink of an eye, he would have planned to take the exam to become an ancient book restorer after paying off his mortgage.

The thought of that apartment made Mi Yang’s heart ache a little.

He quickly wrote a few characters to calm his mind.

Bai Luochuan saw him looking up from time to time and found it a bit strange. He also glanced over but only saw Mr. Wei reading a book, and nothing else unusual. The young master Bai tilted his head and his gaze also fell on the book.

When the weekend came, Mi Yang, as usual, came over with his pillow to sleep with the young master Bai. After he had transferred to the third grade, Bai Luochuan had started to have him come over to sleep with him on the weekends. After he had made a fuss many times, Mi Yang had gotten used to it.

Just as Mi Yang had placed his small pillow next to Bai Luochuan’s, he saw the young master Bai sitting cross-legged on the bed, his eyes sparkling as he said to him, “Little Good Boy, I have something for you!”

Mi Yang had a bad feeling. When the young master Bai proudly took out a wrapped object from under his pillow and gestured for him to open it and see, Mi Yang felt that something was wrong as soon as he took it. When he opened it, his scalp tingled. It was indeed Mr. Wei’s copy of “A Study of Ancient Calligraphy Styles.”

Mi Yang said, “What are you doing with this? Hurry up and give it back to Grandpa Wei. He treasures this book the most.”

Bai Luochuan said, “He’s on leave and went back to Shanghai. He’ll be back in at least three days! You can read it this weekend. You kept looking at it the other day. Did you really want to read it?”

Mi Yang looked at the young master Bai, then down at the “sick book” lying quietly there. From its symptoms, it only had minor loose pages and curled and damaged corners. They were all small problems. His fingers couldn’t help but itch to get to work.

“You said Grandpa Wei will be back in three days, right?”

“Right!”

***

Author’s Note:
Mi Yang (rubbing his hands): Come on, let’s do something big.