Chapter 10: Painting

Chapter 10: Painting

Qiu Huanian tossed and turned until the early hours of the morning, gradually calming his emotions.

No matter what happens, staying calm is crucial to finding a solution.

The next morning, Qiu Huanian sent the two children to Hu Qiuyan's house and went directly to see the clan leader.

He felt he needed someone kind, knowledgeable about ancient customs, and respected to give him advice.

Qiu Huanian was a member of Du Village and the nominal child groom of Du Yunse. If he were to be taken away, it would not look good for the clan leader either.

Qiu Huanian knocked on the door, and Meng Fuyue opened it, leading him to the clan leader.

Qiu Huanian got straight to the point and briefly recounted the situation, saying to the clan leader, "I am young and inexperienced. I couldn't sleep all night and would like to ask for your advice."

Hearing this, Meng Fuyue, who was wiping the table, wished she could go and spit at Zhao right away.

No wonder Brother Hua had red eyes this morning. Zhao, in cahoots with outsiders, bullied a lad from the same village. She is truly a despicable person!

Meng Fuyue wanted to tell Qiu Huanian not to be afraid. If the Qiu family dared to come, Du Village could gather a group of people to drive them away. But since her father-in-law had not yet spoken, she dared not interrupt.

The Du clan leader took a puff of his pipe and looked deeply at the lad across from him.

In the past, Qiu Huanian didn't like to go out and always kept his head down, avoiding people, so everyone had only a vague impression of his appearance. These days, he had become more cheerful and smiled more, his whole demeanor had improved, and his good looks were gradually becoming more apparent.

The Du clan leader was over sixty years old and had traveled far and wide in his younger days, meeting many people. His ability to judge people was quite sharp.

The only person whose features could compare to Qiu Huanian's beauty was the lady from the neighboring county who had entered the palace as a concubine over a decade ago.

Now, it didn't seem obvious because of his plain clothes and simple adornments, which couldn't highlight Qiu Huanian's beauty. But with a change of attire, he would immediately transform.

Even with slightly red eyes from lack of sleep this morning, he immediately appeared even more captivating.

In a small place like theirs, being so beautiful was more of a curse than a blessing. Falling into the eyes of those with ulterior motives could even lead to the destruction of a family.

The lady from the neighboring county had already been engaged and was unwilling to go with the nobleman who had chosen her. After a moment of hesitation, her fiancé's entire family died suddenly of illness overnight.

Although it is said that beauty should be matched with talent, it's hard to say whether Yun Se could handle such a hot potato.

But no matter what, Brother Hua is a genuinely good child, and their family, in such difficult times, cannot do without him...

The clan leader took another puff of his pipe and asked Qiu Huanian in a deep voice, "Brother Hua, what do you think about this matter?"

While the clan leader was silent, Qiu Huanian was also guessing what he was thinking based on his changing expressions.

"I just want to take care of Jiu Jiu and Chun Sheng. I don’t want to go anywhere else," he replied frankly, as this was the truth from his heart.

"What if they are not sending you to a place of suffering, but to a place of luxury?"

The clan leader looked at Qiu Huanian and described such a life in detail, "Living in luxury, fine clothes, delicious food, gold and silver, servants at your beck and call, with nothing to do every day, no more early mornings and late nights of hard work, and no more enduring others' mistreatment."

If the situation weren't so serious, Qiu Huanian might have stroked his chin.

He knew he was good-looking, of course. After his time-travel, because he had become a lad, his originally handsome features had become even more delicate and refined. Although he hadn't looked in a mirror, he could see himself clearly every day when fetching water from the water jar.

Qiu Huanian understood the clan leader's implication. If the Qiu family wasn't foolish, they would no longer sell him to the village for two pecks of sorghum but would instead sell him for a much higher price to a wealthy family seeking a beautiful spouse.

"I won't go," Qiu Huanian said directly.

Was he out of his mind, choosing to be locked up in a mansion as a concubine for someone unknown instead of striving freely outside?

"Do you understand how good that life would be?" The clan leader was not entirely convinced.

Qiu Huanian felt a déjà vu, like when he quit his big-city job to return to the countryside and faced HR's disappointed questions.

"No matter how good it is, it's not mine," Qiu Huanian smiled confidently, leaving the clan leader with no further questions.

After all, no matter how good the life, it couldn't possibly have air conditioning, refrigerators, WiFi, or the internet. Qiu Huanian couldn't be bothered to think about it.

The clan leader said to Qiu Huanian, "Alright, as long as you don't want to leave, there are ways to handle other matters."

"The simplest way is to wait for Yun Se (male) to return. You two can take my letter to the county office and officially register your marriage, making it legitimate and beyond reproach."

"For safety, take the mule cart to town with Bao Ren."

