Walking quickly back to her room, He Ke Tian felt somewhat irritated and restless. She dismissed all the personal maids who were serving her, didn’t even want to practice calligraphy, and just sat silently for a while.
After sitting for a while, she suddenly got up and walked to the canopy bed, opening the secret compartment at the head of the bed.
Inside the compartment was a wooden box. The box was completely black throughout, with a smooth and glossy surface that clearly showed it was often handled and treasured.
He Ke Tian carefully took out the wooden box and opened it. Inside was a rolled painting.
It was a painting of a court lady.
The composition was very ingenious—a woman looking into a mirror while arranging her hair. The woman sat sideways, showing only half her face, and on that half of her face was an extremely prominent and ugly scar. The mirror also reflected half her countenance, but where the prominent ugly scar was on that half of her face, a beautiful flower bloomed instead, making that half of her face shine brilliantly.
The woman in the painting had a peaceful expression and smiling eyes, making people’s hearts yearn for her.
Seeing this painting again, He Ke Tian’s heart was still quite moved. The court lady in this painting had a soul in her eyes—even though her appearance was flawed, her heart bloomed like a flower.
He Ke Tian thought, why did she like Master Linyuan so much? All the reasons, when traced to their root, were because of this painting before her eyes.
He Ke Tian’s appearance took after her father and was not good-looking. She looked even worse as a child, with hardly any hair, and even more unfortunately, she had a brother who was beautiful as a flower… Therefore, her childhood was quite miserable—or so she thought. In fact, her parents had always loved her more than her brother, but at that time she was convinced that her parents’ love for her was merely out of pity.
There were also gossipy women who would whisper behind her back after seeing her appearance, saying what good was it for the He family to be rich? The daughter and son were born with the wrong genders—this daughter looked so worrying, how could she marry in the future…
She naturally wasn’t the type to endure silently and immediately went to complain to her mother. Her mother of course immediately dismissed that gossipy woman and held her to comfort her thoroughly, but the shadow was cast from then on, and her temperament became increasingly strange.
She felt like a rat in the gutter, unwilling to see people, afraid to see light.
Until… she met Shi Fa Ke. One day when she went to play at Shi Fa Ke’s family pawnshop, she saw this court lady painting. At that time, she was immediately mesmerized and stood in front of that painting for a long time, unable to look away.
So long that even the shop assistant noticed her abnormality.
“Miss He, do you like this painting?” The shop assistant came forward attentively to ask.
He Ke Tian naturally nodded. She was determined to have this painting.
“Miss He has excellent taste. This is personally painted by Master Linyuan.” The shop assistant praised with great perception.
“Master Linyuan?” He Ke Tian looked at the shop assistant curiously.
This was the first time she had heard this name.
“This Master Linyuan, although not a famous master, has recently shown signs of emerging and is very popular. Moreover, Master Linyuan doesn’t release many paintings, and he himself is very mysterious, so his paintings have great collection value.” The shop assistant spoke enthusiastically, “We also obtained this painting by chance. If Miss He likes it, you should act quickly, or you won’t be able to buy it later.”
Upon hearing this, He Ke Tian looked at the painting again but discovered something wrong, so she asked, “Why doesn’t this painting have a seal or signature?”
“Miss He, please rest assured. This painting style and brushwork are definitely Master Linyuan’s without doubt. This should be Master Linyuan’s practice work, so there’s no seal, but look at the court lady in the painting—her eyes seem to have spiritual energy. Even though it’s a practice work, it’s already superior.” The shop assistant spoke eloquently and continuously.
“What’s the price?” He Ke Tian was moved and asked.
After all, she liked this painting not because of who created it, but simply because she liked the painting itself.
The shop assistant seemed to hesitate for a moment, “Since there’s no signature, I’ll give you a discount—one thousand taels.”
“So expensive?” He Ke Tian was shocked.
This was the discounted price and it was still so expensive? Who exactly was this Master Linyuan?
“Mainly because this just arrived at our shop. If Miss He offers one thousand taels, I can make the decision to sell it to you directly, but if it’s less than this price, I’d have to ask our boss first.” The shop assistant scratched his head.
