Portrait

Once the skills on the Gray Wall entered the Second Tier, they underwent a qualitative transformation.

Take calligraphy. Looking only at the structure of the characters, someone newly entering the Second Tier showed no obvious difference from someone at the peak of Tier 1.

But when looking over an entire piece of writing, Second Tier characters carried an extra, distinctive charm.

When he had copied scriptures for Qingfeng Temple, the later volumes had clearly gained an ethereal quality. Just looking at the handwriting made one feel the mystery of the Daoist scriptures.

Likewise, once his drawing ability entered the Second Tier, a great deal of knowledge appeared in his mind.

When drawing the shape of a face, the general forms of different faces surfaced in his mind.

When drawing eyes, all kinds of eyes—phoenix eyes, peach blossom eyes, triangular eyes, watery eyes, and more—appeared in his mind.

As soon as he sketched the bridge of a nose, all manner of information on the Three Courts Five Eyes and the arrangement of the facial features came flooding in.

As long as someone described a person clearly enough, he could draw them to seventy or eighty percent likeness without ever seeing them in person.

More than that, he also understood the mixing of all kinds of pigments like the back of his hand.

Pigments that repelled insects and decay, preserved paintings permanently, or even turned invisible and changed color—he now had a slight understanding of all these miraculous materials.

After combing his hair, trimming his beard, changing into clean clothes, and gathering his brush, ink, paper, inkstone, along with the painting he had named Xiaoqian, Chen Mu left home and headed straight for Anle Ward.

The rice jar was already empty. If he did not start business soon, he would not even have food to eat!

Anle Ward, Ruyi Abode.

Chen Mu found the proprietor and handed over his only three copper coins. He rented a table, chairs, stools, and the patch of open space by the entrance for one day.

Ruyi Abode was one of the four finest restaurants in Anle Ward.

It specialized in elegant vegetarian dishes and was especially skilled at medicinal cuisine that nourished the body and purged toxins.

Besides wealthy pleasure-seekers, singers from the various brothels often ordered meals here as well.

The singers rarely showed their faces in public, but they always had servants and attendants running errands for them.

Chen Mu had no reputation. If he wanted to open up the situation quickly, he had to let customers see his work as soon as possible.

These singers' servants were exactly who he had set his sights on.

Just as he was arranging the table and chairs, a familiar elderly figure shuffled into Ruyi Abode.

Yet the moment he entered, he backed out again. After sizing Chen Mu up twice, he asked with a half-smile, "Have you thought it through, lad? You really intend to sell paintings here?"

It was the old painter Chen Mu had met last time.

Afterward, Chen Mu had asked around. The man's surname was Yan, and he was quite well known. He had spent his whole life drifting through Anle Ward, and many singers who had once eclipsed all others had sought him out to paint their portraits.

"Just earning a bite to eat," Chen Mu said calmly.

"Do you know who I am?" Master Yan asked.

"Master Yan is a master hand with brush and ink, an honored guest among the great singers," Chen Mu replied.

"Then it seems you still don't know who I am." Master Yan gave a dark chuckle. "It's fine. You'll know soon enough."

With that, he strolled into Ruyi Abode to eat.

Chen Mu wore a baffled expression.

Was he not simply Master Yan? Did he have some other special identity?

As the flow of customers into Ruyi Abode increased, Chen Mu pushed his doubts to the bottom of his heart.

After arranging the table and chairs, he spread Xiaoqian flat across the tabletop and used an inkstone as a paperweight to hold down the corners. Then Chen Mu sat confidently behind the table and waited.

Ideally, he should have mounted the painting and hung it up. That would have made it more eye-catching.

Unfortunately, Chen Mu was out of money.

It was around noon, the very time when the singers of the various establishments began to rise, eat, and go about their business.

Servants emerged from the brothels and moved between rouge shops, cloth shops, jewelry stores, and other places. Ruyi Abode drew off a portion of them as well.

The moment these people saw Chen Mu and the painting on his table, their eyes were drawn to it.

Its vivid, lifelike dimensional style and photo-like resemblance captured them in an instant.

Before long, a circle of people had gathered around Chen Mu's desk.

Some quick-witted ones had already collected meal boxes and hurried back at a run.

Chen Mu glanced at the back of a maid hurrying away, and his heart blossomed with delight.

It looked like he would be opening for business very soon.

And that maid had been quite pretty.

The singer she served could not be much worse.

Not only could he make money, he could also feast his eyes on beautiful singers.

I really did choose the right path!

But before the pretty maid could return, an old man came looking for him first.

"Steward Li?" Chen Mu asked in confusion.

"Did you paint this?" Steward Li's face was as cold as ever, and his words were equally brief.

"I did," Chen Mu answered honestly.

