Chapter 33: Painting 2

Chapter 33: The Painting 2

Gu Chaoning looked at Yin Hongxue with a complex expression as Yin Hongxue kept working on his painting, his mind still lost in thoughts of his past life.

After receiving that painting, he had indeed grown suspicious of the Grand Prince.

But at that time, the Grand Prince's disguise was too convincing, and on the other hand, he was already in too deep with the Grand Prince to easily pull away.

He was suspicious of the Grand Prince while preparing a fallback for himself, and on the other hand, he quietly tried to find out who had sent him the painting.

He worried it might be other factions deliberately trying to drive a wedge between him and the Grand Prince.

In his past life, he'd looked into it for a long time but had never once suspected Yin Hongxue.

Yin Hongxue was on the same side as him, under the Grand Prince, had never thought much of him, and Gu Chaoning had never seen him paint.

"Chaoning Ge?"

Yin Hongxue, happy with how he'd captured today's scene, turned around and saw Gu Chaoning standing behind him with a conflicted expression on his face.

Was his painting not good?

Yin Hongxue instinctively wanted to cover the painting with his hands, but then remembered the ink wasn't dry and caught himself.

He felt a bit sulky—his father and An Geer had both said it looked great!

If Chaoning Ge dared to say it wasn't good, then Chaoning Ge must have a problem with his eyesight!

Gu Chaoning snapped out of it and smiled at Yin Hongxue. "Dad said it's time to eat."

He first explained why he'd come, then his gaze fell back on the paper.

"I never knew Xue Geer had such a talent for painting." He looked at Yin Hongxue again. "You're as good as any professional painter."

Yin Hongxue's eyes went wide with delight. "Really?"

Though he asked, he was already pretty much convinced.

Chaoning Ge never lied to him before.

Gu Chaoning nodded and tugged Yin Hongxue along as they headed out.

If they delayed any longer, Father would start roaring like a lion.

Gu Chaoning led Yin Hongxue toward the kitchen as he spoke. "It's true."

"Do you like painting, Xue Geer?"

Yin Hongxue nodded vigorously right away.

He loved painting—capturing what he saw and what happened, putting it on paper so he could look back at it anytime.

Gu Chaoning nodded, ruffled Yin Hongxue's hair and added a few more words of praise, then fell silent.

He thought that another day, he could take Xue Geer to the bookshop in town.

In bookshops, textbooks could be printed, but the paintings in illustrated books were not so easily reproduced.

Since textbooks could earn money through copying, illustrated books could also earn money through painting.

Once they earned money, first, it would give Xue Geer more confidence and reinforce his love of painting.

Second, it could also change how the elders in the family saw things and find Xue Geer a proper teacher to study painting.

Of course, this path required Yin Hongxue's painting skills to be good enough for the bookshop owner.

Although Gu Chaoning was fully confident in Yin Hongxue's painting ability, you never knew what could happen.

So the other path he considered was to wait until he passed the imperial examination at the county level and had more leeway, then make further plans.

That would take longer, so he decided to keep it to himself for now.

"What are you still thinking about? Come on, sit down already!" Gu Wen patted his oldest son on the shoulder.

After all, this whole nice meal was made just for him.

Gu Chaoning sat down and finally looked at the dishes on the table.

Braised duck with pickled radish. The radish strips were the color of sunset, the duck meat golden and glistening. The tangy aroma covered up any gamey smell, leaving nothing but rich meaty fragrance.

Pickled cabbage with vermicelli and pork belly—pork belly with its three layers sliced thin, with the fat rendered until golden.

The pickled cabbage had been stir-fried in the rendered pork fat, every leaf coated in rich meaty flavor, and the vermicelli, made from sweet potatoes in autumn, was smooth, springy, and soft—you got both the meaty and tangy flavors in one slurp.

There was also the first spring harvest of chives stir-fried with eggs, purslane and aralia sprouts cooked in fragrant lard.

Gu Wen had gone out of his way to buy tofu and made pan-fried tofu.

Sprinkled with coarse salt, chili flakes, and Sichuan pepper, it was impossible to stop eating once you started.

There were also refreshing dishes to cleanse the palate: cold tossed shepherd's purse, cold tossed bitter greens, and peeled garlic cloves.

The whole family—four adults and three growing kids—all ate until they were stuffed.

After lunch, nobody wanted to move. They chatted for a bit, then all decided to take a quick nap to digest before cleaning up.

*

At the county seat.

It was already past the usual time to leave work, but Magistrate Chen sat in the county office, frowning with worry.

The deputy magistrate, his chief clerk, and his private secretary all looked just as worried as he did.

If the constable weren't still out running around, there'd be one more gloomy face in the room.

The deputy magistrate, surnamed Zhang, even his mustache seemed to droop with dejection.

He looked at Magistrate Chen, who was equally downcast and worried. "Has the Patrol Inspector said when he'll leave?"

Apparently, a priceless treasure had been lost from a marquis's estate near the capital, and a young man had taken it, fleeing in their direction.

They'd been searching back and forth for about ten days now.

Magistrate Chen let out a long sigh—on one hand grateful that the inspector's delay wasn't about investigating him, but on the other hand miserable from having to go along with all this daily commotion.

During this period, the townsfolk had seen the yamen runners moving about in haste, and those who were perceptive or cautious didn't dare linger in the county seat much.

