Chapter 1 Feng Zi's Plan

Feng Zi's expression changed as Ye Tao spoke, eventually settling into a thoughtful look. He felt that Ye Tao's statement made sense. After careful consideration, Feng Zi said, "My lord, leave this matter to me. It's not appropriate to make an official statement with such a reason, as it would be a loss of face for both parties. Let me handle it. I'll hint at someone of a high enough rank, or a key subordinate of someone of high enough rank, who will naturally pass the word along. My lord, please relax these days and don't take everything to heart. Although you've never liked banquets and garden parties, you still need to show some face. Besides, some of the banquets seem interesting. Chunan is providing attentive hospitality, at least with good food and drink. You're used to being simple, my lord, so why not enjoy their extravagance?"

If the officials of Chunan, the members of those aristocratic families, heard Feng Zi speaking to Ye Tao like this, they would probably be shocked. Feng Zi's joking manner was very disrespectful to Ye Tao. But within the Jinglue Manor, everyone was actually very familiar with this casual way of speaking.

"Good," Ye Tao replied with a smile. "I'm relieved to leave this matter to you. Anyway, I won't agree to send troops. But we can agree to more of their other conditions. We are indeed unable to send troops to assist Chunan, but it would be a good thing if Chunan could raise an army to attack Xiling and inflict heavy casualties on the Xiling forces. Chunan has some understanding of Dongping's technology system. I noticed it when I talked to Chen Xujing and the others last time. They have their own ideas about how to make those crossbows, catapults, fire oil bombs, and the like work. Although Chunan's infantry is equipped and trained in outdated methods, their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated. Chen Xujing and some other Chunan officers and generals are very capable. The people from the Intelligence Bureau seem to be a little biased. … Overall, once the war starts, it's very likely that Chunan and Xiling will both be badly hurt."

"Then, my lord," Feng Zi said with a grimace, "there's another situation to consider. Chunan's deception and concealment have been done very well. We in Dongping have been selling them so many weapons, large military equipment, and fire oil bombs, and we've been sending officers to assist them. The cooperation has been very close, and we know a lot about Chunan's military dynamics, but we've only heard rumors about Chunan's plan to attack Xiling. Chunan has put a lot of effort into this. … What if we leaked a little information just before Chunan launches its attack?"

Ye Tao shrugged noncommittally and said, "We'll talk about it then. Even at the earliest, it will be next year."

After discussing it with Feng Zi, Ye Tao felt relieved. Although Feng Zi was usually lazy, he always handled everything properly when he agreed to do something. Now, all Ye Tao could do was wait for the other party's reaction after Feng Zi conveyed his meaning, and wait for the Qihai Chamber of Commerce meeting in a few days. That night, when Dai Qiuyan mentioned that there was a painting society gathering at the Dayang Duke's seaside villa the next day, and that Song Xiangjun and others would be there, Ye Tao perked up. After several encounters, Dai Qiuyan got along very well with Song Xiangjun and the others. Song Xiangjun, known as the most beautiful woman in the world, didn't have any arrogance. Her peaceful and gentle manner, and her curiosity about many things, made it easy to talk to her. Dai Qiuyan easily became friends with her. And Dai Qiuyan had another problem, which was that she felt she couldn't paint Song Xiangjun well.

Indeed, in terms of pure painting skills, Dai Qiuyan, who spent all her time thinking about such things, now surpassed Ye Tao by a lot, but when she encountered such a creative problem, she naturally turned to Ye Tao for help. Not only because of her deep affection for Ye Tao, but also because she could always get an answer from him. Ye Tao might not have surpassed her in painting, but Ye Tao had artistic creative ideas that surpassed her by who knew how many years. When she saw that Ye Tao's tone had softened, Dai Qiuyan immediately begged Ye Tao to attend the painting society activity tomorrow and see how to create that portrait for Song Xiangjun. And Ye Tao shrugged and agreed. What could be bad about looking at beautiful women?

