Sweet slice-of-life love story: Wife, Let's love again
Chapter 137 - 136: The Spirit of Writing and Ink

Chapter 137: Chapter 136: The Spirit of Writing and Ink

"Other boyfriends will pick up and drive their girlfriends around."

He can’t.

Sun Wen felt that this was the crux of the problem.

The hot and sour cabbage was strongly flavored; a single leaf could go with several bites of rice. By the time he’d eaten half the dish, his rice was already finished, so he got up and refilled his bowl to continue eating.

Yu Le glanced up at the two of them, blinking, somewhat unable to grasp their thoughts.

Isn’t it nice to be single?

Humph, mere mortals.

A perfect person like himself didn’t need any girlfriend to be happy; he could do it all by himself.

"Back when you had a girlfriend at school, breaking up didn’t get to you like this," Qin Guanglin finished his meal, put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and said.

"It’s different."

"Did you like this one especially?"

"Pretty much."

Sun Wen shoveled the remaining half bowl of rice into his mouth, puffed up his cheeks and chewed a few times before swallowing and putting down his chopsticks to speak, "Living together is not the same as dating. We lived together for two years; life for two years."

"Two years," he stretched out his fingers, gesturing toward Qin Guanglin, "Living together for two years, that’s almost like being married. I’ve heard people say that when cohabitants split, it feels like getting divorced."

"I don’t know what divorce feels like, but..." Sun Wen twisted uncomfortably, looked up at the ceiling fan, and sighed, "It just feels like my life isn’t whole anymore, like something’s missing. When I’m busy, it’s okay, but as soon as I have a free moment, I can’t help but overthink things. There were also a lot of things we were supposed to do together that we never got to. How did we just suddenly break up?"

Living together and then breaking up felt almost like a divorce. He had once thought such a statement was an exaggeration.

But thinking about it now, what was the difference between cohabitation and marriage?

No difference, just a piece of paper.

"Now that you mention it, that’s true," said Qin Guanglin as he stood up and patted his shoulder, "Do whatever you want to do, and say something if you need help." He suddenly chuckled, "Just like back in the school days, helping you set up candles and blow up balloons. Didn’t you say girls fall for that kind of thing?"

"It’s different now, girls and women want different things," Sun Wen laughed and stood up too, "Let’s wait and see. If we manage to talk again and I propose, then I’ll have you and Xiao Yu help me with the balloons and candles."

"You’re not afraid Xiao Yu might give you a ping-pong smoke bomb? He’s still single, you know."

"Damn, that kid..."

The midday sun was fiercely radiating heat, as if trying to cook people alive. The electric fan in the small shop was utterly useless, blowing only hot air. The two of them, along with Yu Le, didn’t linger after finishing their food, quickly returning to the company to enjoy the air conditioning and rest.

Sun Wen, who had stayed in a hotel and hadn’t slept well due to the noise, now lay his weary face on his desk, falling asleep within minutes.

Qin Guanglin played a few rounds of Fight the Landlord and didn’t know if yesterday’s good luck had kicked in, but his luck was explosive; in a little over half an hour, he’d won twenty thousand beans and, afraid to lose it all in the next round, stopped playing promptly.

After lying down for a while without feeling sleepy, he simply continued to draw.

"Brother Lin, can you take a look at this drawing for me? I always feel like it’s missing something, but I don’t know what the problem is."

Yu Le, who also hadn’t taken a nap, saw that Qin Guanglin wasn’t resting and came over quietly with his drawing to ask for advice.

"The structure is off, and the proportions are a bit wrong too, but the main issue is that it lacks a sense of depth," Qin Guanglin quickly spotted problems all over, "You shouldn’t start with something this complex; practice with simpler things first."

After he finished, he paused and then praised, "Actually, it’s quite good. The contrast between light and dark is decent, showing you’ve really put in the effort."

"So..." Yu Le scratched his head, "What should I focus on practicing?"

"Focus on practicing..."

Qin Guanglin carefully examined the drawing, "Haven’t you studied structural sketching?"

"Huh?" Yu Le looked perplexed for a moment, then ashamedly lowered his head, "I’ve been learning from the internet, picking up whatever materials I could find..."

