Chibi Manga
"Shuangjian."
A soft call sounded by his ear.
Shuangjian opened his eyes without changing his expression, his hands under his sleeves clenching slightly tighter.
Yingshi was leaning halfway over to look at him. Seeing him open his eyes, she immediately retreated and stood properly.
She was holding a thick stack of paper and brushes in her arms, with several motionless little paper figures caught between her fingers. Showing a smile that mixed gratitude and apology, she said to him, "It's getting late. I have to go again today."
Shuangjian wasn't surprised by this; after all, he hadn't fallen into a deep sleep from beginning to end.
He could clearly hear the paper figures gradually falling to the ground and going on strike due to a lack of spiritual energy. He listened as she tiptoed to put the arrangements on the table back in their original places, and carefully packed away the paper and ink.
He knew she was most likely going to leave, and because of this, he felt the air become a bit stifling. Even with the red string in his hand, he couldn't help but feel restless, his mood worsening.
However, he didn't show it on his face. With a calm expression, he simply got up, intending to come down from the hayrick.
Yingshi hurriedly spoke up to stop him. "Don't! Just rest well, there's no need for you to see me off... Thanks to the puppet technique, I've copied most of it before my spiritual energy ran out. There's only a little bit left. I'll go back and copy it myself, and it'll be done tonight!"
Her arms were full, so she could only use her chin and eyes to gesture for Shuangjian to look at the table. "That's for you..."
Shuangjian followed her gaze and saw a piece of paper pressed on the table.
The edges of the paper were slightly curled up, but the content on it wasn't the scriptures of 'The Highest Excellence is like Water', but a painting of a style... Shuangjian had never seen before.
It was a very peculiar brushwork, different from all the painting techniques he knew, yet it allowed one to tell the content of the picture at a glance—it was a very clear portrait of a person, except the proportions were bizarre, with the person's head and body being almost the same size.
The eyebrows and eyes of the big-headed little person were drawn round and exaggerated. The ink smudged at the bottom of the eyes, simulating the gleam within them. The expression of the character was actually extremely vivid, allowing one to see the earnestness and focus.
In the picture, the little person was holding an even simpler, tiny human-shaped object in its round hands, seemingly cutting it out—this 'deformed' portrait Yingshi drew was him; she was depicting the way he looked when helping her cut out puppets.
"..."
Bizarre.
Other than bizarre, Shuangjian could hardly find a second evaluation.
Not only were the techniques and content of this painting bizarre, but the feeling it gave him was also extremely strange.
An indescribable feeling arose in his heart. It wasn't displeasure born from being drawn in an exaggerated and comical way, but it still made him furrow his brows.
If he had to describe it, it was a bit like the... discomfort that arises after realizing one had been 'watched' and 'depicted'.
Was this how he looked in Yingshi's eyes?
A big-headed little person who was gentle to the point of being perfectly round?
Seeing Shuangjian staring intently at the painting, Yingshi couldn't help but want to say a few words about her glorious childhood when she dominated the Children's Palace, and how regrettable it was that she didn't pursue art later on...
But at the critical moment, she still remembered how tragic Shuangjian's fate was. It would be very bad to talk about these things in front of him, like loudly proclaiming how rich one's menu is in front of someone who has never had a full meal. So she forcefully held her words back and humbly said, "It's a chibi manga I drew casually while copying the book. Please don't dislike it."
"...Chibi manga?"
"Yeah, it's a simplified drawing method that makes people look cuter!"
Cute? Shuangjian was rendered speechless.
He didn't dwell on this word, merely withdrawing his gaze and saying, "Thank you, I like it very much. This painting is so special, I will treasure it well."
No matter how much sincerity was in his words, Yingshi took it at face value.
Her eyes immediately curved into crescents, and she put the paper and brushes in her hands back on the table. "Then how about I add a few more strokes and draw myself in too?"
Shuangjian said he would 'treasure' it!
How was this any different from taking a photo as a souvenir in reality?
Didn't the ancients hire painters when they wanted to capture an image back then?
She might as well draw a 'group photo' with Shuangjian. Taking it out to look at later and recalling this time of relying on each other just after transmigrating would be quite heartwarming.
Shuangjian fell into a subtle silence for a moment before parting his lips. "...That would be wonderful."
Receiving affirmation, Yingshi immediately pulled out a brush and got to work.
She leaned over the desk, fully concentrated, the tip of the brush moving delicately across the paper.
A chibi manga didn't take much effort. She had the rough outline drawn in less than two minutes, and Shuangjian watched quietly from the side the entire time.
He saw another little person slowly appear beside the paper-cutting little person, also with a head as big as its body, a round face, big eyes, and hair exaggeratedly long enough to reach its toes.
This little person in a dress cupped its face with both hands, its body leaning slightly forward toward the paper-cutting little person, smiling brightly. There was a lot of cross-shaped starlight in its eyes, as if it greatly... admired the person in front of it.
"I'm done drawing! How is it?" Yingshi put the brush down and hurriedly turned to look at Shuangjian.
"...Vivid, and cute." Shuangjian pursed his lips, forcing himself to reveal a smile. "Your painting skills are very exquisite. I will definitely preserve this painting with great care."
If one listened closely to his praise, it wasn't hard to hear a bit of dry stiffness, but Yingshi wasn't that observant. Her mood was extremely bright because her talent was affirmed. "I'm glad you like it too!"
However, she still remembered the serious matter and hurriedly put away her smile, saying somewhat solemnly, "There's also a very important matter. Tomorrow is a turning point in the plot, and it might be a bit troublesome. I'll try to come over and meet you before dawn..."
The curve of Shuangjian's smile slightly froze, and he raised his eyes to look into Yingshi's.
