Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 157: The Ink and the Fragrance

"Third Master, last time, the concubine of the Xue family sent a few gifts, saying that she wanted to thank Third Master for helping her young master, and she also sent an invitation, wanting to invite Third Master to a banquet.

But the Third Master was in a hurry a few days ago and didn't have time to look at them. The Xue family's woman who sent the gifts said that those gifts were specially bought by their daughter. I'll go get them for you to have a look."

Jia Cong saw Wu'er take out an ebony box. It had a plain appearance without any carvings or patterns, but it was polished to a shiny black color, exuding a refreshing sandalwood scent.

This wooden box exudes a plain and simple style, and indeed has some of the icy and restrained style of Xue Baochai.

When I opened the box, I found two brushes, an exquisite Duan inkstone, and a piece of old ink with an antique flavor.

The two brushes are made of aged black and purple Xiang bamboo as the pen barrels, the pen tops and pen holders are carved from a whole piece of fat white jade, and the brush tips are made of fiery red fur hair, which is both elegant and luxurious, but not extravagant.

The Duan inkstone is made of excellent old pit material, with green pines, rocks and flowing springs carved on it. The pine needles are carved with the new green double-ring stone eyes on the material, which is natural, novel and lovely.

The inkstone is also engraved with the poem about plum blossoms that Jia Cong wrote at the Nanxi Literary Society. It can be seen that a lot of thought was put into it.

The old ink looked inconspicuous, but Jia Cong was obsessed with calligraphy and had a deep knowledge of stationery, so he could tell that it was of great origin, because the three words "Dragon Fragrance Agent" were engraved on the ink, which was a rare emblem of ancient Song Dynasty ink.

This ancient Song Dynasty ink with dragon fragrance is made of top-grade smoke ink as the main ingredient, with precious orchid and ambergris added. It is known as a pool of ink worth an ounce of gold.

Qingwen saw Jia Cong turning these colorful things over and over again, admiring them, and it seemed that they were very much to his liking.

Then he came up to her with a smile and said, "I think the gift that the Xue family girl bought is very much to our Third Master's liking. I heard from Jin Cai's wife that she went to the Xue family to give gifts last year.

I have seen that girl before, she is very pretty, now that she has invited me, you might as well take the opportunity to go to the banquet and take a few more glances at that pretty face."

Wu Er laughed and said, "You are the only one who talks fast. Does our Third Master love red so much?"

Qingwen nodded seriously and said, "Of course."

Wu'er burst out laughing, but her little face turned red for some reason.

Jia Cong scolded and twisted the corner of Qingwen's mouth: "You are the only one in the room who grinds his teeth. Be careful or I will sew your little mouth shut."

"It's been a few days since I posted this, and it's not a good idea to come and take the appointment."

Then he glanced at Xiangling beside him and said, "Besides, I don't want to entertain their young master, but they have carefully prepared a gift, so it's not good to be silent, otherwise it would be impolite."

Wu Er smiled and said, "That's not difficult. Third Master just needs to prepare a return gift and have Butler Jin deliver it."

Jia Cong thought for a moment, then took out the Duan inkstone that Xue Baochai had given him, added some clean water, and ground the Song Dynasty ink. However, Xiangling, who was standing beside him, took it over and ground out a pool of ink with the fragrance of orchid and musk.

He tried the new pen again and wrote "The Red River in Nanjing" to recall the past. Now that he is in Nanjing, I wrote this as a gift, which can be suitable for anyone, young or old.

Then he asked Qingwen to instruct Jin Cai's family to frame the painting at the best calligraphy and painting shop in the city and then send it to the Xue family as a return gift.

……

In recent days, there have been frequent reports from the Five Military Commanders' Office in Shenjing and the Jinyiwei Command Headquarters to and from Nanjing.

The garrison eunuch Wang En was killed in prison and the truth behind the crime has never been uncovered.

Feng Fengnian, a captain of Jinling Jinyiwei, was dismissed for dereliction of duty and incompetence, and the Jinyiwei Command Headquarters demoted another captain to take over.

As a result, a major reshuffle also took place in the Jinling Jinyiwei Qianhu Division.

The middle and lower-level officers such as the centurions, general flags, and even small flags in the thousand-household unit were frequently transferred, and many of them were Feng Fengnian's confidants cultivated over the years.

Since ancient times, a new emperor has new ministers, and this is also a common occurrence in officialdom. After the original staff of Qianhu Suo was reorganized, the ban on staying behind closed doors and not moving without permission was lifted.

He also became the emperor's most loyal and trustworthy minion, cooperating with the Academy of Sciences and the Dali Temple to arrest and interrogate suspects related to the Zou Huaiyi case in the city every day, and his arrogance was even greater than before.

