Joy of Life: The Mei Family's Son Grows Up

Chapter 29 Passage

Mei Chengan called Xiao Ming in and turned the schematic diagram in his hand towards Xiao Ming.

"Xiao Ming, take a look at this picture, what do you think?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Ming looked at it carefully.

"This is... Qilin Palace?"

"Yes, this is the schematic diagram of the palace I drew. How do you think it is?"

"nice!"

"Where's the beauty?"

"Well... I can't really explain it, but... it just seems like I feel inexplicably comfortable and refreshed."

Mei Chengan said with relief, I understand, Xiao Ming is also a detail-oriented person.

"Okay, I understand what you mean. It seems that we are of the same mind. Xiao Ming, can you please help me send this painting to be framed, and also customize an easel to display it. I want to put it where I can see it as soon as I enter the hall."

"Yes!"

Xiao Ming took the painting and left the hall.

The sorting work has come to an end, and the task assigned to him by Emperor Qing is about to be completed. Mei Cheng'an feels relaxed. After the schematic diagram is framed and placed, he can read books, drink tea and enjoy a leisurely vacation life every day.

He leaned leisurely on the back of his low chair, eating snacks and drinking tea, and always felt that something was missing. Then he figured it out, it was a book. He stood up and ran to the miscellaneous section to pick and choose, and finally chose a medical book called Baicao Tu and returned to his seat.

He chose this book because it not only contains a large number of herbal illustrations, but also comes with detailed annotations, explaining the name, appearance, efficacy, origin, etc. of the herbs. He had never heard of or seen many of the herbs in the book, so this book was very new to him.

Just as I was watching intently, Xiao Ming came back with empty hands.

"My Lord, since the schematic is a bit large, it will be a little troublesome to mount it. I'm afraid it will take until tomorrow to be mounted. The custom bookshelf is already being made and should be ready tomorrow."

"I see. Thank you for your hard work, Xiao Ming. I'm fine now. You can go and rest now."

"Yes!"

Xiao Ming bowed and walked out.

Mei Cheng'an glanced at the clepsydra. It was less than a quarter of an hour away from the Shen time. At the Shen time, the prince would be finished with get out of class, and the Hanlin Academy could go off work.

Mei Cheng'an didn't want to squeeze out with that group of people, and he didn't want to get off work late, so he usually left a quarter of an hour early. Anyway, no one would record his attendance.

Remembering the place where he saw it, he closed the Hundred Herbs Atlas in his hand, and did not put it back on the bookshelf, but placed it on the table. Anyway, he would have to look at it tomorrow. After tidying up the table, Mei Cheng'an went out as usual, said goodbye to Xiao Ming, left the palace, and went home.

When he returned to Mei Mansion, it was just the beginning of the afternoon, which was three o'clock in the afternoon. He went to the study to say hello to Mei Zhili and then returned to his own courtyard.

After washing his hands, changing his clothes with Hongshu's help, and putting on more comfortable private clothes, he went to the workshop. He planned to make a few bookmarks by hand. The books in the palace were difficult to fold, and it would be troublesome to remember them with his brain alone.

The workshop is where Mei Chengan does handicrafts. It has a complete range of tools and materials. After choosing and choosing, he finally decided to use brass sheets to make bookmarks.

Use scissors to cut a very thin brass sheet into rectangular blocks of equal size, 12 cm long and 4 cm wide. Use a hammer to flatten them and grind off the burrs on the edges.

The next step was to draw the design. Mei Cheng'an began to think about what kind of design would look good. Somehow, his mind popped up the visit to the Forbidden City when he was in high school in his previous life. Among the cultural and creative products of the Forbidden City, there was a kind of hollow dragon and phoenix bookmark with a metal texture. It was particularly beautiful. He bought several kinds at that time. Unfortunately, he went to college later and didn't read much, so he didn't know where he put it. When he remembered to look for it, he couldn't find it no matter how hard he tried. He felt deeply regretful at the time. Now he can try to replicate them all, just to make up for the regret of losing them.

He was extremely fond of those bookmarks and observed them often, so he had a deep memory and could recall every detail. Therefore, he drew the designs as if he were assisted by God. He quickly finished the four dragon-shaped designs.

First draw a rough outline on the copper plate, then trace it in detail, then cut it out, and finally use a carving knife to start carving and hollowing it out.

The most difficult step is hollowing out the scale part, which is a delicate job. You have to use neither too much nor too little force. If you are not careful, the edge will break, making the entire bookmark scrapped.

After failing several times, I finally made the first dragon-shaped bookmark before dinner. After polishing it, I took a black tassel and hung it on the reserved space. The dark gold dragon-shaped bookmark matched with the black tassel looked mysterious and noble.

Mei Chengan couldn't let it go. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it. He felt that it was better looking than the one in his previous life. Because he was so focused on making the remaining bookmarks, Mei Chengan ate his dinner very quickly, causing the whole family to stop eating and all stare at him.

After quickly finishing the rice in the bowl, Mei Cheng'an stood up, bowed, then quickly slipped back to his own courtyard and went into the workshop.

The next morning, after washing up and having breakfast, Mei Cheng'an went to work in the palace with a few dragon-shaped bookmarks in high spirits.

In fact, only one would be enough, but he spent a long time choosing and couldn't decide which one was the best looking, so he just took them all away.

