Zhao Ruxi the Matchmaker

Two days later, Zhao Ruxi went to Kang Shilin's house.

"Xiaoxi, come quick, take a look at your senior brother's painting!"

As soon as Zhao Ruxi arrived, she saw Kang Shilin waving at her.

She ran over immediately.

It turned out that Gong Cheng had painted a picture of winter plum blossoms a few days ago and submitted it as an assignment.

Kang Shilin, now with nothing to do and feeling that his three male apprentices' achievements were far inferior to those of his female apprentices, began to urge them on, stipulating that they submit at least two paintings a month for everyone to appreciate and evaluate, hoping that they would make progress in their painting.

Gong Cheng and Wu Zong were alright. Although they also pursued official careers and had a lot of work in the government, they didn't abandon their painting skills and would still paint from time to time.

Wu Huaisi was in a terrible predicament. Ever since he became the Minister of Ministry of Personnel, he had no leisure to paint. His painting skills were the worst among the four of his fellow students.

Initially, he couldn't match his two junior brothers' talent in painting, so he focused on his career, vowing to surpass them in rank and not tarnish his reputation as the eldest senior brother. In the end, he succeeded.

Unexpectedly, after achieving success in his official career, he had to turn back and diligently hone his painting skills, which was extremely unfriendly to him.

Zhao Ruxi and her two senior brothers commented on Gong Cheng's work, naturally offering only words of praise.

Gong Cheng was best known for his flower and bird paintings, and he was quite famous in this field, but he could not be called a master.

But ever since he learned sketching, it's like a whole new world has opened up for him.

He noticed that the flowers, birds, insects, fish, and plants he usually saw were three-dimensional, but when drawn on paper, they appeared flat. So after the training course in Beining, he quietly changed his drawing method, trying to make his paintings of flowers, birds, insects, fish, and plants more three-dimensional and vivid.

Now, his paintings have made a qualitative leap.

This made Kang Shilin extremely Gao Xing.

Needless to say, Wu Zong was also skilled at figure drawing. When he was in the Beining training class, everyone was learning figure sketching. While he was learning, he began to think about how to make his figures more three-dimensional and lifelike.

After so much time spent refining and improving, his figure paintings are now almost identical to those of the traditional Chinese painting masters that Zhao Ruxi had seen in modern times who had studied Western painting techniques.

It is also a qualitative leap.

After looking at Wu Zong's painting, Kang Shilin turned to Wu Huaisi: "Where's your painting?"

Wu Huaisi: "... No painting."

He hadn't wanted to come today. But he'd already made two excuses and asked for leave twice, so there was no way he could escape today. He had no choice but to come, albeit empty-handed.

He felt that rather than putting his paintings, which were far inferior to those of his junior brothers and sisters, in front of his master and making him furious, and making himself look bad in front of his junior brothers and sisters, he would rather be scolded by his master.

He explained earnestly, "Master, as you know, every year at the end of the year, our Ministry of Personnel has to assess the performance of officials and adjust the ranks of those whose terms have expired. We're so busy that we don't even have time to sleep. How could I have time to paint? Besides, you know I'm not good at painting. I'm far inferior to my junior brothers and sisters. So please don't have any expectations of me."

"So you're just giving up like that? You've been learning to paint with me since you were twelve, for so many years, and you're just giving up like this...?"

Seeing that her master was beginning to lecture her eldest brother, Zhao Ruxi, Gong Cheng took the opportunity to go to the painting studio. Wu Zong, who had the same idea as Gong Cheng, also slipped away towards the painting studio to avoid embarrassing his eldest brother.

She grabbed Wu Zong's sleeve and whispered, "Third Senior Brother, I need to talk to you." As she spoke, she pointed outside the house.

Master is in a bad mood right now. If he knew they had secretly slipped out to play, he would definitely be furious. But if they went into the Tibetan painting studio to look at paintings and study painting techniques, Master would not only not be angry, but would praise their spirit of striving for excellence.

Therefore, Wu Zong was not very keen on going.

He glanced at his junior sister, Zhao Ruxi, who nodded firmly, looking determined to drag him out. She didn't give him a chance to refuse, and immediately left after nodding. He looked at his master, and seeing that his master wasn't paying attention to them, he quickly followed.

"Junior sister, why can't we talk about this in the corridor? Why do we have to come here?"

Looking at the garden, completely covered in snow and devoid of any greenery, Wu Zong was speechless.

Isn't the cozy studio where you keep your art collection comfortable? Why did you have to come here to be exposed to the cold wind? At the very least, you could find a sheltered corner.

"Qingfeng, stay away. I have something to say to my senior brother," Zhao Ruxi said to Qingfeng, who had followed her.

Qingfeng had no choice but to stand a little further away.

"It's cold, so I'll keep it short," Zhao Ruxi said to Wu Zong.

She knew that this wasn't the place to talk in the dead of winter. Besides, this was the Kang Family's residence, and it was unwise of her to bring Wu Zong into the garden to talk like this; it would easily lead to speculation.

But she had no choice. Xiao Ruotong's thoughts could not be known to a third person besides herself and Wu Zong. Otherwise, if word got out, Xiao Ruotong would be completely unable to face anyone. No matter how much the Princess of Zhennan loved her daughter, she would not allow her to go out and be pointed at and gossiped about.

"Senior brother, what do you think of the County Princess of Qingyang?" She got straight to the point.

Wu Zong raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What do you mean, how?"

"Well... what do you think if I could marry her?" Zhao Ruxi decided to phrase it more tactfully.

She didn't know where the feeling came from, but she always felt that Wu Zong didn't have those kinds of feelings for Xiao Ruotong. So she thought that if she phrased her words more tactfully, even if Wu Zong rejected her, Xiao Ruotong wouldn't feel so awkward.

Wu Zong was stunned for a moment before he realized what was happening.

His face immediately darkened.

After staring at Zhao Ruxi for a while, he asked, "Is this your idea, or hers?"

Zhao Ruxi: "..."

She had originally intended to be more tactful, but Wu Zong hit the nail on the head, going straight to the heart of the matter and leaving her no chance to be vague or ambiguous.

She could only say, "That's what she meant. She asked me to ask you."

Wu Zong's expression finally softened a bit.

He said, "I don't think so. Just tell her we're not a good match." He paused, then added, "It's not her problem, it's mine. I don't plan on ever getting married again. If I wanted to, I would have done it years ago."

Hearing this, Zhao Ruxi felt particularly sorry for Xiao Ruotong.

Wu Zong was a very considerate and thoughtful person. Even though she brought this up so suddenly, and he was clearly Gao Xing after hearing it, he was still worried about hurting Xiao Ruotong and took the responsibility upon himself.

Xiao Ruotong is different from ordinary people. The reason she divorced the Duke of Ying was that she couldn't have children. Wu Zong directly rejected her, so she would inevitably overthink it and think that Wu Zong disliked her for not being able to have children.

It should be noted that Wu Zong has no son.