Zheng Haizhu looked away and looked at others, and saw the Gu family's youngest daughter-in-law, Mrs. Li, looking here with interest.
Okay, this drama queen is going to start performing again. Zheng Haizhu thought.
Sure enough, Mrs. Li raised her eyebrows, curled up the corners of her mouth, and said with a smile: "Oh, Master Kong said that you will never tire of fine food and never tire of fine food. When you eat, someone else will take care of it more carefully and put it directly into your mouth. It is natural. But there are three things.
But the most fun is eating and peeling things by yourself. One is melon seeds, one is water chestnut, and the other..."
"The other one is crabs," Grandma Shen said with a gentle smile as she washed her fingers in the chrysanthemum bowl. "Every time the third daughter-in-law eats crabs, she will kill me with this. Everyone has their own.
My fate, this finger, is an inconvenience brought about by my mother’s womb. I just have to accept my fate calmly. Do I still want to find fault with my mother while I’m eating and drinking?”
"Well, what the third daughter-in-law said is indeed wrong. Sweet potatoes are also interesting when they are peeled and gnawed at the same time." Gu Shouqian's mother, the second grandma Lu, spoke in a soft voice, then turned to the servant and said, "This crab is delicious
, but after eating two, I feel cold in my stomach. Go and see if the sweet potatoes brought by Mrs. Xu are ready to be steamed?"
The second grandma, Mrs. Lu, is kind-hearted but not stupid. She is used to changing the subject to lighten the atmosphere.
The woman who was waiting on the side hurriedly added: "The sweet potatoes have been steamed until the core is completely pink, and they are just waiting for the old ladies and grandmothers to order them to be served."
"Serve it up." Old Mrs. Miao said with a smile.
Not long after, the servants brought up a large pot with blue and white lotus petals, in which were crammed radish-like sweet potatoes. The cracked skin revealed golden flesh like the rising sun, and the dense heat curled up, filling the sweet potatoes with sweet potatoes.
The fragrance is sent to everyone's nose.
Mrs. Shen stretched out her hand and took one with both ends turned up, and brought it to Mrs. Miao: "Mom, this looks so white, like a gold ingot. Eat it while it's hot."
After Mrs. Miao took it, she picked a long one herself, rubbed the skin and peeled it open, eating it with relish.
Mrs. Miao kindly greeted all the grandmothers and ladies to take sweet potatoes, and said to Xu Guangqi's daughter-in-law: "Old lady, when I was an errand in the palace, Long Live the Lord and the Queen loved to eat steamed pea yellow from the small shop outside.
.This sweet potato is fragrant and glutinous, and is a little sweeter than beans and chestnuts. If you think about it more, you can make more delicate snacks. Therefore, this imported thing may not necessarily be laughed at."
Li, the youngest daughter-in-law of the Gu family, is actually not really stupid. She knew that in the delicate rounds just now, she couldn't hold back the harshness that she wanted to unleash at any time, which actually ruined her own position, so she also wanted to join the Dong family and the Han family.
The female family members and Mrs. Huang came in front of them to try to save some face.
She then added to the old lady's words and said: "Mom is right, the Western clocks and glazed lamps are very good. Wife of the Xu family, your family believes in foreign religion. If it can be changed to make it easier for us to understand, maybe
More people believe.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a clear voice from the table: "Miss Zheng told me just now, for example, around the cross, you can embroider black birds, Luan and Phoenix, and for example, the Mater dei (referring to the Virgin) can be placed on the lotus.
, It’s like Guanyin Bodhisattva. Miss Zheng’s ideas are really wonderful. When I think about it carefully, many of the teachings that grandpa and mother-in-law taught me are also consistent with the Confucian and Buddhist classics that I learned from my female husband.”
The little girl who spoke up was none other than Xu Guangqi’s granddaughter, Xu Huizhen.
Since the beginning of the banquet, Xiao Huizhen had been eating quietly and gracefully. Now she suddenly started talking, and her words were quite coherent, unlike a seven or eight-year-old girl. Everyone couldn't help but be a little surprised.
The atmosphere suddenly became quiet for a moment.
It was her mother Gu Lanjie who woke up first, turned to Zheng Haizhu, and said with a pleasant look mixed with admiration: "Miss Zheng, no wonder Azhen stuck to you all the way here just now, you two seem to get along very well.
"
Han Ximeng has always been a bit like a golden horse and a sword. When he heard other maids praising his house, he was not unduly modest and said openly and openly: "Young lady Xu, Bai Letian said, although they are new acquaintances, there is an old love between Azhu and Zhen."
My sister was able to hit it off immediately because both of her brains are so smart."
Zheng Haizhu hurriedly leaned over and said: "Grandma and Miss Huizhen are pious and intelligent. In just a few words, I understood that Mater dei is just like Guanyin Bodhisattva, both merciful and rescuing goddesses. I don't think so."
I'll take the liberty to say a few words."
Xiao Huizhen was actually tired of the boring conversations between the Gu family aunts at the dinner table, so she took this opportunity to stand up and face Miao who was sitting at the table, and said respectfully: "Auntie, Huizhen has finished all the food.
There is no waste. Could you please allow Huizhen to leave the meeting and ask Miss Zheng for advice on painting skills? My mother and I are going to embroider some paintings for the church."
Mrs. Miao laughed happily: "Go ahead, little girl. I'll give you a tip. You and Miss Zheng think about it. How can we draw grains and grains around the cross? By the way, don't forget.
