Chapter 57

The Zhu family used to have a few authentic paintings of Wu Daozi in their possession, but after the separation of the family, they disappeared. When Zhu Yanshu was young, she learned to paint with the imitation paintings made by Zhu’s old master. Today, the leisure of the childhood has long been left, today suddenly saw a Wu Daozi’s imitation painting, instantly Zhu Yan Shu pulled to twenty years ago.

She quietly admired the painting for nearly ten minutes, the other people in the room didn’t dare to make a sound, even Yang Yuyan stood next to Su Chunjun in an incomparably quiet manner.

“It’s really exquisite.” Zhu Yanshu straightened up, collected her floating emotions, and said with a smile with Professor Dai, “Mr. Dai’s skill is superb, making me mesmerized.”

Dai Yushu was also flattered. He had never studied painting when he was studying in England, and it was only after he returned to China, entered the university, and made friends with various scholars that his interest developed. This painting is the most satisfactory one among the paintings he made last year, and has been treasured in his own study, not yet shown to others.

He was always worried about the class to show off, made poems and paintings never dare to easily show people, not friends and relatives and can not be obtained.

This time in the selection of gifts, he wanted to choose a tea set brought back from England, and then wanted to take the collection of tea, or wine. In the end, he hesitated again and again, and finally took this painting which he was most satisfied with.

From the bottom of his heart, although Mr. Zhu is no longer alive, but he visited today, is to visit the old gentleman’s study, to see the collection as a person, he is when he came to visit Mr. Zhu. Latecomer to see Mr., of course, the gift is the most appropriate of their own work.

He chose this painting, the significance of this.

But this is just a thought in his mind, Mr. Zhu has long been dead, only a posthumous love and two granddaughters. He did not hold the idea that this painting could be appreciated.

Never thought that he was the one who belittled people!

Dai Yushu could not help but become more solemn, softly said: “I only started practicing painting a few years ago, this is an imitation painting I painted last year, the original painting is actually also an imitation, but it is a copy of Wu Daozi imitated by the Tang Dynasty, it is also considered an antique. For Ms. Dai to praise it so much, it really puts me to shame.”

Zhu Yan Shu laughed: “Where under the sky are so many real Wu Daozi? The ones I’ve seen are my father’s imitations, and when I was young, I learned to paint and enjoyed most of the imitations. Father once said, look at the painting is not to look at the name of the person, is to look at the painting, as long as the painting is good, written above the anonymous is also a good painting, painting is not good, written above the emperor’s name is also a bad painting.”

A room of people all laughed.

Dai Yushu even laughed: “The old gentleman is right!”

The two continued to discuss the painting’s brushwork, intention, and clothing in more detail, Yang Yuyan was beside her, gradually realizing that she couldn’t understand it.

When Su Chunjun heard the interest, he turned his head to have a chat with Ms. Yang, and immediately found that she was a bit embarrassed, and on second thought, he realized that he had thought about it, and whispered in her ear, “Do you see that the ghosts and Zhong Kui in the painting are both fat?”

Yang Yuyan stretched her head to look and nodded.

He said, “That’s because the Tangs are all big and fat.”

Yang Yuyan was amused.

He held her forward and stood, pointing out to her the clothing of Zhong Kui in that painting, telling her that this was the official uniform of some Tang Dynasty official, and that although it wasn’t exactly the same, the tiara, the chest embroidery pattern, and the belt all indicated what kind of official it was.

And these are the words of Prof. Dai, who loves irony, and then look at the little ghosts behind that Zhong Kui, some of them naked, some of them riding clouds, some of them riding horses, some of them carrying swords, and even though they are a multitude of ghosts, it seems as if they are Zhong Kui’s henchmen. In mythology, Zhong Kui drives out ghosts, so the Zhong Kui in this painting is traveling with a crowd of ghosts, and those ghosts are all the little ghosts under him.

In other words, Zhong Kui and the ghosts were one and the same.

Yang Yuyan immediately comprehended it!

“Oh, so that’s how it is.” Now she wasn’t embarrassed to look at the painting, if she could understand it, she wouldn’t be embarrassed, even if she only realized a few points of the meaning, she would still find the painting interesting.