Yingshi had finally mentioned 'tomorrow' to him.
Having experienced the previous two lifetimes, he naturally knew that tomorrow was the 'turning point' of everything.
When she told him about the novel's plot before, Yingshi hadn't mentioned many details, including what would happen tomorrow.
But now, she said, "I originally didn't want to tell you about tomorrow. I wanted to prevent those things from happening. The plot of having to be trampled on and beaten half to death to become stronger is the most annoying! But I thought about it for a long time and couldn't come up with a particularly good countermeasure, so I can only tell you, we have to be on guard together tomorrow..."
"Sun Xuanyi will instigate Xu Xiaoran to bring people to this thatched cottage to catch you. When the time comes, that group of people will beat you to a near-death state, which accidentally causes you to absorb the demon core in your body and loosen the seal on you. I have a deep impression of the 'near-death' description and don't want to go through this plotline..."
"But the book never mentioned any other way to actively loosen the seal, or it did but I have no impression of it at all. So I racked my brains and still don't know how to let the plot advance normally while avoiding you getting beaten up..."
Yingshi was truly distressed.
The more time they spent together, the more she felt Shuangjian's goodness.
She really didn't want to see him severely injured. She didn't want every fortunate encounter to require being suppressed first before rising, to have to be trampled into the dirt first before being able to step back on others' faces.
When reading a book, an underdog's comeback is a thrilling trope. The more miserable the beginning, the more satisfying the later triumph. But when actually experiencing it, the misery is two hundred percent sheer pain, while the satisfaction is an elusive zero.
The reason she didn't tell Shuangjian the whole story right from the start was that she always felt he would probably just choose to take a beating. If he ended up near death, so be it; he wouldn't think it was a big deal.
Even though they hadn't known each other for long, she believed Shuangjian was exactly that kind of person.
A person who feared neither pain nor death, someone very different from her.
If she hadn't been completely out of ideas and deeply aware of Shuangjian's intelligence, she wouldn't have agonized for so long before finally choosing to tell him now.
After her voice completely faded, Shuangjian remained silent for a moment before gently nodding his head.
Alright, I understand.
His voice was low, making Yingshi feel a trace of inexplicable tension and heaviness in her heart.
Um... let's both think about a countermeasure separately and meet up tomorrow! You must get a good rest tonight.
She gathered her already packed paper and pen, leaving the thatched cottage while looking back with almost every step.
Shuangjian watched her leave until the wooden door closed. Even when all that remained in his line of sight was the decaying color of dirt, he still didn't move.
He had considered many possibilities.
Yingshi intentionally hiding the aftermath of the cottage-care plotline could be because the book didn't detail it, or perhaps she had skimmed it and forgotten. It was also possible that she was deeply scheming, unlike her outward appearance, and never intended to be entirely honest with him. Her deliberate concealment might be because she didn't want his seal to loosen, or perhaps she wanted to monopolize the lucky encounter.
But not wanting his path to strength to require him being trampled upon was the one possibility he had never considered.
For a moment, he even fell into a daze: Could freedom, and Xu Yingshi herself, be mere figments of his imagination born from his descent into madness?
...Did she truly exist?
Shuangjian gently rubbed the red string on his wrist with his fingertips, staying awake the entire night.
The drawing with two big-headed stick figures lay quietly on the table. It wasn't until midnight that it was picked up and carefully examined, and then, just before the first ray of the morning sun rose, casually folded and tucked away into his robes.
...
Yingshi was completely oblivious to the young man's tangled thoughts. As she walked along the shortcut back to the inner sect, she never imagined she was in massive trouble—
That black, misty lump crouching by the side of the road... what on earth was it?!
Dusk was approaching. The small path was situated on the border between the back mountain and the outer sect, completely deserted. Yet, an incredibly ominous presence had appeared right in her inevitable path.
Both her physical instincts and her own judgment made her realize that the indescribable mass of matter was absolutely related to demonic cultivators!
In the plot, the internal ranks of the Cloud Water Sect had also been infiltrated. For instance, the upcoming remedial teacher, Mi Ruotian, was actually a demonic cultivator in disguise. He was a clone of one of the Eight Demon Kings of the Nether Realm, though he himself was unaware of it...
Alarm bells blared in Yingshi's mind. She hastily stopped in her tracks and immediately turned around to head back the way she came. Even if she had to take the main road through the outer sect and be seen, it would be better than this! Staying here would definitely lead to disaster! The plot never mentioned Yingshi having any encounters with demonic cultivators this early on!
However, when she turned around, she discovered something even more terrifying—less than a foot away, someone was standing silently right behind her! She had no idea when he had started following her; she hadn't noticed a thing!
The man looked to be in his early thirties. His features were handsome and soft, his eyebrows like distant mountains, and his eyes clear. Dressed in an elegant moon-white Daoist robe with fluttering sleeves and holding a horsetail whisk, he looked incredibly transcendent and unearthly, the very image of a gentle, jade-like immortal master...
However, this felt way too familiar! Th-this person couldn't possibly be...
Mi Ruotian?
Yingshi's mind buzzed. She only hated how her mouth could be a step faster than her brain!
The man was indeed surprised by the name she blurted out, and she saw him narrow his eyes slightly.
It was clearly a very subtle movement, but it caused the gentle lines of his face to suddenly reveal a hint of sharp scrutiny, completely changing his aura.
Oh? The end of his word lifted slightly, carrying a perfectly measured, unnerving hint of amusement. You and I... should be total strangers, shouldn't we?
...
Help!
Yingshi's vision went dark. It really was him!
The demonic cultivator spy made an early appearance, so why didn't anyone warn her???
