Lin Jing'an followed the trend and looked in the direction Song Yi was looking, and sure enough, he saw the old butler Sheng walking towards him holding a framed calligraphy. He paused and turned to look at Old Master Sheng.
Faced with a man of such high moral standing and great reputation as Lin Jingan, who was also so old, even Old Master Sheng restrained his usual tyrannical behavior and explained, "That's not what I meant. It's just that this calligraphy..."
"It's just that this calligraphy is indeed excellent. Mr. Sheng was just expressing his own opinion and had no intention of targeting anyone." Song Yi took over the conversation and returned Mr. Sheng's previous words intact.
Although Song Yi has only taken over the position of the head of the Song family for more than half a year and his prestige is not too great, as the head of one of the four major families in Kyoto, his status is there. Few people in Kyoto would fail to give him some face.
Not to mention the past six months, even when he was just a not-so-favored young master of the Song family, he was flattered and coaxed wherever he went.
But today he was humiliated in front of so many people. He was filled with anger and resentment. In addition, he felt that he had the upper hand, so he was not even willing to maintain the surface peace.
He was not polite at all when speaking.
Similarly, no one dared to speak to Mr. Sheng like this, not to mention now, even when he was young, and his temper instantly flared up.
The words "Someone, throw this thing out of here" were on the tip of his tongue, but were stopped by his beloved son.
Sheng Shijing placed his right hand on Old Master Sheng's shoulder, gave him a reassuring look, then turned to look at Lin Jing'an and said, "What do you think, Mr. Lin?"
Lin Jing'an didn't take the dispute between the two families to heart. It had nothing to do with him. He nodded nonchalantly and said, "It must be a good calligraphy piece to be so favored by Master Sheng. Since I'm here, I might as well take a look."
Sheng Shijing simply waved his hand.
Someone immediately brought it up to the shelf, and Butler Sheng personally hung the calligraphy in his hand up and unfolded it carefully.
Song Yi saw it and winked at Song Yanxi.
Song Yanxi frowned, feeling that there was no need to compete with Old Master Sheng on an occasion like today, but she was in a difficult situation at the moment, so she could only take out the calligraphy in her hand as Song Yi instructed, hang it on the other side of the shelf, and slowly unfold it.
A few minutes later, the two men stepped aside and displayed the two calligraphy works at the same time for everyone to see.
For a moment, the banquet hall was silent.
Everyone has seen Mr. Lin’s calligraphy. It is as sharp as iron and as silver as silver, with a natural style. It also has a sense of transcendence compared to previous calligraphy works.
Natural charm.
Even though eighteen years have passed and Mr. Lin is already eighty years old, his calligraphy has not only not regressed, but has reached a whole new height!
He fully deserves the reputation as a master of calligraphy!
What surprised everyone was the copybook on the left.
The calligraphy on the copybook appears to be a handwritten small regular script with hairpin flowers, but it also has a hint of the wildness and unrestrainedness of cursive script. The combination of the two is different from any other fonts that people have seen, but it has an indescribable special charm.
"This character...it looks quite well written, both in form and meaning. But why is the font so strange? I've never seen it before." After a brief silence, someone quickly expressed his opinion.
"It's more than just form and meaning, it even has a soul. Look closely, don't you feel that this character seems to have life? It's truly a rare and fine piece of calligraphy, comparable to what Mr. Lin achieved thirty years ago..."
Another person interjected, but realized something was wrong halfway through his words, and a look of embarrassment flashed across his face.
Mr. Lin is eighty years old this year. Thirty years ago, he was fifty years old.
They still don’t know who wrote the calligraphy on the left. If the person is under 50 years old, doesn’t that just prove what Mr. Sheng said, “Even Mr. Lin couldn’t write such a calligraphy at his age”?
Although I was telling the truth, Mr. Lin was right there, so it was a bit inappropriate to say that.
Fortunately, someone quickly changed the subject.
"You know what, this font is really unique. It's like regular script but not quite regular, and like cursive script but not quite cursive. If it had a few more characteristics, it would be the famous Gilded Flying Script back then. It's a shame that no one else has been able to write it in twenty years."
"How could it be so easy to write a gilded flying script that possesses all the characteristics of a font? But you can't say it's impossible. It's been twenty years. Who knows if someone has already figured it out and just hasn't shown it yet?"
"That's right. Even if others didn't tell him, with Mr. Lin's attainments in calligraphy, he would have learned it long ago. It's just that he is indifferent to fame and fortune, so he didn't make it public."
"I heard that someone had already written a Gilded Flying Book a while ago. It was a post with over a hundred words, and it seemed to have fallen into the hands of a family in Kyoto."
"Is there such a thing? Which master wrote it? Which family has it fallen into the hands of?"
"This... I can't remember it either. It seems to be some celebrity. I just heard a younger generation in my family mention it at the time, but I didn't take it seriously and didn't ask specifically."
"The master and his family are all here today. Look over there."
“…”
The sound of discussion came into his ears. Although there were some doubting voices among them, Song Yi could also hear that these people who were discussing it were praising this calligraphy more than criticizing or questioning it.
Especially the sentence "It's on par with Mr. Lin's level thirty years ago" was like a loud slap in the face, making him blush and his cheeks hurt!
It would be fine if the poster was over fifty, but if he was under...
Song Yi's expression changed and his lips were pursed into a straight line.
He wanted to say something to save face, but looking at the calligraphy that even a layman like him couldn't pronounce the word "bad", he opened and closed his mouth several times but still couldn't say a word. In the end, he could only look at Song Yanxi for help.
Song Yanxi was very annoyed, so annoyed that his emotions were faintly visible.
She was a little annoyed by Song Yi's impatience and self-righteousness, but as Song Yi's daughter and the second lady of the Song family, she was naturally tied to him, and had to come forward to smooth things over for him.
Receiving Song Yi's gaze, she quickly suppressed the irritation in her eyes and gave him a soothing look. Then she stepped forward and said, "It is worthy of being praised so highly by Master Sheng. It is indeed a rare piece of good calligraphy. However, Yan Xi has a question. I wonder if anyone can explain it to me?"
She took another step forward, her fingertips hovering over the signature in the lower right corner of the calligraphy. A hint of doubt lingered in her voice, "This character looks a bit like the 'xi' in 'chenxi', but not exactly the same. I don't think I've ever seen a character like this before. Is it because Yan Xi's knowledge is limited, or was it because the person who wrote the calligraphy was too sloppy near the end?"
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