Chapter 202： Drawing

Ying Bao looked her over and pointed at the stool opposite the table: "Sit down and I'll check your pulse."

Dongmei sat down as instructed and stretched out her wrist.

Yingbao felt her pulse, looked at her complexion, and asked, "Is there still lochia?"

Dongmei shook her head, "I feel refreshed recently."

Yingbao spread out the paper and wrote the prescription: "I will give you another medicine and take it for a few days to consolidate it. You are weak and need to take good care of yourself."

"That's what the doctor said." Mrs. Zhang said aside: "I would also like to thank the doctor for curing my daughter. Then, can you sell us another can of Wugen water?"

She just asked the shopkeeper at the front, and he said there was no rootless water.

Ying Bao glanced at her and said, "Of course, you still have to use the water to cook the medicine." It seemed that the Pupil Spring was indeed of some use.

After writing the prescription, he handed it to Zhang and his daughter and asked them to wait in the front shop. Yingbao went to the kitchen and poured the Pupil Spring into a clean jar.

Erni ran over and asked: "Yingbao, the female patient said she wanted to buy Wugen water, you..."

Looking down, the little cousin pointed to a water jar on the ground: "Take it, this is rootless water."

Erni picked up the water jug ​​and looked at the big water vat again, feeling guilty for no reason.

Two days later, all the homemade preserved fruits were sold out, but Jiang Quan bought fifty kilograms of preserved fruits and some candied fruits from elsewhere.

"Yingbao, we need to prepare more gift boxes. It will definitely be more popular during the Chinese New Year and holidays than now." Jiang Quan said while packing the preserved fruits: "I see that there are gift boxes in other pastry shops. The paintings on the boxes are really cute. Looks good.”

He glanced at his little cousin: "You only write and don't draw, and the gift box is not festive at all."

Ying Bao said angrily: "I have never learned to draw, how about you come?"

“I’m not good at painting.” Jiang Quan sighed, and suddenly turned to look at Jiang Cheng: “Brother, don’t you know how to do it? I’ll paint it for you from now on.”

Jiang Cheng could only nod: "I'll try it first."

He once studied painting with his master for several years, but his master said that his paintings were dull, colorful and without spirituality, so he stopped painting much.

I copied the painting again, and I still painted those rich and noble people, flowers and birds, and unexpectedly they matched the gift box.

Jiang Quan picked up his eldest brother's painting and looked at it, and said in surprise: "It's better than the paintings on the pastry shop's gift boxes. Brother, from now on, I'll leave all the drawings on these gift boxes to you."

Jiang Cheng glanced at the piles of bamboo boxes and wooden boxes and resolutely refused: "I can't paint!"

It's OK to paint some occasionally, but if you have to leave it all to him alone, he won't be able to finish the painting even if he doesn't eat or drink.

Drawing pictures is not like writing, where you just write and it's done. It requires several steps such as drawing, coloring, etc. It's good to be able to draw three pictures in an hour.

The hundreds of gift boxes piled up in this room would require hundreds of drawings to be drawn, and his scalp felt numb just thinking about it.

Ying Bao: "It's better to invite someone else. The students from the county school opposite are good at calligraphy and painting. If you ask them to draw, it will definitely save time and effort."

Students should be able to draw such soulless pictures of wealth and auspiciousness at their fingertips.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Quan quickly shook his head: "Those are all talented people, how could they draw this thing for you?"

“It costs ten cents each to paint fixed small paintings. There must be someone willing to do it.”

Ying Bao: "If you don't believe me, write an invitation and post it outside. I'm sure someone will come and ask."

Jiang Quan thought the same thing. He found a piece of uncut paper and wrote on it: Hire a painter to draw auspicious little paintings, each with eight words.

Then stick this piece of paper on the door.

After noon, several waves of students passed by the door of the store. They saw the invitation posted at the door, smiled at each other, and left one after another.

However, on the next day, a scholar came to ask about the drawing.

