The Versatile Master Artist

The little prince with a mini crown lowered his gaze, next to him was a shy rose, with petals half-hidden in green sepals, and four small thorns that she meticulously arranged in a balanced manner.

Further to the side was the curious fox peeking around...

”These fairy tale characters I’ve painted are so adorable!” Gu Weijing had a moment of pride, pursing his lips as he complimented himself with satisfaction.

He knew he didn’t have enough time to touch on the deep emotions of each character.

So,

Gu Weijing focused all his attention on the most important protagonist in the fairy tale, the little prince.

At this moment, the duration of the Muse Goddess’s Blessed Small Candle had only 101 seconds remaining.

With his mental focus,

around the temple of thought, the fox, the rose, and other characters slowly faded away.

Only the little prince remained at the center.

On the surface of the light cluster resembling an amber shell, dozens of images appeared like frozen film frames, flowing like a carousel.

They were all different little princes.

There was a little prince watching the sunset, a little prince watering the rose, a little prince conversing with a snake...

Gu Weijing recognized that every frame in front of him was a painting knife painting he had previously done.

These frames strung together were all the stories the little prince experienced in the fairy tale book.

”What I want is... the cover art.”

Gu Weijing gazed at these images floating before him.

As his thoughts turned,

all irrelevant sketches vanished, the images flashing on the shell stopped, and finally, the image of the little boy sitting cross-legged on a sand dune staring at the stars emerged in Gu Weijing’s mind.

With a crisp ”clap!” sound,

The faint yellow shell surrounding the little prince shattered.

A large amount of gold dust-like particles cascaded down from the cracked light cluster,

like a sea of sand.

In an instant, the scenery in the temple of thought transformed from deep darkness to a vast sandy sea.

The ground shimmered with a viscous golden hue, and the moon in the sky resembled a hazy, broken silver coin.

In the night,

Brighter than the moon was the star not far away.

The bright pole star generously cast its silver radiance onto the ground, the starlight illuminating the earth, and not a cloud in the sky, bright as daylight.

The air containing a bit of moisture was imbued with a unique, gelatinous texture in the brilliant light, just like...

A painting knife dipped in titanium white gently brushed over.

”Wow!”

Gu Weijing marveled silently in his heart.

This color of evening mist doesn’t exist in nature.

Unless it’s a supernova explosion in Centaurus, nothing could outshine the moon.

All around him was the world from his paintings.

This truly is an indescribable wondrous sensation!

Gu Weijing clearly knew his body was just sitting at the desk in his bedroom at home.

He could see the blank canvas in front of him, the prepared paints on the palette beside him, and the solid metallic texture of the painting knife in his hand.

Yet at the same time,

In his heart, another set of eyes opened, gazing at the desert sands and the lone star in the bright moon.

Both worlds equally real.

Gu Weijing’s heartbeat involuntarily quickened.

At this moment,

He had a very definite premonition in his mind.

The last touch that moved his heart, the emotion he had been pursuing, was right before him.

Countdown 92 seconds,

Gu Weijing looked up in his heart.

He easily spotted the child sitting sideways at the top of the distant sand dune.

Without needing Gu Weijing to actually take a step, with his thoughts turning, his perspective zoomed in quickly like a telephoto lens, coming to an abrupt stop right in front of the little prince.

Now, what should I do...

Gu Weijing asked himself in his heart.

”Hi?”

Maybe start with a greeting?

”You’re the little prince, aren’t you? Being one of the world’s most famous fairy tale characters, it must be tough being an icon. May I ask how your relationship with Lady Rose is developing?”

”Interview, if you don’t mind—what kind of thoughts and emotions did Saint-Exupéry imbue in you during your creation? How can I capture your essence in a painting... you know, that kind of soul-stirring feeling? Master, please guide me! Can you tell me some key points or something?”

Gu Weijing’s mind started wandering aimlessly.

He felt the need to seize the moment and have a heart-to-heart with this little prince.

If only the Little Prince could directly tell him the essentials of painting.

Or... better yet, with a flick of a finger, like casting magic, ”poof” and it would obediently leap onto the canvas in front of him; that would be wonderful.

Regrettably,

Gu Weijing discovered he couldn’t do that.

An invisible barrier of air was obstructing him, stopping him from approaching any closer than a few meters in front of the Little Prince.

The angle remained fixed as the perspective on the cover painting.

Gu Weijing could only see a side profile.

He couldn’t communicate directly with the other party, nor could he somehow move to face the Little Prince.

He felt a bit anxious.

On the virtual panel, the Muse Goddess’s Blessed Small Candle had burned down to just a tiny stub, and the system’s Arab numeral prompt changed to [56], continuing to dwindle.

In less than a minute,

As the candlelight extinguished, this Temple of Thought would also vanish.

”Please don’t speak... I want to peacefully watch my stars.”

The Little Prince suddenly spoke.

Gu Weijing wasn’t sure if this was just a dream conjured by the system.

But he truly heard the Little Prince speak!

This was the second time he heard a voice while using the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill, since he unwittingly appreciated Reyno’s masterpiece ”The Dance at the Moulin de la Galette” last time.

The other party’s voice was exceedingly clear,

like the chime of a music box’s reeds, crystalline and pleasing, yet strangely not effeminate, hovering between the children’s choir in a chapel and the call of the birds in the forest, penetrating to the depths of the soul.

”When I’m sad, I like to watch sunsets. When I’m lonely, I prefer to look at the stars.”

The Little Prince explained another sentence.

His voice drifted with the wind, scattered into the surrounding silvery mist of night, lending his sound an ethereal, elusive charm.

After saying this, the little boy clad in a shirt with a somewhat childish bow tie said no more.

He raised his head quietly, gazing at the stars in the sky.

Starshine fell upon his profile.

The Little Prince looked no older than a ten-year-old boy, his outfit resembling that of a child yet to grow up.

But his eyes held an unfathomable deep emotion incomprehensible to Gu Weijing,

like a sealed jar of wine buried for a thousand years.

Gu Weijing could guess what the Little Prince was currently staring at.

If nothing goes amiss, he was looking at the rose he once watered.

In this fairy tale backdrop, on the Little Prince’s home planet, there grew a delicate and sensitive flower.

The Little Prince had never seen such a captivatingly beautiful flower on his planet, fluttering five carmine petals and four emerald thorns.

From the first moment the rose blossomed, the Little Prince admired her.

He regarded her as a rare gem, watering the flower daily, running around her, even finding a screen as a wind barrier to protect the rose from cold.

Later, the Little Prince came to Earth.

Here,

The Little Prince finally realized the rose wasn’t some precious treasure but was ubiquitous in gardens.

Four-thorned ones, five-thorned ones, six-thorned ones, all amazingly beautiful.

He could casually pick five thousand flowers identical to the rose he loved yet still found himself gazing skyward each night, imagining the rose he first encountered.

”Such a devoted romantic, isn’t he!”

Gu Weijing contemplated the story, attempting to feel the boy’s mood in front of him.

Honestly, while painting, he always felt Saint-Exupéry’s stories brimmed with a literary air—despite being fairy tales, they tended to portray tales of infatuated lovers.

Love should be spoken out loud!

On planet B612, the Little Prince and the Rose clearly loved each other dearly, yet bashfully refrained from speaking the truth.

The Little Prince tirelessly ran after the Rose like a sycophant.

The Rose insisted on keeping up appearances, preferring to drive the Little Prince away and weep silently.

This little prince himself was hopeless.

Once chased away, he couldn’t forget the Rose but refused to return, lamenting the Spring and Autumn all day long.

”Pretentious!”

Gu Weijing sneered, privately offering such commentary more than once.