Ren Yaoqi called out with a light laugh, “Father, your daughter has returned!”
Before long, Ren Shimin’s figure appeared at the doorway of the east wing. Seeing Ren Yaoqi, he looked somewhat puzzled: “Yaoqi? Why have you come back today?”
Ren Yaoqi pulled Ren Yaohua forward to pay respects to Ren Shimin, smiling as she said, “I returned together with Uncle and Aunt. I heard that Father was here at Concubine’s place restoring some ancient painting, so I came with Third Sister to take a look.”
Upon hearing Ren Yaoqi mention the ancient painting, Ren Shimin’s eyes lit up brightly. He beckoned to Ren Yaoqi: “Yaoqi, come here quickly and look. These are two beauty portraits painted by Jiang Yuanyi.”
“Paintings by Jiang Yuanyi?” Ren Yaoqi was somewhat surprised.
Jiang Yuanyi was a court painter from over three hundred years ago, most skilled at painting beauty portraits. It was said that in his lifetime, he painted over two hundred beauty portraits, most of which were collected in the imperial palace. Unfortunately, during the dynasty change later, a great fire broke out in the palace, burning many books and paintings. Most of Jiang Yuanyi’s paintings were destroyed in the fire, so that only about twenty survived in the end.
Jiang Yuanyi’s painting style was magnificent, his figures vivid and lifelike. He had once made a grand vow to paint all the beautiful women under heaven, so those with poor looks couldn’t even enter his paintings. Fortunately, he was a court painter at the time, and the emperor’s harem of three thousand provided a guarantee for his masterpieces to continuously emerge. The imperial concubines of that time also took pride in being featured in Jiang Yuanyi’s paintings.
After Jiang Yuanyi’s death, many people imitated his painting style, but unfortunately, for hundreds of years, no one could surpass him. However, the “Jiang School” painting style emerged. “Jiang School” paintings all shared two common characteristics: magnificent painting style, and all painted subjects had to be beauties.
When Ren Shimin was young, he had been quite obsessed with figure paintings for a period, and he happened to be an admirer of the “Jiang School” painting style. Although Third Master Ren had now turned to being infatuated with landscape paintings, Jiang Yuanyi’s paintings still held special meaning for him.
Ren Yaoqi remembered that in her previous life, Ren Shimin had also obtained two paintings by Jiang Yuanyi, but that time he didn’t restore them himself. Instead, he handed them over to an old-established calligraphy and painting shop in Yunyang City to do it. But later, for some unknown reason, those two paintings were never retrieved. It seemed they were said to be ruined?
Ren Yaoqi couldn’t remember too clearly, because whenever those two paintings were mentioned, Ren Shimin would be unhappy, so she never asked about it again.
Ren Yaoqi had already followed Ren Shimin into the east wing.
Fangzhi Courtyard had also set up a study room in the main house, but perhaps Ren Shimin found that study room too small and feared he couldn’t work freely there, so he had Concubine Fang clean out two connecting rooms in the east wing.
In the center of the east wing were two large huanghuali writing desks placed together, with two paintings, ink, brushes, pigments, and some restoration tools placed on top.
Seeing Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua enter, Concubine Fang said nothing more and smiled gently. She turned her head to softly instruct her maid to bring tea and refreshments over.
Ren Shimin had already walked to the writing desk and turned to speak with Ren Yaoqi: “I’ve already carefully authenticated them – they’re genuine works. It’s just that these paintings weren’t properly preserved originally. I heard that during wartime turmoil, the owner hastily buried them in the backyard, where they remained buried for decades. When they were dug up, they nearly crumbled into fragments. From the layering visible when removing the backing paper, it appears they were restored once before, but that restorer’s technique was too crude – he nearly ruined a fine painting!” When Ren Shimin said this, his expression showed some indignation.
Just as Ren Yaoqi was about to lean in for a closer look, she heard an unfamiliar female voice say: “Please rest assured, Master. This humble woman will be more careful when removing the mounting.”
Only then did Ren Yaoqi notice that there was a woman who had been bending over standing by the writing desk all along. She had previously assumed it was a servant woman from this courtyard and hadn’t paid attention. Now this woman turned her head to speak, and Ren Yaoqi could see her face clearly, confirming she had never seen her before.
This woman was in her early thirties, with her hair arranged in a married woman’s style. From the side, she looked quite attractive, though from the front she appeared rather ordinary. From what she had just heard her say about herself, she was not a servant woman.
The woman put down a small bamboo tweezer she was holding and bowed to Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua: “I pay my respects to the two young ladies.”
Her movements were graceful and charming, with considerable allure.
Ren Yaohua frowned as she looked her over several times, but didn’t move. She wouldn’t have good feelings toward anyone who appeared in Concubine Fang’s courtyard.
“Who is this?” Ren Yaoqi smiled at the woman and asked Ren Shimin.
Ren Shimin’s attitude toward the woman was quite amiable: “She’s someone I invited to help me restore calligraphy and paintings. Her ancestors all did this work. This time I’m also fortunate to have her, otherwise I would have nearly made a big mistake earlier.”
Inviting a woman to the inner courtyard to restore calligraphy and paintings? Ren Yaoqi thought this was probably something only her father could do.
However, this woman’s appearance in Concubine Fang’s courtyard couldn’t help but make people think more about it.
“Oh? Female painting restorers are rare, and to earn Father’s praise, she must have real skill. Father, where did you find her?” Ren Yaoqi walked forward and lowered her head to look at the painting, asking casually.
