Chapter 22: Pondering (Additional)

  Jinzi finished dinner and then ordered Xiaoxiao to bring him a pen and ink.

  She smiled slightly, taken aback, and wondered what her mother-in-law wanted to use the brush for. For over a decade, her mother-in-law had been bedridden with illness, never having attended clan school or even held a pen to write a single character; why was she suddenly asking to use a brush now?

  Jinzi couldn't help but smile and open a small gap, furrowing her brow and asking: "What's wrong?"

  "Miss, you never write, so we don't have pen, ink, paper or inkstone in Qingfeng Garden!" He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

  Kaneko suddenly realized and patted his forehead, saying: "I'll buy a set another day! Where can I go to find one now?"

  "What's the use of writing so much?" asked Third Mother as she walked up and handed Jinzi a cup of freshly brewed clear tea with a smile.

  Kaneko took the teacup, sipped a mouthful, and before he could explain, he heard the old mother say: "This old slave has kept a set here, which was used by the lady at that time. At that time, many things were buried together, but this set was too precious for the old slave to part with, so it was left as a keepsake!"

  This lady refers to Jin Eun-oh's biological mother, Mrs. Liu.

  A glimmer of joy flashed across Jinzi's eyes as he hastily urged his mother to fetch a pen and ink.

  It's rare to see the young lady so anxious, thinking she was missing her late mother, Madam hastily comforted her with a few words and then went out to find the inkstone and wolf hair brush left by Liu.

  Although more than ten years have passed, the inkstone is still well-maintained. Jinzi took a look and knew that it was an extremely valuable good ink. In modern times, Jinzi's father also liked to collect inkstones, so under his influence, Jinzi had some superficial knowledge of them.

  The rice paper has turned slightly yellow due to being stored for a long time, but it hasn't gotten damp, showing that Mother Zhang took great care of it.

  Jinzi eagerly cut it into handkerchief-sized pieces with scissors, and Xiao smiled as she neatly arranged the small pieces of paper that Jinzi had cut, stacking them up neatly. As she did so, she asked puzzledly, "Do you want to practice writing large characters?"

  Jinzi heard this and a black line appeared on her forehead. She had been forced by her father to learn calligraphy when she was young, and at that time, her father was very proud to show off his eight-year-old daughter's calligraphy skills to his friends. For Jinzi, the beautiful small characters were just a piece of cake!

  Jinzi raised his eyes, smiled at Xiao and made a "shh" sound, then rolled up his sleeves and started grinding the ink.

  Liu was a talented woman from a large clan, and her knowledge of literature and calligraphy was unparalleled. She had a complete set of brushes of varying thickness at her disposal.

  Jinzi chose a fine brush, dipped it in ink, and concentrated on drawing on the paper.

  Before long, she had drawn many patterns, laughing in surprise with her mouth agape, picking up the still damp ink marks to examine them carefully.

  Is this a chrysanthemum? How it resembles so much, if dyed with color, just like the real one...

  What kind of flower is this that has such beautiful buds? How come I've never seen it before? Is there really a flower as beautiful as this in the world?

  Smiling, he wanted to ask, but seeing his wife concentrating on painting, he didn't dare to disturb her and swallowed all his questions.

  After drawing more than a dozen, Jinzi put down his pen and picked up the newly drawn pattern to take a closer look. He nodded in satisfaction. If there were colors, it would be even better after coloring. However, this Qingfeng Garden was really simple and poor, not to mention beautiful colors, even pens and ink were left by Liu's family.

  "Daughter, what are you doing drawing these patterns? But they're really beautiful! I didn't know you could paint!" Xiaoxiao finally found the opportunity to speak out, she had always been straightforward and outspoken, if she held it in any longer, she might get internal injuries.

  Jinzi smiled slightly, the corners of his mouth curving up like a crescent moon, and replied softly: "I want to become the strongest backing for you and your mother, so we must rise up and become stronger. First, we need to learn how to make our own money, don't stretch out your hand and look at others with envy!"

  "Make money yourself? Eh... are you going to sell paintings?" Xiaoxiao was slightly surprised.

  "Kaneko smiled mysteriously and replied, 'Selling paintings? Well, you'll see when the time comes. Just keep it a secret for now!'"

