"Painting in the palace?"
Yang Jian and Yang Su looked at each other, somewhat unsure of what this scholar wanted to do. The former had heard from his cousin that Lu Liangsheng had great skills, not in magic or swordsmanship, but in brush and ink magic, so when he heard that he wanted to paint, he became curious.
"I have heard that you are a great painter, so this is just the right thing to satisfy my visual desires!"
In an instant, several eunuchs brought in a long table and large chairs, and two maids held the four treasures of the study and carefully polished them, and slowly spread out a blank scroll on the table.
"gentlemen."
A maid was holding an exquisite brush. The body of the brush was made of sandalwood, with a pattern of twined flowers painted in gold lacquer and printed in red. The tip of the brush was made of purple sable hair and there was dried ink on it. It was obviously the one Yang Jian used on a daily basis.
"This pen is not expensive. It is what I often use. I write with it easily. The lines are smooth and beautiful. I hope you will not despise it."
"I'm not being disdainful, but the painting I'm going to draw later cannot be created by an ordinary brush."
Lu Liangsheng was indeed not picky. He turned around and walked outside the hall and whistled. The old donkey strolling around the square outside turned its head and shook its long ears. Without waiting for the guards to react, it flashed past them in a flash, rubbing its tongue on Lu Liangsheng's hand excitedly. When it saw someone in the hall standing up and looking outside, it quickly retracted its tongue, straightened its body, and straightened its neck.
"We're acquaintances, don't pretend."
The scholar smiled and patted the donkey's head, then walked to the bookshelf and took out the spiritual root wood. Mu Qiyou was sleeping lightly and didn't know what was happening outside. As soon as Lu Liangsheng took it in her hand, she suddenly turned into black smoke. In front of everyone, she swirled her skirt and turned into a slim and charming woman, who pounced on the scholar's chest and rubbed against him.
"Old demon, old demon!"
The palace maids, eunuchs, and even the guards on guard in the hall opened their eyes wide when they saw the mysterious scene, their toes stretched straight in their shoes, and they dared not breathe.
Yang Su, who was drinking from the cup, felt the terrifying evil spirit and spat out the wine with a "pu" sound, looking at the woman in the black dress.
"Friend Lu, where did you find this monster..."
Sitting on the dragon throne, Yang Jian put down the wine glass in his hand and couldn't help but stand up.
"Sir, who... is this person?"
“Brother…” Yang Su, who was on the left side below, leaned slightly towards the imperial steps and lowered his voice: “This is a monster, a thousand-year-old monster.”
hiss~~~
Yang Jian took a breath, then exhaled heavily, and sighed, "I didn't expect that a demon could be so beautiful."
Cough cough cough!
These words immediately made Yang Su at the table cough a few times. This was the first time he heard his brother say such words. It would be disastrous if his brother and sister-in-law knew about it.
Fortunately, Lu Liangsheng said something to the monster over there, and black smoke rose up, and it transformed into a rough, dead branch-like brush, with countless slender roots extending downwards, interweaving to form the brush tip.
"Don't be alarmed, Your Majesty. This monster has been with me for a long time and will not do anything harmful."
To explain it simply, he walked to the table, gently brushed his palm across the paper, dipped the other hand holding the pen in ink, and with the light from the palace maid's hand, slowly put down a stroke, winding and wandering, drawing a black ribbon to outline the back of the scroll.
On the imperial steps, Yang Jian had seen two mysterious things today, but he couldn't help but walk down out of curiosity. He walked to the other side of the table with his cousin Yang Su and looked at the painting.
Lu Liangsheng's eyes were focused, and one could faintly see beads of sweat oozing out of the pores on his cheeks and forehead. The pen he was holding was also trembling slightly, but he still moved his arm and sketched.
With the embellishment of ink ribbons, the outline of a long river gradually emerged. The tip of the pen was slightly lifted, hanging on the paper and falling to another place, outlining a pavilion on the top of the mountain below the paper, and an old pine tree standing alone with its branches waving to welcome the view.
