Shi Qingxue looked at Jingyi in surprise, "Wasn't my sister still painting at her place just now? How could she be missing?"
But the maid Jingti was so anxious that she couldn't even explain clearly, so she had to follow him to find Shi Baoning, only to see Shi Baoning sitting at the painting table with a dejected face, his eyes red and red, as if he had cried.
"Sister, what's going on?" Shi Qingxue glanced at the painting table. There were only used pens and ink on it, but no paintings.
When Shi Baoning saw Qingxue, his pale face suddenly became excited. He grabbed Qingxue's hand as if he saw a savior, and said quickly: "I have been painting here just now. Just before a stick of incense, I just painted "Love and Thoughts" "I drew it, but I just turned around and chatted with Sanniang and the others for a while, and "Love" disappeared. What should I do?"
"Third sister, what is she looking for you for?" Shi Qingxue keenly grasped the problem, and intuitively felt that Shi Baojin suddenly came to her eldest sister to show her courtesy for nothing, and was either raping or stealing.
Baoning also knew what she was thinking and quickly clarified: "You misunderstood, Sanniang did not touch my paintings. She is just not good at painting skills and came to learn from me. I thought sisters should help each other, so He pointed her out for a while.
But from beginning to end she just looked at it and didn’t touch my words, so it couldn’t be hers! "
"That's it!" The clue was cut off, and Shi Qingxue no longer doubted it. After all, the most important thing now is not to find out who the thief is? But what to do next
The Empress Dowager was eagerly waiting to see Shi Baoning's "capability". At this time, Shi Baoning suddenly went to say that her painting was missing. The better result would be humiliation, but if the Empress Dowager was angry, she would have to treat Shi Baoning. A crime of deception would be troublesome.
"At first we thought that the palace maid who was waiting on the side had taken away the painting and forgot to tell us, but when we asked, we found out that my work was not handed in at all, and Aunt Chang who was next to the Queen Mother had just come over to urge her, saying If we provide evidence that someone else took my painting, the Queen Mother will not care about it!"
As Shi Baoning spoke, his eyes darkened completely.
Shi Qingxue raised her eyebrows in surprise and asked in surprise: "Did you tell the Queen Mother about this?"
"Yes! Jingyi said that the painting was lost in the competition. If it is not good to hide it from the Queen Mother, and we have little power, we still need to rely on the Queen Mother's help to find my painting as soon as possible." Shi Baoning said it matter-of-factly, but After hearing this, Qingxue just wanted to hold her forehead.
If Ling Ruiyin didn't know about this, then even if they couldn't find Shi Baoning's painting, they could just find a painting to compare with; but they had revealed the matter to Ling Ruiyin early.
They can't hide it now even if they want to!
Shi Qingxue glared at Jingyi angrily: It's just that the eldest sister rarely attends banquets and doesn't know how to deal with these things. Jingyi was a first-class maid carefully selected by Mo Shujun. She actually helped her master cover up her ugliness and even revealed the matter.
She was so angry!
"Qingxue, what should we do?" Shi Baoning looked at Shi Qingxue's uncertain appearance and thought that there was really no chance this time, and couldn't help but feel annoyed: "Is there no other way?"
Shi Qingxue sighed heavily. When she saw Shi Baoning, who was slumped and depressed, she couldn't say any words of instruction.
"Jingyi, go and wait at the intersection now. Don't let anyone get close to us." She thought for a while and gave the decisive order.
Jingyi tilted her head in confusion, "What does Liu Niang mean?"
"Don't worry so much. Just do what I ask you to do." Shi Qingxue didn't want to explain too much to Jingyi, so she drove them away directly, and then she started to implement her plan.
Two quarters of an hour later, the last noble girl also handed over her painting, but the two daughters of Duke Shi were still hiding behind the flower screen. What were they doing
Ling Ruiyin did not ask the queen and Concubine Liu to accompany her this time. Instead, she sat alone in the room and looked at the paintings sent by her servants.
It was Qiao Qiao and Chinese Valentine's Day, and the ladies painted almost all scenes of their little girls playing and worshiping the moon. Occasionally, a few bolder ones also described beautiful scenes of men and women falling in love and having trysts under the moon.
It's not that the painting is not good, but after looking at it one by one, Ling Ruiyin couldn't help but feel a little tired of aesthetics.
She then handed the painting in her hand to Aunt Chang who was standing aside, and asked, "A Chang, come and take a look at the Ai family. Which of these paintings is better?"
Aunt Chang had been following Ling Ruiyin since she was a child. She guessed that her master was bored, so she quickly stepped forward to take the painting. After appreciating it carefully, she lowered her eyes and said respectfully: "I haven't read a few books, how can I understand these wind chants?" Those who admire the moon. But these paintings are very sweet, so they should be good!"
How could Ling Ruiyin not know that Aunt Chang didn't want to offend any noble girl? She glared at her and scolded her with a smile: "You are getting smarter as you get older. When I was a child, the Ai family could still tell you about your sincerity, but now I hide it." It’s so strict that you won’t even tell the Ai family?”
"Your Majesty, you have misunderstood me! Ah Chang is not willing to tell the truth. It's just that these paintings have similar artistic conceptions. It's hard to tell the difference for a moment."
"Hey!" Ling Ruiyin heard this and glanced at the paintings spread out on the table, and nodded in agreement, "That's true. The Ai family has just looked at it for so long, and the "Love" in your hand is the only one that is slightly interesting.
