246 well-intentioned efforts

Mr. Yu Shan picked up the brush and danced it across the canvas, then nodded to himself and said, "Good, truly good." He then burst into laughter and said, "Such a rare masterpiece, I must drink wildly."

Yueyao was dumbfounded. Although she did not have a great talent in poetry, her literary foundation wasn't bad, and her knowledge was fairly wide. Yet, she could barely recognize half of Mr. Yu Shan's characters, and even the ones she did recognize were mostly guesses.

Mr. Yu Shan, however, was very proud, stroking his beard and smiling with his eyes wide as he said to the bemused Yueyao, "Why don't you stamp your seal on it?" Such a good painting definitely needed its creator's name stamped on it.

Yueyao couldn't help but say, "The seal is in the house; I didn't bring it out." It was common practice to stamp one's seal on good paintings as a means of authentication.