The wall mural was all divided by cooperation; every section had its designed spacing, and there was also a rough sketch on paper.

They were all painting the front several meters and the middle section. Yan Luqing started from the back end, choosing the second-to-last section.

She really wasn’t boasting. Nor was this her first time painting a wall mural. In the little courtyard where the Dean and the Dean’s wife lived, the low walls on all four sides added up to dozens of meters, and nearly all of them had been painted by her.

Yan Luqing was tracing according to the example drawing on the paper, when in her mind came the voice of Makka Pakka.

“Maria, if your painting is recognized, you can complete the ‘delighting in helping others’ task.” Makka Pakka finished excitedly, then with a hint of frustration said, “Actually, many times you could go out and do good deeds to trigger various small rewards, but you’re just too lazy…”

“Really?” Yan Luqing automatically ignored the latter half, saying in surprise, “Then I must paint even better.”

Yan Luqing had always loved painting. And unlike cooking, her talent points were all placed in painting.

Although she had always had excellent grades in school and was always praised by all her teachers in every subject, what she most wanted to do was actually to be an art student, to study fine arts.

Not taking the art exam, not applying to an art major, was not because she was unwilling to give up her academic grades, nor because of so-called future prospects.

…It was because of having no money.

That obstacle was too realistic.

So after recognizing this fact, she never mentioned her wish to study painting to anyone. She only searched for tutorials related to fine arts in her free time on the Dean’s computer, as well as those very reasonably priced online classes.

This was one of the few entertainment activities she had during every vacation.

But Yan Luqing had no extra money to buy large amounts of paints, so she could only draw with pencils. After drawing enough, she went to look up how to make homemade paints… Later, once senior year got busy and the holidays ended, she hardly painted anymore.

Looking at the gradually taking shape mountains and waters, Little Mahua said in surprise: “Heavens, you really can paint! I thought you were just like me, only able to a little…”

“Of course not.” Yan Luqing cooperated, sighing as she painted, “Without me studying fine arts, the world has simply lost a precious artist.”

The two joked as they painted, and because they were farther away, they did not realize that their progress was faster than everyone else’s.

During this time Bottle came over once.

At that time, Yan Luqing had not yet laid down the colors; she was sketching the rough outlines. Although her brushstrokes looked raw, like those of an amateur, the general placement was correct, and it was not something that couldn’t be adjusted later. Moreover, with manpower so lacking now, just being able to complete it was already good enough. Who had time to nitpick?

Seeing that she was painting fairly correctly, he felt reassured and left.

An hour later, the team’s progress was finally approaching one-half.

Bottle’s back was patted, and he immediately turned his head. “Oh, Mahua, what is it?”

Before Little Mahua could speak, she saw that senior sister she had always disliked sneer: “What else could it be? The painting’s ruined, of course. I told you not to hand it to a newcomer, but you just wouldn’t listen.”

The two of them returned to talking about painting.

Bottle pointed at the corner of the wall: “That little cluster of white flowers at the end—did you add that yourself?”

Yan Luqing looked over in the direction he indicated, paused slightly, and nodded: “Mm…”

That was not in the example drawing on the paper. It was also the only change she had made.

She had added the kind of flower that Gu Ci liked.

Yan Luqing herself did not even know why. While she was painting, she had suddenly felt the urge to add a few branches there, with those little white flowers. Before her mind could stop herself, her hand had already acted on its own.

Looking at it now, the presence of those little white flowers made it feel as if Gu Ci too had taken part in this painting.

“Not bad,” Bottle said with a satisfied smile. “Very good, very good.”

……

On the other side, likewise at four in the afternoon.

After Gu Ci got up, not seeing Yan Luqing in the living room, he casually asked Big Black: “Where is she?”

“……” Big Black felt that he had been corrupted by that foolish younger brother of his who always said “Miss Yan is in love.”

Clearly just two utterly normal words, but why did he feel that when Gu Ci asked them, it sounded so ambiguous. Especially this act of looking for someone as soon as he woke up.

He straightened his facial expression and answered: “She went to school, said there was an activity.”

Gu Ci nodded, then went to the kitchen and habitually walked toward the refrigerator.

Last night, he had not refuted Yan Luqing. In fact, drinking cold water was a habit he had formed in middle school—especially after waking up, or after exercise.

Some time ago, when his stomach was especially bad, he hadn’t drunk it. Recently, as it had recovered a fair amount, he had once more picked up the old habit.

This was probably one of the few little habits he found hard to quit.

Gu Ci opened the refrigerator, looked toward the familiar spot—where there had originally been a whole row of bottles. Now, there was a large empty space.

