It is still a little difficult for Shen Xi to completely draw the appearance of Lin Dai's mother, starting with a simple hairstyle, then the face shape, then the eyebrows, and nose, these physical characteristics are easy to stay in people's minds.

Finally, the eyes and mouth are the most difficult to draw, and then some fine-tuning can be made.

After forming the outline of a person, Shen Xi also added some necessary embellishments, such as facial expressions and the contrast of light and shadow, so as to make the person in the painting similar to reality.

After more than two hours of busy work, Lin Dai finally said in surprise: "Yes...... Yes...... This is my mother's ......."

Xiao Nizi held the portrait of her mother in her hand and cried with joy.

Shen Xi breathed a sigh of relief, he tried more than 100 kinds of eyes alone, and finally "spliced" a portrait.

Looking at Lin Dai's happy appearance, Shen Xi felt a little emotion in his heart. What a poor girl, just seeing the portrait of her mother is so excited. But if you think about it carefully, I'm afraid that Xiao Nizi will never have the opportunity to meet her mother in her life.

Lin Dai's mother is a fugitive, and Lin Dai is separated around Ninghua County, if her mother is still alive, she doesn't know where she was escorted, this big tomorrow has such a wide area, how difficult is it to reunite?

Of course, the best result is that Lin Dai's mother is in Tingzhou Mansion and the surrounding prefectures and counties, and with Hui Niang's connections now, she may be able to visit secretly through the Chamber of Commerce.

But Shen Xi didn't plan to let the Zhou family know about this matter, Lin Dai had always kept this secret in her heart, for fear that she would be disgusted by the Zhou family after saying it...... After all, Lin Dai is the daughter of a criminal official, and she was originally going to be assigned to the Teaching Division.

After Lin Dai had a portrait of her mother, she suddenly became cheerful, and when she smiled at Shen Xi, she was even sweeter and more moving.

Lin Dai puts the painting in the most conspicuous place, and likes to take a look at it when she has nothing to do. But before going to bed, she glanced at Shen Xi pitifully, and then reluctantly put the painting in the book and clamped it. Shen Xi could see that she wanted to "hug her mother" to sleep, but she was afraid that she would damage the painting when she slept, so she was extremely entangled.

"Like, say. Just put your mother's painting next to your pillow. ”

Lin Dai shook her head: "I lost my mother, I can't break my mother's painting again, otherwise I won't have a mother again." ”

Shen Xi thought for a while and said, "I have a good memory. I've already remembered the appearance of our mother in my heart, and if you break it, I'll paint another one. ”

"Really?"

Lin Dai smiled, hurriedly got out of bed and took out her mother's portrait from the book and held it in her hand. It is not placed next to the pillow, but directly attached to the chest, with a happy face.

After a while, she seemed to think of something, leaned her head over, and kissed Shen Xi's face affectionately, and her shy and timid appearance made Shen Xi feel extremely intoxicated.

On the second day, Shen Xi honestly painted two more portraits, he didn't dare to guarantee that he would be able to paint his mother-in-law vividly in the future, and carefully hid it after painting it to prevent Lin Dai from knowing. Otherwise, the next time Xiao Nizi begs him to paint, he will not be rewarded with a fragrant kiss.

Since then, Lin Dai often brings portraits with her, showing Lu Xi'er that she is also a mother. Lu Xi'er then ran to pester Shen Xi, and asked Shen Xi to also give her a "painting mother".

“…… Xi'er, you can see your mother every day, and you still use me to paint? ”

Lu Xi'er is young, and she likes to compare with Lin Dai the most, but whenever Lin Dai has something, she has to have it.

Lu Xi'er cried: "No, no, no. I want Brother Shen Xi to help someone draw a mother, and I can see my mother all the time in the future......"

Shen Xi really couldn't, so he had to draw a portrait of Hui Niang for Lu Xi'er, which was already a familiar thing for him.

Get the drawn out of the mother. Lu Xi'er burst into tears and laughed.

When Lin Dai saw this scene, her eyes, nose and mouth were squeezed together, and she snorted softly: "You have to rob me of everything, what a little villain." ”

Lu Xi'er didn't care so much, she ran out of the door with her "mother", and she didn't reach the door yet. "Mother" had already fallen to the ground, she quickly picked it up and blew it, and the drawing paper had cracked.

