Soul Painter

Go to Linkou Middle School.

First, take a plane to the capital city of Yunnan Province.

Then take the car for another twelve hours.

The area where Zhengxiong Town is located is at the junction of the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Shu. It is surrounded by mountains. So far, there is no train. So when a car took Gao Fan to Linkou Middle School, it was already three days later.

now.

Gao Fan stood in Jianshanpo Township, Dawan County, Zhengxiong Town, Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province.

Jianshanpo used to be the name of a cottage.

Most of the residents living here are ethnic minorities. Although most of their living habits have been Sinicized, at this moment, when Gao Fan is walking on the cement road in the mountain village where the setting sun is set, he can still see the sunset glow, and a few are dressed in black. Elderly people embroidered in colorful national costumes sit on small bamboo chairs in front of the old stilted building.

"Do you know where Wu Haoxian is?" Gao Fan asked an old man.

The old man smiled and shook his head, and said something that Gao Fan couldn't understand.

At the junction of the three provinces, the high mountains blocked the communication between the villages. Almost every other mountain had a language, and it was normal for Gao Fan to not understand the words of the elderly.

Gao Fan thought for a while, took out the painting tube in his back bag, took out Wu Haoxue's paintings from it, and asked the old man, "Do you know this person?"

A good sketch can completely replace the role of a photo, so Gao Fan thinks that the old man in front of him should be able to show him where Wu Haoxue is when looking at this painting. After all, the characters in the painting should be Wu Haoxue's grandmother.

Unexpectedly, seeing this painting, the old man suddenly yelled, "Yadu!"

When he uttered these two words, the old man's expression was very horrified, as if he could see some monsters.

"Huh?" Gao Fan didn't understand.

At this time, the old man in national costumes had stood up and left the small bamboo chair, backed away and left, with expressions of panic and disgust. It seemed that the paintings in Gao Fan's hands were astonishingly evil.

But... no.

Gao Fan examined the sketch carefully again.

With a 33-point occult and a 63-point survey skill value, it can only be seen that this is an ordinary painting. The skill level is equivalent to that of a student of the Academy of Fine Arts. It is excellent, but in the eyes of Gao Fan at this moment, it is an ordinary level. , So, what went wrong?

Gao Fan looked at the Jianshanpo Village in the sunset.

Go up the cement road all the way up.

When the sun sank behind the mountain.

Large shadows fell on Gao Fan as if collapsed.

The village is deserted but not poor.

Diaojiaolou and some Chinese-style buildings stand apart, representing the integration of modernity and heritage.

Then, Gao Fan first heard the'dangdang' bell for the end of get out of class, and then met a dozen children, who rushed down from the hillside, like a group of lively waves, washed away the silence and desertedness in the village, look. It was school time now. Gao Fan stopped one of them and asked him where Linkou Middle School was. The child pointed back to the direction above the hillside.

"Aren't you elementary school students? The middle school is there too?" Gao Fan asked him.

"Middle school and elementary school are one Ki!" the kid replied.

"You can't say ‘One Ki’, you have to say ‘Together’!" The other little girl corrected him.

"Then do you know Wu Haoxue?" Gao Fan asked again.

"That ghost! He is a ghost!" the little boy and the little girl cried together.

ghost? Gao Fan asked a few more questions, and found out that they might not know what ‘ghost’ means, or what terrible it means. They just spoke what they heard from an adult in a false way.

Wu Haoxue is a ghost.

……Valley

Gao Fan stood at an intersection.

The waves of the pupils have whizzed away.

He now faces a choice.

Upward is Linkou Middle School, and downwards is Wu Haoxue's home.

There is not much information in the mouths of the primary school students. They just hear the words "Wu Haoxue is a ghost" or "Wu Haoxue turns people into ghosts".

It sounds scary.

Gao Fan thought for a while and headed to Linkou Middle School first.

Do an investigation first.

...

Linkou Middle School.

The principal received Gao Fan.

Because Gao Fan took the certificate issued by Tianmei to prove that he came to Linkou Middle School to check some conditions with Wu Haoxue for a scholarship, so the principal treated Gao Fan very enthusiastically.

"Yadu...what does it mean?" Gao Fan asked.

"It means ‘ghost’." The principal said, and then he realized something and said, "You may hear what the villagers are saying, but that’s not true."

The principal's Mandarin is very standard. According to his own introduction, he returned to his hometown from the provincial capital of Yunnan Province to support education.

"Don't believe them, Wu Haoxue did behave weird for a while, but it was precocious, not a'ghost upper body'. Wu Haoxue's grandmother did not die because she became his model.

What he tinkers with at home every night is not witchcraft, but painting. His artistic expertise is really excellent. Later, he got a serious illness and he couldn’t paint anymore. Recently he was able to paint again, which is a bit weird, but This kid is still very smart..."

The principal enthusiastically introduced that not only did he fail to dispel Gao Fan's doubts, but instead made Gao Fan even more puzzled.

In the introduction of the principal, he heard a very weird child. From birth to thirteen, he was very ordinary. At the age of fourteen, he suddenly became like an apocalypse of IQ. He became mysterious and profound. He understood foreign languages ​​and was able to draw. He also had the ability to predict. Even foreigners came to him for fortune-telling. When he was fourteen years old, he suddenly became an idiot, knowing nothing.

In the last month, it became normal again, but the mysterious prophecy was no longer visible.

This sounds... not a normal person.

A middle school student in a poverty-stricken area can have such an excellent art talent and...predictive ability? Do prophecies refer to feudal superstitions such as jumping gods and ghosts? Or is it like the great elder of Bangka Village ~www.readwn.com~ is mysteriously contaminated and gains the vision of the devil?

According to the principal's introduction, Wu Haojian is the only one who lives with his grandma. After his grandma passed away due to illness, he now has a problem with eating, let alone continuing his education. If Tianmei does not give him a scholarship, he will have to rely on the government. Subsidies to live and make a living are still possible, but the road to art will definitely be cut off.

The principal seemed to see Gao Fan's doubts.

He hurriedly said: "Wu Haoyue's paintings are already very good, but in the eyes of you professionals, it may be a bit short, but this is not his best work. I will take you to take a look. His paintings are all At home, it was particularly shocking."

After that, the principal took his briefcase and took Gao Fan to Wu Haoxue's home.

Just learn from the Linkou Elementary School (Middle) downhill and walk diagonally down. After another two kilometers, crossing a stone bridge, you have gradually reached a remote place in Jianpokou Township, where you saw a dilapidated and low-rise building. If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, Gao Fan would never have imagined that there will be people living in such a place in the 21st century.

The principal pushed open the concealed door.

Wu Haoxue is not at home.

"He's going to hunt pig grass." The principal introduced and pointed to a pig in the house. "If this pig is raised and sold, it can feed him for a year."

Pigs and people live together, living in a hall with a stove.

Seeing Gao Fan and the principal come, it hummed a few times.

"The painting is inside." The principal said again.

Then, the principal pushed open the door. The innermost room was very dark and there was no window. The principal fumbled for the light cord and pulled it down. The light from the yellow cannon instantly flooded the entire room, so Gao Fan looked at it. Here comes... an amazing painting.