Queen's New Clothes

Chapter 7 Emerald Jade Bean Cake
In the painting class the next day, the master commented on the paintings of several people.

Su Lingyin's painting was ranked first. Her painting was so lifelike that a group of fish seemed to come to life under her brushwork, which won her master's praise.Then came the second, the master picked up another painting, paused for a long time, and said with emotion: "Ninth girl's painting skills have improved a lot."

Su Lingrong was stunned, and immediately cast an incredulous look at Su Xi.

That's right, in the past, Su Lingyin was the first in the painting class, and she was firmly in the second place. Now Su Xi's painting has come in second. It's no wonder that Su Lingrong is upset!
Then, the master announced the remaining ones, Su Lingrong was third, Su Lingran was fourth, and Su Lingyun was last.

Su Lingrong raised her hand and said, "Master, can you show us Jiumeimei's painting?"

The painting master handed out the paintings of the five people one by one, and Su Lingrong and Su Lingyun went to Su Xi's table to look at Su Xi's paintings.

I have to say that Su Xi's paintings are really interesting.She is well aware of her shortcomings, so she didn't draw a large-scale picture of fish like her fourth cousin Su Lingyin. She only picked two distinctive carps, one red and one gold. The round fish mouths are grabbing each other's food. The picture is so lively that one wants to sprinkle a handful of fish food into the fish's mouths to stop them from fighting.

Su Lingrong suddenly fell silent. At first, she thought that the master had misread it, but when she saw it herself, she also felt that Su Xi's painting was pretty good.It's just that I was still a little unconvinced. After the painting class was over, I tore my painting into pieces and threw it into a pool in front of Jiusi Bookstore.

Su Lingyun comforted: "Sister Fifth, don't be angry. Sister Xi is just opportunistic. If you draw well this time, you may not be able to win you next time. Besides, what's the use of only drawing well? In piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, this painting can be ranked Finally."

Usually, Su Lingyun ranked fourth and Su Xi came last, but now Su Xi jumped to second place, and Su Lingyun became the last one, so naturally she was not happy.

Little did they know that these words poked Su Lingrong's weakness, Su Lingrong was not Fu Yi, Fu Yi was good at piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry and poetry, and the only thing Su Lingrong could do was painting and endorsement.Moreover, it was she who read the book in private by burning the lamp at night to memorize it painstakingly.Now hearing Su Lingyun's words, Su Lingrong gave her a hard look and said, "Shut up." He strode away.

Su Lingyun didn't know where she offended her, so she chased after her and said, "Fifth Sister, wait for me."

Here Su Lingyin, Su Lingran and Su Xi walked out of the study together, Su Lingyin said: "Youyou's drawing is really good this time, even I can't draw such a charm, I didn't expect you to make such a big improvement."

Su Xi knew that Su Lingyin was modest, her paintings were always exquisite, and her own paintings were nothing in front of her.

Su Lingran is not interested in painting or piano, and she didn't want to talk about it, so she suggested: "My fifth brother gave me a blue-eyed and white-haired cat yesterday. It's very beautiful. Do you want to see it? I hug it Come out and let's play."

Su Xi liked cats and dogs since she was a child, her eyes lit up when she heard this, and she nodded.

Su Lingran asked them to wait in the pavilion in the backyard, and she went back to the house and hugged the cat.Su Xi was not in a hurry to go back to the mansion, so she followed Su Lingrong to the backyard of the governor's mansion. After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, Su Lingran hurried over with the cat in her arms.

The cat was indeed beautiful, with no stray hairs on its body, and it was as white as if it had just rolled in the snow.Su Xi fell in love with it as soon as she saw it, and took a piece of milk cake from the maid, broke it into pieces, and fed it to the kitten.Soon the cat got acquainted with Su Xi, circling around her feet from time to time, and sticking out its tongue to gently lick Su Xi's palm.

Su Lingran smiled and said, "This cat and Sister Xi really hit it off."

Su Xi asked, "Does it have a name?"

Su Lingran shook her head and said, "I just got it yesterday, and I haven't had time to name it yet."

Su Xi thought for a while, her almond eyes were curved like two crescent moons, "Eighth Sister, what do you think of Tang Xueqiu?"

Su Lingran tasted it twice, and praised: "This name is good, let's call it this. Sister Xi, you are very good at naming." Snow and sugar, aren't they both white?In addition, this cat was born plump, so the name "Sugar Snowball" fits it very well.

The three little girls sat in the pavilion for a while, during which Tang Xueqiu ran out dishonestly once.Su Xi got up to chase it, but unexpectedly, the cat looked quite round, and it ran quite fast.Su Xi chased for a while, but still couldn't catch up, but in the blink of an eye, the cat disappeared without a trace.

