Chapter 156

Lu Xiaoya asked, "Xia Zhu, is this a painting of your village?"

Xia Zhu nodded and said, "Yes, but it's a bit better than what our village looks like now. It can be considered what I imagine it to be."

Lu Xiaoya looked at it carefully. The brushwork was still relatively immature, but one could already see Xia Zhu's spiritual energy. You know, Xia Zhu had only been learning to paint from Su Xinghui for a few months and had only been learning traditional Chinese painting for over a month. To have such a level, her talent was truly too good.

Lu Xiaoya nodded and praised it a few times, then asked, "Xia Zhu, why are you painting this?"

Xia Zhu said, "It's not that your mother asked me to create my own original work, and Deputy Manager Li also said he wanted me to create an original work to participate in next year's Canton Fair, so I wanted to create a bamboo weaving painting with our Ye Zhugou Village as the background."

Lu Xiaoya nodded and said, "This idea of yours is good. The scenery here is too beautiful. If you can weave such a work, it will definitely be very popular."

Su Xinghui smiled and said, "Xia Zhu, you have to take this path in the future. If you always copy other people's works, even if you copy them well, they are ultimately other people's things. The things you create yourself have your own soul and your own style. Therefore, this work of yours will be very important to you."

Xia Zhu said bashfully, "It's a pity that my painting is still too poor."

Lu Xiaoya said in surprise, "You call this poor? How long have you been learning? I see many people who have studied at the Art Academy for a year or two, and they only have your level. Your progress is truly too fast."

Xia Zhu said, "This is not because Brother Xinghui taught well."

Su Xinghui said, "It's also because you learn fast yourself."

Lu Xiaoya said, "Xia Zhu, I originally wanted my mother to contact the Art Academy and let you study there for a year or two. But now it seems unnecessary. You have learned quite well following Su Xinghui."

Xia Zhu said, "Go to the Art Academy to study? That won't do. I don't have time now. I have to make money to support my family; otherwise, our family will have no income."

Lu Xiaoya nodded and said, "Yes, I thought too simply. You really don't have time to study. But you can go to Jiangcheng to play when you have time in the future. You can't always stay in Ye Zhugou. The larger the world you have seen, the broader your creative ideas will be."

Hearing Lu Xiaoya's words, Xia Zhu nodded gently. Her face was full of longing. She had grown up so big and had never been to Jiangcheng. For her, Jiangcheng was the biggest city, and she was also full of yearning for big cities!

Busy all morning, the villagers loaded all the goods onto the trucks. Fang Youcai happily asked the guests to eat lunch at his home. Seeing that the hospitality was hard to refuse, the guests could only eat a meal at his home.

Fang Youcai and several other village cadres pooled their money to buy a pheasant and a bamboo rat at the breeding farm to entertain these distinguished guests.

Deputy Manager Li joked, "We can't come too often in the future; otherwise, we will eat you poor."

Fang Youcai laughed loudly, "I wish you could come every day. If you come every day, we will have good hospitality every day. You will definitely not eat us poor. On the contrary, if we want to get rid of poverty and get rich, we have to rely on you!"

Their words made everyone at the table laugh loudly.