Chapter 335
Chapter 335
Although Jiang Yunsui’s painting made everyone cry, the entire Ji Family unanimously adored it.
As the saying went, death was not the end. Being forgotten was.
The most frightening thing was that even one’s closest loved ones would gradually forget one’s face as time passed.
Everyone desperately wanted to remember, but the world was like an eraser, wearing away the clear traces little by little. In the end, only a vague shadow remained in their memories.
That was why the portrait affected the Ji Family Members so deeply.
“I never imagined an oil painting could make people look so real.”
“It’s beautiful. This must be Father and Mother when they were young.”
After crying and reminiscing, everyone turned their attention to the painting itself.
It was the most lifelike portrait they had ever seen.
Ink paintings emphasized spirit and bearing, so the people they depicted looked somewhat unlike their real selves.
Jiang Yunsui was also excellent at sketching, but sketches did not have such rich and beautiful colors.
“Little Yunsui, is this kind of painting difficult to learn?”
The younger Ji women were all intrigued.
They wanted to learn.
Then they could paint their loved ones and the things they cherished.
The Ji Family’s Third Young Lady said, “I want to learn too. Then I can paint Father and my elder brother.”
Her voice was very soft, but everyone heard her.
Her eyes reddened as she said, “I miss Father and my elder brother.”
Youngest Aunt embraced her. How could she not miss them too?
Jiang Yunsui had never met so many of them, and many had never sat for a portrait. She could not possibly paint every deceased member of the Ji Family from nothing.
It would be best for those who had seen them to paint from memory.
Jiang Yunsui said, “It will be a little difficult if you don’t know how to draw.”
“But that’s all right. I’ll teach you slowly!”
The younger Ji women, including Ji Yang, all declared that they wanted to learn and would study seriously.
Liu Huan wanted to learn as well.
Teacher Jiang Yunsui welcomed every student.
“First, we need to prepare brushes. We’ll also need plenty of pigments.”
Most pigments were made from minerals. With the Ji Family’s current status and influence, obtaining colored minerals was not difficult, nor was having craftsmen turn them into pigments.
It would simply take some time.
While they waited for the pigments to be made, Jiang Yunsui began by teaching them how to sketch.
Charcoal pencils were easier for the craftsmen to produce.
Some of her sketching methods astonished everyone.
Jiang Yunsui had drawn the human skeleton, muscles, and tissues.
“Look. When you draw a person, you begin with the bones. That way, you can draw the person better…”
“S-so this is what lies beneath a person’s skin.”
It was somewhat frightening, but everyone was curious.
“Little Yunsui, how do you know this?”
Jiang Yunsui blinked. “Well… someone in my head taught me.”
She was not lying.
She treated the memories in her mind like lessons.
But to everyone listening, her words meant that an immortal was teaching her!
“No wonder! I knew Little Yunsui couldn’t be an ordinary person. How else would she know so many things?”
“Exactly. She even knows what the inside of the human body looks like.”
“She knows how to make glass too.”
“And the loom.”
“And how to brew wine.”
Everyone began chattering. Only then did they realize just how much power was packed into Jiang Yunsui’s little body.
She truly knew an incredible number of things!
They held their painting lessons in the courtyard. The weather was fine, and the sunlight warmed everyone comfortably.
Jiang Yunsui set aside the drawings she had completed of the human skeleton, muscles, tissues, and internal organs.
She had only drawn an anatomical chart because she wanted to show off.
Now it was time to teach in earnest.
Her students were all young women of the Ji Family.
For that reason, unrelated men almost never came to this courtyard.
Only Ji Yan’an occasionally visited.
He knew Jiang Yunsui was teaching painting today.
He was rather interested himself, so after finishing some business, he strolled over.
Seeing how seriously Jiang Yunsui was teaching, he did not interrupt. Instead, he casually picked up a drawing from the table.
Then he froze in astonishment.
So did Nanshu.
“Th-this…”
Ji Yan’an stared at the anatomical chart. The bones, muscles, tissues, and internal organs were all depicted clearly.
It was somewhat frightening, but even more astonishing.
In this world, apart from coroners, almost no one knew clearly how the organs, bones, muscles, and tissues inside the human body were arranged. After all, they could not be seen with the naked eye.
No one had ever drawn them, either.
There were diagrams of the body’s acupuncture points.
But those points could all be found on the skin and were entirely different from Jiang Yunsui’s chart.
“I’m amazing, aren’t I?”
Jiang Yunsui’s voice suddenly sounded.
Ji Yan’an lowered the drawing and gave her a strange look.
“Is the inside of the human body truly like this?”
Jiang Yunsui planted her little hands on her hips. “Of course it is!”
“Give it to me if you don’t believe me.”
“I believe you.”
Ji Yan’an raised a hand slightly. “Give me this drawing.”
Jiang Yunsui said, “Then I want a reward.”
Ji Yan’an naturally had no objection. “What do you want?”
Jiang Yunsui looked at him. “I want you to be my model.”
Ji Yan’an: “???”
What was a model?
Jiang Yunsui explained it to him.
Oh. She wanted to paint him.
“All right.”
Ji Yan’an did not want the drawing for himself.
Shen Qingzhu would probably be interested in it.
He could trade it for one or two Nine Lives Pills.
Ji Yan’an took the drawing and went to Shen Qingzhu’s medicine room.
“Young Master?”
Ji Yan’an said, “I have something to show you.”
Shen Qingzhu took the drawing. His pupils contracted at the very first glance.
Then, as though he had discovered a priceless treasure, he clutched it and refused to let go.
“I only said you could look at it.”
Shen Qingzhu came back to himself, but a trace of fervor now burned in his eyes.
“This is… the internal structure of the human body!”
As a physician, Shen Qingzhu did possess a rough understanding of the inside of the human body.
But his knowledge was nowhere near as detailed as the drawing.
“Young Master, where did you get this?!”
Ji Yan’an said, “Give me two Nine Lives Pills first.”
Once the Nine Lives Pills had been produced, there were sixty pills in all.
Jiang Yunsui received twenty.
Ji Yan’an received ten, and the rest remained with Shen Qingzhu and his master.
The pills were indeed extremely useful.
Ji Yan’an had already used three.
During a previous assassination attempt, Ji Yi was poisoned while protecting him, so he gave Ji Yi one pill.
He gave another to the old general Shen Yan.
One was sent to auction.
He now had seven pills left.
But who would ever complain about having too many of something so valuable?
After the Nine Lives Pill appeared at auction, many people began investigating its origins. Rumors spread that someone could make the pills again and surely possessed more than one.
At the Imperial Court, even the emperor sent people to search after learning the news.
Their guesses were quite accurate, but no one had traced the pills back to them so far.
His people had also covered their tracks at the auction thoroughly.
Shen Qingzhu still possessed more Nine Lives Pills.
He cared more about the drawing than the pills.
He handed over two without hesitation.
In any case, he now knew how to process Taisui. As long as he found more Taisui in the future, he could make more Nine Lives Pills.
“Which great master drew this?”
To understand the structure of the human body so thoroughly and depict it with such clarity… he could hardly wait to meet the artist.