CH 55

Xie Shan headed to Qian’an again.

He had originally thought that after Cui Yuan returned to the countryside with Buddhist incense in tow, he would have been able to dodge this business trip. Who would have guessed that after so long, his family’s da-ren had circled around outside and then returned, writing another letter and asked him to send it to that Young Master Cui.

Qian’an was full of mountains, water, wild forests and desolate roads, a place where one could not find a decent place to live. Was it easy for him to make such a trip? His family’s da-ren was a Jinyiwei qianhu, a Colonel in charge of 1000 households. To put it a bit not so nicely, he was a person who was always busy with official business, but to put it nicely, he was a person that the Emperor could not do without. Why was it that whenever he was free of work, he would always make Xie Shan go to the countryside to find a Young Master from a civil official’s family for no reason?

He inwardly grumbled in his heart, but he did not dare to slack off and not do a good job. According to Colonel Xie’s instructions, he bought a basket of pigments of outstanding quality per usual, and compared to last time, gold and silver powder were added. Additionally, two sets of a hundred sheets of top-notch steamed rice paper were added to the package and Xie Shan quickly mounted his horse and rushed to Qian’an. He had already made quite a few trips and when Cui Yuan saw that it was him, he hurriedly let him in and asked the newly hired Cook Niu to brew some tea to entertain the guest and then asked his son to go to the academy to request a leave of absence for Cui Xie, so that he could return home earlier.

These past few days, Cui Xie had been busy focusing on renovating the library, restarting production of the Three Kingdoms hero portraits, as well as preparing articles for the Prefectural Magistrate da-ren to  look over….In addition, the examinations held in February next year was fast approaching, incessantly at every moment and he was unable to increase the remaining period of time he had left to review. Therefore, when he attended the academy, his mind was particularly engrossed and absorbed, and it was as if his whole body had been plunged into those essays. He was unaware of any foreign affairs going on around him. When Pengyan had showed up to pick him up from school and told him that “Xie Shan” was currently visiting back at the residence, he had been slightly dazed before he remembered——

That name sounded slightly familiar.

This seemed to be the name of someone from Colonel Xie’s family?

Wasn’t this Xie Shan, the one who had pretended to be a rich moneybags and bought copies of the《Compilation of Antithetical Couplets from the Four Books》that Cui Xie’s family hadn’t been able to sell?!

It was only then Cui Xie that completely awoke from his stupor, tightened the big furry cloak that Pengyan had draped over him, and dragged the other’s slightly cold hands to face the waves of cold wind as they returned to the Cui Residence.

Teacher Lin’s academy was chilly and the wind and frost on the road was biting cold, but the Cui Residence’s side hall had been remodeled into a bedroom and half the room was occupied by a heated kang bed. The chamber is as warm as the spring season. Cui Xie returned home and changed into thin cotton-padded clothes before heading to the hall to receive the guest. He had spent quite a bit of time in the middle freshening up, so upon seeing Xie Shan, he apologetically added a “You have been waiting for a long time” .

Xie Shan hurriedly stood up to give his greetings and grinned, “I should not have bothered the little official during these days, but our Colonel has some matters he currently must depend on for some help. As such, I was specially asked to send a letter. The letter as well as some items he wanted me to bring are all here, inviting the Young Master to take a look.”

Cui Xie thanked him, accepted the letter and unfolded it to read.

As Cui Xie read the letter, Xie Shan also took the chance to take a good look at the youth.

It had been more than half a year since the last time the two met. Although Xie Shan had visited Qian’an to buy some books, he had avoided accidentally meeting Cui Xie. This time, he discovered that the other’s stature had unexpectedly grown quite a bit,  and the soft fat in the other’s cheeks had diminished quite a bit. As such, the cheeks had been shaved down, the chin was sharp, and his eyes seemed a little bigger than before, and his nose seemed more open and straight.

However, there were dull green and blue shadows underneath his eyes and when Cui Xie was reading the letter, his eyelids slightly drooped and the glittering lively light in his eyes dwindled, exhibiting a type of haggardness that made others feel distressed.

It turns out that studying is such a bitter experience, what a good child, after studying so hard, had become like this….the thoughts in Xie Shan’s mind continually went down such lines of thought and hated that he could not persuade Cui Xie to read less books, paint some more and enter the Emperor’s palace in the future to present an offering instead.

After Cui Xie finished reading the letter, he folded the paper and slipped it back into the envelope, Xie Shan then hurriedly straightened up and asked, “Young Master knows our Laoye’s intentions then? Just when do you think your painting can be finished?”

