novelaction Chapter 272 I have seen such a painting
Chapter 272 I have seen such a painting
Chapter 272 I have seen such a painting
Although Ji Duo didn't understand why Ye Wenyan wanted to find the lover of Miss Yu's concubine, they had to obey their master's orders unconditionally, so he turned around and left without asking.
When she finished her breakfast, the maid Ali who went to the Jixiang Shop to buy snacks came back with a piece of news -
"When I was waiting in line at the Jixiang Shop, I heard two people in front of me talking about a sixth-rank official in the Ministry of Justice who was dismissed from office and would be moving out of the capital in the next few days, but his wife still owed money to others! Another person asked if it was the eldest lady? She said no, she was a concubine of the Yu family, but she put on airs and liked people to call her Madam Yu. In the business world, they wanted to make money, so they followed her wishes and called her Madam Yu a few times in a nice way, and she would buy more when she was happy. When it was almost my turn to buy snacks, I heard the people in the Jixiang Shop say that the Yu family also owed money to the shop, and I had to go and collect it back in the next two days. I thought that the Yu family had come to our house to make trouble, so I told the young lady."
Ye Wenyan was very happy to hear the news, "Do you know which family the two people who were talking about this are from?"
"I know one of them is the Liu family who owns Wanfulou on Shuntian Street. The debt they are talking about is probably the debt they owe to Wanfulou."
Ye Wenyan thought for a while before she remembered that Wanfulou was a jewelry store in the inner city. It was not the best and generally served the families of officials of the fifth or sixth rank, or at most the fourth rank. She wrote this down and said to Madam Ji when she was about to go out, "Madam, go to Wanfulou later and ask about the debts owed by the Yu family. If you can find out more, ask who else they owe money to besides Wanfulou and Jixiangpu."
Madam Ji nodded and said, "I will go right away. After finding out everything, I will go to the Shangshu Mansion to pick up the young lady."
The group split up into several groups. Ji went to the outer city, Nanny Ji went to Shuntian Street, and Ye Wenyan took Zhuier and half a cart of gifts to the Shangshu Mansion. The reconstruction of the inner city was very fast. The court had no shortage of wages, and the craftsmen in the outer city were all grateful and worked professionally and hard. In just a few days, the main streets of the inner city had been repaired, and even more than half of the shops facing the street had been repaired.
The Shangshu Mansion was not badly damaged to begin with, and after a little repair, it looks no different today than it did years ago.
When she arrived, Jiang Feng had not returned from court, but Madam Jiang and Jiang Wanting were both at home. When they heard that she was coming, they were very excited. Madam Jiang immediately ordered the kitchen to prepare a meal, saying that she must stay for lunch before leaving.
Ye Wenyan refused several times but couldn't get rid of it. It would be bad to refuse strongly again, so he could only agree to stay, and then told Jiang Wanting to arrange for the servants to move the things in the car out.
Jiang Wanting said to her, "Why do you need to bring gifts when you come to our house? You've been here so many times before, and I've never seen you being so reserved. So this rule is going to be established, right? Then I'll bring gifts when I visit your house in the future, and we'll both be polite."
She laughed when she heard it, "It's not worth much, it's a snack from the Jixiang Shop, don't you want to eat it?"
"Yes!" Jiang Wanting was very happy. "If this is all you want to give me, I will be happy to accept it. As for the others, you'd better take them back as you got them. We really don't need this."
Ye Wenyan shook his head. "It was Uncle Xie Jiang who helped our family with the Yu family's matter. If it weren't for the Ministry of Justice's help, it wouldn't be so easy to resolve this matter satisfactorily. We would have to deal with the Yu family a few more times. I don't care. The main thing is that my eldest brother is upset. How could a man like him have ever experienced such dirty things?"
When Jiang Wanting heard her mention her elder brother, she became unhappy and no longer cared about gifts. She even had no appetite for the snacks brought in by the servants from Jixiang Shop. She just sat in the chair sullenly, not knowing what she was thinking about.
Mrs. Jiang sighed when she saw it, but she didn't know what to say, so she could only arrange for Ye Wenyan to drink tea and have snacks.
Instead, Ye Wenyan took a long box from Zhuier's hand and said to his wife, "I came here this time to thank Uncle Jiang for his help, but I didn't really bring anything for Uncle Jiang. I did bring a good thing for Aunt Lan. Would you like to see it, Aunt Lan?"
Mrs. Jiang's maiden name was Lan Meiyu, and Ye Wenyan always called her Aunt Lan. When she heard that there was something good, she became interested and asked immediately, "What is it? I want to see it, of course I want to see it."
Ye Wenyan smiled and handed the box forward, "Aunt Lan, open it yourself and take a look. Although this thing is for Aunt Lan, I'm sure Uncle Jiang will be the happiest person after seeing it, so even if I give half of this gift to each of us, no one will be offended."
The mystery of the gift had been fully aroused. Madam Jiang could not wait to open the box. Inside was a scroll that looked like silk, but was much better than any silk she had ever seen. Whether it was the thickness or the density of the silk, it was many times finer. Even the materials used by the ladies in the palace were not as good as this scroll.
