Because Wang Liang's team had already done a simple preliminary investigation of the west wall of Cave 496, and had already carried out dust removal and pathological protection and restoration treatment on the surface murals, it was only difficult to find out which method to take.

It is difficult to know what is under this fresco, from the thickness of the adobe of the heavy layer of the cave fresco, if the protruding part is really a three-layer fresco, then this thickness is not enough to make two layers of adobe, and if there are two layers of adobe underneath, the adobe layer must be very thin.

"When you do pathological restoration, do you find the adobe layer underneath?" Guan Ji asked Wang Liang.

Wang Liang shook his head slowly while recalling: "The strange thing is here, there are more or less problems with armor and hollowing in other parts of this cave, but there is no structural disease in this place, only the chalking phenomenon caused by the aging of some murals themselves. ”

"There are generally three cases of heavy murals." Guan Ji's brows gradually twisted together, "The first is to build adobe on top of the original mural, and then plaster mud and powder for secondary painting, the second is to cover it with grass mud and hemp mud and then paint it with powder, and the last one..."

Chen Qiong looked at Guan Ji without blinking her eyes, she was not in this field, she was curious about these.

As she said earlier, Grandma Liu returned to the Grand View Garden.

"It's just a very thin layer of powder." Guan Ji didn't procrastinate, turned his head to look at the mural behind him, and then said the answer.

Wang Liang also understood what Guan Ji meant: "Are you worried that this is the third type? ”

Guan Ji didn't speak, he was afraid that the surface mural was directly brushed with a layer of powder to paint.

This third kind of excavation requires extremely skilled skills, because only a layer of pigment is removed, and the removal of the non-ground staff layer is not very different, this is not a rock mass, directly is the inner layer of murals, and the principle of uncovering heavy murals is to make the surface murals intact, but also not to let the murals next to the bottom be damaged, so the difficulty is extremely high, and generally for this kind of is not easy to remove.

"Old man." Guan Ji had his own plan in mind, "I want to find an inconspicuous place to see what kind of structure is underneath." ”

He Baihe also understood what Guan Ji meant, and laughed: "You, you are also bolder, this is the crime of destroying cultural relics." ”

Guan Ji smiled and nodded, recognizing what the old man said: "So isn't this asking you for instructions?" ”

He Baihe immediately shook his head, in stark contrast to Guan Ji's nod: "This is not good, we are here to protect and repair here, not to do damage, Dunhuang is already sick, put away your thoughts, this place is really not good, just stay here, and when the technology is more developed in the future, let those young people in the back get it." ”

Guan Ji was silent, lowered his eyes and exhaled, murals as Dunhuang art has always had a very high research value, Chinese art history and Buddhist art and the humanities and folk customs of various dynasties can be found on it, especially the missing hundreds of years in the middle of Chinese art history can be found in Dunhuang murals, which complements a complete history of Chinese art.

Every square centimeter is precious, but in the past, in order to analyze the current situation of the mural in order to conduct better research, it was necessary to take a sample of the mural and take it back to the laboratory for further analysis.

It was only a decade between the time when the murals had to be destroyed to analyze the current state of the murals, and the fact that the murals could now be easily seen in the caves using those high-tech technologies.

Although countless people have been rushing to repair and protect the Mogao Grottoes over the years, due to external objective reasons such as environment and climate, the Mogao Grottoes are still disappearing due to wind erosion and dust and sand, and some experts predict that the Mogao Grottoes will gradually disappear in this Gobi in the next 50 to 100 years.

Although this prediction is not valid from the current situation of restoration and protection, there are too many uncontrollable factors in the natural environment, and everything that is being done now is only to slow down the rate of disappearance.

The disappearance of the Mogao Grottoes is still irreversible.

He also understands the old man's feelings, in recent years, science and technology have developed rapidly, everything is possible in the future, and today's Mogao Grottoes can not be destroyed.

"But old man, who knows how long the murals here will last? Maybe in the next few years, the disease will be severe, and then you won't even be able to see anything. Guan Ji looked at He Baihe, and inadvertently caught a glimpse of Chen Qiong next to him also looking at himself, he only glanced lightly, and then looked at the old man, "The murals of the entire cave have been seriously eroded by the disease, and this place alone is preserved like Yulin Cave, and only this part is protruding." ”

"To tell you the truth, I'm curious about this place to see what's inside, and I think the research value here is immeasurable."

He Baihe took a deep breath, and his heart was a little shaken, he was indeed very interested in what was under the protruding part of the mural.

Wang Liang chose the latter out of strong research interests and concerns: "According to the guidelines for the protection of cultural relics and monuments, there is no need to intervene more in places where there is no major danger in the near future except for daily maintenance, and this excavation study only exposes the seriously damaged south and north walls." ”

In all kinds of restoration, all steps and actions must be carried out in strict accordance with the guidelines for the protection of cultural relics and monuments.

Guan Ji nodded thoughtfully: "Lao Wang, the guidelines also say that when a cultural relic and historic site is preserved in a certain period of different components and techniques, after value demonstration, different measures can be taken according to different values, so that the parts with preservation value can be protected." ”

He Baihe hesitated for a while: "This matter is too big, we don't know what the value is and how much value it is, we have to let the experts evaluate it, you write a detailed report and see what the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau means." ”

"Okay, I see." Guan Ji got the old man's permission, and he had a support in his heart, and there was a little more smile on his face.

Chen Qiong, who watched all this, saw the enthusiasm of Guan Jian and He Baihe's interest clearly in her eyes, and she looked sideways at the "large floor painting" of the protruding part, the surface mural was like a cloth covering it from dust, like a Mona Lisa's smile, arousing people's interest in uncovering the layer of cloth to find out.

Because this matter had to be reported to the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau, it was not finalized, and Guan Ji, who was not repaired in this cave, went back to his own cave, and prepared to go back to the dormitory in the evening to write a detailed analysis report.

Before the official unveiling of the mural, in addition to the preliminary data collection and investigation, it is also necessary to carry out some preliminary work to clean and strengthen the mural.

The elderly He Baihe also picked up the tools and went on the scaffold to repair those pathological murals, Chen Qiong watched from the side, handed over the tools from time to time, and listened to the old man say that the place being repaired is the cheek of a certain Bodhisattva, what is the name of the solution used for repair, and what is the name of the repair tool, such as ear washing balls and soft brushes are used for dust removal, and dust collectors are used when encountering murals mixed with small stones.

These are all professional knowledge of mural restoration.

Chen Qiong listened with a smile, nodded in a daze like in a math class, and her mental state was not good, so she almost didn't want to speak, but she would still pick up a few words from the old man.

When it was time to have dinner, Zhang Xiaomao said that it was to celebrate her first time in the cave, and specially made a bowl of stewed mutton for her to eat, this kindness Chen Qiong really didn't know how to live up to it, just like the chicken and duck meat that the elders kindly sandwiched into your bowl during the New Year's holiday, even if you don't like to eat it, you have to eat it hard to express your gratitude.

Zhang Xiaomao is one of those elders, she has never eaten mutton, she can only force herself to eat a few pieces, and the smell in her throat makes her never touch the bowl of mutton again.