Dragon's Origin

“Master Qian, this is animal hide, not high-quality Xuan paper,” Wang Sheng reminded him with a smile. The animal hide fan surface was mainly for the sake of toughness and the needs of the formation, and the current paper was not sufficient to be used for fan surfaces.

“I know!” Master Qian was walking while fanning himself with the folding fan, reluctant to let it go. Hearing Wang Sheng's reminder, he quickly replied, “Animal hide can also be written on. At worst, I'll just rewrite and repaint it every few years. It won't break anyway!”

Wang Sheng was speechless. The man was just treating animal hide as erasable paper. What could he do?

When they arrived at another independent courtyard, more than a dozen rolled-up paintings and calligraphy pieces had already been prepared in the room. In the center of the main room was a large table, with a stunning spring scenery painting spread out on it.

“Master Qian, please!” Wang Sheng gestured to Master Qian.

Master Qian didn't decline and went straight to the center of the table, beginning to carefully observe the painting.

“The paper is Qian Shengyuan's Jade Plate Xuan paper, needless to say.” Master Qian recognized the paper of the spring scenery painting with just one glance, but he still added, “From two years ago.”

“The ink is Li Ink, the smell is still very fresh. This painting was painted for less than a year.” Master Qian directly smelled how long it had been painted through the scent of the ink.

To be honest, Wang Sheng's nose was more sensitive than Master Qian's. He could also smell the different scents of the ink, but if he were to say how long the scent had been around, Wang Sheng wouldn't have that ability.

“Spring scenery painting, tender willow green silk, freehand landscape, appropriate shades.” Master Qian shook his head and evaluated it before slowly judging, “Looking at this brushstroke, and then looking at this somewhat exaggerated ink willow, this must be the work of the Imperial Academician Qin from the capital. Only he would paint the riverside willows so flirtatiously, he's just an old lecher who won't give up on love.”

In one corner of the painting was a seal, but the seal was currently covered by several pieces of paper and was not visible. Master Qian hadn't lifted it to look. After reaching his conclusion, he slowly reached out and lifted the covering seal signature.

Sure enough, the square seal and signature both showed that it was the work of Imperial Academician Qin.

Wang Sheng gave Master Qian a thumbs up. Amazing! Tie Lao, who was next to him, wasn't interested in these paintings and calligraphy at all, but he could tell from Wang Sheng and Master Qian's exchange that the sour scholar Qian was right again.

Rose smiled and unrolled another painting, but left a portion of the signature area covered, still allowing Master Qian to appraise it.

This time, Master Qian still clearly stated the characteristics, techniques, and paint brands of the painting, just like the previous one, before saying the author's name. Finally, he opened the seal signature area to take a look, and it was indeed that person.

The same result for three consecutive paintings. Master Qian had a clear grasp of the characteristics of these scholars in the capital. It had to be said that this guy was really a freak. You know, before there was Jade Plate Xuan paper, who would care about the characteristics of the painted objects?

It could be said that Master Qian was born to be an appraiser.

After looking at three paintings, Rose smiled and unrolled a piece of calligraphy. Large characters, and to Wang Sheng's surprise, they were actually regular script characters.

Regular script had only been popular for a few years. Nowadays, all scholars in the world like this square regular script, and everyone takes their own writing as a model. In a few years, a group of calligraphy masters had emerged.

“Hmm, these characters are a bit interesting.” Master Qian looked at the four unfolded characters, shaking his head and beginning to appreciate them, commenting as he appreciated, “The stroke structure is still very neat, and the character's style is also there, but unfortunately, it's a bit rusty! The final stroke isn't quite as smooth, but overall it's already the work of a master.”

“This should be Academician Han's writing!” Master Qian gave his judgment, “Only he would dare to inscribe words for the Changsheng Duke's mansion with a flawed stroke, making a fool of himself!”

“A handwritten piece by an Imperial Academician is a treasure that can't be sought after,” Rose explained with a smile, and then opened the seal inscription at the back. It was indeed Academician Han.

After putting away this piece of calligraphy, Rose opened another one in the blink of an eye. This was a square scroll with only one character on it, the character 'Quiet'.

“Hmm! This character is quite something to see.” Master Qian looked at this quiet character and praised it. Then, using the hand gesture for holding a brush, he used the fan to point and draw in the air. After writing the quiet character in the air stroke by stroke, he let out a long breath.

Only then did Rose notice that Master Qian had been holding his breath when he was writing this character in the air. He only exhaled after finishing writing.

“Done in one breath, done in one breath. Quiet mind and quiet spirit, yet it contains the great power of the world.” Master Qian finally saw a character that caught his eye and seemed very happy and comfortable. “It's impossible to write this character without three years of hard work. As far as I know, only one person can write this character, and only the Changsheng Duke's mansion can keep this piece of calligraphy.”

After shaking his head and judging for a long time, Master Qian said, “This is the Emperor's writing, right?”

Rose looked at Master Qian and couldn't help but give him a thumbs up like Wang Sheng. This vision, it's simply unmatched.

This quiet character was indeed written by the Emperor. No one knew when Meiniang had scavenged it back, even Wang Sheng didn't know.

But Master Qian was able to see the hidden power of the world from just one quiet character, which was his skill, and everyone couldn't help but admire him.

Immediately afterwards, Rose took out another piece of calligraphy and unfolded it for Master Qian to appraise. This piece of calligraphy was also a single character. There was no inscription on it, just a solitary character, a neat 'Forever' character.

Looking at this character, Master Qian's gaze suddenly became extremely serious, his eyes seemed to be glowing, and he almost lay on the table, looking at it inch by inch.

Rose noticed that from the moment Master Qian started looking at the first stroke, he had stopped breathing, holding his breath, pressing his finger on the top of the character, and moving it bit by bit.

Finally, Master Qian saw it from beginning to end. Huff, Master Qian almost exhaled for half a minute, then closed his eyes, as if savoring it, holding a folding fan and began to copy it in the air. The feeling was like drinking a large bottle of iced beer on a hot day, refreshing from the inside out.

“This is the character that can be called a model!” After a long time, Master Qian opened his eyes and looked at the Forever character, as if he couldn't take it out of his eyes.

“The one who can write like this, as far as I know, is absolutely unique.” Master Qian turned around, looked at Wang Sheng, and said very excitedly, “I have seen the three couplets in the Sanqing Temple. Those characters are not perfect enough, but this character is simply the culmination of regular script calligraphy. Duke, this is your character, right?”