“Girls don’t go watch romance movies with another girl.
“Why don’t you go with her instead? I know of a theater that have these seats that were designed just for lovers that’s super mighty and super romantic...”
He was interrupted by a low and hoarse voice before he was done talking.
“We are not lovers.”
Qin Ruhai felt a tinkling sensation in the back of his neck.
“An engaged couple is even more intimate than a dating couple.”
Huo Sishen just pushed the ticket farther away from himself.
His icy, handsome face looked like it was wrapped in layers of ice.
“She just has nowhere to stay temporary after she was kicked out by the Gu’s.”
As though all he was doing was just providing her with a place to stay. And that there was nothing between them beyond that and most definitely nothing remotely romantic.
Qin Ruhai’s lips twitched a little.
Yeah, right!
He was someone who hated the hospital, but he accompanied the little girl there affectionately.
On top of that, he had also heard from Siyi that even though the two of them lived under the same roof, they would send each other gifts via delivery service day in and day out.
And they’d chat on WeChat daily and send each other red packets.
And, Huo Sishen, who had never cared about his own health would now get off work and go home on time for dinner. Sometimes being the first to leave the office!
He had become a completely different person!
He obviously had feelings for her!
No feelings for her? She was just staying there temporarily? Who’d buy that?
Qin Ruhai, as one who bragged that he had been dating since before he was of age and was incredibly experienced in this area, only saw too many holes in Huo Sishen’s words!
Huo Sishen, however, did not allow him time to finish his logical deduction.
He summoned someone through the intercom to see Qin Ruhai out.
Qin Ruhai was taken aback.
At the same time, Gu Shishi, on the other end of the house, was blushing right now.
She had received a movie ticket brought to her by Aunty Zheng – and there was only 1 ticket!
[Beep! Received a ticket to an exclusive movie. Price valued at: 249,303 yuan.]
[Recharge successful.]
[Life balance: 30 days.]
Gu Shishi felt so emotional that she almost jumped up into the air.
It took her a while to calm herself down and, finally, waited until Aunty Zheng had left before she jumped onto the leather couch and rolled around on it.
OOOOOoooooHHHHhhh!
She really wanted to shriek!
The amount of life that she had spent on exchanging for the formula a while back had been filled up to max instantly!
She has her one month’s worth of life back!
In addition – grabbing the movie ticket in her hand, she sat up with the couch, blushing a little. She looked at the title of the movie carefully – The Love Notebook– and she blush deepened.
This was a very well-known romance movie.
She had watched it previously.
Now that the ticket was delivered to her by Aunt Zheng, that could only mean that the boss was inviting her to a movie!
And, he knew what he was doing this time. He picked a sweet and romantic film and the theater was chartered... did that mean they would be the only two there?
Gu Shishi smacked her lips and there was a dry sensation in her mouth and throat suddenly.
She suddenly recalled some embarrassing scenes that were somewhat vague and somewhat clear from the night that she had gotten drunk.
Did the boss plan to profess his love for her? Was he planning on formally proposing to her?
Speaking of, she was already half way to LV5 and that would put her at half way to the maximum of LV 10. Was she about to go from fiancée to wife officially?
Gu Shishi held her little face.
“The boss... can be quite efficient when he wants to be, hah!”
She was going to stream herself drawing but now her mind was occupied with all sorts of ideas such as “Does the boss really like me?”, “Once he had professed his love for me, should I accept it, accept it, or accept it...”, “It’s okay if we are not in love just yet, we can work on that after we get married” and such important thoughts along this line.
All of a sudden, her state of painting for the day was off.
[Channel Master! Earth to Channel Master! Your brush is drying up!]
[Yeah, normally you would just go. What’s up with you today?]
[Are you still going draw cute little kids today, Channel Master? I’ve been here for half a day now. You haven’t even moved yet!]
[Am I the only one who noticed the BVLGARI jewelry that the Channel Master has on?]
[I suspect that the Channel Master is actually showing off her wealth but I have no proof of it.]
Gu Shishi did not look at the screen. She had already figured out what she wanted to draw and had converted the skills as well but now she had forgotten all about it.
Holding the brush in her hand, she started zoning out.
Perhaps out of habit, not too long later, she started mindlessly doodling slowly on the paper.
The audiences were already impatient from the blank piece of paper earlier, and now that she started doodling and making lines that looked like jumbled up yarns, the audiences started to become irritated.
Many of the audiences that were here for the first time started attacking her.
[Is this what you are going to show me?!]
[Say something already, Channel Master!]
[Such a disappointment. What a waste of my time!]
[What is this?!]
Even her old-timers began exiting the room.
The number of audiences online went down from 2,000 to 124.
But Gu Shishi was still oblivious to that.
Someone else was anxious though.