"Oh, right," Qin Guanglin nodded, grabbed a sheet of draft paper, and drew a few lines, "Just having light and shadow isn’t enough. Look, like this, without coloring, just using the depth and weight of lines to express solidity and void can create a sense of depth. And if you add shadows..."

He held the pen and smeared for a moment, showing Yu Le, "Do you understand now?"

"Brother Lin, that..." Yu Le looked up admiringly, "Can I take you as my master?"

"Take me as your master?"

Qin Guanglin cocked his head and chuckled, "You think we’re in the old days, still taking on apprentices... Just come and ask if you don’t understand something."

"Alright then," Yu Le seemed a bit disappointed, "So Brother Lin, aside from this... this structural sketch, is there anything else I should focus on practicing?"

"You just work on getting good at that, and we’ll talk about what you’re lacking when the time comes. Off you go."

"Okay, thank you, Brother Lin."

Yu Le, carrying his drawing, walked two steps away and then turned back, looking at the wad of demonstration paper in Qin Guanglin’s hand, "Could I... could you give that to me?"

"Huh?" Qin Guanglin was startled and a bit speechless, handing over the crumpled paper, "If you want it, then take it."

Watching Yu Le happily return to his seat with the wrinkled paper, Qin Guanglin couldn’t help but smack his lips.

Though he had started learning late, he had some talent and was willing to work hard. If he kept up this enthusiasm, he could certainly rise to be a main artist, not just an assistant.

Glancing over at Jiang Lingling, who was lying on her desk, he noticed quite the gap between the two assistants.

Time flew by while painting, and before they knew it, lunch break was over, and the sun had quietly moved to the west.

"Boss, what would you like to drink?"

Jiang Lingling, holding a big bag of milk tea, placed it on Qin Guanglin’s desk and asked, "The boss is treating us, everyone gets one, you pick first."

She lowered her voice on the last sentence and winked at Qin Guanglin.

"Thank you."

Qin Guanglin glanced casually and chose a kumquat lemon tea, "I’ll go with this one."

Naturally, the company’s afternoon tea offering wouldn’t include things like carrot juice.

"Hehe, I’ll go give these out," Jiang Lingling said with a smile and lifted the big bag of milk tea to distribute to others.

After handing out the drinks to everyone, she walked back with her own cup of pearl milk tea, "Boss, is yours good?"

"It’s alright," Qin Guanglin nodded.

It wasn’t as sour as the one he had sipped from He Fang before; the difference between less sugar and regular sugar was too great.

"If I’d known you liked this, I wouldn’t have bought pearl milk tea last time."

"Pearl milk tea is pretty good too," he said with a smile, "One thank you was enough."

"You still hadn’t finished it by the end of work."

Jiang Lingling pouted in complaint, "And now, in just a short while, you’ve already drunk half."

"I was just a bit thirsty."

"Lin, can you take a look for me, see where it needs improvement?" Sun Wen ran over, holding a drawing and butting in.

"Did you draw this?" Qin Guanglin was surprised.

"Yeah, how is it?" Sun Wen had an eager-to-learn expression.

Instead of slacking off after finishing his work early, he picked up the pencil and seriously pondered how to draw the line work.

"Why are you drawing this?"

"Life is about learning nonstop."

"It’s not that," Qin Guanglin frowned, "what’s gotten into you today?" It was one thing for Yu Le to ask, but why was Sun Wen joining in the hubbub?

"What do you mean ’what’s gotten into me’? I’m serious," Sun Wen said earnestly.

"Even if you’re serious, I can’t teach you."

Qin Guanglin felt a toothache coming on, "You’ve already got the basics down; figure it out on your own."

"Hey, if I could figure it out, would I still be asking you?" Sun Wen laid the drawing flat on the desk, "My skills are limited as they are, and no matter how I look at it, I can’t spot the flaws. You need to point them out for me."

"Ahem... this drawing of yours," Qin Guanglin coughed lightly, "This drawing is lively and vivid, strikingly true to life, the brushwork is spirited, combining the strengths of both Chinese and Western painting, the treatment of light and color is perfect, the matching is striking, the rendering is on point, the characterization is powerful, the color contrast is clear..."

"Get lost."