A painter on Jinsecheng East Street, forty years old, with a full beard and a straight nose, like a paintbrush in his hand. He was very attentive to the portrait, and there was a wooden bench opposite him, on which sat two men, one old and one young, the old one with white hair, listless, and sometimes moaning, apparently a sick old man;

The yellow-haired young man was very filial to his back, for fear that the old man would fall crookedly, and he did not dare to relax. Suddenly, a young man came over, he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, panted and looked at the painter who was painting the old man's face, and said, Master painter, when will you finish painting the two people sitting on the wooden bench? The painter glanced up at him and said, "Wait! In the beginning, I only painted the longevity of this old man, and it would take at least an hour.

If I ask you to draw two people, won't it take two hours? The young man put his hand behind his back and speculated.

Of course. The painter straightened up and looked at him again and asked, "You said that you asked me to paint two people, but besides you, there is another person?"

The young man did not answer for a long time, and then he continued to speak, and drew a beautiful girl.

Why don't you bring that pretty girl? The interrogator hunched over a piece of rice paper and did not raise his head.

If you can't bring it, you can draw it with your imagination! When the young man said this, he was a little lacking in confidence.

How's that going to work? I have no basis, how to draw without a look, if I don't draw well, you or that girl will come to me for a joke. Besides, I can't draw either, for fear that drawing a tiger will not become an anti-dog, and it will become a joke and ruin my reputation (in the art world). The painter stopped his brush and explained to him what was at stake.

You don't have to worry about me or that girl's. I'll tell you the general image of that girl, and you can draw it according to what I said! The young man was about to continue, when the painter made a gesture to stop him. He said, "Wait an hour, and then you will talk to me about it." The young man said yes, walked a few steps away and asked, Master painter, ask you again, how much does it cost to draw a portrait?

50 bucks. After an hour, you come back and have enough money. The painter answered very clearly.

The young man was Dong Pai, who came to the painter to paint them as Li Yu had ordered, and took it very seriously as if he had accepted and carried out his mission.

At this moment, Dong Pai secretly thought: It is more expensive to find a portrait of this painter than to take pictures in a photo studio. Why don't I go to the North Street Photo Studio to have my photo taken? Just let the painter just paint a portrait of Li Yu, who can't be seen, and pay him 50 yuan.

Dong Pai hurried to the North Street Photo Studio again, and saw that the photo of the red-tailed carp posted on the wall a few days ago was gone, so he asked the female boss. The female boss said that she didn't know who took it away. Dong Pai smiled strangely and thought: I have it here. So he reached out and took it out of his purse, but there was no more.

Suddenly, I heard a voice whispering in my ear, don't make trouble, I took the photo you put in your purse. Dong Pai lowered his voice and said, Oh, sister Li Yu, you followed me quietly? The invisible Li Yu said "um" and said don't ask more, take a picture of yourself, and after taking the picture, remember to burn your photo and my picture to be painted together.

Dong Pai said yes, and went to the studio to ask the photographer here to take pictures of him.

On East Street, the painter just finished painting an old man's birthday face, and Dong Pai turned around and said to the painter, Master painter, are you done? Let's draw a picture of a girl named Li Yu!

The painter looked at him, or the same sentence, if you don't call Miss Li Yu, how can I paint? Dong Pai said, I didn't tell you, you can figure out the painting based on the appearance of Li Yu I said! The painter motioned for Dong Pai to tell her characteristics: a pair of slender braids, a watery red dress, and a pair of watery eyes......

Dong Pai said, and he couldn't go on. Because he hadn't seen Li Yu's face clearly at all, even if he had quietly seen Li Yu through the window once, he would only see her side. As for what kind of face Li Yu is, I can't say.

The painter put down the paintbrush in his hand and said You can't tell what Miss Li Yu looks like, how can I paint her face? Why can't you just paint her skirt and braids without her head? Wouldn't that be a monster?

Dong Pai smiled leisurely, and said secretly in his heart: You are right, she is a carp spirit, a monster, but a kind monster, she cooks with me silently every day!