In the painting, the woman sits quietly in the courtyard and plays the song "Lovesickness". Her black hair is flying, and the music of the piano is flying to the bright moon, as if she wants to connect with the people who are missing her in the distance. The artistic conception is far-reaching, and it is indeed a masterpiece. "
Ling Ruiyin had many words of praise in her mouth, but Aunt Chang could see her dissatisfaction at a glance and asked cautiously: "Have you decided on the top three?"
"Although Qin's Wuniang's "Begging for Skills" is quite satisfactory, it excels in its exquisite composition. People can't help but yearn for the begging activities of the girls in it, and it deserves the name of "Exploring Flowers"; while Shi Sanniang's "Lovesickness across the Opposite" puts the The frank pursuit of love between a son and a daughter is deeply portrayed. Although bold and bold, he is also straightforward, making him the second best."
After readily deciding on the second and third places, Ling Ruiyin couldn't help but pause and didn't say anything for a long time.
Aunt Chang asked again tentatively: "The "Love" painted by Madam Chen this time is indeed outstanding. Do you want to make it the leader?"
Ling Ruiyin pondered for a moment, then asked instead: "A Chang, have you just told Aunt Shi about what the Ai family said?"
"I've already told you, and I heard from the palace maid that Shi Liuniang also went to see it later and called everyone else away from the painting table. I don't know what their plans were."
Ling Ruiyin couldn't help but chuckle when she heard this, "Since Xiao Xue'er has gotten involved, she will definitely do something good."
Aunt Chang was a little hesitant, "But Liu Niang and the others haven't sent the paintings up yet. And the time is coming soon."
No matter how smart Shi Qingxue is, it is really difficult to find the person who deliberately caused damage in this short time. As for asking Shi Baoning to paint another painting, it is even more unrealistic. I don’t know who is talking too much. Not only did the Queen Mother know that Shi Baoning had lost her painting, but the matter also spread among the noble ladies participating in the competition.
The noble ladies from aristocratic families who favored Chen Xiujiao's faction naturally started to sneer at her. Chen Xiujiao even laughed and said, "Sister Baoning, could it be that she didn't want us to read your masterpiece, so she hid it by herself?"
He said that, but he was secretly thinking that Baoning was afraid of losing to them, so he pretended that the painting was gone.
Shi Baoning was not good at talking to people, let alone dealing with Chen Xiujiao's aggressive tone. He immediately blushed with embarrassment. After a long while, he reluctantly said: "Xiujiao is joking. Since I am participating in the competition, naturally I won't It’s easy to back down.”
"Really? Then I want to see what kind of work you can come up with? Don't let us be too disappointed!" Chen Xiujiao is also the first daughter of the eldest family, but she is not as favored as Shi Baoning, let alone Shi Baoning. Baoning's naturally noble temperament made him so angry that he wished that Shi Baoning would make a big fool of himself.
Shi Qingxue had just finished her job and when she came back, she saw Chen Xiujiao and others bullying Shi Baoning, while Shi Baojin, a member of Shi's family, was watching the excitement happily.
She exposed it gently and said, "The person who painted the painting is my eldest sister, and the person who evaluated the painting is the Queen Mother. I have troubled my dear mother to take care of us."
When Chen Xiujiao saw that Shi Qingxue dared to laugh at her for meddling in other people's business, her anger suddenly rushed to her head. She didn't care about hiding the needle in her cotton wool, and directly snorted: "Someone is talking shamelessly in front of the Queen Mother. Naturally, we are all looking forward to it, but we are afraid that the time will come. Expectations are worse than hopes!”
"Jiao Niang, don't tell me, what if she is really capable?" Luo Wenmei, the second daughter of Luo Shangshu, who was close to Chen Xiujiao, said teasingly.
Chen Xiujiao slowly added, "You have to have the 'ability' to be real! I would like to know, how can she be so capable when she doesn't even have a single work?"
Shi Qingxue originally didn't want to be acquainted with these people, but the other person's words were poking at her sister's pain points. She was about to teach him a lesson, but Shi Baojin suddenly moved.
Shi Baojin walked up to Chen Xiujiao, took the other person's arm, and pretended to calm the trouble, "Okay, my dear, Baoning is my eldest sister. She is already troubled enough today, but because of me For my sake, please don’t make her sad anymore.”
Chen Xiujiao saw that Shi Baoning's eyes were red from being squeezed by them. She smiled contemptuously and pretended to be generous and said: "In this case, I will give you a favor, Jin Niang. I won't say anything anymore. I'm just afraid that the Queen Mother will be disappointed. Come on!"
When Shi Qingxue saw that Shi Baojin had clearly intended to isolate the two sisters from other noble ladies, but still wanted to pretend to be good people here, she couldn't help but sneered, "Who will be really disappointed by then?"
"Then we'll wait and see!"
Just when the tension among the noble ladies reached its peak, Aunt Chang also came with Ling Ruiyin's decree.
"Respecting the Queen Mother's decree, in this Qiqiao Palace Banquet talent competition, the winner is Qin Yanyan's "Qiqiao", and there are two second place, namely "Lovesickness" by Shi Baojin and "Love" by Chen Xiujiao... "
After the two rankings were announced, all the noble ladies pricked up their ears, wondering who would be the winner, but at this time Aunt Chang stopped again.
Chen Xiujiao couldn't hold her breath at first and urged loudly: "Aunt Chang, who is the first place? You should tell me quickly!"