TSIBAMS Chapter 24

Chapter 24

How long has Ye Xing been in Chen Town? That’s how long his easel has been neglected. But him taking out his easel today wasn’t because he suddenly had a desire to create.

Just like Qi Guang is used to having the TV on when he’s home alone, he just wanted to find something to do to fill the emptiness of time and space. He was very clear that for a long time to come, he couldn’t stop, couldn’t allow anxiety and irritability to arbitrarily invade his soul.

As long as his body didn’t stop, his mind wouldn’t have time to think about unnecessary things.

After all, he was a student who couldn’t multitask!

Ye Xing was suddenly very grateful for his single-core processing system. If he had a dual-core or quad-core system, it would be a bit troublesome.

He set up the easel and began to sharpen his pencils seriously.

So, what should he draw?

With Qi Guang’s various suggestions, the 1984 Bar’s decoration style had already tried hard to get rid of the gaudiness of a village bar and had become the most high-end bar in Chen Town, without a doubt. But when he saw the few large red flower baskets at the entrance celebrating the opening, he still felt a little collapsed.

“Who sent these flower baskets?” Qi Guang asked.

Bai Shu was learning from the bartender on the side and answered, “Brother Xu’s friends, you probably don’t know them.”

Qi Guang looked at Brother Xu helplessly.

Brother Xu smiled and said, “I think they’re alright, otherwise, how would people know we’re open, right?”

“Brother Xu, you’re becoming less and less like Brother Xu!” Qi Guang said.

Bai Shu turned his head to look at Qi Guang, while Brother Xu looked puzzled.

Qi Guang continued, “I just want to call you Boss Xu now.”

“You little rascal!” Brother Xu slapped Qi Guang on the back and then wrapped his arm around his neck, saying, “I’ll give you three seconds to think carefully about how you should call your brother!”

Qi Guang grabbed Brother Xu’s arms with both hands, grinning and saying, “Xu…Hanwen?”

Xu Hanwen was Brother Xu’s name, but Brother Xu had forbidden anyone from calling him that since he was a child. After all, such a gentle and scholarly name greatly impacted the image of a big boss roaming the streets. He just hated that he wasn’t called Xu Wenqiang!

So, 99.999% of the people in the world didn’t know Brother Xu’s name.

The remaining 0.001% should be his elementary school teachers.

And, the reckless young man in front of him.

But Brother Xu was no longer the same Brother Xu. Now, he had transformed into a sophisticated and approachable Boss Xu. Facing someone who fearlessly spoke his name, he didn’t resort to harsh measures, instead—

He lightly kicked Qi Guang’s butt.

Bai Shu turned away, continuing to watch the bartender play with those bottles and cans.

As evening just fell, Zhou Tian and Shuai Xiaoyun appeared at the entrance.

Qi Guang walked over to lead them in, “Come on, I reserved a spot for you.”

“You’d think you were the one who opened this bar,” Shuai Xiaoyun said.

Zhou Tian followed behind, saying, “Our Qi Guang looks like a natural boss!”

Qi Guang turned his head and gave Zhou Tian a thumbs up for his rare moment of emotional intelligence. Just then, he noticed there weren’t any more people behind them and asked, “Where’s Ye Xing? Isn’t he coming?”

“He said he had something to do today, and he’ll come next time,” Zhou Tian pulled out a chair and sat down.

Shuai Xiaoyun glanced at him, then looked at Qi Guang, asking, “Ye Xing? Is that the one you fought with last time?”

Qi Guang nodded.

“I don’t know what he’s so busy with. I feel like he’s not in a good mood today,” Zhou Tian continued.

Shuai Xiaoyun asked, “Didn’t he have a fever yesterday? Is he still not feeling well?”

“Fever?” Zhou Tian looked puzzled.

“It shouldn’t be. His temperature was normal last night,” Qi Guang replied.

Zhou Tian was dissatisfied with being ignored and tried to interrupt again, “Weren’t you two gaming all night?”

Shuai Xiaoyun looked at Qi Guang with a mischievous grin as if she had discovered their secret.

“Oh, it’s getting busy,” Qi Guang took a glass of wine from Bai Shu, who was passing by, “I’ll go to work!”

Qi Guang didn’t expect that Ye Xing wouldn’t come. He had previously asked the bartender to teach him a few cocktails, planning to make them for him. But now, the situation was different from what he had imagined, and he wasn’t in the mood to make cocktails.

The bar wasn’t at its busiest point yet, so it wasn’t too hectic.

He pulled out his phone and opened his chat with Ye Xing.

-Are you feeling unwell?

-No.

So, he was just in a bad mood? Qi Guang didn’t know if he should ask. After hesitating for a while, he put his phone back in his pocket and continued making cocktails.

When he went to serve the drinks, Zhou Tian and Shuai Xiaoyun were chatting animatedly.

“Among all the teachers, she’s the least annoying. I even think she finds us annoying,” Zhou Tian said.

Shuai Xiaoyun was extremely amused.

“What are you talking about that’s so funny?” Qi Guang sat down.

“We’re talking about your English teacher. No, she’s your class teacher now. She’s such a treasure of a teacher,” Shuai Xiaoyun said, laughing.

Zhou Tian continued, “Don’t look at her being young, she’s actually no worse than those old guys when it comes to teaching. Anyway, my English score is the best because she’s the only teacher whose class I don’t play on my phone.”

“Oh, even in the key class, there are people playing on their phones?” Shuai Xiaoyun said.

“Don’t talk like we’re a bunch of nerds. Your brother also came from our class,” Zhou Tian glanced at Qi Guang.

Qi Guang raised both hands in a gesture of surrender, “Let me off, I’ve already been exiled.”

Shuai Xiaoyun and Zhou Tian burst into laughter again.

