The Versatile Master Artist

Gu Weijing flipped through these materials.

He prepared to emulate the recent ”Cat Nanny.”

Similar to the scene where Ah Wang and Bu Dao play with the cat toy, using Tony and Amy’s daily life photos as a blueprint, to conceive a whole set of situational illustrations to evoke Tony’s memories of Amy and to get closer to his heart.

The photos in his hand were all rephotographed from old film scans.

Many were taken in the 1980s and 1990s when digital cameras had just emerged from the lab and Kodak still dominated the consumer market.

When sent over, they were thoughtfully arranged in chronological order.

The document on the left side of Gu Weijing’s screen showed the progress of Tony’s treatment and psychological evaluation by the family doctor.

The document on the right contained corresponding photos of Tony and Amy’s life during this period.

Fingers swiped across the screen, revealing snippets of Tony and the cat’s interactions, as well as changes in his psychological assessment.

Reading these materials.

Gave Gu Weijing the illusion of observing life on one side and the soul on the other.

The first photo featuring Amy was taken in September 1986.

The small Tony sat on the grass, with a cat atop his head. The gray and white kitten looked like a knit hat made of fluffy yarn.

Tony’s eyes rolled upward, straining to look at the cat on his head, crossing his eyes and showing a lot of whites.

The screen on the left displayed the diagnosis notice from three weeks ago, when Tony had just been identified with autism.

The complete medical report was long, but thankfully the key points were highlighted.

[Patient Conditions — CARS Score (Note): 45 points, ABC Score: 103 points]

[Significant emotional disturbance, poor imitative ability, mild abnormal auditory and visual responses, no language ability, intellectual disability (suspected?), indifferent to the external environment...]

(Note: CARS is the abbreviation for the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, where a total score over 30 can diagnose autism, under 36 is mild-moderate autism, and over 36 is severe autism. Similarly, higher ABC chart scores indicate more severe autism symptoms.)

[Suggestions: Cultivate the patient’s ability to interact with the external environment, foster interests in music, art, etc., and try animal therapy to attract the child’s attention and interest in the outside world.]

”This was your first meeting.”

Gu Weijing tilted his head, unsure if it was a candid capture or a deliberately posed scene.

In any case, the little child with a cat on his head was truly adorable.

The way Tony skeptically looked at the cat in the photo didn’t suggest a lack of attention to the external environment at all.

Photos of Tony feeding the kitten, Tony and the kitten sitting on a swing, Tony chasing the kitten, the kitten chasing Tony...

One photo after another passed by.

For every photo worth transforming into a painting material, Gu Weijing marked it out separately from the collection of images.

In Amy’s presence, this boy’s face more readily blossomed with rare smiles.

As long as he’s with his cat, Tony always behaves a bit more like a regular person than usual.

As these yearly photos slid by, the diagnosis reports on the left and the content of each year’s follow-up also intermittently changed.

CARS Score: 45, 43, 44, 42, 40, 41, 39...

Such a 1-2 point fluctuation in autism patients’ scores is within the normal error range, but a trend towards the bounds of normalcy is rare indeed.

The more serious the autism, the more precious every step towards the edge of openness becomes.

Bu Dao’s CARS score was precisely around the critical 30-point range; whether he can successfully lead an ordinary life is unknown.

Those with severe autism over ten years old are almost completely disconnected from normal society.

And Tony’s condition has continuously improved steadily over the years.

Besides the intellectual disability changing from suspected to confirmed, there was basically no solution upon birth.

Both external perception and emotional self-expression skills steadily improved.

Even language ability moved from nonexistent to poor, to moderate.

Even the psychologist responsible for his therapy couldn’t help but marvel at such linear progress—Tony and Amy, growing up together, are remarkably suited companions.

At sixteen, Tony’s CARS score reached a historic low of 35, the threshold of moderate autism.

The therapist at that time flamboyantly wrote ”Unbelievable miracle” on the scoring sheet with a fountain pen.

After the check-up, Tony, Amy, Jean Arnou, and the attending doctor took a group photo outside the clinic.

The cat on the right side of the photo leaped onto Tony’s shoulder, softly placing a paw on his head, tilting its head towards the camera.

Tony supported the cat and grinned widely.

This pair somehow appeared more like a close-knit family than Jean Arnou, who was shaking hands and thanking the attending doctor nearby.

Seeing such a radiant and bright smile, Gu Weijing felt his heart twinge inexplicably.

Before major changes occur, people always believe life will effortlessly continue in such beauty.

When reading ”Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” he often wished to stop when Liu Bei gained the Ba and Shu Lands.

This was the pinnacle of the Shu Han regime, where everything prior unfolded like the brilliant schemes prophesized by strategist Zhuge Liang, and it seemed that the promise to revive the Han dynasty could come true tomorrow.