304: Chapter 304 Replica of the Forbidden City's Coffered Ceiling!

When the four towering pillars and the thick beams interlocked seamlessly to form the main frame of a magnificent hall...

In Netflix's global livestream, the waves of doubt had already been replaced by awe.

The foreigners watched that wooden skeleton, which didn't use a single iron nail yet stood as stable as Mount Tai, as if they were witnessing an incredible piece of Eastern magic.

However.

Su Zhe, standing in the center of the clearing, merely patted the wood chips off his hands with a calm expression.

"A simple frame is just an appetizer."

Su Zhe picked up the Meteorite Luban Axe and looked up at the empty roof above, his voice steady yet exuding the disdainful aura of a grandmaster: "The soul of ancient Chinese architecture lies at the top."

As his voice fell.

Su Zhe walked toward a mountain-like pile of high-grade red pine timber nearby.

This time, he no longer hacked at those massive beams, but instead switched to an exquisite chisel and a wood plane.

His goal was to replicate the pinnacle of Chinese architectural aesthetics—the Nine-Dragon Caisson Ceiling of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City!

This complex and exquisite dome structure required thousands of wooden pieces with completely different specifications and outrageously difficult concave and convex angles to interlock layer by layer, suspended in mid-air.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

In front of the camera, Su Zhe's hands turned into a blur of afterimages.

Wood shavings flew through the air like snowflakes, and sawdust splattered everywhere.

Under his hands, pieces of timber that were originally square transformed into precise Dougong brackets and cantilevers at a speed visible to the naked eye.

There were no blueprints; all dimensions and angles were accurately etched into his mind.

"Tie Niu, set up the scaffolding!"

Su Zhe gave the order.

Tie Niu and several Hollywood muscle stars quickly set up the wooden scaffolding and continuously handed up the wooden pieces Su Zhe had carved.

Su Zhe stood on the high scaffolding.

His hands moved like butterflies through flowers, assembling those seemingly scattered wooden blocks one by one toward the central dome of the hall.

Click...

The crisp sound of wood rubbing and locking together was like a classical symphony full of geometric rhythm.

As time passed.

The eyes of the tens of millions of foreign viewers in the livestream widened further and further, and they involuntarily held their breath.

They were personally witnessing the birth of a miracle.

At the top of the hall, an exquisite octagonal wooden dome, resembling a 3D geometric maze, was closing inward and receding layer by layer in an inverted posture.

Dragons and phoenixes intertwined, supported by Dougong brackets!

No metal reinforcement was used, nor was there a single drop of industrial glue.

Those hundreds and thousands of wooden blocks miraculously suspended and embedded themselves at the very top of the hall, forming a deep and magnificent caisson.

This was not just architecture; it was the unique Eastern beauty of symmetry and negative space!

[Oh my God... Is this really something a human can make with their bare hands?]

[Unbelievable! Those wooden blocks interlock in mid-air as if they have their own gravity!]

[This is art! This is unparalleled geometric art!]

Foreign architectural experts screamed frantically in the bullet chat, and some were even so excited they typed a long string of exclamation marks on their keyboards.

But in the picture-in-picture sub-screen.

That thief-country professor, Park Jung-eun, although fine beads of cold sweat had already broken out on his forehead, was still being stubborn.

"Claptrap!"

Park Jung-eun sneered loudly at the camera, trying to save face: "What's the use of it looking magnificent?"

This kind of suspended structure without nail fixation completely violates the laws of modern mechanics!

It's just a fragile handicraft; it can't withstand the tests of nature at all.

As long as it encounters an earthquake, even a slight tremor, these pieced-together wooden blocks will instantly fall apart and crash onto people's heads!"

These remarks immediately drew agreement from some uninformed foreign netizens.

After all, in Western perception, only reinforced concrete and thick bolts can represent sturdiness.

Facing this final provocation.

Su Zhe leaped lightly down from the scaffolding.

He glanced at the clamoring Park Jung-eun in the sub-screen, his lips curling into a chilling sneer.

"Fragile? Can't withstand the test?"

Su Zhe picked up a towel to wipe the sawdust off his hands and turned to look at the well-prepared logistics team.

"Bring in the equipment."

Rumble...

Accompanied by the roar of heavy trucks.

A ten-meter-long heavy earthquake simulation tester, painted all over with yellow and black warning stripes, was slowly transported onto the set by several large flatbed trailers.

This machine was the real deal used by the National Building Engineering Laboratory to test the seismic ratings of high-rise buildings!

Under the operation of a heavy crane.

The scale wooden hall frame Su Zhe had just built was steadily placed on the simulation test platform.

For comparison.

Su Zhe also had workers quickly build a thick brick wall on the other side of the test platform using modern-grade cement and red bricks.