Just then, Ye Xing sent a message. Qi Guang opened WeChat; it was a drawing.

It depicted a young man studying at a desk under a lamp. The only thing clear and bright in the whole picture was under the lamplight, while the background was a vast darkness, a huge bookshelf, barely visible if you don’t look closely, like a silent monster, hidden in the depths of the colors, humbly guarding the young man in the light, protecting his present and future.

Qi Guang couldn’t hide his excitement and laughed out loud.

-Is that me in the drawing?

-Yes, I don’t like to be interrupted when I’m drawing, so I didn’t go to the bar with them.

-Can I save it??

-Of course.

Qi Guang pressed the save button.

-Can I post it on my Moments?

-Yeah, it’s up to you.

Qi Guang opened his Moments, didn’t even think of a caption, and directly posted the picture.

When he returned to the chat interface, Ye Xing had sent another message.

-Can I share it on social media?

-Of course, you drew it! Thank you, this is the first time someone has drawn a picture for me, and it’s so well-drawn!

Ye Xing sent a wave emoji, indicating ‘you’re welcome’.

“What’s making you so happy? You’re laughing like an idiot,” Shuai Xiaoyun snapped her fingers in front of him.

Qi Guang glared at her, “Look at my Moments.”

Soon after, Zhou Tian jumped up, “Qi Guang, is that you???”

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“Who drew it? It’s too good! How much for a painting? I want him to draw for me too!” Zhou Tian zoomed in and out on the picture on the screen, admiring it back and forth.

“Ye Xing,” Qi Guang replied.

“What the heck?” Zhou Tian and Shuai Xiaoyun raised their heads in surprise at the same time.

Qi Guang successfully avoided their gazes and clicked into Moments to take a look.

By now, there was already a bunch of likes and comments. He scrolled down one by one—

[Is that you?]

[Oh my god, you’re glowing!!]

[Is Brother Qi going to ascend to immortality?!]

[Am I the only one who thinks the bookshelf in the background looks weird…]

[Bull, where is it weird? If you don’t understand art, don’t talk nonsense. It’s called heavy!]

Qi Guang laughed. He rarely posted on Moments. He hadn’t expected to blow everyone up with just one post. Besides comments, there were also some likes from unfamiliar profile pictures. He randomly clicked on one of the profiles.

The WeChat name clearly displayed—Huang Shanshan.

His smile immediately disappeared.

A fish slipped through the net.

Qi Guang quickly clicked on his phone, dragging the person into the blacklist.

After editing his Weibo post, Ye Xing hesitated for a long time, and decided to tag Chen Town, because he thought this place was remote enough, and wouldn’t have his little fans. It was also because this place was where he was starting his new life, and this tag would be like a sense of ritual.

As expected, no one noticed the inconspicuous tag.

Shortly after he clicked send, the comment and like notifications kept ringing non-stop—

[Grandma, the painting blogger you’ve been following has finally updated!]

[Lord Ye has finally found his Weibo password, ToT]

[Missing person has returned! I swear this is Lord Ye’s style, his account hasn’t been hacked!]

[Is the person in the drawing Brother Ye? He’s so handsome!]

Ye Xing replied to the comment: “No, it’s a classmate.”

He didn’t expect this reply to create another commotion in the comments—

[I didn’t expect that Lord Ye was still a student, 55555, I’m going to start calling you Little Ye!]

[Looks like he should be a high school student, Little Ye is so promising at such a young age!]

[Yay!! This middle schooler feels closer to Lord Ye now!]

[I’ve gone from being a girlfriend fan to being a mother fan, so sad!]

The comment section calmed down after half an hour. Ye Xing looked at the time, and it was still early, but he was actually feeling a bit sleepy, probably because he woke up too early this morning.

He took the palette and brushes to soak in the sink, packed the easel into its bag, and took his pajamas and a towel into the bathroom to prepare for a hot shower so that he could sleep until he passed out. At that moment, his phone screen lit up again. It was a private message—

-Hello Ye, do you take illustration work?

Ye Xing clicked on the person’s profile. The nickname was “Sanmu.” Gender was unknown. The profile was filled with posts of some paintings and photography works, and occasionally their own.

It looked like a scammer.

But the name wasn’t unfamiliar. They’d been in his follower list for a year or two. This was the first private message he’d ever gotten.

To be honest, given his current poor state, he would take on any kind of work, let alone illustration work. If it wasn’t for the remaining sense of reason that prevented him from easily trusting a stranger, he might have wanted to call this fan, who was helping him in his time of need, ‘daddy’.

He didn’t know how to reply when another message came through.

-It’s like this. I’m a student too. My art studio’s teacher has good connections with a publishing house. They occasionally look for talented artists in our studio to do commission work. However, I don’t think any of them draw as well as you do. If you’re willing, I can recommend you to him.

Ye Xing pondered over it several times and decided to trust the other person.

-Okay, thank you.

-You’re welcome!! I’m already very happy that you replied to me!

Even if it was a scammer, they must be doing it because he had the talent? Ye Xing opened his profile page, staring at his works, mesmerized.

This was his first painting of a real person.

He had lived these ten odd years, constantly moving with his parents, never having any steady friends. And his unassertive nature meant he was also used to playing alone. However, being assigned to this godforsaken place was still quite unexpected.

This was definitely a life experience he had never dared to imagine before.

He hadn’t expected to become friends with someone with Zhou Tian’s level of emotional intelligence, and eat at his house every day.

And Qi Guang, he should count as a friend too. Despite the fact he always radiated this “nothing has to do with me” aura, when something happened to him, he naturally thought of going to him, and he was willing to talk to him about his embarrassing family matters. It was definitely more than just because he was handsome and looked reliable.

What was it because of then? The legendary trust?

Then he would just unilaterally count him as a friend.

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