The villa was on the hilltop behind Liudi. Because of its high position, it had a commanding view of the entire seaport and bay, which was indeed a very good viewing spot. No one expected that Ye Tao would come without any notice. He very leisurely set up tables and chairs on the seaside terrace, brewed a pot of good tea, and sat there. People who were attending the gathering at the same time, completely unprepared for Ye Tao's sudden arrival without prior notice, came up to greet him. Ye Tao responded politely and vaguely, but didn't say anything substantive to people he didn't know well. Ye Tao came here just to accompany Dai Qiuyan, and to see beautiful women and beautiful scenery. He didn't intend to add luster to such a calligraphy and painting exchange activity, but Ye Tao wouldn't put on airs or do anything to spoil the atmosphere.

"Brother Ye…" Just as Ye Tao and Liu Yong were talking about the various types of merchant ships and warships in the port, and commenting on the advantages and disadvantages of various warships, Dai Qiuyan suddenly ran over and asked, "Brother Ye, they want me to paint a seascape, can you help me?"

There were many people secretly following behind Dai Qiuyan. Hearing Dai Qiuyan's request, many people broke out in a cold sweat. Although many people knew that Dai Qiuyan's earliest artistic enlightenment was carried out by Ye Tao, Ye Tao never seemed to have any works circulating, which was very different from Dai Qiuyan. And Ye Tao's current status, to help Dai Qiuyan? The Chunan people also knew that in Dongping, the status of women was much higher than in Chunan. The Dongping delegation sent to Chunan this time included Tan Weishi, who could make decisions. Even in Dongping, especially in Yunzhou, female officials had begun to appear one after another. However, the status of women was one thing, but it was obviously beyond everyone's expectations to have a young and powerful minister give his wife a hand when she was painting.

But Ye Tao just shrugged easily and took Dai Qiuyan's hand to another terrace. It turned out that at today's calligraphy and painting meeting, where everyone showed off their skills, many wonderful works had been brought out. And Dai Qiuyan, who was participating in such an exchange between students from the two countries for the first time, was unknowingly swept up in the atmosphere, and with her simple and direct nature, she pointed out the shortcomings in several seascape works based on her own judgment. In this way, the Dongping students naturally gained face, but she also put herself in a position to be attacked.

Dai Qiuyan was indeed very simple. When someone suggested that she paint a work on the spot, she said "Okay" without much thought. Then she actually asked very generously, "But what type should I paint?"

What type? Dai Qiuyan had already released several oil paintings, pencil watercolors, gouache paintings, watercolors, sketches, and ink paintings. In this kind of activity with many literati, facing such an approachable and lovely young woman, and Ye Tao's wife, naturally no one would dare to choose the type that Dai Qiuyan was least good at, but everyone really didn't know what Dai Qiuyan was good at. Dai Qiuyan's simple question actually caused a moment of awkward silence.

Dai Qiuyan herself looked at the scenery and understood very well that that kind of realistic painting method was too time-consuming. But if she painted with ink, she wouldn't be able to fully display the scenery she wanted to paint, so she decided to paint a color ink painting. However, Dai Qiuyan still felt... painting directly with color ink on the spot, according to her extremely picky nature when it came to colors, would probably take her more than two hours, at least half of which would be spent mixing colors. They didn't bring the maid who was used to cooperating with Dai Qiuyan when they came to Yuhang this time... The only person who could competently mix colors was Ye Tao.

Under the burning gaze of the surrounding people, Ye Tao was very calm. After chatting with Dai Qiuyan about the desired effect, he skillfully started working. All of a sudden, Ye Tao replaced Dai Qiuyan as the focus of everyone's attention. And doing the work of a page or maid, Ye Tao not only wasn't embarrassed at all, but instead had a full sense of professionalism in every move he made.

