Half an hour later, the car drove into a tree-lined villa complex and stopped in front of a gray three-story building.

This house covers a relatively large area, at least the lawn in the front yard is five or six hundred square meters, and the building area of the house is also five or six hundred square meters, with an outdoor swimming pool.

As soon as Jin Zhu and the others got out of the car, an elderly couple came out of the house, and although it had been six years, Jin Zhu still recognized the old man at a glance.

"Pretty little girl, we meet again, welcome." Mrs. Smith smiled and held out her hands to Jinzhu and gave her a hug.

"Thank you." Jin Zhu gave the gift she had prepared, an ink painting she had drawn herself.

At the end of last year, Thomson came to the imperial capital and asked for a few calligraphy and paintings from Jinzhu, so in order to prepare for emergencies, this time they specially selected a few calligraphy and paintings to bring to the United States, in order to give them away.

Mrs. Smith took the calligraphy and painting, opened it on the spot, and saw that it was a landscape painting with a few inscriptions on it, looked at it carefully, smiled and nodded, praised it twice, and gave the painting to Mr. Smith.

"Zhu, your painting is very good, I like it very much." Mr. Smith took a closer look and gave a thumbs up to the gold bead.

Jin Zhu breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it, and she could see that the other party really liked her gift.

Speaking of Jin Zhu, she is also a little puzzled, in her cognition, she always feels that these Westerners are unlikely to really know how to appreciate these traditional Chinese arts, but the purses back then, even Li Yuyuan didn't see it better at first, but the couple found the value at a glance and bought it at a high price.

Therefore, Jin Zhu dared to send them a calligraphy and painting this time, and there was some temptation, but I didn't expect these two people to be really knowledgeable.

Entering the house, Jin Zhu immediately perceived a kind of low-key luxury, the living room with a height of four or five meters is one hundred and eighty square meters, the roof is solid wood, the floor is also solid wood, the oil is shiny, the carpet in front of the sofa is like a handmade old Persian carpet, and there are several large and small oil paintings hanging on the wall.

After taking a seat on the couch, Mrs. Smith made a pot of coffee for Jin Zhu and Li Xiang, along with cookies and cakes she had baked herself.

After sitting down, Mrs. Smith asked Jin Zhu where she went to college, what she studied, and when she graduated, but she was more interested in whether Jin Zhu had done any large embroidery over the years.

Jin Zhu listened to this, took out her iPad, and pointed out the embroidery she had finished to show them, she wanted to see how much it was worth.

It's a pity that the other party didn't see the real thing, so it was difficult to estimate it, but asked how much the gold beads were willing to sell.

Jin Zhu shook her head, she doesn't have time to embroider now, and besides, she is not good at embroidery, but she usually a few stitches when she changes her brain when she is tired of writing, and she will not be willing to sell such works.

Of course, the most important thing is that she is not short of money now, in the past six months, Li Xiang has taken over a movie, a TV series and two advertising endorsements, not only earned the money for the decoration of the hometown inn in Pinggu, but also paid back the three million owed to Jin Liu, and now Li Xiang still has 10 million left in his hand, which is enough for him to buy real estate in the United States.

And Jin Zhu's own royalties plus manuscript fees for most of the year are also 2 million, in addition to Li Xiang's company's dividends of more than 2 million, this money also remained in her hands, because she was not in a hurry, she followed Liu Sheng's advice, opened a stock market account, and handed it over to Liu Sheng to take care of.

Seeing that Jin Zhu shook her head and said that she would not sell it, Mrs. Smith smiled and said, "Zhu, we are looking for you to do a business with you." ”

"What business?" After asking, Jin Zhu quickly thought of what it was.

Sure enough, Mrs. Smith nodded, "We want you to embroider a painting, the price is negotiable." ”

"What painting?"

"You come with me." Mrs. Smith stood up.

"Let's take a look." Mr. Smith saw Li Xiang's eyes chasing Jin Zhu, and he also stood up.

A few people went up to the second floor, pushed open one of the doors, the room is very large, there are 180 square meters, inside is an exhibition hall, completely Chinese-style exhibition hall, there are large floor-to-ceiling eight-open Nanmu screens, there are also medium-sized four-open rosewood screens, as well as small kang screens, in addition, there are all kinds of embroidery works on the wall, Jin Zhu looked at it carefully, there is a label under each embroidery work, which is written when and where this embroidery was bought, belonging to that sect, but there is no price, The age of the embroidery is also not indicated.

