CH 34

“There is no Cui Beauty paper, only Cui Hero paper!”

Cui Xie coldly threw down this comment, went into his study and took out a box of set of drawing prints that had just been freshly printed and put them onto the table. A murderous smile was squeezed out from the corner of his mouth, “This note is called Cui paper, not Cui Beauty paper. It was printed by the bookstore under the Cui family’s name. Hoping that ge-ge [1] , once returning home, can say a few words for me to that man.”

This time it was Wang Xiangzhen’s turn to be surprised.

“This drawing was printed by your family? That little fellow even vowed to me that it was handmade by a great expert in Jiangnan!” He ‘ze ze’ clicked his tongue a few times before taking a look at the paper. However, when he opened the paper box and saw four beautiful women with different looks and temperaments printed colorfully on the paper, the faint smile on his face immediately froze and his breathing also lightened, as if he was afraid to startle the characters in the prints.

“It turned out the beauty printed on the paper was drawn like this, no wonder those poor, sour pedantics hid it away and didn’t let anyone else see it.” After looking at it for a long time, Wang Xiangzhen let out a sigh, and his reaction was similar to all that had laid eyes on this paper before. Grabbing the paper, he asked, “Who painted this portrait? Is there such beauty in the world?”

Of course there is such beauty. Cui Xie recalled his memories of actresses in TV series in his previous life and triumphantly thought to himself that he hadn’t even painted the best looking one yet.

But, he could not tell the truth. Just as Pengyan came in to deliver tea, Cui Xie pointed to Pengyan and said, “Naturally it was based off of real life, it was painted in Pengyan’s likeness. If you don’t believe me just compare the two and see. Don’t I have some talent regarding painting? Look at the bone structure, it is guaranteed to be imitated to perfection.”

Wang Xiangzhen glanced at the delicate and pretty, simple and unadorned small scholar and bowed his head to look at the beautiful and talented people in the portraits and subtly smiled, “Little Brother Cui’s painting skills are really good, this ge-ge really does not know whether I should admire your heavenly drawing skills or….the pair of eyes that takes red for green” [2].

Pengyan who had quite a little temper, feeling slightly angry, he heavily set down the tea tray on the table, and swiveled around to leave.

Seeing Pengyan getting upset, Cui Xie quickly explained to the people in front of him: “The three courts and five eyes [3], hands, feet and body were all drawn according to your likeness. Otherwise, I cannot just draw a character standing upright just based on my imagination. But, you are a man, and when I set down the brush, I also changed many places according to the image of the beauty conjured in my heart. As a result, the portrait who fell onto the paper with my brush does not resemble you.”

By clarifying the matter in front of Wang Xiangzhen, it was not only to let Pengyan know that he hadn’t treated him like a joke, but it was also to cut off Young Master’s Wang idea——this young master loved beauties so much that he had hid and pampered his mistress in the rear courtyard of the Cui family’s bookstore. If Cui Xie really let him misunderstand that such a person truly existed in the world, just how much would he come and pester him in the future when he had the free time?

Pengyan had a sudden realization and looked at Cui Xie apologetically, responding in a low voice, “I had misunderstood da-ge.”

Wang Xiangzhen also gazed at Cui Xie, pursed his mouth, “ Now that you say it, I understand. You are accustomed to seeing beauties, no wonder the characters you draw are all beautiful.”

Obviously, maybe even the current Ming Emperor had never seen so many beauties as he had. Without even mentioning the stars on the screen, just walking around an art school’s streets a few times, one could easily run into tens or dozens of delicate, pretty and beautiful ladies.

Thinking of this, Cui Xie could not help but laugh a little bit. The anger caused by his paper being called ‘Cui beauty paper’ had significantly subsided. He sipped the tea and invited Wang Xiangzhen to partake in the tea as well, informing him that the beauty on the drawing print was a character in a new novel to be published by his family. It was just that the manuscript had been taken to the artisans for engraving and proofreading. If he really liked it, Cui Xie could ask someone to transcribe a copy for Wang Xiangzhen to enjoy.

Young Master Wang was not interested in reading and only liked seeing the appearances of beautiful women. He smiled and asked, “If it is a novel including pictures, I naturally want it. No need to send me a copy of the manuscript. Do you have more of those drawing prints? Just give ge-ge dozens of sets so I can give them to people.”

Cui Xie said, “This is a new portrait printed especially for the Chongyang Festival. It has just been engraved and the artisans tried printing a few copies, but mass printing has not been officially started yet. Brother Wang does not need to feel anxious. In five to seven days, we will be able to print them in large quantities. At that time, I will send you a hundred sets of drawing prints.”

