Mang Shusheng's Ink Painting Practice

Chapter 17 New Customers

Zhao Yifu's current accumulation has actually reached the critical point. If he were three or two years younger, he would have been able to break through the small Zhoutian.

It’s a pity that he still has to continue to use his true energy to polish the Du meridian, and he may be only a step away from opening the Ren and Du meridians.

One night of practice did not bring any qualitative improvement, but he had accumulated more for future qualitative changes.

He got up early the next morning and meditated and practiced Qigong as usual to complete his morning exercises. Then, seeing Wu Zhong, he asked, "Uncle Wu, are you going out?"

Wu Zhong nodded and said, "Yes, I'm going to hire two servants. This house is too big for me to clean by myself."

Zhao Yifu frowned and asked, "Do we have enough money to hire servants?"

Wu Zhong said, "It usually costs 500 coins per month to hire a servant."

Zhao Yifu said, "If we hire one person, it would cost six taels of silver a year."

Wu Zhong said, "No, I'll hire some people to repair and tidy up the courtyard first. We don't even need to do the whole thing. We only need to repair the east wing, which is in relatively good condition. It will take about a month or two."

Zhao Yifu was surprised to hear this and said, "But wouldn't it be better to hire a craftsman to repair the house?"

Wu Zhong said, "Craftsmen are very expensive. Don't worry, I have done all kinds of work over the years. Repairing the house is no problem for me."

After hearing this, Zhao Yifu nodded with a little relief.

Wu Zhong was chosen by his father himself, so he must be capable.

So he said, "I feel relieved to leave this household to Uncle Wu. Okay, I'm going out to make money."

Wu Zhong said, "Second Young Master, are you going out so early today?"

Zhao Yifu said, "It's just sitting here anyway, why not go out and have a look?"

"By the way, prepare some food for Yiyi too. She can't go hungry if she follows me."

Wu Zhong shook his head and said, "I see... Second Young Master, I'd like to wait until our lives get better before I get a guardhouse, is that okay?"

Zhao Yifu raised his eyebrows and said, "Do you want to raise a dog? Of course, it would be a good opportunity for Yiyi to have a companion."

Wu Zhong was quite happy to hear this. It seemed that he was a dog lover.

Zhao Yifu took Yiyi out as a matter of course.

It was still the same place as yesterday. He put down his bookcase to use as a desk, put out his writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone, and began to grind ink.

He was not going to sit there and wait, so he practiced painting while waiting for customers, taking Song Jie's warning from yesterday to heart.

It was 2:15 pm, which was 9:30 am.

There were not many pedestrians on the street at this time, mostly women and children doing housework.

Zhao Yifu did not rashly choose the women and children walking on the street as his painting subjects, but asked Yiyi to sit in front of his desk as a "model" while he practiced drawing cats.

To be honest, in the painting world, anyone who can paint one thing well can be called a master.

Zhao Yifu himself doesn't have any preference, but now that he has a cat, he has really developed an interest in painting cats.

Perhaps it was really out of interest that he felt he had made progress after painting his first picture compared to his previous ones. Perhaps it was because he was more attentive and more familiar with Yiyi's expression.

This gave him new insights into his painting skills. At least this improvement in his painting skills made him feel happy.

At this moment, a woman nearby muttered, "It seems his paintings are just average. It seems difficult for him to open a painting stall with such a level."

Zhao Yifu frowned slightly.

But at this moment, Yiyi, who was serving as a model in front of him, was unhappy. Her owner's painting was so good, how could someone be so blind?
So it turned around and glared at the other party.

"what!!"

There was a scream and a woman jumped up in fright.

"Miss, Miss, are you okay?"

“Alive…it’s actually alive!”

Zhao Yifu was at a loss.

Yiyi was even more bewildered. Of course it was alive. Only then did Zhao Yifu look at the two women in front of him.

Among them, the beautiful girl dressed in a light blue long dress must be a young lady from some family. She is still in shock and is being helped by the maid beside her to calm down.

While the maid was trying to calm the young lady down, she looked at Zhao Yifu and said unhappily, "You, you put a real cat here to scare people!"

Faced with such groundless accusations, Zhao Yifu could only lower his head silently and not argue.

His Yiyi is so cute, how can she be scary?

Instead, Yiyi was frightened and refused to be a model anymore. She ran into Zhao Yifu's arms for comfort.

Zhao Yifu could only keep stroking Yiyi's fur...

"Pfft~"

A laugh came from the side.

Zhao Yifu and the maid turned their heads and glared, and saw Song Jie, who came to the stall, covering his mouth.

Zhao Yifu asked, "Brother Zitai, what's the matter?"

Song Jie said, "Nothing, nothing. I just didn't expect you to come so early today."

Only then did Zhao Yi Fu withdraw his gaze and continue to stroke his Yi Yi's back.

The maid also withdrew her gaze and continued to rub her mistress's back.

At this moment, Zhao Yi Fu realized something... He looked at the frightened lady and the frightened Yi Yi in his arms.

Subtle, really subtle.

But the maid didn't realize it and continued to say angrily, "You poor scholar, if the young lady gets scared and hurt, let's see how you will compensate her!"

Zhao Yifu scratched his forehead and pretended not to hear.

At this moment, the young lady came to her senses and grabbed her maid, saying, "Alright, Sudie, it was my own carelessness that I didn't notice it was a real cat. I thought it was a clay figurine."

Zhao Yifu was surprised to hear that there really was a stall selling ceramic figurines on this street.

At this time, Yiyi poked her head out of Zhao Yifu's arms and blinked, seeming to be quite curious about the woman in front of her.

The woman also looked at the cat, and then said, "Excuse me, sir, how much is this painting? I'll buy it."

Zhao Yifu was surprised to hear this, and then realized that the young lady wanted to make up for her previous gaffe.

He shook his head and said, "No, this painting is not for sale."

The woman asked curiously, "Why is this?"

The maid couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you a painter? The young lady likes your painting, why don't you sell it?"

Zhao Yifu didn't like servants who interrupted him casually, so he frowned slightly and didn't answer.

The woman was startled, then turned to look at the maid and said, "Su Die, I'm talking to the young master, please don't interrupt."

The maid pursed her lips in grievance and dared not say anything more.

Zhao Yifu was a little surprised, and then he replied: "This painting is a practice I did in my spare time. I plan to take it back to enjoy it myself, and I will not sell it."

The real reason was that he knew that even if he sold the painting to this lady, it would only bring him some silver, and it would not bring him what he really needed.

The young lady didn't insist, but her curiosity was slightly aroused when she asked, "What kind of paintings are you selling here?"

Zhao Yifu pointed to the four characters hanging outside the bookcase and said, "'Personalized', as the name suggests, means I will paint you whatever you want."

The young lady was surprised to hear this, then said with a smile: "This gimmick is quite interesting. Can you really draw anything I want?"

Zhao Yifu nodded seriously, very confidently.

After all, he has the entire film and television library of his previous life as a reference for "changing heads". He is not afraid that this girl will have any ideas, but he is afraid that this girl will not think about anything.

He had a feeling that he would make some money again today.

(End of this chapter)