At this time, Dong Pai didn't have a score in his heart, so he said, you just need to draw a beautiful face. The painter picked up the brush again and asked, "Is it a square face, a long face, or a round face?" Or is it a duck egg face, a melon seed face, or an apple face? Dong Pai couldn't answer again, and was about to estimate and say.

Suddenly, I smelled a faint fishy smell, and then a small voice sounded in my ears, Brother Dong, I'm here. Now the painter asks you, "Say whatever I tell you to say." Dong Pai said yes. But the painter heard it, and he said, "What is good?" You didn't make it clear, how do I draw?

At this time, the inconspicuous Li Yu stood beside Dong Pai, looked at his face with a yin mirror in his hand, and then told Dong Pai that I have a melon seed face and dimples on my face; Garlic nose, nose body is straight; A pair of lying silkworm eyebrows, under the eyebrows are a pair of watery eyes, you guessed the last point.

Dong Pai retold it according to what she said, and the painter recorded what he heard in his notebook, and then immediately started to paint, but tilted his head a few times, looked at Dong Pai and said, there is no reference, and it is very difficult to paint with impressions. Since it is difficult, the price is also high.

Dong Pai was a little nervous, because he was shy in his pocket, and now he only had 50 yuan left in his pocket, so he asked, I said that the price is high, how high is it? The painter said that it is twice as high, and it costs 50 yuan to draw an avatar with a reference, but now there is no reference, and it is impossible to draw an avatar, or a girl's portrait, without 100 yuan.

Dong Pai was dumbfounded, he couldn't take it out, and he was about to say, slow, wait two days, I will go to the mountain to chop firewood and sell it, and I will ask you to paint it when I have enough money. Before he could say this, he heard a sound of scraping coins in his purse, and he reached out and took out a handful of money, and he clearly remembered that there was not so much money, how could it suddenly become more?

He took out a handful of money and counted it, plus his original one, which was exactly 100 yuan. Dong Pai knew that this money must have been given to him by the carp essence, Li Yu's sister. Fortunately, I gave it, otherwise, I couldn't draw it with bad money. As soon as he was happy in his heart, he said to the painter, "If you have the money, you can paint!" After drawing the portrait of Miss Li Yu, I will give you money.

In less than an hour, the painter drew the portrait of Miss Li Yu on a piece of rice paper. Dong Pai looked at it and praised it, Li Yu's sister is so beautiful. The painter grabbed the upper end of the painting with both hands, tightly, as if he was afraid that Dong Pai would snatch it away, and urged in his mouth, give money!

Dong Pai very happily threw the 100 yuan that had been prepared on the drawing board, and the painter put the money under the armpit socket slightly, bowed and picked up the money ticket points, yes, put it into the iron box he used as a chair, locked it, and then handed the portrait painting of Li Yu girl to Dong Pai.

Dong Pai admired it for a while, and instead of taking the painting away, he put it together with a photo he had taken out of his jacket pocket and placed it on a bluestone slab on the side of East Street. When the painter saw that the portrait on the photo was Dong Pai, he asked puzzledly, what are you doing here? Dong Pai didn't answer, looking mysterious.

A breeze blew, and his photo and Li Yu's portrait trembled, and they were almost swept away. Dong Pai slapped his waist and held it down, then took out a lighter from his left trouser eye, lit the flame, first burned Li Yu's painting, and then burned his own photo.

With a smell of burnt smell, two black butterfly-like crumbs appeared, churning in the wind. The painter looked at Dong Pai and muttered, you spent 100 yuan to paint a girl's head, as well as your photo, it should be said that you also spent money on photography, why did you burn it? It's weird!

Dong Pai stood up straight and said, don't ask. But the painter could not stop the crow's mouth, and continued, "Could it be that the girl you asked me to paint is no longer alive, no wonder I asked you to call that girl as a reference to paint the image, but you refused." Even so, you shouldn't burn your own picture with the portrait of the girl who is no longer alive! That's going to be a bad thing. Dong Pai stopped him very annoyingly, you don't know, don't talk nonsense, okay?