Su Xi walked on a small path and looked around: "Sugar Snowball?"

There was a thin and low "meow" from above her head, and Su Xi looked up, and saw Tang Xueqiu lying on the plum branch, staring at her with blue eyes.Although the plum tree is not tall, the Su Xi that Tang Xueqiu is lying on is out of reach. Su Xi raised her hands and called, "Tang Xueqiu, come down quickly."

Tang Xueqiu was unmoved, and yelled at her twice.Only then did Su Xi realize that its posture was weird, and after a closer look, it turned out that the cat was too fat, and its body got stuck between two branches. It wasn't that it didn't want to get down, but that it couldn't get down!
Su Xi turned around and wanted to ask the servant girl for help, but when she chased Tang Xueqiu, she threw away Tingyan and Tinghe, and the two of them hadn't found it yet.There was no other way, so Su Xi had no choice but to stand on tiptoe to reach. Her hand was only half a palm away from the cat's body. It was this half palm that made Su Xi unable to reach it for a long time.

Tang Xueqiu's voice became weaker and weaker. Su Xi felt anxious and jumped up. Finally, she supported Tang Xueqiu's body with her hands and successfully rescued it.

Tang Xueqiu let out a "meow" and threw herself at Su Xi's neck.Su Xi was hit by it and took a few steps back again and again, her lips curved slightly, and she said with a smile: "See if you dare to go to such a high place next time..." But before she could finish her sentence, Su Xi rolled her eyes The person standing diagonally opposite was stunned for a moment, and she swallowed the second half of the sentence abruptly.

The soft and smiling voice stopped abruptly, and the atmosphere suddenly fell silent.

Wei Yan was standing under a pear tree, wearing a moon-white embroidered gold treasure box pattern straight gown, perhaps because the location was relatively hidden, Su Xi never noticed him, let alone when he got up and stood there.Right now, Su Xi was holding the cat in her arms, the smile on her lips hadn't had time to put away, and she stood where she was, not knowing whether she should go up to say hello or pretend she didn't see it.

How could Wei Feng be in the second grandfather's mansion?

Su Xi bit her lip. With this hesitation, she missed the best time to turn around and leave.

Wei Yan's face was calm, and his eyes dropped slightly, falling on Su Xi's wrist.

Just now, in order to reach the cat, her sleeves slid halfway, exposing half of her arms.That piece of skin was dazzlingly white, as tender as a spring onion, and the turquoise jade bracelet on her wrist was also shiny and shiny.In just a moment, Wei Feng remembered the closed window of the Imperial Palace on the day he returned to Beijing, and the hand that closed the window was wearing a jade bracelet exactly like this one.

Su Xi followed his line of sight to look down, her face changed slightly, and she quickly pulled her sleeves to cover her arms.Now it was impossible to pretend that he didn't see it, Su Xi nodded slightly at him as a greeting, and then left.

Anyway, she didn't know Wei Feng's identity at this time, so naturally she didn't need to salute.

Unexpectedly, the hall brother Su You appeared out of nowhere, came up and said: "Tingzhou, I have been looking for you for a long time, why did you come here?"

Wei Tingzhou is Wei Feng's character.

Wei Yan withdrew his gaze, and said in a low voice, "Seeing that the pear blossoms are blooming well here, I came here for a walk."

Su Zhen smiled lightly, "I don't know you still like pear blossoms. If the servants hadn't seen you standing here for a long time, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to come here."

Su Zhen is the eldest son of the governor's mansion. He is eighteen this year and is about the same age as Su Xi's second brother Su Zhi.After Su Zhen approached, seeing Su Xi standing a few steps away, she was slightly surprised, "Sister Xi is here?"

Su Xi was afraid that Su Yu would misunderstand, so she held up the fat cat in her arms, and explained: "I'm here to find Eighth Sister's cat, brother hall."

Speaking of this, she remembered what Su Zhen said just now.If Wei Yan had really stood here for a long time, then he must have seen her working hard to get the sugar snowball. He actually watched her jumping up and down, standing by and watching?

If this is the case, Su Xi thought silently, this person is still as unreasonable as when he was a child.

Su Zhen understood it, and immediately smiled and said: "Since that's the case, you must have met Tingzhou." He introduced: "Tingzhou is the son of Prince Jin, and his biological mother, Princess Jin, and my mother are sisters. Come on, you should still call Tingzhou cousin."

Wei Wei's biological mother, Jin Princess Xue Shi, passed away seven years ago, and the current Jin Princess Yuan Shi was supported by a side concubine.Therefore, this cousin is really a thousand miles away.She thought so in her heart, but Su Xi said with a very obedient face: "Cousin Tingzhou."

