Since taking over Lu Cailian's business, Shen Xiu has painted all the orchids he has seen.
When Liandong came to work on the second day, Shen Xiu asked her: "You have been in the Lu family, and you must have seen many famous flowers. Come and help me see which of these orchids can be embroidered on the screen?"
Shen Xiu's painting skills were pretty good, but Ling Dong felt his eyes were almost blurred and couldn't tell which one was good and which one was bad.
After a while, Lonicera pointed to one of the orchids and said, "I think this orchid is quite beautiful." After that, he added, "Actually, I haven't seen many orchids in the Lu family, and I can't tell whether they are good or bad."
Shen Xiu did not embarrass her. After thinking about it, Mrs. Wen always liked to grow flowers. Maybe she could identify the quality of this orchid.
But then I thought about it, it’s true that Mrs. Wen likes flowers, but she has never seen any orchids in the backyard. It seems that Mrs. Wen probably doesn’t like orchids. And she is pregnant, so I don’t want to disturb her too much.
Shen Xiu thought about it and embroidered a few modern varieties of orchids first, and then asked Wei Yan for his opinion later.
The weather is getting colder, and ondol heaters are being set up not only in stores but also at home.
Shen Xiu had this heated kang specially made before winter. The heated kang does not require burning charcoal, but only dry firewood. This not only saves money on buying charcoal, but also eliminates the need to smell the charcoal gas.
When Wei Yan came back from the academy, he saw a pot of hot soup simmering on the stove outside, while the inner room was very quiet.
Wei Yan lifted up the thick cotton curtain and saw Shen Xiu drawing patterns on the Kang, while Da Ya was doing needlework beside her.
This heartwarming scene fell into Wei Yan's eyes, and he couldn't help but raise the corners of his lips and asked softly: "What are you doing?"
As soon as Shen Xiu raised his head, he saw the returning Wei Yan. He was wearing an azure slanted robe embroidered with bamboo leaf patterns. He looked more and more like a crown jewel and his grace was elegant.
The only drawback was that his hands, which were originally as slender as jade, had some frostbite.
"What's the matter with this chilblain?" Shen Xiu frowned and asked. A closer look revealed that there were chilblains on each of Wei Yan's fingers. The chilblains were red and purple, obviously not a day's work.
Wei Yan pulled back his hand and said: "It's nothing. The academy only lights charcoal fires in winter every year. It will be fine after a while."
Although the academy accepts the tuition of students, it also has to exempt some poor students from the tuition, so it is not well-off.
Moreover, the conditions are more difficult and can also exercise students' willpower.
Shen Xiu didn't understand this truth, but she felt that she had a heated kang at home and a charcoal basin for fire when she went to the shop. In comparison, she felt that Wei Yan was indeed suffering a bit in the academy.
Wei Yan didn't think that this little hardship was nothing. When he didn't enter the academy, those were the real hardships, so he didn't want to talk more about this issue and quickly changed the subject, "What are you drawing? Even if I come in
Didn’t find it either.”
Da Ya was doing embroidery work seriously, but then she interrupted and said, "Second aunt is painting orchids!"
Speaking of orchids, Shen Xiu brought a booklet she had drawn in front of Wei Yan.
"My husband, please help me see which of these orchids looks more unique?"
Shen Xiu wanted to embroider a unique orchid picture. It would be best if the orchids on it were all new ones that no one had ever seen before.
But she has never raised orchids before, so she doesn’t know which orchid is rarer and more popular in this era.
Wei Yan took a look, shook his head and said, "Actually, I don't understand this either." After saying that, he saw Shen Xiu's disappointed look on his face, and then said, "But Ziwen seems to have a few pots of orchids at home. I'll ask him later."
Shen Xiu heard that there were orchids in Yuan Ziwen's house, so she handed the brochure to Wei Yan, "My husband, please take this brochure to the academy. After Mr. Yuan has read it, you can ask someone to bring it to me."
So when Wei Yan returned to the academy, he brought a brochure with orchids.
