Wu Ling turned his attention to the thickly muscled young man who'd spoken, wondering why he sensed a trace of anticipation and hostility from the fellow. Did he have some kind of grudge against Artists? "I am," Wu Ling answered casually, relaxing into the seat and adopting a posture of indifference he'd observed from many privileged young men over the years. It felt distinctly uncomfortable after the many years he'd spent training the posture and comportment befitting a young lady in polite society but he forced himself to do so nonetheless.
"Why? Are you interested in commissioning a painting yourself? I don't paint men very often, but if there's some fellow you have your eyes set on, I'm sure I can highlight your best attributes to the man of your dreams as I did for Sister Su Yao," he said with an evil grin.
"HA!" Liu Mingtao laughed, slapping his knee as his belly shook. "Brother Zhang, if Brother Wu's price is too high, I'll happily sponsor a painting to help you find a suitable husband!"
"Liu Mingtao, don't think I won't crush your pretty skull for mocking me!" Zhang Buyan roared, feeling utterly humiliated when Liu Mingtao poured oil on the fire. If Wu Ling's words could be taken as a simple misunderstanding from someone who didn't know him, Liu Mingtao's words could only be construed as a direct insult!
"And you," he said, pointing a thick, sausage-like finger at Wu Ling. "Why would you think I'd want to attract a man's attention? I only have eyes for," he started to say before cutting himself off. If he mentioned the woman he was interested in, it would only draw more teasing from Liu Mingtao. "I don't have eyes that gaze on men that way," he said instead, returning to his seat and glaring at Wu Ling.
"With a few odd exceptions," Wu Ling said, ignoring the other man's hostility, "that's why people ask me to paint for them. A woman likes to feel beautiful, she wants the man she has her eyes on to see her as beautiful, I make that happen for her," he explained.
"Are you saying you paint falsehoods?" Fang Lin asked sharply, his elegantly plucked brows furrowing deeply. Of everything that would occur tonight, what he most looked forward to was the chance to claim the sumptuous beauty whose portrait he'd been gazing at with increasing frequency over the past month. If it turned out that the woman wasn't truly beautiful when he finally met her it would do far more than just sour his mood for the evening.
"I never paint falsehood," Wu Ling protested, waving his hand as though shooing away an annoying fly. "I just paint differently than women. What a woman sees as beautiful about herself isn't always what a man sees as beautiful about her. When women paint portraits of other women, they're often missing the things about their subject that their audience cares most about," he explained.
"Take Su Yao for example. Most women who paint portraits for engagements paint their subjects facing straight forward. They might capture every detail of expressive eyes, skilled makeup, symmetrical features, slim shoulders, or a graceful neck but is that what you're looking at when you look at paintings of young women? How many paintings have you received that, when set side by side, you couldn't tell apart by anything other than the outfits they wore and the way they style their hair?" Wu Ling asked.
"Pfft, stacks of them," the alchemist Yu Jinqi said with a snort. It was one of the reasons he'd never concerned himself very much with romance and focused instead on his studies. It seemed like there was no difference between one woman or the next that the matchmakers sent along. If that was the case, he might as well wait and spend more time on his studies.
"The disciples of the Jade Cauldron Sect get so many solicitations from people hoping to latch onto the coattails of a future alchemist that the staff burn them unless it comes from a family that can't be offended," the young scholar explained. "They all look like the same doe-eyed girl with peach lips and hair in perfect buns. Sometimes I wonder if they're advertising the girl or the jewelry she's wearing."
"That's not how I painted Sister Su Yao is it, Young Lord Fang?" Wu Ling asked smoothly.
"Not at all," Fang Lin agreed, settling back into his seat. "You painted her with her hair loose and her body angled to the side. Honestly, she stood out instantly from anyone else who had been presented to me."
"I painted her that way because for all her youth, Sister Su Yao has a, let's say 'generous' endowment," Wu Ling said, trying not to be too crude about the matter, especially when talking about someone he considered a friend. At the same time, at least for a few hours until the banquet started, he wanted to fit in with this group of men who were clearly rougher under the refinement than their elegant outfits might suggest, even if only to stop them from bothering Su Yao and her friends. The young women Su Yao invited to share this evening with her seemed like such gentle souls that Wu Ling truly wanted to keep Liu and his ilk away from them.
"If I painted her facing forward," he continued. "You'd never know what you were missing out on, but following the spill of her hair outlines the figure that folds of clothing can hide. When a good friend comes to me so desperate to gain the attention of the man she admires so deeply, how could I do anything less than to depict her the way a gentleman with refined tastes would see her?" Wu Ling explained, heaping praise on Fang Lin to soothe the young man's ego.
"What you're saying sounds like common sense," Fan Chaoyang said lightly, his voice carrying a hint of sword-like sharpness. "So if it's common sense, why don't other artists do what you've done? Perhaps Brother Wu can explain to us why he alone seems to be so gifted in this regard. It can't be because you maintain improper relationships with the women you paint, can it?"
As Fan Chaoyang spoke, the entire room stilled at the accusation hidden in his words. Far worse than an accusation of painting falsehoods, he'd directly implied that Wu Ling was a flower picker, passing off young women as virtuous after robbing them of their virtue. If that was true, Fang Lin was unlikely to let Wu Ling leave the room alive!