Chapter 282

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Protagonist:

Lin Xiyu

Seeing Mommy raise her wine glass to drink, Dabao also reached out his little hand wanting to grab the wine glass.

Lin Xiyu held the wine glass far away, not letting him reach it.

Dabao was unhappy, straining his little voice and about to cry and howl.

"Pingping wants to drink too?"

Maternal Grandmother found it funny, dipped her chopsticks in a bit of wine, and stuffed it into Dabao's mouth.

Dabao stopped crying and fussing, smacked his lips a few times, his little face wrinkling into a bitter gourd flower.

"Hahaha."

All the relatives and friends watched with amusement, laughing until they couldn't close their mouths.

——

With four little babies setting the atmosphere, the birthday banquet was eaten with great relish; when it was nearing the end, Da Yifu proposed taking a family portrait.

Grandpa Gu's camera came in handy; ever since the little babies were born, she had become obsessed with video recording and photography, her photography skills improving by leaps and bounds, enough to rival professionals.

Grandpa Gu took out her telephoto lens and personally took photos for the family.

Maternal Grandmother was very happy, holding Anan and sitting in the center of the front row.

Guben and Lin Xiyu held Sanbao and sat on her two sides respectively; the rest of the filial sons and virtuous grandchildren either sat or stood, gathering around the old lady.

"Listen to my command, eggplant!"

Grandpa Gu cheerfully raised her telephoto lens.

Hearing the command, the whole family turned to the camera and revealed what they thought were their most perfect smiles.

"Hee hee."

The babies also, under their dad and mom's guidance, looked at the lens and hee-hee laughed happily.

Only the naughtiest Dabao was an exception; the instant the shutter pressed, his little body tilted, nearly tumbling headfirst off Mommy's lap.

"Aiyo."

"Careful!"

The whole family cried out in alarm in unison.

"Click."

The camera also happened to capture this thrilling moment at this instant.

——

After the birthday banquet, Lin Xiyu's mood was obviously somewhat low; she couldn't muster interest in anything, often sitting on a horse stool, staring blankly at the pomegranate tree.

How could his beloved wife's unusual state escape Guben's eyes; one afternoon, after the babies woke from their nap, he saw his wife again sitting alone under the tree with scissors, spacing out; hesitating slightly, he still closed his laptop and walked out of the study.

"Aren't you developing a new game? How come you came out?"

Lin Xiyu heard the familiar footsteps and returned to her senses from her contemplation.

"Sat too long, waist sore and back aching, taking a break."

Guben rubbed his arms a few times, then shook his waist, looking every bit like he was very fatigued.

"Did you stay up late again last night?"

Lin Xiyu's eyes showed worry: "Going on like this every day, sooner or later you'll ruin your health."

"No."

Guben denied: "I slept before twelve."

Believe you? Fat chance!

Lin Xiyu gave him a white eye, the two words "don't believe" written all over her face.

"Enough about me, talk about you."

Guben took a small horse stool, sat down next to her: "What's been up these two days, wearing a long face, not a trace of a smile?"

"Tell me the truth..."

Lin Xiyu didn't answer but asked instead: "The Hanfu I cut, is it ultimately good or not?"

"I think, it's not bad..."

Before Guben said "not bad," there was a slight pause.

"Liar!"

Lin Xiyu glared at him resentfully.

"Hiss."

Guben sucked in a breath of cold air: "Wife, did I provoke you? Where does 'liar' come from?"

"You clearly think it's not good, yet still force yourself to say it's good."

Lin Xiyu was very stifled: "If that's not deceiving, what is?"

"I didn't deceive you?"

Guben put on a bitter face and cried injustice: "I genuinely think it's very creative."

"Besides creativity?"

Lin Xiyu pressed on relentlessly.

"Setting aside creativity, that leaves the cutting technique..."

Guben weighed his words: "For a layman like me, it's already cut very well; anyway, it's better than I could do — if you had me cut it, I really couldn't cut it out."

"It's just like this......"

Lin Xiyu understood, pointing at his nose and complaining: "Grandma was right, I was just bewildered by your praise, lost sight of myself, thought I was something amazing, that a random idea I came up with could get everyone's approval."

"Hiss......"

Guben sucked in another breath of cold air, looking at the finger extended to the tip of his nose, quite at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

"Admit it."

Lin Xiyu complained in a huff: "You're just humoring me."

"Okay okay, it's my fault, is it not enough that I was wrong?"

Guben's attitude in apologizing was very sincere: "Don't be angry yet, tell me, who provoked you? You came in with a barrage of accusations, I don't even know what actually happened, I'm pretty wronged too, aren't I? Tell me, I'll go find her, let her provoke my wife, I won't let her off lightly."