  Daughter's mysterious way of making money? Is it this one?

  Smiling to herself, she put away the pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the round table.

  Jinzi had been running around outside all day and was now somewhat tired, so he let Xiao collect his things and head back to rest earlier. He himself got up and walked towards the inner room.

  Lying in bed, Jinzi was thinking about how to move the owner of Yuexiu Villa to buy his own designed patterns. If possible, they might even cooperate for a long time and make money together!

  As he thought about it, his eyelids grew heavy and fell, the beautiful blueprint that Jinzi had drawn in his mind also gradually became blurred and disappeared, and he fell asleep directly.

  And as for Chen Yixue on the other side, she hadn't fallen asleep in the car at all.

  After Jinzi got out of the car, he slowly opened his eyes, which were as black as the night sky, and a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. In a voice that was almost inaudible, he said, "Indeed, she is an ill-mannered little girl!"

  As soon as the words fell, the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of the white paper on the desk.

  Long fingers picked it up, and on the snow-white paper was written eleven dragon-and-phoenix-like cursive characters. If someone who couldn't understand them saw this, they would definitely think it was a ghostly script.

  "Let him sleep undisturbed. Thank you! I owe you one!" Eleven words escaped from Chen Yuxue's thin lips, and he burst out laughing immediately.

  Ye Tian was driving the horse carriage outside when he heard his husband's, Lang Jun's, long unheard bright and clear laughter. He couldn't help but be infected by it and smiled slightly, his hands moving quickly on the reins as the horse carriage sped rapidly along the road to Hui Chen Village. They actually lived near West Lake, just a short distance from the village entrance, but this time they had taken a big detour around half of Tao Yuan County to send Lang Jun back home.

  The night grew darker, and in the distance, a woman was seen standing in front of Zhuangzi's gate, looking up and waiting.

  He turned back and said to Lang Jun in the carriage: "Yuniang is waiting for you at the gate!"

  A soft "en" sound came from inside the car, which was a response.

  The horse carriage stopped steadily in front of the gate.

  Yu Niang, the mistress of the Zhuang family, and Chen Lang Jun's wet nurse.

  She wore a cerulean cross-collared jacket with a crimson pleated horse-face skirt, and on her simple bun was pinned a silver hairpin, looking neat and capable.

  Yu Niang walked down the stone steps and stood beside the carriage, smiling and saying: "Lang Jun is a bit late today!"

  The bamboo curtain fluttered slightly as Chen Yixue elegantly jumped down from the horse carriage, saying calmly: "I didn't realize I fell asleep, so I'm back late!"

  Yu Niang nodded and followed Chen Yuxue into the villa, glancing at Lang Jun and asked: "The meal is ready, would you like to eat first or take a bath first?"

  "Take a bath!" Chen Yixue walked ahead in big strides, only throwing back one sentence.

  Yu Niang responded with a sound, then turned around and walked into the courtyard to instruct the maids to quickly prepare.

  Inside the bathroom, a faint mist is floating around, and the fragrance of jasmine flowers is spreading in the air.

  Chen Yi Xue closed his eyes and leaned against the edge of the pool, with yellow petals of golden flowers floating on the surface. The clear water overflowed his chest, and under the soft glow of the candles, one could vaguely see his robust chest and abdomen hidden in the water, like a flawless work of art that complemented his exceptionally handsome face, making everything seem perfect, as if it were a masterpiece created by God.

  A little girl slipped in quietly, her head lowered, a white face flushed red, her eyes cast down as she stepped lightly to place the tray holding clothes by the water pool, picked up the black Confucian robe that had been changed out of and was about to exit.

  "Wait!"

  The cold voice made Xiaoyao tremble with fear, standing stiffly on the spot, and asked timidly: "Lang Jun... what instructions do you have?"

  "Put down your clothes!" The voice remained indifferent.

  The little girl didn't dare disobey, turned around and returned the clothes, then hastily retreated.

  Chen Yi Xue got out of the pool after a while, took a towel from beside him to wipe off the sparkling water droplets on his body, and changed into a clean white robe.

  Her black eyes fell on the clothes she had worn before, squatted down, took out a white paper with ink marks from her sleeve pocket, put it in her bosom, put on wooden clogs, turned around and walked out of the bathroom.