"The backpack contains some simple brushes, ink, and the homework you've accumulated. You can practice during your breaks from filming."
Jian Sheng had been looking forward to what her teacher would give her, expecting some comfort for her injured soul after being kidnapped abroad for so long.
However, after Jian Xiuhuan finished reading, only one sentence echoed in Jian Sheng's mind.
Jian Sheng's eyes widened slightly, her expression one of stunned disbelief as she stared at Jian Xiuhuan.
It was as if she couldn't fathom how such cold words could come from his mouth.
The cameraman following behind gave a slight tremor in his hand holding the camera, nearly dropping it. He quickly steadied himself, struggling to suppress his laughter.
The other guests who had gathered out of curiosity were also stunned for a moment after hearing this.
While struggling to maintain their composure in front of the cameras, their hearts filled with sympathy for the little girl.
Zhu Danni, still at a student's age, could deeply empathize with the pain of homework.
She asked with a look of pity, "Little sister isn't just... her heart was impacted. Shouldn't we be focusing on psychological counseling for her at this time?"
Jian Xiuhuan raised the letter in his hand and coughed twice.
"The elder considered this issue, which is why he specifically asked me to bring this homework material."
"He hopes Sheng Sheng can forget the past few days by immersing herself in learning and practice."
"The elder also said that even if Sheng Sheng feels the pain of being dominated by homework, it's better than dwelling on unpleasant things."
Zhu Danni was dumbfounded, feeling that the words seemed to make sense but also felt wrong in every way upon closer inspection.
Meanwhile, the viewers in the livestream, who had been agitated by fan conflicts due to the random team assignments, were now laughing uncontrollably.
— A worthy teacher for Sheng Sheng, their considerations are so thorough /doge.
— Sheng Bao: Let me thank you.
— Sheng Bao: It's my fortune to have you, I'm truly convinced by you.
— Hilarious, being kidnapped was already so miserable, and now she has to catch up on the homework assigned during the kidnapping. What kind of devilish operation is this?
— Hahahaha sorry, although it's tragic, it's also very funny.
— By the way, Sheng Bao isn't even five years old yet, how can she have so much homework?
— Since they brought paintbrushes, it's likely she enrolled in an art class, right?
— I really want to know which class the little one is in. I'll send my son there tomorrow, and then I won't have to worry about a daughter-in-law, hehehe.
Jian Sheng dejectedly took the backpack and started taking out the items one by one.
A collection of various brushes: wolf hair, sheep hair, mixed hair, rat whisker, small red hair, drawing brush, pull brush, regular script, cursive script...
As Jian Sheng opened the box and checked the brushes, paper, and ink, the comments section was filled with question marks.
— Wait, if I heard correctly, didn't Xiuhuan just say that because the full set was inconvenient, he only prepared simple brushes and ink, to make do?
— You heard correctly, I heard it too, but you're calling this "making do"? What am I, who can't even name all these brushes?
— Hilarious, to me, all these brushes have only one name: calligraphy brush!
Jiang Bin, who was observing everyone to provide assistance at any moment, twitched his mouth and asked Jian Xiuhuan the question everyone wanted to know.
"If this is considered making do, what would the complete set look like?"
Jian Sheng had already emptied the backpack. Looking at the thick stack of Xuan paper and line-drawing drafts at the bottom, her lips drooped significantly.
A thin layer of mist veiled her large eyes, making her look pitiful.
A netizen directly captured a screenshot. Within seconds, a meme of a pitifully small, helpless, and wronged expression was quickly generated.
Putting everything back into the backpack one by one, Jian Sheng, with a deflated little face, explained.
"These brushes have different functions. The most straightforward way to tell is by looking at the size of the brush tip."
"For example, this very fine rat whisker brush is used for drawing lines; naturally, the finer, the better."
"And because the materials used to make brushes differ, they are divided into sheep hair, wolf hair, mixed hair, and so on."
"Sheep hair brushes, as the name suggests, are made from sheep's wool. Wolf hair brushes are made from the tail fur of weasels, and mixed hair brushes use the fur of both animals."
"The effect of mixed hair brushes also varies depending on the proportion of fur from the two animals used. Almost all brushes are divided into large, medium, and small script sizes, which further increases the variety of brushes."
Jian Sheng closed the brush box and explained to Jiang Bin,
"It's simple to say this because the brushes my brother brought me are the ones most commonly used for practice. There are no paints or inkstones, so this is indeed very simple."
Jiang Bin instinctively looked at Jian Xiuhuan.
Jian Xiuhuan recalled the scene of entering the studio courtyard with Sheng Sheng at the art exhibition and nodded.
"I saw at Sheng Sheng's teacher's place that the brushes were counted by the bucket, and there was a whole bookshelf just for inkstones. Compared to that, these do look a bit shabby."
Jiang Bin: "???"
At this moment, Jian Sheng had already tidied up the backpack. She tilted her head and enthusiastically invited,
"If you're interested in these, Brother Jiang, you can search on Baidu yourself, or wait until later when I'm watching videos to catch up, and you can listen with Sheng Sheng!"
Jiang Bin shivered and quickly waved his hands.
"No, no, it's enough for me to broaden my horizons. I don't need to learn along."
— Hilarious, Jiang Bin's reaction is exactly like a poor student facing the pressure from the top of the food chain when a genius shows off, a natural fear.
