Yuque Qiu

"Stop the car—"

In front of the mansion with "Lingjinyuan" written on the door plaque, a sedan chair had just landed, and before it could stop, the curtain of the sedan chair was lifted up, and immediately Yan Yuque, dressed in brocade clothes, came out with a stern face. , Ignoring the servant's instruction of "My lord, watch your steps carefully", I picked up the hem of the clothes with lacquered gold printing Qushui pattern and meticulously painted Ruicao Yunhe, walked up the steps quickly, and stepped into the door.

The weaving sound of hundreds of machine locomotives in Lingjin Courtyard is intertwined into one piece, high and low, sequence and sequence, just like a string music, but it is dull and boring, and it will inevitably make people feel depressed and bored , and hundreds of weavers and embroiderers work in the same sound every day at sunrise and rest at sunset. Flying, drawing exquisite patterns on the cloth like a painter.

Yan Yuque walked all the way to the innermost room, and pushed open the half-closed door with a "bang". The people inside were startled by the sudden action of the person. A group of embroiderers and weavers retreated to stand on both sides, and respectfully called out "Master", with a bit of panic and panic on their faces, as if they had done something that should not be done, for fear of being punished.

The one surrounded by them earlier was a young man with a weak crown.

He has a handsome face and eyes like lacquer. He is sitting on a chair at the moment, with his left hand raised, his sleeve rolled up to the elbow, and there is a long and narrow bloodstain on the exposed arm, which is still leaking blood.

Yan Yuque stood at the door, the expression on his face sank, he suppressed the worry that had been revealed inadvertently just now, his eyes turned, and fell on a messy corner of the wall, where things were scattered all over the ground, and there was a pile of things lying on the other side. The chair and the vase on the high flower stool were also thrown to the ground and smashed...

The embroiderers lowered their heads deeply, twisting their fingers at the hanging part of their belts, daring not to vent their fear, but saw the young man sitting on the chair raise a pair of eyes that were as black as lacquer. , Sven chuckled.

"My lord, it was the villain who accidentally fell off the chair and knocked over the vase. After hearing the noise, several sisters and sisters rushed over to check what happened. Then they were busy and worried, and even went to the doctor... ..."

The corners of Yan Yuque's mouth were loosened, and he said to the embroiderers, "What are you still doing here? Don't you think this place is not messy enough? The princess's wedding is coming soon, if there is a slight difference in all the dowry fabrics, you Ten heads are not enough!"

"Yes……"

The embroiderer and the weaver obediently responded, and immediately walked out with small steps. Yan Yuque raised his chin at the young man again, "What about you?"

Only the young man and Yan Yuque were left in the room. The others respected Yan Yuque with a little fear, but this young man was very casual.

"It's just a small injury, don't worry about it, my lord."

With a sullen face, Yan Yuque walked a few steps forward with his hands behind his back, fixed his eyes on the wound on his hand, and after confirming that it was indeed just a skin trauma, he said coldly, "Who asked you? I asked Neon Clothes and Feather Clothes!"

Faced with such a cold and even harsh attitude, the young man didn't care at all.

"The villain came to this room just for the Nishang Yuyi. I want to look for it here. Maybe the flower book of the Nishang Yuyi is placed here."

Unexpectedly, Yan Yuque's face, which was only pretending to be indifferent, suddenly changed color, and dark clouds piled up. The young man's words obviously hit some untouchable places in his heart. With a flick, "Don't waste this effort, I said that if the flower book is damaged and lost, it is damaged and lost. You can't find it even if you search the entire Silk Brocade Academy!"

"but……"

"Stop talking!"

The footsteps at the door stopped suddenly, and Yan An, the servant accompanying Yan Yuque, and the doctor holding the medicine box stood at the door, tremblingly wondering if they should come in.

Yan Yuque heard the sound behind him, turned his head to see the person coming, then turned back to look at the wound on the young man's arm, motioned for the two of them to come in, but turned around and walked out, only saying a word coldly.

"Liu Qi, if you can't restore the neon clothes and feather clothes, it's useless to keep you!"