After Jiang Quan explained his request, he saw the scholar and asked, "Are the pens, inks, paper, and paints all from your family?"

"That's natural, but if it's damaged, you have to pay for it." Jiang Quan didn't want to take out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone and end up not drawing a few pictures. Wouldn't it be a big loss? The scholar nodded: "I am willing to give it a try."

Jiang Quan looked at his eldest brother and said, "Then please follow me to the backyard to draw."

It is impossible for him to hand over pen, ink, paper and inkstone to a stranger to take away. If you want to draw, please draw in a shop.

The scholar nodded, followed Jiang Quan to the backyard, and stood at a table in the corridor.

The table is used by Yingbao. It has pens, inks, paper, inkstones and paints. It is just right now for the scholar to draw.

The scholar sat down on the chair next to the table, picked up the cut piece of paper, looked at it, and started drawing.

First draw a picture of flowers and a full moon, then draw a picture of peonies and wealth, then draw a picture of five sons passing the imperial examination, and one picture of having more than one year after year.

Ordinary product packaging generally falls into these four categories. From now on, we will draw pictures according to these four categories.

The scholar draws very quickly, and the coloring is bold and bright. Although there is no artistic conception, it is already very good.

Jiang Quan nodded: "Yes, that's it. But you can't just draw, you also have to write."

"Draw first and then write together." The scholar did not hesitate and drew several more pictures in succession until he had ten pictures, then he began to write in the blank spaces of the paintings.

Of course, it is not about writing poems and songs, but about product introductions and names of places of origin.

Until dark, the scholar finally completed ten small pictures, received eighty coins from Jiang Quan, and returned to the opposite county to study.

Jiang Quan looked through the ten small pictures with a pained look on his face and muttered: "These ten small pictures cost eighty yuan, Ying Bao, let's not draw pictures, let's just write."

Yingbao: "Writing also requires someone to write it. I can't stay here forever. I'm afraid I won't be able to rely on my eldest brother alone. The scholar is good at writing and painting, so it won't be a loss to use him."

“Well, just use it.” Jiang Quan thought about it.

Put the small picture away and put it aside alone. Question: "Yingbao, when will you go back to collect the golden ears?"

He could not wait to put a batch of golden ears for sale in the shop.

“I’ll go back after Xiaojie takes a rest.”

Yingbao did not visit Wu Daozi at the county government office during this period. First, the county magistrate was busy at the end of the year and had no time to receive her as a child. Erye didn't bother because he was busy too.

But her younger brother Xiaojie was going to sleep soon, so she had to pick him up and take him home.

Of course it’s not a home in the countryside, but a home on Plum Blossom Lane.

September 15th, Jiang Quan drove his carriage to the county government office early in the morning to pick up his little cousin.

After picking up my cousin, I went to the vegetable market to buy some vegetables and meat, and went back to make a big meal.

“Second brother, the teacher asked us what specialties are available in our shop. He wants to buy some and take them back to his hometown.” Xiaojie asked his second cousin.

Jiang Quan's eyes lit up when he heard this, "That's a lot. The golden fungus and snow fungus are the specialty of our village. The rest, candied fruits and crispy chestnut cake, are all specialties of our shop."

“Puff-skin chestnut cake?” This was the first time Xiaojie had heard of this snack, and he asked out of curiosity: “Who made it? Is it delicious?”

Jiang Quan: “Your sister’s cooking is of course delicious.”

In recent days, Yingbao and Erni often went to the snack shop, pretending to buy snacks and stayed there for a long time.

Yingbao finally secretly learned how to make chestnut cake because she was young and not noticed by others.

“She made a lot of chestnut cakes at home yesterday, and they were delicious. When you go back in the evening, you can bring some to your teacher to try.”

Jiang Quan brought a lot of chestnuts from home, but he didn’t know how to sell them.

Finally, the little cousin came up with the idea and went to learn how to make puff pastry chestnut cake.