There are sweet potatoes introduced to Songjiang by your grandfather. Food is the most important thing for the people, and the people will trust whoever feeds them."
…
Heminglou, a high-end restaurant that only caters to the city's officials, gentry and women's families, knows the habits of its guests best, so it also has a pavilion on the east side of the main building.
Outside the Xiaoxuan window are banana leaves, hibiscus, rockery and beautiful rocks. The interior of the house is arranged like a study, with long tables, pens and inks, rice paper, and paints all available for guests to recite poems, write poems, and dance.
Zheng Haizhu spread the paper on the desk.
Xiao Huizhen, who was very interested, moved the polished inkstone in front of her, then knelt on the round table and stared at the rice paper.
Zheng Haizhu looked sideways at her and felt that the little girl had two round eyes and bulging cheeks. She was cute and clever. He couldn't help but think of the two cats he raised in his previous life in modern times. Those cats were exhausted and could not submit manuscripts or make hits.
During the night, the two cats would just stay by his side, looking at the keyboard or the screen, as if cheering him up.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! However, at this moment, Zheng Haizhu does not have the painful feeling of being stuck in his previous life, but writes as if he is inspired.
The original body that entrusted the soul retained the finger muscle memory of Nvhong and Danqing. In the first few days after Zheng Haizhu woke up from Longxi County, Zhangzhou, he discovered that he could draw meticulous line drawings and local velvet weaving drawings.
Master, not too bad. And I have a modern accumulation of knowledge about Chinese and foreign art history, as well as a broad and divergent thinking, which greatly blessed this originally simple golden finger.
During the days when Han Ximeng was studying Japanese ukiyo-e, Zheng Haizhu did not hesitate to draw a reduced version of Katsushika Hokusai's "Phoenix" for the hostess.
Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese Ukiyoe painter more than a hundred years later. Naturally, people from the Ming Dynasty and Japanese people in this world don't know about it. Han Ximeng has never seen such a unique phoenix, both tangible and intangible.
, looking at the phoenix is not a phoenix, in the misty chaos, surprise, Zheng Haizhu only said that he looked at a few Japanese paintings for a long time during the day, dreamed of some outlines at night, and added the understanding of the random stitch embroidery that the lady is good at, and then he achieved it.
Phoenix drawing.
Once the analogy is made, the thinking will open up, and the same is true for the current conception of Catholic paintings and embroidery.
Even without the encouragement of Mrs. Miao and Gu Lanjie, Zheng Haizhu firmly believed that it was feasible to localize the foreign religion that Xu Guangqi believed in in promotional materials.
Because in real history, many scrolls and books unearthed in later generations show that the spread of Catholicism in China in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties drew heavily on local religious legends.
The profits from this popular material, posters, and embroidery will be one of the sources of funds for her school.
Therefore, today's God-given opportunity to invest in the Xu family cannot be missed.
Zheng Haizhu first drew the outline of Dehua white porcelain Guanyin, which is most familiar to Fujian people, stepping on the lotus.
Then, recalling the various statues of the Virgin and Child she had seen when visiting Western art exhibitions, she drew a peacock blue robe with gold trim for Guanyin Master, and then stuffed a white and fat little doll with slightly curly hair.
The bellyband is never drawn, but two golden circles are drawn just like Guanyin. It looks like Guanyin sending her son, but also like the Virgin Mary holding Jesus.
Then, Zheng Haizhu thought of the lines of Mount Fuji in early ukiyo-e paintings that he had obtained from Yan Siqi, and painted them on the back of the portrait. He also added cranes, phoenixes, golden pheasants, whatever birds were auspicious, and painted them. The foreground of the portrait was imitated.
Katsushika Hokusai's "The Wave off Kanagawa" depicts a sea of waves.
Xu Huizhen saw this place attentively and asked curiously: "Sister Azhu, where are these mountains and waters?"
Zheng Haizhu said: "Do you teach a book called the Bible? Is there a story in the Bible called Exodus? It mentions the Red Sea? In Buddhism, is there a mountain called Mount Sumeru? Huizhen
Miss, you see, our people in the Ming Dynasty, whether you preach Catholicism or Buddhism, talk about the Red Sea or Mount Sumeru, they may not understand it. But when you talk about the Fairy Mountain of the Queen Mother of the West and the South China Sea of Guanyin, everyone must be familiar with it since childhood.
Understood in seconds.”
"What is a second?" Xu Huizhen had a question mark on her face, but she soon realized, "Are you talking about a very short time? My grandfather taught me that in Mr. Tessie's country (referring to Matteo Ricci), there is no need for hours.
They use hours, minutes, and seconds to express quarters and seconds. So, understand in seconds, which means it’s easy to understand?”
Zheng Haizhu grinned and praised that it was correct. He thought to himself, indeed, the best room in the school district is the parents' study room.
However, Xiao Huizhen did not look complacent. Instead, she stared at the line drawing layout and carefully considered what silk thread and stitching methods to use in each area.
When the two of them were using the embroidery cloth to draw on the drawing, they heard a creaking sound from the window behind them.
Zheng Haizhu and Xu Huizhen looked back and saw a young woman in green clothes and blue skirt, using her hands and feet, hurriedly climbed into the house from the window sill.
"you……"
"Miss Zheng, it's me! Ru Liier!"
Before Zheng Haizhu could see the confusion in his eyes, the young woman had announced her family status.
Hearing this, Zheng Haizhu took a closer look and recognized that she was a girl from the Fireworks Alley by the Yue River in Fucheng.