“En.” I nodded. I didn’t want to become a court painter. Although it might come with an official position and a secure future, once you enter the palace, you lose your freedom. Everything becomes a delicate balancing act, and one wrong move could cost you your life. I certainly didn’t want that.
“If… they still come knocking? If they do, I’ll go with them. If they ask about you, just say that all these paintings were done by me and that you can’t paint. Do you hear me?”
“What are you talking about, Father? They’re recruiting court painters. Do you think they’ll drag people away like they’re taking sacrificial offerings? There are other painters around here too…”
Before the words left my mouth, I heard a series of copper bells clinking from outside the door.
“Father will do my best to deal with it. You stay in the room and don’t come out.” After saying that, the sound of my father’s footsteps left the door. I walked uneasily to the window facing the street in the room, pushed the window open a crack, and saw two red-masked priests standing in front of the shop, followed by a long line of guards on horseback on both sides and a line of civilians in the middle. Some of them looked familiar, all painters from nearby villages and towns. Are these people all painters who are going to be selected into the palace? But the few I know, their painting skills are not good, at most, they can only be regarded as knowing how to paint.
“The palace is looking for a painter to paint for the Saint Lord. Who is the painter in this painting shop?”
“It’s me.” My adoptive father knelt down and answered respectfully, “But I’m old, and I’m afraid I can’t be competent for the important task of being a court painter. I planned to close the shop and go to the south before the New Year…”
“Take him away!”
Before he finished speaking, the red priest in front of him waved his hand, and the guards came forward. My adoptive father is not in good health. The physician said that he suffered from a serious heart disease after his wife died, and he often got sick. What would happen if he entered the palace in my place? I rushed to the window and was about to open it, but my arm was grabbed by Mo Wei: “Brother Xue, don’t show your face!”
I shook off his hand, opened the window, and shouted, “I am the painter!”
“Ah Xue!” My adoptive father turned his head, his face pale. “What nonsense are you talking about again! How can you paint? You are idle all day long, and you only know how to eat, drink, and have fun with the money from my painting sales…”
“Lord Priest, the painter of this art shop is the ugly masked freak! I recognize him. He is the best painter in our area. His art shop usually has the best business. Please let us go. My painting skills are only enough to make a living. I have a wife, children, and parents at home waiting for me to take care of them!”
Suddenly, someone shouted, and a group of people responded one after another: “Yes, that’s right. When recruiting court painters, you have to recruit the best painters. What are we?”
“I can only make some New Year paintings, please let me go back. Tai Xue is enough!”
“Brother Xue!” Mo Wei dragged me to the window facing the back mountain. “Run away. Let’s go to the back mountain!”
“Go, you guys are considered pagans. If you are discovered, your lives will be in danger. I can’t ignore my adoptive father!” I pushed him out of the window, grabbed the painting on the table, and rushed out the door, blocking my adoptive father behind me, and showed them the snow scene painting I had just drawn yesterday.
“Lords of the Sect, please take me away. I am indeed the best painter in this area. These bricklayers who can only paint walls cannot compare to me. Why should you take them away?”
“Ah Xue!” My adoptive father grabbed my calf and started coughing violently, “Don’t be stupid!”
I was so anxious that I kicked him over and said, “You sick old man, don’t get in the way of my wealth and status. I just want to enter the palace as a painter and don’t want to be trapped in this town for the rest of my life. You got a hand disease a few years ago, and it’s useless now. If this shop wasn’t supported by me, you would have starved to death a long time ago. Why don’t you go back and lie down!”
“How unfilial!”
“How could there be such a son with a beastly heart!”
“I heard that he is not his biological child but was picked up!”
The two red-robed priests glanced at the painting in my hand, looked at each other, and nodded.
“Let them go. The journey is long, and it will be troublesome to bring them back.”
When I got on the carriage, I heard a burst of curses behind me and heard my adoptive father’s sad cries in between. I didn’t dare to look back at him. I got into the carriage, and the tears that I had been holding back fell.
I know that after this separation, reunited with my adoptive father is unknown.
Perhaps in this life, we will never have the chance to go to the south to see the sea together again anymore.
The carriage started to shake as it moved forward, but I heard my adoptive father shouting at the top of his lungs from behind: “Ah Xue, Ah Xue!”
Unable to hold back, I lifted the carriage curtain and looked back. My adoptive father was stumbling and chasing after me. He stretched out his hand to me. “Ah Xue, I am your father, your real father. Ah Xue, it is Father who has wronged you. Father will never be able to make up for you in this entire life!”
My adoptive father and I have been dependent on each other for more than ten years. He is not my biological father, but he is better than my biological father. He can’t bear to leave me, and I can’t bear to leave him as well!
I shouted at him, “Take care, Father! Ah Xue will definitely come back to find you!”
“Brother Xue! Brother Xue!” I heard Mo Wei’s shouts from afar and caught a glimpse of him running after me, falling down and getting up again. I shouted, “Take good care of Father for me!”
I lowered the carriage curtain, hugged my knees, and cried bitterly.