He Ke Tian hesitated, “Alright, wrap it up for me.”
“Right away!” The shop assistant beamed with joy.
“Be careful with it.” He Ke Tian added another worried instruction, looking very nervous about this painting.
Well, it was a painting worth one thousand taels after all. The shop assistant understood completely and replied crisply, “Don’t worry, Miss He, I’ll definitely wrap it up well for you.”
That shop assistant’s crisp voice seemed to still be ringing in her ears. He Ke Tian looked at the painting before her with some absent-mindedness, reaching out to gently stroke the face of the woman in the painting.
It was this painting that made her stop dwelling on trivial matters and walk out of the gloom.
She was no longer that strange-tempered little girl who was unlikeable. She became the Miss He that everyone praised. Because she wasn’t born beautiful, she especially treasured her appearance, keeping her skin fair and delicate, her long hair black and thick, earning the envy of many girls in Copper Gong Town.
She learned music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and songs. She became a refined lady that everyone praised.
All of this was because of the painting before her eyes. Because of this painting, she fell in love with Master Linyuan.
But was this really love?
Just like Ah Ke said, how could loving someone mean not recognizing them even when they stood right in front of you?
He Ke Tian was confused.
Several days passed in a flash. The legends about Third Brother Shi in Copper Gong Town not only showed no signs of dying down but became even more intense, then inexplicably spawned various versions. For example, Third Brother Shi had molested a young lady while studying away from home, then abandoned her, and was beaten until he couldn’t perform his marital duties; or Third Brother Shi was lustful by nature, spending all his time in brothels and pleasure houses, emptying his body until he could no longer perform; others said Third Brother Shi was best at painting figures, especially beauties, which clearly showed his frivolous and lustful nature, speaking as if they had witnessed it personally; even more outrageously, some said Third Brother Shi was naturally impotent, born unable to perform marital duties—otherwise why would he be so fair-skinned and beardless, looking as pretty as a little girl…
Because the rumors about impotence spread throughout Copper Gong Town like wildfire, even Third Brother Shi, who usually had extraordinarily thick skin, couldn’t stand it anymore. He rarely went out recently, staying home all day painting… and even seemed to be growing a beard as if to prove something.
Well, how should this be put? There was this type of person who, when clean-shaven, naturally had a harmless, non-threatening baby face, but once they grew a beard, they really did look somewhat… handsome!
On this day, the sun was blazing and cicadas kept chirping.
In such hot weather, Shi Fa Ke brought over a melon that had been cooled in well water, cut it in half, and shared it with Third Brother.
Shi Fa Ke took a bite of the melon and glanced at Third Brother.
“Why do you keep looking at me?” Third Brother Shi glanced at her sideways.
“Cough.” Shi Fa Ke almost choked on a melon seed. She smiled awkwardly, “I just didn’t expect Third Brother to be quite suitable for growing a beard.”
Third Brother with a beard had a kind of dangerous yet charming appeal!
Third Brother Shi laughed with a “ho.”
Oh my, Shi Fa Ke covered her heart—Third Brother was becoming more and more bewitching.
Just as the siblings were eating melon, they suddenly heard someone knocking at the door.
“Who could it be at this noon hour?” Shi Fa Ke was somewhat puzzled.
The temperature had been continuously high these past few days, especially at noon when any movement would result in sweat. Even their dog Sheng was listless and had lost his appetite, which worried their father greatly as he was considering adjusting Sheng’s diet.
Here, the siblings looked at each other. Shi Fa Ke, considering that Third Brother had recently suffered severe psychological trauma, very understandingly got up and said, “I’ll go open the door.”
Speaking of which… Second Brother Lu should be back by now.
Thinking this, Shi Fa Ke walked over and opened the door. After seeing who was standing outside, she was stunned for a moment, then instinctively blocked the doorway, keeping her outside, and said with a wary expression, “Ke Tian? What are you doing here?”
He Ke Tian looked at her silently, “Why do you look so surprised? Am I not welcome?”
Obviously not! Wasn’t this body language clear enough?