Cui Xie’s lips slightly turned upwards, “This is not something that can be finished in a short period of time. You can leave it to me. Once I finish the portrait, I will ask someone to send it back to the capital. I estimate that by rushing it a little bit, you should be able to receive it by the middle of the twelfth lunar month. You can reply to Colonel da-ren on my behalf, I will naturally complete this matter with all of my best effort.”

Xie Shan replied, “This subordinate understands, this subordinate will wait here, the Young Master should write a reply letter.”

Cui Xie nodded, clutching the letter as he stood up and added, “I still have some things here, you can take a few things back to the capital….”

Xie Shan smiled, “The paper and books you send to our da-ren are actually hard to buy in the capital. In my opinion, I think it is better to send a self-portrait instead. I have seen that you have grown taller and thinner. Later when I return and tell the Colonel of this, he may not be able to imagine how you have changed. If there was a portrait, then wouldn’t he know just by looking at it?”

Cui Xie used to be the kind of conservative and old-fashioned friend that didn’t like to post selfies in group chats with his friends. After a moment of silence, he replied, “Then when you head back, just tell the Colonel I have grown taller, don’t mention that I have gotten thinner.”

He was a cun (~1.3 inches) taller than when he first arrived.

He was only 15-years-old this year and according to the growth trend, after four years, when he entered the capital, he would probably be over 180 cm. After imagining himself standing in the middle of a group of Jinyiwei and standing at the same height as them even without wearing insoles,and maybe even standing a whole head above them, that feeling was too good!

Xie Shan sincerely added, “That won’t do, how can I not tell our Colonel the complete truth? Besides, those three rounds of examinations will not be easy to endure. Your body is as skinny as a pole and your waist is no wider than my thigh. If you do not make up for it, how can your stomach have the capacity to hold knowledge?”

Cui Xie helplessly shook his head, “That is nothing, I will make up for it by eating more during the New Year. Xie-ge sit tight, I will go and write my reply to the Colonel.”

In Colonel Xie’s letter, he had requested for Cui Xie to paint a portrait of the Immortals Banquet for Gao taijian and that portrait was to be presented as an offering. Moreover, it needed to imitate Cui Beauty’s painting style, but it could not be painted too well——don’t paint it as well as the portraits Cui Xie had gifted to Xie Ying, and don’t use your own name.

When Cui Xie first saw the two characters, “Gao taijian”, he remembered how Gao gonggong[1] had accompanied Xie Ying to make a trip to Qian’an and his appearance of the other holding his hand, wanting to give him his support. 

When he had mentioned Cui Ming’s matter, he had originally been quite unconfident in his heart, but he had no alternative but to assume that sort of fierce, harsh and unreasonable appearance. It was indeed Gao gonggong’s written letter that had thoroughly solved his worries and banished his fears of trouble in the rear. He had always kept this act of kindness in his heart, and it was just that Gao gonggong was in the Imperial Palace and would have absolutely no intersections with ordinary people like Cui Xie. Even if he wanted to repay a debt of gratitude, there was no way of doing so. 

He sincerely wanted to exhaust all his painting skills and techniques to paint up a good portrait, but after seeing Xie Ying asking him not to mention his own name, his thoughts suddenly cleared.

That’s right, he was a person who entered the Imperial examinations for the sake of becoming an official, if he here to pick up the reputation of having used taijian as a means to present his paintings to the Emperor, even if he hadn’t passed the examinations by luck, other people would gossip and say he did. Colonel Xie had really took this matter to heart, and did not want Cui Xie’s or Gao gonggong’s reputation to be implicated, but it also let Cui Xie resolve his heart’s regrets. This was truly well-intentioned and he had clearly given a lot of thought to the matter.

——It wasn’t that he was narcissistic, if it wasn’t for the fact that Colonel Xie genuinely cared about his reputation and future prospects, for them as Jinyiwei to find people to handle their affairs for the Emperor’s gifts, that kind of proper business, did they really need to be so roundabout?

To say nothing of writing a letter to tell him this or that, they would have directly instructed Xie Shan to pass down a message, restrict the time limit to a few days and he would not dare to not put his life on the line to finish such a task!

An unreasonable and unexplainable little sense of smugness sprouted in Cui Xie’s heart. Picking up his pen to reply to Xie Ying, he told the other to rest assured. He was naturally aware of the severity of the matter and he would be sure to employ purely Cui Beauty techniques to paint out a real Immortal portrait that was worthy of being offered up to the Emperor.