To Jin Zhu's surprise, the purses she embroidered were actually placed in a display case, which only marked when and where these purses were bought, and there was no sect.

"Do you like it?" Mrs. Smith asked.

Jin Zhu nodded, there are many treasures in these embroideries, and some of them are not short, the embroidery is exquisite, including almost all the factions that Jin Zhu knows, Suzhou embroidery, Hangzhou embroidery, Hunan embroidery, Shu embroidery, Guangdong embroidery, Bian embroidery, and Gu embroidery that only appeared in modern times.

"If you agree to take over our work, you can observe and study the embroidery here." Mrs. Smith smiled and threw a decoy.

But the problem is that Jin Zhu is not very interested in these, she is not an embroiderer, and she is not interested in studying these so-called various faction stitching methods, but at the moment she is more curious about what the other party intends to let her embroider.

"Mrs. Smith, you haven't told me what you want to embroider."

"Please come with us." Mr. Smith gestured to the stairs.

Jin Zhu followed him up the stairs, upstairs is an exhibition hall, this exhibition hall is a calligraphy and painting exhibition hall, the first thing that attracted Jin Zhu's attention is a picture of the Qingming River, there is a wall so long.

Jin Zhu of course knew that this was not the original, and the original was in the Palace Museum in the imperial capital.

Although I haven't seen the original, Jin Zhu can also see that the fake hanging on the wall is by no means an ordinary fake, no matter from the perspective of painting style or pen power, this is a superior work.

At least she can't copy it.

After reading this painting, Jin Zhu looked at some other works, including the works of famous ancient masters such as Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming, Bada Shanren, Dong Qichang, etc., as well as the works of modern masters such as Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, and Old Man Li, as well as the works of some second- and third-rate calligraphers and painters who are not very famous.

To her surprise, a painting of the dress she had completed for Thomson in her sophomore year of high school also hung on the wall, a phoenix of nirvana.

"Do you want me to embroider this?" Jin Zhu asked, pointing to the phoenix on the wall.

Mrs. Smith smiled and shook her head, her eyes fixed on the picture on the wall of the Qingming River.

Jin Zhu was slightly surprised, and pointed to this picture, wanting to confirm it again.

Seeing the other party nodding, Jin Zhu shook his head, "I'm sorry, I'm going to be a senior soon, and such a large work will definitely not be completed in a short period of time." ”

The embroidery she embroidered three feet long and one and a half feet wide took her three years intermittently, and it is estimated that she will not be able to finish embroidering this Qingming Shanghe picture in ten years, unless she does nothing all day long, and embroiders this full-time, it will take two to three years, which is indeed too difficult for her.

"It's okay, we can wait, we can give you three years, OK?" Mrs. Smith held out three fingers.

"Why me? I was still a student, not very old, and I didn't have much experience in embroidery. Jin Zhu vaguely guessed that the other party was running for her own stitches, but what she didn't understand was that the other party was just a foreigner, how could she be familiar with embroidery stitches that many natives couldn't understand?

"Child, I heard that you are the eldest in the family and want to support the family, and we want to help you." Mrs. Smith touched the head of the gold bead lovingly.

Jin Zhu remembered that when he met these two old people, he was with Jin Yang, Jin Liu, and Jin Niu, and he bargained with them for one or two thousand yuan Jin Zhu, and they must have always remembered that Jin Zhu was from that poor place.

But the problem is that the current Jin Zhu is no longer the same as the Jin Zhu of the past, not to mention, there is a Li Xiang standing next to her.

"Can you ask how much money you plan to pay?" Jin Zhu was still a little curious about the value of her own skills.

sold at a high price of two million on Li Yuyuan's side, I don't know how much I can sell in front of these two foreigners.

"Fifty thousand dollars."

Jin Zhu silently calculated, 50,000 US dollars is equivalent to more than 300,000 yuan, that is to say, Jin Zhu's annual labor value is 100,000 yuan, which is equivalent to the income of an ordinary white-collar worker in the imperial capital.

"I'm sorry, I'm writing a book now, and the annual manuscript fee is 100,000 US dollars, this business is not cost-effective, I won't accept it." Jin Zhu smiled and refused.

Because Li wanted to tell her that when dealing with Americans, there is no need to beat around the bush, they don't understand.

