What could Wu Hai do even if he was very angry? Did he dare to challenge Yuan Zhou?
The answer was no, he didn’t. So, Yuan Zhou was fearless.
“Eat first and talk later,” said Yuan Zhou immediately when he found Wu Hai wanted to say something again.
On hearing that, Wu Hai clammed up. He took the chopsticks and began to eat in silence.
Yuan Zhou believed he was quite a considerate man. Even if he was eager to ask for advice, he would rather wait until he finished the meal first.
Therefore, Yuan Zhou prepared to taste the Sweet And Spicy Noodles in front of him earnestly.
The Sweet And Spicy Noodles were in a paper bowl. Yuan Zhou stirred the noodles with his chopsticks making them all covered with the bright red chili oil. There were even some fragments of peanuts on the noodles.
The white thick noodles, along with the chili oil as well as some fragments of peanuts, emitted a blast of soy sauce-like aroma, making the noodles look appetizing.
Yuan Zhou directly picked up some noodles with his chopsticks and stuffed into his mouth to eat.
“Slurp Slurp.” The noodles tasted quite chewy and firm.
As it took longer to chew up the noodles, the taste of the chili oil got more obvious in the mouth and the spicy taste rushed straight down his throat. But in the meantime, the fragrance of the peanuts also came out. Consequently, the pure spiciness turned into a spicy aroma. Along with the aroma of soy sauce, the taste of the Sweet And Spicy Noodles was quite abundant.
“Well, the noodles really taste good,” said Wu Hai with puzzlement.
“Um. If the thickness of the noodles is more uniform, they would taste better,” Yuan Zhou swallowed up the noodles in his mouth, nodded his head and then said.
A bowl of Sweet And Spicy Noodles wasn’t much. After all, these noodles were originally a kind of snack used to allay one’s hunger. Therefore, the amount wasn’t much.
To Wu Hai, it was just a matter of reaching out the chopsticks twice to get the noodles. And to Yuan Zhou who prepared to taste the noodles earnestly, it was a matter of reaching out his chopsticks for two more times.
After they ate up the noodles, they got to the point. Yuan Zhou straightened his back and got seated seriously while Wu Hai leaned against the curved long table and looked at Yuan Zhou at the side.
“How do you draw clouds?” Yuan Zhou asked point-blank.
“Easy. Just draw as randomly as you can. Don’t give it too many limitations. Anyway, you can never imagine the specific shape of the cloud even if you are good at drawing,” said Wu Hai without thinking too much.
“Draw randomly without limitations?” Yuan Zhou muttered in a dull and flat style, but Wu Hai still recognized the doubt contained therein.
“Yeah. To be frank, just draw it as free as you like. You can’t request the cloud for a specific shape. The line of the cloud you sculpt is too stiff and you always do your utmost to make the cloud look graceful. I can tell you responsibly the cloud itself definitely doesn’t know it’s so graceful.” Wu Hai stroked his small mustaches and appeared quite earnest, though his pose didn’t look so.
On hearing that, Yuan Zhou started thinking.
“With regards to painting, you can repeat what the book says or learn from your master step by step at the beginning. But when it comes to the latter part, you can rely on nobody but yourself. Of course, talent is also indispensable,” said Wu Hai.
Yuan Zhou nodded his head. On this point, he couldn’t agree with Wu Hai more.
Right now, the system was like a top-level great master, who taught Yuan Zhou diligently on various dishes. But Yuan Zhou had nothing to rely on but his efforts and continuous practice to integrate his skills and eventually master this dish.
So even if the system was really inconsiderate to him sometimes, Yuan Zhou still took it as his master.
“I know nothing about sculpting, but painting never starts with lines. Clouds have no lines.” Wu Hai shrugged.
“No lines and no frame.” Yuan Zhou repeated and then, he suddenly saw the light inwardly.
That’s true. The shape of clouds depended on the wind. How could clouds have a fixed line? If he practiced that way, he would have gone the wrong way.
“It seems that I thought too much.” Yuan Zhou revealed a smile on his face. He had gotten some ideas about how to sculpt the dragons.
“Alright. I’m leaving.” Wu Hai actually knew how to behave in a delicate situation. He looked at Yuan Zhou’s manner and immediately knew he had understood. Without saying anything, he straightforwardly left.
After all, what Yuan Zhou really needed now was a quiet atmosphere to think about the inspiration he had barely got.