When I arrived at the Qilin Hall, I picked up a few bookmarks and clipped them in the Herbs Map. After a while, I felt bored. After all, it was just a bookmark. Thinking back to how excited I was last night, it seemed quite childish.

Near noon, the framed schematic diagram of the Qilin Hall and the customized easel were all delivered.

I don't know who designed the easel, but it is 1.2 meters high. The schematic diagram shows that it can be tilted at 45 degrees, and the tilt angle is adjustable. Mei Chengan is about 1.5 meters tall now, so it is just right when viewed from the front. If it is shorter, it will not be very friendly.

Mei Cheng'an placed it five steps straight from the entrance to the hall, in an aisle that was level with the edges of the bookshelves on both sides. The aisle was extremely wide, about four or five meters, and placing an easel in the middle did not affect passage.

At this point, all sorting work has been completed.

Mei Cheng'an had no intention of reporting his achievement. What if Emperor Qing saw that he had finished his work and kicked him back to the Hanlin Academy? He hadn't read all those books carefully yet. How could he go to a mountain of treasures and return empty-handed?

Moreover, I feel quite comfortable and at ease when I get used to being alone. If I really go back to the Hanlin Academy, I will have to punch in and out on time and deal with so many colleagues. The thought of it being troublesome makes me feel uncomfortable.

After thinking about it, Mei Cheng'an suddenly felt a sense of urgency. He had to hurry up and read as many books as possible before being kicked out.

The days that followed were rather dull. Mei Cheng'an read books every day, no matter what kind of books they were, he would just read whatever he could get his hands on.

In order to be prepared to test his knowledge when Emperor Qing came to inspect his work, he picked up the three books that had been left behind for a long time.

The three books collected in the palace are not ordinary versions, but versions annotated by the literary master Zhuang Mohan. I thought they would be boring to read, but the actual situation is just the opposite. With Zhuang Mohan's annotations, the three books are not obscure at all, but easy to understand.

Mei Cheng'an felt that his knowledge was increasing rapidly and his understanding of the three books was also constantly improving.

After finishing the classics, the next part was the history part. Mei Cheng'an still found the boring history fascinated. He paid attention to the major events of each dynasty and the secrets and gossip contained therein. He was able to see through the fog of history and understand the changes of dynasties, and gained a lot.

The Zi section has many branches and accounts for the largest proportion, accounting for more than half of the books in the Qilin Hall. This part cannot be read one by one. Mei Chengan plans to only choose the categories that he is interested in and read them first, such as astronomy, medicine, painting, architecture, clothing, rituals and music, Go, internal power and so on. If there is still a chance after reading them all, it will not be too late to read other parts.

As for poetry, Mei Cheng'an had no intention of reading them. Firstly, there were not many of them, and secondly, their quality was average.

When I was studying, time always passed quickly. The years passed by inadvertently, the seasons changed silently, and in the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

During these three years, Emperor Qing seemed to have completely forgotten him. He allowed him to swim freely in the sea of ​​books in Qilin Palace and never asked any questions about him.

In the past three years, the dispute between the second prince and the crown prince has become clear, the court structure has also become distinct, the struggle between the crown prince and the second prince has become silent, the eldest princess openly stands on the side of the crown prince, Prime Minister Lin does not help either side and stays out of the matter, and Emperor Qing sits high in the temple and watches coldly.

Many officials in the court were caught up in the party struggles and implicated. The better ones lost their positions and titles and returned home to retire, while the worse ones had their property confiscated and were exiled. The wealth they had accumulated after working hard for most of their lives was lost in one day.

In the past three years, Mei's canteens have blossomed in all major cities in Northern Qi, and all liquor is shipped to Northern Qi through the Danzhou seaport. The Danzhou base has become the largest of the three liquor production bases.

The alcoholic Fan Xian's reaction when he drank the burping wine for the first time was not as Mei Cheng'an expected, with his head agape and his heart trembling. Instead, he just raised the corners of his mouth and looked calm.

The truth is that Fan Xian was no longer surprised by this. He had been secretly drinking at the grocery store run by Wu Zhu when he was four or five years old, and they drank bulk wine. Wu Zhu didn't care and let him drink. Once, for some unknown reason, he became ill and said to Fan Xian who was drinking, "This wine tastes like water. What's so good about it? It's better to drink Wuliangye."

Fan Xian was dumbfounded at the time and suspected that he had heard it wrong. After confirming that it was his mother's original words, he reasonably suspected that his mother was also a time traveler like him. Then he threw a series of questions to Wu Zhu, but Wu Zhu answered him with the answer that he couldn't remember clearly.

So when he drank beer a few years later, Fan Xian was a little excited for a moment but quickly calmed down. Wuliangye was already available, so was it strange that beer appeared?

During these three years, her younger sister Mei Yuxi started going to school, but her grades were not good. She only liked to study food. She also met Fan Ruoruo, a talented girl of the same age as Fan Jian, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, at the aristocratic school. From time to time, she would invite a few sisters to visit her home.

The two of them really became close because of a private quarrel. The reason for the quarrel was who had a better brother. After Fan Ruoruo took out the Red Mansion, the two reached an agreement. They verbally acknowledged that the other's brother was something, but secretly added in their hearts that their own brother was better.

(End of this chapter)