[King of the Hill: @Everyone. Please remain quiet. It takes creativity to draw. Can you guys show some patience? Sheesh.]
[King of the Hill donated a skyscraper.]
[King of the Hill donated a skyscraper.]
[King of the Hill donated a skyscraper.]
***
He sent over 10 of them in a row.
And spent 5,000 yuan just like that.
[Darn! A fool with money!]
[Hah! The one pretended to be Second Generation Rich is back!]
[Why would any one pay for this doodling?!]
A while ago, King of the Hill almost got into a fight with someone in the channel.
Many remembered and not have a very so good impression about him.
They had not expected that he’d jump in and help maintaining order in the room today.
Even though the way he talked was still... rude.
[King of the Hill: Instructor... Guru is practicing right now. Even though her skill was of mastery level, she never falls behind on her basics. That’s not something that a layman would understand.]
[King of the Hill: Anyone who didn’t want to watch can click on the “X” on the upper right-hand corner. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.]
This King of the Hill was none other than Luo Zhang.
He had always watched every live stream of the Ink Painting Guru, no matter the hours.
And now, he was very genuine in his intention to learn from Gu Shishi.
Master Wang, who was very famed back in the days, had accepted him as his disciple but had criticized his work. He had severed the relationship with him and never visited him again.
Now, recognizing his own shortcoming, he realized that everything that Master Wang had said about him was true but he was too ashamed to return.
So he decided to turn to Gu Shishi instead.
Painting would cultivate one’s temperament.
Luo Zheng wasn’t shooting to become a painter, just aimed to become a better version of himself.
As such, he came as soon as he learned that Gu Shishi was streaming today.
He hadn’t expected that she was in a trance, doodling, and was being attacked by others in the channel.
Luo Zheng was a little annoyed. He gave her a lot of donations and took care of those people for her.
Most importantly, he had lost to her and he was even willing to learn under her.
If others were attacking her, it would be like they were walking all over him!
What did these people sitting behind the keyboards know anyway?
The Luo’s might have gone downhill, but he still could still afford the amount to take care of a streaming channel.
“Ah.”
His clean up acts and his continuous donation served the purpose of finally getting Gu Shish’s attention.
Her face immediately started to burn when she saw the doodling on the paper.
She felt that even the brush was burning in her hand.
Should her master still be alive, he’d probably be smacking her hands with his bamboo stick right about now.
How did she space out so much with the brush in her hand?
She had already forgotten all about what she had planned on drawing.
It was just a date with the boss.
Gu Shishi, be nonchalant!
Aye!
She shook her head vigorously in an attempt to spin out as much water from her head as possible.
In particular, she needed to stop thinking about anything suggestive.
After all, fiancée is one thing. Once they were married, wouldn’t they have to engage in unspeakable, below-the-neck activities in the dark?
Oh mi!
Gu Shishi could only cover up her face with her hand that wasn’t holding a brush.
She had painted plenty of portraits with her master and she was fairly familiar with men’s body and physique.
She had never given that too much thought. It was no different than painting bamboos, or sceneries, but now...
The thought of them made her blush.
“Ahem, pardon me, everyone. I was lost in thoughts for a while there.”
Gu Shishi apologized immediately.
[King of the Hill: ...]
Luo Zheng was about to be faceslapped by the 100 or so people that were still remaining in the room.
Lost in thoughts?!
It was just earlier today when she had lectured him that he must remain focused whenever he was holding a brush in his hand!
He even assigned himself 200 middle strokes as punishment.
Luo Zheng flipped out!
And more mockery came at him in the channel.
[She was spacing out and you called that practicing? @King of the Hill, are you trying to be funny?]
[First you pretended to be a Second Generation Rich, now you pretended that you are oh so refined. You are going to be struck by lightning soon!]
[Hoho. Keep faking it, King of the Dogs!]
Gu Shishi glanced over at the comments in the channel for a change and noticed that King of the Hill, who was trying to defend him, was now being called King of Dogs.
She felt bad for a second there.
“Ugh... Well, King of the Hill wasn’t entirely wrong.
“I have been painting for a long time and practicing is already in my bones. Even though I was lost in thoughts, but since I was holding the brush, I was practicing as well.”
Gu Shishi scratched her head.
“It’s sort of practicing.”
[Shoot, Channel Master, who’s side are you on?]
[Channel Master Dog!]
[Hoho, what a bizarre practice. Do you really think we’d buy that?!]
Gu Shishi rolled her eyes.
“Calm down, everything. This is not a practice on your basic strokes, but a practice on life-saving technique.”
Those who were just about to leave the channel all paused for a little bit.
[Life-saving?]
[Never heard of that before.]
[Channel Master, we will give you one-minute time to explain yourself.]
