The uncle borrowed some merits, and the princess drew the talisman fiercely

Chapter 1997 Beauty Sheds Tears

How could a beautiful woman in a painting go from being charming to looking tired and withered?

Looking at the painting, it seems that nothing has changed.

"Ah Yue, do you see any changes in this painting?" Lu Zhaoling leaned closer to Zhou Shiyue and asked him in a low voice.

Zhou Shiyue's gaze fell on the painting.

He glanced at it and nodded. "The person's expression has changed."

"Right? I also feel it's changed. But I can't quite put my finger on what's changed."

“The ends of the eyebrows, the corners of the mouth, and the angle of the head down,” Zhou Shiyue pointed out without hesitation. “They are all slightly lower than before. Although it’s just such a subtle change, the person’s expression is different. Now he looks listless and tired.”

The young men who had been following them and looking at the paintings looked at him in shock when they heard his words.

No, Your Highness, are you really looking that closely?

Even the princess couldn't see the difference, how come you noticed it at a glance?

Zhou Shiyue himself was slow to realize that he hadn't thought much about it when he said it; he just felt that Lu Zhaoling had asked, so he said it.

But he only realized this after he had actually said it.

He had previously told Lu Zhaoling that he was looking at the zither. But now, with the slight change in the beauty's eyebrows, the corners of her mouth, and the angle of her head, he immediately pointed it out. Would Lu Zhaoling suspect that he had been captivated by the beauty in the painting before?

Zhou Shiyue immediately sat up straighter and looked at Lu Zhaoling.

But he saw Lu Zhaoling tilting her head, looking at the portrait thoughtfully, as if she was recalling what the beauty looked like before, just as he had said.

She didn't seem to think much of it.

Zhou Shiyue was unsure whether she genuinely hadn't thought much of it, or if she was simply choosing not to argue with him in front of Qian Dingxing and so many guards and maids.

He quietly reached out and took Lu Zhaoling's hand.

Lu Zhaoling didn't pay attention and looked at Qian Dingxing.

"Young Master Qian Ding, do you recognize this? It's your drawing, isn't it?"

Qian Dingxing had already stood up and walked a few steps closer to the painting.

He didn't turn around, but his tone was very firm.

"Yes, I drew it."

"Did you really draw this? Then who is this?" Lu Zhaoling asked.

Qian Dingxing was already standing in front of the portrait, only two or three steps away.

"It's the girl in the painting. She told me her name was Wuyou, Fan Wuyou."

Fan Wuyou?

Lu Zhaoling nodded. Meng Si also called Wuyou "Sister." But now, she also learned her surname from Qian Dingxing.

What Meng Si said earlier—that he met Wuyou on the way, and that Wuyou said the person in the portrait was her relative—was false.

With Qian Dingxing as witness, this painting is clearly of Wuyou himself.

"When she asked you to draw her portrait, didn't you realize she wasn't human?" Lu Zhaoling asked.

“Your Highness, look at what you’re saying. Haven’t you been to that ghost market? There are people and ghosts there. Who would care whether the person in front of them is a person or a ghost?” Qian Dingxing said.

Lu Zhaoling thought about it and realized that it made sense.

"Then why did she ask you to draw her portrait?"

“I remember her saying that she was afraid she would gradually change, and perhaps many years later, she would not look the same as before, so she wanted to draw her original appearance as a memento.”

"Can ghosts slowly change their appearance?" Qinglin asked curiously from the side. "Does that mean that if a ghost stays for a long time, it will change from a human-like appearance to a ghost with a fanged face?"

So, are new ghosts and old ghosts different?

Lu Zhaoling shook her head, "Not all ghosts will change, but ghost cultivators might."

As one cultivates, one's appearance may change. Some people change because they want to. As their cultivation level increases, their forehead may bulge out or their eye sockets may become deeper.

Or perhaps some ghost cultivators who value appearance become more stunning the more they cultivate.

Grandma Sheng will probably become more and more beautiful.

At this moment, Qian Dingxing added, "Besides cultivation, there is another possibility: if one feeds on essence or steals other people's essence, one will also be affected by the physical characteristics of the original owner of that essence."

As he said this, he turned around and looked at Lu Zhaoling.

"Is this what you wanted me to see? You think Fan Wuyou went to absorb men's essence, right?"

That's exactly what Lu Zhaoling thought.

Moreover, Meng Si believed that his carefree sister was not the person in the painting, and even thought that his carefree sister was just using the painting to communicate with him and meet him, which meant that the carefree sister he saw was slightly different from the person in the painting.

That's probably because Fan Wuyou has absorbed the life essence of many people, which has slightly changed his facial features.

"When you painted her portrait, was it just an ordinary painting?" Lu Zhaoling didn't answer Qian Dingxing's question, but instead asked a question in return.

“It’s just an ordinary painting. But,” Qian Dingxing remembered, “she brought the paint herself.”

Qian Dingxing sighed.

"I've figured it out now. The problem with this painting is the paint. I've seen the painting now, and it's definitely my work. However, the expressions of the people in the painting are slightly different from what I painted back then."

The difference is—

"The Fan Wuyou I painted back then was bright and charming, like a flower that had just bloomed."

Qian Dingxing turned to look at the painting again, her tone carrying a hint of sigh.

"The Fan Wuyou in this painting is clearly filled with deep sorrow. She must have been heartbroken over the years."

As he said this, the painting moved slightly.

A single tear welled up in the eye of the beautiful woman in the portrait, seemingly about to fall.

Qian Dingxing was stunned.

Lu Zhaoling also stood up.

As soon as she stood up, Zhou Shiyue followed her.

“It seems you’ve hit the nail on the head and stirred up her grievances and discomfort,” Lu Zhaoling said to Qian Dingxing.

Then she looked at the painting, raised an eyebrow, and said, "What, Miss Fan Wuyou isn't pretending to be dead anymore?"

After she obtained the painting, the person in it remained perfectly still, pretending to be dead, not daring to reveal a trace of soul or move.

Is it that they can't hold it in anymore?

"Miss Fan, why don't you just come out? If you keep holding it in, I'm afraid you'll hurt yourself. After all, I have plenty of patience. I'm living the high life outside, and you can't compete with me by holding it in inside the painting."

Several young men held their breath as they stared at the painting.

Really? Will the people in the painting—no, the ghosts in the painting—really come out?

Qian Dingxing looked at the painting and saw a tear fall from the figure in it. He sighed and said, "Miss Fan, come out. We're old friends meeting again. Why don't you come out and tell me why you used me to make this painting?"

He never imagined that he would create a harmful painting when he was painting.

He hadn't even asked if the person in the painting had killed anyone. If so, it was partly his fault.

Therefore, he has the right to ask clearly.