“I wasn’t comfortable entrusting the paintings to a calligraphy and painting shop for restoration, and I was worried I couldn’t complete it alone, so Concubine Fang found Sun Eleventh Lady to come over.” Ren Shimin carefully rubbed the paper fragments remaining on the backing paper with his index finger.
Indeed, it was Concubine Fang who found her.
But why would Concubine Fang find a woman in her thirties to come here? If it were to secure favor, she should have found someone younger and more beautiful. Although this Sun Eleventh Lady wasn’t bad-looking, she wasn’t stunningly beautiful either, and she was getting older.
Ren Yaoqi was momentarily puzzled and thought she would need to investigate this Sun Eleventh Lady’s background further.
“Father, when it comes time for retouching, let your daughter help you?” Ren Yaoqi sat by the writing desk, supporting her cheek with her hand as she tilted her head to speak.
Upon hearing this, Ren Shimin looked at Ren Yaoqi with some hesitation.
Retouching was the most important step in the entire restoration process – using brushes, ink, and pigments to repair all the damaged parts of the ancient painting one by one, and re-tracing the areas where colors had faded. It extremely tested the restorer’s painting skills.
Ren Shimin wanted to do this part himself, but since his youngest daughter had proposed it, he couldn’t very well say he didn’t trust her painting skills.
Ren Yaoqi showed a big smile: “I don’t care, I want to restore paintings too. If you don’t agree, I’ll steal the paintings and do it myself.”
Cold sweat broke out on Ren Shimin’s forehead. He wanted to get angry and lecture her, but seeing his youngest daughter’s smiling face, he couldn’t bring himself to lose his temper. He thought this was because Yaoqi liked painting just like he did.
Concubine Fang entered carrying a tea tray, smiling as she tried to smooth things over: “Fifth Young Lady, Master likes this painting. You should let him do it himself. If the Fifth Young Lady also wants to try restoring ancient paintings, I’ll help you find one another day.”
Ren Yaohua said coolly: “I remember Fifth Sister likes paintings by Wen Zhouzi from the previous dynasty. Since Concubine is so enthusiastic, why don’t you give her a couple more? Oh, and she only likes authentic works.”
Ren Yaoqi looked at Concubine Fang with great anticipation.
The smile on Concubine Fang’s face stiffened slightly, revealing a bitter smile.
Seeing them making such a fuss, Ren Shimin’s mind was preoccupied with his painting, so he compromised with Ren Yaoqi: “You can follow along, but if you want to use the brush, you must have Father’s permission. When the time comes, I’ll let you paint the simpler parts.”
Ren Yaoqi immediately nodded, smiling cheerfully: “I understand, Father.”
Concubine Fang took the opportunity to smile and say: “Ninth Young Lady also said she wants to learn. Master, could you let her follow along to observe? She won’t touch the brush, just follow Master and Fifth Young Lady to learn more.”
Ren Yaohua replied without giving face: “She should learn to be a proper person before learning to paint! Last time, she said she wanted to ask Fifth Sister for painting advice, and Fifth Sister revised her ‘Snow Scene’ painting for her. But at this debutante banquet, she painted a copy following Fifth Sister’s revisions, and couldn’t even distinguish between original composition and copying!”
Concubine Fang’s hand gripping her handkerchief tightened.
Ren Shimin frowned as he looked at Concubine Fang: “Is this true?”
Ren Shimin loved the scholarly and refined lifestyle most and couldn’t stand those despicable methods used to gain fame and profit. He never deigned to associate with such people.
That’s why, when Han Yunqian deliberately lost to him at chess last time, he became suspicious of Han Yunqian’s character. Ren Yaoyu’s painting, which Ren Yaoqi had revised just to show off at the debutante banquet, made Ren Shimin very disdainful.
Concubine Fang’s face paled slightly as she forced a smile: “Master, Fifth Young Lady is still young and doesn’t quite understand…”
Ren Shimin said coldly, “Then teach her properly! Teach her until she understands! And don’t mention letting her learn painting from me again.”
Concubine Fang bit her lip and lowered her head, looking as if she were about to cry.
Ren Shimin no longer looked at her.
Ren Yaohua curved her lips, feeling very pleased. Seeing Concubine Fang get humiliated, she no longer found staying here to watch the painting restoration a boring affair.
Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua stayed in the east wing of Fangzhi Courtyard for some more time. Since they didn’t speak again to disturb Ren Shimin afterward, he didn’t drive them away.
Around noon, Sun Eleventh Lady left the Ren residence, saying she had family matters to attend to and would return tomorrow. Seeing that she handled the trivial matters of painting restoration meticulously, Ren Shimin grew even more amiable toward her and had Concubine Fang reward her with ten taels of silver.
Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua were summoned by someone sent by Old Madam to come for lunch. As they were leaving Fangzhi Courtyard, they happened to hear two cleaning women talking.
“…Now that you mention it, I also think she looks somewhat similar.”
“Doesn’t she, though? When I first saw her the other day, I thought it was that Miss from the Fang family coming to visit our residence again.”
“I wonder which family’s madam she is now.”
Ren Yaohua walked over and asked: “What are you talking about? What’s Miss from the Fang family?”
The two women who had been talking were startled when they turned and saw Ren Yaohua. Seeing her impatient expression, they quickly replied: “This servant was saying that the woman who just left Fangzhi Courtyard looks somewhat like the Miss Fang who stayed at our residence several times many years ago.”
Miss Fang? Fang Yahui?