Wang Xiangzhen’s eyes lit up, slapping the table, he exclaimed, “Little Brother Cui really knows how to make people happy! Those people even had the nerve to flaunt their lousy copy in front of me. One of these days I’ll take a box of those beauties….Cui paper, anad smash it into their faces, let them know what real beauty is…”

The more he thought about it, the happier he became. He laughed himself into a fit and looked down, catching sight of the person who helped him retrieve his face, Cui Xie. Wanting to make him happy, he gleefully asked, “When you stop studying those books, ge-ge can take you to ride horses?”

Scholars did not have holidays. On the day of the Chongyang Festival, they had merely taken a break because their Teacher was going to a Poetry gathering.

Cui Xie regretfully and despondently said so, but Young Master Wang felt even more sorry that he simply became anxious, “I measured your stature roughly to pick the horse, and you cannot grow as fast as a horse. If you wait until the end of the year to learn, the horse will grow so big that you can no longer ride it!”

….This Young Master Wang clearly had good intentions but why did his words sound so awkward for others to hear?

Suddenly, Cui Xie wanted to grow until he was 190 meters and stuff Wang Xiangzhen into the horse’s stomach. But, after all, he was a scholar. He took a deep breath and agreed with a smile, “What Young Master Wang makes sense. Then, I will get up one hour earlier in the morning and practice horse-racing outside the city.”

Young Master Wang glared, “What going outside the city! You can just find me on the street behind the Lord Guan Temple [4], our family’s residence has a horse-racing track and military drill grounds. There will also be personal guards to accompany you as you practice.”

Cui Xie felt a little embarrassed, but Wang Xiangzhen took his hand and affectionately said, “You have already met my lovable wife and my beloved concubine, all we are missing is to pay your respects to mother [5] and we can be regarded as the same family, then isn’t it for the best if you come pay your respects if you have nothing else to do? Us martial artists rise early and you can ride horses for an hour before you study, it will not get in the way of anything.”

Thinking that he had already accepted the horse given to him,Cui Xie also wanted to return the favor with drawing prints. Although they were not really close to the point where he could actually pay respects to the other’s mother, it was not like they were alienated strangers. In contrast, to borrow the other’s military drill grounds to practice riding horses was indeed a trivial matter and an abrupt refusal would only result in hurt feelings. Cui Xie then unrestrainedly stated, “Then I will disturb Young Master Wang and practice riding the horse tomorrow. Brother Wang must remember to ask someone to keep the door open for me.”

Wang Xiangzhen rubbed the paper with a grin, responding, “I am still waiting on you to print beauty prints, how can I dare to venture to ruffle this talented scholar’s feathers.” His heart had been completely  bewitched and stolen by the beauty on the paper. Even during dinner, he was unwilling to part with the paper and after saying a few more nonsensical words, Wang Xianzheng ran out with the paper box in his hands to find someone to show them off to.

His group of brothers and fellows had been starved by him after he summoned them saying he was going to let them admire some beauties. Before everyone arrived, they were extremely eager and expecting to see a famous courtesan or prostitute, but when they arrived at the restaurant, a beautiful lady did not appear into view, but instead they saw a thick book box. Seeing this scenery, their jaws dropped open and they gaped, dumbfoundedly inquiring, “Da-ge, what is going on? Even if those pedantic and worthless scholars claim that a character in a novel possesses an appearance like jade[6] , the beauty in the novel cannot compare to a lively and fragrant body, one that can sing and have fun ah!”

Wang Xiangzhen sneered, “Who said I brought a novel here, I brought a portrait with me! A beautiful portrait! The beauties on there are not just ordinary beauties, if someone does not applaud after viewing it, I’ll…”

“How about giving him da-ge’s newly acquired white horse?” The corner of the son of a deputy commander’s eyes slightly raised and he merrily laughed. Another person smiled, “I ran all the way from the far-away East Gate on an empty stomach. I would rather bet on a good table of wine and dishes in addition to that not yet trained little parrot which is being raised by your Li mama[7]’s family.”

Wang Xiangzhen looked out from the corner of his eyes, his gaze sweeping across over the huddled group and he triumphantly smiled, “I have already given the horse away. As for this banquet and little parrot, this I can afford to gamble. But let me say these few words first. If anyone says that the beauty in my painting is not beautiful, then he has to find someone who is truly beautiful and show them to ge-ge. Otherwise, if you are not flapping your lips, I am afraid that stealing a free meal from me will not do.”

The next impetuous person of the younger generation impatiently shouted, “What is the use of saying these ge-ge, just quickly open the box and let us look to see what this kind of beauty looks like.”

Young Master Wang was precisely dazzlingly flaunting and without too much nonsense, he stretched out his hand to open the box, fetched a rolled paper from inside and slowly unfolded it.

