Salty Fish Paints (Bonus Chapter)

Chapter Twenty-Two

A staff member brought over a small box and gestured for them to reach in and draw.

Everyone took out their respective cards and opened them. Li Wenchuan saw the character "one" written on his.

Tang Jingran was naturally friendly and had a good first impression of Li Wenchuan, so he immediately leaned over. "What number did you get? Why is yours 'one'? I got 'two.' What a pity." He had thought they might end up in the same group.

Jiang Hansheng walked over with his card and draped an arm over Tang Jingran's shoulder. "What a coincidence. He's in my group."

The man waved the card with "one" written on it.

"Ah, you're both 'one.'" Tang Jingran looked utterly miserable.

Why did that sound so suggestive?

Li Wenchuan smiled. "Your 'two' is pretty good too."

Tang Jingran said, "I feel like there's something subtly suggestive about our conversation."

Think about it. Think carefully.

Jiang Hansheng said, "No. You're overthinking it."

Tang Jingran asked, "Really?"

Really? I don't believe it.

In the end, Tang Jingran and Zhao Shiyao were assigned to the same group. It was the perfect pairing of an exquisitely groomed boy and an exquisitely groomed girl—who knew how much chaos they would stir up.

Xiao Yi and Su Mingwei stood together, looking rather like father and daughter. Of course, Xiao Yi's children were already in college, so Su Mingwei could barely count as a second child.

"Are you drawing the topic, or should I?" Li Wenchuan asked, turning back after seeing the other teams discussing it.

Over there, Tang Jingran and Zhao Shiyao had already started arguing. He thought she had no artistic talent and would not be able to draw anything, while she mocked him for only knowing how to paint abstract Mona Lisas. The two were practically about to come to blows.

"You draw the topic. I'll do the painting," Jiang Hansheng said directly.

Li Wenchuan did not say anything else. It made no difference to him who did what, and he did not care whether they won. The countryside these days looked far more upscale than it had in the past.

But blessed by luck, he drew an apple.

Zhao Shiyao glanced at his and could not help complaining, "Why? His is so easy."

She still ended up drawing the topic herself, but she got a simple cartoon portrait of a little girl. Compared to Li Wenchuan's, it was who knew how many times harder, and she felt extremely displeased. Ever since joining this show, nothing had gone her way.

Xiao Yi held up his own drawing to smooth things over. "Mine isn't easy either. It's an elephant."

Zhao Shiyao looked at it. The elephant's lines twisted and turned, no better than hers. Besides, Su Mingwei was only a child. Even if they could not get first place and the best house, they could at least fight for second. She immediately felt much more balanced.

The three people waiting on the other side could not hear their conversation. The production team truly had not expected Li Wenchuan to draw such a simple prompt, and they instantly felt that the show's big highlight was gone. They were somewhat disappointed.

What they did not know was that from then until the end of the show, Li Wenchuan and Jiang Hansheng's group would never disappoint.

The members of each group sat one behind the other. Once the staff called for them to begin, they started drawing on the paper attached to the back of the person in front of them.

Zhao Shiyao glanced at Li Wenchuan beside her, suppressed her dissatisfaction, and drew a circle on Tang Jingran's back.

A head was round, of course.

Tang Jingran instantly understood and drew a circle too. Everything was progressing normally, and Zhao Shiyao suddenly felt that they might actually have a chance at first place.

Li Wenchuan looked at the apple in his hand. Something this simple should be no problem for Jiang Hansheng, right? So he began drawing.

He started from the middle, curved upward, then downward. After finishing the left side, he did the same on the other side.

But why was the bottom of the apple Jiang Hansheng drew a little pointed? Forget it. It was nothing important.

Li Wenchuan continued drawing, adding a straight stem to the apple's head.

Jiang Hansheng did not know what Li Wenchuan had drawn. He quietly felt the sensation on his back, and after Li Wenchuan made two consecutive strokes, he felt that it was not simple.

Could it really be what he was thinking? Was the production team really stirring up trouble like this?

