Seeing Fei Ni’s reluctance to part with the moon painting, Fang Muyang said to Xu Hui, “Then we’ll trouble you to keep it safe for us. If you need, I can make a frame for it.” He was certain that since Xu Hui had brought the painting, she wouldn’t easily take it away, though keeping it here would come with conditions. He waited for her to propose new terms.

“I’m not unreasonable. Though the painting is mine, seeing how much you both like it, I’m willing to leave it here for a while. However, I have one condition…” Afraid they wouldn’t ask and leave her without a graceful way out, Xu Hui addressed Fei Ni directly: “I want to paint your portrait in the studio next door. If you agree, you can keep this painting for now.”

Xu Hui thought about how Fang Muyang had painted her before they were together and surely had done many portraits since their marriage. She wanted to paint one of Fei Ni that would surpass all of Fang Muyang’s previous works.

She had specially brought wine today for painting Fei Ni. Fei Ni’s beauty was too proper, almost rigid, but at first glance, Xu Hui had discovered the playful lightness behind that propriety. This lightness seemed to appear only around Fang Muyang – she still remembered the scene of Fei Ni rising on tiptoes to wave at him. To capture that, she would need a little wine.

Xu Hui liked finding charm in proper people and honesty in slick ones. She didn’t like painting people’s usual state, preferring instead to capture those fleeting moments of something different. Even without Fang Muyang’s involvement, she would have wanted to paint Fei Ni.

Fei Ni very much wanted her childhood portrait back, and for its sake, she was willing to be Xu Hui’s model for a day. However, today wouldn’t work, and tomorrow she had work – it would have to wait until Sunday.

With the matter settled, Xu Hui showed no signs of leaving. She asked Fang Muyang, “May I see your other paintings?”

Xu Hui looked through them one by one, initially thinking of choosing one to exchange, but found herself wanting more than one and unable to decide.

She asked Fang Muyang what work he did, and learning he was unemployed at home, her envy grew stronger. Having such a studio and being able to paint whenever he wanted – truly a life of luxury. And Fei Ni didn’t even pressure him to find proper work.

With such a wife, one could paint currently unfashionable works purely to satisfy one’s artistic desires.

Xu Hui wasn’t surprised by Fang Muyang’s oil painting interpretations of literati paintings, nor by his paintings of his wife on discarded towels. What surprised her was how in Fang Muyang’s paintings, even an old farmer drinking water and eating corn cakes while watching his wheat field had an air of contentment, his gaze no different from a feudal lord surveying his domain. She had painted farmers working too, had captured joy, but when she painted it, she knew it was false.

But the joy in Fang Muyang’s paintings was real because he painted the moments between labor.

Xu Hui had spent two years as a sent-down youth, her most difficult days. Before going to the countryside, she had many pastoral fantasies about rural life, but once there, she found only hardship, wanting to leave every moment. She thought farming was too bitter, and only escaped when the production team let her paint propaganda posters for work points. Sometimes when she painted farmers supposedly loving their labor, she felt she was betraying the villagers, avoiding their suffering just to complete her assignments, because, for her, there was no joy in the work.

If not for Fang Muyang’s paintings, Xu Hui would have forgotten she too had moments of happiness during that labor. The happiest times were the rest periods after work – the harder the work, the sweeter the rest. Even sitting with a bowed head drinking water and watching clouds felt special, the clouds seeming more beautiful than usual because the rest was so precious. Though daily labor was hard, there was joy at year’s end when work points were calculated and bonuses distributed. All the year’s hardships bore fruit then; she could finally earn money on her own.

Only someone with Fang Muyang’s experience could accurately capture such joy.

Xu Hui thought Fang Muyang truly knew how to enjoy life. It wasn’t difficult to enjoy oneself with money and leisure, but to consciously savor rare moments of ease after heavy labor – that was remarkable. She had always thought about how she would paint what she wanted after leaving the countryside and propaganda team, but Fang Muyang could paint what he wanted without escaping these things; he could find enjoyment anywhere, anytime.

Xu Hui asked Fang Muyang, “Would you be willing to exchange this painting with me?”

Among all the paintings, this one was most suitable for an art exhibition. The others were good but didn’t match current aesthetic preferences. If Fang Muyang planned to enter this in an exhibition, he surely wouldn’t give it to her.

Fang Muyang hesitated for a few seconds, then agreed.

Xu Hui left happily with her bounty. After seeing her off, Fang Muyang joined Fei Ni in admiring the painting from his youth.

Fei Ni studied her younger self in the painting and asked Fang Muyang, “How did you paint this? I don’t remember you looking at me much.” She loved the painting – it couldn’t have been done without careful observation, yet if Fang Muyang had been watching her so closely, how could she not have noticed?

