Chapter 136: Strange Figures in the Painting

While drinking porridge and eating fried chicken - of course, Jianyou ate the Soul Fire version - Jianyou and Andre read Mi You's letter as a reading material, carefully reading it from beginning to end, over and over again several times.

During these two years, Mi You went south along the coastline, went as far as the Rusman Federation, and then went north, making a big circle and returning to the west city of Eston.

She carried a small bag, a drawing board, brushes and paints, and painted wherever she went. She completed the journey with the money she earned from selling paintings and doing odd jobs.

The first half of the trip went smoothly. From Mi You's writings and watercolors, Jiang You could sense her gradually improving spirit. She had found her true strengths and life's purpose, beginning to break free from the shadow left by her mother's repressive upbringing. She would climb mountains to depict sunrises, fish at the beach with a borrowed rod, or spend lavishly in roadside cafes, enjoying coffee shipped from Southeast Asia...

Even Jiangyou couldn't help but envy this kind of free and comfortable life where he could go wherever he wanted.

However, the second half of the journey seemed to be overshadowed.

The shift in her writing style began with the first letter Mi You sent after arriving in the Rusman Federation. In this land of scholars, she encountered a friend of her mother's from her early years and traveled with her to her mansion in the federal capital. The noblewoman was generous and, remembering their friendship, purchased several of Mi You's landscape paintings.

The lady also paid Mi You a large sum of money to paint her portrait. But strangely, the person she wanted Mi You to paint was not herself, but a "woman image lingering in her mind".

Mi You was not good at drawing things in other people's minds out of thin air, so this work went on for a long time without much progress. She had to spend three or four hours with the lady every day, constantly listening to her describe the image of the woman she wanted to draw.

[…The lady kept repeating that the 'imaginary woman' had golden hair and a beautiful face. But I had a hard time explaining it to her. Using the word 'beautiful' to describe the painter hardly helped me determine the painting's content. I needed to know whether the woman was young or old, whether she had almond-shaped, willow-shaped, or drooping eyes, and whether her face was round or long... These details define a person's appearance!

But she knew nothing about it! We were completely at cross purposes, and in the end, I ended up spending every day in the library, borrowing portraits of historical figures, letting her choose the face, eye, and mouth shapes she liked, and then piecing everything together.

But fortunately, during the painting period, all my food, lodging and daily expenses were paid by her. So I didn't have to worry about daily expenses, I only had to worry about this work...

Oh, my friend, even though what I'm about to say may sound like a rant, I still want to complain to you. This job makes me unhappy, and it even reminds me of the frustrations I faced when I was learning magic. I've made up my mind that once I've gotten through this and earned this much money, I'll never take on such custom painting jobs again. I'll only paint what I want to paint!

Come to think of it, the appearance that the lady finally pieced together from the various elements she identified was somewhat similar to the portraits of the members of the Delman royal family... This was also very strange, because the lady was a noble of the Rusman Federation, and she seemed to have nothing to do with the Delman royal family... Oh, I really don't understand the thoughts of rich people.

Sigh, after so many days of repetitive drawing and revisions, the image of the woman in the painting is now stuck in my mind and can't be removed. It's really a headache...]

"This lady is a little strange." Jiang You muttered, "Why would she hire Mi You to draw someone she doesn't know?"

Andrei shrugged. "Maybe she's just bored? The minds of the nobles are always inexplicable and changeable... However, if this lady is the mastermind behind Mi You's death, then perhaps these arrangements are the necessary procedures for some kind of strange magic... Casting magic often requires building connections. Letting Mi You remember the image of this blonde woman can be seen as creating a weak connection between Mi You and this blonde woman.

"But if it's the latter, then this is a bit strange... because this kind of connection mostly appears in black magic summoning, used to summon the undead or some evil beings that have entered the netherworld."

Mi You lived in the lady's house for three months before completing the painting. Then she took the extremely generous reward and set out on her journey again. The lady did not stop her from leaving, nor did she appear in subsequent letters.

But strangely, Mi You's mental state took a sharp turn for the worse. In subsequent letters, her handwriting went from neat and tidy to crooked and restless. She frequently included phrases like "I feel like someone is watching me..." She even claimed to have glimpsed the characters she had drawn.

The blond figure only passed by the edge of her vision, and every time she looked at it, it disappeared, like a complete ghost.

A certain skeleton secretly shuddered: "...The more I read it, the more it looks like a ghost story."

Andre looked up at her speechlessly, while Jiang You looked back at her without hesitation: "Why, can't a lich be afraid of ghosts?"

She said this in a timid and cute way, and at the same time she was very confident. Andre couldn't help but be touched by her cuteness.

Although he felt that even if there really was a ghost standing in front of Jiang You, it was unclear who was scaring whom between the ghost and the skeleton, but this did not stop him from expressing his loyalty: "It's okay, even if there really is a ghost, I will protect you."

The two continued to read the letters, but there were only a few left, and the information revealed in them was becoming increasingly limited: Mi You's condition became worse and worse over time. She began to see "non-existent shadows", hear "murmurs in the depths of her mind", and occasionally there would be a moment of blankness. She would suddenly appear somewhere, doing something, and she had no memory of the experience.

…It was as if a ghost gradually took over and controlled her body.

Mi You consulted doctors, scholars, and magicians from the Rusman Federation, but no one could give her an answer. Some suspected she was using toxic paint, while others suspected she was suffering from schizophrenia. Unable to find an answer, Mi You abruptly ended her dream-chasing journey and set out on the journey back to Eston West City.