Yan An and the doctor walked into the room when Yan Yuque's footsteps had gone far away. The doctor looked at the wound on the young man's arm and said, "It's okay, don't touch the water for a few days." He took out the hemostatic powder from the medicine box, poured it on the cloth, and bandaged him up, Yan An was beside him.

"Mr. Liu, you know our master's temper best. Don't take what you said just now to your heart. You don't show it on the surface, but you are so worried about the neon clothes and feather clothes that you can't eat well, and you can't sleep well at night. Kuang Ling No one in Jinyuan can compare to you, sir, as soon as I heard that you were injured, I hurried over without saying a word..."

The young man named Liu Qi made a gesture to let him stop talking, "I understand what you said, if I really took what your lord said to heart, then I should have left two years ago, and I won't stay here Now."

"That's, actually, sir, you are very powerful. You are the only one in Silk Brocade Academy who is not afraid of our master, and sometimes dares to talk back to him..." Yan An helped put the bottles and cans on the table back into the medicine box. Full of admiration.

Liu Qi just shook his head, and chuckled helplessly, "Because I met a person with such a temper long before my lord..." At this point, his eyes lit up, and he raised his head and asked, "Do you know what happened just now?" Why is your lord so angry all of a sudden? And the neon clothes and feather clothes are the only one in the world, such a precious flower book must be well preserved, how can you say that it is gone when it is gone?"

Hearing his question, Yan An didn't answer him right away. He slowed down packing the bottles and cans, and seemed to be hesitating in circles. After a while, his shoulders relaxed and he sighed softly. Tone, turned to look at Liu Qi, with a serious expression on his face,

"I heard that this flower book was originally stored in Yan's Kesi building, but 15 years ago, the Kesi building was flooded, and many precious flower books were burned in that fire. The tapestry scroll dedicated to the former emperor—Splendid Mountains and Rivers. It took ten years of manpower and material resources to complete... As a result... and the second wife of the old man also died in that fire, because of this incident. I was implicated at one point, but fortunately many ministers in the court interceded, otherwise our master would not be able to sit in this position now, so we are taboo to talk about it..."

After Liu Qi listened, he just nodded thoughtfully.

◇ ◆ ◇

The so-called flower book is used to transfer the pattern on the paper to the fabric.

The painter first draws the color of the pattern on the paper, and the knotter uses silk thread to measure it along with the painting, counting every inch and second, and then forms it, and hangs it on the flower building—wearing the heddle belt, and measuring it according to its size, lifting the foot of the Qu, and shuttle After that, it turned out to be a flower. (Note, this paragraph is excerpted from Song Yingxing in "Tiangong Kaiwu Naifu")

The person who weaves the flower book must be a person with a delicate mind, and the more complicated the pattern, the larger the flower book weaved for it, just like the dragon robe worn by the holy majesty today, the flower book is several feet long, because It is too large and has to be divided into several parts. After several flower building machines are completed separately, they are combined into one through the techniques of cross-stitching, inverted flowering, and mosaic.

And the complexity of this neon dress and feather robe is far higher than that of the dragon robe.

The current Empress Dowager got her name from dancing when she was young, and she was once known as "a piece of neon clothes moving the capital". The late emperor praised her endlessly, so she asked Ling Jinyuan to weave such a dance skirt. Its gorgeous and exquisite patterns are unprecedented. , and mixed with gold silk and peacock feathers, its exquisiteness is so dazzling that when the Queen Mother wears it and dances lightly, you can see the brilliance flowing on it, just like a fairy descending from the dust.

Now the Empress Dowager has passed the age of singing and dancing, and this dance dress has been dusty for a long time. Many people just heard about it, but failed to see its glory.

A few months ago, in order to promote the peaceful situation in the frontier, today's Holy Majesty decreed to marry Princess Liuyun to the Liao Kingdom and make peace with the Liao Kingdom. Princess Liuyun is also good at dancing. Although it is not as good as the queen mother back then, few people can match it The queen mother felt sorry for the princess leaving home, so she gave the princess the neon clothes and feather clothes, but when the box was unsealed, something unexpected happened-this unparalleled, complicated and exquisite dance dress was damaged due to improper preservation.

