"Wow, this is really good," Li Xiang praised as he walked over to take a look. "It’s a shame, though. If you’d gone the route of an art-specialty student, you might be in some art academy right now."

Yao Yao’s eyes welled up. "I did think about it back in high school," she said, "but when I looked into it, it cost a lot of money. My family was poor, so I couldn’t do it."

In reality, even though her college entrance exam score was low, she still could have gotten into a vocational college. The problem was that the tuition was a little too expensive. If her family had had the money, she could have gone and at least earned a diploma. She wouldn’t have been forced to enter the workforce right after graduating high school. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"It’s okay. Your future prospects will be just as good as any college student’s!" Li Xiang patted her shoulder, comforting her. ’He had indeed been a bit tactless.’ he thought. ’How could a child from a poor family afford to study art? In a backward county town like theirs, it costs tens of thousands a year. A few trips for outdoor sketching and intensive training sessions would be more than a financially struggling family could handle.’

In the big cities, the expenses were even greater. And once in college, they piled up even more. For children from poor families, studying a STEM field offered the best value and made it easier to find a job.

The humanities and arts were just pastimes for the children of the rich to refine their tastes.

"Hee hee, that’s all because I met you!" Yao Yao flashed a sweet smile, quickly shaking off her wistful, slightly dejected mood. ’Life is pretty good right now,’ she thought. Of course, that was mainly because she’d found a good boss.

A good boss and a good platform really were so important. If she’d ended up somewhere else, she would have been chewed up and spit out by the real world.

"How does my painting look?" Yao Yao asked again.

Li Xiang took a closer look. Yao Yao hadn’t just painted numerous designs on the body of the great drum; she had also painted on the cowhide drumhead itself.

This was because the drum was simply too large. The drumhead alone had a diameter of 1.8 meters, far too big to be covered by a single piece of cowhide. Li Xiang had therefore spliced three pieces together, but the seams inevitably showed traces of stitching and glue. To solve this, Yao Yao had also painted on the drumhead with great care. She used dark colors to cover the seams, creating a Dunhuang-style mural of a flying Divine Maiden.

With the dark pigments to conceal them, you couldn’t see the seams at all once the painting was finished, not unless you got right up close with a magnifying glass.

"It’s very well painted, just a little shameless," Li Xiang couldn’t help but comment, because the face of the Divine Maiden was none other than Yao Yao’s.

"Haha, just tell me if it’s beautiful or not!" Yao Yao retorted playfully.

"It’s beautiful!" Li Xiang praised.

"I feel like shooting another video."

"Alright, I’ll help you!"

"Okay, I’m going to go change. I’ll just borrow your room for a bit. Wait for me, okay?" Carrying a large bag, Yao Yao disappeared into Li Xiang’s new house. She didn’t re-emerge for a good half-hour.

When she finally emerged, the sight was truly stunning. She had changed into the costume of a flying Divine Maiden and was wearing a veil.

She slipped off her shoes, about to step onto the great drum with her bare feet.

"I saw you painting earlier. That paint can’t be dry yet, can it?" Li Xiang pointed out.

"I was only painting the Divine Maiden’s face just now. The other parts were already completely dry from before. Don’t worry, I won’t step on it!"

The drumhead was quite large, after all. If Yao Yao were to lie in the center, neither her head nor her feet would reach the edge; it was big enough to roll around on. So as long as she was careful, she wouldn’t step on "her own face."

"Hawthorn... ah... pear... ah... cherry... and... pear... take ’em all and give ’em a wash..."

As the opening notes of "Hawthorn and Pear," a song steeped in traditional Chinese style, began to play, Yao Yao started to dance. In reality, the song was an instrumental piece called "Sennen no Inori" (A Thousand Years’ Prayer), composed by a Japanese artist. Oddly enough, however, it was suffused with the atmosphere of the Great Tang Dynasty.

Yao Yao had clearly practiced diligently. Her posture was graceful and enchanting, her silk ribbons fluttering as she moved with fluid agility. She looked just like a flying Divine Maiden that had stepped right out of a Dunhuang mural. With the veil obscuring her lovely face, making it only partly visible, it created a powerful sense of someone who had traveled through time.