Chapter 117 - 109: Surprise

Chapter 117: Chapter 109: Surprise

Chen Jingle sketched rapidly, so fast that he didn’t even need to pause and think. The room was completely silent, save for the scratching of charcoal against paper.

Soon, a portrait of Chen Qiyun appeared on the page. She was drawn with one hand on her hip, her small mouth slightly pouting yet hinting at a subtle smile. Her face was angled slightly away, her eyelids half-raised. It looked as if she were casting a sidelong glance from below, or perhaps secretly gauging someone’s reaction from the corner of her eye.

Her gaze was incredibly lifelike and vivid. Looking at the gold medal works from past national sketching competitions, one would know that a good character sketch requires more than just structure, three-dimensionality, spatial awareness, and lighting. It also needs to deliver a palpable sense of emotional tension.

Where does this emotion come from? Partly from facial expressions, and partly from the eyes. Expressions aren’t necessarily genuine; they can be faked. Eyes, however, are different. They represent a much deeper level of emotional expression—a person’s subconscious, instinctive reaction.

If a drawn character only has an expression but dead eyes, it feels entirely superficial, stuck in the phase of merely looking like the subject. Only when the eyes are drawn well does the artwork truly enter the realm of emotional expression. If someone didn’t understand this, Chen Jingle’s advice was simple: Draw more beautiful women! Draw enough, and you’ll naturally figure it out.

Chen Jingle’s favorite thing to draw was also the eyes. To put it in a cliché way, the eyes are the windows to the soul. To put it more mystically, the step of adding the eyes is the most crucial; it is the most important part of breathing a living soul into the subject on the canvas. If the eyes aren’t drawn well, the entire piece is basically ruined.

Chen Jingle wanted to capture a Chen Qiyun who looked simultaneously coquettish and playfully pouting. Her eyes needed to feel as though they were speaking. Even if the rest of the drawing were covered, just the eyes alone should be enough to convey her emotions.

So far, it looked pretty good. At least he was satisfied with it. The rest were just minor details that could be filled in slowly.

[Lunch break has arrived. Adequate sleep contributes to children’s physical growth. Little Chen Jingle, please prepare for your afternoon nap. The time limit is set to one and a half hours.]

The system chimed in with a reminder.

Chen Jingle put down his charcoal pencil and stretched lazily. "That’s about enough for now. I’ll finish the rest this afternoon."

Completing the majority of a character portrait sketch in just half an hour—and at a top-tier level of quality—was a genuinely astonishing speed. Even on a global scale, it would rank in the absolute highest tier.

Enough of that, it was time to sleep.

His morning schedule had been exceptionally packed, leaving him feeling a bit exhausted. In his mind, his ideal life would be sleeping in until past ten in the morning, then heading out to grab morning tea with friends—combining breakfast and lunch into one meal. After eating, he’d stroll around the area to digest his food. Then he’d come back for an afternoon nap. If the weather was nice later, he’d go fishing; if it wasn’t, he’d stay home playing video games or reading. Around seven or eight in the evening, he would go out for dinner with friends again, followed by a drive up to the mountain peak to stargaze. Once he got tired, he’d hit up a nearby bathhouse for a sauna and steam room session, grab some late-night buffet food while there, and finally head home to sleep.

That was the kind of lifestyle pace he truly desired. Unfortunately, the system had assigned him a mountain of learning tasks. Here he was at thirty years old, grinding away every single day like a stressed-out elementary school student.

He sighed. "It is what it is. I should just go to sleep."

Taking a quick shower, Chen Jingle lay down on his bed and activated his sleep mode.

Meanwhile, Li Beixing returned home.

She saw Jiang Ziqin on the sofa, holding a tablet and binge-watching a show, while Auntie Wang was in the kitchen preparing lunch. She cheerfully greeted her mother first, picking out a few amusing anecdotes from her morning to share while omitting the frustrating parts. Then, she headed into the kitchen to check on Auntie Wang’s lunch progress.

"Just a moment, Miss. Lunch will be ready soon," Auntie Wang said with a quick smile when she saw her walk in.

"It’s fine, no rush." Li Beixing suddenly thought of something. "Auntie Wang, do you know how to make cold tossed beef?"

Auntie Wang nodded. "I do, but that dish is quite troublesome to prepare. We definitely wouldn’t be able to have it for lunch. If I start making it now, it might just barely be ready in time for dinner. If you want to eat it, Miss, I can make it."

Li Beixing was surprised. "Is it really that troublesome?" She had assumed it just required regular cooking.

"Yes," Auntie Wang explained. "The braised beef used for the cold dish might look ordinary on the outside, but the process is actually very complicated and time-consuming. In the past, people would prepare it a day in advance. Now that we have pressure cookers, the cooking process doesn’t take too long, but for the flavors to fully seep in, the meat still needs to marinate for several hours. After that, it has to be tightly wrapped and placed in the fridge to set its shape, otherwise, the meat will fall apart when you slice it."

Li Beixing nodded in sudden realization. It did sound far from easy. She wondered if Chen Jingle had started preparing it yesterday. She thought Chen Qiyun’s luck was truly quite good.

Thinking about that spicy, delicious cold tossed beef made Li Beixing a bit hungry. She immediately said, "Then let’s have cold tossed beef for dinner tonight."

"Alright, I’ll have someone deliver some beef shank," Auntie Wang readily agreed.

Li Beixing was curious again. "Is there a difference between beef shank and regular beef?"

Auntie Wang chuckled. "Beef shank is naturally the most suitable for making braised beef. If there isn’t any, regular beef works too. There will be a slight difference in texture, but ordinary people probably wouldn’t be able to tell."

"I see." Li Beixing fell into thought.

She recalled that what she had eaten this morning seemed to be just regular lean beef. She wondered if Auntie Wang’s cold tossed beef made with beef shank would taste better than Chen Jingle’s. Li Beixing began to look forward to it.

A while later, Auntie Wang brought the dishes and a delicious soup to the table, ready to serve lunch.

Li Qiguang had a business lunch and wasn’t coming home to eat. He had called ahead to tell them not to prepare a portion for him. Even so, the lunch spread was incredibly lavish.

No matter how simple the ingredients were, in the hands of Auntie Wang, a former head chef, they could always be cooked into extraordinary flavors.