Liu Zhuangtou also had no news of the Liu family for many years. He only remembered that when the Liu family moved to Yulin, among the three young masters in the family, only the uncle Liu Ce got married and married the daughter of a colleague, the Qin family. After moving to Yulin, he sent people to deliver several news, saying that the second master Liu Kuang had won the appreciation of the local Zhou Zhen for his contribution to a Mongolian siege of the city, and married his daughter Zhou Shi.
At that time, although Yulin was far away, it was often attacked, and even the road inside the pass was not very safe, so the Cui family didn't go there much, but the two families still came and went.
Later, Mrs. Liu passed away in childbirth, and the Liu family came from the border to express condolences. The Yulin side is no less leisurely than the Taoyuankou side. At that time, there were Mongolians rushing to the border. The Liu family's male was on standby in the camp. He didn't come to the funeral, but even the third lady who had just entered the door for a few months followed.
It was too late to get the news over there, and because of the war at the border, it took a few months to arrive, and Mrs. Liu had already been buried when she arrived at Cui's house. Cui Ju also thought that Liu's family was not well behaved, and that there was no man to preside over such a big event. Several female dependents came to the house with their servants. At that time, she was busy marrying the successor and hosting the middle feeder, so she had a private attack. People who refused to meet the Liu family.
Several grandmothers in the Liu family were left out in the cold, and they felt resentment in their hearts. The eldest grandmother, Mrs. Qin, took her siblings and her family to cry on Mrs. Liu's grave, and asked her mother's elder brother to speak to the Cui family, forcing Cui Ju to treat the son of the former room kindly.
But after this trouble, the two families also cut off communication, and they can't even communicate.
Cui Xie filled a few pages with a pencil and wrote down the appearance and temperament of the three uncles and aunts he mentioned. But this all happened more than ten years ago. At that time, my uncle was in his early twenties, and his third uncle was only fourteen or fifteen. Now that so many years have passed, and he is stationed at the most dangerous and desolate border in Daming, I am afraid that he has both appearance and temperament. Variety.
The grandparents of the Liu family were in their forties at that time, and I don't know if there were any changes in these years.
Cui Xie pondered silently for a while, and then asked him: "I don't need to talk about the past. As a junior, I must give my heart first, and if I don't, I always ask my elders to think about me. My grandfather and several uncles and aunts liked me. What? Is it better to buy things from Beijing, or go back to the county to bring some specialties? And the uncle of the Qin family... "
It stands to reason that I should thank others for taking the lead for Xiao Cui Xie, but I can't because the uncle of the Qin family beat his father, and he is grateful as a son, so he specially gave gifts to connect his feelings, right
This favor is still recorded on Aunt Qin.
He sighed, took a pen and took short notes on the preferences of his relatives, and wrote down what he wanted to send and buy. All the products sold in the shops at home and from the fields can be used as gifts, but the Liu family’s male generals should also need some weapons and battlefield protection, right
Cui Xie himself had learned horseback riding and weapons at the Wang family, and he had seen the soldiers of Xingtun Youwei wear fat jackets, cotton armor, leather armor and so on when training. Ordinary people can't buy and sell weapons casually, and I'm afraid it's not convenient to buy steel, but the family happens to produce cotton, so they can send some cotton and cowhide to make soft armor for them.
The gift list was filled with a piece of paper at the end, from the daily food, shochu, clothing, cotton, leather to the fashionable "Six Talents and Three Kingdoms" in Beijing and all kinds of paper, everything that could be written. After seeing that he couldn't think of anything at the end, he stopped and asked Liu Zhuangtou, "Are these enough?"
Liu Zhuangtou took it over and looked at it, shook his head and said, "This is too much, how can there be a child born outside to send such things to the grandmother's house. We... The Liu family is not short of this, the old thousand households, the old lady, they are just Just miss your grandson, they will be happy if you write a letter."
If he could go there in person and ask the second old man and some grandparents to see it, the Liu family would be happier.
He also knew that Cui Xie was studying in the prison, and he had to take care of his grandfather and grandmother who had difficulty moving, and a few younger siblings who had not grown up. The son looks like his uncle's family and looks so good, if you can let them meet, why don't you like it?"
What Liu Zhuangtou said was a little too real. You like it when you look like your uncle, but don't you like it when you follow Senator Cui
He touched his face, intending to paint a self-portrait and send it along, but suddenly a thought popped up in his heart: What the Liu family really wanted to see was not his portrait, but the daughter who married back then, right
He turned the pen subconsciously, leaned over and asked, "Do you remember... Do the elderly and daughter-in-law in your family remember what my mother looked like? I want to hear them talk."
Liu Zhuang nodded heavily: "Remember! Back then, my wife was waiting for my wife to comb her hair. She still mentions family affairs from time to time, and she will cry when she mentions it... She also came in with me to kowtow to the son. The son wants to see me. Go and call her here!"
