After eating, she returned to her room upstairs and took out a painting of the Iron Tower of Paris that Dongfang Jun had brought back for her to copy. The painting was the work of the Master of Fine Arts, Zhang Jiachuan, and it had won an award for its beauty.
An ordinary person would not want to work on something as complicated as that. It was not an easy artwork to copy. However, she still felt grateful for the effort Dongfang Jun went through to get it for her.
Mu Ru had been too engrossed in her painting that night. She was completely engrossed in the painting and was busy waving her brush on the canvas when she heard someone push the door open. Someone in a wheelchair barged into the room.
"Is this a place for drawing?" Dongfang Mo said in an old and hoarse. Mu Ru was so frightened that the brush that she had just dipped in oil flew out of her hand.
She stared blankly as the brush flew towards the wheelchair and hit Dongfang Mo's face. Dongfang Mo's cheek was covered in streaks of green paint. It instantly made Dongfang Mo's face look like an old tree bark.
Before she could react, Dongfang Mo yelled, "Xi Muru, are you asking for death?"
Dongfang Mo flung back the paintbrush, and it flew straight towards her like a sword. It hit her forehead and slid down her nose, covering her nose and lips in streaks of green.
As she took two steps back, the brush landed on her feet. Then, as if the brush that had hit her was something big and heavy, she winced in pain. She felt wounded and defeated.
She carefully squatted down and picked up the paintbrush. Before she could say anything, Dongfang Mo had already picked up the canvas. It was not even halfway done, and Dongfang Mo flung it to the ground.
She watched as Dongfang Mo moved his wheelchair and squashed the canvass. She had been painting for more than three hours. She heard cracking sounds. It was the sound of the easel breaking underneath the heavy wheels of Dongfang Mo's wheelchair.
She could also clearly hear the sound of her heart breaking. Dongfang Mo was frantically squashing her tubs of paint and oil, and Mu Ru felt like it was her own blood, sweat, and tears spilling on the ground.
"Xi Muru, I'm asking you a question," Dongfang Mo said as he glared at her. He was frowning and looked very angry. He looked very ugly, with the streaks of green paint trickling down his nose and all over the side of his face.
"I...If I can't paint here, where am I going to do it?" Mu Ru asked as she lowered her head, not daring to look at Dongfang Mo's face. Then, in a soft voice, she muttered, "I don't have a study room, I—"
Dongfang Mo cut her short yet again. "Did I allow you to paint?" He sounded furious. It was not his usual voice, but he still sounded very angry.
Mu Ru's voice trembled. "But...I'm a student." She lowered her head and said in a pleading voice, "If you don't let me go to school, I—"
"You're not a student anymore," Dongfang Mo quickly said to her. He continued, "Stop studying and reading about things in school textbooks. They are part of history and have long disappeared. Instead, you need to learn how to be the first lady of the Dongfang family, how to share the burden of the Dongfang family for your husband, how—"
Without letting Dongfang Mo finish, Mu Ru said, "I can't learn." She realized that it might make Dongfang Mo angrier, so she tried to say something else. "Well, l learn slowly, but I really like drawing. Can you see if you can—"