"Zhang White Ribbon, please look. This is the 'Mount Lu Painting' by Staff Officer Wang from Lord White Emperor's time..."
"Excellent! The brushwork is spare, remote, and untrammeled, the style vigorous, lofty, and expansive, the composition majestic and graceful... this is an authentic Staff Officer Wang, and a culmination of his achievements in his later years at that. People have always said that although Staff Officer Wang followed Lord White Emperor for years without being invested as a god or becoming a dragon, after settling south of the river in his old age, he crossed the threshold of Grandmaster and became a Great Grandmaster. Looking at this painting today, I suspect the rumors were true. Otherwise, where would this unity of heaven and man have come from?"
"...Yes, yes, yes!" The old man providing the explanation froze, then hurriedly nodded. For some reason, despite the depths of winter, sweat began beading on his forehead. The two middle-aged men holding the painting, including Yu Henshui, also began trembling.
"However..." Zhang Xing tilted his head and studied it a little longer, then shook his head repeatedly. "By rights, Staff Officer Wang was the progenitor of the Yixing Wang Clan, and the inscription here is General Wang's, written after the Wang Clan prospered following Southern Tang's migration south. Hmm... that makes it even more valuable... but why is this painting in your home rather than the Wangs'?"
"Well..."
"Oh, I remember." Zhang Xing suddenly understood. "When that usurping ancestor of your Yu Clan who received the Nine Bestowments lorded it over the lands south of the river, the Wang Clan, having lost command of the troops at Jingkou, supposedly offered up their 'family assets' to preserve their lineage... so that was how it came here? Isn't that rather like what I'm doing now?"