No sooner had I returned to my studio in Palo Alto than I was forced to press in front of the big screen by Jasmine to "cram up" on Resurrection and Immortality. This movie was a dark horse in last summer's file, and once topped the North American box office for four consecutive months. Jasmine spreads colorful snacks on the small table in front of the couch and criticizes me for being completely behind the times in terms of movie appreciation, while pressing the play switch on the remote control.

The movie is based on the famous book "Resurrection", but basically only the character design is retained, the background of the era has changed from 19th century Russia to Victorian England, and fashionable magical elements have been added to the plot, and the spiritual "resurrection" in the famous book has become a visual "resurrection" crawling out of the grave, and at the same time, the male protagonist known as the "Duke of Kent" has also become immortal under the call of mysterious forces, and after solving the problems left behind before his death, he has become a superhero who fights against all evil forces......

Throughout the movie-watching process, every time she encounters a close-up of the hero, Jasmine has to press pause to comment. "The actor of British descent, who plays the Duke of Kent, actually debuted very early, and has been playing some small roles that are not in the ordinary, as if he has also acted in stage plays. I was fortunate enough to be chosen by the director of this play, and I became famous in a fight......"

I nodded perfunctorily, the Duke of Kent in the picture has upright and distinct facial features, his eyes are gloomy like London fog, and the overall feeling is a "muscle-enhanced version of Hamlet".

I was more concerned about the film in his hand than the "Duke of Kent", and I let the fight scene on the big screen opposite play out, staring at the iPad in my hand, which showed the film materials from Carson.

Legend has it that "Blurred Fate" is missing the last 6 minutes of footage, but if this disc is genuine, the missing footage is not as long as the legend suggests. According to the information, this is supposed to be a full Kodak 35mm film, 400 feet (122 meters) long, with a play time of about 4.4 minutes. The film is obviously not stored in a good environment, and there is serious mold, corrosion, broken teeth, delamination, deformation, and breakage. There is also a composition analysis data of impurities attached to the film, although it is not 100% certain, but the combination of these components is very similar to humus. It is rumored that the lost part of the film was taken to the grave by the director of "Vague Fate", could it be that "Duke of Kent" is really ...... I had in my mind an image of the tall, handsome and gloomy Duke of Kent breaking out of the earth from the catacombs on his black steed, with a circle of film around his neck......

One sunny morning, the Duke of Kent showed up in my conference room to hear our restoration proposals, negotiate the signing of the contract (if we were satisfied with our proposals), and so on. Without the lights, sets, makeup, and special effects, it was no longer the "Duke of Kent" who walked in the fresh air of June, but a young man named Henry, who was engaged in acting.

Mr. Carson received him warmly and personally introduced our restoration plan to him. Carson is a novice in technology, but he has an ability to turn decay into magic, and can communicate and explain those complex and difficult repair processes and principles to customers who are also technical novices in a "language that normal people can understand" (Carson's original words), and has achieved excellent results. Mr. Carson is nearly 50 years old, of medium build, of average appearance, but exudes an irresistible affinity. His precise choice of words, smooth intonation, combined with concise and generous PPT, and some humor, the whole introduction is perfect. Even watching in front of the monitor almost applauded. I was in front of the monitor because I wasn't in the conference room. The reason why I'm not in the conference room is because I really have a headache with these things to communicate with customers. Especially as the founder and operator of a studio, you have to think about things from more than just technology. I remember in the early days of the studio, I had to be physically involved in both the restoration work and the client. Damai warned me more than once: "Don't make the presentation of the program to the client like an academic seminar, most of them don't understand the words you say...... but since I "picked up" Mr. Carson, everything has been better. When I first met Mr. Carson, he was standing outside the studio door in a crumpled shirt, sweaty, and haggard, trying to sell us a kind of printer paper that didn't look very good. I received him, and although I was not optimistic about the paper, I was attracted by his sincere gesture and innovative sales ideas. Later, I learned that he used to be an executive of a well-known company, and because he reported a scandal with his boss, he was retaliated against, not only swept away from the company, but also blacklisted by similar companies, and could no longer find a good job and position. When I decided to hire Carson as a business executive, he seriously asked, "Aren't you afraid of my old company retaliating?" I laughed and said, "I don't think your old company would know about our studio." Then tell him that from this moment on, if I want to fire him, the reason can only be "not working hard", not some "outside pressure".