It is said that when the Empress Dowager heard the news, she was so distressed that she became sick from anger, and the day when the princess got married was just around the corner, so the Holy Majesty ordered Ling Jinyuan to restore the dance dress at all costs, but what happened? So simple?

There were several big holes in the dance clothes. Presumably there was a plague in the palace that year. After the palace people administered the medicine, the mice couldn't find anything to eat and had to gnaw on the wooden box, including the silk and satin inside. The neon clothes and feather clothes That's how it happened.

Originally, there are so many talented people in the Lingjin Academy, it is not difficult to repair a damaged silk and satin, but the thread on this neon dress and feather coat is extremely exquisite, and it has been stored for such a long time, the silk thread on it will inevitably be a little faded, and it is necessary to fill it up. The silk thread sparrow feathers are not the same as the old and new ones, but they look ugly, so everyone thought it would be better to weave another one, but they searched all over the silk brocade courtyard, but they couldn't find the flower book that weaved this dance dress back then...

At this time, everyone knew that this time they had encountered a difficult matter. Since the Holy Majesty had made an order, he would definitely not take back the order. If the Silk Brocade Academy could not produce the neon clothes and feather clothes by then, it would be dereliction of duty. , maybe their lives will not be saved, so for this matter, everyone in the Lingjin courtyard almost racked their brains and tried all kinds of methods, but to no avail.

The medicine box closed with a sound of "Pata", and Yan An asked, "Sir, is there really nothing you can do about this neon dress and feather clothes?"

Liu Qi pondered for a while, then the corners of his mouth slightly curled up, "How could it be? There must be a way."

"That's good! That's good!" Yan An responded again and again, "Sir, please be more careful next time. Just ask me to do the rough and heavy work. I'll go to our master to see if he has any other orders."

Liu Qi watched the two leave, but no one noticed that there seemed to be some other unknown things hidden in the smile on Liu Qi's slightly raised mouth.

"Of course there will be a way..." He repeated softly, then took the teacup on the coffee table, calmly blowing off the tea foam, and took a shallow sip.

◇ ◆ ◇

There was no progress in repairing the neon clothes and feather clothes, Yan Yuque's heart was always pressed against a stone, and the conversation with Liu Qi just now reminded him of the fire 15 years ago, so his heart became more and more depressed.

Thinking of that fire, I inevitably think of that bastard and the twice-lost Kesi painting—Splendid Mountains and Rivers.

I had a deal with that person five years ago for that Kesi painting.

After the accident at home, he was sent back to his hometown in Lin'an by his father. That person never used the surname Yan again, and seemed to intend to distance himself from the Yan family, but no matter what, he was a member of the Yan family. !With a corrupt life and a bad style of work, it would be embarrassing for Yan's family to let others know his true background!

Besides, in that encounter, I didn't have any advantage over him at all...

When he was a child, he always hid behind his mother, and the person who didn't dare to speak loudly, has long since been reborn into a different style. Although he was shocked by the real cause of his mother's death, he lost his composure on the spot, but in normal times, he can talk a lot. The aura shown in his demeanor is not inferior to any old fox who has been in the mall for decades, especially the look in his eyes, which is full of viciousness and calculation...

Unknowingly, he has grown into a difficult person to deal with, especially in these years, Jinlin Cloth Village has branch offices all over the world. Hearing the rumors that a branch may be opened in the capital a few days ago, he felt a little nervous He was shocked, but there was no movement in the past few months, so he thought it was just something out of nothing and guessing, but this still left a knot in his heart——

That person is definitely here to take away what originally belonged to him!

So don't let him succeed...

I am the heir of the Yan family, he is just a bastard who was sent away...

Why fight with yourself?

Why? !

Yan Yuque was immersed in the memories of the past, failed to control his emotions, and punched the flower building machine, startling the weaver sitting in front of the flower building machine.

"A-Master...?"

