lost book

(One)

"The Fairy in the Picture. Continued"

"It's done".

As soon as the scholar put down the ink pen, the painting was in his hand.The ink marks were still wet, and the scholar blew lightly on the painting.

"It's beautiful."

He looked at the woman in the painting and sighed.

The scholar makes a living by selling paintings.Many years ago, he studied under Mr. Tsing Yi's door, carrying two skewers of dried meat and a jug of wine in exchange for the cloth woven by his mother, and knocked on the door of Mr. Tsing Yi's house.

Mr. Tsing Yi is a kind person.Mr. Tsing Yi is serious.

Mr. Tsing Yi's students, no matter how poor they are, can worship under him.The scholar followed Mr. Tsing Yi until that day.Mr. Tsing Yi was different that day because he smiled at the scholar that day.

Mr. Tsing Yi is sitting under an old tree.

That old tree needs three people to embrace, its branches and leaves are green and old, and Mr. Tsing Yi is sitting under that tree.

This scholar saw Mr. Tsing Yi's smile for the first time.

His eyebrows are clear and handsome, his hair is like dark clouds, and his face is as white as paper.

"I'm already old," he said.

It's not old in the present, it's not old in the future, it's already old in the first place.The scholar knew what he wanted to say.

Mr. Tsing Yi's thin back was leaning against the tree, with one leg propped up and his hand resting on it, his mouth was very red.He has a red mole on his left cheek.

The scholar noticed.

Mr. Tsing Yi also noticed that he was looking at him.He raised his hand and slid it lightly over his lips.

"Do I look good like this?" Mr. Tsing Yi asked.

"Yes." The scholar nodded honestly.

"Have you heard the story of the fairy in the painting?" Mr. Tsing Yi asked.

The scholar shook his head again.

Mr. Tsing Yi also ignored him, and said to himself: "My master, he drew me on white paper. At first I was just a painting, and he came to see me every day, and then left. Then, somehow, I gradually developed five senses, I could see him looking into my eyes, and I could hear him talking to himself."

The scholar was fascinated by it.

"My master is a general. A man who wields swords and guns. In order to marry his princess, he turned himself into a painter."

Mr. Tsing Yi finally said.

"He gave me life, and I drank with him and got married. I listened to him, and he taught me a lot. His eyes were like a wolf. Then he got old, like a dead branch. But I still I know he knows that I can't grow old with him. He died. I spent a lot of time looking for him, and then I realized that it is impossible to find a person's reincarnation in the vast sea of ​​people. No, that person is not him."

Mr. Tsing Yi took out a small black bottle around his neck, which contained the ashes of a general hundreds of years ago.

Then the scholar watched him turn into a pile of chalk under the tree.

That's right, it's just a pile of powder.

He even took it with his hands, and Mr. Tsing Yi fell into his palm.In his hand, a pile of white powder with a little scarlet blood.The scholar thought it should be the color of Mr. Tsing Yi's mouth.

He buried Mr. Tsing Yi under the old tree.

Mr. Tsing Yi's disciples all left.With regret, they said to the scholar: "Mr. is a great kind man, but it is a pity that he passed away at a young age."

Only scholars know that they are just sad that a good and kind person is gone, not that Mr. Tsing Yi is gone.He held the classics left by Mr. Tsing Yi and shook his head without speaking.

After returning home, the scholar stopped reading and devoted himself to painting.At first no one cared.Gradually, his paintings were appreciated by others, and sometimes four or five paintings were sold in a day, which could be exchanged for food and wine money.

He painted from black hair to a full head of snow.

Finally one day, he drew a beautiful woman.

"It's beautiful."

He looked at the woman in the painting and sighed.

The woman's face was like a flower, her hair was like a dark cloud, and her face was as white as paper—it was a piece of paper.

The scholar is completely famous.Because he drew a famous beauty in the capital.Some people say that this beauty is most similar to the Princess Luoyang hundreds of years ago.So an adult from the capital came to look for the scholar and wanted to buy his beautiful painting.

The grown-up showed a painting to the scholar.

"This painting was painted by Bai Qiuyue, the most famous court painter in Luoyang more than 600 years ago. Does it look like it to you?"

When the scholar saw the painting, he thought for a moment that he saw Mr. Tsing Yi again.He was in a daze for a long time because of this.

But a closer look is different.The woman was wearing the gorgeous court dress of that era, with a golden hairpin on her head and jade pendants on her ears.Her face is really like a flower, and it is almost like the woman in his painting.The difference is that her face is no longer white as paper, but rosy and perfect.

Ah yes.The scholar thought that the portrait of the princess was more human-like.Bai Qiuyue, the court painter named Bai Qiuyue, painted the princess into a lifelike princess.Even today, 600 years later, when he sees the portrait, he can feel the painter's superb skill from the princess's ruddy face.And no matter how good his painting was, he was inhuman after all, only a shriveled and pale face.He suddenly understood why Mr. Tsing Yi said that he was already old.

The scholar did not sell the painting.

He locked himself in his room all day.One day, the scholar had a dream.

The woman in the painting in the dream ran out, and the scholar felt that she had the shadow of Mr. Tsing Yi and the princess from hundreds of years ago.

He died in such a beautiful dream.

When the first ray of sunlight in the morning penetrated the shutters in the scholar's room and fell on his eyes, he opened them with the last bit of strength, saw the painting, and closed them with a smile as if he had finally found something Eye.

The scholar died for a long time.When his body was already smelling, some people finally attracted.People ran to his home, first viewed his paintings, and then searched everywhere for the legendary picture of beauty.

In the end, people only saw a piece of white and clean paper on the scholar's desk.

Since the scholar never married, his mother had already passed away, so no one cared about his funeral.People found a straw mat to wrap his body, and buried him by the well of the scholar's hometown.

Many years have passed since then.The name of the scholar gradually became unknown.And the picture scroll he left behind is also missing.

It was rumored that someone once met a beautiful woman at night, her face was as white as paper.If you see it, there will be a disaster of bankruptcy.

(The Immortal in the Painting. Continued)

The author has something to say:

The story of "The Immortal in the Painting" has just begun—it begins with a scholar and ends with a scholar.