Chapter 25: The Earth-Shattering Painting (Part 1)

  In the southeast corner of Tokyo's Imperial Palace, there is a tall building called Panlou. Standing on the top floor, you can almost see the scenery in the palace. Not far east of Panlou is the famous Dongjiezhi Street in Tokyo, where every day at five o'clock in the morning, lanterns are lit and various goods are traded, such as clothing, paintings, flower garlands, and collars. Before dawn, they will disperse, so it is also called a ghost market. During the day, the tea houses and wine shops on both sides of Dongjiezhi Street are also very lively, with pedestrians and travelers coming and going constantly. However, in recent days, continuous heavy rain has made Dongjiezhi Street much quieter.

  In front of the famous Dong's Teahouse on East Ten Characters Street, a young man in blue clothes stood with an anxious face, occasionally poking his head out to look around both sides of the street. Unfortunately, today's rain was too heavy and it was impossible to see far away. Although he was standing under the eaves, the splashing rain still got his clothes wet, but this young man seemed completely unaware.

  After a while, the sound of horseshoes and wheels came from the rain, followed by a poor horse pulling a carriage out of the rain curtain. When he saw this familiar carriage, the young man in front of Dongshi Teahouse finally showed a bright smile, holding up an umbrella to welcome him.

  "Zi Zhan, brother, Zi You, brother, you two brothers are late, aren't you? Jin Qing and I have been waiting for you for a long time." The blue-clothed youth said with a smile as he walked up to the horse carriage.

  The carriage door opened, and two young scholars in their twenties jumped out. The first one looked to be twenty-seven or eight years old, with a slender build and refined features, looking spirited and majestic, with an air of grandeur about him. The younger man behind him looked two years younger, with some resemblance in appearance, but this young man was quiet and introverted, clearly a talented young scholar with a wealth of knowledge.

  The young man in the lead, seeing the blue-clad youth, also burst out laughing and said: "Bo Shi brother, this can't be blamed on us brothers. Today's rain is so heavy, the road is really difficult to travel, if it weren't for your enthusiastic invitation, I wouldn't have been willing to go out, it would have been more comfortable to stay in the study and read a few volumes of books, practice a few strokes of calligraphy."

  "Brother Bo Shi won't have another masterpiece, wanting us brothers to appreciate it?" The young man with a calm temperament also spoke up with a smile, "It's just that this time I don't know if it's poetry or painting, if it's poetry, I'm afraid Brother Bo Shi can't compare to my older brother."

  "Haha, Brother Zihan is a great talent, and I'm willing to admit defeat. However, today isn't about admiring my poetry or paintings, but rather a treasure that I've only seen once in my lifetime. If the two of you brothers hadn't come, you would definitely regret it later!" The blue-clothed youth was extremely close with these two brothers, and they often exchanged harmless jokes. He also genuinely admired Brother Zihan's poetic talent."

  The young man in blue called the two brothers Su, and separately referred to them as Zizhan and Ziyu. Throughout Northern Song history, the only pair of Su brothers with these courtesy names were the renowned Su Shi and Su Che. The two brothers, along with their father Su Xun, all passed the imperial examination in the second year of the Jiayou era, causing a stir in the capital. The three generations of the Su family finally stepped onto the stage of history.

  Su Zong was old and in poor health, so he stayed in the capital to recuperate. Su Shi worked at Dengwen Drum Institute in the capital, while Su Che temporarily did not serve as an official. The three father and sons all stayed in the capital. Su Shi and Su Che, two brothers, often played and drank with a group of good friends. As soon as their poems and articles came out, they would be eagerly passed around by scholars in the poetry and book circles. It can be said that the brothers had already become the leading figures among young scholars.

  Originally, it had been raining heavily for several days, and Su Shi and Su Che were both at home reading books with the doors closed, but unexpectedly received an invitation from their good friend Li Gonglin today, so they came to Dong's Tea House in the rain. Li Gonglin was that blue-clad youth, only fifteen years old this year, who came from a famous family in Shucheng and not only had a wealthy family background but also possessed great talent himself, especially his paintings, which already showed some spiritual energy, although they were still somewhat inferior to those of Wang Wei at present, it was because he was too young, and in the original history, Li Gonglin was known as the number one painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, and some people even said that his paintings surpassed those of Wu Daozi.

  Li Gonglin was young when he left home and came to the capital, where he studied and socialized with his peers. With his talent, he soon became close friends with Su Shi brothers and Wang Mou, among others. Today, he obtained a treasure, so he hastily invited Su Shi brothers and Wang Mou over, with Wang Mou arriving early, waiting for Su Shi brothers to arrive.

  At this time, Li Gonglin and Su Shi, Su Zhe entered the Dong family tea house together, came to a elegant room on the second floor, only to see a young man about the same age as Su Shi sitting there, wearing a light blue long gown, with a face like jade, extremely handsome, with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, looking very extraordinary. This man was the person Zhao Yan hated the most, who married Princess Bao'an, Wang Zhen.

