Today's autumn wind is a bit strong. Although it is not "bitter", it can make people feel the approach of winter more clearly.
Su Qingluan was thinking about how to elect a new "team leader" tomorrow when there were more people. She carefully folded the paper that she had previously given to Mu Xingzhi, which contained the information about stirrups, horseshoes and the direction of ironmaking improvements, and put it in her sleeve - otherwise, if it was blown away and picked up by someone else, it might cause some trouble.
Although she thought of giving this as a "thank you gift", Su Qingluan was still very hesitant.
The biggest reason for wanting to help Mu Xingzhi was that the current heavy taxes and levies had reached an outrageous level. It could be said that after every autumn harvest, another group of people would not be able to survive the next year due to excessive taxes.
Moreover, Huaxi Village and Lefeng County are both remote towns, far from the emperor, so the control over public opinion is relatively loose. Therefore, the people here are much more free to speak and act than in the capital.
It is also because of this that the people here will discuss it more freely in private without any scruples.
Su Qingluan had heard more than once that the current emperor favored beauties, neglected the virtuous queen and the queen's legitimate son, and instead favored a beauty of humble origin and her illegitimate son.
Not only that, the emperor also believed in alchemists and made elixirs in pursuit of longevity. He even sent his own flesh and blood to live in the cold palace just because the alchemist said, "The queen's son is in conflict with your majesty's eighth son."
Some said the queen's legitimate son was dead, others said he was tortured to insanity, and still others said he was poisoned and became deaf, blind and disabled...
There are all kinds of rumors, but they boil down to one thing: the Queen's family is miserable, the Emperor doesn't care about state affairs, and spends all day praying to God, and the government is said to be controlled by the favorite concubine's family.
Su Qingluan knew that the so-called "folk legends" were likely to be fabricated or exaggerated, but as the saying goes, "there is no smoke without fire." At least Su Qingluan had heard Xie Zian mention that his family was related to the favorite concubine in the court.
It seems that folk legends are not completely unreliable.
It was not just the Xie family's few words, but also everyone's increasingly depressed expressions during the autumn harvest, and their worries about the coming winter, that made Su Qingluan vaguely realize that the current emperor was not the material for a wise ruler.
Su Qingluan's thinking was simple: First, even if a war were to break out in the future, Huaxi Village and Lefeng County, though so-called "transportation arteries," were limited in resources. In short, they were too poor, with no resources to exploit. Furthermore, they weren't strategically located, easily defended, and difficult to attack locations, and they were far from the capital, so they wouldn't serve as the main battlefield.
Secondly, the current ruler is very unreliable, and whether the concubine's family is reliable or not is not important. The world is not theirs, and they will not feel sorry for any harm they cause. The 60% tax has already made the people miserable. How much worse can it get? It is better to see how far Mu Xingzhi can go and try his luck to turn a bicycle into a motorcycle.
Finally, it was Su Qingluan's own selfishness. When she talked with Mu Xingzhi, she found that this man was broad-minded and willing to accept new ideas, and he was also very rational and decisive. Even if it was purely based on interests, he would not be a person who enjoyed himself and didn't care about the lives of the people, because this would leave various hidden dangers.
Such a person, whether he is a commander or an assistant, will not make life too difficult for the people under his rule.
Su Qingluan knew that not caring about anything might be the best way to protect herself. After all, with her own ability to make money, she would not have a bad life anywhere.
However, through the words of those around her, she also understood that since the current emperor completely doted on beauties and believed in alchemists, the lives of the people have become increasingly difficult.
Su Qingluan had learned some history and understood how disastrous the consequences would be if a supreme ruler believed in alchemists. He could expel his own flesh and blood because of a word from an alchemist, so would he arrest a large number of boys and girls just because of a ridiculous word from an alchemist like "I want a hundred boys and girls"?
With such a ruler in power, can their family really rest easy forever?
Su Qingluan really didn't have the confidence to make this guarantee to the whole family.
Su Qingluan still vividly remembered the incident in which the Xie family secretly kidnapped the entire Su family. If it weren't for Mu Xingzhi's protection, it would be hard to say what would have happened to the Su family.
She just wanted to live a good life...
Thinking of this, Su Qingluan walked towards Mu Xing's home even faster.
Now that the geometric shapes had been taught, Su Qingluan began to have a few students draw simple still lifes. However, because they had a solid foundation in painting, everyone was able to grasp the composition quickly, but capturing the texture of the object was not something they could do overnight.
In fact, at the beginning, some people doubted whether it was really possible to fully express the "texture" of an object with charcoal. So Su Qingluan painted it in one piece - and Su Qingluan's previous paintings had not particularly expressed texture.
So today, while everyone was drawing, Su Qingluan also selected a set of backgrounds - a cotton and linen tablecloth was spread on the coffee table. Song Bo wanted to take it away, but Su Qingluan kept it; a set of bone china teacups, the edges of which shone brightly under the light; and a half-peeled pomegranate was placed there, and there was even some juice that had accidentally splashed onto the table.
Su Qingluan specifically asked Song Bo to preserve such a messy corner and draw these objects with completely different textures one by one.
Everyone looked at the object in front of them that seemed to be about to appear, and even felt that a drop of water would wet their fingertips if they touched it the next moment, and they were speechless.
"The most crucial factor in reflecting texture is 'light.'" Although Su Qingluan couldn't elaborate on concepts like 'reflection,' 'refraction,' and 'scattering,' she couldn't help but offer a few hints. "Different light rays hitting different objects at different angles give different impressions. As long as you can capture the characteristics of light and shadow well, you can depict the texture of every object."
After the class, Su Qingluan sighed heavily, then took the Phoenix Dancong tea brought by Song Bo and gulped it down - there was no other way, her throat was already smoking, and she couldn't savor it carefully, even if it was the tea she had praised before.
"Oh, it's clearly a painting class, but I actually talked more than I did my hands," Su Qingluan complained, "If someone didn't know, they would think I was here to debate and talk." After all, these two things are the real work of talking.
Mu Xingzhi said thoughtfully, "Qingluan, when you are giving lectures, you always seem to be hesitant to speak, as if you want to say something but have to use other words instead. Why is that?"
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