Since it wasn’t a head-on encounter and Xue Shi had mounted his horse and left, Jiang Yue only caught a glimpse of Xue Shi riding out of the village and didn’t say anything.
It wasn’t until she reached the backyard that Jiang Yue mentioned to Xue Yan how she had run into Xue Shi sneaking back home and then sneakily leaving again.
No one else in the family knew that Xue Shi had come back.
Xue Yan also found it strange, “Was it just him by himself? Xue Bai didn’t come back with him?”
“Just him. But it seemed like he was hiding something in his arms, and he left in such a hurry that I didn’t call out to him, so I don’t know what it was,” she paused, then added, “Forget it, Xue Shi wouldn’t do anything bad. Let him be. If there was something amiss, he would come to us.”
Indeed, Xue Yan just nodded, murmured an agreement, and didn’t take the matter to heart.
However, Xue Shi hurried back to the main shop with a heart full of excitement. His father, Xue Erfu, had already finished his shopping and was sitting at a table by the railing on the second floor of the main shop, enjoying tea. Uncle Xue Sifu was there too, and his son Xue Bai was nearly done with the accounts at the counter; he didn’t need any help today since uncle had already gone over everything earlier.
From that spot at the railing on the second floor, one could easily see below. As soon as they saw Xue Shi return, Xue Sifu laughed, “Seeing you so thrilled, did you steal that painting?”
“What do you mean steal? This is called borrowing; I have to return it later. If it was stealing, who would bother returning it? If I weren’t showing it to you guys, why would I bother taking it? I’ve already looked at it enough,” Xue Shi said as he was climbing up the stairs. “But honestly, that ‘Bai Xing’ really does look good. No wonder Ganggang likes her.”
When Xue Bai heard this, he stopped his accounting and followed to take a look upstairs.
Xue Shi had already taken the painting out of his arms, and seeing him approach, Xue Erfu pushed the tea on the table aside, allowing Xue Shi to place the painting on the table and unfold it.
As soon as Xue Sifu caught sight of the ‘Bai Xing’ on the painting, he patted his older brother, “Erfu, your future son-in-law is really something. He looks like the cream of the crop. But the clothes on him are a bit odd.”
Xue Erfu also liked the person in the painting, “I was quite reassured from the start, after all, Xue Yan and Yue Bao had already vetted him. Now that I see what the person looks like, I am even more at ease. This painting is done by Xue Yan, isn’t it? It resembles Xue Yan’s style.”
Xue Sifu said, “I can’t tell much about the person, but seeing that white tiger, it’s undoubtedly Xue Yan’s work. She has always been best at painting tigers. Isn’t the tiger descending a mountain painting that hangs in our family hall painted by Xue Yan?”
Xue Bai wondered, “Why is there a white tiger in the painting?”
Xue Shi speculated, “Could it be that this tiger is kept by Bai Xing?”
Xue Erfu laughed, “Who would be so brave to keep such a large tiger by their side, and not a more harmless animal? Isn’t that asking for trouble?”
However, Xue Sifu glanced at the animal skin clothes on Bai Xing in the painting and then at the white tiger above; his smile, tinged with a fox-like slyness, narrowed his eyes slightly but he said nothing. It was definitely odd, but after so many years of witnessing unusual things happening with his niece Xue Yan and Jiang Yue, he always chose not to ask, avoiding leading others to delve deeper and preventing them from discovering anything.
Without Xue Sifu’s engagement in the topic, Xue Erfu, Xue Shi, and Xue Bai didn’t understand why there would be a white tiger in the painting, nor did they question why Bai Xing’s clothes in the portrait were made of animal skins.
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