Chapter 11 Tianlun Le's father meant that he should stay in...
Jiang Huaishan thought about the reason why father and daughter became estranged, and he couldn't help feeling guilty. In the end, he took the initiative to speak and broke the deadlock.
"Are you still mad at Daddy?"
"My daughter doesn't dare."
Jiang Huaishan laughed: "Is there anything in this world that you dare not do?"
Jiang Tong didn't respond. At that moment, she really didn't know how to face her father.
In her memory, if Jiang Huaishan took the initiative to coax her and gave her a way out, she might have snuggled into her father's arms, acted coquettishly, and thrown a tantrum, and the disagreement between father and daughter would have passed.
But now, she is no longer the sixteen-year-old Tongtong, and she has forgotten how to act coquettishly.
"Dad, why did you ask me to come here? Is there something wrong?" In the end, she chose to get straight to the point.
The smile on Jiang Huaishan's face froze, and he sighed: "I don't blame you for blaming Dad. If Dad hadn't been so stubborn, our family wouldn't have ended up like this."
He looked around. Apart from the necessary furniture, the room had no decoration at all and no servants to serve.
Jiang Huaishan sighed deeply again: "Thank you and your daughter for your hard work these days."
When Zhong Wanci, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, heard this, she covered her face with a handkerchief and began to cry silently.
Jiang Tong was also stunned. As far as she could remember, she had never heard Jiang Huaishan say such words. For a moment, her nose felt a little sour.
"Dad misjudged the person. Dad just thought that someone must take over the Jiang family."
Jiang Tong's slightly heated eyes turned cold: "Does Dad think that I can't support the Jiang family?"
Zhong Wanci hurriedly wiped away her tears and spoke up for her daughter: "Huaishan, you've been unconscious these days. I'm so lucky to have Tongtong helping me. Otherwise, I really don't know what to do..."
She recalled the confusion and helplessness she had felt during this period, and while she was crying, she described the behavior of her two children. "...If Tongtong hadn't called the doctor, Huaishan, you wouldn't know when you would wake up."
Jiang Huaishan listened to his wife's intermittent and somewhat incoherent narration without showing any surprise, as if he had expected the two children to behave like this.
After Zhong Wanci finished speaking, no one spoke in the room for a while, only Zhong Wanci's sobbing could be heard.
After a while, Jiang Tong spoke in a cold and hard tone: "My daughter doesn't want to make Dad angry, but things have come to this point. Do you still want to whitewash it?"
Zhong Wanci also sobbed and muttered, "If my husband still insists on having his own way, I was not joking when I said I would bring Tongtong back to the Zhong family!"
Jiang Huaishan sighed and said, "Don't force me with words. Jiang Xuan, this child, ah, I can't teach him. Later, I will write a letter to my cousin and take Jiang Xuan back and return him to this branch."
"Father, send Jiang Meng back. If the elders of our family want to adopt another son for you, what will you do?"
Upon hearing this, Zhong Wanci's expression, which had just relaxed, tensed again, and her eyes stared at her husband steadily.
Jiang Huaishan didn't answer immediately. He looked at his only child, not as a child, but as a peer. He asked calmly, "What do you think?"
"How about I make a bet with daddy? If I can buy back all the land and houses that Jiang Tong gave away, daddy will give up the idea of adopting me from now on. How about that?" Jiang Tong's tone was calm.
Zhong Wanci did not expect her daughter to make such a request. She widened her eyes, reacted, and turned to see her husband's reaction.
Jiang Huaishan thought for a while and agreed, "Okay."
Jiang Tong nodded: "Okay, it's settled. Daddy, take a rest. Your daughter still has things to do."
Jiang Tong was still worried about the unrestored painting. After making an agreement with Jiang Huaishan, he hurriedly opened the door and walked out. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a dark shadow flash at the door, and Jiang Tong's figure disappeared around the corner in a panic.
Jiang Tong glanced at it, but didn't even stop, walking straight into the study. Restoring the painting was her most important task right now.
After Jiang Tong returned to the study, he began the final step of repairing the painting -
Connecting the strokes means completing the missing strokes in the picture.
Of course, no matter how good the repairman is, he is not the painter himself. He needs to figure out the meaning of the painting and imitate the painter's brushwork to continue the work.
What needs to be tested is not only the craftsman's painting skills, but more importantly, the craftsman's ability to understand and imitate the painting itself.
If the restoration craftsman is not skilled enough, he will often choose not to proceed with the step of joining the brushstrokes. After all, if the repair is done incorrectly, the painting will be truly ruined.
This step is not a problem for Jiang Tong. She is very good at imitation. She can infer the painter's brushwork, the lightness or heaviness of the brush, and the thickness of the ink through the handwriting before and after the missing part, and connect the missing part just right.
I saw her brush tip sometimes wrinkling and sometimes lifting, sometimes fast and sometimes rough. As she wrote, the gaps on the picture disappeared one by one, and the painting conception became coherent again bit by bit.
Since good light is needed to continue writing, Jiang Tong did not continue to bury his head at his desk after dark, but instead had a reunion dinner with his parents.
There were no meat dishes. Zhong Wanci picked up a piece of leek for her daughter and asked, "What have you been doing locked up in the study all day these days?"
