The only regret Wang Shan currently harbored was that he had not found a single clue regarding the person who signed their work "Linjiangxian."
It gnawed at him. He had once entrusted others to make inquiries, learning that three paintings signed by Linjiangxian had appeared in the prefecture city once. Unfortunately, they had been purchased for six hundred taels of silver by Ouyang Mingtai, the young master of the Ouyang family in Huainan Prefecture. Had it been an ordinary household, Wang Shan might have relied on the reputation of the Wang Family and his own silver tongue to negotiate a purchase, but the Ouyang family was not someone he—or rather, the Wang Family—could afford to provoke.
Ouyang Zhao, now eighty-two, was the tutor to the current Emperor. Three years ago, he had petitioned the Emperor for permission to return to the ancestral home in Huainan Prefecture with his twelve-year-old grandson, Ouyang Mingtai. The Ouyang family had been a single-lineage house for three generations, and Ouyang Zhao treasured his grandson deeply. His son, Ouyang Chun, was a man of genuine talent; not only was he blessed with good fortune in his birth, but he was also diligent, earning his position as a Jinshi through his own merit rather than his father’s shadow. Ouyang Chun currently held a post at the Imperial Academy. Ouyang Mingtai was a child born to Ouyang Chun in his later years, part of a set of twins; his sister, Ouyang Yazhi, had been born less than half a quarter-hour bef…
Chapter 175