Thinking that Yan Yuque was dissatisfied with the brocade being woven, the weaver cautiously asked.Yan Yuque came back to his senses, knowing that he lost his composure for a moment, lowered his expression, and said in a deep voice: "It's none of your business, you should do your work carefully!"

"Yes."

◇ ◆ ◇

After nightfall, Yan Yuque went to Wensi Academy alone to make an appointment at Master Xu's residence.

The Wensiyuan is in charge of crafting objects of gold, silver, rhinoceros and jade, as well as gold-painted and plain decorations, for the use of chariots, book treasures, dharma objects, and all kinds of clothing.Lingjin Academy and Casting and Printing Department are also under the jurisdiction of Wensi Academy.

The current court envoy, Mr. Xu, and the Yan family are family friends. The fire at the Yan family burned down the Kesi paintings that were supposed to be presented. The former emperor angered the Yan family and wanted to abdicate the crime. It was Mr. Xu and several other veterans who jointly signed the memorial. After protecting the Yan family, he recommended Yan Yuque to enter the Silk Brocade Academy, starting with documents, and leading him all the way to his current position.

The dinner was served in the garden of Xu Mansion. It was early autumn at that time, the night breeze was cool, the evening lotus was fragrant, and the clear waves and clear water were sparsely dotted, enchanting and charming, without any gaudy.

Sitting in the octagonal glazed pavilion was a woman in pink. She was young and shy, with ten slender fingers twitching. Li, and then walked to his seat.

Yan Yuque held up his wine glass and paid respects to the woman who had just been seated and Master Xu, "Miss's piano skills are getting better and better. I'm afraid that even the musicians in the palace can't match her."

Master Xu seemed very interested, stroked his beard and laughed loudly "hahaha", while the woman returned the wine to Yan Yuque.

"Master Yan, you are too proud. Rou'er is not talented. Only the piano skills can be seen. It's fine if Master Yan doesn't make fun of you. Wouldn't it make Rou'er more ashamed to say that?" Then she nodded, her cheeks were flushed, and she felt ashamed A timid, just like the budding peony, bright and moving.

Master Xu on the seat laughed loudly again, and patted the table to tease his daughter, "The man who is going to be your husband soon, why is Mr. Yan so unfamiliar? Could it be that the son-in-law that Dad found for you is not enough to impress?" Are you satisfied?"

This said, Xu Rou's shy blush instantly turned red, her eyes rippling and she gave her father a hard look, she dragged her voice for a long time, and called "Father—" sweetly, then frowned and whispered Complained, "What are you talking about?! My daughter won't be fooling around with you!" Then she got up and left the table, letting her father call her behind for a long time without looking back, and her graceful figure quickly disappeared into the night.

Master Xu just shook his head angrily and amusedly, and then looked at Yan Yuque, "Look at her, she is getting more and more ignorant of the rules, you have to discipline her for me in the future."

Yan Yuque responded with a smile, "No way, Ms. Xu is both talented, virtuous and dignified. To be able to marry such a beautiful wife is the student's blessing for several lifetimes..."

Master Xu suppressed the smile on his face, took a sip from his wine glass, and spoke again, his tone suddenly became more serious, "Yu Que, this old man has watched you grow up, and knows that you are a person who can do great things. In [-], you lived up to expectations and managed the entire Silk Brocade Court in an orderly manner. This time, the Princess and the marriage..."

Before Master Xu finished speaking, Yan Yuque had already understood what he meant, "This time the dowry brocade that the princess needs for her marriage, the Silk Brocade Academy will do it well, and there will be no mistakes!"

But Mr. Xu still had something on his face that couldn't be shaken off, "The empress dowager's neon dress and feather coat...?" Yan Yuque's expression froze for a moment when he asked this question, but he was quickly concealed, and it was just a school of thought. An understatement, "Although the neon clothes and feathers are damaged, they are not to a very serious extent, and it will only take a few days to repair. The student union ordered the weavers below to rush to work overnight to complete the repair work before the princess leaves the fortress."

