Chapter 3: Starting from the 3rd Birthday
Yang Tian’s third birthday was an extremely memorable day.
Unlike the previous two years, this birthday had no party, no ribbons, and no gifts. It could even be said that all the items that Yang Tian was familiar with were gone.
All there was was the father with a serious face standing at the bedroom door.
Yang Tian was very satisfied with his life during the past three years, and could even be said to be enjoying it.
His life was busy but fulfilling. His father's white coat, his mother's pranks and Aunt Sophia's supporting role, these three smiling faces accompanied him for three whole years.
But his father's condition at this moment made Yang Tian keenly feel something was wrong. He had a guess that today might be very important and might even affect his life.
With this thought in mind, Yang Tian said nothing and followed his father to a greenhouse he had never been to before.
The greenhouse suddenly became bright, with patches of bamboo forests standing in the middle, swaying even without wind.
In the middle of the bamboo forest is an exquisite bamboo pavilion. On the small table in the bamboo pavilion are the brushes, inks, paper and inkstones commonly used in Chinese painting.
Yang Wen didn't say any nonsense and got straight to the point: "Today I will teach you how to draw bamboo, dragon bamboo. You must watch carefully. I can only show you once."
After saying that, my father came to the table, picked up the brush dipped in cinnabar and ink and started to paint. With just a few strokes, a lifelike dragon bamboo appeared on the paper, swaying in the air and full of vitality.
Yang Tian was shocked, his eyes opened wide and his mouth seemed like an egg could be stuffed in.
"It's up to you now. You have three years to paint it. If you can reach this level, your future world will be completely different." Yang Wen said passionately.
“Of course, if… I mean if, you can’t achieve it, it doesn’t matter. It won’t affect your future development. This is just a talent test, which most people don’t have. So don’t worry too much if you can’t do it.” Yang Wen’s voice turned low, and there was expectation in his tone, as well as self-suggestion that it was impossible to accomplish. His emotions were difficult to understand.
How could Yang Tian, who was a shrewd person in his previous life, not understand what was happening before his eyes? His young face was indescribably serious: "Don't worry, father, I will try my best."
Yang Wen just nodded silently, and left quietly in the blink of an eye...
From that day on, Yang Tian began his bamboo painting journey. In order to achieve his goal as soon as possible, he took the initiative to stop all his previous learning projects and devoted himself to bamboo painting. Except for eating and sleeping time, he raced against time.
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned, and Yang Tian's bamboo painting process was extremely unsmooth.
At first, he was embarrassed by his crooked graffiti-like lines and wanted to find some painting books to improve his painting skills. Unexpectedly, his father sternly refused.
In Yang Wen's words, don't be bound by those rules and regulations, which will only have the opposite effect. The key to painting bamboo is to understand it. The reason why we start painting bamboo at such a young age is that children's minds are like blank paper, and they will not be bound by thinking. Only when they are true can they see the most essential things.
After this communication, Yang Tian finally felt relieved.
After that, it was a long, boring, and repetitive process of painting bamboo, from a mess of children's doodles to extremely detailed realism, and then to the simple but charming traditional Chinese painting style. Two and a half years passed in a hurry.
During this long period of time, Yang Tian only felt one thing - torment. Yes, torment.
On the one hand, after spending a long time together, Yang Tian discovered that his parents were not as simple as they seemed.
They were often called away suddenly in the middle of the night or at some other time, and when they came back they were either exhausted or injured.
The most serious incident was when my parents fainted just after arriving home, and the penetrating wounds in their abdomen were still bleeding.
It was Aunt Sophia and a man in his 30s named Andrew who took care of him for three days and three nights before he was out of danger.
Yang Tian was very worried about this and asked his parents many times about the cause and effect, but they always smiled and replied: "You are still young, you will understand everything when you grow up."
Although Yang Tian tried every possible means he could think of, such as acting coquettishly, acting cute, pretending to be angry, cold war, eavesdropping, secret investigation, etc., he gained nothing.
On the other hand, naturally, painting bamboo was not going smoothly.
Day after day, I watched my father's eyes gradually change from expectation, to disappointment, to indifference, and then to relief.
Perhaps the only thing that remains unchanged is the endless love my parents have for me, and the heartache they feel when they see me working much harder than ordinary people.
Yang Tian has become more and more identified with his own identity, his parents, and his Aunt Sophia, all from the bottom of his heart.
Because their love for him was equally sincere, which was a warmth that Yang Tian had never felt in his previous life.
But the more this happened, the more distressed and unwilling Yang Tian became, and even a little desperate. He really had tried his best!
He observed closely, studied the texture, and carefully stroked each section of the dragon bamboo. He was just short of cutting the dragon bamboo open to see the internal structure. If it weren't for his father's solemn assurance that doing so would have no effect, Yang Tianzhen might have done so.
From his latest painting of dragon and bamboo, we can see that the lines are graceful and the painting skills are impeccable.
But that kind of vividness, that kind of vitality? No, not at all.
Yang Tian even felt that the past two and a half years were completely wasted, and he had made no progress in his understanding of the essence of Dragon Bamboo.
He was really panicked. Yang Tian thought of what his father had told him. How could his mind be as blank as a blank sheet of paper after living two lives?
Does he really possess that pure true self?
Perhaps, it is impossible for me to research the so-called essence.
The more Yang Tian thought about it, the more depressed he became. He locked himself in a bamboo greenhouse with a bottle of... Wuliangye next to him?
Yang Tian was too depressed. He wanted to indulge himself, just like in his previous life, and get drunk to forget his worries.
Yang Tian just sat quietly in the bamboo pavilion, sipping Wuliangye liquor in small sips.
Gradually, Yang Tian's eyes staring at the dragon bamboo forest began to dull, and his anger continued to rise. The next moment he finally exploded. The piles of dragon bamboo manuscripts in the pavilion became the best target for venting.
I saw him holding a wine bottle in one hand and picking up a stack of dragon and bamboo painting manuscripts in the other, and throwing them into the bamboo forest madly.
"What use do I have for you? What true self, what essence? They are all lies."
After saying this, a lot of dragon and bamboo painting manuscripts were casually thrown out, with indescribable loneliness and unwillingness.
Yang Tian took a few more gulps of wine, his eyes wandering between the falling manuscripts and the dragon bamboo forest.
"What exactly is different about you? What's wrong with you? What's different about you?"
Yang Tian vented his emotions with crazy shouts. He felt a drunkenness rising into his heart. His eyes widened and a feeling of dizziness filled his brain. Finally, he fell down among the remaining Dragon Bamboo Drawing manuscripts.
At this time, there were only a few dragon and bamboo painting manuscripts left in the pavilion, and they were all his earliest works.
Yang Tian just stared at his initial painting, his eyes full of nostalgia. His painting skills were really bad at that time, and the painting was even more horrible...
Suddenly, Yang Tian's dazed eyes moved, and he looked at the manuscripts back and forth in disbelief.
In the end, he was pleasantly surprised to find that although the paintings seemed like a mess, there were always a dozen or so nodes that were exactly the same in each manuscript!
With this thought in mind, Yang Tian suddenly turned around and looked at the dragon bamboo closest to him.
Instantly, a flash of lightning flashed through his mind...