“Unlike sketching where you can erase and redo, or oil painting where you can pick out the mistakes, ink painting is always do or die.
“In ink painting, when a mistake was made, it was usually very difficult to make corrections. Most of the time you will just have to restart from scratch.”
Many of the audiences in the channel could agree to that.
She has not only calmed them down now but also piqued their curiosity.
[That’s what my art teacher said as well. Are you saying that you are practicing on how to save this painting, Channel Master?]
[Channel Master, I must remind you that you have already completely messed this perfectly good piece of paper up with all your meaningless lines going all sorts of directions... and the ink were deep too...]
[It’d be a compliment even to call it abstract painting. This was like something my three-year-old would paint.]
[You can save this? I’ll give you a donation if you can save it; otherwise, I am going to unfollow you!]
[Unfollow warning +1]
“Anything is savable when one is skillful enough.”
Gu Shishi looked over at the piece of paper and her hand holding the brush also shuddered.
Sure enough, it was a mess and two third of the piece of paper was a mess.
The lines had no reasonings behind them and they were of different darkness. It would be difficult to paint over them with harder strokes.
Her heart jumped.
Arooo!
Exactly how much did she think about the boss and for how long earlier?!
To have painted so many random lines!
She wanted to cry.
But... that’s alright!
Gu Shishi took in a deep breath.
She had needed to paint many ink painting assignments for her master to review since a very young age.
Way back when she was just 16 years old, she had already figured out a set of life-saving techniques.
She could easily used those to pass as part of her assignments.
Gu Shishi dipped her brush into some clear water.
[Channel Master, I still like you a lot, but lying is very unbecoming.]
[Let’s do it. I am wagering 190 latiao!]
Picture: latiao (a form of snack food, I guess. Can’t explain the obsession over it…)
Source: Good ol’ Amazon
[I will wager my entire fortune – 3,400 gold coins. That’s all I’ve got.]
Never mind about the others. Even Luo Zheng, who had a pretty good idea about Gu Shishi’s ability, had his doubts.
Fixing a painting was only too difficult.
Especially when she was starting with lines that resembled radiation lines.
Hearing Gu Shishi’s words, Luo Zheng looked back over at the “painting” in front of her.
He stared at it for an extended amount of time and finally frowned and shook his head.
Nope. Not possible. It was hopeless.
There were simply too many random lines. How could she possibly alter them? It wasn’t like she could color it all black.
What kind of a painting would it be if she was to paint 2/3 of it black?
What kind of aesthetics would there be left?
Luo Zheng sighed.
The audiences in the streaming channel carried on with their wagers.
But Gu Shishi remained very calm.
She gave the painting paper another look, smiled, and started with her brush.
“I can save this.”
“I am going to start now.”
Having said that, she started with her brush.
She added a few dots here and there and the meaningless crisscrossed lines on the left-hand side turned into two to three chrysanthemums.
As for the meaningless lines on the right-hand side, she added a few strokes and smeared them with some water. With a few extra thin strokes as patterns, the original lines were turned clothing flowing in the wind.
And then there were the straight lines. Gu Shishi quickly added a few additional strokes and then they were turned into a nice and smooth jade ruyi.
240-2.jpg
Picture: Jade ruyi
Source: sohu.com
Last but not the least, all the other random lines that were deemed hopeless, with a few major hooks and lifts from Gu Shishi, were converted into either long hair that cascaded down to the ground, or folds on the clothes, or boulders, weeds, or wild flowers…
After just a short while, the wagers in the streaming channel began to decrease significantly.
All of the rantings have come to a grinding halt.
The one who just claimed to be an art major no longer made a sound.
As the facts were laid out in front of their eyes.
All the doodling that they had all deemed to be hopeless had been turned into part of a painting!
Not only were her modifications sensible. The lines and colors were natural. And, most importantly, the finally products made everybody gasped.
[Dang! Painting of a beautiful, drunken man!]
On the paper under Gu Shishi’s brush was a long hair, beautiful man who was drunk and lying on the ground. Lying casually on the ground next to him was a fancy jade ruyi, a wine pot, and a wine cup. There was even an ancient zither (guqin) with patterns of water on it. It seemed as though he was singing lightly in his chic, handsome, and unruly way…
[Darn! A truly elegant gentleman, jade on ears and stars on hat.]
[Hey there, previous poster. Stop showing off! I don’t get it! Darn!]
[Let me explain it for you:- This beautiful man, there are black and deep eyes on his clear and pale face. They exude a star like charm. His beautiful lips reflected a charming glow and make one wants to taste it!]
[Ugh. It’s truly scary to be so uncultured. The context was jade next to his ears and gems sparkling like starts on his hat, get it?]
[Eh? Looks like Channel Master was more cultured than me?]
