Sweet slice-of-life love story: Wife, Let's love again
Chapter 145 - 144: Adults Don’t Have Summer Vacation

Chapter 145: Chapter 144: Adults Don’t Have Summer Vacation

Time rushed into July, and although the initial excitement had worn off, Qin Guanglin didn’t slacken. In the mornings, he would bring breakfast and fresh vegetables to He Fang’s place, and in the evenings, they would go running after dinner before dawdling a bit and then heading to sleep.

Busy yet not boring.

He had completed half of the overall progress of the comic in his hands, and had stopped coloring a week ago, planning to leave it till all the drawings were finished.

As his understanding deepened slowly, he would find many flaws when he looked back at the earlier drawings. If he had colored them, he would have had to start over entirely, which was too troublesome. But with just the line drawings, it was much easier to modify earlier scenes, dialogue, and character placement. Just redoing a drawing would suffice.

Qin Guanglin finished a Chapter, stood up to grab a cup of water, and came back flipping through his earlier drawings while drinking.

His progress was obvious. He was quite something.

He happily finished his water and set down the cup to examine the drawings in earnest.

There was a term called ’idiocy rate’, simply put, it means looking back at your past self after a while and thinking how idiotic you were.

For instance, when looking back at what you posted a year or two ago on social media, most people would feel: Holy shit, was that really me? Why was I so silly? What the hell was I thinking?

In essence, the ’idiocy rate’ is a measure of the speed of growth. The shorter the cycle, the faster the growth. If you don’t feel this way after several years, you’re probably beyond help.

Qin Guanglin didn’t exaggerate to the point of finding his work from the previous day childish, but after nearly a month, he found several issues with his work at the outset, simply by giving it a causal scan.

This scenery was too busy, that character arrangement too dense, eh, this frontal view feels lifeless, should have drawn a back view...

The more he learned, the more problems arose.

He took pen and paper to summarize these issues, then stood up and knocked on the office door.

"Come in."

Chen Rui, who was sitting at his desk sketching, put down his pen and straightened up when he saw Qin Guanglin enter, "What’s up?"

"I have a few questions to ask, if it’s not too much trouble." Qin Guanglin chuckled as he sat down; this was not his first inquiry, and Chen Rui, a rather nice guy, had always provided detailed responses.

"Go ahead, I don’t have much else on." Chen Rui stood up, poured a cup of water, and pushed it towards him, "At the rate you’re going, I won’t have any answers for you in a year."

He wasn’t surprised by Qin Guanglin’s pace of improvement.

With a solid foundation, drawing came naturally to Qin Guanglin. The main issue wasn’t in the pen but on the paper.

Previously, he used one drawing to encompass various elements and narratives. Now, he was using hundreds to thousands of drawings to tell a single story. That was the crux.

"There are some parts I’m not sure how to express, it always feels off, like here..."

Qin Guanglin opened his booklet, pushed it forward, and pointed it out, "It’s easy to express with words, but it doesn’t translate well into a drawing."

"Hmm..."

After pondering the part Qin Guanglin had pointed out for a moment, Chen Rui suggested, "Have you tried using a distant view?"

"I tried."

"Then there’s no way around it, you’ll have to skip it," Chen Rui shrugged, "You have to bypass such details when necessary. Don’t dwell on them, although it’s better to draw them out, words and drawings are fundamentally different."

After a moment of contemplation, Qin Guanglin nodded, "Alright."

Words have their strengths, and drawings, theirs; one can’t force it.

"And this part..."

...

Outside.

Sun Wen, having completed his coloring work, picked up his paintbrush to practice drawing.

He hadn’t visited the bar again after that night. Last weekend, he rented a single room; no longer having to endure the cat’s meowing, he felt much more spirited.

For more than half a month, he hadn’t slacked off; aside from coloring, he was drawing, continuing his learning even when he got home. His determination seemed even greater than Yu Le’s, making Qin Guanglin marvel.

Was this the power of heartbreak?

Sun Wen just smiled at Qin Guanglin’s questioning, sometimes running to him with questions he didn’t understand, just like Yu Le — practically like mentor and apprentice.

"Where’s Lin?" After drawing for a while, he looked up, not seeing Qin Guanglin and asked Yu Le who was beside him.

"Brother Lin’s in the office, has been in there for quite some time," Yu Le had indeed seen Qin Guanglin enter the office, "Probably went to ask about something again."

Big shots were indeed big shots; no matter how skilled, they still worked so hard.

That made him recall a saying: When everyone else is working hard, what’s the point of your hard work?

This toxic motivational speech only poisoned Yu Le momentarily before he adjusted his mindset.

They were not in competition; the more skilled the big shot, the more he could learn.

"Oh," Sun Wen nodded, his gaze moving to the office door, smiling, "Doesn’t it feel like being back in school?" he pointed at the office door, "Lin’s like the class representative, running in to ask questions and then coming out to teach us."

"Uh... I never asked the class representative questions in school, nor did I often ask the teachers," Yu Le scratched his head, unable to relate.

"Tsk, academic dreg."

"Hehehe."

Yu Le glanced at the office, "The atmosphere is pretty good now; if it continues this way..." he paused, hesitantly looking at Sun Wen, "Brother Wen, are you really not considering..."

"Go," Sun Wen frowned, interrupted him, and looked around, "Don’t talk about that."

"..." Yu Le obediently shut his mouth and leaned over to continue his drawing.

...

In the office.