"Grandma......"

Lin Xiyu's eyes showed resentment.

"Who?!"

Guben's heart gave a start: "Your grandma, or my grandma?"

"My grandma."

Lin Xiyu looked aggrieved.

"Then forget it."

Guben instantly wilted, losing his previous momentum.

Lin Xiyu laughed from anger: "What do you mean 'forget it'?"

"Grandma's old, just listen when she says a couple of things to you."

Guben coaxed gently: "Anyone else I'd still dare to argue a few rounds with, but her, I really don't dare — if she gets worked up into something bad, wouldn't that make me a sinner of the whole family?"

Lin Xiyu drooped her eyelids, listless, no energy again.

"What did Grandma say to you?"

Guben tried to comfort her, leaning forward a bit, moving close to examine her face carefully.

"What are you looking at."

Lin Xiyu pushed him away in disdain.

"Wife is pretty."

Guben had coaxed his wife so much it was habit, the words came right out.

"Don't say that in the future......"

Lin Xiyu glared at him annoyed.

"Even telling the truth isn't allowed now?"

Guben laughed helplessly: "Wife is originally beautiful, I can't very well open my eyes and tell lies, say you're a yellow-faced woman?"

"You dare!"

Lin Xiyu rebuked coquettishly.

"Hehe."

Guben couldn't hold back, laughed out loud.

"Hmph."

Lin Xiyu turned her head away, not wanting to pay him any more attention.

"Alright alright......"

Guben tugged her sleeve, continued coaxing: "I was wrong, okay?"

Lin Xiyu shook her arm, shaking off his hand.

"I really wonder."

Guben held back a smile, said again: "Grandma looks like quite a kind person, what exactly did she say? To make you this angry?"

"Not telling you."

Lin Xiyu thought of Grandma's scolding, and her ear roots grew hot.

Not from shame, from vexation.

"If you won't tell me, I'll just guess myself?"

Guben had made up his mind to comfort her, how could he give up halfway?

Lin Xiyu didn't make a sound, he took it as tacit agreement, and continued on his own: "When I just came over, your first words asked me if the cut hanfu was good or not; from this sentence, Analysis says you should have been hit pretty hard by Grandma, perhaps she spoke too straightforwardly, hurt your self-esteem a bit, so you're sulking alone here, implicating me in your bad luck, getting disliked by your wife for no reason."

"You already guessed it, why ask me?"

Lin Xiyu didn't expect he could guess eight or nine parts out of ten from just one sentence, clearly stunned for a moment.

"Just for this?"

Guben puzzled: "Sulking for several days."

"I'm not angry at Grandma, I'm angry at myself."

Since he'd already guessed, Lin Xiyu had no need to keep hiding it.

"Angry at Grandma I can understand....."

Guben feigned confusion: "Angry at yourself I understand even less, you've already worked very hard, no need to be too harsh on yourself."

"You're at it again......"

Lin Xiyu glared at him dissatisfied: "You only know how to pick nice things to say, I was just deceived by you, became tsundere past the limit, thought I was really a talent, could change rules at will, no matter what alternative work I cut out, could easily get it approved."

"Okay okay, I was wrong again, alright?"

Guben laughed helplessly: "Whatever you want to hear in the future, I'll say that, everything according to wife's wishes."

"Whatever I want to hear, you say?"

Lin Xiyu knitted her brows, always feeling this sentence was a bit off: "Then isn't that still saying what I'm willing to hear, what difference does it have from coaxing and deceiving me?"

"Is that so?"

Guben stroked his chin, pretending to be seriously pondering.

"No, not at all."

Lin Xiyu was quite speechless at his playing dumb.

"This won't do, that won't do, this is really too difficult for me, why don't I just shut up? Not speaking at least won't get me mauled by a bear market; anyway, I'm the father of four babies now, in front of the babies, I still have to maintain a bit of a fatherly image."

Guben looked like a henpecked little wife, feigning grievance as he sighed, his sour little expression making Lin Xiyu laugh despite herself.

"Alright already, you say it so aggrievedly, as if I really bullied you?"

"You not telling me is bullying me."

Guben continued feigning grievance, speaking in a pinched voice, just short of making an orchid-finger gesture and flicking a handkerchief.

Lin Xiyu shook her arm, shaking off a ground full of Chicken Skin Bumps.

—

Guben was a master at coaxing his wife; one aggrieved, boudoir-resentment little expression coaxed away her temper, and she told him the conversation with Maternal Grandmother on her birthday, every detail.

"I feel Maternal Grandmother's words have a certain logic......"