[I thought the point was that Channel Master had successfully altered the painting and did such a good job at that!!!]
[6666. My mom just asked me why I was watching a streaming channel on my knees!]
[This Channel Master is better than a professor at an art institution!]
The compliments made Gu Shishi blushed a little.
But her lips curved upward uncontrollably.
She had gotten better.
Master, it had been so many years but she had finally got to the next level!
She being drunk once and painted over ten beautiful man paintings fluidly, she was able to bring out the temperament and spirit of an unruly man so effortlessly.
That was definitely not something she could achieve in the past.
In the past, there was Li Bai who recited a poem while he was drunk and it was passed on for millenniums.
Now there was Gu Shishi who painted a masterpiece after she was drunk.
Tsk, tsk, tsk!
[King of the Hill: I want to buy it!]
Luo Zheng’s hands itched again.
Typing in the streaming channel wasn’t enough. He went onto sending her a WeChat.
He even learned his lesson from his previous time and immediately transferred 10,000 yuan.
All he got was a coldhearted respond from Gu Shishi. [The one who had gone bankrupt should just watch. You are not in the position to purchase luxurious goods.]
Luo Zheng: ……
Ouch. That hurt.
It was only because he felt that the painting was very meaning.
It had come back from a state of destruction.
It was like a miracle!
The painting was very inspiring.
[Master Gu, I only wanted to buy it so I can learn from it. You can alter even objects, let alone humans. I want to buy it so I can inspire the Luo’s.]
[It is priceless.]
[I can buy it on credit.]
Gu Shishi turned of the streaming and thanked everyone for their donations.
[Mom and pop store. I don’t accept purchases on credits.]
[This painting cost 1,000,000 yuan.]
Luo Zheng: ……
Alright. Now he really can’t afford that!
He could only look at his cellphone and smiled bitterly. Refreshing Taobao repeatedly, he still held out a shred of hope that Gu Shishi was only joking.
Perhaps she’d only ask for 30,000 yuan, just like the chicken drawing before. He just might be the first person to grab it.
Soon, he really saw her posting it for 1,000,000 yuan, not a penny less.
And it was gone in a second.
Just one second and the product was gone.
“Shoot! Who was it?? How did they do that?! Was it Chen Kexin again???”
He frowned and grabbed his wrist.
But one second? He looked at the picture of the painting one more time.
Luo Zheng gasped as he gave it a closer look.
This pretty man in the painting looked somewhat familiar…?
After Gu Shishi had wrapped up her stream for the day, she placed her work onto Taobao as usual.
She has also posted it onto her WeChat with photos of different sizes and detailly listed out the size of the painting.
And added the link to Taobao.
Listed it at 1,000,000 yuan.
She narrowed her eyes.
She had been selling her paintings for 30,000 yuan.
But this one was different than the others. She could feel that it was done in her top condition. She didn’t even need alcohol to boost.
Her brush flowed in a carefree manner earlier and the beautiful man under her brush had good structure. His style was free but not his spirit.
Plus, she converted a surface full of random lines that couldn’t even be called a draft into an outstanding pretty man in ancient clothing
Hoho.
She was quite proud of herself and almost didn’t want to sell her work.
Thinking that her best work (the twelve-month of beautiful man after shower series) was confiscated made her sad.
She hadn’t even had a chance to take a good look at them and appreciate them the way that they deserved to be appreciated.
Which was why she was going to keep this altered painting for herself.
The brows, eyes, features, and body shape of the man in the painting did not resembling the man in real life much but his look and temperament was a replica of a certain boss.
His clothes were half opened and the sash hanging loosely from his waist.
Tsk, tsk…
Aiya. It was worthy of collecting!
Which was why Gu Shishi listed it at an “impossible” price.
Many shops on Taobao used this technique. When they wanted to attract eyeballs but not to actually sell the items, they’d list it for a ridiculously high price. Something that was way over the value of the item itself.
That way, nobody would ever purchase it.
Gu Shishi also felt that her Taobao shop never had enough products for sale.
Even though it was a business that required both inspiration and time, but it was a business after all. It’d be nice to always have 1 ~ 2 paintings on there.
Consumers should not only see “sold out”, “out of stock” whenever they came visit her store. She couldn’t have a store with nothing.
Gu Shishi thought she was being so smart coming up with that idea.
And that she was having a better business sense now than before.
After all, Taobao listed their items in descending order according to their prices. Her painting would be very noticeable to consumers.
If someone liked her work and followed her store, she’d gain another potential customer.
Besides, it was the first time she was posting a portrait. She’d also let the others know that she could also paint portraits and open up more doors for herself in the future.
Just when she was thinking about it, the Ink Painting Guru’s WeChat vibrated.