Fu Zhen returned to his narrow room. The computer and tablet he had bought were from the same city, so delivery was fast. They had already arrived in the locker downstairs that afternoon.
Fu Zhen took out his packages and carefully carried them back into the rental apartment. After unwrapping them, he felt happier than he had in a very long time. Looking at the Meituan icon on his phone, he felt a little like eating spicy Sichuan stew, but when he thought of the wages
that had been deducted from his work at the construction site during the day, that desire disappeared.
After connecting the drawing tablet to the computer, Fu Zhen tried all its functions and tested the feel of it. It felt acceptable. Then he tried the animation software. That did not work very well.
As soon as there were too many frames, the computer could not handle it.
Fu Zhen thought for a while and decided that before officially updating Chronicles of Shazhou, he would take a few commissioned illustration jobs first and save another sum of money to buy a slightly better computer.
To receive commissions, one had to have popularity. Generally speaking, beginner artists online would draw fan art for popular novels, games, movies, or television dramas to attract followers.
Once they had built up a wave of followers, people would naturally come to them for commissions. But that required a long period of accumulation. Another possibility was that their drawing skill was especially outstanding, so that the moment an image was posted, all the fans would cry out and call them a great artist.
Fu Zhen had not touched a drawing pen in a long time. If this had been two years ago, he would certainly have been confident that he could make a stunning debut and become a major artist in the circle. But now, Fu Zhen looked at the palm he had scraped when he fell that morning, still marked with purplish-red abrasions, and shook his head with a bitter smile.
But no matter what, since he had already made up his mind, he had to begin properly. While playing Chronicles of Shazhou on Barrage Station, he did rehabilitation practice. Two years had passed, but his level had not fallen too badly. Looking at the draft he had just drawn, Fu Zhen nodded in satisfaction. If he worked diligently, he should be able to return to his state from two years ago within a month.
Fu Zhen put down the drawing pen, stood up, and rubbed his shoulder. Then he browsed through the commission sample images currently posted by artists on Weibo and compared them with the line sketch he had just drawn. His current level should already be enough to take commissions.
Once he decided to do it, Fu Zhen immediately registered a new Weibo account. When choosing a nickname, he hesitated slightly. For some unknown reason, Jiang Hengshu’s name suddenly flashed through his mind.
The world sees my extraordinary tune and, hearing my grand words, laughs coldly.
He did not know where Jiang Hengshu’s name came from, but he remembered this line of
poetry. The line came from Li Bai’s “To Li Yong,” in which the more famous line was: When the great roc rises with the wind one day, it soars ninety thousand li straight up.
Fu Zhen typed into the input box several times, back and forth, before finally deciding on the name Jianwen.
He had taken one character from before and after the two characters in Hengshu’s name, then
changed them into homophones. This was one person’s secret. He guaranteed no one would ever see through it.
Actually, Fu Zhen had owned two Weibo accounts two years ago. One was his personal account, and the other was the official account for Chronicles of Shazhou. But his personal account had been banned when he was driven out of the Fu family. As for the official account of Chronicles of Shazhou, if he posted a commission advertisement there, people would laugh themselves to death. Fu Zhen still had some pride. For the time being, he could not do something like that.
After registering the new Weibo account, Fu Zhen photographed the quick sketches and illustrations he had drawn in his free time over the past two years and uploaded them to his Weibo album. Finally, he posted one Weibo update.
“Unknown artist in rehabilitation practice. Cabbage-price commissions. Commissions welcome.”
His plan was to post the advertisement first. It would be best if he could receive a commission. If not, he would wait another two days, draw some new images, and upload them to this Weibo account. No matter what, he should be able to attract one or two followers.
However, at his current speed, finishing a full-color single-character standing illustration would take three or four days no matter what. Portrait icons would be a little easier, and the coloring, light, and shadow would also be much simpler. But right now, he needed to become familiar with human anatomy as quickly as possible, so drawing portraits would waste a little too much time.
After exiting Weibo, Fu Zhen continued watching Chronicles of Shazhou while drawing. The movements of his hand did not stop for even a moment. He worked like this all the way until dawn.
After Fu Zhen finished watching the first season of Chronicles of Shazhou, he exited Barrage Station and casually opened Weibo to take another look. The Weibo post he had made earlier was empty underneath. There was not a single person.
Fu Zhen looked at the sample images he had uploaded to the album. Most of them were rough sketches and not particularly refined. At first glance, they indeed did not look very attractive. If he could work a little faster on the standing illustration on his computer, it should be finished the day after tomorrow. That standing illustration was of the female lead from Chronicles of Shazhou. He did not know how much popularity it would still have.
An original artist now drawing fan art of his own work—no matter how one thought about it, it was a little miserable.
Fu Zhen was just about to put away his phone and go to sleep when he suddenly saw a small red dot light up above his messages. He opened it and saw, to his surprise, that someone had actually come to him for a commission today.
