Dan Qing wasn’t really trying to draw a picture, what she wanted to draw, or rather trace, was the wooden ship.
She planned to trace every single piece of the wooden ship onto paper, one by one, making her own assembly instructions, so that once she took it apart, she’d never fail to put it back together again.
The easiest piece to remove from the ship’s deck was the railing. Dan Qing carefully took off a small section, dipped her pen in ink, and roughly marked its shape and position along the edges on the paper, then set the railing aside and began slowly tracing it out.
The dip pen wasn’t nearly as easy to handle as she’d imagined, and unlike a pencil, mistakes couldn’t simply be erased. After several failed attempts in a row, Dan Qing let out a long sigh.
So television dramas really had been lying all along, a transmigrated heroine trying to use ancient tools to show off some modern skill was never going to be this easy!
Before, she’d been able to reproduce models at a perfect one-to-one scale using various fine-lined drafting pens, but now this dip pen simply refused to cooperate, never mind drawing a freehand circle, she could barely manage a few straight lines of even thickness!
“That’s not how you learn to draw,”
Kangxi, who had been watching from the side for quite some time, couldn’t help but chime in with some instruction. “You need to first grasp the overall shape, what matters is capturing the essence, there’s no need to fuss so much over the details.”
Yinreng added his advice too. “Why don’t you start with something simpler first? Like, why not try drawing this inkstone here?”
Dan Qing looked over to where he pointed, it was a square stone inkstone, with a perfectly round ink well set neatly in the middle, with no other decoration at all.
This was probably the simplest thing Yinreng could find on the desk, if even this didn’t work, there’d be nothing left but that bare stick of ink.
Dan Qing also thought drawing this wouldn’t be difficult, so she reached over and moved it onto the paper, and began positioning it with the dip pen once more.
Yinreng had studied painting since he was small, and even now was mostly still copying from models, but his way of copying was to look and then draw it out, and it had never once occurred to him that one could simply press an object directly onto the paper and trace it like this.
He turned to look at Kangxi, trying to find some answer there, but only saw an expression on Kangxi’s face like he wanted to say something and couldn’t quite find the words.
Kangxi himself didn’t quite know how to judge his daughter’s manner of “drawing.”
To say it was wrong wasn’t quite right either, she was still young after all, and coming up with such a “clumsy method” on her very first attempt actually showed a certain flexibility of mind,
But to say it was right wasn’t quite fair either, this wasn’t drawing at all, she might as well just have called it rubbing a print!
Just as Kangxi was hesitating over whether to keep correcting his daughter, he saw Dan Qing move the inkstone aside, then tear off a strip of paper and start measuring and marking positions with it.
She used the paper strip to repeatedly compare the position of the ink well, taking measurements from the edges of the inkstone, then carefully connected the marked points together, gradually drawing out the ink well bit by bit.
There was nothing else for it, she had no calipers on hand, so she could only make do with this clumsy method for now.
Before long, the very first “painting” of the Fourth Princess of the Great Qing’s life was complete, a top-down view of the inkstone. Her pen control was poor, the lines uneven in thickness, full of marks where she’d drawn crooked and corrected herself, but when laid directly over the inkstone, it matched up almost perfectly, without the slightest discrepancy.
Kangxi wasn’t quite sure how to assess his daughter’s “masterpiece.”
To call it good, well, the thing looked like nothing more than a square with a circle nested inside it, and no outsider could possibly tell what it was meant to represent.
To call it bad, and yet it matched the exact dimensions of the object she’d meant to draw, so how could you really say it was drawn wrong?
After struggling with this for a long while, Kangxi finally offered his verdict: “It’s, it’s quite a good likeness.”
Dan Qing smiled with pride, after all, she’d reproduced it at a strict 1:1 scale. It might not be perfect, but a likeness it certainly was.
Yinreng: …
Something about this felt off, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what.
So should he applaud, or should he offer praise?