Mr. Carson was able to play his part, and I was able to finally retreat into what I was good at, and most of my clients were not familiar with me, and they probably just heard from Carson that "this program was developed by our founders themselves". There were even a few times when I was simply involved in the repairs as a regular employee with other technicians, and the customer had no idea who I was. When I'm dealing with some important clients, I monitor the meeting in real time and keep in touch with Carson via a micro headset in case the client asks something technically difficult.

Mr. Carson's presentation of the plan is over, during which Jasmine serves coffee to her goddess Henry, and admires his face up close.

Henry seemed pleased with our proposal, but just as Carson was about to hand over the contract, he suddenly said, "I've heard that the founder of FIX Studios is a top expert at restoring antiques, and I'd like her to do it herself." "

In fact, I had already told Carson that I was going to repair the film by hand, and I was going to pretend to be an ordinary technician, but now Henry's request was nothing more than for me to show up as my real identity. I thought Carson would go along with the boat and agree, but I didn't expect him to frown slightly and say in a polite tone: "You are right, if you want to talk about the level of repair, no one can compare with her." However, she is now more involved in the restoration of cultural relics in museums around the world, as well as research and lectures, and can only participate selectively in the business of the studio......"

Oh my God, am I really that good? Restoration of cultural relics in museums around the world? It is said that the orthodox conservation community is controversial about my restoration methods, so I have only been involved in a few conservation projects of modern artworks so far.

Carson continued, "Her time is precious, but you can ......rest assured that our technicians are pretty good."

Henry smiled slightly: "I understand, you adjust the offer according to the 'precious time', I can sign the contract at any time"......

I have to admit that Mr. Carson is indeed a good employee who cares about the company's performance, but this kind of "everything can be priced" approach in business still makes me uncomfortable.

A week later, my team and I arrived at Henry's villa in Los Angeles.

In the basement, we set up a transparent tent called the "Ice Cube", a cube-shaped stand covered with a film made of a special material, which is thin and transparent, but can effectively maintain the temperature and humidity in the canopy, and with the help of a miniature environmental index regulator, it can create the external environment necessary for the restoration work in the canopy. At the same time, full transparency also allows our clients to monitor our processes with peace of mind and eliminate their concerns about illegal activities such as "stealing from pillars". Not only that, but we also have a miniature camera inside the canopy, so that customers can watch us in real time through the app.

The early stage of repair is mainly to soak the film through a special potion prepared by ourselves to solve the problems of adhesion, delamination and deformation, and then solve the problems of mildew and scratches through biological agents, and at the same time, re-stimulate the developing coating on the film base, restore the original picture, and eliminate shadows and noise. I was in charge of individual films that were badly damaged or missing, and although this was the hardest part, I was given the confidence to have the right tools: a microscopic 3D printer that I had recently been in love with, and a digital analysis and sample restoration system that I and a few MIT students had developed to reverse time and physically reconstruct the disappeared film and the images on it.

The restoration was going well, Henry barely showed up in the basement, and I only occasionally caught up with him when I arrived or left, and on a few occasions I saw him in tracksuit, looking like he was getting ready for a workout or had just finished a workout. It's not easy to think about them actors who play tough guy roles, after all, six-pack abs are not born out of thin air.

One sunny afternoon, "Elemental-kun" and MC completed their work in stages, and the film needed to be dried in the tent at an accelerated pace, but because the environment for accelerated drying was not good for the human body, they could only wait outside the tent. I "pardoned" the two lads for an early call down (to chill out at the palm bar they've been talking about), leaving me to wait for the drying to finish and then do some finishing touches.

