"Xianggong is back?"

Zhou Nan stopped the needlework in his hand and asked the maid who came to report the news.

Jin Niang, who was sitting on the side with a bitter face and embroidering together, immediately raised her ears.

"Jin Niang, don't stop." Zhou Nan didn't reply to his face, and he knew what his daughter's situation was.

"Xianggong just returned, just changed his clothes, and is meeting customers outside." The maid whispered.

Zhou Nan nodded.

Han Gang is not quiet, and he rarely participates in private banquets, and after he is released, he can't find anyone else except at home.

But every day when he returned home, he was indispensable to continue to take care of his official duties.

The threshold of the Zaifu family has always been attractive. Every day, officials and other people who wanted to meet Zaisuke sat in the gatehouse after handing over their names. Even knowing that the master will not receive him, he will sit for an hour before leaving. It's not just the Zai Fu family in the capital, from the high-ranking officials and eunuchs in the capital to the local officials, who are a little more powerful, and they are all average.

After Han Gang was promoted to the two mansions, he felt that so many people's cars and horses were blocked at the door of his house, and it was inconvenient for him to go home, so he changed this rule.

Ten people are fixed every day, and number plates are distributed, on a first-come, first-served basis. The rest will select 10 people from the name card handed over the day before, and someone will be sent to notify them according to the address they left.

In this way, the officials who went to Beijing would not be delayed, and the traffic jam in front of their homes would be reduced. If cronies and other important officials have their own channels to enter the palace, there is no need to say more.

"There will probably be an hour left, you can go and talk to Sister Yan."

In the political hall, the officials below saw that most of them were dismissed in three or five sentences, and when they returned home, they could talk a little longer, but after all, it would not be too long. Moreover, Han Gang does not like to spend too much time on meeting guests at night, and always meets guests before meals - to the outside world, he claims that he does not want to delay the guests' meals. Generally speaking, the concierge of the high-ranking officials' houses would not provide food and drink, and many of the guests who met the lord's house in the evening would be hungry if they were not well prepared.

The maid went out, and Zhou Nan turned around and saw her daughter pouting, bowing her head and embroidering the embroidery on the bandage, but her hand strength was a little bigger, and the accuracy was also worse, and an embroidery needle flew up and down several times, and the bamboo strip bandage was broken all of a sudden.

Zhou Nan sighed: "You're so old, do you still think you're a child?" Which sister is at your age and doesn't practice female popularity at home? ”

"Daddy said, just get by."

The daughter's whispered muttering did not escape Zhou Nan's ears.

A pair of slender willow eyebrows were raised high at first, and then fell helplessly. Hugging his daughter's shoulders, Zhou Nan said softly: "Jin Niang, your father is a man, and he doesn't understand the affairs of his daughter's family." Your father and the eldest man of the Wang family are his father, and they are like flesh and blood. Da Lang is also a kind person, you marry in the past, you don't have to worry about how much trouble you suffer. But if today's daughters of the family are angry after they get married, how can the daughter of the prime minister's family be an exception? The Wang family is also a big family, and it is indispensable to be picked on when marrying in the future. These four items of virtue and Ronggong, if you don't do well, your mother's family will be embarrassed, and your father doesn't care, but you are in your husband's house, how can you live well? ”

When I was a child, I was lively and noisy, and when I grew up, I became even more stubborn, and Zhou Nan couldn't hold it down when I screwed it. Han Gang didn't care about his daughter's little temper, and laughed that this stubborn temper was passed down from Zhou Nan. Zhou Nan was so angry that he couldn't help it. But now she also knows how to deal with her daughter, and it works to be patient and reasonable.

……………………

When Han Gang returned to the backyard, only Zhou Nan greeted him, "The official is back!" ”

"What about your sisters?"

"I'm buying begging things in the backyard, and I've already let people spread it." Zhou Nan helped Han Gang take off the robe of the visitor, and handed him a cold wet handkerchief for him to wipe his face, "Why is the official so late today?" ”

After Han Gang returned home, the time to meet guests was usually fixed, but today took more than half an hour longer than in the past.

