Life in the Cao family's Zhuangzi was more pleasant than Zhao Xiu imagined.

The houses here are tall and spacious, the weather is sunny and cool, and the fruits and vegetables eaten are extremely fresh, which are picked from the orchards and vegetable fields in the backyard; The meat eaten is also carefully fed by the tenants; The fish was caught from the nearby Yongding River, and when it was sent to the Cao family's house, it was still alive. The chefs brought by the Zhao family also made various flower cakes with fresh ingredients from the Zhuangzi, paired with chrysanthemum wine, which was delicious for the occasion.

The Cao family is very kind. Mrs. Cao took Zhang's family to Xishan every day to incense, and she could visit two or three temples a day, and the vegetarian food she ate was also very delicious. If they don't go out, they will go around the orchard vegetable field, and the two old ladies seem to have endless words, and they are not happy to be accompanied by the juniors, leaving only the girls and mothers-in-law to help. Cao Ran took her sister and pulled Zhao Wei and Zhao Xiu brothers and sisters to run horses. Zhao Xiu felt that he had not improved his riding skills in the past few years, but he had made great progress in just two or three days.

There is no need to deal with trivial matters at home, no need to bury your head in needlework, and you don't even have to worry about your grandmother, even if she is still practicing calligraphy and painting every day, Zhao Xiu's mood is also comfortable. She is no longer satisfied with painting landscapes with ink and occasional autumn flowers, but uses cinnabar, rouge, ochre, stone yellow, stone green and other pigments to bring out a variety of bright and brilliant colors, and strive to be close to the real scenery. An autumn scene in the western mountains, full of all kinds of red, orange, yellow, and ochre, it is as if the whole painting is about to burn.

When Zhang saw it, he couldn't help but smile and said, "If you want to draw red leaves, you can't paint the whole picture." Where is the mountain? You painted the autumn scenery of the West Mountain, and now it looks like a fire has burned the West Mountain. ”

Zhao Xiu said: "This is what I use to practice brushes, not formal painting." When I adjust the colors to see which color looks more beautiful, I'll do it again. She paused: "Grandmother, isn't it strange that I paint so colorfully?" The landscape paintings she has seen on a daily basis are mainly ink, even if they use other colors. It's all just embellishments. It's not often that the whole picture is colorful like this, right?

Zhang smiled: "What's this?" You usually draw flowers, birds, gongbi floors, beauties and entertainment, and you have also used colorful colors. It's just not as bright as the one you painted today. The real scene is like this, and it doesn't matter if you follow the picture, it's just a little more straightforward. But what are you doing so particularly, kid's house? Just draw it. ”

Zhao Xiu secretly wiped his sweat. When you are serious about drawing. It was a little more restrained, and it was not painted as a fire on the West Mountain, but the layers of colors of the autumn scenery of the West Mountain were painted, and the mountain scenery was also painted beautifully, and a few farmhouses and bamboo houses were added at the foot of the mountain, suggesting where they live now.

After finishing the painting, she showed it to Zhang, and she was quite satisfied. pointed out more than a dozen deficiencies, and Zhao Xiu listened honestly.

Authenticity room. Cao Luo is here. Although she is the daughter of a general, she is influenced by her mother, who was born in a scholarly family, and she usually befriends with girls from civil official families, so she likes to make some piano, chess, calligraphy and painting since she was a child, but her talent is limited and she is not proficient, but every time she sees it, she still yearns for it in her heart. On weekdays, she and Zhao Xiu met at Mrs. Cao's place, and occasionally came to Zhao Xiu's room, and I only saw her practicing calligraphy, and it was the first time to paint, and she couldn't take her eyes off when she saw it, and her tone of voice was full of envy: "Painting is so good, you are so young, why do you paint so well?" It's like seeing the real thing. Good sister, did you give me this painting? I took it back and embroidered a screen like this and gave it to my grandmother as a birthday gift. ”

Zhao Xiu generously gave the painting to her hand: "Since my sister likes it, take it." ”