Su Chunjun continued to whisper to her, “Look at that thin neck, thin arms and legs, but the stomach seems to be pregnant with the tenth month of the ghost, that is a hungry ghost, you see it is not a pair of inverted eight-eyebrows, a pair of thin eyes? If you have seen the director of the Finance Bureau ……”

He raised an eyebrow and Yang Yuyan understood, “Wow ……”

Almost all of the ghosts behind Zhong Kui had a familiar face. Yang Yuyan is not too concerned about the real thing, so she is not familiar with these faces, and Yang Yucicang is even if she recognizes them, but she does not dare to say anything, and she just remains mute.

Zhu Yanshu smiled as she watched, and talked even more happily with Prof. Dai.

Only Zhang Ma could not understand, she still has a lot of things to do.

Seeing the madam, young lady and guests talking lively, she first went to the living room to vacate a wall, ready for a moment Zhu Yanshu want to hang paintings on the spot.

Then she cleaned up the kitchen and figured that Prof. Dai might be staying for lunch, so she quietly told Yang Yuyan and went out to buy food with a basket.

Yang Yuyan hurriedly got out of the crowd and followed Zhang Ma to the door, asking, “Zhang Ma, what all do you want to buy? Is it a good time to buy?”

Zhang Ma: “The vegetable market is open, so are the butcher stores and fish stores, so it’s still a good time to buy things. I won’t buy too much. I’ll buy two chickens, one for stir-fry and one for soup, and two fish in case Prof. Dai eats here tonight. There’s ready-made ham at home, and then see if there’s any fresh greens, buy a little and you’ll be complete.”

Yang Yuyan: “If you can’t take it, ask someone to bring it back, don’t carry it yourself.” Two chickens and two fish are not light.

Mrs. Zhang: “I know, go home now.”

Yang Yuyan turned back to the house, saw Zhu Yanshu holding the painting and said, “I think this painting is just right to hang in this side of the house, borrowing the might of the ghost king, but also to block the evil spirit.”

The living room had an empty wall that Zhang Ma had only just vacated, so Su Chunjun stepped on a chair and hung the painting with his own hands.

He jumped down and patted the dust on his hands, then stood next to Yang Yuyan again and asked her in a low voice, “Did Zhang Ma go grocery shopping?”

Yang Yuyan nodded and snapped at him, “You just think about eating.”

Su Chunjun made a show of gulping and said, “To tell the truth, my stomach growls when I see Zhang Ma now.”

Yang Yuyan looked at the painting and said, “Professor Dai is really versatile.”

Su Chunjun exclaimed, “He is as smart as a demon! I’ve been studying painting since I was a child for more than ten years, but I can’t match what he’s been studying for a few years. I have also imitated Wu Daozi’s paintings, but the paintings are so bad that I can only imitate a few points of the meaning and shape at most, but not half of the charm.” However, Prof. Dai learns everything quickly, and he himself said that teaching at the university was like being a student again for him.

Yang Yuyan listened to him speak on behalf of the professor in addition to their own usually give students, but also often go to other professors in the classroom as a student to steal the teacher, almost all the professors in the school’s class he has listened to, but also seriously write homework, more serious than real students, but also better than them to learn.

“The sea of learning is endless.” Su Chunjun said.

To Prof. Dai, it was a true statement.

The flowers were also sent, and so were the paintings. Zhu Yanshu finally practiced his promise and took Professor Dai to see the Zhu family’s book collection.

The Zhu family’s book collection was surprisingly on the fifth floor, adjacent to Yang Xuhe’s original study.

After Yang Xuhe left, the locks on the study were changed and everything was cleaned out.

No one would have thought that there was still a study here.

Zhu Yanshu opened the door and led the way in.

The study is dim, the windows are closed, but there is no dust.

Zhu Yanshu pulled open the curtains and pushed open the window, and only then did everyone see the full picture of the study.

The study was very large, there were two rooms, all full of books, densely packed.

Both sides of the walls are set with bookcases, the cabinets, cabinets are full of books, there are also many book boxes on the ground stacked on top of each other, not neat.

As soon as Dai Yushu came in, he seemed like a demented person, his eyes were straight, his feet were astringent, and he stood in front of a shelf of books and didn’t move.

Yang Yuyan walked quickly back and forth and asked Zhu Yanshu, “Mom, just how many books are here? Why don’t I know?”

Zhu Yanshu glared at her, “You didn’t come up to read a lot when you were a kid, so you’re blaming me for forgetting!”

Yang Yuyan stopped asking. This is not her fault, the memories and feelings that she merged with the last Yang Yuyan did not include this study at all.