"Come with me." After glancing once more at the lifelike portrait on the table, Steward Li spoke blandly.

This... was business coming to his door?!

Overjoyed, Chen Mu quickly rolled up Xiaoqian and put away his brush and ink. He called out to a waiter from Ruyi Abode to help carry the table and chairs inside, then hurried after Steward Li.

He wondered whose portrait he would be painting.

Could Steward Li have a lover hidden in Anle Ward?

No, it was more likely that the Wang Family's Eldest Young Master had hidden a beauty here.

After Chen Mu left with Xiaoqian, the onlookers dispersed as well.

Master Yan, who had somehow come back out of Ruyi Abode, stood silently before the table.

"Master Yan, the usual rules?" A Burly Man appeared behind him.

"That brat is asking for a lesson, selling paintings here without getting approval from our Wonderful Painting Workshop." Another scrawny man chimed in with a snicker. "Rest assured, Master Yan. A greenhorn like that will learn the rules after one beating."

Master Yan had spent his entire life drifting through Anle Ward.

He had painted portraits for people since his youth. Because his painting skills were exceptional, his fame had quickly spread far and wide.

Wonderful Painting Workshop valued his skill and used every means at its disposal to force him into joining.

Later, as his skills grew tremendously, he gradually gained a foothold in Wonderful Painting Workshop.

After obtaining enough benefits, he colluded with Wonderful Painting Workshop to control the book and portrait trade in Anle Ward.

Many scholars who made their living selling paintings were either forced to join Wonderful Painting Workshop and serve it, or driven away through one means or another.

Master Yan stared at the long table where the painting had just been displayed. After pondering for a moment, he suddenly said, "Find out his background. If he has no backing, find a chance to break both his hands."

The tall and short men exchanged glances. Master Yan intended to cripple that scholar!

"Yes." The two hurriedly nodded.

Master Yan nodded in satisfaction. Thinking of that exquisitely lifelike portrait, he let out a cold snort.

The painting was very good, but it was too good!

So good that he could not imitate it at all.

If such a person joined the workshop, he would become a threat to him.

After spending half his life with the workshop, lording it over others for so long, he had no desire to be overturned by someone in his old age.

"Then I can only cripple you."

Chen Mu followed Steward Li at a brisk pace.

Before he knew it, they had actually left Anle Ward.

"Not in Anle Ward? Could it be that the Wang Family's Eldest Son had hidden a beauty in a golden house and was keeping a concubine outside?"

The two got into a carriage and hurried toward the city center along East Market's main street.

Inside the carriage, Steward Li spoke little and kept his eyes closed to rest. Chen Mu found it awkward to strike up a conversation, so he could only look at the scenery through the window.

As the carriage moved, the buildings on both sides of the street became more orderly. The clothing of the passersby also noticeably improved.

The streets were paved with bluestone, while the houses gradually changed from small homes and courtyards into deep mansions and grand compounds.

About a quarter-hour later, they arrived before a vermilion-painted gate.

Chen Mu recognized the place. It was the Wang Family Compound, the family who owned the house he rented.

Did some young lady of the Wang Family need a portrait?

Perhaps she had reached marriageable age, and her family was preparing a portrait for matchmaking.

Steward Li had most likely been going to find Master Yan.

Heh, does this count as stealing that old man's business? Chen Mu thought cheerfully.

He followed Steward Li through a side gate.

Rockeries and Ponds, pavilions and towers lined the way, leaving Chen Mu deeply impressed. As expected of a wealthy household.

Then Steward Li led him into the inner courtyard, where seven or eight Servants waited beneath the open sky.

Some carried basins of water, some held towels, and some carried food boxes.

The moment he entered the room, a heavy medicinal smell rushed at him.

Was this young lady ill too?

"Young Master, the painter has arrived," Steward Li said respectfully as he approached a Middle-aged Man in his forties.

"Him?" The Middle-aged Man gave Chen Mu a doubtful look.

Steward Li reached out, took the painting from Chen Mu's hands, and unfolded half of it for the Middle-aged Man to see.

"Not bad. He'll do." The Middle-aged Man's eyes lit up, and he nodded in satisfaction.

"Come with me." Steward Li beckoned Chen Mu and walked into the inner room.

"This is my family's master. Please paint a portrait, Young Master Li." Steward Li gestured toward the bed and said softly, "The master is gravely ill. Should the worst happen, it will at least leave his descendants a likeness to remember."

Chen Mu stared blankly over.

An old man with a pale face and breath as thin as a thread lay unconscious on his back upon the bed.

"The finest brush and ink have already been prepared. Begin."

Chen Mu: "..."

This... this was asking him to paint a posthumous portrait!

What happened to the beautiful young lady?