Lin Dai kept things much more meticulously than Lu Xi'er, she made a picture frame by herself and sandwiched the painting in the middle, so that even if she slept in her arms at night, she would not worry about being crushed.

Since having this portrait, Xiao Nizi has less time to sleep at night and have nightmares, many times Shen Xi wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Lin Dai with a smile on her face, sweet and serene, like a sleeping beauty.

……

……

In the blink of an eye, the Mid-Autumn Festival, although Hui Niang is busy with affairs on weekdays, she still made a lot of preparations in advance for this Mid-Autumn Festival.

The workers of the printing workshop, the pharmaceutical factory, and the silver trumpet will pay bonuses during the holidays, and the chamber of commerce will also exchange gifts, in addition to preparing gifts for those merchants who come and go, thanking them for taking care of the business of the chamber of commerce.

On August 13, there were more gifts piled up in the backyard warehouse of the pharmacy than the New Year's goods prepared at the end of last year.

Since the beginning of this day, the school organizes assessments, different classes have different test papers, Shen Xi's class mainly examines the scriptures, Moyi questions 20 each, and finally a piece of art and literature.

The so-called pasting of scriptures is to paste a few words from the four books and five classics for candidates to fill in, similar to the fill-in-the-blank questions in later language exams. The Moyi is to allow candidates to answer the scriptures in writing, which is equivalent to the short-answer questions in the language exams of later generations, and candidates can answer as long as they are familiar with the scriptures and various annotated texts.

The only difficulty is the craft, that is, writing the eight-strand text.

The topic of this time is, the son is Yan Yuan said, use it to do, give it up and hide it, but I have a husband with you.

Shen Xi knew that this sentence came from the Analects of Confucius, and that it was what Confucius said to his best student, Yan Yuan. It means that when the state uses you, you will use your talents to implement your own ideas according to your own ideas; When the country doesn't use you, you put away your ideas and ideas. It seems that only you and I have this cultivation and style that can do this naturally and frankly.

The "Eight Strands of Writing" is also known as the Speech of the Sage, that is, the main text should be spoken in the tone of Confucius and Mencius. Shen Xi's breakthrough is that it is appropriate for the sage to hide, and the capable person begins to show it slightly, and then sprinkles 600 words, all in one go.

The exam lasts for three hours and ends at the end of the day. Feng Yanqi gave priority to Shen Xi's volume, and gave full marks to the scriptures and Moyi questions, and when he saw Shen Xi's art and literature, he couldn't help but applaud, attracting several gentlemen to watch, and finally unanimously gave him an excellent grade.

After the exam. The school has a three-day holiday.

Shen Xi returned to the pharmacy and saw that the backyard was full of gifts bought by Hui Niang, and for a while, he was childlike and opened these gift boxes one by one and closed them again. Since there was no lunch. When he saw something delicious, he took it out and tasted it, and then shared it with Lu Xi'er and Lin Dai. After Hui Niang found out, she complained twice, and asked Shen Xi to put the gift box in place, and didn't care too much.

The Chamber of Commerce will be closed for three days on August 14, 15 and 16, during which business negotiations will not be accepted. The silver horn also announced that the market would be closed, and it would not resume business until the 17th meeting.

According to Shen Xi's proposal, the silver horn will be closed for two days every Friday and Saturday, and the market will also be closed during the New Year's holidays. On the one hand, it is convenient for the silver number to complete the inventory and storage of silver coins internally, and the other is to allow the people to reasonably plan to save and withdraw money, even if there is a run, they can also complete the replenishment of funds through the two-day market closure.

When the market was closed for the first time, some people thought that the silver account had closed down, causing a small run wave, but then the silver number was open for business. The people realized that the silver trumpet was just a normal rest. On the contrary, this turmoil has formed a certain propaganda effect, and more people have come to save money than before.

On the evening of August 13, Hui Niang gave gifts to the people in the pharmacy in advance, the maids had red envelopes, and Zhou and Xie Yuner each received a "big gift", which was gold and silver jewelry.

Zhou was accustomed to receiving it twice, but Xie Yun'er was still the first time she received it, and she was a little overwhelmed when she got the gold bracelet.

