Thinking that once Yang Dayong had the samples ready in a few days, the store could open, but the plaque was still missing, and there was still no news about the one the County Magistrate had mentioned. No one knew what kind of plaque it was, whether it could serve both as signage and the store’s name.
So, the idea was to have the plaque made first, and once the items were ready, the store could open directly. After having dinner, he went to Ye Zi’an’s house with Ye Zi’an.
Upon entering, Yang Chuxia couldn’t wait and said, "Brother An, hurry up and write the plaque! I almost forgot about this."
"Don’t rush, I haven’t mixed the ink yet." Ye Zi’an laughed and took out a new inkstick and placed it on the inkstone, added some water, and started mixing the ink.
"What do you plan to name the store?" he asked Yang Chuxia, who was staring intently at the ink in his hand.
Yang Chuxia didn’t hesitate, "It’s simple. Just call it Yang Family Furniture Store, hehe."
"Yang Family Store?" Ye Zi’an paused and looked at Yang Chuxia incredulously, "Is it that simple for you? Others who open stores would either ask people of good reputation to come up with a name or seek those scholars in the academy. Those names are always full of meaning, but you just casually came up with one."
"Aiyo," Yang Chuxia sat down on a chair and crossed his legs, looking quite casual, and blinked at Ye Zi’an, "My name also has a lot of meaning, okay? The first character, ’Yang’, has many layers of meaning."
Ye Zi’an spread his hands, speechless, and made a "Please continue" gesture for Yang Chuxia to continue.
"Don’t believe me? The first character ’Yang’ has two layers of meaning. One represents the Yang Family, and the other represents our Yangshu Village. Yangshu Village’s Yang Family’s furniture store, get it?"
"Pfft..." Ye Zi’an couldn’t help but laugh weakly after listening, seeing Yang Chuxia squinting his eyes and nodding continuously, "I understand, I understand, I understand too well."
"If you understand, then hurry up and write it!" Yang Chuxia urged and lightly pushed Brother An, "Come on, Brother An, write it quickly, and once it’s done, I’ll take it to Uncle Dayong tomorrow to have it framed. When you have time, help me with the patterns too."
"Alright, alright, I’m going to write now!" Ye Zi’an said as he walked to the table, spread out the paper, and took out some of his calligraphy brushes.
"What font do you want?"
"Wild cursive!" Yang Chuxia said without hesitation. This was her store, and it had to fit her taste. Someone with her personality could best appreciate wild cursive.
Hearing that she wanted wild cursive, Ye Zi’an took out a wolf-hair brush that his father had left him from the cabinet below.
Yang Chuxia looked closely and noticed that the wolf-hair brush seemed to be made of red sandalwood, the expensive kind of small-leaf red sandalwood. She hadn’t expected Brother An to have such a valuable item.
Following her gaze, Ye Zi’an seemed to know her thoughts and said, "This was left to me by my father. It was given to him by a classmate when he took the exams. Later, when Ms.Hua Junior came into the family, she treated me poorly behind my father’s back. When my father fell ill, I quietly hid the things my father left me."
"Not bad, clever!" Yang Chuxia praised Ye Zi’an.
Ye Zi’an shyly smiled at her words and focused his attention on the paper in front of him.
After a short while, a vigorous and lively piece of calligraphy appeared before Yang Chuxia’s eyes. Yet, when Yang Chuxia looked at the name she had chosen and the characters, she felt something was off, as if the name was too modest, and the characters were too grand.