Chapter 206 - 202: Drawing_1

Translator: 549690339

Yingbao looked her up and down, then pointed to the stool across the table. “Sit down, and I’ll check your pulse.”

Dongmei complied, extending her wrist.

Yingbao took her pulse, observed her complexion, and asked, “Is there still lochia?”

Dongmei shook her head, “It has been clear recently.”

Yingbao spread out the paper to write a prescription: “I will change your medicine slightly, take it for a few days to consolidate, your body is frail, and needs to be properly nourished.”

“What the young doctor said makes sense.” Zhang Family added from the side: “Thank you for curing my daughter, could we perhaps purchase another jar of that Rootless Water?”

She had just asked the shopkeeper in the front and he said they were out of Rootless Water.

Yingbao looked at her, “Of course, you need that water for decoction.” It seemed that Pupil Spring was indeed useful.

After finishing the prescription, he gave it to Mother and Daughter Zhang, asking them to wait in the front shop. Yingbao went to the stove, filled a clean jar with water from Pupil Spring.

Erni ran over and asked, “Yingbao, the female patient said she wanted to buy Rootless Water, you”

She looked down, her younger cousin pointed to a jar of water on the ground, “Take it, this is the Rootless Water.”

Erni picked up the jar of water, then glanced at the large water tank, feeling inexplicably guilty.

Two days later, all of the candied fruits they made at home were sold out, but Jiang Quan again purchased fifty jin of candied fruit from elsewhere, along with some jams.

“Yingbao, we need to prepare more gift boxes, the sales will definitely be larger during holidays.” As Jiang Quan was packaging the fruit preserves, he noted, “I saw that the cake shop also has gift boxes. The paintings on the boxes are lovely.”

He glanced at his younger cousin, “You only write and don’t paint, the gift box is not festive at all.”

Yingbao replied impatiently, “I have never studied painting, why don’t you do it?”

“I’m no good at it.” Jiang Quan sighed and turned his head to look at Jiang Cheng: “Big Brother, you can paint, you’ll be in charge of it from now on.”

Jiang Cheng could only agree, “I’ll give it a try first.”

He had studied painting with the Master for several years, but the Master said that his painting was rigid and the coloring was garish, lacking in soul, so he hardly painted anymore.

Once again picking up the brush to paint, he stuck to painting wealthy characters, birds, and flowers. Surprisingly, they perfectly fit the gift box.

Jiang Quan picked up one of his elder brother’s paintings to inspect it, joyfully announced, “It’s more beautiful than the paintings on the cake shop’s boxes. Big brother, the drawings on these gift boxes will be up to you from now on.”

Jiang Cheng refused as he glanced at the pile of bamboo and wooden boxes, “I can’t paint all of them!”

Painting a few occasionally was doable, but if all of them were to be painted by him alone, he wouldn’t be able to finish even if he didn’t eat or drink.

Unlike writing, painting was not something you could do offhand. It involved several steps such as painting and coloring. Being able to paint three in two hours was considered good.

He could imagine a hundreds of gift boxes in the room needing hundreds of paintings, and just thinking about it made his scalp prickle.

Yingbao suggested, “How about hiring someone else? The students at the county school opposite us have excellent calligraphy and painting skills. If we hire them, it will definitely save time and effort.”

They should be able to easily paint these soulless images of wealth and luck.

Jiang Quan immediately shook his head at Yingbao’s suggestion: “Those are scholars, how could they be willing to paint these things for you?”

“With ten coins per standardized small painting, there must be those willing to do it.”

Yingbao: “If you don’t believe me, post a notice outside. I guarantee there will be people interested.”

Jiang Quan thought about and wrote on a piece of paper: Hiring painter to draw small auspicious paintings, eight coins for each.

He then posted the paper on the front of the store.

In the afternoon, several students passed by the shop’s entrance, chuckled at the notice and left one by one.

However, by the next day, a scholar did come to inquire about the painting job.

Jiang Quan outlined the requirements to the scholar: “Do you provide the stationery and pigments?”