One wood, one brick.

Ancient and modern formed a sharp contrast on the test platform.

"Ladies and gentlemen."

Su Zhe walked to the control console, his palm resting on the red start lever.

His voice spread clearly across the globe through the microphone: "Some people think that steel and iron are the only absolute truths of indestructibility."

But my Chinese ancestors understood the philosophy of overcoming hardness with softness thousands of years ago.

Now, keep your eyes wide open.

Magnitude 8 earthquake simulation, start!"

Click.

The red lever was ruthlessly pushed to the bottom.

"Boom!"

The bottom motor of the heavy simulator erupted with a beast-like roar.

A terrifying, tearing vibration instantly swept up from the base of the test platform.

Magnitude 4!

Magnitude 6!

Magnitude 8!

In just three seconds, the earthquake magnitude was pulled to the maximum.

On the test platform, it was as if the end of the world had arrived.

That reinforced concrete brick wall, symbolizing modern construction techniques, was under the violent tearing of Magnitude 8 intensity.

It didn't even last five seconds.

"Crack!"

A huge crack spread like lightning from the bottom of the wall to the top.

Immediately after, with a loud "boom," the entire brick wall collapsed, crumbling into dust and fragments all over the ground.

However.

On the other side where the dust was flying.

That pure wooden Mortise and Tenon hall displayed a physical miracle that made all the foreigners' hearts skip a beat.

In the violent shaking of the Magnitude 8 earthquake.

Although the pillars and beams of the hall were swaying violently.

But!

Those Mortise and Tenon joints, which were not anchored down by a single iron nail, actually underwent minute deformations and friction during the vibration.

"Creak! Creak!"

Thousands of wooden connections emitted friction sounds simultaneously.

They were like human joints, through mutual compression, displacement, and sliding.

They forcibly converted the seismic kinetic energy, which was enough to destroy everything, into thermal energy through friction and absorbed it.

Swaying but not scattering!

Moving but not collapsing!

No matter how crazily the simulation platform below shook, the complex Nine-Dragon Caisson at the top of the hall seemed to be grown onto it, steady as a rock, without even a single wood chip falling off.

This terrifying "flexible seismic resistance" capability...

...directly crushed the foreign audience's inherent common sense of modern architecture to pieces.

...

Thirty seconds later.

The vibration stopped.

The dust on the test platform settled.

Amidst the mess of broken bricks and tiles, that magnificent Mortise and Tenon hall still stood proudly under the blue sky, as if mocking the fragility of modern industry.

Dead silence.

Tens of millions of online viewers globally, including that thief-country professor in the sub-screen, all turned into puppets who had lost their vocal cords.

Su Zhe patted the dust off his body.

He strode to the front of the undamaged wooden hall.

He raised his hand and pointed at the exquisite caisson at the top of the hall, his gaze penetrating the camera like two sharp knives, piercing straight into the throats of those cultural bandits.

"This is called Mortise and Tenon."

Su Zhe's voice was cold, majestic, and carried the heavy confidence of five thousand years: "The wisdom used by Chinese ancestors to build houses seven thousand years ago."

A divine skill that has survived countless landslides and earth-shattering events, still protecting the Chinese people's livelihoods!"

Su Zhe's lips curled into an undisguised look of contempt as he looked at Park Jung-eun, whose face was already ashen in the sub-screen: "Some countries can't even pronounce the words 'Mortise' and 'Tenon' correctly."

They can't even find a single aged red pine tree.

Yet they dare to take some toy blocks made of scrap wood and run to the international stage to shamelessly apply for World Heritage status?"

Su Zhe enunciated each word, throwing down a final ultimatum with the weight of a gavel: "Look clearly before you steal! If you can't understand what you're stealing, then give it back to me honestly!"

The moment his voice fell.

The official verified account of UNESCO dropped into the livestream.

A bullet chat with the blue official verification mark floated across the screen: [UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Committee Expert Group: We are in awe of the great wisdom of the Chinese ancestors. After unanimous agreement by the expert group, Mortise and Tenon structures and related wooden architectural techniques are recognized as a unique intangible cultural heritage of China.

The related disputed heritage applications have now been rejected and dismissed.]

Official stamp.

Solid proof of fraud!

In the picture-in-picture sub-screen.

That thief-country professor, Park Jung-eun, who was arrogant just a moment ago, was now as pale as paper, with cold sweat rolling down his forehead like a waterfall.

His lips trembled, and he couldn't even squeeze out a single word of rebuttal.

The next second.

The screen went black.

This so-called cultural 'beast' of a professor dejectedly cut the connection, quickly deleted all his overseas accounts on Twitter, and fled into the night.