September, Europe, Italy, the most famous water city, Venice.
It is almost autumn, so all the tourists who pass by here put on long sleeves.
This is a city that is mainly for tourism. The whole city is divided by crisscrossing rivers and connected by hundreds of different bridges. The unique structure makes vehicles become scrap metal here, and only clever wooden boats can shuttle between the waterways in the streets and alleys.
Perhaps for this reason, even the air feels exceptionally clear, and one can smell the moisture of sea water and the vicissitudes of ancient bricks and tiles everywhere.
Unfortunately, all these things that seem new to tourists are just commonplace to Lena.
Lying on the windowsill of the room, supporting her pointed chin with one hand, her big watery brown eyes blinking, Reina was in a daze like a girl again.
I wonder if it is because she is already 17 years old that this lovely Italian girl sometimes seems inexplicably strange and eccentric? Kelei still likes to lie quietly on the balcony on the second floor, watching the people passing by in front of the building. Looking far away at the other side of the river, those street performers and vendors setting up stalls in the sun always attract many tourists to linger and go back and forth.
There are also people who confuse Reina...
He is an Asian with a strange name, Zhe. He has black hair and black eyes. Although he can speak Italian, he rarely speaks and always looks cold. One night three months ago, he moved into his home without any luggage and dressed in rags as if he had fled. There are no tall buildings and hotels in Venice. There are only hotels for tourists to rest. Of course, when there are enough rooms, some ordinary families will also receive tourists to increase their income.
So he moved in and rented a room that was only separated from his own by a wall.
My parents seemed to like this guest from afar very much, because he was always so quiet. When he stayed in the room, he rarely made any footsteps. He also didn't bring home some questionable women or get drunk like the usual tenants.
Every month the rent is placed on the coffee table in the living room on time, and no one is ever urged.
As a tenant, he could be rated 100 out of 100. But as a human being, his aloofness made it hard to get close to him.
It was this man that troubled 17-year-old Reina. Because she seemed to have fallen in love with this "silent" man without realizing it? Although she had only talked to him for a hundred sentences in three months, she couldn't stop her eyes from lingering on him from time to time.
Who said he was so charming that night...
It was also the night more than a month ago that my parents prepared a sumptuous dinner to celebrate our sweet wedding anniversary. They were so excited that they invited the guests back to enjoy the meal together.
Everyone knows where to find this mysterious tenant. Every morning at dawn, he carries a heavy easel and paints and goes to the market on the other side of the river to paint for tourists and earn a meager reward.
There are many such people in Venice. Many wandering painters make a living by painting for others while painting beautiful street scenes and unique cities, creating their favorite works.
After crossing the long stone bridge, when Reina arrived at the other side under the moonlight, it was already late at night. Most of the vendors in the market had gone home, and the rest were packing up their stalls.
The bustling scene during the day was not there, and the deserted square had a desolate feeling of being deserted. Facing the wide river, only Zhe was still sitting there. The brush in his hand did not stop for a moment, and continued to move back and forth between the canvas and the paint tray.
He was so focused that he seemed to have forgotten the concept of time. Even though the sky was illuminated only by the bright moon and clear stars, he could not stop painting for a moment.
Reina didn't want to disturb him because of his concentration. She walked quietly behind him, wanting to wait until he put down the paintbrush before calling him, so as not to ruin his "masterpiece".
But when she saw his paintings, Reina, who knew nothing about art, suddenly felt like someone had hit her in the chest.
Because the city where he had lived for seventeen years and the streets where he had played for seventeen years seemed to suddenly come to life in his writing, as if they could open their mouths and tell people their own history.
Although I have seen works by other painters, even famous ones, none of them can compare to this one with full of emotion.
I feel like the artist has incorporated something other than paint into it, a little sadness, a little regret, a little joy, a little helplessness...
What impressed Lena the most was the girl sitting quietly by the river in the painting, wearing a white wedding dress, holding a large bouquet of bright roses in her arms, with a kind smile on her face, as if she was an angel descending to the earth.
The strange thing is that there is no matching model sitting on the chair in front of him, which belongs to the guest, but he is painting the picture in his mind.
Lena didn't know how long she had been watching. She only knew that when she got home, her parents angrily reheated the food and she was severely criticized.
And Zhe also completed that beautiful work...
From then on, when going to and from school, Reina unconsciously liked to walk through the noisy market to see this man and his oil paintings. Unfortunately, she could no longer see the slightly smiling expression on his face when he was painting the Bride Under the Moon. However, his skills were praised by some of his peers, and gradually his stall became a little more lively than others. More and more people came to him for paintings, but he was still very frugal with his words.
