Chapter 60

"Is this your solution?" Xiao Man asked Chen Xing without looking at the middle-aged man sitting opposite him.

They have arrived at the city of art. It looks like a normal city, with no paintings everywhere, but the artistic atmosphere is indeed much stronger.

The number of people playing music and singing in street stalls is about dozens of times that of other towns, and shops related to industries such as painting and sculpture are also everywhere.

On the way back to the mansion, Xiaoman saw several booths where oil paintings were being painted on the spot. A family dressed simply and obviously not very wealthy stood behind the painting board, as if they regarded the painting of family portraits as a natural expense.

This is not common outside.

"This is a good way to hide your tracks. You can live a quiet life by changing your identity."

Chen Xing answered, wrapped in a full set of cloak and mask in front of outsiders.

The middle-aged woman smiled humbly and did not interrupt, let alone ask Xiaoman what his specific race was.

She did not behave humbly in front of the "big businessman Winchester" who was favored even by the princess. After all, a person without any backbone could not be entrusted with secret missions.

"As long as she has no objection." Xiaoman thought that living in a residential house would be safer and quieter than a busy hotel. With her current strength, she didn't have to worry about safety, so she thought it was okay. The premise was that the person who accepted the temporary commission was not afraid of her bringing danger.

Chen Xing's plan was to let Xiaoman temporarily live in this person's home. On the surface, her identity was the daughter of a friend, but to his family, her identity was an illegitimate daughter who was accidentally lost in the early years and was taken back after her husband's death. Because it was not glorious to say it out loud, she made it seem particularly real as a disguise.

"I have two daughters. The older one is called Antin. She is my late husband's child. She is 27 years old and has a fiancé. The younger one is called Rona and she is only five years old."

The middle-aged woman spoke slowly, with a sincere expression, looking into Xiaoman's eyes: "I have told them about you in advance. Thank you for Mr. Winchester's gift. The girls are willing to accept you and live with you. They will definitely not cause you any trouble."

After all, they were just strangers who were temporarily together, so it was enough if they didn't dislike each other. After observing her, Xiaoman felt that this family must be well-mannered, so he nodded as an agreement.

"Great." The wrinkles around the woman's eyes smoothed out when she smiled. She also had cold white skin, and was relatively thin among the beastmen. She was very tall when she stood up, and looked slightly similar to Xiao Manzhen. It wouldn't be a stretch to say they were related. Chen Xing had chosen her for that reason.

Of course, as a member of the hyena tribe, her body shape was different from Xiaoman's thin nature. The middle-aged woman seemed to have only a thin and hard layer of flesh between her decent clothes and skeleton. The bones of her shoulders and hips were sharp. Compared with Xiaoman, she looked more like the mother who was bedridden and looked a little emaciated.

It was because of this vague feeling of intimacy that Xiaoman did not immediately reject Chen Xing's suggestion, but agreed to go to this person's home after observation.

Chen woke up only after she left with the man, then he took out his cigarette stick, causing the light golden smoke to rise again.

The businessman sat by the window, looking sideways at half of the City of Art. His ornate cloak spread out and hung down, connecting with the floor inlaid with complex patterns, blending seamlessly with the entire mansion.

"You must prefer ordinary places to being with me. It's so hurtful that you ran away like a knight who couldn't stand the banquet..." He murmured, holding his chin.

As he expected, Xiaoman never came to his place on his own initiative in the following days.

The middle-aged woman had already prepared a separate room for Xiaoman at home, and she got along quite well with the two girls.

There was a small episode in the middle. When the older Miss Antin kindly took the initiative to act as a tour guide to take Xiaoman to visit the gallery, Xiaoman was met by Antin's fiancé, who insisted that he was a love rival. After explanation failed, another person followed her.

"Anting is so cute! Of course someone will want to squeeze me out!" The wolf's fiancé said loudly and stubbornly.

