Chapter 43: Martial Comic
Anji woke up to the smell of ink instead of incense. Curious, she rolled herself off the bed and saw Gu Ying whispering to the maids, passing them a new sheet of paper with a drawing. It seemed like something fun, so the young princess crept up to them silently to take a closer look.
"What’s that? Is this a martial arts comic book?" she asked, clambering to the nearby stool for a better look, mindful of the ink slab.
Startled by her student’s sudden appearance, Gu Ying jolted and left an unsightly stain on an unfinished page. Despite ruining her work in the past ten minutes, the teacher’s aide did not scold Anji. She appeared slightly embarrassed after getting discovered.
"It’s a picture book," Gu Ying explained with a small trace of smile on her face. "I thought you might still be confused even after this morning’s explanation, so I prepared something similar to a martial manual with the maids to help you revise it."
Oh! Not only was Gu Ying pretty, but she was also very thoughtful. No wonder her mother selected her out of many other inner disciples to become her teacher aide. Anji appreciated that thoughtfulness. Although she could remember most of the routine she saw earlier, there were some minor details she needed clarification about. She thought she would ask Gu Ying tomorrow. However, her martial sister was one step ahead of her.
"Can I take a look at some of the finished pages?" Anji asked.
"Of course," Gu Ying gestured to a maid to bring one of the papers hanging on a washing line outside. The first few pages she completed about an hour ago should be dried by now.
The sheet was brought inside, and it felt cold to the touch after embracing the winter breeze for an hour. However, the ink was now dry, and there was no risk of smudging it. Anji studied the pretty drawing carefully and noted Gu Ying’s secret talent for drawing. Her brother, Mingshen, would have liked this.
"Did you draw this yourself?" Anji traced her hand over the controlled lines and well-blended colours. It appeared to be a mixture of ink, chalk and charcoal. The images were accompanied by careful descriptions that depicted excerpts from the original martial manual. Moreover, the tiny zoomed-in illustrations emphasising finer key points that her mother explained this morning had been included for her revision. It was an extremely valuable martial manual!
However, after studying three pages of the "picture book", Anji quickly realised something.
"There’s no flow connection between the movements," she frowned. "Is there a missing page?"
Worriedly, the maids who accompanied Gu Ying to work hard on the picture book racked their brains to defend Gu Ying’s work. The Manchurian cultivator worked so hard to include as many things as possible in her notes while not cluttering the page. Although there was no flow between the detailed explanation for each move, it was still a good book!