“…… Sister, the monthly dividends and monthly money are not less mine, I ...... How embarrassed is it to accept such a valuable gift? Xie Yun'er hurriedly excused herself. Because she has to support her family, she has never taken a penny less on the dividends of the pharmacy, which makes her feel a little guilty, after all, she is just sitting in the clinic. The main revenue of the pharmacy actually comes from the sales of over-the-counter medicines.

Hui Niang said with a smile: "In the past six months, the business of our pharmaceutical factory has been very good, and it has received several large orders and made a lot of profits. The pharmaceutical factory is actually part of the pharmacy, and now that it is making money, it should be given to my sister. ”

Xie Yun'er put away the gold bracelet with trepidation.

The gold bracelet that Hui Niang gave her was full of two or two. According to the current exchange rate of gold and silver, it is equivalent to her income in the pharmacy for two months.

Because Xie Yun'er had to go back to accompany her family on August 15, and the Zhou family also had to celebrate the holiday alone with the family of four, the festival of the pharmacy was advanced by two days.

Hui Niang prepared moon cakes and some food that night, and also prepared a hot pot, invited Xie Yun'er to stay and eat together, and spent a reunion night in the pharmacy in the evening.

Xie Yun'er had never eaten hot pot, and she was a little uncomfortable with this way of eating, but she was full of praise after tasting it.

After eating, the maids cleaned up the table, and Hui Niang, Zhou and Xie Yun'er sat down, in addition to gossiping, they also discussed some future development plans for the pharmacy.

While chatting, Xie Yun'er still held the poem "Peach Blossom Temple" that she copied in her hand. Hui Niang smiled: "I didn't expect my sister to like these poems and songs, but I don't know if I like to talk about it?" ”

"What is Ben?"

Xie Yun'er was born in a big family, and in the past two years, she has been running around for family affairs, and she has no time to contact the novelties on the market.

Hui Niang smiled: "It's just some stories, if my sister finds it boring, you might as well use it to pass the time." I have a few copies here, all printed in my own workshop, and I asked Xiaoyu to bring them to you. ”

Hui Niang called Xiaoyu over and asked Xiaoyu to go upstairs and take down "The Legend of Yue Quan" and "The Legend of Tong Lin", which she had already read, and handed them to Xie Yun'er.

With a thick stack of books, Xie Yun'er picked up one casually, flipped through a few pages, and found it very interesting, so she decided to take it home and read it slowly.

"These are all written by Xiaolang, I really don't know what's in his little head." Hui Niang looked at Shen Xi's eyes full of doting, "If my sister finishes reading it, I still have it here, and it has not yet been launched on the market." If my sister feels too tired to read the text, there are also comic books. ”

"Hmm."

Xie Yun'er nodded, unconsciously lowered her gaze to the poem in hand, and asked casually, "Two sisters, have you ever heard of Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng?" ”

Hui Niang thought for a moment: "This name is a little familiar, but I don't remember where I heard it." Why did my sister ask this? ”

Xie Yun'er sighed: "During this time, this poem "Peach Blossom Nunnery" was popular all over the city, and the legend was that it was written by a child, but the original author of the poem was a person named Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng. This man is a very good poet, and he should be a man of great talent, but I have never heard of his name, so I am curious. ”

"The kid wrote it?" Hui Niang couldn't help but look at Shen Xi, and immediately remembered, "Then I'm afraid I'll have to ask Xiaolang." You look at the title pages of those books, each of them should be signed with this name, Xiaolang used to make a picture of Ninghua's Ye County Order, and he also used this name. ”

Xie Yun'er opened the book and saw that there was a seal on the title page, because it was a seal character, she didn't pay much attention to it when she read it before, but now she carefully distinguishes it, is it "Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng"?

"Xiaolang, do you know the author of this poem?" Xie Yun'er raised her head and looked at Shen Xi happily.

Shen Xi grinned and pretended to be confused: "I don't know." ”

Hui Niang said angrily: "Stinky boy, why don't you come and tell Aunt Xie what happened?" ”

"I don't really know."

Shen Xi stepped forward with a bitter face, "Maybe it's a coincidence, how do I know if this Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng is the same person as my Lanling Xiao Xiaosheng?" (To be continued.) )