"Something like that." Xu Huo took a sip of tea and looked out the window. On the wall across the street was a mural depicting two elderly people walking side by side, seen from behind. It was simple, done in just a few strokes, yet lively.
Of course, it was only an ordinary mural. The reason passersby stopped to look was entirely because of the sign beside it: "A Suolan Painting."
"Did Master Suolan paint many pictures around town?" Xu Huo asked casually.
The owner nodded with a smile. "Before Little Suolan officially started painting, she'd paint whatever she saw. She didn't care about technique or style. She'd just paint however other people did. She didn't start painting in oils until she was twenty. She became famous after ten years, and her later paintings were all very popular. Even her early works, from before she was famous, rose in value along with them."
As he spoke, he tapped the watch-like device on his wrist and showed Xu Huo some photos he'd taken. "I've seen all of these with my own eyes."
Xu Huo studied them. After listening to the owner's thoughts on the paintings, he said, "They seem a little different depending on the angle you look at them from."
"You're right about that," the owner said. "These days, people are into some kind of flowing paint. They say experts can use it to make living things look lifelike. I've seen it. They're just doing something to the paint so it takes longer to dry. The more skilled ones can even imitate a person blinking. But so what? If we want to watch pictures move, why not just watch a holographic movie?"
"A painting is a painting. It stays fixed on paper or canvas."
"But Little Suolan's paintings are different.