Favorite of the Beast-world: I Got Rich Through Farming-Chapter 364 - 243: Painting for Her and ’Prenatal Anxiety’?

Chapter 364: Chapter 243: Painting for Her and ’Prenatal Anxiety’?

After waiting so long for the snow to melt and spring to arrive, An Jin unexpectedly found she still couldn’t escape her days of being cooped up at home. During her boring days, she researched new recipes, practiced calligraphy, and painted.

As the signs of her pregnancy began to show, Mi Yin and the others stopped letting her into the kitchen. An Jin’s world shrank to just the living room and her bedroom, and she often painted to pass the time.

One day, Xi caught a glimpse of her painting the scenery outside the window. His eyes misted over, and a look of sorrow crossed his face.

His heart ached. ’Poor Ah Jin must be so bored,’ he thought. ’She’s already starting to get sentimental over the scenery.’

"Ah Jin, I want to learn to paint, too. How about... you teach me?" he asked, sidling up to her with a beaming smile. He reached out and took her hand; beneath their overlapping fingers was a paintbrush.

"I want to... paint a picture for Ah Jin. So, pretty please?" He looked at her with deep affection, his voice tinged with a wheedling tone.

The sight of the stunningly beautiful Merfolk curving his lips into a soft smile was so gorgeous it made everything else pale in comparison, leaving one utterly unable to refuse.

An Jin, who had started to get drowsy while painting, rubbed a tear from the corner of her eye, yawned, and replied without thinking, "Okay."

It was rare for someone to take the initiative to learn painting, and she had finally found a new way to pass the time. She couldn’t help but smile, her eyebrows arching. "Then you have to study seriously, okay? I’ll start by teaching you something simple. Hmm, let’s do this apple... The apple is fundamental. If you can draw an apple well, everything else will be no problem!"

She had often painted when she was bored, so she had already mixed a variety of bright and rich pigments. But for a beginner like Xi, she planned to first teach him the most basic principles of light and shadow using black, white, and gray.

"Okay!"

And so, Xi began to learn painting from An Jin.

At first, he was just doing it to make her happy and, while he was at it, earn some points with his dear Ah Jin. But he never expected that once he started, there would be no stopping him. He had thoroughly awakened his inner artist.

Half a month later, as An Jin looked at the series of lifelike watercolor paintings, she couldn’t help but give Xi a mental thumbs-up.

’Thankfully, I’m a good judge of talent and have polished this perfect, rough diamond that is Xi. Who knows, maybe thousands of years in the future, after the Beast World’s civilization has developed, he and I will be pioneers written into art history textbooks!’

*Ahem*, she was getting carried away. Being cooped up at home for so long always made her imagination run wild. But it was also true that she was in a good mood right now.

"Ah Jin, don’t move. Hold that pose. Yes... yes, yes! Just like that," Xi said cheerfully, sitting before his easel. He had casually picked up a brush that caught his eye.

He gazed gently at the female before him, his blue eyes sparkling. It was hard to tell if it was because the light was so bright, or if the scene before him was simply too beautiful.

Feeling a bit tired, An Jin was reclining on a soft couch covered in a snow-white beast pelt. Her head rested on one arm, and her long, dark hair spilled across the delicate, fair skin of her face. Her long, curled lashes trembled from time to time, even with her eyes closed.

She wore a thin layer of Shark Sha. Because her pregnancy was now showing, the garment had been intentionally made loose and wide. As she lay down, it revealed half of a snowy shoulder and the top of her chest. Her delicate skin and beautiful curves were so lovely it was hard to look away.

The early spring light was always bright and gentle. It streamed through the large, floor-to-ceiling windows, landing softly on her face, her hair, and her thin, snow-white Shark Sha garment. It traced the edges of her form with a graceful, golden curve, making her already fair skin seem almost translucent.

"..." Xi stared, entranced, at the beautiful scene before him. His breath caught in his throat, and the hand holding the paintbrush trembled slightly. His once bright and cheerful blue eyes became hazy and intoxicated.

His eyes filled with adoration as he murmured softly:

"Ah Jin..."

’He so desperately wanted to capture this beautiful, dazzling, natural masterpiece and cherish it forever. He wanted to take it with him even after he died, hundreds of years from now.’

’For some reason, the Ah Jin before him was unreal in her beauty. She clearly surpassed all the colors in the world, yet she seemed as ethereal as a beautiful butterfly about to take flight.’

’A sudden sense of panic rose in Xi’s heart. It felt as if, for a single moment of carelessness, his Jin’er would fly away from his side.’

’How could he have such a ridiculous and terrifying thought?’

’Could this be the prenatal anxiety Ah Jin had mentioned before? Damn it!’ He immediately banished the sudden wave of anxiety from his mind.

"Are you done yet?" her voice urged from where she lay.

"Almost, almost! Just a little longer!" Xi hurriedly dipped his brush in paint and began to sweep it across the paper.

When he finished, he happily showed the painting to her. A faint blush on his cheeks betrayed his shy anticipation of her praise.

"It’s really beautiful! Much better than I imagined. The colors are so bright, and the composition is full..." She praised him lavishly, her compliments genuine and heartfelt.

"Not at all..." Xi wrapped his arms around her waist a little cautiously, nuzzling his head against her cheek, a bit embarrassed. "I don’t think I even captured one-tenth of An Jin’s beauty!"

’Such a sweet-talker.’ But she had to admit, An Jin was ecstatic from the flattery. Still, the reserve ingrained in her as one of the Huaxia people made her unable to resist saying, "Actually, I think you made me look even more beautiful. I’m not nearly as pretty as I am in the painting."

"That’s not true! Ah Jin is way more beautiful," Xi insisted, his eyes sparkling as he stared at her profile, fighting the urge to lean in and give her a kiss.

An Jin happily accepted the compliment. What girl doesn’t like being praised?

Afterward, she carefully rolled up the painting. In two lifetimes, this was the first time anyone had given her a painting they had made for her by hand.

"Let’s go show it to Mi Yin and Ling Hong!" An Jin said, turning her head toward the door to call for them.

"Huh?" Xi’s cheerful face instantly crumpled. He pouted and gave An Jin a look that was both resentful and conflicted. "...Fine." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

’He wanted to treasure it for himself; he didn’t want those two annoying pests to see it.’

’But it’s fine if they just look. This is the first painting Ah Jin has ever received, and *he* was the one who painted it!’

Xi’s heart immediately filled with the pride of having won a competition.

Mi Yin heard the call and rushed over at once. "What happened?" he asked in a low, tense voice.

He saw a lot of red pigment spilled on the floor and his first thought was that it was blood. He flicked his snake’s tongue out to taste the air, and only when he saw her standing before him, safe and sound, did his tightly wound heart finally relax.

"Where’s Ling Hong?" she asked, looking toward the doorway in confusion.

"Not sure. He just went out. He probably had something to take care of," Mi Yin said.

An Jin nodded and unrolled the painting for him to see, unable to contain her joy. "Look, this is a painting Xi did of me. It’s beautiful, right? I taught him myself!"

Mi Yin’s gaze fell impassively on the face of the young woman in the painting. He said nothing, then turned his head to look at her, and only then did his cold eyes soften.

"It’s because Jin’er is a good teacher," he said with a smile, but didn’t say a single word about the painting itself.

It was obvious he thought the painting was just so-so, mediocre at best.

Xi’s face changed with anger, but due to the difference in their strength, he didn’t dare act out. He only mumbled sullenly, "Of course Ah Jin is a good teacher. She’s only taught me, after all..."

Mi Yin shot him a cold glare. His taut snake tail tapped threateningly on the ground, and Xi was once again scared into silence.