Chapter 26. With Heart? No! With Mouth!

"Ethan, how did you come up with the idea of learning this?" Yu Xiaohong asked curiously.

"My father asked me to learn it," Ethan replied directly.

"Oh. I asked to learn it on my own initiative! Now, life is getting better and better. Painting and such are all arts. In the future, perhaps I will be more promising than those who go to college. Besides, my academic performance is not good, so I simply came out to learn painting," Yu Xiaohong said, with a hint of longing for the future in her eyes.

Then, Yu Xiaohong looked at Ethan and continued, "I'm from Starlight School! Ethan, which school are you from?"

"I'm from Moonbeam Institute!"

"What? You're from Moonbeam Institute! Hahaha..." Yu Xiaohong suddenly burst into laughter.

"What's wrong?" Ethan stopped his pen and asked with a puzzled look. He didn't understand why Yu Xiaohong had such a big reaction when his school was mentioned.

"Is there a 'Fart King' in your school? I heard that the guy's farts are more powerful than biochemical weapons and even drove the teacher out!" Yu Xiaohong said while laughing, her eyes narrowed into slits.

"..." Ethan was speechless for a moment. He didn't expect Yu Xiaohong to bring up such an embarrassing topic.

"I'm sure that the guy who farted must have eaten too many sweet potatoes!" Yu Xiaohong was still laughing heartily, completely immersed in this interesting topic.

"Keep it down! This is an art studio, not a chat room. Those who want to chat can leave right now," Elder Chen scolded with an unfriendly look. He frowned, and there was a hint of majesty in his eyes. Obviously, he was a little dissatisfied with Yu Xiaohong's noise.

Yu Xiaohong stuck out her tongue, like a child who had done something wrong, and started painting again. She was painting a flying bird, and under her pen, the bird seemed to come to life, looking extremely vivid.

"What? Are you envious? This is the result of my six - month practice!" Yu Xiaohong said proudly, with a gleam of pride in her eyes.

"You don't need to be envious. You can do it in six months too. But the prerequisite is that you have my talent," Yu Xiaohong crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her narcissistic look was really amusing.

"This girl is really narcissistic," Ethan thought to himself.

Then, Ethan also started to practice. However, he started from the simplest tracing. But even with such simple tracing, he found that he couldn't do it well at all. The pen in his hand was like a naughty elf. No matter how hard he tried, it just wouldn't listen to him.

"Am I not talented in painting?" Ethan looked at the crooked thing he had traced. It didn't look like a fish at all. It was clearly a mess, and a jagged mess at that. He couldn't help but feel a little depressed.

"Don't worry. Do it with heart! As long as you work hard enough, practice makes perfect, and you will naturally be able to draw well!" Yu Xiaohong saw Ethan's depression and kindly comforted him. Her eyes were full of sincerity, hoping that her experience could be helpful to Ethan.

"With heart?" Ethan raised his head and looked at Yu Xiaohong in confusion.

"Yes! Feel these lines with your heart, feel this form with your heart, and form the image in your mind that you are going to draw. In this way, you will draw much better," Yu Xiaohong patiently explained her experience to Ethan, like a little teacher.

Hearing this, Ethan shook his head. "I never learn things with my heart."

"Then what do you use?" Yu Xiaohong widened her eyes curiously.

"With my mouth!"

"Puff!" Yu Xiaohong was shocked by Ethan's answer and couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay! If you can learn these things with your mouth, that would be really strange," Yu Xiaohong said to Ethan with a laugh. She just regarded this as a joke and didn't see the serious look on Ethan's face.

Then, Ethan walked out. At the same time, he took the painting book and the paintbrush in his hand. After going out, he found an unoccupied corner and took these two things out again.

Whoosh!

Ethan took a deep breath and then blew it out hard, as if he wanted to blow away all the troubles in his heart. Miraculously, after this breath was blown out, those two things instantly became much lighter. Ethan no longer hesitated and quickly ate them all up. He ate so fast that he didn't even taste what these two things were like.

After finishing eating, Ethan found that he had only absorbed... 60%!

"So little?" Ethan muttered with some dissatisfaction. He remembered that when he devoured those medical books before, he had absorbed all of them. Now he had only absorbed half, which made him feel a little annoyed.