Gu Ci looked at Big Black. The other understood, and said: “This morning Miss Yan told me to put all the water out in the sun to warm up, and then to distribute it to everyone in the villa to drink. She also said that in the future, ice water isn’t allowed to be put in here anymore.”

“……”

In his ear, it was as if he once more heard the words someone had said last night. Gu Ci lowered his eyes and smiled slightly.

“All right, I know.”

……

Yan Luqing’s joining greatly sped up the Art Club’s progress. By six o’clock, the entire wall was finished. Everyone was delighted, pulling Yan Luqing insistently to take a group photo with them.

At first Yan Luqing felt that, since she wasn’t from their club, it wasn’t appropriate, so she declined.

But Bottle said: “If our great contributor doesn’t come, then we won’t take the photo either.”

Little Mahua echoed: “Exactly!!”

That Little Tiger Tooth who always teased Bottle also said: “Yeah, junior, you came the latest, but you painted the most. Totally awesome.”

Little Mahua gazed at her affectionately: “Qing, luckily we had you.”

Yan Luqing replied: “Hua, don’t be polite.”

That afternoon, being led by Little Mahua, Yan Luqing became closest with those two. Since they spoke so insistently, she didn’t refuse again.

When they arranged positions for the photo, she was pushed to the center. Task complete, everyone was very happy, their faces lifted in good-natured smiles. Amidst the noisy cheering, Yan Luqing caught sight of one rolled eye. In that instant she suddenly realized—this must have been the one who had given her so many anger points!

“It’s not…” Little Mahua retorted. “Senior Sister Lu, we just more or less finished a section, so we wanted Senior to take a look.”

“Oh, so it’s already finished?” Senior Sister Lu sneered. “Then it’s even worse. Wang Jiu, go quickly and see if it can still be salvaged.”

Bottle rolled his eyes, completely unwilling to argue with the woman, and directly signaled with his gaze for Little Mahua that the two of them should both withdraw.

“Senior Sister Lu is really… Why does she act every day as if we owe her money?” Little Mahua complained.

“Don’t mind her, the more you mind her, the more excited she gets…” Bottle comforted, as the two of them reached the second-to-last section, the place Yan Luqing was responsible for.

At first sight, Bottle froze for a moment: “This is… just the two of you painting?”

Little Mahua: “Who else could it be, Senior? Our club’s four main forces all went down together, the rest of you are over there—who else could have helped us? Isn’t my sister painting quite well?”

“This isn’t just ‘quite well’…” Bottle suddenly exclaimed with joy. “With your sister here, we can get off early.”

What Yan Luqing painted wasn’t extraordinarily beautiful, she had simply almost completely restored the sketch on the paper onto the wall—but the most important thing was, her speed was too fast.

Bottle didn’t know she had once single-handedly painted walls adding up to over ten meters, so she could achieve this speed. He only knew that compared to that afro-headed idiot Lu who constantly mocked him for using a newcomer, she was far stronger. He immediately went back and called that woman over: “Come see what the newcomer I found painted.”

Lu Xin stood up with a face full of impatience and followed behind him: “Damn, I knew it was just a pretty vase. I said before and you didn’t listen, now look…”

She muttered on and on, but when she walked to the end of the wall, she suddenly stopped.

“……”

The girl she had called a vase had a bit of paint on her face. Her features were delicate and refined, her smile especially sweet, her makeup very light. Standing before that landscape painting, she seemed unexpectedly fitting.

Bottle bragged in a low-key way: “Let’s not even talk about completion—just look at this color saturation. With just one helper, Vase painted this much in this little time. Sigh, unlike someone who had two helpers…”

Before Bottle could finish, Lu Xin glared at him fiercely and turned away.

Yan Luqing was completely unaware.

But when she heard Little Mahua say that this wall was qualified, and straightened her waist preparing to move on to the next one, Makka Pakka’s voice suddenly came into her mind—

“Wow, Maria, just now someone felt quite a bit of anger toward you, but also a lot of emotions of happiness and admiration. I can’t see who it was, but your red, pink, and yellow suddenly upgraded at the same time!”

Yan Luqing: “???”

She didn’t know why, but was there really such a good thing?

By four o’clock in the afternoon, Yan Luqing had already finished the last three sections and was resting midway.

Little Mahua had gone to lend a hand elsewhere. Bottle and Little Tiger Tooth came over to chat with her, asking about her background in painting, and whom she had learned from.

“Self-taught. I used to paint walls at home when I was bored.” Yan Luqing finished, then added praise, “And today’s speed was fast mainly because this paint is really good.”

