On June 20th, Xiao Heng took Cao Bao to play in the garden. Wei Luo was in the front painting his picture of Songhe Yannian(the mountains and crane) and Yin Hui was in the back drawing her picture of longevity peaches.
It was time for both of them to put the finishing touches on the painting. Before lunch, Wei Luo officially finished his painting and left the painting on the table to dry.
For that painting, he had been sober for a while, and his eyes lingered on Yin Hui frequently when he was eating at noon.
Unexpectedly, when he was about to take a nap, Yin Hui wanted to go to the study room. “My painting is almost ready, I will finish it in one go this afternoon, and will wait for Xiao Heng later.”
Yin Hui explained, “I prepared one more painting, and I’ll give it to Xiao Heng, who will have a better painting of peaches, and I’ll keep the other one for myself.”
Wei Luo looked at her painting silently. Leaving a lot of blank space with a peach branch protruding horizontally from above, the curved branches and dark green leaves were vividly painted.
It could be seen that she was really humble when she said that she couldn’t paint.
Such a good peach branch, letting Xiao Heng add a birthday peach, was a bit violent.
Yin Hui saw that she was eager and said with a smile, “I also prepared a few words of congratulations. Your handwriting is good; please write it here for me.”
With the inscription, the blank space in other places was just right.
So, one of the husband and wife continued to polish, and the other wrote inscriptions on the other painting, and then switched over when they were busy.
Before they knew it, half an hour passed. Looking at the two paintings on the table, Yin Hui was very satisfied. She pointed to a spot in the middle of the peach branch and said, “Draw a second one here.”
Two ruddy peaches appeared in Wei Luo’s mind.
Second peach.
Her thoughts were suddenly distorted, and his gaze turned to her skirt, and then at her rosy cheeks.
After pressing the paperweight, Wei Luo held Yin Hui’s wrist and pulled her towards the couch inside.
He had never talked much, but when it came to that kind of thing, he did it as soon as he thought, straight to the point, and never bothered to find any excuses or hints.
“It’s a good painting, why are you suddenly interested?” Yin Hui asked teasingly.
Wei Luo paused and whispered in her ear, “Peach.”
If the hint of the word wasn’t obvious enough, his hand did instantly make Yin Hui react.
She blushed, pushed him away angrily, turned around and walked outside.
Wei Luo’s hand supported the door panel that she had pulled open from behind, and then turned her around.
Later the longevity peaches in the two paintings were painted by Wei Luo holding Xiao Heng’s little hand. After painting, Wei Luo added a few leaves to cover some peaches.
The father and son painted very well, but as long as Yin Hui thought about that afternoon, let alone see it, she didn’t even want to give the painting to her grandfather.
Wei Luo knew her heart knot, and said at night. “A peach is a peach, don’t think too much.” Yin Hui said lightly, “I don’t know who thinks too much.”
The rabbit was thrown in front of the wolf, so Wei Luo lifted her quilt again.
On June 24th, Wei Luo took the two paintings to see his father.
“This painting was painted by me. Xiao Heng also wanted to give him a painting, so his mother accompanied him to draw this painting of a longevity peach,” King Yan stood in front of the table, looking at the two paintings his son had opened.
The picture of longevity peaches was simple. He looked at that one first, and recognized his son’s inscription at a glance. The two longevity peaches were drawn with a slow brush, obviously drawn by adults with children. The peach branches were very well drawn and composition was also good.
“Was the peach branch painted by your wife?” King Yan didn’t hide his approval.
Wei Luo said, “Yes.”
King Yan nodded with a smile. Yin Yong couldn’t discipline his grandson well, but he had a way of raising a granddaughter. The third daughter-in-law had the root of wisdom, yet the other granddaughter of the Yin family seemed to be just an ordinary person.
After looking at the painting of longevity peaches, King Yan went to see his son’s Songhe Yannian (The cranes). His son’s painting style was naturally different from that of his daughter-in-law. Only talking about painting skills, the son was slightly inferior to his daughter-in-law, but he had their own style. It seemed that the sun and wind and rain in the mountains could be seen on the old dry branches, and the posture and eyes of the cranes had an indifferent and calm detachment from the world.
King Yan thought that if the third son did not practice martial arts and spent more time on calligraphy and painting, he would definitely become a great master.
However, the descendants of the royal family still had to do practical things. Calligraphy and painting were just a temporary pastime, or for self-cultivation.
“That’s right, it’s a good gift.”
Wei Luo heaved a sigh of relief.
When he left with the two paintings and a letter his father wrote for Mr. Yin, he met the elder master Wei Yang and the second master Wei Yan.
Wei Yan glanced at his hand, and asked with a smile, “What are you holding?”
Wei Luo said, “Tomorrow, Wu Lang’s great-grandfather has his birthday, and my father knew that I wanted to give him a painting, so he asked me to bring it and have a look.”
Wei Yan said, “Really, it’s rare that you were willing to paint, let us also appreciate it.”
Wei Luo took out the painting and handed it over, saying, “I and Xiao Heng drew it together. I am embarrassed.”
Wei Yang took the painting of the longevity peach and unfolded it. Wei Yan read it with him, and they could see that the words were written by the third brother.
“It was painted by Wu Lang’s mother,” Wei Luo explained.
Wei Yang and Wei Yan didn’t look at it anymore; they rolled up the painting and returned it to Wei Luo.
“I’ll go back first.”
“Go.”
As Wei Luo walked away, Wei Yan clicked his tongue, “In the past, the third brother didn’t take the Yin family seriously. But now, they are becoming more important.”
Wei Yang thought of the painting of the longevity peach, and the image of the third brother and his wife painting in love appeared in his mind. He said with a smile, “The third brother is actually kind of romantic.”
Mr. Yin would definitely be happy seeing it. But if his father saw such a painting, he would probably only be angry that the third son was indulging in pleasure in the backyard.
This youngest sometimes seemed very smart, and sometimes stupid.