He entered the Cui family this time with the intention of seeing Cui Xie, but he brought people from the Liu family who accompany him, not tenants. Cui Xie asked them all to sit in the hall, and talked about the coldness and warmth, and then left Liu Zhuangtou's wife alone and asked her what Mrs. Liu looked like.
She was Mrs. Liu's dowry maid, and the two had been together for a few years at the beginning, but now speaking, her voice and smile are still in front of her eyes: "Mrs. has a small face, her cheekbones are hidden in her flesh, and she is very delicate. The eyebrows are naturally a pair of small mountain eyebrows, thin and curved, and the eyes are bright, and the eyes are like flowing waves when they turn..."
Cui Xie had to interrupt her artistic expression. A wooden board was supported diagonally by the table as an easel. While framing the composition of the bust, he asked in detail, "Is the mother round, oval or melon seed face? Is the nose tall or short? Is the nose round? Are the noses wide or wide? Are the eyes big or small? Single eyelid or double eyelid? What does it look like without makeup on the lips..."
He asked Mrs. Liu to sit beside him and correct any mistakes in the painting at any time. If there was a problem, he would wipe it off with steamed buns and repaint it.
The lead of this pencil is soft, and the pen is bald quickly. He will use a knife to sharpen it after a few strokes. The tip of the pen is sharpened into a slightly flat and sharp trapezoid, and lines of different thicknesses can be drawn with a little turn.
In the middle of the painting, the outlines of the facial features, eyes, and nose are set, and the shadows of the eyebrows and the bridge of the nose are slightly shaded. This portrait can already be seen as a stranger.
Sister Liu looked at him and drew the girl in her memory, and immediately exclaimed: "How did you draw this, sir, how can you draw the lady's appearance as if she were alive after listening to me? Buddha and Bodhisattva pity your filial piety, and instruct you to draw her likeness?"
Cui Xie was unwilling to engage in this kind of feudal superstition, and shook his head: "Which person doesn't have one nose and two eyes, even if there are minor differences, they are generally not the same. Thinking of her, I have already painted countless facial features in my mind, but now I just pick out a few of the looks I came up with and put them together, which is naturally easy to draw."
He had just invented the pencil, and he didn't dare to push out the sketching technique too aggressively, so he stopped and asked her about Mrs. Liu's cheekbones, muscle orientation, and accustomed makeup. Color on the line and send it to Liu's house in the ceremony.
The two talked about giving gifts to the female family. Cui Xie opened the drawing paper and added a few things below, and thanked her with the gift list and drawing: "Thanks to Mrs. Liu for telling me this, I can draw. Come out with this painting. This time, I have to make Liu Zhuangtou run to Yulin for me again. I am tired of you being at home, and I have treated you badly. I will ask someone to pay you an extra portion of money to settle down."
Sister-in-law Liu waved her hands again and again, "scared": "How dare you be a generous gift from the son! I can see the portrait of my wife again, which is already a blessing from my previous life. If the son wants to reward me, I will also look at this one. Let's paint."
Cui Xie smiled and said, "I'll show him when the painting is finished. It's getting late, you go to rest first, and then go home tomorrow after receiving the money."
After sending his family back, he returned to his room and continued to complete the sketch according to Mrs. Liu's instructions. Then I designed the composition for it, and drew a coloring picture of Mrs. Liu and her child standing among the flowers and stones.
That kid is, of course, little Cui Xie.
Cui Xie first drew a self-portrait in front of the mirror as a draft, but he deliberately made his face rounder and his eyes slightly larger, and set the proportions of his body to around six heads, which is exactly the proportions a 13- or 14-year-old boy should have.
This portrait is not comparable to the two he painted for Xie Ying, and it may not be exactly like Mrs. Liu, but it should be considered a realistic version of the portrait in Daming. I hope that the second elders of the Liu family and their elders will be a little comforted when they see this portrait, so that they don't have any sustenance when they miss their daughter and grandson.
And his family finally has a portrait of Mrs. Liu for future generations to miss.
Cui Xie sighed, rolled up the color book, found a paper tube on which to put the scroll, and wrapped the sketch in oiled paper, carefully storing it in the cabinet.
After disposing of these, he changed his clothes and went out to host the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet of the Cui family.
Although this family lacks a mistress and a young master, the Mid-Autumn Festival reunion night has to be photographed.
Mr. Lu also planned to spend the festival at his house. He Beidrift took the imperial examinations in the capital, and he has not been ranked yet, and he has followed the Cui family in the past few years. This year, because of the absence of Senator Cui, there was a Cui Xie in this family who was a woman and child. He was awkward when he stayed there. He simply found a place to have a drink with a few northern drifters in the same year, and spent the night outside before coming back.
