Chapter 45

Before Zhong Miao walked out of the school gate, she saw Pei Ze's tall figure waiting at the school gate. His height and appearance attracted attention wherever he went, like a landmark, not to mention that he had a cold face.

When that cold face saw Zhong Miao, it instantly warmed up and a gentle smile appeared on its face.

Zhong Miao ran two steps, and Pei Ze didn't care about the attention of the parents of the candidates next to him. He hugged her and lifted her up high.

"Hehe, put me down."

"No, I've been missing you for a long time. I finally waited for you to come out, so why don't you take this opportunity to hold me for a while."

Pei Ze ignored her and held her like An An, striding towards the parking lot. There were few cars at that time and there were no parking spaces marked on the road.

"Why are you so clingy?" Zhong Miao happily put her arms around his neck.

"I still think it's not sticky enough."

"Why don't you ask me how I did on the exam?"

"Of course it's the best."

"Young man, you have good vision."

They walked to the front of the car while talking and laughing, and then Pei Ze let Zhong Miao go.

The couple got in the car. Pei Ze took out a kettle and a thermos, and they had a delicious lunch. Pei Ze lowered the backrest a little, and half-reclined to rest side by side with Zhong Miao, holding her little hand and kissing it.

Zhong Miao pulled back her hand. "There's no soap here. You can't wash your hands clean. There's pencil dust. Don't get poisoned."

"Wife, you really ruin the atmosphere."

"I'm telling the truth, okay."

"Hey, take a nap."

There was a color test in the afternoon, so Zhong Miao had to bring a lot of things, including paints, brushes, a brush rinse bucket, etc. After entering the examination room, she had to queue up in the washroom to get water.

It is still in the same position as before, but the plaster has been replaced with a still life, with bottles, jars, and some fruits. There are two pieces of lining cloth, and the background is blue. The white lining cloth in the front is wrinkled and pressed under the bottles, jars, and fruits.

The boy next to Zhong Miao saw that the bottles and jars were covered with a thick layer of dust and a few fingerprints, and it was almost impossible to see the original color of the jars.

What made him even more upset was that the lining cloth was white. His luck was really bad. If only he was in the group next door, the lining cloth next door was yellow. He couldn't help but sigh.

"Classmate, what should I do with the white lining? I can see so many colors when I look at a piece of white cloth: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. I can't control my eyes and can't draw well."

The boy was depressed and chatted with Zhong Miao before the exam started.

"That proves you have a good sense of color, but there's a method to that. The white cloth beneath the red apple is definitely influenced by the apple. You need to add a bit of the surrounding color to make it a little reddish."

"The area around the can should be more brown. You need to consciously process the painting subjectively. Don't paint it too hard because you see it as bluish. Later when you look at it again, it might seem more purple. If you do that, you'll always be making adjustments, and the painting will not only be dirty, but you'll never be able to finish it. You need to first determine what kind of painting you want, and then paint it."

"You're so right. My teacher always says that, but I just can't do it. And what about this jar? It's so dusty I can't even tell the color."

"If you can handle it subjectively, you don't have to worry about dust. If you really need to refer to the inherent color, you can quickly call the teacher and ask the teacher to help wipe it off. We are not allowed to touch the test questions ourselves."

"Well, I'll go find the teacher now."

After a while, the student brought the teacher over and told him his needs. The teacher was very nice. Since he didn't have a rag, he found an extra lining cloth and wiped the dust off the can.

"Thank you, classmate."

"You're welcome."

After the exam started, the male student was even more surprised. Didn’t Zhong Miao use a pencil to draft? He must have met a genius.

In fact, with Zhong Miao's painting skills, her observation ability is already top-notch. Her observation ability and modeling ability complement each other. Except for large paintings and creations like human bodies, she is too lazy to make drafts because the results are the same anyway.

To put it simply, the draft is to determine the shape structure, and on this basis you can also mark some light and dark, virtual and real relationships.

Zhong Miao's color scrolls have structure and a sense of space. The brushstrokes are majestic and beautiful, the colors are rich but not messy, and she is good at playing with adjacent colors, contrasting colors, and environmental colors. The picture effect is much more beautiful than that set of real still lifes.

When she came out of the examination room again, Pei Ze was still waiting there. It would be a lie to say that she was not touched.

-

The next day was a four-hour test on creative writing.

The theme this time is harvest.

Uh, Zhong Miao thought for a few minutes. This question was a bit difficult for her. She had never farmed before. It was already winter when she traveled through the book. How could she have seen the busy farming season in autumn?

She imagined what the villagers looked like and added settings to the picture in her mind: autumn, golden color, the farmers' clothes, the mood at harvest, and a picture of four or five people.

The creation for this type of exam topic does not need to be too complicated. You just need to stick to the topic, have a good composition, and have one or two key characters that stand out. The others can be blurred.

This time, she picked up a pencil and started drafting. She first set up a slightly tilted triangular composition, placing several characters in different positions, from far to near, some real and some virtual.

She had never seen what real farmland looked like, but she had seen many village fields buried under thick snow in winter.

So, when she painted the harvest scene, she didn't have that image in her mind.

She kept writing, and the final draft was a picture of a farmer pulling an ox cart loaded with corn cobs piled up like a small mountain. The moment he walked into the house, his wife and children opened the door to greet him with smiles.

The ox cart she imagined was the one driven by Erwa.

As she painted, she thought about how to depict the joy of harvest, the expressions on people's faces, how to design their movements, etc.

In her design, these corns represent the harvest and also represent the family's income, which directly affects the family's quality of life for a year. If the income is more, the children can have enough food to eat and have money to go to school.