Everyone craned their necks and watched. Cheng Xu, the son of an official who had given him the painting earlier on, was smiling on the side, “Is da-ge’s paper comparable to that Cui beauty paper? The rest of the shixiong[8] may not know, today, I just got my hands on a painting imitating Cui beauty paper and gave it to da-ge. The characters drawn in the painting are truly gorgeous…”

The drawing print opened, revealing an upright and luxurious beauty who illuminated the paper with her beauty like those Imperial wives and concubines in the Emperor’s harem, a brocade rug and incense burner spread out under her feet. In the corner of the print, half of a man’s boots and a corner of a brocade robe was revealed. Young Master Cheng suddenly jumped up from his seat and shouted, “This is Cui beauty paper! It must be, no one else can paint such and lifelike portraits! I expended so much effort and suffered untold hardships[9] to only obtain an imitation. Da-ge unexpectedly obtained the newly printed paper as soon as the imitation changed hands, it’s really….really…”

He had muttered ‘really’ for a good half of the day, and he really did not know how to compare the discrepancy between the two people’s luck today. The rest of the group was busy looking at the portraits not paying any attention to what he was yelling and making a fuss about. They had already urged Wang Xiangzhen to open the next one, and then open the next one again.

In a flash, the two sets with eight drawing prints in total had all been unfolded by their command, but the people who had looked at it still felt unfulfilled. These military lineage fellows, who always had a headache when they saw words, even read the little poems printed on the edge of the paper, holding up the portraits and arguing which one was more beautiful: the sumptuous goddess with national grace, divine fragrance[10] or the coquettish and mellow enchantress whose charm was brighter; or was it the ethereal and faintly discernible female immortal floating in the mist or the delicate and slender female ghost that was the most beautiful? After debating with such concentrated attention and keen interest, even when the dishes were delivered in front of them, no one attended to eat them.

It was not until the waiter came over to add soup as well as food and then asking the group if they wanted a good wine to be warmed up did everyone recover from the heated debate. However, they were left with an extremely important question, “Just where did da-ge get this beautiful print, are there any more? How can only eight pieces be enough to divide up between so many people! No wonder those scholars hide them so deeply in their own rooms, not letting anyone else look at them.”

Young Master Wang beamed and glanced at the crowd, proudly declaring, “I am as close as flesh and bones[11] with the master of this paper. Not to mention this one box of prints, ten boxes or even a hundred boxes, he would give them to me without saying another word. Once the prints are printed, I will also give you all a few boxes, to live up to our brotherly camaraderie.”

Young Master Cheng asked in surprise, “Wang da-ge is saying…don’t tell me that the Cui Beauty was overwhelmed over da-ge’s distinguished, accomplished and handsome air, and was perfectly happy to follow after you?”

Wang Xiangzhen choked on the sip of wine sliding down his throat, almost spitting it out. But he was afraid that spitting it out would wet the print so he swallowed it down abruptly, glaring at Cheng Xu and coughing fiercely for a long time. 

Someone patted him on the back, but more people rushed up to his side and cautiously inquired, “Which family is Cui Beauty from? What does her appearance look like, which character does she look closest to? Does she have any other beautiful sisters in her family?”

Wang Xiangzhen covered his mouth with his hand, not knowing whether to laugh or cough. After smothering his cough for a period of time, he finally clarified, “Do not mention any Cui Beauty paper from now on, the artist is not happy. They already seriously reprimanded me and told me to call it Cui paper. The one who made it is the owner of that bookstore located in the west of the city, a loyal, righteous and brave hero commended by the Imperial court, a character straight out of a good scene of a novel. The vermillion seal printed on the bottom of the poem signs the name of his study. If you want to buy these prints, go to the study to buy his family’s goods. Do not spread the name of ‘Cui Beauty’ anymore.”

This group of people sighed, “Then it wasn’t made by a beauty? It is a pity, if it was truly drawn by a beauty, it would be more flavorful when looking at it. Now that I know it was drawn by such a rough and coarse man, I feel that even the beauty on the paper has lost a bit of color.” While it was a pity, but the faces like hibiscus and breasts like jade[12] on the paper were not fake. They still wanted to buy them, so they asked Young Master Wang how much one copy of the prints would cost.

The Young Master facepalmed and sighed, “I forgot to ask, but thinking about it, it should be around a few taels of silver. It should be more expensive than other beauty portraits painted on the market. Later, when his family sends me the prints, I will give up my face and request a fair price for my brothers. When the time comes, just take out my name, Wang Xiangzhen, to buy them. It is estimated that it will be cheaper by a half to one taels.”

Everyone was calculating to buy a few sets to give to elders and beauties. Several other people who were fond of different preferences were already discussing exchanging the beauty prints, hoping to collect a few more copies of the beauties they liked. Young Master Wang savored the taste of the shaojiu[13], propping up his feet to appreciate the beauty prints. He vaguely murmured, “If one were to say it is Cui Beauty paper….it is also worthy of the name.”

Three Courts and Five Eyes