Lying on the windowsill, Reina was worried about how to tell this person who didn't know her at all about her love. Europeans' love is more open than that of Orientals, and it doesn't have to be the man who speaks out for it to be considered true love.
Girls also have the right to pursue happiness. If they don’t know how to cherish it in time, they will be the only ones who regret it if they miss it.
Depressed, she ran to the large dressing mirror in the room and compared herself carefully. She was a little short at 1.60 meters tall, and her chest and buttocks were already bulging. Her long eyelashes had never been brushed, but they were particularly curled up, and when she blinked, they looked like two brushes.
Facing the beautiful girl in the mirror, Reina imitated the models on TV, posing in various charming postures, chewing her lips and kissing the air from time to time.
"You horny girl, are you horny?!" Unfortunately, I was so focused that I forgot it was time for lunch, forgot I didn't lock the door, and forgot that my mother liked to call me to eat with a spatula...
"Ah! Mom! I don't dare anymore!" I wonder if the cry for mercy can reach the other side and make the girl's love interest smile
Yes, it was already noon, but Xu Zhe had no intention of taking a break. He just took advantage of the empty stall to buy a hamburger and a Coke from an old man nearby.
Without waiting to finish eating, he returned to his easel.
Xu Zhe himself is not sure how many paintings he can paint in a day, but he knows that he has to buy new paint and canvases every day. After deducting the cost, he can earn about 3 euros for each painting. In China, this is definitely a job worth quitting one's job, but here more than half of the monthly income is paid for rent and food.
But for Xu Zhe, this is enough. It can support himself and keep him from having to sleep in the open. There is nothing else to complain about in life.
While Xu Zhe was chewing on his burger, a new customer sat down in front of him. Her bright smile matched the sunshine perfectly, she was wearing a fluffy black bubble skirt, and her black hair was curled up. If you didn't look closely, you would think she was a princess doll. But Xu Zhe would never make a mistake with her.
"You're quite good at picking a location. This is truly a great place with great feng shui and talented people. I'll come here when I 'retire' one day. I just don't know if it will still be here by then?" Due to the sunlight, the girl could only squint her eyes to admire the boats passing by on the river as she sighed.
"Sister, please take a seat." He ignored the other party's chat in Z language and started mixing the paint with the brush in his hand. Xu Zhe's face did not show the joy of meeting an old friend in a foreign land, he just thought it was another guest.
"My profile looks better, so just draw it like this..." The girl was not uncomfortable. She had been prepared for Xu Zhe's indifference from the beginning. "Are you really not going back? Food in Europe is disgusting. Mushrooms dug out by pigs' noses can be sold at sky-high prices. Moldy fish eggs are called caviar. Aren't you afraid of getting a stomachache if you eat too much?"
Xu Zhe ignored the talkative customer and continued with the same work process.
"Ignore me? Aren't you curious about why I came all the way to find you? Appearing openly in the human world, and still fearless." The King of Hell asked softly, continuing to mind his own business.
"I don't want to get involved in your affairs anymore." Finally, Xu Zhe spoke, but the indifference on his face did not diminish at all. "After you finish painting, go as far away as you can. Don't appear in my sight again."
"This is not something you can choose not to get involved in just because you want to. Don't forget that you have Ziya's soul in your body." The King of Hell's words sounded so natural.
"It's a pity that the God you admire just wants to paint quietly now. When you can learn to clean up your own mess instead of relying on others, your God will be considered to have grown up." Xu Zhe looked indifferent.
"We need your help this time. The guys up there are already in danger. If we can't resolve the threat posed by the Nine-Tailed Fox, they might come down to the mortal world together. By then, the battle between gods and demons will be inevitable, and the world will become a battlefield... No one knows whether humans will still exist after the war." With a serious expression, the King of Hell just wanted Xu Zhe to understand the seriousness of the situation.
"So what?" Xu Zhe suddenly stopped writing and looked at the girl in front of him in confusion. "What does the survival of mankind have to do with me? Did I cause all this to happen? Or did I ask you to destroy the world?"
The environment became deathly silent. No matter how many people passed by, no matter what their expressions were, they could not infect the two people who were sinking.
"I think we should stop here today." Sighing, Yan Wang jumped down from his seat and smiled politely, "I don't have time to travel in Europe. There are still many things to do." He hurriedly took out a business card, sandwiched a 10-euro note and placed it behind the drawing board, "If you understand, you can call me on the number on the business card. I will be in the world for a while. Also, power will not favor those who escape, and escape cannot solve any problems. Those who suffer are still suffering, and those who are happy are still happy.
If you don’t want to see this happen, try to change something…”
Patting Xu Zhe on the shoulder, Yan Wang followed the crowd and disappeared in the market. Facing the unfinished work, Xu Zhe was in a daze for a long time...