Children are the hope of the family and the motivation for the couple to work hard.

As soon as her emotional thinking came up, she formed a connection between the people. She tried to figure out the mentality of the people in the painting and quickly finished the draft.

Then comes the processing of other details, such as the color and texture of the clothes, the relationship between reality and illusion, and the depiction of the characters' expressions.

When the time was up, she had finished painting.

-

After the exam, the couple returned to their new home at noon. As soon as they entered the house, they smelled the fragrance of food.

Zhang Weilan had already prepared the meal and was waiting for them to come back.

By the way, this old lady really didn't know how to use the gas tank. She learned it from her second son. At the beginning, she didn't have a good grasp of the temperature, and it took her a few times to get the hang of it.

Zhong Ming hasn't returned from the factory yet, so it must be evening.

Pei Ze picked up a piece of meat for Zhong Miao and said, "I'm going to the factory this afternoon and will be back with Dad in the evening. I'll take you back tomorrow. Just have a good rest today and don't think about anything."

"OK."

"Mom, Zhong Miao will stay at home for a few days. I plan to take her to the city later. I can help her with her studies in the evening."

Pei Ze is very busy. It takes him nearly two hours to drive back and forth to the village, but it only takes more than 20 minutes to drive from the furniture factory to here, so he can give Zhong Miao more extra lessons.

I was really in a hurry when I bought this house. It is only about half an hour's walk from Qingmei, less than ten minutes' drive, and not far from the furniture factory. It is a good place.

"Well, studying is more important. Why don't you just move in here and go back anytime you want? You guys go about your business first, and I'll take care of An An myself. Once you transfer your household registration here, An An can still go to preschool in the city and get a place for elementary school."

"Grandma, you have An'an to accompany you now, but An'an is in preschool. It will be so lonely for you to live alone. Besides, if I really go to school, Pei Ze will be busy too. He may not have time to pick up the child."

"How about this? Before I pass the exam, you take An An with you. When I go to school and An An is almost ready for preschool, you can come and live with me. On weekends when we have a day off, we can go back to the village together. Both places are home, and we don't have to be separated as a family."

"Haha, you said I'm clingy, but aren't you also clingy to my mother?" Pei Ze interrupted. He and Zhong Miao had the same idea on this matter, and he also didn't want to let his old mother live alone.

Zhong Miao ignored him. She was already used to his bad mouth and his habit of arguing.

"Well, we'll talk about it later."

Zhang Weilan sighed. She was reluctant to leave her daughter-in-law. Her daughter-in-law was like her own daughter, a caring little cotton-padded jacket, who would think of her and miss her in everything. She was used to her son not being at home, but when her daughter-in-law came to the city, she would miss this little cotton-padded jacket. If An An went to school again in the future, she would be left alone, and it would definitely take some time for her to adapt.

If it were in the past, it would be fine if he didn’t have the conditions, but now that he has bought a house in the city, An An must of course receive a better education.

Although the city is nice, she is still used to the old and dilapidated house. She has her thoughts there. Besides, she also raises chickens at home. She can ask the neighbors next door to help feed them when she is away for two days, but it won’t work for a long time.

-

In March in the north, the soil has not yet thawed completely, so it is impossible to plant crops. It will take until the end of April at the latest for the soil to thaw completely, otherwise it will be impossible to dig the land.

If there is no work to do, people will naturally be idle.

Here, Zhong Miao was taking an afternoon nap in his new home in the city, completely unaware that the village was in an uproar.

In a shabby house behind the village store, there are five or six mahjong tables. The air is filled with secondhand smoke. Men and women gather together to play cards and gossip. There are actually more people than usual.

"Zhong Miao is a lucky charm for her husband, right? It's only been a short time since they got married, and Pei Ze is already driving a car?"

"Pei Ze? Him? I don't believe it. Even if he can drive, he can't possibly have a car. He must have borrowed it."

I originally wanted to refute it, but someone actually saw it that day, so it’s impossible for me to lie.

"Zhong Miaochang doesn't seem like a quiet person. If this family goes to the city, we don't know if they can keep this beautiful daughter-in-law. What's the point of her bringing prosperity to the husband? She's not someone who can live a decent life."

"I think you guys are just jealous. You have nothing to do and you're all just sitting around doing nothing. You're always talking bad about the couple. What did they do to provoke you?"

"That's right. During the Chinese New Year, I saw Zhong Miao chasing Pei Ze with a broom and beating him up. Pei Ze finally carried her back. They were a happy couple. I just can't stand seeing others being better than you."

"With someone like Pei Ze, I wouldn't believe you if he didn't do anything at home. He always has a donkey face. It's so scary. I don't even dare to talk to him."

"You're not someone's beautiful wife. With your old face, everyone who sees you will have a sullen face. So, why should I smile like a chrysanthemum for you?"

"Pei Ze is away from home all day and only comes home occasionally. If she marries a man like him, she will be miserable in the future."

"Yeah, I don't know what this kid does all day, and his mother doesn't care about him. After all, he's married, and it's not a good thing for him to be so careless."

"I've noticed Li Hongmei keeps coming to Pei's house lately. That girl used to be so eager to marry Pei Ze, but no one wanted her. So, do you think she hasn't given up yet?"

"Oh, that pretty boy, he has no good intentions. He flirts with other girls every day and even after marrying a wife, he's still not honest. Li Hongmei is really something. Even with all this, she still dares to run to someone else. Isn't she afraid that Zhong Miao will chase her out?"

"What you said is really mean. Last time I saw Xiao Hongmei and Zhong Miao strolling together, they were like sisters. Why couldn't they have gone to see Zhong Miao?"