Chu Yu took the manga pages from Su Ruo and immediately began flipping through them.
Su Ruo had been to Chu Yu's home before, so she easily found some paper cups and tea leaves. Before long, she brought over three steaming cups of tea.
"Xiao Yin, here!"
"Thank you, Sister Su." Zhao Qinyin accepted the tea Su Ruo handed her with both hands, but kept her eyes fixed on Chu Yu.
To be honest, Zhao Qinyin knew almost nothing about Chu Yu.
A little over a month ago, she had suffered from low blood sugar, and Chu Yu had taken her to the infirmary. Afterward, she had asked a few of Chu Yu's former classmates—who had joined her Class Five after the senior-year class reshuffle—about him.
His parents had passed away...
He was withdrawn...
He stayed at home all the time...
His grades were poor...
That was all she had heard about him from his former classmates in his first and second years of high school.
As a result, she had spent all this time at a loss, trying to find a way to repay Chu Yu.
It wasn't until today, when Su Ruo invited her to serve as Teacher Shui Xin's assistant, that she realized... the world was so small.
That boy who seemed cold and taciturn to his classmates was working just as hard as she was to become a manga artist.
And... in the world of manga, Chu Yu had already achieved far more than she had.
After all, The Garden of Words had practically secured the top spot in the popularity poll on Ink Shadow.
Her last serialized manga, meanwhile, had been three years ago. It had run for only a few chapters before being canceled due to low popularity.
"Impressive!" Chu Yu closed the manga pages in his hands and looked at Zhao Qinyin.
His gaze was no longer as guarded and doubtful as before. Now, it was full of enthusiasm.
Chu Yu hadn't forgotten why she had come, so when he looked through Zhao Qinyin's work, he paid less attention to her storytelling and focused on her drawing skills.
Whether it was the backgrounds, linework, details, screentone use, or composition, Chu Yu didn't think he was better than her. In fact, if the system hadn't given him Manga Mastery Skills, he would have been utterly outclassed by her in terms of drawing ability.
To be honest, Chu Yu felt that Zhao Qinyin was wasting her talent by working as his manga assistant.
If she wanted to make money, with her drawing skills she could earn far more by drawing fanbooks or doujinshi than by working as an assistant.
Of course, Chu Yu would never say that out loud.
"You're incredible, Zhao Qinyin!" Chu Yu understood, of course, that the matter of her becoming his assistant hadn't been settled yet.
Su Ruo had only brought her over so they could meet. Chu Yu was very pleased with her, but whether they could reach an agreement... depended on what she thought.
"I'm extremely impressed with your drawing skills..."
"You've probably heard about my situation from Sister Su. I'm hoping to finish three chapters of manga by next Friday for the serialization meeting, so I'm in urgent need of an assistant..."
"I just don't know how you feel about working as my assistant for the next little while after meeting me today. Are you willing or not?"
Willing... or not?
If Zhao Qinyin had known in advance that Teacher Shui Xin was a man, she definitely wouldn't have come to this meeting.
After all, she was only sixteen or seventeen. Working late at night with a male manga artist would have made anyone worry about her safety, no matter how innocent she was.
But if that man was Chu Yu...
Zhao Qinyin remembered what she had said to Chu Yu when he left after carrying her to the infirmary.
"...If I get the chance, I'll repay you for this."
At the time, Chu Yu had only replied:
"We'll see if the chance comes."
A chance...
Zhao Qinyin sighed.
She thought it over and decided to trust Chu Yu.
After all, he had been the one to help her right away. She had a certain degree of faith in his character.
And setting aside the question of her personal safety, Zhao Qinyin had no objections to working as Chu Yu's manga assistant.
"Mm!" Zhao Qinyin nodded.
"So, does that mean it's settled?" Chu Yu blinked.
"You can thank me, kid!" Su Ruo said happily from the side.
That meant they could finish the three chapters before next Friday's serialization meeting. With an assistant to help him, Chu Yu would also have more time to work on the details, which should bring the quality up another level.
"Now that we've decided, we don't have much time, Teacher Chu Yu. Could you show me the pages you've already drawn and your manga storyboards?" Zhao Qinyin was the kind of person who acted quickly. Once she decided to do something, she never dragged her feet.
After all, she was going to assist with Chu Yu's work, so she needed to understand what kind of story he wanted to draw and what style his manga had.
"Oh, right, the pages!" Chu Yu ran over to his desk and brought back the manga pages he had drawn earlier.
"But I don't have any storyboards..." Chu Yu said somewhat sheepishly.
Actually, it wasn't that he didn't have them. The original work was already in his mind, so why would he need to redraw those rough manga drafts? He could just copy the panels, dialogue, and images directly!
"You don't?" Zhao Qinyin was surprised, and even Su Ruo looked up.
Su Ruo knew Chu Yu had started drawing the finished pages directly, but she hadn't realized he hadn't even drawn the storyboards first.
He was just drawing whatever came to mind. If something didn't work, wouldn't all that effort go to waste?
Besides, Zhao Qinyin would be helping Chu Yu complete the manga, so she needed to refer to those storyboards. They showed the composition, the proportions of the backgrounds and characters, and the sizes of the panels. If Chu Yu didn't provide them, it wasn't as if Zhao Qinyin could just do whatever she wanted!
"I understand. I don't have them today, but I'll have them tomorrow!" Chu Yu understood that much, too.
All he had to do was turn the original work in his mind into storyboards. Compared to the detailed and tedious finished pages, he could draw the storyboards for two chapters in a single day.
"I... understand." Zhao Qinyin nodded.
Then she lowered her head and looked at the new manga pages Chu Yu had said he'd drawn.
Rurouni Kenshin: Reminiscence Arc!
Zhao Qinyin's delicate brows lifted.
Just from the title and the oppressive style of the first page, she could tell that this work was completely different from the light, romantic manga The Garden of Words.
It took Zhao Qinyin ten minutes to come back to herself.
She bit her lower lip, a sense of defeat welling up inside her.
There wasn't enough in just one chapter to tell how the story would develop.
But she could feel the disappointment in her heart when she reached the last page and realized the manga ended there.
Not only was the artwork intricate, but that brief first chapter alone had immersed Zhao Qinyin in the era of upheaval on RB Island more than a hundred years ago, fixing her gaze on the boy named Kenshin.
Zhao Qinyin understood that none of the works she had created had ever inspired this kind of anticipation in their first chapter.
She felt a little unwilling to accept it...
He had debuted later than she had, and they were in the same year at school, yet his very first work had achieved considerable success.
And with this second work, Zhao Qinyin had a feeling that once the story got going, it would be even more exciting than The Garden of Words...
At that moment, Zhao Qinyin could only feel the gap between their talents for manga.
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