Since he started kindergarten, during every year’s winter and summer vacations, TV programs would broadcast 《Journey to the West》all the way through. Although he stopped watching them later, the impressions of those characters and scenery had already penetrated quite deep. When mentioning Immortals, if one didn’t paint the Journey to the West, just what would you paint?

Obviously the Victory Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven held by the Jade Emperor after Buddha had captured Sun Wukong!

He had lived to such an age, in his mind, any proper Immortal Banquet had to be just like this, if he were to use any other master painter’s Immortal Banquet as reference, it would not be so easy for him to use!

Since his studies and the library renovations could not be delayed, he could only put the illustrations for the later volumes of the Three Kingdoms aside to make time to paint the portrait for the Emperor.

《Three Kingdoms》could not be updated on time and Cui Xie also felt extremely guilty towards the readers. As such, he instructed the craftsman to change the pages of the book with colored-illustrations to be replaced with light pearl, alabaster color instead of ordinary paper, and then finely print the illustrations on the thick paper. The cover was also replaced with a single portrait of a hero or beauty from the volume and the name was changed to 《The Six Talents and their Commentaries on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as Proofread by the Peace of Mind Study》. It would be treated like a new book, republished from the first volume.

An announcement was added in the manuscripts of the tenth and eleventh volumes that had been previously revised, informing readers that the copyright of 《The Six Talents and their Commentaries on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms》was to be transferred over to the Peace of Mind Study.

In addition, in conformance with their promised responsibility and duty to the readers, they would proofread and revise the old edition from scratch. The original wet blue leather version[2] needed to be reprinted after proofreading and the new version and old version would ultimately be simultaneously released.

What if half of the paperback versions were bought, but the supply was suddenly cut in half, and the merchant suddenly changed it to a hardcover book that was more expensive, but also more eye-catching, should one buy it from scratch or wait for the new edition to come out where it hadn’t been sold before?

The vast majority of the ordinary reader wavered in opening their wallets, and immediately, the piracy industry immediately took a fancy to this market and found a few talents to make some commentaries, found a few painters to imitate the hero portraits and published the twelfth volume and later volumes that had not yet been released. This kind of book did indeed have some sales at first, but most of the readers who bought the book mainly got it to look at the commentaries and illustrations. Some of the commentaries were too pedantic and unsatisfactory; some were too fresh, but it was not enough to stir up a debate; some were simply just one person posing as multiple people and pretended to debate in the commentaries…..

These were all moneymaking schemes, it fell short of the written truths and feelings of the true six talents of Qian’an.

The commentaries were not as good and the illustrations fell short of the ones the Cui family produced. The portraits of the old figures could still be imitated somewhat, but the newly published characters were not vivid or lifelike enough, and it all just resembled the same old figures from before. They had all followed the same trick used to fool Gao taijian: If you just changed Zhou Yu’s clothes, one could say that it was Lu Xun. If one painted Empress Fu Shou with some white hair, it could be considered a portrait of Lady Wu. If one darkened Pang Tong’s face a little bit, the result was called Zhang Song…..

Not many copies were sold and the readers would not fall for these petty tricks. Those who had the money could buy the new editions with peace of mind while those who had insufficient funds could only look at the cover of the new edition in the bookstore to satisfy their cravings. They could only clutch their purses and wait for the old edition to be released again.

By placating the readers, Cui Xie would be able to spare an hour every day to paint the Victory Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven without any distractions.

The scene of the Victory Banquet was enormous, with the Jade Emperor sitting on the main throne with Buddha and the Queen Mother of the West on his left and right respectively. Beneath them, Gods and Buddhas, these two groups, sat together while Immortal fairies embraced their pipa as they gathered in a throng around Chang’e as she danced. Clouds and tendrils of mist winded around the dance floor and the various Immortals feasting at the banquet were distantly separated between tables. Cui Xie wanted to draw each Immmortal’s features and distinct appearances, but it was impossible to draw the entire scene from a bird’s eye point of view, so he could only draw the scene as one long panoramic on a scroll instead. Just for the draft, it had taken one week and he almost wasted close to one hundred sheets of paper before finally fixing the final composition.

