Chapter 2

During the Qingming Festival, the drizzle that had persisted for many days finally ceased. As the morning bell of Daxiangguo Temple rang out, the splendid and bustling Kaifeng once again displayed its most enchanting scenery.

The weeping willows along the banks of the Hulong River swayed in the wind, and the green waves of the Jinshui River rippled. Over the Bian River, Cai River, and Wuzhang River, boats were lined up in a continuous stream, and the banks were bustling with carriages and carts, with goods piled high like mountains.

From An Yuan Gate in the north to Panlou Street in the south, the Muxing Street, stretching over twenty li, was teeming with people, shoulder to shoulder.

On both sides of the street, shops and taverns were filled with customers, and all industries were thriving. Even the small vendors selling drinks and snacks wore silk clothes and shoes, presenting a scene of prosperity and abundance, like a real-life version of the "Qingming Shanghe Tu" (Along the River During the Qingming Festival)...

Wu Haogu was sitting in a teahouse on Muxing Street in Kaifeng, in the year Yuanyou of the Northern Song Dynasty, by the window. Beside him was a new three-legged easel, on which an unfinished painting of the street scene was placed. He looked at the endless stream of passersby on the street, and his face once again showed a look of bewilderment and helplessness.

Soul transmigration is really a thing!

Because this was indeed Kaifeng, and it was indeed Kaifeng in the year 1098 of the Northern Song Dynasty...

Ten days after leaving the Kaifeng prison, Wu Haogu finally accepted the incredible reality that his soul had traveled back about 900 years, into the body of an ancient Song Dynasty person.

Wu Haogu was his name in this life, and his soul came from the 21st century, 900 years later. He was now over seven feet tall, slender and weak, with a pale face and no beard. Dressed in a clean and tidy blue scholar's robe and wearing a white headscarf, he seemed to be a cultured and refined scholar.

In his previous life, he was named Wu Hao, an outstanding painter who graduated from the best art college in the country. He had a solid foundation in painting, having studied both Western oil painting and traditional Chinese painting.

However, to carve out a place for himself in the 21st-century art world, without any connections in the industry, was an unattainable goal. So after graduating from art school, he pragmatically entered the comic and game production industry, becoming a well-paid concept artist.

But deep in his heart, he never gave up the dream of becoming a great painter.

He never imagined that his dream might be realized in an unimaginable way.

His soul, for reasons unknown to 21st-century science, had traveled back nearly 920 years to the year 1098 in Kaifeng. Wu Haogu was his name now, a 20-year-old from a family of painters. His great-grandfather, Wu Zongyuan, was a famous painter during the reigns of Emperor Zhenzong and Emperor Renzong, known for his "Zhaoyuan Xianzhang Tu" (Procession of Immortals to the Imperial Court).

By the time Wu Haogu's father, Wu Chengzhi, inherited the family, the family's fortunes had declined. Although Wu Chengzhi had once been a member of the Imperial Painting Academy, he did not achieve much and only reached the position of zhihou (attendant) before retiring to become a painting and calligraphy broker.

Although he had accumulated a considerable fortune, he was still a merchant, and he owned many valuable paintings and calligraphy. To some powerful officials, the Wu family on Panlou Street was a juicy target.

A month ago, disaster finally struck. Wu Chengzhi and Wu Haogu were framed for selling fake paintings to the palace and were both arrested and imprisoned in the Kaifeng prison.

Although Wu Haogu, with his new soul, was released from prison ten days ago, his father Wu Chengzhi was still imprisoned, awaiting rescue by the filial son Wu Haogu.

According to the rules of the Song Dynasty painting and calligraphy industry, selling fakes to the palace was not a serious offense. In the painting and calligraphy trade, fakes were common, and even treasures stored in the palace for years might not be genuine. However, painting and calligraphy brokers were responsible for authentication and identification. If the paintings and calligraphy they sold to the palace were not genuine, they were theoretically required to refund the money.

In practice, however, refunds were rarely given. First, the Song Dynasty imperial family was benevolent and did not hold grudges against merchants. Moreover, forging paintings and calligraphy was not a crime, and the government never interfered.