Understanding the inside story, he had a way to comfort her: "The original intent of Intangible Cultural Heritage inheritance is to protect traditional crafts passed down from ancient times to the present; as long as one does a thing to the utmost, even a paper-cutting with the most ordinary pattern can display incomparable value, just like the Peony Picture Hu Nainai cut in her lifetime — a single peony could be cut with over a hundred overlapping petals; such exquisite skill, whoever saw it would admire."

"I understand your meaning."

Lin Xiyu's brows and eyes showed a touch of desolation: "I also understand my own skill isn't proficient enough yet; wanting to innovate now is indeed a bit early, otherwise Maternal Grandmother wouldn't have called me childish, thinking of running before learning to walk."

"Childish isn't quite that bad......"

Guben turned around and persuaded instead: "Your idea isn't wrong either; ancient inheritance also needs to keep pace with the times, only constant innovation can attract more young people, let more people fall in love with this art."

"You're at it again......"

Lin Xiyu gave him a sidelong glance.

Subconsciously, you're starting to praise nonsensically again.

"You listen to me first......"

Guben didn't argue, saying solemnly: "You have a lifetime to do this; I believe, sooner or later, you'll perfectly fuse inheritance and innovation, create a masterpiece for the ages uniquely yours."

A lifetime......

Lin Xiyu's eyes suddenly widened, gaining brightness.

Guben was right; she had a lifetime to study deeply, why rush for a moment.

"Looks like I didn't waste my feelings in vain; wife has finally figured it out."

Guben saw from her expression change that the knot in her heart had already untied, smiled relievedly: "Since it's like this, may I be so bold as to ask one more thing — can we not stay in the yard, go back to the bedroom? There's movement in the room; the babies must have woken up, crying for Mother."

"Damn, forgot to feed them......"

Lin Xiyu didn't wait for him to finish, whoosh — she sprang up from the horse stool, ran back to the room in a few steps.

The speed was so fast, just the blink of an eye, and her figure was already gone.

Guben: "......."

Had he known it would be like this, why did he waste so much breath!

Just saying the babies woke up would've worked.

—

Lin Xiyu wasn't a personality that loved drilling into a dead end; once she figured it out she was relieved, temporarily throwing the dream of tailoring Hanfu to the back of her mind, wholeheartedly honing her skill.

She set herself a small goal: before applying for Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritor, practice paper-cutting to reach over ten thousand times — that is, from mid-July to late October, three and a half months, at least one hundred times every day, and the cut-out Portrait of Beauties must not be defective.

Guben spoiled his wife with real action, personally designing hand-drawn patterns for his beloved wife, and specially contacting a factory to print the designed Portraits of Beauties in one go — over ten thousand sheets.

With her heart's person's support, Lin Xiyu had even more confidence; when practicing cutting she pursued practice makes perfect, striving for excellence.

As time grew long, the leisurely figure leaning on the bamboo chair, holding poetry books — Yi'an Jushi — was deeply engraved in her brain; even without drawing, she could move scissors like flying, skillfully cutting out the pattern.

Hundreds of times of uninterrupted practice every day left old calluses on her fingertips, and also made this Song Dynasty talented woman from over 700 years ago become a part of her life.

Fate, is just this wonderfully indescribable.

Yi'an Jushi of that year, could she have imagined her poetry fragrant for a hundred generations, 700 years later still talked about with relish.

And in the place she once lived, a woman equally outstanding in talent is now, in another way, telling her story.

—

One day in late July, an unexpected guest came to the Old House.

One of Hu Nainai's disciples, Li Ang, came to visit, tactfully expressing he also wanted to apply for Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritor.

"This is a good thing......"

Lin Xiyu was pleasantly surprised: "You're willing to make paper-cutting a career, inherit this craft; Hu Nainai underground knowing would also be very happy."

"I don't know if I have the qualifications to apply for Inheritor......"

Li Ang hesitated: "That's why I wanted to come ask Senior Sister, seek your opinion."

"Why would there not be?"

Lin Xiyu didn't answer but countered: "We're all Hu Nainai's disciples; I can apply, you equally can......"

"I'm not like Senior Sister, doing public welfare at the Youth Palace, already have some small fame."

Li Ang was embarrassed: "Before I always did odd jobs, no chance to participate in these things; starting now, would it be a bit late?"

"This......"

Lin Xiyu spoke truthfully: "I'm also not too clear on the selection rules; perhaps they don't care too much about these things, what they value more is still the candidate's personal ability."

"Sister Xiyu......"

Li Ang took the opportunity to pull out a paper-cutting he had brought with him and handed it over: "What do you think of this piece I cut myself? Any chance it could win an award?"

"Are these characters from Shui Hu Zhuan?"

Seeing the figures in the design, Lin Xiyu asked tentatively.