The portrait started with the feasting appearances of the Jade Emperor, the Queen Mother and Buddha; ahead of them, various beautiful fairies held hands and pranced around with Chang’e, surrounded by white jade banisters that coiled around the stage; Beyond the banisters, there were a few lower tables beneath the stage. The ones Cui Xie clearly remembered had been facing the scene directly included the Heavenly Lord of Dao and its Virtue (Taishang Laojun), Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy), Puxian (Buddhist Lord of Truth), Heavenly King Li, Yang Jian (Erlang Shen), Marshal Canopy (Tianpeng Yuanshuai), Great White Golden Star (Taibai Jinxing) and others. The rest he could not remember as clearly were provided a half view of their back to make up the missing numbers.

After these people, Heavenly Soldiers fitting in golden armor stood up from their seats as they faced the left side to greet the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas who held jade tablets, Kui Mulang, Pleiades as well as the other constellations from the 28 mansions[3] that he could recall from memory….After them, the Seven Immortal Fairies held up baskets upon baskets of peaches of immortality, and the background scene behind was concealed by a dense veil of luxuriant clouds and mist.

He had not watched Journey to the West for more than a year, but the hanging drapery in the Heavenly Palace and the expressions and appearances of the characters from his memory seemed to be standing right in front of him. They fell onto the paper, it looked just like if someone had taken a screenshot from the TV series and turned into a panoramic ink portrait instead.

It was indeed good to be young, his memory seemed to be even better than before after transmigrating over! Not only was it easier to recite texts from memory, but he hadn’t even forgotten the scenes from the TV series he had not watched in so long!

This portrait that he had painstakingly drawn out was merely the draft of the portrait’s composition, but once he started painting for real, these were all characters he was extremely familiar with and once the characters had been finished, they finally entered the twelfth lunar month. Cui Xie and Colonel Xie had decided to hand over the finished portrait during the middle of the twelfth lunar month. Seeing that it was still quite a few days away, he bought some imitation portraits of ancient portrayals of the Immortals available on the market. Using them as references, he added and modified the jewelry and various decorative tools. Gold paste, silver paste and mica powder was used to embellish the decorative motifs in the portrait. He then painted jewelry, head ornaments as well as the coiled topknots located on the heads of the numerous Bodhisattva included in the portraits. He also added a faint halo of radiant light behind the back of each Immortal and Buddha head.

This portrait was to be presented to the Emperor, and it was not good to let others know that this was his handiwork. He did not even mount the portrait and only personally added a layer of fine writing paper beneath the portrait to cushion it. After it was thoroughly dry, he rolled it up and stored it away in a wooden box, and added two seals. He then asked Cui Yuan to personally transport it to the capital and give it to Colonel Xie.

Only Pengyan had the chance to lay his eyes upon the portrait and could not help but ask, “Just how did da-ge draw so many Immortals? Forget about the Three Kingdoms, no matter how heroic those generals are, they are still mortals. As for these Gods, Buddhas and fairies, could it be that you have seen them before? From head to toe, they emanate an ethereal quality, from just a glance, one can tell that they are not mere mortals!”

Cui Xie had long grown accustomed to Pengyan’s exaggerated praises and was not too worried that the other would tear out the old history of him being a transmigrater. Stroking the other’s head, Cui Xie said, “This is to be presented as an offering, naturally I must employ all my efforts to complete it. Instead of complimenting me, how about we invite someone to teach you how to draw? Once I pass the examinations next year and become a xiucai, I will teach you my techniques. That way, in the future when I have become an official, you can still help me draw and publish books.”

Immediately, Pengyan’s face flushed: “That, how could that do! Da-ge is the Wenqu constellation descended to Earth, a person who can do anything, I am merely a book boy ….”

“Then you are the Wenqu constellation’s book boy.” Cui Xie tapped the tip of Pengyan’s nose and said with a smile, “Didn’t I already abolish you and your father’s servant statuses and even asked your father to be the owner of the Peace of Mind Study? You are a young boss, why must you still treat yourself as a book every day? In the future, you will be the owner of the No. 1 bookstore under the sky. How can it be that you cannot write or draw?”

“Well, isn’t that just because you have not yet come of age and it is unsuitable to have property under your name so the Peace of Mind Study fell onto my Father’s lap instead? That is your business, us two men are just here to work for you….” The more he spoke, the more anxious Pengyan became, and his face was red through and through. Cui Xie wanted to tease him even more, pinched the other’s soft cheeks and beamed, “Just until your da-ge becomes a jinshi, and when that times I certainly cannot touch those money making businesses anymore, little Pengyan, you must work hard in the future ah.”

Footnotes:

Images of what the Immortals Might Look Like: