Chapter 796: Chapter 776: Crabs Ah Crabs
The two leisurely sipped their floral tea and, after finishing, Luo Qianqian was all eager to learn painting from Jimo Cheng.
Jimo Cheng naturally didn’t refuse, he got her a brush and paper, laid out the paper, and ground some ink.
With hardly a thought, Luo Qianqian quickly made a stroke, and to Jimo Cheng’s astonishment, she drew a chibi version of a crab with jagged pincers.
"Is this..." You really want to eat crab, huh? Jimo Cheng’s face held a helpless smile as he looked at Luo Qianqian, not knowing quite what to say to her.
But Luo Qianqian, with an indifferent expression, started talking, "Do you think my crabs will become as famous as Qi Baishi’s shrimps one day?"
"You could give it a try." Jimo Cheng was taken aback by Luo Qianqian’s words and then laughed indulgently and helplessly, "I am actually quite looking forward to that day."
Luo Qianqian pouted, "Only my senior brother would indulge me. How can this be anything but a cartoon crab? It doesn’t resemble a real crab at all, does it?"
Jimo Cheng slightly curled the corners of his mouth, grabbed Luo Qianqian’s hand, guiding the brush in her grasp, and with fluent and vigorous strokes, he drew a lifelike little crab. Unlike her outline-only version, the crab Jimo Cheng helped her paint even had color gradients and the pincers were full of life.
Admiring the little crab, Luo Qianqian looked at Jimo Cheng with adoration, "Senior brother, you’re super amazing."
Jimo Cheng, a bit embarrassed, rubbed his head, "Actually, it’s nothing special, just practice makes perfect..."
He would never admit that he once stared at a basin filled with crabs, shrimp, and conchs for an entire day, trying to capture their essence. That’s why he now has an aversion to eating them; he’d rather dissect them visually.
Initially, he was forced to shell crabs; Jimo Kong beautifully claimed that shelling would help understand their structure and capture the essence of painting them.
Well, that’s right, he was bamboozled into shelling crabs when he was not even ten years old. That’s the origin of his current aversion to these creatures, a childhood psychological shadow.
Lately, whenever he sees these creatures, he just wishes they’d be eaten quickly, afraid that Jimo Kong might whimsically ask him to draw a cooked crab or something, which would be utterly uninteresting.
He developed the habit of shelling crabs for Jimo Kong and now for Luo Qianqian, it’s just ingrained behavior.
"Senior brother is just awesome," Luo Qianqian muttered with pursed lips, "I just can’t do it. I can’t sit still long enough to paint like that..." she said, her face full of frustration, "Sometimes I wonder if I’m just a kid with ADHD."
Jimo Cheng, unable to help himself, covered his mouth and chuckled, "A kid... indeed, but not with ADHD."
Luo Qianqian made a face; she was just saying it in passing, and you took it seriously.
"Senior brother, can you draw a baozi?" Luo Qianqian batted her eyelashes, her face full of longing.
Jimo Cheng hesitated for a moment and then took up the brush again, slightly hesitant before drawing a basket of steamed buns.
"Not these baozi, my Baozi, the fluffy Baozi, my pet Luo Baozi," Luo Qianqian immediately waved her hands but then glanced at the steamed buns and pouted again, "Is senior brother a swindler? An actual basket of steamed buns would have five or six, but senior brother drew only three..."
"Drawing too many wouldn’t look nice," Jimo Cheng claimed with a helpless face. She could even link this to a scam; Luo Qianqian’s thoughts were indeed soaring wildly.
Luo Qianqian made a face but said nothing else. Thinking about a big, bulging bunch, it did seem like it wouldn’t look so good, right?
After a brief pause, she nodded her head, "Let’s paint Luo Baozi."
Jimo Cheng nodded, thought for a moment with his head bowed, then spread out a new sheet of rice paper, and began to paint...
Luo Qianqian stood by and watched, her expression indescribable. Was it admiration? Not entirely; was it envy? There seemed to be something else...
Jimo Cheng had not only drawn a baozi, but also a little girl squatting in front of the baozi, who from the side clearly resembled the childhood Luo Qianqian.
Luo Qianqian looked at Jimo Cheng in surprise as he finished drawing, her face full of astonishment, "Did senior brother see me when I was little?"
Jimo Cheng shook his head, his eyes curving into a smile, "Don’t you know you are still in your ’childhood’?"
It was just that now she had a mushroom haircut, which seemed to be a common choice for children this size because it was easier to manage.
"That’s not true. To me, ’childhood’ is the time when you still cry a lot," Luo Qianqian puckered her lips, "I don’t cry anymore now."
"Oh?" The disbelief was thick in Jimo Cheng’s voice, which made Luo Qianqian purse her lips in defiance.
"Are you doubting me, senior brother?"
"Not at all." Jimo Cheng simply shook his head with a smile, but Luo Qianqian felt sure that he was laughing at her, mocking her even, and it didn’t please her one bit.
"Speaking of which, when I was your age, I quite liked reading manga," Jimo Cheng said casually, with a smile, "I even collected complete sets of them."
"I prefer shojo manga..." and ’yaoi’ manga. But Luo Qianqian certainly wasn’t foolish enough to say that last part out loud.
"Mine were mostly shonen manga, and stuff like Doraemon," Jimo Cheng nodded as if he completely understood her taste.
Luo Qianqian was left speechless. Could she admit that she had binge-watched all the episodes of Doraemon, Cherry Maruko, Detective Conan, and Crayon Shin-chan that were available during her college dormitory days?
And some she had even watched three or four times over.
"I love those too, but my mom said they could distract me from my goals, so I didn’t watch them that much," Luo Qianqian said sternly.
Jimo Cheng looked appreciative, indeed his little junior sister had some self-control. It was rare to see children nowadays who could restrain themselves so well.
Make no mistake, Luo Qianqian wasn’t watching simply because she had already seen them all, she knew the plots and didn’t want to give away spoilers, that’s all.
"By the way Jin Yue, what do you do in your free time when you’re not in class?" Jimo Cheng asked curiously. He also had his regular homework and classes to attend, couldn’t always keep an eye on Luo Qianqian, and when he wasn’t busy, he’d be reading or painting. But he really hadn’t noticed what Luo Qianqian did with her free time.
Luo Qianqian paused for a moment, thinking about what she did when she wasn’t busy...
Lying in bed and not wanting to get up, investigating various little secrets, and eating, eating, eating... It seemed that only eating, eating, eating didn’t sound so...
"It’s like being a little train," Luo Qianqian blinked playfully.
"A little train?" Jimo Cheng was startled. Was Luo Qianqian talking about a train staying on track or something else? The English for train is...
"Yes, what sound does a little train make? Chugging along, chugging along, chugging along..." Luo Qianqian covered her mouth and giggled softly, "So, I usually just go shopping and eat with Nuannuan and the others."
"Pfft." Jimo Cheng had never thought of little trains that way, and he couldn’t help but smile in amusement for a moment, shaking his head helplessly with a laugh.