“Of course, but if they are damaged, you will need to compensate for them.” Jiang Quan certainly didn’t want to give out the stationery only to get back a few paintings, that would be a major loss.

The scholar nodded: “I am willing to give it a try.”

Jiang Quan exchanged a glance with his big brother and said, “Then, please follow me to the backyard to draw.”

He couldn’t possibly hand over his stationery to a stranger to take away. If he wanted to draw, he had to do it in the shop.

The scholar nodded and followed Jiang Quan to the backyard, stopping by a table under the corridor.

The table was Yingbao’s, all the stationery and pigment were there, ready for the scholar to draw.

The scholar sat down at the table, picked up the cut sheets in his hand to inspect, and began to draw.

First, he drew a “blooming flower and full moon” image, then a “Peony brings wealth,” then a “Five sons all passing the civil exam,” and finally a “Surplus year after year.”

These four types of images were typically used on ordinary product packaging. In the future, these four types will continue to be drawn.

The scholar painted fast, daringly and brightly colored. Although it lacked soul, it was already great.

Jiang Quan nodded: “Not bad, like this. But you can’t just paint, you must also write.”

“The writing will be done after finishing the paintings.” The scholar efficiently continued drawing for some time before he started adding writing in the blank spaces of the drawings.

Of course, he wasn’t writing poems or songs, but product introductions and place of origin.

By dusk, the scholar finally finished ten small paintings, received the eighty coins from Jiang Quan and went back to the county school.

Jiang Quan flipped through the ten small paintings with a look of pain on his face and muttered, “These ten small paintings cost eighty coins, Yingbao, maybe we should stop adding paintings. Just stick with writing.”

Yingbao replied: “Even if we write, we still need someone to do it. I can’t stay here all the time, your brother alone can’t handle it. This scholar’s writing and painting are good, it’s worthwhile to hire him.”

“Sigh, I guess we have no choice but to hire him.” Jiang Quan agreed after thinking about it.

He carefully put away the small paintings, placing them separately. He asked, “Yingbao, when are you going back to collect the Golden Fungus?”

He was eager to display a batch of Golden Fungus for sale in the shop.

“I’ll go back after Xiaojie has his break.”

Yingbao hadn’t been visiting Wu Daozi at the county government office recently. Firstly because the County Magistrate was busy at the end of the year and didn’t have time to entertain a child like her, and secondly, because she was also busy, so she didn’t go to disturb him.

However, her younger brother Xiaojie would be having a break soon and she would have to go pick him up to bring him home.

Not to their home in the countryside, but the house in Plum Blossom Lane.

In the blink of an eye, it was the fifteenth of September. Early in the morning, Jiang Quan set off in a carriage to pick up his little cousin from the government office.

After picking up his cousin, he took the opportunity to buy some vegetables and meat from the market before heading home to prepare a feast.

“Second Brother, Teacher asked about the specialties in our shop. He wants to buy some to take home.” Xiaojie asked his second eldest cousin.

Jiang Quan brightened up at this, “We have a lot. Golden Fungus and Xue’er are unique to our village. For the rest, fruit preserves, sweetmeats and flaky chestnut pastry are our shop’s specialties.”

“Flaky chestnut pastry?” Xiaojie had never heard of this dessert before and curiously asked, “Who made it? Is it delicious?”

Jiang Quan: “Your sister made it, and of course it’s delicious.”

These past few days, Yingbao and Erni had made frequent visits to the pastry shop, where they would stay for a long time under the guise of shopping.

Yingbao was able to take advantage of her young age, and she did not attract much attention. She was finally able to mimic their method of making chestnut pastry.

“She made a lot of chestnut pastries at home yesterday, they were delicious. When you go home tonight, you can take some for your teacher to try.”Jiang Quan brought a lot of chestnuts from the house, not knowing how to sell them.

In the end, the younger cousin came up with a method, ran to learn from her and successfully mastered the method of making flaky chestnut pastry.