“Thank you.” Yuan Zhou stood up and saw Wu Hai off. Only then did he sit down and take up a radish conveniently to practice.
It wasn’t a radish bought by himself. Instead, it was provided by the system and of course, Yuan Zhou had to pay. At that time, however, Yuan Zhou didn’t care about that anymore.
The first try was a success. He sculpted a beautiful cloud successfully. Then, he continued with the sea of clouds. It was a great success, as well.
After the business was over at night, Yuan Zhou continued to practice on a small piece of the ice block. He had to shock the audience on the first try the following day.
The next day,
“Dad, I want to go to Yunnan Province to work after graduation. There, I have…”
“No, you can’t. Yunnan is too far.” Yang Shuxin directly interrupted him. Yang Wansheng hadn’t even finished his words when his father refused him flatly.
“Actually, it’s not far. We have a good transport service nowadays and it takes only two to three hours to fly from Harbin to Yunnan. I can even come back for the weekend,” said Yang Wansheng hurriedly.
“You want to fly the moment you graduate. But how high do you think you can fly in other provinces? Nobody can help you outside,” said Yang Shuxin.
Immediately, Yang Wansheng answered, “I have a college classmate in Yunnan. He’s starting a business there. We get along well and we also have similar thoughts, so…”
“All right. I’m fairly busy now. That’s it.” Yang Shuxin didn’t want to listen to Yang Wansheng anymore as he felt he had made himself understood, thus he hung up the phone.
On the other hand, Yang Shuxin was really very busy today. It was the day when he had planned to cooperate with Yuan Zhou and sculpt the Nine Dragon Sculpture. Anyway, he was so excited yesterday that he didn’t even fall asleep all night long.
When he got out of the bed in the morning, however, he didn’t have dark eye circles. Not only that, his eyes brimmed with vigor just like those of the Monkey King who had barely escaped from the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
There was no exhaustion in his eyes. Instead, his face glowed with health. He even changed a set of slim-fit clothes. The overall style could be summarized in one sentence, “Why sleep? Get up and rock!”
Yang Shuxin didn’t send for any reporter or media worker to witness the sculpting of the Nine Dragon Sculpture. He only invited two of his friends.
Yang Shuxin resolved to complete the Nine Dragon Sculpture for a sense of satisfaction and for his pursuit. However, his current pursuit didn’t need reporters and media anymore.
“Little Feng, has the ice block been transported to Yuan Zhou’s restaurant? ”
Though there were still a few hours left before the appointed time, Yang Shuxin had been itching for a try. He arranged this and that and just couldn’t stop. This telephone call was already the third one to enquire about the ice block.
As a matter of fact, this mood was fairly easy to understand. Just like the last class on Friday afternoon, everybody waited impatiently for the end of the class from the start.
“Master, the ice block you want has been transported somewhere near Taoxi Road. And our truck is right in the parking lot on the first floor underground of the shopping mall. As long as it reaches the time you designated, the ice block will arrive at the door of the restaurant in five minutes.” The assistant of Yang Shuxin was quite good at organizing such things.
Yang Shuxin nodded his head contentedly. The reason why the ice block wasn’t transported to the street corner of Taoxi Road was that there were crowds of people and heavy traffic over there and thus it would cause a traffic jam. Yang Shuxin had already taken that into consideration.
“Did you see Master Yuan? How is he doing today?” Yang Shuxin asked again.
“Master Yuan isn’t different today.”
When he heard Little Feng say so, Yang Shuxin felt relieved. He didn’t want the sculpting of the Nine Dragon Sculpture to be affected by the possibility of a bad mood from his partner. Meanwhile, he sighed inwardly, thinking that Yuan Zhou was steadier than him despite his young age.
Yang Shuxin hung up Little Feng’s phone and then called the two friends that he had invited, but neither of them answered his phone call.
Birds of a feather flock together. People invited by Yang Shuxin naturally had powerful connections, too. One of them was Old Yan. He was a collector and collected many good things. And the other person was Old Gu. He was an inheritor of Tao Kiln, the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Speaking of their identities, there was quite a sharp difference.
The friendship between Old Yan, Old Gu, and Yang Shuxin could be said to span generations and their relationship was quite good. The reason why Yang Shuxin invited the two people was that they could always find something different from a different perspective, though they knew nothing about ice sculpting.
Today, Old Gu and Old Yan came to Yuan Zhou’s restaurant first…