12. Didn't do my girlfriend's makeup, but I did a puppet's first?

Thanks to the powerful logistics system.

Thanks to Zhuxi Town being located in a major free-shipping zone.

The various tools and materials Shen Le ordered began arriving one after another starting on the third day. In particular, the small handheld electric sander; once the sandpaper was attached and the switch pressed, it began to spin with a "whirring" sound. As the one-centimeter diameter sanding head touched the puppet's head, just a few continuous rotations were enough to see the residual paint turn into a fine mist of powder, peeling away and drifting slowly to the ground.

Ah... the power of machinery truly far exceeds that of human hands...

One pass with coarse sandpaper, one with 400-grit fine sandpaper, and another with 600-grit. For flat surfaces, he used the one-centimeter and two-centimeter diameter sanding heads. For subtle transitions—like the eyebrows, eyes, nose, and lips—he switched to a five-millimeter diameter head, using its side to move carefully along the grooves.

Watching the puppet's rough, dull surface become smooth and even bit by bit, until finally, the whole thing began to emit a soft, faint glow, Shen Le's brow relaxed, and he smiled slightly. It took only a single morning to sand and polish every single component of the puppet from top to bottom.

Once the sanding was finished, Shen Le grabbed a rag, dipped it in anti-explosion glue, and coated the entire puppet to prevent the wood from cracking. Next, he picked up an air gun and, rotating the puppet, blew the glue dry to prevent it from pooling in any corners.

"Whew, whew... repairing wood is truly a job that hurts the hands..."

After blowing the glue dry, Shen Le washed his hands, applied hand cream, and interlaced his fingers, rubbing them continuously, shaking his head helplessly. When it came to applying glue, even wearing gloves couldn't stop it from seeping through; in the end, the skin on his hands had to bear the brunt of the damage.

His mentor's hands were rough and cracked; when he reached out to shake hands with others, those who didn't know better would mistake him for a manual laborer. Every time his senior fellow apprentice finished a job and rubbed on hand cream, she would look pained. Fortunately, he had the Magic Copper Piece; otherwise, if he did this work for long, he'd be too embarrassed to shake hands with girls!

"Hmm... although the puppet is also a pretty young lady, a puppet is still just a puppet... I must protect my working hands... Alright! Time for the young lady's skincare! Bring on the pigments!"

Color restoration and the like were essential skills for wood carving repair, and Shen Le had mastered them to the point of fluidity during his graduate studies.

He didn't even need a palette; he spread out a sheet of aluminum foil and began pouring pigments onto it with a splash. He poured a dollop, took a look; switched to another color, stirred a few times, and looked again.

Swish, swish, swish, swish. After two or three mixtures, he had matched the exact color of the puppet's surface, then raised his brush to apply it to the puppet.

"So, those rosewood furniture pieces, rosewood slab tables, and rosewood carvings really shouldn't be bought casually." Looking at the puppet under his brush—the places that were broken, patched, and fitted with dovetail tenons were completely covered by the strokes of paint—Shen Le sighed from the bottom of his heart:

"If you aren't an expert, you really can't tell whether you're paying full price for a solid piece of material or for something that was cracked, broken, rotten, and then repaired. The naked eye can't tell at all!"

With a calligraphy brush in one hand and a high-power hairdryer in the other, he painted and dried rapidly. To make it look realistic, after drying the surface, he used the brush to carefully draw in the wood grain, then used an airbrush to spray on wood patterns. Finally, he polished the repaired area until it was identical to the surrounding surface, making it completely indistinguishable to the naked eye!

"Alright, young lady, the repair is complete; time for makeup. You wait a moment, I'll practice on someone else's head first!"

One has to say, thanks to modern large-scale industry, some things are truly cheap when they become cheap.

Just like the BJD Doll in his hands; his junior fellow apprentices during his graduate studies had bought a few. The cheap ones cost five or six hundred, while the expensive ones could go up to ten thousand. But the plain head he had for practicing makeup—which had nothing on its face except for two eye sockets—guess how much it cost?

Nine point nine!

Buy four and get free shipping, dear!

By the way, the shop selling the doll heads also sold a full set of makeup tools for 68 per set. 12-color pastels, 6-color acrylic paints, black and red water-soluble colored pencils, double-ended makeup brushes, fine-line brushes, basic brushes, pen knives, gloss varnish, matte protective spray, thinner, eye putty, white glue, makeup remover pads, cotton swabs, and a palette—all kinds of tools were included.

They even threw in a random practice doll head, a pair of random eyeballs, and a pair of random eyelashes. It wasn't exactly "everything you could ever need"—after all, the world of tools is endless—but for a beginner, it was basically enough!

With a full dozen plain heads to practice on, Shen Le didn't feel the slightest bit nervous when he started. He first sprayed a layer of matte protective varnish, then grabbed a makeup brush, dipped it into shaved pastel powder, and added a flush of color to the doll's head. Cheeks, forehead, eye sockets, ears, mouth, and tongue—he swept a layer of pale pink over everything...

What?

Don't know how to draw?

Oh my, there are so many tutorial videos online now; watch more, practice more, and you'll learn eventually!

Practicing makeup is difficult if you say it's difficult, and not difficult if you say it's not. First, you need a foundation in painting; in this regard, as a graduate student in ancient architecture restoration, Shen Le's foundation was more than enough.

Second, you have to practice a lot. With plenty of practice materials on hand, Shen Le felt bold and confident, just diving right in:

"Oops! Swept too much! Went out of the area! Wipe it off, start over..."

"Wipe it off, start over again!"

"Wipe..."

"Finally finished, spray a layer of matte varnish, keep drawing!"

"Sigh, to think that I, Shen Le, have no girlfriend, have never put makeup on a girlfriend, and of course have never been a makeup artist at a comic convention. My first time putting makeup on a young lady, and it actually goes to a puppet young lady!"

The first doll head failed without surprise. The second failed, the third failed, the fourth failed...

It wasn't until the sixth one that Shen Le looked left and right and finally felt it was somewhat pleasing to the eye. Then, what followed was...

Shen Le carefully reviewed the puppet makeup he had recorded beforehand, compared it repeatedly with the drawings in his memory, and finally, holding a water-soluble colored pencil, began to sketch the draft on the doll's head. Willow-leaf eyebrows and almond eyes, peach-blossom cheeks and vermilion lips—especially the cinnabar mole at the corner of the right eye, looking as if it were brimming with tears, making it unforgettable.

"Still feels not quite right... Is it really that hard to move 2D to 3D... Wipe it off and try drawing it again..."

Draw and wipe, wipe and draw, draw and wipe again. Even though water-soluble colored pencils were easy to wipe off, after sketching dozens of times, it still left indelible marks on the doll's head. Fortunately, the final version of the draft was finally presentable, so Shen Le grabbed the eighth doll head and began to officially attempt the makeup:

"Puppet young lady, bless me to succeed quickly! I'll finish painting soon, and you'll regain your beauty soon~~~"

After painting for an entire day, Shen Le's waist was sore and his back ached, and his stomach was growling loudly, forcing him to go out to forage for food. Walking aimlessly, he unknowingly arrived back at the residential building where the children learned the erhu. Before he had taken many steps, the sound of music, even more unpleasant than sawing wood, rang out once again.

Shen Le's cheek twitched, and without hesitation, he turned and left. Just as he crossed the zebra crossing and was about to disappear at the intersection, a loud shout suddenly came from the building in the distance behind him:

"I didn't lie! I really didn't lie!"

"I'll prove it to you all!"

"BANG!!!"

"Someone jumped off the building! Call 120 quickly—"