124 The Lonely Illustrator (1/2)

Chapter 124: The Lonely Illustrator

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Lu Yiyun's recent days were no different from what they used to be. Day after day, she picked up new orders, drew illustrations, handed in manuscripts, reworked, handed in drafts, collected money, and so on.

In the mountain, there was no sun nor moon, no winter nor summer.

Because of almost no other human interaction, even Lu Yiyun herself was not aware of her paintings becoming more sophisticated each day. The price for her single leaf illustration increased from 800 to up to 1200. She no longer needed to advertise, as more and more customers had been actively coming to her, and she needed less and less time to rework.

In order to save money and maintain her lifestyle, she had to take at least five orders for illustrations every month. She had a little more leisure time because of her increased speed of painting and the reduction of rework.

In her spare time, she still updated her comics on Weibo, but the amount of people that viewed them was very few — Painting could depend on one’s efforts, but creating stories requires a certain talent, and not all her stories were suitable to be used in comic form.

Lu Yiyun was not discouraged, and did not even think to give up. She had gotten through more difficult days, so what could she not overcome now?

She first used the money she saved to upgrade her computer and drawing board for a higher grade professional color monitor. To do a good work, she must first sharpen her tools. Before, she was always asked to redo her work. One of the reasons was that her original display had too poor of color quality -- she thought it was green but the customer said it was blue. Because of this, she secretly shed tears, thinking that she was deliberately bullied by new buyers, until after the change of display, she found that it really was blue…

The professional monitor was very expensive, but if she was going to stay in this industry, a professional display was required.

Then she bought a fridge online, so she didn't have to go out and buy food every day, just to save time. Then she bought an electric oil heater – most residents didn’t have a heating system in Binhai, and the weather was getting cold; winter was not too far away.

The empty rental house was becoming more and more like home now.

She was still watching Miss Snowy’s live broadcasts, never missing an episode, which became a part of her life.

From the show, she came to know that Amazing Fat Pet Shop opened up a membership system. Members would be given a discount if receiving services of cat bathing or buying cat food.

Jasmine was her long-haired cat. The first time she got a bath, Zhang Zian said that it was from the chinchilla family, so she needed to give her more frequent baths than a short-haired cat. When she got enough money, she immediately went to the pet shop to start a membership card, without any hesitation.

Zhang Zian did not know her journey, but she was happy anyone could get a membership from him.

”The shop is going to launch a membership system, but is still in the preparatory stage. Currently we are taking reservations — if I'm not wrong, you can get one of the first ten membership cards,” Zhang Zian gallantly recommended.

”Great, I want to make a reservation.” Lu Yiyun immediately nodded.

”…”

She agreed too quickly, which gave Zhang Zian no need say all of his prepared selling words. How was this girl totally different from Zhao Qi?

It took him a long time to get over it. ”Because the membership system has just been launched, there is a discount, and you can book a membership for 1000 Yuan.”

”Ah?” Lu Yiyun was stupefied. ”1000? I thought I would need pay more, or I would have come a few days earlier.”

Zhang Zian felt confused. How come the girl did not follow the routine? 1000 Yuan was too little? Her dress was so ordinary. Was she a hidden new-rich?

He took out the registration book and pen and said, ”OK, please register your name, and leave your cell phone number or your Wechat ID. When the member system is officially on, I'll let you know.”

Lu Yiyun wrote her name and telephone number.