Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Chapter 1277 614: Painting (2)

The worst part is actually being able to see what he was painting.

When Chen Huihong read these words, she blurted out, "No wonder Xiao Qin can make the guo'er so realistic."

Director Qin said with a smile, "Although Huaihuai's paintings have a strange color combination, they're very well-done."

"Look at this one, it hardly ever snowed here; at least when Huaihuai was young, nobody had seen snow. The orphanage didn't have a television set initially; later, a kind person donated one. This painting was made when Huaihuai hadn't seen heavy snow, relying solely on the descriptions of snowy scenes in his language textbook." Director Qin pointed to a painting almost entirely filled with black, except for clouds and ground depicted in white crayon.

"Huaihuai said snow is white, but when you use a white crayon on paper, the effect is not visible, so he used a black crayon to color the whole paper black, making the white snow appear."

Qin Huai was stunned as she listened to Director Qin, and looking at the originally bizarre painting felt that it was actually quite good.

"Every time Huaihuai finished a painting, he would tell me why he painted it that way. At that time, I felt he was a clever good child, being delayed at our orphanage."

"And this one, our winters aren't cold, if at all just for a few days. However, there was this strange year when it was cold for over half a month. The orphanage didn't have enough cotton clothes or thick quilts, so we had to buy charcoal, placing charcoal pots in the children's rooms."

"But even so, some kids who were not in good health caught colds at night."

"Huaihuai painted this for me, saying this black mountain is a coal mountain, which he saw in a textbook, explaining coal is mined from coal mountains. Huaihuai said the sky isn't blue during mining, it's gray, but he didn't have a gray crayon, so he used brown for the sky, yellow for clouds. There are no trees on the coal mountain, but he wanted to show me there are trees beyond it, so he painted purple trees."

"At the time, Huaihuai treasured this purple crayon; he only had one, and he used it to paint trees specifically to tell me these trees are extra beautiful."

"And this one..."

Director Qin introduced Qin Huai's paintings to everyone, discussing what was painted, why it was painted, the mindset at the time, and Qin Huai was left bewildered.

Listening, Qin Huai felt he must have been a genius painter as a child, considering how many ideas he had while painting, just limited by materials, turning the paintings into a peculiar look.

"Qin... Mrs. Qin." Qin Huai couldn't help but interrupt Director Qin, "Why didn't you talk about these things when we looked at the paintings every year?"

"Nothing worth telling you? These things should be shared with Huaihuai's friends to let them know how smart you were from childhood, even in the orphanage, a clever and outstanding child. I've been waiting since you were in high school for you to bring friends to the orphanage to see me, and it's only this year that so many friends came." Director Qin threw Qin Huai a look as if to say you have the nerve, turned and walked towards the cabinet, unlocking it with a key and taking out a wooden box.

The wooden box was also locked.

Director Qin rummaged for the keys in her pocket, found the lock on the box, opened it, and inside was another pile of paintings.

The topmost painting was clearly not Qin Huai's; it was drawn by other children, and their skill was evidently much better than Qin Huai's from his childhood.

The painting's content was very orphanage-like, showing family joy: several happy adults holding hands with children smiling, standing in front of the orphanage, with the words Sanmalu Children's Welfare Institute written on the house behind.

It looked like something Director Qin would make the kids draw carefully to send to kind-hearted people.

Director Qin flipped through this stack, pulled out two sheets from the middle.

These two were also painted by Qin Huai; he could recognize them, though he felt he hadn't seen them much in recent years because their color combinations were overly normal, lacking visual impact.

Both paintings were sunny.

The first painting depicted an adult man holding a child's hand, with a simple countryside background, including a river, trees, butterflies, rabbits—cute animals kids can imagine.

In the upper left corner, there was a large sun with a smiling face, even the clouds were smiling.

The second painting showed a pretty long-haired woman holding a child's hand, the background being similar to the first, also in the countryside, with animals, a river, trees, flowers, and grass, the same sun and clouds, the only difference was the flowers in the second painting all had smiles.

Very simple standard child's doodles.

Not something of much collection value, yet carefully stored by Director Qin in a locked wooden box.

"This was painted by Huaihuai in first grade during art class; after finishing it, the school teacher called me to the school, saying they needed to discuss your situation." Director Qin said in a flat voice, hinting at some sadness.

Qin Huai: ?

Such positive, sunny, and healthy paintings could warrant a parent-teacher meeting?

"Why?" Qin Huai asked, confused; he couldn't recall his first-grade experiences, "Did I fight with classmates in art class?"