Chapter 12 (2/2)

After the meal, the two returned to the two-bedroom house, Zhao’er was still angry, “Do not be angry, Gou’er, I will have a life with you and separate with them after I earned money, and we will not live together with them.”

Xue Tingxiang felt a little moved, but at the same time he was helpless, “You call me Gou’er again.”

Zhao’er screamed and smiled, “I forgot, I won’t do that again.”

Naturally, he couldn’t be angry with her, and then Zhao’er took the two clothes that he changed yesterday and went out to wash. Xue Tingxiang took out the book “Instructions for Preschool Education” again.

Looking at this book, which was transcribed in the worst bamboo paper, and the footer had been curled, Xue Tingxiang felt a little worried. He didn’t want to read, but he had to listen to Zhao’er that he should read more now, because the more he read, the more confident he could win Xue Juncai.

She did not realize this book was different from that book. It was useless to read this one alone, but he would not tell her about it.

He took the bamboo paper that Zhao’er bought him from the Bed cabinet. This most inferior bamboo paper was worth forty-one cents. It was even reluctant to practice calligraphy with such ‘expensive’ paper. He has always treasured it very much that he reluctant to use it. He would write on the sand if he could, or he would write with water on the bookcase if he could not use the sand.

Xue Tingxiang sighed when touching such a pile of yellow bamboo paper.

The paper used by ‘Xue Tingxiang’ was usually the first-rate sincere paper. But now he felt a little bit of disgust on what he used to be treasured.

He spread the paper on the table, stacked a few sheets, and then cut it into volumes with a bamboo knife. Then he left some extra space for the seams and cut a thick stack. After that, he found the missing inkstone, and the ingot, which had been reduced to a scrap of ink.

These are all the treasures he usually did not use, but Xue Tingxiang has no such feeling at all today. He added water to the inkstone and held the ink ingot to grind the ink. No one knew what he was thinking when he was grinding.

Finishing the ink polishing, he moistened and cleaned the already-bald brush in a water bowl, and then started to write something on the paper with enough ink.

After writing a few words, he suddenly put down the pen, lifted the paper and looked at it, and suddenly crumpled it.

The handwriting was neat, he usually saved paper and ink, but his handwriting was still good because of hard practice for years, somehow, he did not feel satisfied with it.

He closed his eyes slowly, gazed for a while, and opened again. There was no one in the house at this time. If there has, someone could see a glimmer of light flashing in Xue Tingxiang’s eyes. At the same time, he grasped the pen quickly and steadily and wrote a series of small characters on the paper as if by the help of God.

These small characters suddenly became the Yan Zhenqing style , but became the Guangeti calligraphy, and suddenly became the thin gold style. At first, they were tangible and boneless, but as they were written they changed their taste.

The Yan Zhenqing style was square and dense, with strong pen power, straight and open full of vigor. The Guangeti calligraphy was physically powerful and grace, just like the general engraving. While the thin gold style, looked like the gold hook iron painting, full of pride, and the strokes were as sharp as the broken gold and jade.

These three characters represented the life of ‘Xue Tingxiang’, from the Yan Zhenqing style learned at the beginning of admission, to Guangeti calligraphy that was painstakingly studied for the examination, and then to the thin gold style of the official residence.

He wrote like this, completely forgetting himself. During this period, Zhao’er came in and sat down on the edge of the Bed without disturbing him.

It didn’t know how long it was, he suddenly took a long breath and put down the pen.

He wrote two whole pieces of paper.

By this time, Xue Tingxiang had to admit that the magic of heaven was just a dream. He possessed some of the things he had in his dream unexpectedly.

Since the dream appeared, Xue Tingxiang kept on thinking about why he had such a dream. Now he understood that perhaps it just wanted to make up for all the dissatisfaction for him in his dream.

With everything of the ‘him’ in his dream, he suddenly had ambitions and a wave of pride and agitation surging in his heart.

“You must be tired, have some water.”

Xue Tingxiang took the water from Zhao’er gulped down, which was especially sweet.

He then looked down what he had written, and he had spent two large sheets of bamboo paper. It`s probably because Zhao’er stood by his side, he suddenly remembered that she usually lived frugally to buy paper for him. He felt a little bit distressed and guilty immediately. He glanced at her and whispered, “I wrote so much.”

How could Zhao’er not understand his thoughts, she smiled and said, “Not much, not much, only two. The paper is for use, haven’t I told you not to save paper. We can buy it after use up. ”

“I want to transcribe the book, so I try the words first to avoid wasting the paper.”

“What book do you want to transcribe? Can the book be transcribed, isn’t it needed to buy?” Zhao’er was puzzled.

Xue Tingxiang sighed in his heart, really felt that he was very stupid before, he would rather borrow the eldest uncle’s book every time, or rote learning hard, and never thought of copying books.

An industry of transcribing books appeared since books sold in the bookstores nowadays had very few counter-marks and were very expensive. In that case, it could not only help some poor scholars get some money in exchange but also beneficial those who want to buy books but struggling to afford it.

Of course, this transcription was not easy to do, it required extremely well handwriting.

Xue Tingxiang boasted that his handwriting was not bad. At that time, many people asked for his calligraphy. Why couldn’t he transcribe by himself since he needed books now?

The most important was–

He glanced at Zhao’er.