For the Nth time, Shen Tang wanted to leap up and perform brain surgery on Qi Shan's crown, but considering that they still had a little friendship left, she forcibly held herself back. Suppressing her anger, she said, "Hmph, why would he be embarrassed into anger? I drew it so well..."
Qi Shan: "..."
Now he could really be sure.
Young Master Shen's aesthetic sense was not like that of a normal person.
The two stared at each other, eyes wide, neither willing to back down first. In the end, Qi Shan rubbed his temples with a headache and avoided Shen Tang's eyes, which brimmed with confidence and righteous conviction. He had seen confident people before, but never anything like this.
How could someone be so confident with such lousy drawing skills?
Knowing that communication barriers would hinder efficiency, Qi Shan could only choose to "take the roundabout route." Tapping Shen Tang's masterpiece on the table, he asked in a solemn tone, "Even if you draw well, if that young male entertainer can't appreciate it, can you still get paid?"
Shen Tang, jolted awake by his words: "..."
Right. The client had to be satisfied.
She looked at Qi Shan with an existentially doubtful expression and asked for confirmation, "How do you know he has the same taste as you... that he won't appreciate it?"
Shen Tang swallowed the words "abnormal aesthetic sense."
It wasn't that she was intimidated by Qi Shan and afraid to retort. She was taking back her assessment entirely for the client's sake—or, rather, for the sake of the payment.
Qi Shan took a deep breath, then started speaking with sarcastic, thinly veiled mockery. "Most ordinary people have much the same eyes for beauty."
The eyes in Young Master Shen's head were truly an aberration.
Who knew that Shen Tang would ignore the "deeper meaning" in his words, nod thoughtfully, and sigh with regret. "The loftier the tune, the fewer who can sing along. I suppose this is what they mean by 'it's hard to find a kindred spirit.'"
She even shook her head with heartfelt emotion.
Qi Shan, nearly at a loss for words: "..."
Shen Tang looked at the two paintings on the table with some distress and pinched the space between her brows. "In that case... how do we explain this to the client—no, the young male entertainer? I can't draw something like yours."
Qi Shan asked, "Did you sign a contract with the manager?"
If she hadn't signed one, she could simply quit. At most, her reputation would suffer, making it harder to take on this sort of job in the future. But Young Master Shen didn't make a living by copying, writing, or painting for people, so a little damage to her reputation would be better than forcing herself to go through with it.
But Shen Tang said, "I've already signed the contract."
She had already taken the deposit, too.
Shen Tang took out her little money pouch and poured out more than twenty chopped-up pieces of silver with a clatter. Qi Shan's gaze grew increasingly complicated. Who had given her the courage to take a job and accept a deposit without the skills to do it? This was a disaster. He'd just have to see how Young Master Shen got herself out of it.
"What should we do now?"
Though Shen Tang still believed her painting skills were excellent—after all, they had once been how she earned a living; how could a few words from Qi Shan shake her confidence?—she was worried about one thing: no matter how well she thought she'd painted, it wouldn't matter if the client refused to pay.
She hesitated. "How about we sound out the young male entertainer? Maybe he's one of those rare 'kindred spirits' outside the ordinary world who can recognize beauty!"
Qi Shan: "..."
A kindred spirit outside the ordinary world???
Heh. Dreaming would be faster.
"If it really comes to it..."
Shen Tang was about to say, "If it really comes to it, we can still give it a try. If he really has thugs beat people up, it's not certain who'll end up beating whom," when Qi Shan spoke at the same time. "If it really comes to it, I'll help you draw something to hand in. We need to keep a low profile in Xiaocheng. If we can avoid trouble, we should."
"...That works, too. It's all the same whether you earn the money or I do. But I should still let the manager know the painter's changed. I can't take advantage of you." Shen Tang had no objection and agreed readily. "I'll tell you what that young male entertainer looks like and how he acts."
Qi Shan: "..."
Heaven knew how many years it had been since he'd done this sort of work. Even when life had been at its hardest, he'd hardly done it more than a few times.
Though he grumbled inwardly, he listened closely to Shen Tang's description, missing no detail, while constructing the image in his mind.
Thank goodness Young Master Shen's painting skills were bewildering, but her ability to organize her words was sound. She was clear, concise, and observant.
Just from her description, he could picture the young male entertainer's appearance, manner, distinctive features, and temperament. He now had a clear idea.
But—
Qi Shan keenly picked up on a detail.
"You said that young male entertainer wasn't satisfied with you at first?"
Shen Tang corrected him solemnly. "He wasn't satisfied at first, but wasn't that because my appearance was so deceptive? He probably thought I was young and couldn't draw as well as the older painters. But then he discovered how extraordinary I was and gave me the job, didn't he?"
Qi Shan said, "He discovered you had a Literary Heart."
Being "extraordinary" because she had a Literary Heart was an entirely different thing from being "extraordinary" because Young Master Shen could paint.
Besides, did Young Master Shen even have such a thing as painting skills?
Shen Tang waved her hand. "It's all the same, it's all the same."
Qi Shan shook his head. "That young male entertainer is of age. How could he recognize your sigil as a Literary Heart Sigil at a glance? That's suspicious. And handing over such an important job just because you had a Literary Heart Sigil, without checking your painting skills, is even more suspicious."
A Literary Heart Sigil didn't mean someone could paint well.
Shen Tang wasn't particularly suspicious.
"What's strange about that? He's a well-known figure at the Moonlit Pavilion, a future headliner in the making. He's met all sorts of people, so why would it be surprising if one of his clients had a Literary Heart? You're not going to say that young male entertainer has a Literary Heart, too, and that's how he recognized mine?"
After spending some time in this world, she knew that even the lowest-grade Literary Heart ranked above ordinary people.
Unless it was crippled or they suffered some other devastating catastrophe, it was very difficult for someone to end up in a place like that under normal circumstances.
That young male entertainer didn't look like the sort of person who'd been through something like that.
Qi Shan couldn't figure out what was wrong for the moment, so he asked, "You said his only condition was that you use the brushes, ink, and paper he provided?"
"That's right," Shen Tang said.
Rubbing his temples, he had Shen Tang describe the young male entertainer once more. Her two descriptions matched word for word, but he still couldn't find the source of his unease.
Shen Tang folded her arms and watched him frown in deep thought, thoroughly puzzled. "Yuan Liang, what exactly are you worried about?"
"I'm not worried. I just dislike the unknown."
Or rather, he disliked being caught up in a situation without knowing the whole picture. His intuition told him that there was something off about that young male entertainer. Unless he got an answer, the question would keep hanging over him, making him deeply uncomfortable.
In Shen Tang's words, his obsessive-compulsive disorder was acting up.
Seeing how seriously he was taking it, Shen Tang said, "If there's really something wrong with him, the clue might lie in the brushes, ink, and paper he made such a point of providing."
Her words jolted Qi Shan awake.
Qi Shan suddenly thought of something and pulled a sheet from the stack. He held it over the candle flame to warm it, or splashed it with water and waited for something to appear.
Shen Tang simply watched him "go mad."
After a long while, she reminded him, "Could it have something to do with Word Spirit?"
Yuan Liang, this is a different world.
This is a world that doesn't play by the rules of science.
It doesn't go in for scientific methods like heating things over a fire or splashing them with water.
There are still five hundred words I haven't finished editing QAQ. I looked up references too late.
Before you continue