After all, those who could forge famous paintings were surely literati who shared the same world as the Song Dynasty imperial family. Could literati be considered criminals for forging paintings?

Since forgery was not a crime, it made no sense to punish those who sold fakes too harshly.

Therefore, the most severe penalty for selling fakes to the palace was a refund. If those who sold fakes were to be arrested and executed by the various "Qingtian" (upright officials) in Kaifeng, no one would dare sell paintings and calligraphy to the Song Dynasty imperial family and nobility, and the Song Dynasty would not have produced an artist emperor like Emperor Huizong.

Of course, if a painting and calligraphy broker could not refund the money, the Imperial Household Department could issue a warrant to the Royal City Office to arrest the person.

However, the arrest was not to punish the person but to force the broker to quickly raise the money for the refund. The arrested person would not be detained by the Royal City Office or the Imperial Household Department but would be transferred to the Kaifeng prison.

The procedures were very complicated and required the approval of the upright officials in charge of Kaifeng.

For the eunuchs of the Imperial Household Department, it was best to avoid troubling the upright officials of Kaifeng.

In Wu Haogu's memory, it was rare for painting and calligraphy brokers to be arrested for selling fakes to the palace, and when it did happen, there was always a dark secret behind it!

And this dark secret usually involved a rare treasure!

So, the imprisonment of Wu Chengzhi and Wu Haogu was definitely not about deceiving the emperor but must be related to a treasure that could drive the powerful mad!

However, in Wu Haogu's memory, although the Wu family had many valuable collections that could fetch millions at Sotheby's a thousand years later, in the year 1098 of the Song Dynasty, these items were merely good, not rare treasures, and should not have brought such disaster to the Wu family...

Thinking about this, Wu Haogu could not help but complain to heaven.

You let me transmigrate, and not even give me a golden leg to cling to, and now you give me such a big problem?

I don't even know who the other party is or what treasure they want. What am I supposed to do?

Am I really going to be ruined and end up as a pancake seller like Wu Dalang?

Oh, heaven, please be kind and give me a golden leg to cling to.

"Like! Really like! It's really amazing..."

Wu Haogu, who was praying to heaven, suddenly heard a series of exclamations.

He quickly turned his head and saw a man standing in front of the easel, wearing a white silk robe, with a square headscarf and flowers in his ear. He was tall and robust but had a delicate and handsome face. He was staring intently at the unfinished painting on the easel.

The easel was made by a carpenter a few days after Wu Haogu was released from the Kaifeng prison, based on the drawings he provided. It looked like the easels of the future.

On the easel was an unfinished charcoal landscape sketch on a wooden board, drawn with charcoal sticks made from willow branches burned in a sealed container.

Using charcoal sticks for sketching was a common technique in both sketching and oil painting, and Wu Haogu was proficient in it. He had specialized in hyper-realistic oil painting and had also studied realistic Chinese painting, so his charcoal sketching skills were indeed very high.

Although ancient Chinese painting emphasized expression, it did not mean that realistic painting had no market. Gongbi painting, which flourished during the Tang and Song dynasties, emphasized "exquisite detail" and "capturing the spirit and form, using lines to define form, and using form to convey meaning." In gongbi painting, whether it was figure painting or flower-and-bird painting, the goal was to achieve realism and focus on detail. Wu Haogu had studied gongbi painting diligently in this life and had good skills.

After thinking for a few days after his release from prison, Wu Haogu realized that the only thing he could rely on in Kaifeng at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty was the painting skills accumulated from his two lives, so he resumed his habit of always having a brush in hand.

Seeing the man's elegant attire and demeanor, Wu Haogu was surprised: Could it be that heaven is so kind and has given me a golden leg to cling to?

He quickly stood up and bowed, "Sir, you flatter me."

In Wu Haogu's memory, besides a large amount of Song Dynasty painting techniques and the classics that scholars must study, there was also a lot of knowledge about daily life. So, seeing the man's attire and age, he knew he was likely a clerk or a minor official, so he respectfully called him "Sir."

The man in the silk robe smiled, "Your gongbi skills are truly remarkable. I am Gao Qiu, a clerk under Governor Wang. May I ask for your name?"

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