“Madam, are all the drawings in your album drawn by you? Can you draw digitally?”
Fu Zhen quickly replied.
“Yes. I can.”
“Then can you tell me the price?”
“What kind do you want? A profile picture, a standing illustration, or a colored illustration?” “Probably a colored illustration? Madam, do you accept fan art?”
“Fan art of what?” “Chronicles of Shazhou.”
Fu Zhen had not expected it to be such a coincidence. His very first piece of business would be Chronicles of Shazhou fan art. No matter what, he was also the original artist for Chronicles of Shazhou. Even if he had been neglecting practice recently, drawing one piece of fan art for the original work… Fu Zhen admired the half-finished standing illustration on his computer again, then replied readily.
“I accept. Of whom?”
“Madam, look at my username.”
Custard Bun?
Fu Zhen blinked and confirmed that he had not misread. Although he had not been in contact with the Chronicles of Shazhou fan circle for a long time, he could still barely remember that the Custard couple pairing referred to Zhu Naiyou and Huang Lie. In the original work, these two people were romantic rivals.
Before posting the commission advertisement, Fu Zhen had considered that he might have to draw couple art, but he had never imagined that the first pairing he would draw would be two men.
“I want a full-body picture of both of them, with interaction.”
Before Fu Zhen could reply, the young girl commissioning him sent another message: “It would be best if it could be a little explicit and violent. Thank you, Madam.”
“…”
Fu Zhen pressed his forehead. No matter what, business had already arrived at his door. How could he refuse it? However, the identity of the original artist of Chronicles of Shazhou
absolutely had to stay hidden. He had to keep that vest tightly wrapped around him for the rest of his life and never let anyone strip it off.
“Do you want the style to be the original work’s style?” “Original style would be best.”
Fu Zhen nodded. His current level was actually somewhat higher than many artists online who accepted commissions, but this was his first order after all, so he did not dare set the price too high.
“Is two hundred yuan acceptable?”
This really counted as a cabbage price. Back in the day, it had not been a problem for one of his colored illustrations to sell for four figures.
But Custard Bun was not polite at all.
“Can it be a little cheaper?”
Fu Zhen sighed. This Custard Bun counted as his first customer. Cheaper was cheaper, then.
“One hundred and fifty. I can’t go any lower.” “Okay.”
Custard Bun was also straightforward. After the two of them settled some details, she immediately transferred fifty yuan to Fu Zhen’s Alipay as a deposit. Hearing the clinking gold-coin sound effect, Fu Zhen swallowed. He really wanted spicy Sichuan stew.
Forget it. Dreaming was happier.
Fu Zhen slept for a while. When he woke, it was four in the morning. He picked up the phone beside his pillow, and in a daze, for some unknown reason, opened Weibo and directly logged into the official account for Chronicles of Shazhou. After he successfully entered the password, the phone screen suddenly went white. Fu Zhen was startled, and at last became a little more awake. He thought the phone had broken and was about to shut it down and restart it, only to discover that the screen had returned to normal again.
It was probably because too many messages had accumulated over the past two years, and also because he had not replaced this phone in a long time. Weibo had not been updated for a long time either, so there had been a short freeze.
After a while, once the phone got used to so many people greeting him, Fu Zhen tapped open the messages and discovered that over the past two years, there were more than ten thousand private
messages, more than seven hundred thousand comments, and a number of likes, mentions, and tags. In short, that two-minute freeze just now had not been unjustified at all.
Fu Zhen opened his own Weibo homepage and looked at every post he had made before. A smile unconsciously appeared on his face. Every word on it could stir up a happy memory for him.
Finally, he clicked into the last Weibo post made by this official account. There were especially many comments under this post. He did not remember what number had been displayed underneath the last time he logged in, but now the comment count showed six hundred and eighty-three thousand.
The top popular comment below it was: “If Chronicles of Shazhou can start updating again and the ridiculous official account returns to the world, this faithful man is willing to donate several girlfriends and remain single for life.”
Fu Zhen could not help laughing. Then he continued scrolling down to read the other comments. However, while sliding the screen, his hand slipped and liked the comment just now. Fu Zhen did not pay it much mind. After all, two years ago, as the official account, he had often had slips of the hand too. After reading a few comments, sleepiness came over him again. Fu Zhen tossed his phone aside, lay down, and went to sleep.
Fu Zhen felt that this one like was no big deal, but to the fans of Chronicles of Shazhou, this like was simply rain after a long drought.
Ever since Chronicles of Shazhou stopped updating, there had not been the slightest bit of news. The fans had once howled day and night under the official Weibo, begging for an explanation. In the end, the ridiculous official account acted as if it had died and was too stingy to even send them a punctuation mark. The fans all thought the studio had gone bankrupt.
Even if the bastard boss had run off with his sister-in-law, he could at least sing a rap section to let them know he was still alive!
Chapter complete.