Chapter 425: Chapter 156 His Wooden Pagoda_2
The next moment, she drew closer, a sly glint flashing in her eyes, "But, after so long, why haven’t I seen your fiancé?"
Lu Tong: "..."
She quietly picked up a piece of lotus seed pastry and decided to answer this unanswerable question with silence.
The dinner was extremely difficult to get through.
Pei Yunshu, for reasons unknown, suddenly developed a boundless interest in her "fiancé," a man she had never met, and began to inquire indirectly about him.
The man was entirely a figment of her imagination, so she could only give vague and evasive answers. By the end of the meal, Lu Tong’s head was throbbing with a dull ache.
After they finished eating, Treasure Bead had already gone to sleep. At her age, most of a child’s day was spent in short bursts of play and mostly eating and sleeping.
Seeing there was still some time, Lu Tong remembered that Pei Yunshu had mentioned during the meal that her waist had been sore lately, possibly from holding Treasure Bead too much. Lu Tong checked and found that the soreness was due to strain on her kidneys, disturbed meridians and collaterals, as well as invasion by cold and wind causing qi and blood to clash, hence the backache. She had her lie face down on the bed and massaged her lower back and legs to relax her muscles. Then she took the Waist Yang Gate, Triple Burner Shu, Kidney Shu, Large Intestine Shu, Zhibian, Huantiao... and other relevant acupoints, and applied the technique of reducing before reinforcing with acupuncture.
Once she had taken care of these tasks, Pei Yunshu’s backache had indeed lessened considerably, so Lu Tong prescribed some decoction recipes and instructed Fangzi to follow them.
Being busy always made time fly, and by the time she noticed, the sun was setting, dusk had arrived, and the waning sunlight bathed the outside courtyard in a warm red glow. Treasure Bead awoke from her nap and began to babble, looking for her wet nurse.
Lights were lit in the house, and Pei Yunshu, feeling the chill, came out in a thicker silk brocade robe and immediately noticed Lu Tong standing with her back to her, earnestly examining a hanging scroll in the hall.
Pei Yunshu walked over and, following Lu Tong’s gaze to the wall, asked, "Is it beautiful?"
Lu Tong nodded, "It is beautiful."
Actually, she didn’t understand paintings.
In her youth, she only heard her father speak of how ancient people said that painting people was the most difficult, followed by landscapes, and then dogs and horses; buildings and vessels were the simplest and easiest to make. All this talk of "the eight principles of ’Danqing’" and "the spirit conveyed through artistic conception" was only half-understood by her, seemingly comprehensible yet not quite.
She had never been able to settle down and appreciate the artistic mood of these landscapes. Weren’t they just pictures?
That was why she always felt impatient whenever she saw Lu Qian and Lu Rou discussing art as if they were experts.
But later, after she had spent a long time alone at Luomei Peak, her temperament had gradually mellowed, and with plenty of free time, she slowly began to taste the essence of it.
Lu Tong stared at the painting on the wall.
The silk was smooth and clean, the ink fresh and clear. It depicted a young girl in a pale-colored long dress leaning against a window, drawing, with a bed of flowers below and butterflies fluttering about. The girl in the painting was dabbing at her tears with downcast eyes, her heartache indescribable. The brushwork was exceptionally vivid and moving, capturing the sentiment, "It seems as if amid the flowers they meet, pair by pair they flutter by. Tearfully, without cause, she wipes her powdered cheeks, causing the twin wings to droop."
"This was painted by my mother," Pei Yunshu’s voice came from beside her.
Lu Tong was somewhat taken aback.
The former Lady Zhao Ning?
Her impression of Lady Zhao Ning was limited to the woman described by Du Changqing and Jin Xianrong, who was ultimately abandoned by her husband in the hands of the rebels. She hadn’t expected to see a completely different side of her in this painting.
Pei Yunshu, staring at the silk painting, was silent for a long while before saying, "My mother loved painting."
"When Ah Ying and I were little, while our mother was still alive, she would paint a portrait of the whole family every New Year and hang it at home."
"After she passed away, all the portraits in the mansion were buried with her. I secretly kept one. When Mistress Jiang entered the household, it wasn’t appropriate to hang it at home, and when I moved to Prince Wen’s Mansion, I feared it would get damaged from careless handling by the servants. But now that I have my own place, I can hang it openly without worrying about gossip."
Lu Tong spoke softly, "The lady painted very well."
Pei Yunshu gathered her robe, "Actually, Ah Ying is also an excellent painter."
"Lord Pei?"
Pei Yunshu smiled, "Ah Ying was taught Danqing personally by my mother, and the teachers at the academy also praised him highly..." She paused before adding, "But after my mother died, he stopped painting."
At this, her tone held a touch of sorrow.
Lu Tong remained silent.
It appeared that the Pei Yunshu siblings had been very fond of their late mother.
As they were talking, Fangzi entered the hall, "My lady, the Princely Heir has returned."
Pei Yunmeng had returned.
Lu Tong looked in the direction Fangzi indicated.
The last trace of the sunset’s afterglow faded into darkness, flowers blurred against the dim light of the moon, lanterns throughout the courtyard flickered to life, and a tall figure crossed the yard, gradually approaching. Pei Yunmeng wore a bright vermilion robe, embroidered with patterns of beads, rams, and birds, his handsome face revealing a trace of sternness in the dim light.