Ye Kong hung up the phone and looked up at the young man who was led in by Qu Wu.

He was wearing a green-shoe uniform. The lining of his collar was covered in dirt, and there were faint bruises on his neck from being pinched.

His thin body and overly long hair gave him a gloomy temperament like damp moss.

Slowly walking in front of Ye Kong, the boy looked at him with doubt in his eyes: "Are you Eleven?"

Ye Kong blinked. "I should be the one asking you this question, right? Are you really Eli? You said you were an art student at Yushan University, and you said you were an adult? None of that is true."

The young man froze, stood there without turning his head and saying anything, but his whole body exuded the aura of a stubborn bull who refused to admit defeat no matter what.

Ye Kong stared at him for a long while, and finally took action first.

She lit up her phone screen.

It was the background of the account of "Painter Eleven", and the number of fans and private messages were both lit with red dots "99+", which was absolutely genuine.

The young man then relaxed his body, and his eyes looked even more complicated.

"Aren't you from North City University? Why are you here in Yushan?"

"Sit first."

Ye Kong said: "I'll be an exchange student."

"But the fine arts major at North City University is better."

"I've almost finished listening to the teacher's lessons over there." Ye Kong said, "Besides, I don't think I really need anyone to teach me, what do you think?"

"..." The boy who sat down had a more complicated look in his eyes, "I didn't expect you to be even crazier in real life than online."

"I'm just being realistic. But you," Ye Kong held up his chin with both hands, staring at him and said, "You're too different from what you see online."

“……” The young man stopped talking and turned his head away.

Just at this moment Qu Wu came with coffee.

This is the second floor of the coffee shop. The windows are large floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing plenty of sunlight into the room.

So Qu Wu still didn't take off her mask and hat. She walked in dressed like a thief, holding a cup of coffee, which scared "Eli".

"Don't be afraid, brother. I'm the boss here." Qu Wu put down the cup and sat down next to Ye Kong.

After she finished speaking, she looked at Ye Kong and said, "I didn't expect you to meet up with your online friends. Could it be that you have made many online friends over the years and have to meet up many times?"

"…What's your business?"

"I'm just asking."

The boy glanced at his cracked watch and interrupted their conversation: "I have classes this afternoon. What do you want from me?"

"Have you forgotten?" Ye Kong stared at him and moved a little closer across the table. "You said yourself that you wanted to become a nationally renowned painter - I came to you to fulfill your promise."

"..."

As the boy stared blankly, Ye Kong threw the magazine on the table to him: "I want to open my own studio and look for a reliable artist to join me."

The magazine fell in front of the boy. After just one look at the cover, his pupils shrank suddenly like a frightened cat, and he almost jumped up on the spot.

The stool was knocked over by him, but the boy seemed to be unaware of it. He just stared at Ye Kong: "You...you...you are the immortal demon?!!!"

"Don't get excited, don't get excited," Qu Wu smiled behind his mask and made a soothing gesture, but his tone was complacent, "The Undead Demon is looking for your cooperation. There will be many opportunities to meet in the future. If you don't control yourself, you may have a heart attack... Ouch!"

She was beaten again.

Pressing the back of her head that had been hit hard, she hissed and gasped, smiling at the boy, "There will be many more opportunities to be beaten up by idols in the future."

Ye Kong: ...

She completely ignored the perverted woman beside her and stared at the boy seriously: "I am the immortal demon. I want to open a studio. Will you come?"

It took the boy a while to calm down, and he slowly picked up the stool and sat down.

He subconsciously wanted to drink some water, but when he picked up the cup, he found that his hands were shaking slightly, so he quickly put it down.

"But I..." His attitude was obviously much more nervous than when he faced "Painter Eleven" before, "But my level."

"I think it's great." Ye Kong said, "If I didn't think it's great, I wouldn't have come to you."

"..." The young man hung his head tightly, and after a while he managed to utter, "You are opening a studio to continue the work of Painter Eleven and take orders from game companies?"

"That can be done." Ye Kong said, "but mainly, I want to publish a magazine."

She tapped the floral magazine on the table. "This is only the first issue. Only 'Stars' is the main issue. The rest are a patchwork of fashion content and some weird car ads. Later, I want to fill them with comics, and then distribute them all over the country, so that countless people will like this magazine."

"…Why?" The young man raised his head. "Even if you don't open your own studio, there are still many ways to make a lot of money, right? There are even fewer risks."

"No..." he added, "There is no risk at all."

Ye Kong was silent for a moment and said, "I'm not afraid of risks."

"But why? It's such a thankless task." The boy was really puzzled. "The creative environment for domestic cartoonists is not good to begin with. The market can only be said to have just matured. Moreover, most viewers are used to reading online comics. Paper novels and magazines have long been outdated, not to mention comic magazines."

"These are not things you should worry about." Qu Wu interrupted, "They are not things she should worry about either."

She lay on the table and turned to look at Ye Kong with a smile: "You only need to be responsible for drawing, and leave everything else to me. As long as you want to do it, no matter how difficult it is, I will definitely find a way to achieve your goal, right?"

"..." Ye Kong looked away expressionlessly, "Just like she said, she is my number one slave, responsible for all the difficult tasks. If she can't do it, I will replace her. You don't have to worry about the funding."

The girl said indifferently: "I am very rich. I am still a rich second generation."

"...Everyone is a rich second generation." The boy muttered to himself.

Qu Wu heard this clearly, looked at him carefully, and suddenly asked in surprise: "Is your last name Qian?"

"……you know me?"

"Qian Yilai, the young master of Qianlai Department Store." Qu Wu smiled, turned his head and explained to Ye Kong in a low voice, "He is a nouveau riche from outside, and has just arrived in Yuzhou City. It is said that his parents are worried about how to squeeze into the upper class circle. He spends money everywhere. He is a rich second generation, but he has no status. It is said that he is bullied every day at school."

"I heard it all." said the boy.

"Qian Yilai?" Ye Kong read it again and suddenly understood, "So 'Yi Lai' is this Yilai."

The boy seemed a little ashamed, picking at the cup and said, "Originally it was 易 (easy), but my mom thought it was too blunt, so she changed it to 一二一 (one-two-one)."

"This is not subtle at all." Qu Wu complained.

After a period of nonsensical rambling, the boy suddenly asked why again.

"I still don't understand. There are obviously easier ways to live, or work, why do we have to choose difficult mode?"

"Because I'm too bored." Ye Kong said, "Some people say that people need to find some difficult long-term goals in life in order to live a more meaningful and existential life."

"I have screened the things I want to do in the past few years, and this is what is left..."

Ye Kong didn't look at anyone, just at the water in the cup, and said softly, "I used to paint just to kill time, but someone told me that he could find the emotions and self I wanted to express in my paintings - I'm actually very happy, because I thought I didn't have such a thing."

She looked up at the boy across from her cup of water: "So now, I want to create the best environment for my own creations. I want more people to see my paintings. I want to know..."

"What am I like in the eyes of many people?"

"Because I can't see myself clearly, I want to borrow someone else's eyes."

The girl tapped the water cup and looked at the blurry face across the rippling water: "For this goal, I need you."

"So, are you willing?"

At the same time, downstairs in the coffee shop, a man pushed a wheelchair out of the bakery next door. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly turned around and looked at the floor-to-ceiling window high up as if he had noticed something.

Through the tinted glass, he vaguely saw a familiar silhouette.

So he paused his hand that was pushing the wheel and stopped at the door of the coffee shop.

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