Xiaoman really didn't understand why he thought his fiancée would fall in love with a girl from the abandoned tribe who was ten years younger than her. And even if these two young people were not bad people, it would be too strange to be in a relationship with them. The next day, she avoided Antin's wake-up time and went out to travel alone.

As for the young lady Rona, compared with her mother who has calmed down, she shows more respect for the nature of the hyenas - strength, rebellion, love of adventure and admiration for the strong.

So after a little friction that Xiaoman didn't care about at all, Rona immediately became Xiaoman's solid support, although everyone could see her childish little idea of ​​wanting to secretly learn the other's strengths and then defeat the other.

When she was in the village, Xiaoman had to deal with the pranks and provocations of those beast children who were only a few years old. Compared to them, Rona was much more simple and friendly, and smart enough.

Therefore, Xiaoman didn't mind chatting with Rona in the short time after returning to his residence and before going to bed, listening to her vivid description of what she had eaten and done during the day, and imitating her own irrelevant conversations with the maid.

The City of Arts is one of the seven cities, but it is the smallest. The people who come and go are only tourists, artists who want to be famous, merchants who discover and resell goods, and locals who have lived here for generations. No matter how large the transaction amount is, it seems to have little to do with the local residents except for taxes.

Xiaoman soon formed familiar relationships with some strange guys, such as the cold old woman who always stayed by the river to draw the flock of water birds, the old man who used stones to press the fishing rod and started playing the violin to relieve his boredom, but he could never catch any fish, and the street vendor who ran very fast selling low-quality sausages.

"He" is a snake girl dressed as a man, who used to make a living by sneaking around. The minced meat and sausages he sells now are made by his brothers and sisters who are also orphans. He still can't change his bad habit of being naughty, and at the beginning he almost got thrown to the city hall by Xiaoman.

Until today, Xiaoman finally met Chen Xing again.

"Do you like any of these paintings? Please feel free to take them."

The merchant in the cloak asked Xiaoman questions while he arbitrarily pushed aside the one-meter-long isolation line and walked straight in, taking down the painting and holding it in his hand.

Then the cluster of blue flowers blooming by the quiet river fell into his hands.

"It doesn't matter. More than half of the paintings here were donated by me, and the rent of the land was also reduced or waived," he added.

"No thanks." Xiaoman refused without hesitation.

"...It's really sad." Chen Xing said this, but his tone did not show sadness. He just hung the half-person-high oil painting back to its original place, and then walked back to Xiaoman, as if he wanted to visit with her and inspect the operating status here.

Xiaoman pretended he didn't exist and continued walking inside.

After many twists and turns, she suddenly came to a special exhibition hall.

Most of the paintings on the wall were blank canvases that had never been framed. Even from the perspective of an outsider like Xiaoman, the techniques used in the few completed paintings were very ordinary, even tacky.

“Welcome to my favorite part, ‘Unfinished Works’. It was after hearing the idea of ​​this place that I agreed to rent it to the lowest bidder.”

Chen Xing said in a soft and smiling voice.

"It means to let the people who come after us draw it themselves." Xiaoman quickly understood the reason.

"That's right." Chen Xing pointed to the other side of the exhibition hall. Xiao Man walked over and saw seven or eight easels that were not in the middle of their creations, separated by a curtain that didn't interfere with each other. Some people were standing there for a long time, holding a palette, thinking, but they never put a single stroke on it.

"It would be great if the charges were reasonable," Xiaoman said.

"Do you want to try it?" Chen Xing asked.

“……” Xiaoman was stunned.

She said, “I can’t draw.”

"There is no such thing as 'knowing' or 'not knowing' when it comes to painting. There is only whether or not you have learned it. Even if you have not learned it, you can still doodle freely. Most of the paintings you just saw were not organized, right? But they will be preserved, like sleeping jewels, until someone sees them in the future."

Chen Xing slowly approached and whispered to the thoughtful Xiao Man: "So try it and leave your subjective traces in this world. This is interesting in itself, isn't it?"