Hearing this, Master Xu breathed a sigh of relief, and stroked his beard lightly, "That's good... that's good... After the Lingjin Courtyard is over, the old man will start arranging your marriage with Rou'er. We need to make a big and decent one, and let Rou'er come into your Yan's house gracefully."

"Yes, everything is up to the teacher." Yan Yuque nodded and replied, but when Master Xu said about the wedding date, his eyes dimmed for a moment, and then the hands on his knees unconsciously clenched into fists , trembling slightly.

◇ ◆ ◇

It was already late when we left Xu's mansion, halfway through the journey Yan Yuque asked the bearer to turn around and head towards Lingjin Courtyard.

In order to catch up with the wedding gowns worn by the princess and all kinds of dowry silks and satins, the chatter in the silk brocade courtyard was non-stop day and night.

Yan Yuque walked through a table flower loom, checking every piece of brocade being woven on the machine to ensure that there was no slightest mistake.

Although the weavers below will check again and again, Yan Yuque is not too trusting, and he has to check it himself before he is qualified.This rigor, in the eyes of the people below, has become a kind of extremely harsh and picky, and even regarded it as Yan Yuque's difficulty for them.But Yan Yuque never cares about what these people think in their hearts. This Lingjin Academy has achieved his current status, and he will also be the best candidate to succeed Mr. Xu as the envoy of the Wensi Academy in the future, so he must not be accepted here. If any mistake stumbles, he will stand on a higher ground, that's the only way...

That person named Lian Yulou would be as humble as an ant, and if he was firmly trampled under his feet, he would never even think about turning over!

After checking all the looms, Yan Yuque was about to return home, but when he walked to the corridor, he found that the light in the innermost room was still on, and there was a figure reflected on the window lattice while the candle shadow was shaking.

Yan Yuque walked along the corridor, the door of that room was ajar, Yan Yuque glanced inside through the crack of the door, and then pushed the door open.

The person inside was sitting in front of a stretcher, concentrating on using a bamboo hook to pick up the silk thread and introduce the cotton thread for weaving. What was hanging in front of him was the broken neon dress and feather coat. After hearing the sound from the door, , stopped what he was doing and looked sideways. After seeing the person clearly, he smiled lightly.

"Aren't you going back home so late, sir?"

As soon as Yan Yuque saw him, he remembered that his unintentional question during the day reminded him of the fire in Yan's house, so his face couldn't get better, he pursed his lips, his cheek muscles were stiff and he walked in slowly .

Liu Qi got up from the cross-stitch frame, looked back at the flower book with only one head up on the frame, the eyes showed joy as if looking at his own child, "I can't find the flower book of the neon clothes and feather clothes , I just want to weave the places that can be woven first, and then go to the books and records in the brocade courtyard for the remaining damaged places, maybe there is a detailed description of it somewhere.”

Yan Yuque walked up to the cross-stitched stretcher, and his eyes fell on the criss-crossed silk and cotton threads. Although only one head was raised, the colorful patterns of the neon clothes and feathers were already complicated, so that little point already occupied more than half of the cross-stitched stretcher. Son, think about how spectacular it would be if all of them were completed, and only Liu Qi could do such delicate work.

Yan Yuque withdrew his gaze from the flower book, and glanced at the young man standing beside him from the corner of his eye. He was looking at him with a smile on the corner of his mouth, as if he was waiting for his praise. This person was never like those weavers Xiuniang usually shows a frightened expression in front of her, and he is always calm in the face of her own criticism, and sometimes even dares to point out her own mistakes rudely.

But it is undeniable that Liu Qi is the best "flower picker" I have ever seen. Any complicated pattern can be weaved out of the flower book with just one glance. This is something that many experienced flower pickers can't do. With his superb skills, in the two years since he entered the Silk Brocade Academy, the brocade produced by the Silk Brocade Academy has been highly praised in the palace, and because of this, the existence of this person is also important to the Silk Brocade Academy. appears to be quite important.

What reassures Yan Yuque is that even if he has such a good skill, no matter how harsh he treats him, he has always been conscientious in completing the tasks in Lingjin Courtyard that require patience, meticulousness and painstaking care. Be careful.