After wiping my face with an ice hand towel, I was suddenly refreshed. Hearing Zhou Nan ask, Han Gang took a roll of paper from the handmaiden behind him, handed it to Zhou Nan, and smiled mysteriously: "Look at this painting." ”

Zhou Nan opened it suspiciously, but it was a portrait of a person, but this painting had a completely different look and feel from ordinary paintings.

Zhou Nan's eyes widened in surprise.

On a white piece of paper, a bust of a woman is drawn with black charcoal.

The painting style of this era is in a period of great turmoil. Charcoal, which originally appeared only to draw maps at any time, has now become an indispensable tool for painters all over the world, making drafts, and sketching landscapes and characters is more suitable than brushes.

Due to the increasing use of charcoal, pure charcoal drawings also increased, and Han Gang named it sketch. The sketch picture, due to the difference between light and dark, coupled with the visual perspective effect, is often more realistic than the old Gongbi white drawing, but it is the first time she has seen such a lifelike portrait.

"It really seems!" Zhou Nan said in surprise.

In fact, it's almost, Han Gang said in his heart, but from the perspective of this era, it is definitely beyond imagination.

"It was made by Li Gonglin." Hangang Road.

"Li Boshi?"

"Well, Dr. Guozi Li Boshi." Han Gang said with a smile. Li Gonglin's expression is very good, some people called him a doctor when he was not a doctor, and now that he is a doctor, he is even more worthy of the name.

Zhou Nan looked at the picture again in surprise, shook his head and didn't believe it: "If you want to say that it is someone else's work, the slave family believes it." But this is clearly not Li Boshi's handiwork, and it is too far behind. ”

"Really?" Han Gang frowned and looked at it for a while, then shook his head and said, "This is Li Gonglin's own hand, he shouldn't take the name of others." ”

Li Gonglin, who works in painting, is far more famous in Beijing than the official positions of Dr. Guozi and Zhongshu arranger, and he is a jinshi, so he is very respected in the capital. However, Li Gonglin doesn't like to make friends with high-ranking officials and eunuchs, and the friends around him are ordinary sassy people.

"But ......" Zhou Nan still had an expression of disbelief.

Han Gang has a painting of Li Gonglin in his house, which is a portrait of a horse boy leading a high-spirited racing horse. Han Gang got it unexpectedly and collected it for Zhou Nan, who likes painting.

The champion horse with the gold medal and the big red ribbon, the radiant appearance, as well as the bulging muscles on the body, seem to jump on the paper, and the horse leader in front, the left hand in front of the front seems to be to put aside the enthusiastic crowd, and the right hand is tightly gripping the reins, showing the horse boy's attention to the champion horse after winning the championship vividly.

But the picture of Qiji winning the championship is far less exquisite than the portrait in front of him. On the drawing that is only two feet square, the human face accounts for most of it, and the expressions of the characters are lifelike, and even the furrows and ravines on the faces can be distinguished.

This style of using the pen is not a person at all.

"Li Gonglin has been in Beijing for all these years, and I haven't heard that he has come to visit the officials, why did he come to the door today?"

As a subordinate of Han Gang, Li Gonglin has never visited the door once in the past few years, and when he suddenly visited, Zhou Nan felt that it would not be a whim.

"For the sake of the horses, the captain of the king." Han Gang said: "He is friends with Wang Yuma, and now the eldest princess of Qilu is seriously ill, if there is a case, how can the queen mother spare him the crime of being unfounded?" ”

The eldest princess of Qilu is the daughter of Yingzong and the Empress Dowager Gao, and the only remaining sister of the first emperor. Because of the Empress Dowager's affairs, Empress Dowager Xiang will only be better for this sister-in-law, and even overzealous. The daily gift is far beyond the level that it should be-just look at the title to know one or two-the only son had just been crowned a regimental training envoy the day before, saying that it was to rejoice the eldest princess.