"Damn it! I need to fart!" Ethan suddenly realized that this place was not big. If he farted now, it would definitely be able to drive all the people inside out. So, without hesitation, he held it back... and formed a "fart thunder" in his body and stored it up.

"It's not that my absorption ability is poor! It's that half of the things in this book should be wrong! Since they haven't been absorbed, they can only be farted out!" Ethan thought to himself. He thought of the "Record of Difficult and Complicated Diseases of the Ugly Empress" that he had absorbed before. He had completely absorbed that. And those medical textbooks bought from school were all the painstaking works of predecessors, verified by countless people, so naturally there would be no problems. But this "Basic Painting" book he had now was obviously not so reliable.

"It seems that when I have time in the future, I still need to find an authoritative book and study... it carefully," Ethan said to himself.

Ethan went back to that studio again.

"Where is your book?" Yu Xiaohong saw Ethan come back empty - handed and asked in confusion.

"Threw it away. Anyway, I don't need it," Ethan replied nonchalantly.

"Don't need it? You don't want to learn anymore?" Yu Xiaohong was even more confused.

"Yes, I do. It's just that I've already learned it, so I naturally don't need it anymore," Ethan said confidently. He believed that although he had only absorbed 60%, the remaining small part was wrong, or at least incomplete. To be precise, he had already fully understood that book.

"Learned it... you? Hahaha... I consider myself to be very talented, and it took me more than half a year to find my way and get the hang of it. You actually say that you've already learned it? Are you kidding me?" Yu Xiaohong said to Ethan in disbelief. She thought Ethan must be joking.

"You don't believe me?" Ethan raised his eyebrows.

"Only a fool would believe your words. I'm telling you, it's okay to say this kind of joke in front of me. But if Elder Chen knew about it, you would be in trouble." Yu Xiaohong reminded Ethan. She didn't want Ethan to be punished by Elder Chen because of his random words.

"Okay. Forget it if you don't believe me. Anyway, I'm going to ask Elder Chen to change another book for me," Ethan said helplessly.

Seeing Ethan's extremely serious look, Yu Xiaohong was actually a little half - believing and half - doubting.

"You really learned it? Then... draw the fish you traced just now for me."

"That fish?" Ethan asked.

"Yes! Right! If you can draw it, I'll believe you!" Yu Xiaohong said firmly.

"That fish was drawn so poorly. I can only draw better than that," Ethan said confidently.

"..." Yu Xiaohong was completely speechless. She had just seen that this guy couldn't even control the pen tip, but now he said...

"Hmm?"

Just as she was wondering in her heart, she saw that Ethan had already started to draw.

Seeing Ethan pick up the paintbrush again, Yu Xiaohong felt like she was seeing things. The way he held the pen was much steadier than before.

"This... what's going on?" Yu Xiaohong was secretly surprised in her heart. This paintbrush was a Chinese brush, and the pen tip was very difficult to control. It mainly tested wrist strength, concentration, and control ability. For those without a foundation, it was very difficult to even control the direction, and often the lines were S - shaped. Ethan was like this before, so Yu Xiaohong had laughed at him. But now...

Yu Xiaohong was shocked.

With one stroke!

Steady!

Steady yet smooth!

An unprecedented smoothness, with a feeling of flowing clouds and running water.

Then...

As Ethan moved his arm, Yu Xiaohong saw the movement of the pen tip, and a fish appeared vividly on the paper.

All of this was so smooth and so simple, as if the fish was not drawn by Ethan, but was originally there, a living fish. All Ethan did was to release this fish from the paper.

"You... you... this..." Yu Xiaohong's eyes widened, and she felt that she was at a loss for words.

"Don't be excited. Speak slowly," Ethan said calmly, looking at Yu Xiaohong.

"You liar. At first, I was teaching you how to use the paintbrush and how to trace as someone with more experience, and showing off my painting skills in front of you. In fact, you... you could paint from the very beginning, right?" Yu Xiaohong looked at Ethan and, thinking of her own performance just now, felt her face turn red. She felt like a clown, showing off her incompetence in front of Ethan.

"I couldn't. I just learned it," Ethan said innocently.

"Are you still lying to me?" Yu Xiaohong said to Ethan a little angrily.

"I don't want to talk to you anymore!" Yu Xiaohong felt that her feelings had been deceived and turned her head away angrily.