Compared to that, what she used before was either leftovers unwanted by the nearby art gallery, or cheap large barrels with strong odor, and if not that, then homemade paste.

“???” Bottle’s head was full of question marks. “This is just ordinary acrylic paint for wall murals. How is it suddenly so good?”

Yan Luqing waved her hand: “Hah, I’ve never seen much of the world.” Then she sighed again, “After all, any kind of paint is quite expensive…”

Then she realized the question marks above his head had increased even more.

“I say, you at least know a bit about luxury brands, right?” Bottle sized her up and down. “The outfit you’re wearing is worth tens of thousands, and you’re here saying paint is expensive?”

Yan Luqing: “……” She would always forget that now she was already a rich person—what should she do about that?

Adding it was fine. After all, she had now become rather likable, and it was rare for her to receive emotions of anger from others. Her red color hadn’t upgraded in eight hundred years—she had to thank this senior sister’s inexplicable hostility.

“Three—two—one!”

Click. With the sound, the photo was taken and then sent to everyone. Seeing everyone post on Moments, Yan Luqing couldn’t resist and posted one as well.

When the group-Moments event ended, Bottle clapped his hands and said: “Everyone worked hard. Tonight we’ll have a big dinner, on the public expense—surely no one will not want to go?”

Everyone responded in agreement. Little Tiger Tooth leaned beside Yan Luqing and asked: “Junior, will you go?”

“She should go!” Little Mahua said, then suddenly thought of the one back at her house. Her statement instantly turned into a question. “Should… go, right?”

“……”

Yan Luqing’s mind suddenly flashed with Gu Ci’s face—

And also that string of words he had said last night, sounding very much like what a lonely wife would say while guarding an empty room.

But within seconds, her mind again flashed with what she had learned from Little Black that morning, and she nearly drowned in another wave of scalp-numbing embarrassment.

At once, Yan Luqing felt that the lonely wife could continue to be lonely for a few more days. She immediately nodded: “All right, I’ll go!”

……

At the same time, her phone buzzed.

After Gu Ci got up at four, he had gone back to sleep again. The next time he woke, it was already six-thirty in the evening.

Now it grew dark early, and night had already fallen.

Outside sounded very quiet, so most likely someone still hadn’t come back.

He turned on the light, pulled open the curtains while looking at his phone.

By coincidence, at the top right, the red dot on Moments showed Yan Luqing’s profile picture.

He tapped in, and saw what she had posted—both words and pictures.

【Me, a folk artist. Cool】

There were two photos. One was of a wall over ten meters long, covered with a fresh landscape painting dominated by blue-green tones.

The second was a group photo of more than ten people. Yan Luqing stood in the very center, with a little blue paint on her face. Her eyes curved as she smiled, mouth open to reveal small white teeth, that kind of happiness seeming to pass through the screen into the heart.

Gu Ci looked for a while, then returned to the first photo.

Starting from the first section, he looked through carefully. Yet from the painting alone, it was impossible to distinguish anything particularly different—until he found, in the last section, that little cluster of white flowers.

Because of the picture quality, the details weren’t very clear, but it was very obvious—unique in the entire painting. It must have been her work.

Gu Ci closed the image, opened his chat with Yan Luqing.

【word】: What time are you coming home?

The reply came instantly.

【Runaway Saintess】: I’m out having fun!

Five seconds later—

【Runaway Saintess】: Not coming back, my heart has gone wild.

Gu Ci: “……”

【word】: ?

That question mark she did not reply to again.

Gu Ci pushed open the door of his room and walked out, only to find Little Black swaying about in the living room, humming something. At the same time, in the living room a song was playing that sounded quite old-fashioned.

Gu Ci listened carefully to the lyrics.

It is my own willingness to endure / the outcome of such gains and losses / still without regret or remorse

Looking forward to your appearance / as the sky has already dimmed at dusk…

“……” He looked toward Little Black. “What are you listening to?”

“Ah?” Little Black was stunned for a moment, then realized he was being asked, and hurriedly replied, “It’s a song I really like, it’s called—”

The name was a bit embarrassing, and Little Black scratched his head awkwardly: “It’s called ‘Falling in Love with Someone Who Doesn’t Come Home.’”

As soon as the words fell, the song also reached its climax:

Falling in love with someone who doesn’t come home

Waiting by a door that will not open…

“……”

Little Black suddenly saw Gu Ci smile. That smile was exceptionally good-looking. Afterwards, his voice was mild as he commented:

“Truly unpleasant to listen to.”