Lu Cijian raised an eyebrow but did not refuse. He took the charcoal pencil from Jiang Yimian's hand, looked at it a few more times, and then casually drew a few strokes on the paper, as if he was getting used to the difference between it and a calligraphy brush.
Jiang Yimian just stood by with her arms crossed, looking like she was about to laugh out loud.
Without a sketch, this guy's drawing might not even be as good as hers.
But Lu Cijian didn't give her a chance.
With just a few strokes of black charcoal, a landscape painting was sketched on the paper, depicting a distant waterfall, houses at the foot of the mountain, and chickens and ducks in the yard, all rendered with lifelike detail.
The scene looked very familiar; apart from the large waterfall, the rest of the scene seemed to be small depressions.
Jiang Yimian glanced at the landscape painting a few times, then at the mediocre, even grotesque, sketch she had painstakingly drawn next to it. She stood there for a moment before finally managing to say, "It's just so-so. Although I can't draw as well as you, my soap looks better."
After saying that, she snorted coldly and went straight to watch Gou Sheng shoot arrows.
There are plenty of people who can draw better than her, she doesn't care, humph, what's there to show off.
Lu Cijian looked at the sullen back and the smile on his lips deepened. But he didn't stop drawing a slender and delicate girl who seemed to be angry in the middle of the picture.
He stared at the people on the screen for a while, and as if that wasn't enough, he added a smiling girl next to the courtyard.
Before I knew it, several more figures appeared in the scene: some were angry, some were sitting at the stone table thinking, and some were smiling brightly.
The originally simple landscape painting seemed to come alive with the addition of this girl, as if it depicted a day in her life.
He was staring intently at the people on the screen when he was interrupted by Wang Fengqin's voice calling him to eat.
Just then, Old Man Liu and Liu Dayong returned from the pond.
Both of them had smiles on their faces and were in a good mood. "Yimian, the fish fry and loach fry are doing very well in the lotus pond. You don't need to worry. I haven't seen them being eaten."
Jiang Yimian quickly replied, "That's good."
A few days ago, she saw that the fish fry and loach fry had grown quite a bit, so she and the others released them into the pond. She has been observing them for the past few days, fearing that the large fish that originally lived in the pond would eat them.
After observing her for a few days, she felt relieved.
Meanwhile, Sun Xiaohu ran home and said with a grin, "Grandma, I took the goat milk to Sister Jiang, and she accepted it."
Grandma Sun nodded and accepted it, saying that they would no longer owe the Jiang family girl anything.
She didn't feel anything when she accused the other party of stealing meat last time, since their whole family had apologized.
But these past few days, after hearing from Xiao Hu that the girl not only didn't target him, but also told him to ask Zhang Xiucai if he was willing to teach him to read, she suddenly felt a little guilty.
Not all refugees are vengeful or malicious. The Jiang family girl seems alright; at least she didn't target Xiao Hu because of what happened last time.
Just then, the third son's wife said impatiently, "Mother, why did you actually send that goat milk to the Jiang family? Have you forgotten how she treated us last time? Our whole family had to apologize to those little brats. That girl is not kind-hearted. Why did you give her goat milk? You might as well give it to me."
The thought that such a large bucket of goat milk had ended up in the Jiang family's stomachs made her feel uncomfortable all over.
That little brat went too far, showing them no respect. I don't know what her mother-in-law was thinking.
She only had one sheep at home. Yesterday, the milk she produced was given to Scholar Zhang as tuition, and today it was given to that little hussy from the Jiang family. She was unhappy about everything.
Grandma Sun glanced at her third daughter-in-law and said irritably, "Don't think I don't know. You go to milk goats every day. If I don't give it to Jiang's daughter, you'll probably turn around and send it to your own family. I haven't even settled the score with you for that meat incident yet."
At the mention of meat, Wen immediately shrank her neck and muttered, "My family isn't an outsider."
Grandma Sun ignored her and only looked at Sun Xiaohu, "Are you still going to the drying yard for the class later?"
Sun Xiaohu's eyes lit up immediately, and he nodded repeatedly, "I'll go."
He has been attending classes with Zhang Xiucai for the past few days and has learned many characters, but unfortunately he is still not as good as Xiao Nuan'er and the others. In order to catch up with them as soon as possible, he also goes to the threshing ground with the other children in the village to attend classes every night.
Grandma Sun responded and was about to go into the kitchen to cook when she heard Madam Wen say with dissatisfaction, "Mother-in-law, Xiao Hu is just interested for a short time. He won't be able to go for more than a few days."
"Just let him go listen at night like Er Lengzi, why let him go during the day? No one else is gathering firewood at home, only Er Lengzi is doing it all by himself, he'll be exhausted."
She heard her son complain of being tired several times, even though he used to never have to gather firewood.
Grandma Sun frowned. "Xiao Hu used to gather firewood all by himself. Now that he wants to learn to read, what's wrong with Er Lengzi gathering firewood? If he doesn't want to gather firewood, he can learn to read, or you can go."
She always treated her three sons equally, but even after her eldest son and daughter-in-law passed away one after another, leaving only Xiaohu, she didn't show much favoritism towards him.
But this third daughter-in-law is always making a fuss over trivial matters, and she's getting annoyed with her.
Seeing that her mother-in-law was about to get angry, Wen immediately stopped talking, gave Sun Xiaohu a disapproving look, and left the Sun family's courtyard.
Although she didn't particularly like Sun Xiaohu, she didn't dare to go too far because her mother-in-law was there.
Unfortunately, her son absolutely refused to learn to read and write, and he was too lazy to learn, so she couldn't do anything about it.
As soon as she stepped out of the courtyard, Xiao Zhangshi came over and, upon seeing her, smiled and handed her the things in her hands. "This is konjac tofu that Jiang girl brought for you, to thank Granny Sun for the goat milk."
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