Harvey managed to squeeze through the crowd of onlookers, and saw a well-dressed middle-aged man with a somewhat bloated figure in the center of the crowd pointing at a young girl with a slap on her head and scolding, a sketch on the muddy floor, and the white paper was soaked in dirty water mixed with paint, and there was no specific appearance in sight.

A man dressed as a merchant poked at the painting on the ground with a cane and scolded: "What kind of garbage is this painting, what is the difference between this painting and the graffiti of children on the side of the road?" Sure enough, you shouldn't let your apprentice paint just for the sake of that little cheapness, what art does a woman know? ”

The painting was poked by a cane, and the girlish trembling when she saw this scene, she was wearing a dirty long skirt and a headscarf, her appearance was quite beautiful, and the freckles on her small face added a bit of youthful vitality to her, she stiffened her neck and retorted: "But I just painted it according to your request..."

The merchant was even more angry and shouted, "Damn it! What is this painting worthy of my wife? ”

The girl clenched her fists and suppressed her anger: "Woman~ It's because I'm a woman~~"

"Nya!" An elegant man with long hair walked out of the studio to stop the girl from continuing.

The handsome and elegant man bowed down and apologized to the merchant: "Mr. Fergus, I'm very sorry, my student is indeed a little unskilled, so let's come here again in a week, this time by myself, and in order to show my apologies, the price is of course completely free." ”

The merchant's face changed a lot, and he said, "Oh~!" Mr. Valen, you're gracious, and you'll be fine if you paint yourself. ”

The onlookers laughed and shouted: "Haha, Fergus, so a woman just can't get on the stage, and you still accept her as an apprentice." ”

It seems that there are no riots here once or twice, and some painters mocked: "What qualifies a woman to be a painter?" Give up your childish ideas before it's too late. ”

"That's right, just go back and wait to get married, come out and join in the fun, if you want to become a professional painter, you might as well think that you will marry a nobleman, but I think, it's hard with your weird temper."

"You guys!" The girl was angry, she couldn't care about her face anymore, she raised the wooden drawing board on the side of the road with her hands and rushed to the crowd, and when she waved, the crowd of onlookers retreated and avoided, Harvey stood in place and watched this scene stunned.

The crowd dispersed, Harvey standing in the first column didn't move, the sketchpad picked up by the girl naturally hit Harvey, the girl's original intention was to drive away the crowd, I didn't think that anyone would not dodge like wood, although I was angry, I still controlled my reason, and planned to stop.

Silver light swept through the air, and the painting board in the girl's hand turned into a pile of broken wood and fell.

No one knew what was going on, and it was just that the sketchpads were loosely structured and fell apart with violent use, and the crowd laughed again.

The girl bowed to Harvey embarrassedly, packed up the drawing board on the ground and hurried away.

After the turmoil, Art Street returned to its calm appearance, Harvey entered the studio that caused the riot, and saw that there were all kinds of paintings by the painter hanging inside, including oil paintings and sketches.

Harvey turned to the male painter known as Fergus, "These are your works?" ”

Fergus smiled and replied, "Yes, sir." ”

"Very good, so how much money can you make a month?"

Fergus was stunned for a moment, looked Harvey up and down, and hesitantly replied, "About three gold baluns." ”

Three gold balun coins, which is also a lot of money, enough for a family of three to live a prosperous life.

"I want to hire you to paint for my studio, and I can pay you six gold barrons a month."

Six? The paintbrush in Fergus's hand almost fell to the ground in shock, his face was solemn and he thought for a while and shook his head: "Sir, I'm afraid I can't help you, I've received enough jobs this month, if I can, I would recommend my student, she has painting skills that are not inferior to mine." ”

"Is it the young lady who was holding the sketchpad just now?"

"Uh..." Fergus looked embarrassed and didn't know how to respond.

"Sir!" A high female voice came from the side, and the girl just now walked out of the inner room, her eyes looked directly at Harvey, and her voice was clear: "You also think that women can't be painters?" They can belittle my work itself, but they can't insult my work because of my femininity. ”

Harvey shrugged: "I never meant that, because the studio leader I was talking about was a female painter herself. ”

The girl's eyes burst with astonishing brilliance, and she sat down with a look of hope: "Oh! Be sure to introduce her to me, you know there are so few female painters here, and I'm going to slap those who speak out in the face! ”

Harvey couldn't help but nod: "Before that, can you let me see your work?" ”

"No problem."

The girl reflexively went back to the inner room, and after a while brought back a few bound sketches for Harvey to see, Harvey was stunned when he saw her paintings, Fergus said that the girl's sketching skills are not weaker than him, but these paintings are obviously in a style that is completely inconsistent with the sketches of this era, but it is better to say that the content of the sketch and the details are similar to the illustrations drawn by Shirley and six or seven points.

"Do you recognize it?" The girl who noticed the change in Harvey's expression explained proudly: "These works are all drawn by me in the style of the illustrations of The Count of Monte Cristo, and the illustrations are the works of Ms. Shirley Adrian, but Ms. Shirley's works are too few, and those who are full of money do not understand the appreciation at all, and they only buy paintings to show off their wealth and superficial artistic vision." ”

There are still fans of Shirley?

Harvey was in a complicated mood, a little happy but didn't agree with the girl's statement, not recognized and accepted by the public, at least for this era, it was really a bad work, thought about it and said to the girl: "Yes, it is true that Mr. Fergus said that the painting skills are outstanding, I am willing to bid five gold barrons a month to hire you to my studio, what do you think?" ”

Five gold baluns!?

The girl's hands stretched out stiffly, one finger after another stretched out to calculate, and asked with a stiff expression, "That..." Five··· How many balun pounds is five gold baluns? ”

"About five hundred and fifty." Next to Fergus added.

The girl screamed first, grabbed Harvey's right hand with both hands, and said excitedly, "Deal, I'm more than happy to work for you, sir." ”

Harvey nodded and then said to Fergus: "What do you think?" Mr. Fergus, my studio is still in great need of a painter of your kind. ”

The handsome man shook his head and still declined: "I'm very sorry, I personally prefer to create freely." ”

Harvey didn't insist on it, and wrote down the address of the mansion so that the girl would leave the place tomorrow and continue looking for the next painter.

······

The girl, who had been excited for a while, was thinking about it with happiness on her face, and after a while, she suddenly realized something and screamed again, and asked her teacher Fergus: "Teacher! Is anyone really going to hire me for five gold baluns a month? I'm just your apprentice, I can't think about it! ”

"Isn't that the gentleman just now?"

The girl's face was full of worry: "I mean, he can't be some kind of liar who kidnaps women!" Although he was dressed quite well, I didn't see him with a servant with him, and he could really pay five gold barons. ”

"Don't worry, if he can't pay, no one in Elroy City can."

"What do you mean, teacher, do you know him?"

"He said something that convinced me of his identity."

"What."

"The studio he opened was dominated by a female painter."

The girl named Niya was furious, holding her pink fist and waving: "Indeed, there are almost no female painters in the city of Elroy, can't women become painters?" Ms. Shirley has also become Mr. Adrian's special painter! Hum! ”

"Niya, I didn't mean that, don't you recognize it?"

“？？？”

"Look at the address that gentleman left for you, and think about everything he said."

After a while, an even higher scream came from Fergus's studio, which alarmed most of the painters on the street, and almost thought that Fergus had hung Nia up and beaten him because of what had just happened, otherwise how could Niya, who was notoriously short-tempered, let out a ghostly crying wolf howl.