The brush turned and quickly embellished and outlined the painting. In the nearby pavilion, scholars and elegant guests were fanning themselves and chatting, pointing to the blank space below the mountain.
“Standing on the top of the mountain and watching the Wei River flowing eastward, what a beautiful scene!”
After just one stroke of the painting, Yang Jian saw the artistic conception of the painting at first glance. When he exclaimed in admiration, Lu Liangsheng, who seemed to be deaf to all sounds, finished painting the plants and rocks on the mountain, outlined the blank space on the west side of the scroll, and with the tip of his brush making dots and light ink like smoke, he could vaguely make out the outline of a city, and an official road meandered along the vaguely open city gate as his brush tip did.
"This is Chang'an... over here..."
Yang Jian's expression of admiration gradually faded. He saw some clues in the painting. His eyes followed the tip of the pen and stopped on the east side where the official road extended. He had already guessed what would be drawn there.
The cousin next to him fell first to confirm.
“… It’s Daxing.”
A smile gradually appeared on Lu Liangsheng's face as he was bent over a long table, writing and painting. He immersed himself in the painting. He dipped the pen in ink and moved it again. The blue ink outlined the winding city wall with flags standing on it. There was a guard post every two steps, and the soldiers looked majestic with their heads held high.
The streets in the city are lined with houses and buildings. On the streets, people are dressed simply and coming and going. In the subtle details, you can see the brick and stone paving. The flags of the shops along the street are fluttering. The boy carrying a teapot wipes the sweat from his forehead and opens his mouth as if shouting into the street.
In an open tavern, a greedy man took a bottle of wine from the shopkeeper and was just touching the money for the wine. In a distant street, a woman who was hanging clothes to dry looked down into the alley and saw a peddler taking down a windmill and handing it to the two children who were standing beside him.
…
In the hall, lights burned quietly, and in the silence, a rustling sound could be heard.
With the brush and ink, the last blank space of the painting is filled with the bustling daily lives of people, full of the flavor of human life.
The lamp oil was running dry, and when a eunuch came to add more oil, the figure bent over the desk wrote the last stroke of the calligraphy and painting.
What was presented to everyone was a long painting that showed everything from distant mountains and cities to the lives of ordinary people in the streets and alleys. Lu Liangsheng let out a breath, put down his brush and inkstone, called over the palace maid, took the wine handed to him, took a sip, and suddenly sprayed it on the painting.
The alcohol mist filled the air, spots fell on the paper, and in the blink of an eye seeped into the painting. Yang Jian and Yang Su, whose faces were also covered in alcohol mist, waved their sleeves to fan away the mist, and then they saw that the paintings on the table came alive.
"this… "
The emperor, who had never seen an illusion before, hadn't spoken yet, but all of a sudden, he seemed to smell the fresh air from the mountain and heard the crisp chirping of birds. He turned his head and the world in his vision suddenly changed for him and his cousin.
The darkness was pushed away by the sunshine, the bright sun was hanging among the clouds, and the pine branches on the cliff were swaying slightly with the gentle breeze.
The two men were no longer standing on the cold tiles of the hall, but on soft soil. On the cliff in front of them, in the pavilion, there were several literati fanning themselves and commenting on the peach blossoms in full bloom outside the pavilion.
This was exactly the scene in the painting that Yang Jian had seen before.
"I am... in the painting?"
In the uneasy tone, Yang Su, who was standing beside him, looked calm and said with a smile: "Brother, let's go and take a look. Maybe Fellow Daoist Lu is just ahead."
As he spoke, he escorted the emperor towards the pavilion, but he was actually terrified in his heart.
At this time, the palace was in chaos. In the hall, palace maids and eunuchs stumbled out of the palace door, shouting in panic to the guards around them.
"Oh my god, your majesty and the Duke of Yue have been locked in the painting—"
In the main hall.
In the scroll that was left alone on the long table, there was indeed a figure wearing a dragon robe and a crown, and Yang Su in official uniform, walking together.