Su Xi learned this very well from the Yin family since she was a child. No matter what the occasion, no matter how unwelcome the person she is, she can show a very good demeanor and pretend to be obedient and sensible in front of others.

Of course, it would have been even better if there hadn't been the jade bean cake incident when I was a child.

Wei Feng looked at her, and replied slowly in a short while: "Cousin Xi."

Su Xi must not know that although her expression is sincere and her smile is just right, her round almond eyes cannot deceive anyone.A trace of reluctance flashed across her eyes, and very quickly, the dark and bright almond eyes curved, and the thick long eyelashes blinked like butterfly wings, and the reluctance disappeared.It was probably because she was just a cat, the little girl's face was flushed, her facial features were already delicate, every frown and smile could be painted, and when she looked at people with big eyes, she was cuter than the cat in her arms.

Su You seemed to suddenly think of something, and said: "Just now when Tingzhou and I came out, I met Mr. Qiu who taught painting. Mr. Qiu praised your painting skills for making great progress. Mr. Qiu is always strict, but it's been a long time since I saw him boasting like this. It made me even more curious about what Jiumeimei drew."

Su Xi didn't expect that the teacher who taught painting would praise herself to Su Zhen, and Wei Yan heard it.Su Xi knew what level her paintings were, and it was a bit fun to put them among the sisters, but if they were placed in front of the great talent Wei Wei, it would be purely playing tricks.

Su Xi said: "It's just a picture of Pisces playing in the water. Mr. Qiu praised it a lot. The painting drawn by the fourth sister is the most applauded."

Su Yu agreed with this, Sister Yin's paintings were always the most lifelike, but he didn't look down on Su Xi either. "If it wasn't that Tingzhou is best at painting landscapes, it's not suitable for your girl's family, otherwise you can ask Tingzhou for advice."

Su Xi had seen "High Mountains and Flowing Water" painted by Wei Yan before, and it was spread from Qizhou to Shangjing, which is enough to show how many people admire it.It is indeed a good painting, with flowing clouds and flowing water, majestic and majestic, a painting fully reveals a leisurely and comfortable attitude towards life on paper.

Su Xi subconsciously looked at Wei Feng who was at the side, and saw that Wei Feng's face was calm, and he neither agreed nor disagreed.But a cold and unapproachable person like Wei Yan probably doesn't like others to trouble him, right?Su Xi said wittily: "No need, thank you for the kindness of Brother Datang and Cousin Tingzhou, Mr. Qiu is also very good at painting, I can learn a lot by following him."

It just so happened that Ting Yan and Ting He came here at this time, Su Xi said goodbye to them, and left with Tang Xueqiu in his arms.

Ting Yan and Ting He saw the two young masters standing far away, they couldn't help worrying: "Girl, who are you with..."

Su Xi said calmly: "I found Tang Xueqiu here just now, and said a few words to the hall brother, why did you come here?"

With a light word, without even mentioning Wei Feng, he threw the question to Ting Yan and the other two.

Ting Yan and Ting He really admitted their mistake and said: "It's all bad for the slaves, they went the wrong way for a while, is the girl okay?"

Su Xi said it was all right, and walked into the pavilion.

As he walked, he thought of Wei Yan again for some reason.

Su Xi not only knew why the King of Jin was suddenly summoned back to the capital today, but also knew that in a few years, the world would change hands.Today, the descendants are few, and there is only one prince, Wei Jichang, under his knees. It is a pity that Wei Jichang was born deaf and dumb, so it is difficult for him to ascend to the throne.The throne cannot be passed on to a person who cannot speak or hear, so the speech officials began to think of a way, either the emperor quickly gave birth to a prince, or selected a talented heir from among the heirs of the vassal princes.Regarding the former, there are people in their forties and nearly fifty today, and it is really difficult to have another one.In addition, the body is increasingly depleted today, and the conditions do not allow it. In this way, the only thing that can be considered is the latter.

Emperor Zhaoyuan has only two living brothers, one is Jin Wang Wei Liankun, and the other is Yu Wang Wei Yuanzheng.

The king of Jin has three sons, and the king of Yu has two, and the position of prince will be chosen among these five in the future.

Emperor Zhaoyuan didn't want too many people to know about this, and planned to observe these five people secretly for a period of time before making a decision, so not many people knew the inside story, perhaps even King Jin and King Yu themselves didn't know.

This time when the vassal king returned to Beijing, the reason why most people only paid attention to King Jin and ignored King Yu was simply because the radiance of Prince Wei was too bright.

The final result of the establishment of the reserve was both reasonable and unexpected by many people.

It was not Wei Yuan, the heir son of Prince Yu whom the courtiers praised so highly, but Wei Fen, the heir son of King Jin who was well-versed in literature and martial arts.

(End of this chapter)