And the relationship between the horse Wang Shu and the eldest princess is notoriously bad, if the eldest princess is not cured, Wang Shu will naturally not have good fruit to eat.

Han Gang spread the painting flat on the table, "This painting is what he used to curry favor with his husband." ”

"What's so special about it?"

Zhou Nan knew that his husband was not good at qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, and he was also not interested in poetry and songs, if Li Gonglin just took a good painting, he would not delay Han Gang for such a long time.

"Do you know how this painting was drawn?"

Zhou Nan looked at this painting carefully and found that even where the light came from on the human face could be seen from the painting, and its fineness could be known. She's always been a painter, but it's the same.

Shaking her head, she looked at Han Gang expectantly.

"It was drawn through a dark room. The portrait is projected into the darkroom through several sets of mirrors and lenses installed in the darkroom, and the projection is directly depicted, which not only makes the characters realistic, but also the light and shadow effects are more realistic. ”

Because Han Gang has long been on the "Nature" by openly using painting terms such as projection and perspective that only understand fur. Although the words are very superficial, this is to puncture a layer of window paper, so that a talented painter can find a way to improve.

Zhou Nan jumped up and asked anxiously: "Do you know how the dark room was built?" ”

"Of course, but my husband won't say it." Han Gang hung his appetite, "Let's watch the next issue of Nature." I also hope that Li Gonglin can paint some colored paintings, try out all kinds of paints, and try everything. ”

Many Western oil painters have studied chemistry and mineralogy in search of better pigments or solvents. If you only study the paper, ink, pen and inkstone thoroughly, you will make too little contribution to the development of science. It would definitely be a good thing if Li Gonglin could study more pigments.

"Official ......" Zhou Nan hugged Han Gang's arm and screamed coquettishly, as if he had returned to the past, and his mature charm was replaced by the coquettishness of girlhood.

"It's interesting to test the article yourself, but it's not interesting to say it now." Han Gang narrowed his eyes, enjoying the touching touch in his wrist, but he was not moved in the slightest.

"But in "Nature", there are many articles that the slave family can't understand."

"The Queen Mother can understand it, Nanniang, why can't you understand it?"

Empress Dowager Xiang, like many ladies, is not highly educated, and is only literate, far less than Zhou Nan, an Oiran who can sing and make peace with scholars - relatively speaking, Wang Yi is an outlier.

Zhou Nan shook off Han Gang's arm and cooled down, "Yes, the Queen Mother can understand it, but we can't understand it." ”

Han Gang hugged his concubine lightly, "What kind of temper is it, what the Queen Mother understands is those simple health articles." ”

The journal "Nature" has become the most popular reading book in the world, and many people inside and outside the government and the opposition are subscribing to this journal, and the content in it is also regarded as a guideline by many people.

As far as Han Gang knows, the palace is also a big customer, and the queen mother is even more important, but she mainly takes a look at articles on medicine and health. And after she read it, she will follow the article and act aside, throwing aside the many years of customs in the palace.

Royal jelly, for example, comes from a paper a few years ago that talks about the internal society of bees. The division of labor in the bees is said, and so is the products in the hive.

Worker bees, queen bees and other insects, knowing that it is fun, and the literati have another thing in the article that can be compared and borrowed. In the folk, it is the improvement of beekeeping techniques - with the beehives that were common in later generations, the means of extracting honey are no longer directly cut off the hive. In the palace, it is the daily tonic that has changed because of this.

Royal jelly and propolis became tribute, and some courtiers received them as rewards.

Han Gang has been given royal jelly a few times, as well as propolis. Han Gang's parents, who also take royal jelly, propolis and honey all year round — the vast rape fields in Longyou allow the Han family to produce a large amount of honey every year — are believed to be getting healthier.

Holding the delicate body of his concubine, Han Gang looked down at the sketches of the people on the table again, and couldn't help but smile, in this era, it is impossible to go back to the past.