"Okay, I'll come here every day." Xiaoman nodded frankly.

"Have you decided what to draw?" Chen Xing asked with curiosity in his tone.

"Um."

"Can you tell me?"

"No need, you'll see for yourself."

[I was rejected. Ugh.] The adjutant said sympathetically.

As a fragment of the Star God, No. 4 can naturally trigger the innate duties of the Incomplete One. Xiaoman did not attack him thanks to his stable emotions, so there was nothing he could do about it... But No. 1 to No. 3 had never been treated so distantly by Xiaoman, which made Yuan Qian feel a little frustrated.

"Wait, what was that sound you just made?"

[I went to visit and learned about other despair.] The adjutant said, [I didn’t expect you to understand this joke.]

"I am a native after all... because the original work before the animation was made was for a handheld platform."

Yuan Qian answered. He was too lazy to ask his teammates where they got the resources from. They probably got them from friendly readers on comic forums anyway. As long as they didn't learn to build some outrageous school in another world, it would be fine.

Considering how much the adjutant hates the sight of a bunch of passionate brave kids gathering together, he will definitely not do such a thing, so there is no need to worry too much about this.

——As time passed quietly, Xiaoman really came to the "Unfinished Works" exhibition hall to paint every day, bringing water and bread, and was not afraid of wind or rain.

Contrary to Xiaoman's own conclusion, she can be said to be able to draw. It's just far from being defined as art, but fortunately her skills are solid and after careful practice, she can draw accurate portraits.

...because in the long and short days in the past, mother once held the young Xiaoman's hand and drew on the ground with branches, on the broad leaves with bones, and on the surface of the quilt with fingertips.

They drew the asymmetrical wings of a butterfly, the brave little Susie in the storybook, and a broken plate, like a half-duck tail sticking out of the grass.

Antin and Rona, who were influenced by their life in the city of art, also helped. During dinner, Antin used a knife and fork dipped in sauce to show Xiaoman how to use the paintbrush to achieve better results. Rona was only five years old, but she had learned sketching and lent her exercise book to Xiaoman for reference.

Xiaoman's work was gradually perfected - Chen Xing didn't even take a look at it during the process, but arrived quietly when Xiaoman finally put down his paintbrush.

He stood silently beside Xiaoman, looking at the finished painting.

In the painting she left to the world, the centerpiece is a woman with light gray hair sitting on a chair, wearing a simple linen dress, without any overly gorgeous embellishment. This is the appearance of the mother that Xiaoman will always remember in her heart.

Behind the chair stood a girl with gray-black hair and a boy with white hair. In the middle of them was a young man with long dark red hair. He was tall and thin, and looked like a scholar from a wealthy family.

The painting style is very common, but the spirit is still there, and there is a kind of solemn and moving charm.

Xiaoman turned around silently and looked at Chen Xing. The exhibition hall was open to the public, so he couldn't be considered to have come uninvited.

Although Chen Xing's efforts helped her avoid some troubles, this was not a reason to give Chen Xing a place. She had no guilt in being on guard against this guy who even gave her help in an ambiguous way.

"It's great." Chen Xing stared at the painting and said slowly with a sigh.

Xiaoman noticed that a little bit of shiny water was gradually seeping out from the bottom edge of the silver mask.

The first time he took out his cigarette holder in front of Xiaoman, he had just lit it and the pale golden smoke had just risen up when it met the tip of the knife in Xiaoman's hand.

"What is that?" When his senses touched the smoke, he felt a very irresistible aura. Xiaoman tensed up and stared at Chen Xing.

In a corner of the dim exhibition hall, a merchant whose true face was wrapped in an intricately patterned cloak and a silver mask tilted his head innocently, as if he was completely confused by this question.

He said in a very quiet voice:

"Of course it is the evil thoughts of this world. What else could it be? The things that tormented our Father, the things that accumulated until they crushed Him..."

"--Oh, do you want to try it? But I don't recommend it. It tastes too bitter."