Troubled by her own conundrum and the cost of nosebleeds, the girl solved it.
After the final stroke, Alii set down the brush, dipped her fingers into the cup to wet them with water, and gently sprinkled it evenly on the drawing paper, making the ink diffuse further and revealing a clearer picture.
The girl turned around to look at the boy.
"Alii, you really are a genius."
The girl heard the praise, and her eyes seemed to lightly curve in response.
Then, she stood up, reached out her hand, and wrapped it around the boy’s neck.
Li Zhiyuan felt it necessary to find a more suitable way to act spoiled in front of Alii next time, or to secretly tell Grandmaster to change his way of responding.
Otherwise, every time it would spoil the mood .
But for now, he could only gently pat the girl’s head and say:
"Alii, whatever you want I’ll buy for you, I have money, plenty of it."
The ritual was complete.
Content, Alii let go of her hold and returned to her seat.
Li Zhiyuan sat down, gazing at the painting and began his calculations.
Every twenty minutes, he would pick up a brush and mark a point on the painting, which was where the array flags needed to be placed.
In the end, he marked a total of twelve points.
Even with twelve array flags in place, there was still a missing Array Eye, but that was not a concern, as the Array Eye was Little Huang Ying herself.
Next up were the materials for the array flags. Run Sheng would take care of making the flagpoles, but the intricate part was the flag surfaces. Ordinary fabric would be moved by wind, not conducive to display, hence a fixed surface was necessary, preferably wooden slabs of fine negative quality. After carving patterns into them, the effects could be maximized in a short time.
Originally, Li Zhiyuan planned to go to the graveyard with Run Sheng that night. There was no need to dig up graves because damaged coffin planks often lay exposed over there.
Li Zhiyuan turned his head to look at the wooden flower rolls in front of Alii and the halved ancestral tablet at her feet.
Seemingly, they already had better planks to choose from.
These ancestral planks.
After dinner, the village chief arrived.
The village chief was full of smiles, repeatedly saying that Uncle Sanjiang got a good deal.
Then he took out a few handwritten documents already stamped by the village committee, signed with Big Beard’s wife’s and son’s handprints.
Li Sanjiang marveled at the speed of Ding Dalin, had he really bought a retirement house already?
Upon looking down at the document’s content, his face stalled for a moment: "Why did you buy Big Beard’s house?"
The village chief must have received a bribe from the broker, smilingly said:
"You got the house and the fish pond for free; whether you accept it or not is up to you. He has already settled the money. Once you sign this, even if you’re a bit ruthless and decide to evict them, they couldn’t win against you in court even if they wanted to."
"But I told him not to buy Big Beard’s house."
"It was cheap, you know. Although he’s an Overseas Chinese, he probably hasn’t made a big fortune. If he really made a fortune, he would come back to invest, and the town would directly allot him a new house site."
Although he felt Big Beard’s house brought bad luck, abiding by the principle of not rejecting something free, Li Sanjiang still signed and stamped the document.
Worst case, after Ding Dalin leaves, they could just have Little Yuanhou sell the house.
"That settles it then. The man seems eager to return to his hometown and settle down. Tomorrow we’ll clean up, and the day after he officially moves in. At that time, we’ll hire a band to play music all day and invite the whole village over for a feast."
"It’s really going to be bustling. It hasn’t stopped over at Big Beard’s courtyard these days."
"Heh, we can only talk now, but when we join the banquet the day after tomorrow, we’d better keep our mouths shut. I’ll remind the others in the village too."
"Oh, and he said when inviting the villagers to the feast, he won’t accept any gift money."
"Yes, you should give. It’s like giving a gift for your own house."
Li Sanjiang nodded, pulled out two cigarettes, and the village chief took the one from inside.
"Alright, that’s it then. Uncle Sanjiang, I’ll head back first, you all enjoy your meal."
Li Sanjiang lit up a cigarette and said to Li Zhiyuan: "Little Yuanhou, Grandmaster got you a house."
"Thank you, Grandmaster."
"That’s nothing. Just wait, Grandmaster will save up more money, and surely before closing his eyes, I’ll secure a set in the city for you, to use when you marry."
Saying so, Li Sanjiang glanced at Granny Liu sitting at a distant table with his eye’s corner.
As if worried she didn’t hear, he raised his voice:
"Our Little Yuanhou should live in the city after getting married!"
Hmph, let this worldly old woman look down on people again.
Liu Yumei picked up her cup, sipped the wine, and couldn’t bother to get angry over this show-off old man.
Her Liu and Qin families had ancestral homes in places like Suzhou, Huai’an, and Yangzhou, and had even deliberately d a few to the state as cultural heritage protection sites in previous years.
However, the two kids playing well together now didn’t mean they inevitably had to follow through with childhood friendship to marriage.
Liu Yumei honestly just wanted her granddaughter’s illness cured and never really entertained the idea of turning the boy from the Li family into her future grandson-in-law.
Historically, wealthy families fetching son-in-laws aimed not for the astute but the sincere and honest.
If you pick someone too clever and capable, you can’t suppress him. Then in the future, all the family’s assets would belong to this young man, leaving you high and dry without even leaving your family name.
After dinner, Li Zhiyuan drew out the design for the array flag patterns.