After calming himself, he quickly drew a heart.

Then Li Wenchuan immediately drew something straight. Jiang Hansheng's eyes widened slightly. He had thought it was just a heart, but it was this kind of heart.

Li Wenchuan was drawing the apple leaf.

Jiang Hansheng instantly understood. It was the arrowhead of an arrow piercing a heart!

One stroke, and it was perfect!

Li Wenchuan examined the apple in front of him and felt that the leaf was still lacking something, so he added a little more.

Jiang Hansheng understood and darkened the arrowhead.

In the picture, a heart was pierced through by a sharp arrow. Jiang Hansheng felt strangely subtle. Li Wenchuan had just been drawing on his back, and he kept feeling as though the warmth from the other man was infectious, as if flames had ignited behind him.

Secretive, known only to himself, quietly hidden away and never daring to be made public—this was the first time he felt that being reborn was so wonderful.

If he understood a little more, netizens would tell him: this was shipping himself in private, making his own sweetness and enjoying it himself.

The cameraman stared at the scene in the lens with an expression like he was badly constipated and could not help complaining, "Are these two groups cursed or something?"

The person beside him took a glance. "Pfft, I thought this was going to be boring."

The other group, naturally, was the extraordinarily gifted Tang Jingran's. Zhao Shiyao drew a circle, and he copied it.

But when Zhao Shiyao started drawing hair, he drew the hair inside the circle, adding several vertical strokes. When it was Zhao Shiyao's turn to draw eyebrows, he fell completely silent, then added several horizontal lines inside the circle to complement them.

The more Zhao Shiyao drew, the more grave his expression became—the complete opposite of Jiang Hansheng, who was secretly delighted.

Zhao Shiyao drew ears, and he followed suit by adding a few strokes beside the circle. He increasingly felt that this was some very familiar creature. Wasn't it—already growing legs? And four of them at that!

Zhao Shiyao, drawing with all her might, could never have imagined that Tang Jingran's train of thought was so bizarre. She was clearly drawing an adorable little girl. How could this dog of a man think in such a ridiculous way?

Time was up, and the staff had the group members compare their answers first.

Xiao Yi and Su Mingwei's group was also particularly surprising. Xiao Yi was not very good at drawing, so the elephant he drew was extremely distorted, like a wild boar with a long trunk. Yet even so, what Su Mingwei drew was an elephant—a very cute elephant.

"Have you learned to draw before?" Xiao Yi exclaimed.

"I just play around with it sometimes. I didn't expect it to come in handy," Su Mingwei said with a smile.

But by comparison, the other two groups did not look so good.

Li Wenchuan held an apple and looked at the "arrow through the heart" in Jiang Hansheng's hand, wanting to speak but hesitating. "Do these two look alike?"

Jiang Hansheng was a little embarrassed. He cleared his throat and pretended to remain calm. "There was... an error in how it felt."

How embarrassing. He had shipped himself over some sweetness, only to turn around and find out it was fake sweetness.

Li Wenchuan: ...

Li Wenchuan said, "Drawing the simplest picture, answering the most complicated question."

Jiang Hansheng rubbed his nose. "At least the directing team wouldn't be that cruel, right...?"

Director: I don't want to be a decent person anyway :).

Li Wenchuan said nothing. Drawing had already used up most of his remaining initiative for the day. In a while, even if they ended up with an unfinished house, he would accept it. Surely no one could be more absurd than they were.

Tang Jingran nearly died laughing when he saw their drawing. "You two are way too talented! An apple and an arrow through the heart? How did that tiny apple stem get extended so much? Hahahaha..."

"That imagination is absolutely incredible."

"And you drew yours so well?" Jiang Hansheng felt his temples throbbing.

"Of course. I'm the Leonardo da Vinci of Shangyang Village, the Qi Baishi of the entertainment industry..."

Before he could finish, Zhao Shiyao's devastated shout struck straight at his soul. "Tang Jingran, you idiot! What the hell is this thing you drew?!"