The Versatile Master Artist

An artist needs the kind of feeling that hits them when they suddenly hear a phrase.

Therefore,

Anna just simply read books.

She took out the copy of ”The Little Prince” that grew up with her from the drawer and had the butler fetch a computer, a sound card, and a wireless network card, and went up to the watchtower she often visited in her childhood.

As she watched the sunset fall towards the distant valley, she set a time and connected with an illustrator far away in Africa, who softly read out to her those classic passages that once left a deep impression on her.

...

Screech—

Gu Weijing tore off a page from his sketchbook, shaking his head in disappointment.

In his ear was the calm and unhurried voice of Mr. Tree Sloth. He held a brush in his hand, with various crumpled drafts scattered in front of him.

Mr. Tree Sloth seemed to take this ”literary tutoring” very seriously, having been reading to him non-stop for almost two hours.

Yet, Gu Weijing still found something lacking.

Mr. Tree Sloth didn’t break down the fairy tale for him, explaining the deeper meanings and literary metaphors represented by each character’s personality.

His only requirement was whenever Gu Weijing heard a new fairy tale character appear in a passage.

He needed to listen to Mr. Tree Sloth’s reading while casually sketching out the character in his mind, trying to capture the personality traits of the fairy tale role.

Gu Weijing tried very hard to do so.

The main plot of ”The Little Prince” is not complicated.

It’s about the protagonist ”The Little Prince” visiting seven different little stars in space, meeting fairy tale residents with different personalities on each star.

The content Mr. Tree Sloth just read was the passage where the Little Prince arrives on the first little planet and meets the ”King” there.

While listening to Mr. Tree Sloth, he tried drawing an outline sketch of the King in his sketchbook.

In the fairy tale of ”The Little Prince,” the ”King” does not belong to the category of complicated characters.

According to the original setting, the King is the only resident on the first ”Planet 325” the Little Prince visits after leaving his own planet.

This King claims to rule over everything, and his rule must be respected and unquestioned.

Gu Weijing specifically looked up Wikipedia.

On Wikipedia, it says that the King’s personality is arrogant and pompous, yet somewhat timid inside.

He is a tyrannical and hypocritical aristocrat, dissatisfied and complaining about everything that does not suit his fancy.

His favorite daily activity is to hold a calendar and give ”doodle-doo” orders for the movement of the sun, moon, and stars.

Seeing these descriptions, in Gu Weijing’s mind, the image of the King is roughly a blend of the Empress Dowager Cixi in old movies and a fanatical astronomy enthusiast.

Yet his drawing still lacked something.

Gu Weijing just couldn’t grasp the feeling that the ”King” should have.

He had deliberately tried to depict the ”King” as the image of an enemy of the feudal class according to his imagination.

But whenever Gu Weijing put pen to paper, listening to Mr. Tree Sloth’s voice reading in his ear.

He always felt a sense of disconnect.

This feeling was very much like when he first attempted a fusion painting last week, as if forcibly blending two different things together.

The last time was a mixture of Eastern and Western art styles.

This time, it was forcibly trying to stuff in a personality that doesn’t belong to a fairy tale role into the ”King’s” body.

The only thing worth being thankful for might be.

Mr. Tree Sloth’s gentle reading voice carried a calming and peaceful strength. When he encountered setbacks in drawing, disappointment was inevitable, but he didn’t feel so agitated that he couldn’t continue drawing.

”Lady Detective Cat, what’s troubling you, right?”

Mr. Tree Sloth finally stopped reading, his voice sounding a bit hoarse after two hours of continuous reading, probably having heard the frequent tearing of paper coming from this side’s microphone.

”Hmm, sorry, I can’t find the feeling.”

Gu Weijing felt quite embarrassed indeed.

”I’ve really tried hard, but these characters’ personalities are too complex, just like an onion head, peeling one layer reveals another. Wikipedia says this guy is arrogant and pompous, yet somewhat timid inside.”

”I really can’t grasp the balance and my drawing feels very disjointed.”

”Forget the encyclopedia,” Mr. Tree Sloth suddenly said.

”What?”

”Forget Wikipedia, forget Google Answers, forget the book reviews on Goodreads (foreign Douban). Forget all the character analyses you’re looking for.”

”Why?”

”If you want to create a touching work, you have to truly enter the inner world of this book. Those external summaries are great, but they are not yours,” Mr. Tree Sloth said.

”Lady Detective Cat, what kind of character do you think the King is in your heart?”

”An arrogant, hypocritical, and incompetent noble?”

Gu Weijing still instinctively replied using the character metaphor from Wikipedia.

”What kind of people do you think nobles are?” Mr. Tree Sloth asked.

”I don’t know.”

Gu Weijing shook his head; this term was too distant for him. He basically could only see them in history textbooks and the globally televised wedding of Prince Harry of the UK.

How would he know what kind of people nobles are?

”Hmm... have you read Proust’s ’In Search of Lost Time’ or Leibronde’s ’France’?” Mr. Tree Sloth suddenly asked.

”No, I haven’t even heard of the latter,” Gu Weijing shook his head.

He had heard of ’In Search of Lost Time,’ but the latter book he hadn’t even heard the name of.

”That was a Goncourt Prize-winning work, one of the most important literary awards at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Both books have extensive records of the daily lives of nobles.”

”Nobles are actually quite a boring group of people, especially those rural lords far from political life in times of peace. They don’t have to fight wars or work; their daily life is horseback riding, hunting, attending various salons, going to theaters to watch plays, and bringing actresses and socialites to their bed,” Mr. Tree Sloth said coldly.

Whoa!

Gu Weijing listened, eyebrows twitching wildly.

Where is the dullness in that? Their daily life is just going to various places to have fun, and when they are tired of playing, they sleep with beautiful women.

How could such a life be boring,

Is there no conscience here?

”Sounds really corrupt and degenerate!” Gu Weijing sighed and said.

”It’s really corrupt and degenerate, but after living such days for a long time, you would feel bored. Sound arrogant, right? But hunting, horseback racing, sleeping with women, gossiping, from the social season you step into at your teen years until you’re too old to even have the strength to sleep with girls, your life is just those four things in a loop, as it drags on, you’d find it boring too.”

”Most old-school nobles are not great people, nor are they extremely evil. They are just bored and uninterested, caring about nothing other than family honor above life,” Mr. Tree Sloth said.

”In ’Red and Black,’ Prince Korasov taught the protagonist Julien how to act like a noble, just never get angry, always putting on an air of weariness because you’re a grand noble, you’ve ridden the fastest horses, have a whole theater troupe perform just for you, and even you can’t count how many beautiful women you’ve slept with. You’ve enjoyed all the world’s best pleasures, and nothing can pique your interest anymore.”

”Such a lifestyle is really detestable, right?”

Mr. Tree Sloth said softly, as if talking to himself.

Before Gu Weijing could respond, Mr. Tree Sloth continued.

”The author of ’The Little Prince,’ Saint-Exupéry, came from a noble family in Paris, with many French Army generals from the thirteenth century. His mother came from a prestigious literary family. Although Saint-Exupéry was deeply influenced by the Enlightenment movement advocating equality, he surely knew full well what real nobles were like.”

”Lady Detective Cat, have you ever thought about why the King is shaped into such a character?”

Mr. Tree Sloth asked.