Cao Luo happily put down the painting, and couldn't help but unfold it and look at it: "It would be nice if I could draw so well like you, but unfortunately I can't draw it, although I see that the mountain scenery is beautiful, I also want to paint, but I have a pen in my hand, but I don't know where to start." ”

Zhao Xiu smiled: "What's this?" Since childhood, I have learned from the painting of stones, chickens, flowers and grasses, and I have learned a few years, and I have a foundation, and then I will learn the penmanship of all kinds of characters, flowers, birds, buildings, and landscapes. When you want to specialize in landscape painting, put hundreds of paintings of the ancients and famous artists, and think about it carefully, the brushwork will naturally be, and the layout can also know a rough idea. I don't dare to say that the painting is excellent, at least there will be no mistakes, and the rest depends on each person's talent and hard work. If you can have a good gentleman to guide you, you can avoid some detours. I took advantage of it, and my grandmother could draw, so she could give me some guidance on weekdays. However, I am still young, and I haven't studied for a few years, and the current heat is still far behind, so I dare not say that I can paint well, and I have to paint for another ten or eight years before I dare to say this. ”

Cao Luo gasped when she heard this: "If you say so, it is so difficult to learn to paint." I just want to learn, where can I find the paintings of these many famous ancients? There are few opportunities to go out, so naturally it is rare to see real mountains and rivers, not to mention finding a good gentleman? ”

Zhao Xiu said: "Your mother is from a scholarly family, don't you have a few calligraphy and paintings to marry?" If you really don't have it, you can borrow it from a familiar relative or friend, or go to someone's house to copy it. I really don't, I have a few pictures at home, and I can learn a lot of things a few times. Those ancient masters can become famous, and they have their own uniqueness. As for the real mountains and real water, your family has to go to the West Mountain every year to escape the summer and climb the heights, this West Mountain is also a mountain, the scenery is still so beautiful, walk a few steps to change a scene, and I'm afraid I won't have to paint it? If one day you can paint this western mountain well, it will be difficult for you to paint other landscapes. ”

Zhao Xiu said this is very confident, Zhang's ancestors have been out of calligraphy and painting, although the mother's family is not very rich, but there are many ancestors handed down calligraphy and paintings, outsiders are valuable antiques, for the Zhang family, but it is the pen and ink of the ancestors, as long as they are not so poor that they have no food to eat, they will not sell things. When the Zhang family was promised to the old county prince, Zhang's father thought that this was a family affair of Gao Pan, and for the sake of face, he spent half of his net worth to buy a hundred acres of paddy fields near his hometown to marry, and then prepared two hundred taels of silver, two pairs of gold heads, and one pair of silver heads, which was already doing his best. Later, Zhang's father accompanied the six boxes of antique calligraphy and paintings handed down by the ancestors and the precious study, which barely supported the face of the famous scholarly family. didn't let the Zhang family enter the door and was laughed to death by the family in the capital. Zhang's later private house, some things said that it was a marriage, but in fact, the old county prince quietly helped to purchase it after marriage. He loved his young wife. Although he didn't know much poetry, calligraphy, calligraphy and painting, he had the financial resources to collect those things, and he could cheekily ask the famous calligraphers and painters who were officials in the court or their elders to ask for ink treasures and give them to his wife. Therefore, Zhang's collection of calligraphy and paintings is also one of the largest in the capital, but outsiders do not know it.

Although many of these collections were destroyed by the capsizing of boats in the canal. But there are also many left. Zhao Xiu wanted to copy ancient paintings, and it was as easy as a breeze.