The Water Monitoring Bureau, as the source of the accident, has become the target of public criticism.

There were originally ten centurions in the company, but only two of them survived.

Four of them were shot dead on the spot by Jia Cong during the arrest at Zou's mansion.

The other four were imprisoned by the Jinyiwei because they were found to have colluded with Zou Huaiyi to commit corruption and abuse of power. It is estimated that they managed to get out alive.

There were countless officers such as trial centurions, general flags, and small flags who were implicated in the department, and almost all the middle and lower-level military officers in the entire Water Supervision Department were wiped out.

From this, we can see that Zou Huaiyi had many followers and caused great harm. The vacant positions in the Water Supervision Office became the target of competition for positions and divisions by the Five Military Commanders' Office, the Jinling Guards, and other forces.

As an important center of maritime trade, Jinling City still has a huge source of profits from foreign wealth.

Who can say for sure whether these monsters and demons that have come and gone will give birth to another Zou Huaiyi in a few years?

……

In the south of Jinling City, there is Yade Zhai Calligraphy and Painting Shop, which is a time-honored calligraphy and painting mounting shop in Jinling.

Four generations of the shopkeeper's family have been experts in calligraphy and painting appreciation and mounting. Now the old shopkeeper is enjoying his retirement at home, and the family business has been passed on to his only son, Zhang Qinan.

Mr. Zhang was very smart since he was a child. He passed the imperial examination of Yingtian Prefecture at the age of seventeen. Although he failed in the subsequent provincial examinations, he still had some reputation for his talent in Jinling.

He did learn the family skills of calligraphy and painting from his father, but because he was young, he did not want to stay in the shop all the time, so he left all the affairs of the shop to the old servants in the family.

In addition to reading every day, he often spent the rest of his time with a few literary friends going to bars and brothels, visiting beauties, drinking tea and listening to music. He was a romantic man.

That day, he walked around the shop as usual and then prepared to go out to meet a friend.

But I saw the shop assistant spreading out a piece of rice paper, preparing to start mounting it.

Zhang Qinan just glanced at it subconsciously, and his eyes suddenly froze.

"Wait, don't do it!"

The clerk looked stunned when he heard the young master suddenly and anxiously shout to stop.

Zhang Qinan almost rushed to the rice paper on the table. The calligraphy on it was ancient and elegant, clear and vigorous, with vivid brushwork, and it was surprisingly good.

"Good handwriting! Such a good handwriting is really hard to come by!"

He comes from a family of calligraphy and painting, and has been influenced by it since childhood. Naturally, he has a good eye for calligraphy and painting. It would be difficult to fail to see the uniqueness of his calligraphy.

He looked at what was written on it again. It was a poem "Man Jiang Hong" which was a nostalgic poem about Jinling. He recited it silently.

After just a few sentences, his voice became louder and louder, and his tone became more and more deep and passionate, almost clapping his hands and singing, causing all the guests in the store to look at each other in surprise.

Six generations of luxury, spring has gone, and there is no news. I look at the mountains and rivers in vain, the beauty of the mountains and rivers is no longer what it used to be.

There were two swallows in front of Wang Xie’s hall, we met at the entrance of Wuyi Lane.

Listen to the loneliness hitting the lonely city in the deep night, and the spring tide is rushing.

Thinking of the past, I am filled with sorrow. Thinking of my homeland, there are only traces left. There are only smoke and withered grass, and crows flying in the sunset.

The song of the jade tree ends as the autumn dew is cold, the rouge well is broken as the crickets cry in the cold.

Until now, there are only Jiang Shanqing and Qin Huaibi!

Zhang Qinan shook his head and chanted for a while, then said with emotion: "This character is clear, vigorous and rhymed, and the writing is skillful and mature, which has become the style of a master. This poem is even more profound and elegant, and the elegant sound is clear and clear, which is even better.

They complement each other, this is the best, it is really rare, let the lady from Qingyin Pavilion compose the music and sing it, it will be very clear, haha."

Then he asked the guy beside him who was stunned by his crazy behavior: "Who sent this for mounting?"

"Young Master, this was sent from the old Jia family residence in Xinglongfang."

"Oh, it's the Jia family, the Duke of Jinling. Didn't their family all move to the capital? The old house of the direct lineage has been empty all this time, so how could someone write something like this?"

"It was specially sent by their housekeeper. They want it framed and given to someone. They will come to pick it up tomorrow. They said it was written by a young master from the family who came to Shenjing."

"Master, they want it tomorrow, so let me frame it first. They're paying a lot of money and want us to use the best materials."

Zhang Qinan pushed the clerk away and said, "Get out of the way! If you frame such a fine book of poetry poorly, it would be a waste of resources. Young Master, I will do it myself!"

Zhang Taian had already forgotten about his appointment.

(End of this chapter)