In fact, the $100,000 manuscript fee that Jin Zhu said was just a simple manuscript fee, and did not include her copyright fee, so she would not give up her writing to do embroidery.

However, after listening to the Smiths, Jin Zhu had an idea that she could use her spare time to embroider something big, not for sale, but for commemoration.

When Mr. and Mrs. Smith heard that Jin Zhu could earn $100,000 a year for the manuscript, the two looked at each other and looked at Jin Zhu with some suspicion.

"My wife didn't lie to you, she is now a well-known online novel writer, and she also publishes physical books, her novels have been adapted into movies and TV series, in fact, my wife's annual manuscript fee plus copyright fee is 500,000 US dollars, which is enough for her to support her family." Li Xiang spoke.

He already knew the origin of the gold beads, so even if he didn't know how to embroider, he knew that the embroidery of the gold beads must be quite valuable, otherwise a small purse would not have attracted the attention of the collectors.

Also, Li Xiang also knew that Jin Zhu sold her embroidery skills to Li Yuyuan for 2 million, so if he embroidered a picture of the Qingming River, the value of the gold beads in his heart was definitely not 50,000 US dollars, but 500,000 US dollars.

But no matter how many dollars, Li Xiang didn't want Jin Zhu to do this, first, embroidery hurt his eyes; The second is that the tree is a big move, the gold beads are eye-catching enough, the last Khitan language and Khitan script craze has not gone down, and then the name of an embroidery master, it is estimated that her identity as a traverser will not be hidden, he has not forgotten, and there is a Kang Xuexi eyeing it on the side.

"Really? Is she so powerful? Jerry was curious.

"Of course, if you know Chinese, we can send you a set of my wife's books." Li Xiang said.

"OK, I'll start learning Chinese from now on." Jerry said with a smile.

"OK, I'll give you a set next time." Jin Zhu also smiled and agreed.

"Zhu, don't mention the money, so let's embroider this, you can pick one of the embroideries hanging on the wall just downstairs." Mrs. Smith changed her mind and led everyone downstairs into the embroidery hall again.

The embroidery on the wall is generally three or four feet long, one to two feet wide, looking at the age, it should be something from the Republic of China, and there is also a Gu embroidery, which should be worth no less than 500,000 yuan.

But this condition still can't attract gold beads, but she is a little curious, the embroidery on the wall is also a rare treasure, why is the other party willing to take it out and give it to her?

Just looking at the collections in the upstairs and downstairs rooms, Jin Zhu can see that the Smith couple's financial resources are not ordinarily strong, and such a family is definitely not bad for money.

"Mrs. Smith, if you will, there are a lot of embroiderers in our country who may be willing to take your job." Jin Zhu wanted to take over this errand for Li Yuyuan.

"Oh, can you ask, can your master take this job? We can negotiate the price. "Mr. Smith came up with a good solution.

"This ......" Jin Zhu was embarrassed.

Her master, can she bring her master to this plane from a thousand years ago?

"We can talk to her." Li Xiang answered for Jin Zhu.

Jinzhu doesn't have a master, but Jinzhu has apprentices, several of Jinzhu's apprentices have already been out of school, they do this all year round, their experience and proficiency are definitely much stronger than Jinzhu, the blue is better than the blue, and it is not impossible for the apprentice to surpass the master.

Although Jinzhu and Smith had no intention of cooperating, the other party insisted on keeping them for lunch.

After the meal, Jin Zhu and Li Xiang still got into Jerry's car, who knew that when their car came out of the yard of Smith's house and drove to the main road of the community, a black car drove in front of them, and the person sitting in the driver's seat turned out to be Li Ruizhao, and the person in the passenger seat next to him was Li Fangfang, but at that time Li Ruizhao and Li Fangfang were talking, and neither of them saw Jinzhu and Li Xiang.

Jin Zhu and Li Xiang naturally didn't want to alarm them.

It's just a bit of a coincidence, isn't it?

Back at the hotel, Jin Zhu always felt that something was not quite right.

The Li family knew that Li Xiang was also going to study at Harvard, and Li Xiang and Jin Zhu had also met several Li Xiang fans in the past two days in Boston, and the domestic entertainment news edition already had photos of Li Xiang at Harvard University.

At this time, how could Yuan Yuan rest assured that Li Fang would accompany Li Ruizhao?

Could it be that she really let go of this matter and no longer stop Li Fang from recognizing her son?

Or is there another agreement between the couple? (To be continued.) )