Cao Luo was envious when she heard this: "My sister is really blessed, not to mention the rich collection at home." And grandmother pointing. She bowed her head in frustration: "My grandmother doesn't like me to learn this, and she doesn't allow her to come to her house." My mother was busy housekeeping and didn't have time to teach me, so she had to let me go to my grandfather's house to go to school. I learned from my cousins. But they can't compare to them everywhere. Mother didn't say anything. In my heart, I blame me for not earning her face. ”

Cao Luo was born in Jiangmen, her grandmother and father were both born in mud, she didn't like poetry and books, and she didn't pay attention to this aspect. Although the mother is from a scholarly family, there are many sisters in her mother's family, and the calligraphy and paintings of the ancients and famous families, the Fang family can give her daughter a few pieces to make the bottom of the box, and the good ones are naturally passed on to their descendants. Therefore, Mrs. Cao could not help her daughter in this regard. The only two ancient paintings are also carefully put away. If you don't want to take it out for others to see, let alone let your daughter copy it.

Originally, Mrs. Cao also learned some when she was young, and she could teach her daughter, but now that she is entangled in housework, where can she have no hands? I can only wait for my daughter to be older, so I let her go to her mother's house twice in three days to learn some fur from the female husband of the Fang family. The female husband of the Fang family was invited for the daughters of the Fang family, and when teaching, the daughters of the Fang family were naturally the first. Cao Luo entered school late, her foundation was thin, and she couldn't go every day, so she learned slowly, so the female gentleman was impatient to teach carefully, and her grades naturally couldn't get better. But Mrs. Cao's heart is very high, and when she saw that her daughter was mediocre and couldn't do anything, she was anxious, and couldn't help urging her to learn more and practice more, don't let her cousins compare. Cao Luo was sandwiched in the middle, the more she studied, the more she couldn't learn well, but the depression in her heart had nowhere to share it with others.

Zhao Xiu listened to Cao Luo's bitter water, and was full of sympathy in his heart: "If you want to learn these things well, you have to work hard, if you don't even have interest, you can only practice hard, it will definitely be bad." ”

Cao Luo hurriedly waved her hand: "No, no, no, I like it very much in my heart, but I don't have enough talent, so I can't learn well......"

Zhang then spoke: "Which one of you didn't learn well?" Poetry, songs, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, which one can be learned better? You shouldn't be learning it all together, right? ”

Cao Luo hesitated for a moment: "Sisters will, if I don't learn anything I lack, wouldn't it be a joke?" ”

Zhang shook his head: "Your sister Xiu specializes in calligraphy and painting, but she can't do poetry, she has only practiced a few songs, and her chess skills can only be regarded as mediocre, but it can barely be said that she is familiar with piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and it is reasonable." At her age, where can she be proficient in everything? Naturally, it is the same to the same after learning. You go to Fang's house to go to school, you can't go every day, and you learn later than others, and your husband refuses to teach you with your heart, how can you learn well? It's better to concentrate on learning one first, and then learn the others when you're done. Your mother also came here like this when she was a child, why don't you understand this reason? ”

Cao Luo bowed her head and did not speak. Zhang remembered that Mrs. Cao was also a strong person, with a few sisters, but she married into a military general family who was always looked down upon by scholars, her husband was a rough man, and her son could not read poetry and books, and she could not take the imperial examination to earn fame, and it was not easy for her to fight for face among her sisters. Zhang sighed, and said to Cao Luo: "Our two families have always been good friends, and you and Sister Xiu are close again. If you are free on weekdays, you can only come to the housekeeper and read and practice calligraphy with Sister Xiu. Although I don't dare to say that I am talented, I can still point out some fur to you two little girls. When our mansion is repaired and the family moves back, I will seriously invite a gentleman to Sister Xiu'er, and you can also come to class when you know your grandmother, so as not to squeeze with your cousins. ”

Cao Luo was overjoyed: "Thank you, old lady!" Happily, he was about to tell his mother, walked to the door and turned back, pulled Zhao Xiu and said: "A few of our cousins go to school in one place, and we have made an appointment to take turns to be the host, and we will have a tea party, a poetry party, and a flower appreciation party." When everyone gathers in one place, they either recite poems and lyrics, or laugh and play, all of them have to show their talents. Next month is my turn to host, I didn't fall well last year, and when I come back this year, my heart will be stunned. Good sister, you must come this year to give me some confidence. ”

Zhao Xiu became friendly with her, so naturally she would not refuse: "Okay, when?" (To be continued......)