"Repairing a painting," Jiang Tong explained, "Guan Qing gave me a painting by a famous artist, but it's in poor condition and needs repair."
"How to repair it?" Zhong Wanci's eyes sparkled in the candlelight.
Jiang Tong briefly explained the repair process.
Zhong Wanci was a little confused: "Where did you learn such skills?"
"Uh..." Doctor Jiang, who was talking so eloquently just now, was stuck.
Before she could think of a response, Jiang Huaishan interrupted, "What's so strange about that? Tongtong is so smart. She can figure things out by thinking about them herself. Just like when Tongtong was little and learning to ride a horse, I didn't even have time to teach her, but she quietly ran to the stables, climbed onto the horse's back, and learned everything on her own!"
Zhong Wanci believed it as soon as she heard it and didn't ask any more questions. She was in a very good mood at the moment. That bad guy Jiang Xun was going to be driven away, and they were finally getting their wish.
This was a dinner just for the three of them.
No one mentioned Jiang Meng, and he did not appear himself, as if this person had never existed.
Jiang Tong took two mouthfuls of rice and looked at his parents sitting opposite him in the warm candlelight.
More than seventy years.
She hadn't eaten at the same table with her parents for more than seventy years. At this moment, she felt that if this was just a dream, she would have no regrets.
Jiang Huaishan swallowed the food his wife had brought him with chopsticks, then remembered something and asked Jiang Tong, "By the way, how is Guanqing's child? I remember that before I fell ill, his case was still unresolved."
Jiang Tong then briefly explained Su Guanqing's situation.
Jiang Huaishan sighed, "It's a pity that the Su family has fallen on hard times. Since this painting belongs to Guanqing, you should restore it and return it intact."
"I'm thinking of selling the painting and using the money to redeem Guan Qing." Jiang Tong told her plan.
In the future, she can support her family by painting, and their family of four can live a good life.
Jiang Huaishan hesitated for a moment and said, "I don't think so. He can no longer see, and he's a musician. Staying in the troupe is his only way to make a living."
Jiang Tong never expected Jiang Huaishan to say such a thing. She looked at her father in disbelief, "Dad, do you mean that he should stay in the music troupe and sing for a living for the rest of his life?"
Jiang Huaishan's face flashed with hesitation, but he still said: "This is not my intention, it is the intention of the emperor."
"The emperor hasn't issued an edict saying that people who are registered as musicians cannot redeem themselves." Jiang Tong looked worried.
Zhong Wanci hurriedly tried to persuade her daughter, "Your father is right. Guan Qing is in this state. Even if you buy his freedom, how can he make a living? Are you going to let him go out to beg for food?"
"He doesn't have to do anything. I can maintain his paintings and support him!"
Zhong Wanci panicked: "You can't say that. You're going to get married in the future..."
Jiang Tong put down his chopsticks and said seriously, "Mother, we've been in trouble these days, and it's Guan Qing who has been helping us. Even the money for Dad's medicine was given by Guan Qing. We can't burn bridges after crossing them!"
Zhong Wanci turned to her husband again: "Tongtong is right. Let's redeem her and keep her home..."
Jiang Huaishan interrupted his wife with a grim expression, saying in a deep voice, "Nonsense! Do you know how sensitive the Su family case was back then? The entire Su family was executed, but only Su Guanqing was left alive. He wasn't exiled, he wasn't imprisoned, he was kept in the capital! In front of everyone! Do you think this is the emperor showing mercy? He's just letting him go fishing! Who knows how many eyes are staring at him right now. If you bring him back now, aren't you just asking for trouble?"
Jiang Tong looked at Jiang Huaishan with disappointment: "Dad, I knew you valued loyalty all your life, but I didn't expect you to be the kind of person who would just turn against others when they see you fall!"
Jiang Huaishan slammed the table and stood up: "I don't care what you think. In short, you are not allowed to redeem him. You have to repair the painting and return it to him. After that, you are not allowed to see him again!"
After all, he was weak after his illness, and even if he was furious, he had no momentum. On the contrary, Jiang Tong also slammed the table and stood up, her momentum completely overwhelmed her father.
"I don't care what Guan Qing is involved in. He has done me a favor, and I will not just sit there and watch him sink into this quagmire!"
…
"Young Master Yuequan was once the most talented scholar in our capital. He was an expert in calligraphy, painting, and poetry, and even his appearance was more handsome than others. I remember that when I was young, my father often compared me to Young Master Yuequan, but I am just a mediocre person. How can I compare to the amazing talent of Young Master Yuequan?"
"Of course! Even my father was full of praise when he spoke of Master Yuequan. He told me to emulate him! But talent isn't something everyone has. I worked really hard to catch up with Master Yuequan, but unfortunately, I don't have that talent, and I'm stuck in the same boat until now."
At the private banquet hosted by Xu Sheng, the son of the Minister of Public Administration, all the officials had been complaining about Master Yuequan for a long time, and once they started talking, they couldn't stop.
As everyone was talking, their eyes were still looking at Su Guanqing unscrupulously.
Su Guanqing was dressed in a moon-white robe, and his whole body was bright and clear, like the bright moon. He and his zither were placed in the center of the flower hall, with no support on any side, so anyone at the table could use him to eat with their meal.
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