  "Zi Zhan, Zi You, you brothers are late by half an hour! The tea house has no wine, otherwise I would have made you drink three cups as a penalty!" Wang Mou saw Su Shi and his brother come in and immediately stood up laughing and speaking. Although he came from a prestigious family and was also the son-in-law of a high-ranking official, now holding the position of Left Guard General, Wang Mou had no airs about him when interacting with others. Even if he met a beggar on the street who spoke to him, he would still smile warmly, which earned him the respect of many people. Even among scholars, there were many who highly praised Wang Mou.

  "Brother Jin, please forgive us. It's not that we didn't want to come early, but the rain was too heavy and some roads were impassable. We also had to take a detour to get here." Su Shi smiled and bowed his hands to Wang Shen, for whom he had great admiration, especially for his painting skills, which made him feel inferior.

  Next, Wang Zhen greeted Su Shi again and turned to Li Gonglin with a smile: "Bo Shi, you asked me and Ziyan, Ziyu to rush here in such heavy rain today, saying that there is some treasure to show us. I wanted to see it earlier but couldn't, now that Ziyan and Ziyu are here, can we take a look at what the treasure is?"

  "What can be called a treasure by Brother Shi must not be an ordinary thing, hurry up and take it out for us to see!" Su Shi said with great interest, and Su Zhe on the side also showed a curious expression.

  "Hey, don't be in a rush, three brothers. Before we take a look at the treasure, I have something to ask you. Have any of you heard some strange news these past two days?" Li Gonglin was the youngest among the four and still had a lively personality. He liked to speak in a way that left people both annoyed and curious.

  "What strange news? There have been many strange rumors in Kaifeng City these past two days. For example, the Crown Prince of Ying fell ill and all the imperial physicians were at a loss, but in the end he was cured by the infamous Wang of Guangyang Prefecture. You're not talking about this rumor, are you?" Su Shi said with a laugh at the end, for he too thought that Zhao Yan's curing of Zhao Yun was just a joke, like most scholars did.

  "Haha~ Of course not that thing." Li Gonglin also burst out laughing, he didn't believe Zhao Yan understood medicine at all. But then he thought of something and opened his mouth to say with a smile, "However, the Prince of Guangyang married the granddaughter of Old Man Cao, who is said to have incredible medical skills. It's said that the Princess also learned from Old Man Cao, so maybe the Prince learned some divine medicine from her and really cured the Prince of Ying."

  Li Gonglin's hurtful words were extremely vicious. In the Song Dynasty, male chauvinism was a universal understanding. He said Zhao Yan followed Cao Ying to learn medicine, actually ridiculing Zhao Yan for taking a woman as his teacher. This was more embarrassing for a man than making him wear women's clothes. This made Su Shi and the others burst out laughing, with Wang Zhen laughing especially heartily. At the same time, he unconsciously touched his forehead, where there was an inconspicuous small scar. This was a "gift" left by Zhao Yan when he came to his house and caused trouble last time.

  He teased Zhao Yan for a few sentences, then Li Gonglin took out a box and said: "Three brothers, the strange news I want to tell you is that several paintings suddenly appeared in the market two days ago. These paintings are unknown who made them, with figures, animals and landscapes. They look like white drawings, but they are completely different from white drawings. Because the works on these paintings seem to protrude from the paper, and the paintings are extremely realistic, as if they will walk out of the paper at any time..."

  "I've also heard!" Li Gonglin's words had not finished, and Wang Zuo, who was also good at painting, said with a serious face, "These paintings, which are completely different from white drawings, have nine pieces in total. There are two rain scenes, three paintings of a puppy, and the remaining four are all painted by the same woman."

  When Li Gonglin and Wang Zuo spoke, Su Shi and Su Che also thought of something they had heard before. Only then did the younger Su Che speak up: "Bo Shi, are you referring to those nine extraordinary paintings that first appeared in the Ink Fragrance Studio? They were snapped up by some painting enthusiasts who competed with each other to buy them, resulting in each painting being sold for over a hundred taels of gold at an astronomical price. It's said that everyone who saw them praised their extreme beauty and precision, and those who obtained these paintings treasured them as precious jewels, unwilling to show them easily. I even heard that Ouyang Xiu wanted to buy one with a large sum of money, but unfortunately, no one was willing to sell!"

  Ouyang Xianggong is Ouyang Xiu, who currently holds the position of Can Zheng Zhi Shi, and can also be considered one of the prime ministers of the Song Dynasty. For these important officials who can enter the Policy Hall for discussion, the Song people are called Xiang Gong, and at this time, women cannot use Xiang Gong to refer to their husbands. It wasn't until later generations that Xiang Gong became a synonym for husband.

  "Not bad, it's those nine paintings. I'm also a painting enthusiast, but unfortunately, I wasn't at the Ink Fragrance Pavilion at that time, so I didn't get to buy one. However, I didn't give up. After inquiring extensively, I finally bought two of them with a large sum of money, and I even got some news about these paintings!" Li Gonglin said, patting the box heavily, his face filled with excitement.