Du Bao Ren was the clan leader's eldest son and Meng Fuyue's husband.

Qiu Huanian was pleasantly surprised to get free mule cart rides for a few days.

Meng Fuyue chimed in, "Brother Hua, don't feel embarrassed. We're from the same village and clan. Helping each other is what we do. Everyone has times of need. It's not yet spring planting, so Bao Ren has nothing to do at home anyway."

Qiu Huanian understood more deeply how ancient rural clan societies worked. It was like a giant net that both constrained and supported the people within it.

After thanking them, Qiu Huanian asked Meng Fuyue if he could borrow the mule cart to transport grain for grinding.

Meng Fuyue agreed. This time, Qiu Huanian ground all the corn and soaked, peeled sorghum at home into flour. He borrowed seven or eight large basins and wooden buckets from Meng Fuyue, Hu Qiuyan, and neighbors, turning the sorghum into starch and storing the cornmeal in jars for future use.

The mule cart cut travel time, so Qiu Huanian finished his tasks in three days. The dried sorghum starch totaled 120 jin (a traditional Chinese unit of weight), enough to last a long time.

With too much leftover gluten, Qiu Huanian sliced it thin, sun-dried it, and stored it for later. When needed, he could simply soak it in water to soften it.

Thus, Qiu Huanian spent mornings making candy and studying woodworking, and afternoons selling candy in town. After a few days, he counted his copper coins and realized he'd earned his first tael of silver.

A thousand copper coins were strung together with thin straw rope, tied at both ends, forming a heavy bundle. Qiu Huanian stored them away, planning to exchange them for silver when he had the chance to visit the county town.

Today, he planned to go to town early to paint for the stationery shop owner. Carrying a basket on his back, he headed to the village entrance, where Bao Ren and his wife were already waiting with the mule cart.

The Meng family lived in Qingfu Town. For the past few days, Bao Ren had been taking Qiu Huanian to town daily, while Meng Fuyue occasionally accompanied him to visit her parents.

After Qiu Huanian got on the cart, Bao Ren flicked the whip, and the mule trotted off.

The cart behind the mule had no cabin, just a base and side railings, with straw padding underneath. At first, it felt novel, but after a while, the ride became bumpy.

Still, it was ten times better than walking.

Meng Fuyue and Qiu Huanian's relationship grew closer, and she didn't mind taking him at all.

After all, Brother Hua was incredibly considerate. Whenever he rode with them, he always brought small gifts. For the past few days, the children at home hadn't stopped eating candy.

Although the clan leader had personally agreed to the arrangement, they were happy to help. After all, a relationship felt more comfortable when there was mutual give and take, right?

When Qiu Huanian arrived at the stationery shop in town, he set down his basket. The shop owner, Wang Cheng, had already prepared paper, brushes, and several colors of paint.

"Every year around Qingming, sacrificial paper sells the best. Even the poorest families are willing to buy something nice to pray for their ancestors' blessings," Wang Cheng explained to Qiu Huanian. "In the county town, refined families look down on mass-printed sacrificial paper from incense shops and prefer to hire someone to paint it."

"But hiring someone to paint in the county is expensive, costing at least fifty coins. Many people can't afford it, which is where the business opportunity lies."

"I don't expect your paintings to be exceptional, just clearer than the printed ones. I'll pay you eight coins per painting. Don't think it's too little. I'm not boasting, but this business requires connections to sell in the county town."

Qiu Huanian nodded and examined the thick stack of paper that had already been cut. The paper used was relatively cheap jiaolian paper, cut into rectangles roughly the size of modern A4 paper. The painting would only occupy one-third of the space, leaving the rest for customers to write their own sacrificial words and auspicious phrases.

"How many of these sacrificial sheets do you need?" Qiu Huanian asked him.

Wang Cheng was puzzled, "Naturally, the more the better."

He knew that painting was a slow process, so he only hoped that Qiu Huanian could paint as many as possible.

Qiu Huanian changed his question, "How many hand-painted sacrificial sheets do you estimate you can sell at most this Qingming Festival?"

Wang Cheng, having come up with this idea, had naturally done some research, "I plan to sell them at fifteen wen each, and I estimate that I can sell at most two to three hundred sheets, but where would I get so many paintings to sell?"

Qiu Huanian smiled, "Then let's paint three hundred sheets."

Wang Cheng suspected that Qiu Huanian hadn't understood him. Qingming Festival was only three days away. Three hundred sheets? Could he manage?!

"I'll paint a few first, and you can see if they're acceptable."

After saying this, Qiu Huanian picked up his brush and started painting. Plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemums, koi fish, and cranes quickly took shape on different sheets of paper. Wang Cheng had only prepared three colors: black, vermilion, and indigo. Qiu Huanian skillfully combined them, with some areas dark and others light.