“Ahem, We think, you’re still young, there’s no rush when it comes to drawing,”
Kangxi felt a headache coming on, but didn’t want to dampen his daughter’s enthusiasm either, so he could only phrase it delicately. “We notice you seem to handle this Western pen fairly well, why don’t you start using it to practice writing characters instead, beginning tomorrow?”
Since his daughter clearly enjoyed rubbing prints, why not have her trace characters instead of objects?
Learning to write always started with tracing over model characters anyway, surely his daughter would like that too.
Dan Qing: …No thanks, she really had no particular interest in practicing calligraphy with a hard-tipped pen.
Seeing Dan Qing pout in reluctance, Kangxi hastened to find another angle. “We know you like drawing, but look, you can’t even hold the pen steady right now, and the lines you draw all come out crooked, don’t they? That’s not very attractive, is it? We should build a solid foundation first, learn to control the pen properly, and once you can manage it however you please, naturally you’ll be able to draw well.”
So, daughter, let’s trace characters for now instead.
Dan Qing mulled over what Kangxi had said and found it actually made some sense.
Technical drawing was all about precision, and her crooked, uneven lines really were a bit ugly.
So her eyes lit up, and she clapped her little hands together. “I know! Han Ama, I want a ruler!”
If she couldn’t draw straight, no problem, wasn’t the whole point of being human to learn how to use tools? With a ruler, of course she could draw straight lines!
Kangxi: …?
Was it possible that after all he’d said, all she’d taken from it was the idea of using a ruler to draw straight lines?
People might say his daughter was clever, well, not for something like this!
“Dan Qing, ah, you mustn’t always be thinking of shortcuts,”
Kangxi tried patiently to reason with her. “You surely don’t intend to use a ruler to draw for the rest of your life, do you?”
Dan Qing blinked innocently. “Why can’t I use a ruler to draw for the rest of my life?”
Kangxi: …
Right, why couldn’t his daughter use a ruler for the rest of her life, no wait, she’d led him astray again!
“Drawing is about capturing spirit and vitality, you can’t be too rigidly bound by fixed forms, and certainly shouldn’t only capture the shape while losing the essence,”
Kangxi tried hard to steer his daughter back on track. “Using a ruler for straight lines is fine, but what about the curved parts? Look, didn’t you just draw this ink well not quite round?”
Dan Qing thought it over, then asked further, “Then why can’t the ruler be curved?”
Kangxi: …
What a reasonable point, his daughter really was a genius.
The emperor who’d thought himself so skilled at raising children was thoroughly defeated by his own daughter, and gave up entirely, saying, “Fine, you can have whatever you want, tomorrow We’ll have someone make you a curved ruler.”
Never mind, his daughter was still so young, and it wasn’t as if he expected her to become some renowned master painter one day. Let her draw however she pleased.
Yinreng: …just, that’s it? He just gave in?
So what had all his own scoldings for not wanting to learn painting even been about, did that mean he just wasn’t likable enough?
For the first time, the young Crown Prince felt the sting of his Han Ama’s favoritism, but seeing his little sister’s especially happy smile, he could only swallow the sourness back down.
Never mind, his little sister was so adorable, of course Han Ama would favor her more.
Having had his principles inexplicably talked out of him by his own daughter, Kangxi hastily found an excuse and made his escape, and Yinreng, left behind, was about to leave as well, but Dan Qing pulled him back.
Dan Qing pointed at the wooden ship and said to him, “Weren’t you afraid you wouldn’t be able to put it back together if you took it apart, second brother? If we just draw out all the pieces on top and label how they connect, then there’s nothing to be afraid of anymore.”
Yinreng was surprised. “So you’re learning to draw in order to help me take apart the ship?”
How had she known that he’d wanted to take this thing apart for ages, but was afraid he wouldn’t be able to reassemble it and would be scolded by Kangxi for it?
Dan Qing nodded happily. “That’s right, don’t worry, second brother, I’ll definitely get the drawings right, and then we can take it apart together and play with it!”
Yinreng pinched his little sister’s cheek, and the sourness that had just welled up in his heart vanished completely, leaving only a warm feeling behind.
Han Ama might dote on his sister more, but his sister sided with him more, so in the end, he was still the one who received the most affection.
