It's been thirteen years since Lan Zhan was last in a room with Wei Wuxian, but its been five minutes since he saw Wei Ying teaching art online. Devising a complex plan to save Wei Ying from being framed from murder, Lan Zhan throws his life and he...
How he survived before he knew this, he didn't know.
At some point past midnight, two days into his first video binge, Lan Zhan had wondered if Wei Ying was hyperactive. By the end of the weekend, he was convinced of it. And it was adorable.
It should have been irritating that Wei Ying never settled, flitting from one project to another, that his mind as sharp as it was dynamic, also had a short attention span. But it didn't. Wei Ying focused always on what was important, like his little boy but creatively he was brilliant on a different level.
What did it matter if he was hyperactive? Three weeks of research into the matter, led to some worrying moments about depression and burnout, but from what he had seen Wei Ying was laid-back, always looking for the good life, no matter his hardships. It was admirable, but frankly it just made him love Wei Ying more.
Lan Zhan had literally gone from seeing him once in thirteen years, exactly one month ago in October with A-Yuan, to seeing him in every spare moment and most of the night.
The loneliness had eased, the feeling of the walls caving in on him gone without memory. His painfully still life only interrupted by investigations, calls from Mother and visits from his brother, was now filled with a vibrancy that was addictive.
The silent apartment now featured Wei Ying's voice as he cooks or cleans. Enraptured by his flute songs and enthralled by his art classes. Wei Ying is a brilliant teacher, patient and impressive, welcoming and charming in his enthusiasm for the subject.
Sometimes he paints with Nie Huaisang, who shares this painting tutorial series. If its a shared video, they always choose the same empty white room, with a skyline just visible from the window. They spend most of the time together and it shows.
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Wei Ying though really specializes in oils and abstract acrylic, while Nie Huaisang teaches watercolor, ink and jewelry making. After three weeks, Lan Zhan finally knows all the names, the different between acrylics and watercolor beyond the things everyone knows.
Their pastels series was remarkable for the level of detail the duo managed to achieve. Their traditional ink paintings were a marvel and the silk one was eye-opening.
He loved watching that steady pale hand, the stroke of the brush as it dabbed color or sketched a line. The look of sweet concentration in mercury eyes, as color traces and bleeds into the canvas, building something from what was empty space.
From nothing he boldly creates, sweeps and dashes in ink or paint transcending to form something new, something beautiful.
It's like watching life itself, he thinks lost as he watches. Shapes emerge from simple lines, shadows and shade, light and highlights. A simple oval standing in for a face, but the longer he waits, the more that appears.
