You rascal, stop right there!

Streets of Beijing.

End of the alley.

The streets are bustling with people, shoulder to shoulder, creating a peaceful and prosperous scene.

Bai Wan was sitting on the street in a grey cloth, holding a paint box, brush and ink, and drawing a portrait of the storyteller who had been released.

His left-hand brushwork is no longer the same as it used to be. The brush can follow his heart and the shape can follow his emotion.

His whole face was painted with a smile on his face, bright and beautiful like a painting.

Perhaps no one understood why a good court painter would leave the beauties and concubines in the palace and the pavilions and towers to paint ordinary people on the streets.

But Bai Wan is really tired.

The day before yesterday, he painted the imperial concubines, and yesterday he painted the affair between Emperor Jiaxing and his wife. In between, he also painted the cats and dogs kept by the royal family.

Moreover, there are various restrictions and taboos. I always feel that there is no point in painting these royal relatives and boneless beauties!

It would be more interesting for him to paint street storytellers outside the palace, performers under the bridge, dough figurines making at the city gate, or even the refugees in the suburbs.

So, this person couldn't stand the restrictions in the palace and left.

If Chen Yu was here, he would definitely roll his eyes: "Boss, if you really only wanted to paint these people, why did you apply to be a court painter in the first place? Isn't this a contradiction? Why did you do that?"

Someone sighed and said that from the very beginning he took the exam to become a painter for the sake of his past, and later he added it to the agreement with Zichen.

But now, now...

Ha ha!

When I saw the storyteller, my eyes lit up. People with lively and interesting expressions are what I want to draw.

A crowd gathered and everyone was listening to the storyteller telling stories.

The light petals kept floating, accompanied by the human voice like a painting.

"Here, this is for you!"

"It's for you!"

……

Bai Wan took a booklet of draft rice paper and drew small portraits for everyone. He distributed them to the people who were the protagonists in the paintings as if they were free, and he didn't feel that he was at a disadvantage at all.

The little boy next to him looked at him and said, "Painter, is this me?"

"Of course it's you. Look at your mole, it's so obvious!" The man said while pointing at the other person's neck with a pen.

The person opposite blushed instantly, but still took the painting happily.

Others also received this man's paintings one after another, and they all expressed their admiration for the different expressions in the paintings, which were so lifelike. From the man who broke a stone on his chest, to the storyteller, to the street singer, and even the beggar, everyone had a painting.

"You paint the expressions really well, much better than the painter Liu at the entrance of the village."

The man blushed and accepted it, then smiled brightly: "Yes, this is something I really like to draw!"

White peas are so rebellious!

He would rather paint for ordinary people for free than paint the indecent pictures that Emperor Jiaxing asked him to paint.

He had no choice in the palace, but once he left the palace, his hands belonged to him and he could paint whatever he wanted, and no one could interfere.

In fact, if you draw for others here, you can listen to books and eat melon seeds for free, so it’s not a loss at all.

Therefore, Bai Wan feels more comfortable when he paints and listens to books at the same time.

The storyteller looked serious, with his eyebrows raised:

"It is said that in the 59th year of Daying Luzhen, the Jiangnan area was plagued by an epidemic, and there were starving people everywhere. Fortunately, a colorful fairy descended from the sky one night, guided the late emperor, and saved the people."

Every word and sentence he said was magical.

Someone nearby laughed and said, "It was obviously the late emperor who felt sorry for their suffering and opened the granaries to release grain to save the people. What does this have to do with the colorful-robed fairy?"

Another person said with a hint of regret: "The history books only wrote that this was the achievement of the previous emperor, but in the end tens of thousands of people still died."

While drawing, Bai Wan asked the people around him in surprise: "Colorful Immortal? Can you see it in the middle of the night?"

In his opinion, it was pitch black at night, and even with moonlight, one couldn't see any color, let alone color.

Who would be so bored as to walk around wearing colorful clothes in the middle of the night?

The people around him laughed and kept silent: "That's just a legend. Someone really saw it on the city wall back then!"

In the 59th year of Dayingluzhen, the former emperor killed corrupt officials and opened granaries to provide relief in order to save the people from plague and famine. This was a blessing for all the people.

Unfortunately, the emperor fell ill for unknown reasons and died soon after. Now it was the turn of the current Emperor Jiaxing to succeed to the throne, and chaos began again.

According to historical records, he was just a wise king.

The colorful fairy is just a folk legend.

Bai Wan looked at the pen in his hand and said, "I wonder what this immortal looks like? I'll go to the tower someday to see if it's real or not."

The people around him laughed at him: "Painter, you should just focus on painting instead of thinking about ghosts and gods."

Before he could leave, a group of guards with shining swords surrounded him.

At a glance, I could tell they were all people from the imperial palace.

"Mr. Bai Zhihou! You made it so hard for us to find you!"

The man choked immediately.

"Have the guards eaten yet..." Bai Wan forced a smile, "I still have a piece of candy here, would you like to share it?"

A dozen palace guards looked at him and couldn't help laughing.

Where did this freak come from!

So, he was arrested as a matter of course.

In the palace.

stab-

Bai Wan was taken to the upper study room with a knife at his neck, and then a guard kicked him to his knees. Surrounded by this, he was at the mercy of others.

Emperor Jiaxing looked at him coldly, his eyes full of gloom, and he felt hatred and anger towards this man.

"Where is the 'Night Beauty Picture' that I ordered you to paint?"

Bai Wan held countless rice paper sketches in his hands and remained silent.

Emperor Jiaxing ordered the eunuchs around him to snatch the thing from his hand. As he looked at it, a cold light gradually appeared in his eyes, and he became sinister and deep.

"What are you drawing?"

Bai Wan said nothing, but his face looked even calmer under the bright lights.

After a long while, he could not help but say:

"The cockfighting hooligans, the storyteller Uncle Liu, the vegetable delivery lady Wang, the stone-breaking Brother Song, the fish seller Old Man Wang..."

The more I listen, the angrier I get.

The Jiaxing Emperor threw the sketches to the ground in anger and said, "You don't want to draw what I asked you to draw. You'd rather go outside the palace and draw common people. Marquis Bai Zhi, how many lives do you have to live to disobey me like this!"

Bai Wan sighed and smiled: "One!"

This person actually answered honestly.

At this point, Jiaxing no longer cared about the fact that he was the emperor, let alone the emperor's demeanor and royal dignity. He simply walked up to him and kicked him to the ground.

He couldn't help but blurt out: "Come here, put Bai Zhihou under house arrest in Qingyang Palace. Prepare the brush, ink, paper and inkstone. Let him out after he finishes painting!"

The person opposite had a calm expression, but his eyes were slightly dim.

I still have to draw this kind of picture, I can't escape it.

Seeing the painter being sent out, Eunuch Gu could not help but walk up to the emperor and ask, "This Bai Zhihou is so disobedient, he should be executed according to the law."

But Emperor Jiaxing said lightly: "In theory, I want to kill him, but talented people should be used by the royal family, and it is not up to him."

All I could hear was him mumbling, "All great talents have their quirks!"

"I heard that the painter Han Miaoran was also a stubborn person with a weird temper. He would run outside the palace every day to paint weird things."

……