Yuan Ziwen looked at the orchids painted by Shen Xiu and said, "Brother Wei, actually I don't know much about orchids. The two pots of orchids at home are just very common varieties."
Before Wei Yan could say anything, Qu Huan came over, "What good things are you looking at behind my back?"
"It's not a good thing, it's just a few pictures of orchids." Wei Yan said, "Your sister-in-law wants to embroider orchids, but she's not sure which one is better, so she asked me to ask Ziwen if Ziwen has several pots of orchids at home.
."
Qu Huan said: "These orchids all look the same to me. What do you think, Ziwen?"
Yuan Ziwen did not answer the question, but said to Qu Huan: "Aren't you spending the past few days with that man named Luo, and you even boasted that he knew everything. It just so happened that we couldn't decide which of these orchids was better.
You go and call that man named Luo, I want to see if he really knows everything."
Qu Huan also wanted to know if Luo Gong really knew everything, so he really called him over.
Luo Gong yawned and said, "What kind of orchids? What kind of famous products can this small county have?"
Qu Huan said: "Just go with me."
Luo Gong was dragged by Qu Huan and quickly arrived here.
The booklet of orchids painted by Shen Xiu was spread out on the table. Luo Gong just glanced at it casually at first. When he saw the appearance of the orchid, he became interested, "This snow beauty is a good painting! But this snow beauty is rare.
It’s very unique. It’s only found in the capital city. I didn’t expect anyone to have seen this place before.”
Yuan Ziwen didn't like hearing this, and immediately wanted to retort, but was stopped by Wei Yan.
Next, Luo Gong looked at all the other orchids he painted, and commented as he read: "This is a cymbidium. I only took a look at it from a distance. It is indeed the best among cymbidiums."
At first Luo Gong could still recognize the orchids painted on the booklet, but when he turned to the third page, he suddenly fell silent for a long time.
Yuan Ziwen finally couldn't help but said: "Why doesn't Mr. Luo speak?"
Luo Gong did not hear Yuan Ziwen's sarcasm, and stared straight at the orchids on the brochure. The three of them waited for a long time before hearing him murmur: "Could this be Chen Mengliang? But this kind of orchid is extremely difficult to grow."
It has been extinct since the previous dynasty."
When Yuan Ziwen heard the words "Chen Mengliang", he couldn't help but glance at the booklet and saw that the petals of the orchid were purple, which seemed to be really different.
After Luo Gong muttered to himself, he turned down another page.
This time, the expression on his face was even more surprised than when he saw Chen Mengliang before, and he exclaimed: "This is the White Jade Xishi. I thought I was the last person to see it, but I didn't expect there was anyone here."
Saw it."
The orchids painted in this booklet were each more precious and rarer than the last. When Luo Gong turned it over, he was amazed one after another because there were many varieties that he had never seen before.
"Who painted this album?" Luo Gong couldn't help but asked Qu Huan.
Qu Huan glanced at Wei Yan.
Wei Yan thought for a while, but did not tell the truth. He only said: "I got this book accidentally. Because I didn't know what kind of orchid it was, I brought it to the academy to ask someone."
Luo Gong originally wanted to borrow it for a few days, but after all, he was not familiar with Wei Yan and owed him a favor, so he was too embarrassed to ask.
Wei Yan knew that Shen Xiu was still waiting for news from him, so he asked someone to bring the book back the next day. At the same time, he also wrote down what Luo Gong said on a piece of paper and tucked it into the book.
After Shen Xiu saw it, she felt relieved.
It seems that these precious orchids of later generations are also famous products at this time.
Since they were all famous products, Shen Xiu suddenly had the idea to divide the embroidered screen into twelve folds and embroider one famous product on each fold, so that it would be a real orchid embroidered screen.
Lu Cailian stayed in the county town for more than ten days. When she left, only one-third of the orchid embroidered screen was embroidered.
Fortunately, the county seat was only three or four days' journey from the capital city, so Lu Cailian told Mother Lu that after Shen Xiu finished the embroidery, she would ask someone to tell her so that she could send someone back to transport the embroidered screen to the capital city.