After a quarter of an hour, all eight sheets were finished.

"Is this quality acceptable?" Qiu Huanian asked the stunned Wang Cheng.

Wang Cheng hadn't heard the term "quality" used in this context before, but he could understand the general meaning, "Yes, absolutely!"

When the painting size was reduced and other colors were added, his paintings became even more beautiful.

Printed paintings were not as good as hand-painted ones because printed paintings couldn't capture the variations in shade and were prone to color bleeding and smudging. Therefore, Wang Cheng's requirements for Qiu Huanian were very low; he just needed the paintings to look decent.

But now, seeing Qiu Huanian's finished products, Wang Cheng even felt that he could raise the price and compete with the high-end sacrificial sheets that were meticulously painted by skilled artists!

Wang Cheng took a few seconds to calm his restless heart, reminding himself not to aim too high. Seizing the market gap and making small profits on large volumes was the right path.

Anyway, this young man painted faster than printing, and selling more would still earn him a lot!

Wang Cheng was shocked by Qiu Huanian's painting speed, but Qiu Huanian just smiled without explaining.

In his previous life, he had painted these images at least a hundred times, to the point of being sick of them. He could remember the direction of the next stroke even with his eyes closed.

Paintings the size of a palm didn't require too much detail, so painting one in two or three minutes was a piece of cake.

He wasn't pursuing any artistic conception or artistry; he just wanted to be a relentless money-making machine.

Apart from selling candy, Qiu Huanian spent the whole day painting in the shop. Wang Cheng grew happier and happier, as if he could already see a large pile of copper coins. He eagerly brewed tea for Qiu Huanian and even went to a food stall at noon to buy a bowl of meat noodles costing eight wen as a reward.

After painting a hundred sheets, Qiu Huanian stopped, "I'll head back now and paint another hundred each tomorrow and the day after."

Wang Cheng wasn't in a hurry; after all, the sacrificial sheets wouldn't sell out in a day, "I'll send these hundred to the county to sell first, and the rest can be sent after you finish painting them."

Wang Cheng was happy and paid promptly. After counting the painted sacrificial sheets, he promptly paid Qiu Huanian for the hundred paintings.

Eight wen per sheet, totaling eight hundred wen, plus today's earnings from selling candy, Qiu Huanian was about to save up another tael of silver.

In a cheerful mood, he bought a pound of pork and a piece of tofu from the tofu shop, planning to make braised pork with tofu for dinner.

At around five or six in the afternoon, under the milder sun, the sturdy mule trotted along, pulling the fully loaded mule cart back home.

At the entrance of Qingfu Town, two sneaky men watched the gradually receding mule cart and whispered to each other.

"He bought meat again today, he's really doing well for himself."

"He can make candy, he can paint—why didn’t we see these skills before? He must’ve been hiding them all along when he was with us."

The thought of not being able to spend Qiu Huanian’s earnings made the two Qiu family members from Shangliang Village sick to their stomachs.

If they’d known Qiu Huanian had this kind of talent, they’d never have sold him off for just two pecks of sorghum! This money and meat should’ve been the Qiu family’s all along!

"I think he’s dead set on not coming back with us. As long as he doesn’t agree, even if we trick him into coming back, we can’t keep him—Du Village isn’t someone to mess with," said the slightly older man, Qiu Fu, Qiu Huanian's cousin, narrowing his eyes.

"Brother, what do we do? I heard Du Yunse’s due back in five or six days. By then, it will be too late," asked Qiu Gui, Qiu Huanian's half-brother.

Qiu Fu felt a pang of anxiety too. Suddenly, an image of Qiu Huanian's face from the afternoon flashed in his mind, and a bold idea emerged.

"If we can't keep him, then we'll sell him far away."

"Brother, what do you mean?"

"I know a trafficker who deals in good-looking lads, selling them down south. I think Brother Hua’s got the looks for it," Qiu Fu said, feeling more and more that this plan was feasible.

"I'll talk to the trafficker first. Once we have him, we'll immediately load him onto a cart and take him away. If the people from Du Village ask, we'll say he went south voluntarily for a better life. Without him around to say otherwise, even if they kick up a fuss, we’ll come out on top."

Qiu Gui thought this was a good idea but then realized it might not be easy to execute. "But these days he's been going in and out of the village with a mule cart. We can't just sneak into Du Village and kidnap him, can we?"

The people in Du Village live close together, and Qiu Huanian's house is surrounded by neighbors. It would be impossible to succeed.

Qiu Fu smiled, "Don’t sweat it—in three days, it’s Qingming Festival. Every family will be out visiting graves to honor their ancestors. The people from Du Village can't follow him all the time. We'll find our chance to act."