Zhu Yan Shu: “But you and your sister didn’t like to come up here when you were little, when you came in, you weren’t allowed to talk, you weren’t allowed to eat, you weren’t allowed to run around, and you had to keep quiet. As a result, you all don’t like to come up to play. Later I don’t dare to bring you up again, afraid that you will take out the books to borrow people.”

There didn’t used to be so many books here, only a few shelves against the wall. Most of the books were still on the bookcases in each house.

Then her father passed away. Before he passed away, he donated some of the books and the rest were hidden here.

Most people thought that the Zhu family’s book collection was all donated after her father’s death, not realizing that it was all hidden here. Even Yang Xuhe didn’t know.

She didn’t tell Yang Xuhe at the time because she was afraid that he would take the books and lend them to others. If you lend a book, it’s hard to get it back. These are the books left by her father, and it’s a shame to lose one. She couldn’t let go of them, so she hid them from him.

Only later did she think it was right to hide it from him.

After her divorce from Yang Xuhe, she was the only one who came up to this study. She cleaned it with her own hands and occasionally sat here to laze around and read a book.

This was the first time she had brought someone else up.

In this study, Zhu Yanshu was one of the strictest misers, she didn’t even relax Yang Yuyan and Yang Yucicang, staring at them intently and saying, “Only allowed to look, I won’t lend you the books here to take away.”

Yang Yu Yan hmmmed and ahhed twice, unable to listen to what her own mother was saying over the large rows of translated texts she found, and the most important thing was that these books all seemed to have been copied by hand! Which great gods have translated these ah!

Yang Yu Cicada also stuck in front of a book can not move, this is surprisingly a book of the founding of the United States, this book certainly can not be taken out to the classmates to see! But every sentence in it was a precious treasure! It provided more food for thought on how to save China, which she had been wanting to discuss with the book club!

Dai Yushu and Su Chunjun were in the same general mold, each standing in front of a bookshelf or glued to a book, their eyes tethered, their souls hard to leave, ignoring everything.

Zhu Yanshu stared at them, preventing them from taking advantage of the opportunity to hide books – this kind of thing is a lot! She was too experienced, and even if she was of noble character, she could not be trusted in this regard.

After allowing them to look for ten minutes, she said: ”There’s no stove here, so don’t look. One person picks a book and goes down to read it again.”

But there was a sea of books in front of them, so who could take just one scoop?

Yang Yuyan immediately made a voice of injustice, “You can only take one book?”

Zhu Yanshu glared at her, “You can’t finish one book a day.”

Yang Yuyan immediately climbed up the ladder, “Then can I come back tomorrow to get it when I’m done?” If she had known that there were so many books at home, why would she have bothered to buy them?

Before Zhu Yanshu could say yes, Su Chunjun cleared his throat and piled up a smile on his face, looking as if he was just waiting to follow and speak.

Zhu Yanshu then did not open her mouth.

Dai Yushu couldn’t be as bad as Su Chunjun, but he had another trick up his sleeve. Holding a book in his hand, he said with a straight face, “This book has opened my mind! Ms. Zhu, if you don’t give up, can I write some thoughts based on this book for your correction?”

Zhu Yanshu hadn’t had a written conversation with anyone for a long time, she was itching to hear what she said, and she also felt that Prof. Dai was also worthy of talking to her.

“You are too polite, I am also only half a bucket of water, let’s make progress together.” She laughed, looked at the book and said, “This book …… will be lent to you sir for three days, is it good?”

Dai Yushu immediately nodded with joy, almost eager to immediately hold the book back to read freely.

Yang Yuyan instantly discovered the wonderful trick of borrowing books, immediately said, “Mom, I think my reading notes have new content.”

Zhu Yanshu rolled her eyes, “I remember you haven’t written any reading notes for a year, right?”

Yang Yuyan: “That’s all because there weren’t enough new books to impress me! I think it’s worth writing book notes for this series of books!”

Zhu Yan Shu remembered that bookshelf Yang Yu Yan read that layer of books seem to be some popular books, she walked over and looked once, all the names of various teenage girls and teenagers, obviously …… with love stories as the main focus.

Yang Yuyan lifted her heart and looked at her nervously, afraid that she would not agree.

Zhu Yan Shu, however, let her off the hook, said, “Also, read the great works of these gentlemen, better than you go to the bookstore to buy what singing Peking Opera Romeo.”

Yang Yuyan breathed a huge sigh of relief and hastily promised to take a reading note every day!

Su Chunjun stood over and said, “I can tutor Second Miss in writing her reading notes.”

Zhu Yanshu slanted over, “……”