After writing five or six in a row, the old gentleman put down his pen and laid out the few sheets of paper with the writing on them on the table, “Go and get the rest of the family.”
Xu Liang quickly went to shout, and soon Meng, Xu and Song Lin came over.
“Come over here and see, which one of the words looks better?”
Several people came forward.
Although Meng was a vocal merchant, her family had hired a gentleman to teach her to learn calligraphy since she was young, and Xu, not to mention the old gentleman, had taught her first-hand.
The two of them looked over several pieces of writing and reached out to point at the first one at the same time.
The old gentleman looked to Song Lin.
Song Lin looked at it carefully, and scratched his head in embarrassment, “I, how do I look at all of them?”
Song Wangyue smiled.
The old gentleman picked up the first one and looked at it again, then compared it to the other ones, but he still couldn’t make up his mind, “Xu Liang, go and call Qinghe to come.”
“There’s no need to go to such trouble.”
Song Wangyue stopped, “I also think the first one is quite good.”
The old gentleman waved his hand, “Go on!”
Xu Liang hurried off.
The dean had just sat down in the dining hall to prepare for dinner, when he heard the old gentleman call him over, he immediately got up, followed Xu Liang out of the academy and got into the carriage, “Is something wrong?”
Xu Liang replied with a smile, “Miss Sun asked the old gentleman to write a plaque for her restaurant, the old gentleman has written several, he doesn’t know which one is the best, so he asked you to go over and take a look.”
The dean froze slightly.
As a great Confucian of his generation, his writing was even better than some so-called calligraphers, and any of his ink treasures would be treasured by others, but now he was going to such lengths for Miss Song’s restaurant plaque.
After entering the room and bowing to the old man and Meng, the dean looked over the several pieces of calligraphy and pointed to the first one, “I think this one is the best.”
Only then did the old gentleman relax and handed the first one to Song Wangyue, leaving the remaining ones casually to one side.
The dean’s hand moved, resisting the urge to go forward and take them over, and asked, “Benefactor, can I have these characters for the student?”
“Take them.”
The dean was overjoyed, and he went forward to take the words in his hands like a treasure, but did not leave immediately, “It has been a long time since I have played chess with you, today I am free, can you play a game with me?”
The old gentleman could still not understand what he was thinking, he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to have a meal here and then play a game with Yue’er, but he did not expose him.
Song Wan Yue also knew what the dean had in mind, and after the three of them had withdrawn from the old gentleman’s house and given the words to Xu, she went to the kitchen, pawed at the ingredients prepared in the kitchen and cooked six dishes, serving them up for the old gentleman and the dean to bring over.
The two of them had not finished their game when they heard Xu Liang say that the food was ready, and the dean deliberately made a wrong move, ending the game.
The old gentleman smiled and raised his hand to nudge him in vain.
He went to the water basin to wash his hands and sat down at the table with the old gentleman.
When the food was served, he couldn’t help but sniffle a little. There was a cook at home who was responsible for cooking, but the food was nothing compared to Song Wangyue’s.
Most of the six dishes went into the dean’s stomach, and when he had eaten and drunk enough, he leaned back in his chair and asked, “Master, does Miss Song’s Xiao Yue House have any history?”
The first thing the dean thought when he saw the word was that the name had an origin.
The old gentleman had only been thinking about writing well, not about the name, but now that he had heard him say it, he thought it had a story. Yue must be the moon; what about Xiao, what does it mean? What does it mean, “to go up to the clouds”? If not, then what does it mean?
“I’ll ask her when she comes later.”
The dean instantly sat up straight, “You mustn’t ask, I always felt that Miss Song had given this name to commemorate something, and since she didn’t explain it, it means she didn’t want to tell everyone.”
The old gentleman nodded, “You have a point, I won’t ask then.”
Song Wangyue accompanied Meng, Xu and Song Lin after they finished eating, and then made another trip to Steward Jin’s courtyard to tell him she had found the brasserie maker and the bookkeeper, and then came to the old gentleman’s place.
The dean had been waiting impatiently for a long time. As soon as she stepped into the room, the dean immediately set up the chess board, “Miss Song, let’s play a game.”
Song Wangyue smiled and came over to sit down opposite him. After the dean had played the first piece, she followed suit and said, “I went to the Lu family today and hired Lu Xing as the restaurant’s bookkeeper.”
The dean’s hand gave a beat as he played, “A bookkeeper?”
“Yes, ten taels of silver per month.”
The dean gently dropped a piece, “Miss Song is a person of great benevolence and righteousness, I hope Lu Xing understands this feeling of yours.”
……
The next day, after breakfast, Song Wan Yue took the words written by the old man and the drawings drawn last night and went with Song Lin to the place where the restaurant was to be built.
He now has a habit of coming to the restaurant every day after the dawn at the courthouse to see that nothing is wrong before he goes to his other duties.
“Sheriff Zhang.”
Song Wangyue called out to him with a smile.
Sheriff Zhang came over in three steps and not two, “Miss Song, something wrong?”
“There are two things I need your help with.”
“Go ahead.”
“I want to engrave a plaque for a restaurant, and I wonder if you know where a good place to do it is?”
Sheriff Zhang knows every nook and cranny in the county, so he said, “Yes, I’m fine now, I can take Miss Song there.”
“Then I’ll be grateful to you.”
Song Wangyue got on the carriage, and Sheriff Zhang sat on the front board, showing the carriage driver the way, and soon arrived at the carving shop.
“Old Li Tau, come out!”
Sheriff Zhang shouted in a bright voice before he even got off the carriage.
An old man in his fifties came out of the house at the sound of his voice, still covered in dust, having supposedly been at work just now.
Sheriff Zhang pointed to Song Wangyue, who had just gotten off the carriage, “This is Miss Song, she wants to carve a plaque.”
Sheriff Zhang had never been so polite to anyone before, let alone a young girl with the surname Song? Old Li thought of something and his attitude warmed up a bit, “I wonder what kind of plaque Miss Song would like to have engraved, have you brought the words?”
“The best, silver money is no problem.”
The old head Li smiled, “Please come inside.”
Song Wan Yue followed him into the courtyard, where all kinds of plaques were stacked up, some carved and some not yet carved.
Old Li head walked up to a plaque and stood in front of it, “This is the best one we have here, one hundred taels of silver for one piece, the cost of engraving is extra.”
Song Wan Yue looked at it carefully and was not satisfied, “This plaque is not worthy of my grandfather’s writing.”