“All right, it’s settled then, once you’ve finished the drawings, we’ll take the ship apart together!”
Yinreng held out his little finger and hooked it with Dan Qing’s, this was something he’d learned from her, a way of sealing a promise.
He would absolutely keep the promise he’d made to his sister!
…
After coaxing Yinreng into a good mood, Dan Qing walked him to the door, and only went back into her side chamber once he’d gone off a good distance.
He Miao asked tentatively, “Princess, shall we keep drawing?”
Dan Qing shook her head. “Get me a basin of hot water, I want to soak my feet and rest a while.”
Playing the part of a foolish, adorable child was exhausting work, she had to put on a childish tone and way of speaking to get what she wanted, while also being careful to keep it within bounds so as not to annoy Kangxi, all while tending to Yinreng’s feelings on top of it. After all that, her mind felt completely numb, and she had no wish to do anything else, only to sleep.
She wished she could simply be an innocent little princess who did nothing but eat and play every day, but her reason told her she had to think ahead and plan for danger, and keep working to build closer ties with Kangxi and Yinreng.
Kangxi had far too many children, and right now she was his youngest daughter, so they naturally showed her a bit more affection, but perhaps before too long, a new little princess would be born, one of higher birth and more adorable than her.
She might be able to gain a bit more attention by relying on being raised in Cining Palace, but given the Grand Empress Dowager’s age, she couldn’t rely on her protection forever, she needed to be more distinctive still, to forge deeper bonds with Kangxi and Yinreng, in order to live well.
The wooden ship was the opportunity she’d chosen. A model this fine would take a long time to fully master and freely assemble and disassemble, and during that time, Yinreng would surely keep thinking of her, coming often to check on her progress, which would give them more time together, and let them build a deeper bond.
As for Kangxi, a daughter who didn’t follow the usual conventions would always leave a deeper impression on him than a princess who was properly well-behaved, she couldn’t hope to make Kangxi love her more than the others, but at least she wouldn’t fade into the crowd, and would come to his mind at once.
Once Dan Qing had finished soaking her feet, she curled up in bed, wrapping herself up tightly, and closed her eyes as if to sleep, though in truth countless thoughts were churning through her mind, all in a tangled mess.
She didn’t like calculating gains and losses over everything the way she did, as though family affection could really be calculated and won over, but she had no choice, she couldn’t bring herself to comfortably believe that the family here would love her unconditionally, without regard for their own interests.
After all, even her own birth mother didn’t love her, so how could anyone else?
Sumalagu had glanced in from the doorway for a while, then didn’t go in, and went back to report to the Grand Empress Dowager instead.
“The Fourth Princess has gone to sleep, and nothing seems amiss,”
Sumalagu reported. “Old ancestress, could you be overthinking this? This servant sees the Fourth Princess as simply loving to play, nothing more.”
But the Grand Empress Dowager shook her head. “That child, she’s deliberately putting on a childish act.”
Sumalagu urged, “What’s wrong with acting childish? This servant sees that both His Majesty and the Crown Prince like it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just that living this way is far too exhausting,”
The Grand Empress Dowager sighed. “When I was young, I too would deliberately act naive and innocent in front of my father Ečige, hoping he’d dote on me more for it, but after acting that way for so long, I came to believe it myself. That’s why, when he insisted I marry Hong Taiji, it hurt me so deeply.”
Sumalagu, recalling those old days, sighed a little herself. “Circumstances forced his hand back then too, there was nothing else to be done.”
“I know Ečige had his own reasons, and in the end, events proved him right, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt,”
The Grand Empress Dowager turned the prayer beads in her hand. “That’s why I hope Garu can win His Majesty’s favor, but I also fear she’ll fall too deeply into the role herself. This Emperor of ours, he’s more clear-headed than anyone, I’m afraid that one day, when he needs Garu for something, he won’t spare a thought for her feelings, and will force her to do something she doesn’t want to do. Rather than risk that, it might be better to let her be an ordinary little princess, with no expectations, that way, she won’t get hurt.”