Thinking of this, Yan Yuque sneered coldly in his heart. After all, Lingjinyuan is a workshop in the palace, who doesn't want to stay here?It is a blessing for these people to weave brocades for the Holy Majesty, the harem concubines, and civil and military officials. It is impossible to have this honor in the workshops outside.

Yan Yuque's fingers slowly slid across the flower book, "Have you been here for more than two years?"

Liu Qi nodded, "I would like to thank you for your appreciation for being able to stay and work in Silk Brocade Courtyard."

"Oh?" For his answer, Yan Yuque's condensed expression showed a bit of interest. He took the bamboo hook he used to hook the thread and played with it in his hand. He walked up to him and looked closely Staring at him, "You should be very clear that I didn't want to keep you back then."

Liu Qi bowed his head slightly, without the slightest resentment in his words, "But the adults still gave the villains a chance..."

Liu Qi was recommended by an old weaver in the Silk Brocade Court to come to the Silk Brocade Court more than two years ago. When Yan Yuque saw him for the first time, the other party didn't speak, but just stood there quietly. He didn't like this person .

This is a thin young man with ordinary facial features, not ugly, but not memorable, walking in the crowd is just a handsome scholar, but from his eyes and body However, Yan Yuque could feel that this person came here for a purpose.

By Yan Yuque's side, he didn't want to raise a tiger, so he rejected him mercilessly, but he didn't expect that the old weaver would say so much about this person, Yan Yuque didn't want to do things well It was too ugly, so a question was raised, if this person can get a robe that is exactly the same as the cloud brocade robe he is wearing in three days, let him stay in the silk brocade courtyard.

It seemed simple, but it was actually impossible. The brocade robe Yan Yuque was wearing at that time had only the Yan family’s flowers, and the fabric was only for the Yan family to wear. Outsiders would definitely not be able to get a second piece of brocade with the same pattern.

Yan Yuque thought that this way he would know that this was impossible, and then he would retreat in spite of the difficulties.

But unexpectedly, the next day this person sent a woven flower book, Yan Yuque was shocked when he saw the flower book, and quietly sent Yan An back to the mansion to check, Yan An reported that the flower book of the brocade was in good condition The warehouse is locked.

So Yan Yuque was surprised, and finally understood why the old weaver tried his best to recommend this ugly person...

Although there was something hidden behind this man's eyes, Yan Yuque still let him stay. One was his skill in weaving flower books, and the other was that Yan Yuque wanted to see what this man was up to.

It's just that two years have passed in a flash. This person can't see any irregularities. He works honestly and is not arrogant. He gets along well with everyone in Lingjin Courtyard, except for the occasional Different from disobeying himself a little, but overall he is a very law-abiding and hard-working person, and the eyes with intentions in his eyes seem to be hiding deeper and deeper, so that it is not easy to find now...

That's why Yan Yuque wondered: At that time...could it be just that I was wrong?

Yan Yuque withdrew his thoughts and raised his head and asked, "Why did you insist on staying when I treated you like this?" Liu Qi always had a gentle smile on his face, and the corners of his mouth were slightly curved upwards. Soft, kind and gentle, "Because the villain wants to follow the adult and help the adult do things for you."

Yan Yuque frowned, he had always dismissed such straightforward and undisguised expressions of loyalty, "You should know that flattery is useless to me."

Liu Qi blinked his eyes, his slender eyelashes fluttered with the soft brilliance of the candles, his lacquer-like pupils also shone with dots of light, like a lotus pond under the moonlight, with sparkling water, slight ripples, softly Said: "The villain is telling the truth, not lying to the adults..."

The things hidden under those flickering eyes are like the morning light hidden behind the thin mist, which can shine brightly when the mist dissipates, but Yan Yuque didn't want to understand, so he interrupted him coldly, "This kind of Stop talking nonsense in the future, I only care about this neon dress and feather coat now."

Liu Qi showed a bit of disappointment on his face, but quickly swept it away, and then said: "Master, regarding the neon clothes and feather clothes, the villain thinks of one person, maybe there will be another one..."