“Never mind the past – even the other day when you were organizing manuscripts for Dad, I was watching you from behind, and you didn’t notice.”

Let alone when she was catching flies – her eyes were only on the flies then, how could she have noticed him?

“Why did you paint me?” She had a vague idea but wanted to hear it from him.

“Because you were interesting. I couldn’t help watching you.” Fei Ni had watched him first. He initially thought she was a spy sent by the teacher, watching him during breaks to catch him causing trouble. Only later did he realize she was studying his fly-catching techniques to use herself, as he always caught the most flies. But he didn’t catch them – he set bait in bottles and let them fly in themselves. If not for Fei Ni watching him so intently, he might never have discovered that this seemingly clever girl was adorably foolish, working so hard every day to catch flies yet often failing to catch even one.

“You must have painted many people back then.”

“You were the most beautiful of all I painted.” It was only when Fei Ni appeared on his canvas that Fang Muyang realized she was a pretty little girl. Back then, Fang Muyang only saw two types of people, regardless of gender or appearance: those he wanted to paint and those he didn’t. Those who sparked his curiosity he wanted to look at repeatedly and commit to paper – even without paper, he would draw in the margins of his textbooks, and without any materials at all, he could still paint them in his mind. Those who didn’t inspire his curiosity, no matter how beautiful, he might look at once more but would never paint. It wasn’t just because paper and paint were limited, but because without passion, someone like him with no patience couldn’t spend hours on something without intense enthusiasm.

“You’re just sweet-talking me.”

“Why don’t you believe me again?” Fang Muyang’s fingers patiently arranged Fei Ni’s hair. “Even if you don’t believe me, you should be confident. Have you seen anyone more beautiful than yourself?”

“More nonsense.” Fei Ni poked Fang Muyang’s forehead. “Were you painting outside while I was at work?” The painting Xu Hui wanted was done during the time Fang Muyang had quit his job to study.

Fang Muyang kissed Fei Ni’s eyes, “You truly have keen eyes.” Before the exam, he had taken care of Fei Ni for several days, and she had expressed much guilt. If he failed the exam, she might think her illness had held him back. Better to let her think he simply hadn’t studied properly. If he did poorly, it would have nothing to do with her illness.

“You painted outside during the day, then sat at the desk pretending to study when I was about to come home?”

“I wasn’t pretending.”

Fang Muyang hadn’t said he was studying at home during the day, but when Fei Ni came home from work and saw him at the desk, she assumed that was the case.

Fei Ni didn’t dwell on the past with Fang Muyang – he had been painting, not doing anything else.

“I don’t think you have much chance of passing this time.” Fei Ni chose her words carefully to protect Fang Muyang’s pride. “While I still remember the exam questions, I’ll write them down, and you can try them again. I’ll see where you need help and focus on those areas.”

Fei Ni quickly kissed Fang Muyang’s cheek. “I must write them down now, or I’ll forget.”

After finishing her morning exam, Fei Ni was back at the desk in the afternoon, writing diligently.

Fang Muyang felt sorry for her and brought up her earlier promise: “Remember? You said after the exam, you’d do whatever I wanted.”

“Can we wait until tonight?” Fei Ni said softly, “Tonight I’ll do whatever you say, however, you want.”

Fang Muyang stood behind Fei Ni massaging her shoulders. “I just wanted you to rest a bit.”

Fei Ni’s face reddened, falling into self-doubt – was it because she liked that thing that whenever Fang Muyang made a request, her mind went there immediately, even when he had no such intentions?

Fang Muyang’s hands applied just the right pressure, and Fei Ni’s tension melted away, leaving her almost without willpower.

She needed to maintain her momentum to write out all the exam questions, so she sent Fang Muyang elsewhere: “Weren’t you going to develop photos?”

Fang Muyang made Fei Ni some tea, set up a temporary darkroom, and went to develop photos. The development was secondary; he mainly wanted to use this time to recall the exam questions. He had crammed before the exam and remembered quite a bit during the test. But such memories were short-lived – if Fei Ni tested him now, he might not even remember the questions he had managed to answer during the exam. If he couldn’t remember, he faced long hours of tutoring.

Fei Ni wrote out the exam questions from memory, and though Fang Muyang wanted to solve them while his memory was fresh, Fei Ni mercifully let him rest for two days, reasoning that he had worked too hard lately, not only painting and studying but also taking care of her while she was sick.

But Fang Muyang insisted on doing them immediately, even working on problems as they rode to the movie. Fei Ni would state the question, and Fang Muyang would answer immediately.

In the deep blue night, Fei Ni sat on the back of the bicycle, her face wrapped in a scarf with only her eyes showing.

Fei Ni’s eyes held a smile – Fang Muyang’s performance wasn’t as bad as she had feared, which was truly good news.