“Don’t cry. Being a court painter is not a bad thing. Why do you cry so sadly, like a bride getting on a sedan chair?” The red priest next to me sneered, “As long as the portrait of the Saint Lord you paint satisfies the Shengzun[mfn]Holy Lord or the Holy One[/mfn], you will enjoy endless wealth and glory in the future.”
I looked up at the priest in red. He had a plump face, fair skin, a pair of slender smiling eyes, thick lips, and naturally upturned corners of his mouth. He looked quite kind. The one next to him had gloomy eyes and sunken cheeks and seemed to be a serious person.
“You must be hungry. Here you go. Eat this, and the gods will bless you.”
The red priest took out a paper package from his sleeve and handed it to me. When I opened it, I found two red flower-shaped cakes inside, it’s “holy bread”. During every festival, the priests of the sect would distribute this bread everywhere. It is said that this bread is the flesh and blood of the gods, and eating it can bring blessings from the gods.
I have eaten it several times. Although I have not converted to the sect, I do not know why, but every time I eat this cake, I always feel a sense of inexplicable sadness, as if there is some unfulfilled regret hidden deep in my heart.
After eating the holy bread, I fell asleep in the carriage. I don’t know how long I slept, but I woke up when I heard a distant bell ringing in the sky. The carriage was moving very slowly and seemed to be about to stop. I opened the curtain and was shocked by the scene in front of me. My eyes widened.
Such spectacular scenery made me forget the sadness of leaving my adoptive father for a moment, and instead I was filled with an urge to paint. My hands were itching, but my painting supplies were not with me.
The carriage stopped in front of the last archway. I saw two red priests lifting the curtain. I didn’t dare to be negligent and followed them out of the carriage. I knew this was an important place in the palace, so I didn’t dare to look up. I lowered my head and heard a red priest say, “This is the new painter we found.”
I followed the red-robed priests through twists and turns in this huge palace with complex terrain. I had no idea where I was being taken. I didn’t dare to raise my head until I entered a room.
The room was clean and spacious, much larger than my room in town. There was a soft carpet on the floor. In the middle of the room, a long and wide table was placed on which were laid out a wide variety of painting materials and paints.
My eyes lit up, and I walked to the table and looked at them, surprised and happy.
“From now on, you will live here, and you are not allowed to go out without permission.”
Hearing the voice behind me, I turned my head and saw the red-robed priest who gave me the food was about to close the door and leave. I hurriedly asked, “Lord Priest, when can I paint? There seems to be no canvas here.”
“When you are required to paint, I will give you the canvas.”
“Then, when can I paint, and what do I need to paint?” I asked curiously.
“You need to paint portraits of the Shengzun and the Saint Lord. You also need to paint all the important events of our sect and the court. For example, in a few days, when the Modaluo Kingdom sends an envoy to meet His Majesty, you will need to paint beside him.”
I nodded. So it’s necessary to get permission before painting?
I returned to my desk with a sense of loss and itching curiosity, carefully examining the high-quality brushes and paints, the wood of the brushes was unlike anything I had encountered before, and I couldn’t tell what it was. It was heavy, with a solid feel, exuding a rich fragrance. The brush handles were intricately carved with fine patterns. The bristles were also made from carefully selected animal hairs, goat hair, horsehair, wolf hair, and even some that seemed like human hair. As for the paints, they were of the highest quality, delicate and vivid, with a wide range of colors. In addition to the rare and expensive gold and silver colors, there were many fluorescent shades I had never seen before. One in particular, glowing with a purple light, was as magnificent and enchanting as starlight. Just one glance made my heart inexplicably burn with heat.
Holding the jar of paint, I couldn’t stop looking at it. Unable to resist, I dipped the brush into it, mixed a bit of saliva, and tried the color on the back of my hand. The purple specks shimmered and danced on my skin. For a moment, I was dizzy and entranced, almost intoxicated. I thought to myself, with such beautiful paint, what should I use it to paint?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such beautiful colors in real life, more beautiful than the morning or evening glow.
Feeling an itch in my hands, I simply chose a blank wall and began painting on it. Before long, someone knocked on the door.
I opened the door to find a masked female priest standing there, holding a food basket, steam rising from it. I thanked her and took the basket from her. As our eyes met for a brief moment, I couldn’t shake the feeling that her face looked somewhat familiar, though I couldn’t remember where I had seen her before. Just as I thought to look at her for a moment longer, she turned and left.
The food in the palace, of course, was far better than what one would find in the streets, with a full variety of meats, vegetables, and even pastries. However, I had grown accustomed to the simple meals my adoptive father prepared, and the thought of him eating alone tonight, surely in solitude, made me lose my appetite. I nibbled a little and then returned to working on my mural.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been painting, but suddenly, I faintly heard the sound of a flute.
The sound of the flute came from the window to the west, its notes like a lone eagle circling high above, beyond the reach of other birds, emitting a long cry. It was cold and desolate, it seemed to pierce through the clouds, cutting through the storm and thunder, gazing down at the endless earth and vast ocean, again and again, searching in vain for something.
I couldn’t help but be drawn to the sound of the flute. I went to the window and opened the wooden frame.