Fortunately, though, in another two or three days, the Patrol Inspector would be moving on to other places.

Magistrate Chen forced himself to muster some spirit.

He waved a hand: "Okay, okay, quit worrying. We'll just play nice with the Inspector for these last few days."

"The Constable's been running around with the Inspector all day every day and hasn't complained. We just need to back him up from behind."

Everyone chorused: "Yes, sir!"

*Gu Chaoning went back to his usual routine of going to the village school.

On the first day, he and Gu Rong stood in front of the other students, sharing tips on how they passed the exams.

It only took one session, and the village teacher was grinning ear to ear.

On top of the regular big classes, the teacher also set up extra tutoring sessions to get them ready for the upcoming prefectural and academy exams.

Their basics were solid, so the teacher didn't have to fret over them.

So the daily tutoring mostly covered policy essays and exam poetry.

Tomorrow was a day off, so school let out early today.

After checking Gu Chaoning and Gu Rong's poems and assigning homework for the day off, the teacher sent them home early.

When Gu Chaoning returned, he happened to spot Yin Hongxue coming back with a basket on his back.

The kid looked troubled—his usually soft features were cold and grim, giving off the vibe of the Marquis's Young Master from his past life.

When he saw Gu Chaoning, his gloomy face broke into a smile.

Yin Hongxue came running over with a thud-thud-thud, and Gu Chaoning casually took the basket off his back and slung it over his own.

The basket was full of fresh grass and pretty heavy.

As the weather got warmer, cutting grass got easier, so the basket got heavier every day.

Gu Chaoning started by telling him: "Don't pack the basket so full next time."

"Oh, okay."

One look at his face showed he hadn't taken it seriously.

Gu Chaoning thought for a second: "I've heard that kids who carry heavy stuff all the time might not grow tall."

Hearing that, Yin Hongxue looked up at Gu Chaoning, panic in his eyes.

"Really?"

"Absolutely true."

Yin Hongxue nodded quickly, and from then on, he didn't dare think about stuffing the basket full of grass anymore.

He felt uneasy, but he quickly reassured himself.

He hadn't been doing it long—if he stopped carrying such heavy loads now, he'd definitely be fine.

With that, Yin Hongxue felt better, still scared he might not grow tall.

As for why he was so scared, Yin Hongxue couldn't quite figure it out.

They kept walking, and when Gu Chaoning saw his face relax, he asked again: "What happened earlier? Why were you upset?"

After the scare about not growing tall, Yin Hongxue almost forgot the whole thing.

But now, with Gu Chaoning reminding him, he got mad all over again.

"It's all Shui Geer's family!" He swung his fist in the air in frustration.

"Shui Geer has to work every single day—spring, summer, fall, winter. Even on snowy days, he goes out to gather firewood, except when it rains! He works as hard as a full-grown man."

"But his family is never happy! And today, especially!..."

Yin Hongxue told him what had just happened.

Yin Hongxue and Xu Xiaoshui were cutting grass together as usual, but Xu Xiaoshui's basket was twice as big as Yin Hongxue's. By the time Yin Hongxue was done, Xu Xiaoshui still had a lot left.

It was the same as always, so Yin Hongxue instinctively wanted to help Xu Xiaoshui finish.

But Xu Xiaoshui held him back.

Yin Hongxue figured Xu Xiaoshui had taken Xu Chunmiao's words to heart and that's why he wouldn't let him help.

So Yin Hongxue tried to talk Xu Xiaoshui into it.

But Xu Xiaoshui stayed quiet, just refusing his help.

To avoid the issue, Xu Xiaoshui even moved his basket somewhere away from Yin Hongxue.

When he picked up the basket, the skin at his wrists and collar showed big patches of bruises.

From the color, they were fresh.

Yin Hongxue's eyes went wide in shock, and he kept pressing for answers.

Unable to take the questioning, Xu Xiaoshui finally gave in and told him.

It turned out that since Yin Hongxue had been busy lately and couldn't work with him, Xu Xiaoshui had been getting home later each time.

His family had been keeping track of when he got home, unhappy he was coming back too late, and hinted he should work with Yin Hongxue to finish earlier and come home to cook.

It was the first time his family had said such a thing, and only then did Xu Xiaoshui realize that what Xu Chunmiao had said was true.

For the first time, Xu Xiaoshui talked back to his family, refusing to go find Yin Hongxue, and was beaten for it.

In fact, yesterday he couldn't even get out of bed and was denied food by his family.

It was only after resting for a full day and night that he could come out to work again today.

Finally, Xu Xiaoshui looked at Yin Hongxue with pleading eyes: "Xue Geer, let's not work together anymore. I know you mean well by helping me, but Xu Chunmiao is right—you shouldn't be doing work for my family."

After saying this, Xu Xiaoshui carried his basket and left. Needless to say, Yin Hongxue was furious.

Given the recent incident with Xu Chunmiao and Xu Fengshou, and what Gu Chaoning had explained to him, he already had a rough idea of how to deal with Xu Xiaoshui's younger brother to stop the Xu family from making Xu Xiaoshui work endlessly.

But he had been putting it off.

Partly because he hadn't had the time.

And partly because he worried that if things escalated, it would reflect poorly on the Gu family's reputation.

After all, the Xu Fengshou incident had just happened recently.

If another incident involving Xu Abao followed immediately, the villagers might think the Gu family was bullying them.

But now, he could no longer delay.