He directed two guards to put together two tables and checked the stability according to the habit that everyone at Ye's Workshop had begun to adhere to; he took out the largest piece of thin felt from the painting tool box with a swoosh, shook it open, and smoothed it out; a series of painting tools were placed on the table, and the most precious of them was naturally the color ink tool box. When the palettes and color mixing dishes on the top layer of the tool box were taken out, they caused the surrounding experts to gasp. Dai Qiuyan's color mixing tools were all pure white new products from the new Yun Kiln, and each one's shape had been carefully designed. These color mixing tools themselves were works of art. At present, Ye's Workshop had not yet solved the technical problem of using tin tubes to hold pasty substances. Moreover, considering the frequent long-distance travel, and considering the convenience of use and the convenience of mixing colors, the color inks were all powdered soluble substances. In addition to the dozens of commonly used standard colors, the other colors had to be mastered by the painter. They could be prepared in advance, or they could be achieved directly on the scroll by means of rendering and superimposition. Color was only one problem, and in the painting of color ink paintings, which required relatively continuity, all kinds of problems in color mixing could affect the quality of the painting. For example, in case there were undissolved paint blocks that were brought to the paper by the brush, a painting could very likely be ruined. Even if the paint was mixed too dry, too thin, or too moist, it could affect the painter's continuity and state of mind in creation… An even more serious problem was that for those colors that had to be used continuously, limited by the size of the color mixing dish, if one needed to repeatedly mix the same color, how could one ensure that the color and the degree of dryness and moistness of each mixing were the same? This was a very difficult technical skill.

And Ye Tao's performance had far exceeded the level of being familiar with the road. His movements were accurate, coherent, and powerful, but he rarely allowed these precious dishes and other things to bump against each other, making any crisp sounds to affect Dai Qiuyan. As Dai Qiuyan began to paint, everyone discovered, as the entire work continued to be completed and presented before everyone's eyes, that Ye Tao seemed to have had an accurate judgment of the overall layout and tone of Dai Qiuyan's entire work from the beginning. He always prepared the appropriate colors at the appropriate time and placed them at Dai Qiuyan's hand. He even made sure that the amount of paint handed up each time was just right, so that Dai Qiuyan would never have too much left over in one painting session, and would need to re-add water to dilute it next time she used the color… After all, it was summer now, and evaporation was too fast.

The people around could easily see from Dai Qiuyan's face that her mood was constantly rising because of this extremely tacit cooperation and extremely smooth painting process. And this was indeed the most comfortable impromptu creation Dai Qiuyan had ever had. How could that maid, who needed her constant guidance and training to keep up with her creative ideas, be compared with Ye Tao, who had introduced her to the hall of painting art? When drawing, when a color floated into her mind, there was that color at hand. This feeling was really too enjoyable…

And the most amazing scene appeared at the end. When Dai Qiuyan completed all the detailed drawing with an unprecedentedly high spirit and an unprecedented speed, and was preparing to finally spread out the color of the water surface in the bay with large swaths of ink, she frowned slightly, as if she was preparing to make some requests. In that instant, a plate of extremely moist watercolor was handed to her. In that instant, she, who had always painted meticulously and elegantly, seemed to be occupied by another soul. Her figure seemed to rise and expand in that instant. She used her brush to stir and splashed large swaths of paint on the paper, and then spread it out with her brush. Finally, she even directly poured the paint while moving her brush… In the short time when she was so focused that she almost forgot to breathe, this painting was finally completed in the boldness that she burst out in.

When Dai Qiuyan finally took a long breath, looked at the entire painting with satisfaction, and then turned to look at Ye Tao, she found that Ye Tao had already prepared to take the palette and brush from her, and was fully prepared to wash the brush and palette, dry them, and put them back in the box. The entire tool box was closed again. Ye Tao had even calculated the entire creation time of Dai Qiuyan just right, completely turning this accidental impromptu creation into a show.

The surrounding people had not only forgotten to cheer and applaud. Color ink painting was originally a very unfamiliar but very attractive field for Chunan. And Dai Qiuyan's painting, even if one ignored the colors and only judged it in terms of layout, lines, and brushstrokes, was still a rare masterpiece. Not to mention this kind of impromptu creation, the collaborative method of the two, and the tacit understanding between them, was almost a wonderful performance in itself. And most of the people present were very clear that the appearance of this situation was by no means something that Ye Tao and Dai Qiuyan could have designed and practiced in advance. The topics discussed today, the things that would happen today, were completely accidental. And it was precisely this accident that greatly amplified the effect of such a performance.

Everyone looked at each other in silence. It wasn't a cold atmosphere, but rather they were awestruck.

"What does everyone think?" Ye Tao asked kindly.