Mrs. Jiang was really surprised. "Is this silk? Why is this silk different from what I usually see? It looks like silk but not silk, like gauze but not gauze. It's so thin, but there are pictures on it. Is this a painting? What is it?"
"Auntie Lan will know once she opens it."
Mrs. Jiang immediately took out the scroll, and the depressed Jiang Wanting was also attracted and immediately stepped forward to help unfold it carefully.
The moment the scroll was unfolded, both of them were stunned. Even the maid beside them couldn't help but lean over with a look of surprise on her face.
Zhuier was curious and went up to take a look, then she stared at her young lady with wide eyes, her meaning was very clear: Young lady, when did you draw this? Why haven't I seen you draw this before?
Thinking about it again, no, I haven't heard that the fourth young lady can paint! Although she used to wipe dust in the eldest lady's room, after all, the fourth young lady is the eldest lady's daughter, so she naturally comes and goes frequently. For many years, I have never seen the fourth young lady paint, nor have I heard that the family has hired a painting teacher for the fourth young lady. It can be said that the fourth young lady is not good at anything except martial arts, chess, calligraphy and painting.
How did this whole painting suddenly appear? The painting was of Madam Jiang herself. If she remembered correctly, this was the dress and makeup she wore on the night of the palace banquet on New Year's Eve, right?
This painting is so realistic and full of spiritual power that even the people of later generations would be amazed by it, not to mention the ancients. The 3D effect, which was completely beyond the knowledge of the ancients, makes the people in the painting look like they have stepped out of the painting.
Madam Jiang was so shocked that she couldn't speak. Jiang Wanting recovered faster and asked Ye Wenyan with a horrified look on her face: "Tell me about you, can't you do something earthly all day long? Isn't this scary?"
She was stunned. "What, what does it mean? Is this painting scary?" She moved closer and said, "It's not scary, it's Aunt Lan! Look at her eyebrows, eyes and facial features, aren't they the same as a real person? I worked hard for several days to draw this."
Zhuier lowered his head silently, thinking to himself, "Miss, are you guilty of saying this? When did you ever paint? Why didn't I see it?"
Thinking about it again, such a bizarre painting could only be created by Yanhua Palace. Well, it was probably given by the Emperor, so it was no different from her young lady's own efforts.
So the little girl cheered herself up again and nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, my lady has been painting for a long time!"
Jiang Wanting twitched her lips, "I don't care about your brother's business. If I remember correctly, it was the night before yesterday, right? How long did it take to draw?"
Ye Wenyan patted her and said, "Don't be so quick to question me. Just listen to my excuse."
"What are you doing for me?"
"I'll explain." She wiped her sweat off her forehead. "Actually, I drew it before. I had the idea after coming back from New Year's Eve. Then the dragon turned over and so on. Anyway, I worked on it intermittently until this morning when I officially finished it. I guarantee that this thing is definitely a product of the living world. You can keep it with confidence. It won't cause any ghosts or evil spirits, and it can even ward off evil spirits."
"Come on! I've never heard of anyone using my mother to ward off evil spirits, how dare you say anything like that?" Jiang Wanting even laughed at herself. "I just think your painting is so weird. It's obviously a painting, but why does it look like a real person? No, it's more real than a real person. The moment I opened it, I almost thought another mother walked out of the painting. This is too scary. What kind of painter can draw such a realistic painting? Ah Wen, did you really draw this?"
"Of course I drew it."
"Why didn't I know you could draw before?"
"You didn't know I could dance the Fire Phoenix Dance before!"
"That's right! Why do I not know so many things about you? What did we agree on before? To be honest with each other and not hide anything. So I am the only one who is honest, and you are hiding things from me?"
Ye Wenyan thought to herself that it was not good and she had forgotten about it, so she quickly comforted him: "Don't be angry, and don't be estranged from me because of this. All these skills of mine were taught to me secretly by my grandfather without telling anyone. Many times I would crawl out of bed in the middle of the night and follow my teacher to class, but my grandfather wouldn't let me tell anyone, so what could I do? You know that when my grandfather was alive, he would definitely keep his word, and I didn't dare to argue with him."
After this explanation, Jiang Wanting felt that she was right, and she felt that the old general was really far-sighted. Just because the Ye family was persecuting Ye Wenyan and the eldest family again and again, it was fortunate that the old general left a way to save his beloved granddaughter's life, otherwise this fall would be endless, and it was uncertain whether she could get up.
So she patted Ye Wenyan on the shoulder to show her understanding, and said cheerfully, "It would be best if this painting is hung in my father's study. Usually when he is working in the study, my mother and I don't bother him, but he must be thinking about us! Let's give him one of my mother's paintings to help him ease his homesickness. Later, you can draw one for me, and I'll hang mine in there, too."
Ye Wenyan nodded, "That's no problem." He looked at Mrs. Jiang again, but she was still staring at the portrait motionlessly.
After a long while, Mrs. Jiang suddenly said, "I seem to have seen such a painting before."
Ye Wenyan was shocked!