— Sheng Bao always breaks my preconceived notions. I thought painting was: kids' scribbles; Sheng Bao's painting: Chinese painting practice.
— My idea of simple brushes: a few colored pens; Sheng Bao's brushes: a mini-lesson on calligraphy brushes.
— So the wolf in wolf hair refers to the weasel? Am I the only one finding this out now?
— Does Sheng Bao's teacher have a mine? An entire bookshelf of inkstones, that's just ridiculous.
The people who had handed in their phones couldn't see the livestream comments.
However, as Jian Sheng finished packing her backpack and was about to hand it to a staff member, Xiao Yufeng, who had walked over from behind, stopped her.
Xiao Yufeng, with one hand in his pocket, placed his hand on the staff member's hand reaching for the backpack.
He asked, "Little one, how good are you at painting?"
Jian Sheng tilted her head in confusion, unsure how to answer:
"Probably a self-taught practitioner who missed several days of classes due to an accident?"
Xiao Yufeng's mouth twitched.
Well, he thought the little one's introduction sounded quite proper and that she might know a thing or two about painting.
But it turned out to be just that?
He directly grabbed the backpack, slinging it over his shoulder like a messenger bag.
He then asked the staff member, "The little one just went through her backpack, and there's no phone or money inside. This shouldn't be considered contraband, right?"
The staff member smiled and pushed back, "Of course not."
Yao Yaoyao, thoughtfully, called out to Jiang Bin, "Brother Jiang, could you give me my bag for a moment? I need to get something."
This fiery girl from Sichuan had just thrown her small shoulder bag to the staff member.
After all of them received their respective maps, the six guests split into three pairs and went their separate ways.
Each pair was followed by two cameramen to ensure the guests didn't encounter any accidents along the way.
After bidding farewell to a reluctant Jian Xiuhuan, and watching him being pulled away by an increasingly impatient Yao Yaoyao,
Jian Sheng and her partner Xiao Yufeng also began their journey.
However, Jian Sheng looked at the map, which was spread out and longer than herself, and asked Xiao Yufeng blankly.
"Brother Xiao, do you know how to read maps?"
Xiao Yufeng was jolted by the soft "Brother Xiao" and his ears turned slightly red. The prepared remarks suddenly became difficult to utter.
"Brother Xiao? Brother?" Jian Sheng called out again.
Xiao Yufeng clenched his right fist and brought it to his lips to cover a cough.
"You come with me first."
He led Jian Sheng for a while and found a place outside the square with more foot traffic.
The cameraman followed closely behind them, silently documenting their every move.
As the three groups separated, the livestream camera also switched to three small screens.
Viewers could choose to watch them simultaneously or enter individual livestream rooms based on their preferences.
Currently, those entering Xiao Yufeng and Jian Sheng's livestream were primarily Xiao Yufeng's fans, some of Jian Sheng's casual fans, and a portion of the "New Home" variety show fans.
— Why do I feel like my Xiao Yu is acting strange? Could he be planning something bad?
— Cough, he's still with a child, so it shouldn't be that bad, right?
— I just checked the map on my phone. The distance from here to the South Bus Station is 23km. Walking is definitely not an option. The first step must be to get some money.
— The first stage should be the simplest, just needing to earn some travel fare through work or street performance.
— Wait, Xiao Yu just took the little one's backpack. He's not planning to earn money by street performing, is he?
If Xiao Yufeng could see the comments, he would have said:
Congratulations, you guessed correctly! Unfortunately, I'm also penniless, so I can't reward you.
Xiao Yufeng, holding Jian Sheng's backpack, asked, "You don't mind if I use your paper and brush, do you?"
Jian Sheng shook her head. She probably understood what Xiao Yufeng intended to do.
So, the two, one big and one small, reopened Jian Sheng's packed backpack, spread a piece of paper on the ground, and huddled together whispering something.
If the livestream volume was turned up to maximum, one could faintly hear:
"Brother Xiao, how are your handwriting skills?"
"Cough, average, average, but probably better than yours."
Two minutes later, they moved aside from the paper, revealing the crooked, dog-like characters "Sell Paintings" written on it.
— Pfft hahahaha, truly "average." Xiao Yu didn't lie to me!
— Indeed, sometimes you can't take people's truthful statements as humility, otherwise, you'll be embarrassed, and others will be embarrassed too.
— Hilarious, with handwriting like this, will anyone really come to buy paintings?
— It's still possible, for example, if some fans give them money for free (laughs).
Xiao Yufeng looked at the words he had written and remained silent for a moment.
He dryly defended, "I rarely use brushes, so I'm not used to writing calligraphy."
Jian Sheng suppressed a smile, "I understand, I understand."
Then she took out another piece of Xuan paper and, like a child playing house, directly grasped the brush with her hand. Just looking at her grip, even a dog would shake its head.
Xiao Yufeng couldn't bear to watch and turned his head away.
Even he, who rarely used brushes, knew that brushes weren't held like that. The little girl seemed completely unaware.
He knew he shouldn't have had high expectations for such a young child.
However, the moment he turned his head, Jian Sheng held her breath and with fluid, elegant, and cursive strokes, wrote two characters on the Xuan paper, the connections between the strokes naturally seamless.
Xiao Yufeng was still looking away, not wanting to see the little one embarrass herself.
The cameraman held the camera blankly, even forgetting to give the two large characters a close-up.
The livestream chat went blank for a moment, followed by a string of question marks, asking what had just happened.