When he is not there, the family is really full of old and young women and children. Even Cui Xie, a well-established eldest brother, has not reached the crown, and is not considered an adult in the traditional sense. Although Mr. Song lived as a widow, he was in his 30s or 40s. He was older and not as particular as a young widow. It was a rare holiday, so he also sat down with them.
Grandpa Cui also came to the yard, and for the first time in many years, he admired the moon outside.
Cui Xie led someone to move the paper screen, circled a passage for him in the yard, and set up a large paper pavilion. The top is covered with oiled paper soaked in the thinnest tissue paper, and bright tile lamps made of shells are hung inside and outside, which are bright and convenient.
The paper is really as thin as transparent, it blocks the wind and does not hinder the view of the scenery, and when you look up, you can clearly see the moonlight.
Although they didn't have silk and bamboo in their house, the neighbors next door were all blowing and singing.
The old man occupied a pavilion alone, and the others sat around the table under his head. The old lady took Brother He and sat at the top, Mr. Song, the guest, sat at the bottom, with Cui Xie and Sister Yun in the middle, facing each other at the table.
Even those few concubines also ordered a table, and they drank and enjoyed the moon in a lively manner, which made the courtyard a little more popular.
There are twelve dishes, six gui, six dim sums on the main table. There are fish, chicken, goose and crab, as well as mussels, ham, shark fins and other southern goods. Many of the dry goods were sent by the Xie family, and they were better than those from their own shop in previous years. The wine was also mellow and pure in taste, which had been steamed several times in a wine steamer.
Mr. Song couldn't help but praise: "I used to eat shochu often in Zhang's house, but there is no such taste. The things in your house are really different."
Sister Yun hurriedly got up and poured wine for her husband. This body was fragrant, and the very finely drawn eyebrows and eyes were illuminated clearly by the light. Cui Xie was sitting across from her at the table, and when he saw her dark circles that were painted a little wide, but really looked big and bright, he couldn't help asking, "Are you going to learn new makeup from our neighbors again?"
Sister Yun raised her hand and touched her face, pursed her lips, lowered her head, and said shyly, "I didn't learn this from Sister Xu and Sister Chang. My sister painted it for me. I heard that this eyeliner is a new product from Jinrongtang. It is extremely difficult to buy. Her brother specially found it for her. "
Miss Zhang is really a technical talent. This eyeliner has only been out for a few days, and she can start painting for others!
Sister Yun said so, shouldn't she also want it
Anyway, it's his own stuff, and it's made from pure Chinese herbal medicine. It doesn't hurt the skin, so Cui Xie promises to bring her back a few more boxes to play with, or give it to others. After soothing his sister, he raised a glass and warned Mr. Song: "My sister is young and ignorant, she only knows how to play, and I hope that Mr. will teach her well in the future."
Mr. Song smiled lightly: "Sister Yun is also a stable and sensible child, the eldest son doesn't need to worry. I don't have much to teach, so I will try my best to teach her to learn some etiquette, read some poetry and books, interact with people more, and see the world. ."
Cui Xie himself didn't know how to teach a girl, just seeing that her younger sister's demeanor was better than usual, and she had the confidence to speak, she felt that her husband taught well, and entrusted him: "After that, I will have to trouble my husband to take my sister out more. In our family's situation, she doesn't have any good friends to go to, so she is inevitably lonely at a young age."
Mr. Song said: "After all, I am a widow's family, and it is not easy to go to people I don't know. Fortunately, I am familiar with the Zhang family. Her daughter is similar in age to Lingmei, so I can play a game. There is an opportunity to invite someone to accompany Lingmei, I wonder if the young master would agree?"
Cui Xie smiled and said, "That's also a good thing. It's just that there are few people in the family and the old lady's health is not good. If anyone really wants to leave, I have to ask your husband to help you entertain."
Mr. Song said: "I know the embarrassment of the son, and I just hope that the son will get married soon, and this family will look like a family."
Cui Xie had a candidate for marriage in his heart, but unfortunately he couldn't mention it publicly. He just smiled and said, "Mr. Song can see the situation in my family. As the eldest brother, I always have to support my younger siblings before making plans. , I can't get married first, hollowing out the family's property, and making them disappear, right?"
He smiled slightly, which made Sister Yun feel ashamed and annoyed, and Brother He still didn't know what was going on. However, Mr. Song knew the bitterness in his words, and said with pity: "I am old, and I am not afraid to say something to you-maybe you are just destined to get married, and you will be able to get married naturally when your fate arrives. Rich people are willing to be with you."
Well, there is already one.
After dinner, when the women worshipped the moon in the courtyard, Cui Xie also sat on a rockery in the small courtyard and watched the moon, quietly humming an out-of-tune tune.
What if we can't get married and can't meet for the time being? Inside and outside the palace wall, isn't it the same bright moon