After making sure everything was working in the Ice Cube, I went through the side door in the basement to the backyard, which was clean and unadorned, just a large neat lawn. I stood on the lawn and took a deep breath and raised my arms to stretch my body. After working for several days, I was still a little tired, and my muscles became stiff. Suddenly, a furry figure approached me from a distance, and in an instant a meteorite-colored border collie stood up to me. It looked at me with clear, slightly pleading eyes, and placed a half-deflated ball in its mouth in front of me. I could almost hear him crying out from the depths of his heart: "Play with me, please, play with me!" "In the face of such a cute animal, such a cute request, what reason do I have to refuse?! I crouched down and touched its head, then picked up the ball. The moment my hand touched the ball, the dog's eyes lit up and he immediately entered the pre-game state of "imminent battle". So, we started to play wildly on the grass, I threw it to pick it up, I grabbed it, and I suddenly remembered that the book said that Bian Mu was the best at catching frisbees, so I pinched the ball even more deflated and transformed it into a frisbee. I ran backwards trying to find a suitable spot to test fly my frisbee, only to slam into a man. It felt like my back hit a stone wall, and my body couldn't help but fall forward, and a strong hand grabbed my waist and pulled me back with ease. I hurriedly turned around and met Henry's face. We seemed too close and I tried to take a step back, but his hand was still on my waist, making me unable to move. Unexpectedly, at this time, the naughty Bian Mu took advantage of my unpreparedness to take the ball in my hand, this guy's strength is not ordinary, and I fell to the side again, and Henry easily pulled me back again to straighten up.

It was an embarrassing moment, and my bowels were blue with remorse for my sloppy behavior of "playing with the client's dog during working hours". Clients paid a lot of money for my working hours, and I ended up ...... And how can I keep my clients confident in my professional abilities with my staggered and unobtrusive appearance now?

I looked into Henry's eyes, looking for a precursor to a burning rage. He also looked at me, as if with some doubt and curiosity, and finally let go of the hand that was on my waist.

In order to break the embarrassment, I had no words to say, "Your dog is so cute, what's its name?" ”

"I don't know," Henry replied, with a look on his face that wanted to laugh but couldn't.

"Huh?" I don't understand.

"I don't know what it's called because it's not my dog." The expression on Henry's face intensified.

It was really five thunderbolts and the sky and the earth cracked. It turned out that I was "playing with a dog who wasn't a customer during working hours", and the problem was even more serious. I turned my head and saw that the culprit had disappeared from the backyard without a trace!

"That guy is raised next door, and for some reason he always likes to come to my backyard to have fun." Henry seemed to say nonchalantly.

I decided to flee the crime scene quickly, and if Henry was unhappy with my work or complained, let Mr. Carson or my legal counsel, Miss Amanda, clean up the mess.

"I thought, I'll have to go back, go back and see what's going on in the workshop...... "Maybe it's because I've been playing so crazy just now, maybe it's because I'm nervous, and my voice is hoarse."

Henry handed me a bottle of mineral water, looked me up and down, and asked, "Did you bring a change of clothes?" ”

I walked out of the bathroom at Henry's Villa clean and tidy, thankfully I always brought a change of clothes with me every time I went out to work, in case I got stained with the potions, paints, etc. I stuffed the dirty clothes with mud spots and "dog paw signatures" in my bag, carried the bag and ran back to the basement while there was no one around.

The drying program ends automatically and the Ice Cube returns to its normal environmental settings. I carefully pulled open a piece of film, staring at the light and trying to see what it was looking at. The picture is supposed to be a turbulent wave, and my heart seems to rise and fall with this picture. I think that the creator of this movie insists on hiding this final ending, there must be a reason for her, and now we want to make it re-visible, whether it goes against the original intention of the creator, and whether it changes its due fate. As the question that has always haunted me is whether or not to restore these antiques. Their wounds, damages, and disappearance are all gifts given by time, and they all carry indelible memories, and whether artificial repair has destroyed their beauty, but changed their proper appearance. This proposition, just like whether human beings should pursue "rejuvenation", is entangled in philosophical, moral, natural, and social concepts, and there is no definite solution.

I put the film back in the incubator, tidied up the workbench, and walked out of the Ice Cube, and just as I was about to turn off the lights in the Cube with the remote control in my hand, Henry walked out of the dim corner next to me, which really startled me. Has he been there, silently watching me?

"Your workshop is beautiful, it's like a stage." As he spoke, he raised his DSLR camera, and the display on it showed me looking at film in the Cube, and it was a great composition, the light and shadow made the Cube dramatic, and I was shrouded in an illusory beauty.

I ran my hand through one side of my hair and looked down at the photo carefully, and his voice sounded in my ears again: "Come with me." ”

"What?" I asked, looking up

"I have a 35mm projector, the film is fixed, I want you to watch it with me, right here ......"