Jing He didn’t start immediately. He looked at the empty scroll and took a moment to consider what to paint. It should be something that would allow Qiu Ling to start painting soon as well so he wouldn’t have to sit aside and wait until everything else was done. At the same time, Qiu Ling had called this a painting to commemorate their relationship. As such, it had to be something special. It definitely couldn’t simply be the kind of understated landscape painting he usually did.

In this case … maybe he should paint a place they had been to? It was just that there hadn’t been many places. He could probably do the waterfall but there hadn’t been much around that so it might seem a little boring. There was also the little clearing in the outskirts where they had had a picnic once. Or what about the lake where they had gone one night?

A place in the city might not be bad either. Even if it wasn’t as idyllic, the meaning might be clearer. For example, wouldn’t the best spot to commemorate their relationship be the bridge where he had finally agreed to marry Qiu Ling? Yes, that shouldn’t be a bad choice.

He turned to look up at Qiu Ling, intending to tell him but was startled into silence when he realized that Qiu Ling had been looking at him all this time. There was a satisfied smile on his lips and his gaze was incredibly gentle. It could even be described as doting.

Seeing him requite his gaze, Qiu Ling reached over and brushed his hair back over his shoulder. “Did you think of something?”

Jing He wasn’t entirely sure yet but at the moment, he didn’t know what to say so he simply nodded. Yes, the bridge should be a good choice. Of course, he would still need to think about the rest. At that time, he hadn’t paid too much attention to his surroundings and even though he had grown up in the capital city, he wasn’t all that familiar with many of its places. He actually didn’t know what had been around the bridge so he could only make something up.

Not wanting to waste too much time, Jing He finally dipped the tip of the brush in the ink and then started to draw the side view of the bridge. It wasn’t exciting but the arc was elegant and the figures on top of the bridge would be the highlight anyway.

He made sure to draw it big enough that Qiu Ling would have enough space to fit his part of the painting while still ensuring that the remainder of the scroll gave himself enough room to draw whatever surroundings he managed to come up with.

Having finished the bridge, Jing He looked up at Qiu Ling again, waiting for him to start painting as well.

Qiu Ling smiled and dipped his brush in the ink but then paused. If he started to paint now, Jing He would only be able to paint on the right side of the scroll. That really wouldn’t leave much room for him. Maybe he shouldn’t paint on the bridge and instead start on the left side so Jing He had more space?

He pondered for a moment but finally decided that this was the better idea. Thus, he wielded the brush and added a lone silhouette further to the left. He didn’t go heavy on the details and only created the rough outline first. “Let me sketch a little first and then add the details later. You can also work on the other side in the meantime.”

Jing He looked at the silhouette in confusion, not sure what Qiu Ling intended to do. But after a moment, he felt that he shouldn’t be surprised. He hadn’t said what he had thought of and simply painted the bridge. How could he expect that Qiu Ling would know what he had had in mind? This really was his own fault.

He hid his regret and turned to the right side of the scroll as Qiu Ling had said and added a path leading away from the bridge. He made it wind across the paper and felt that the space between looked as if there should be hills and valleys so that the landscape could spread out. Yes, maybe this wasn’t the day of their engagement but simply a scroll through nature instead. Thinking of this, he indeed added a hill in a bend and then a few trees in another.

Meanwhile, Qiu Ling added several more figures as if he intended to fill a whole street with them. He started to add details to a pair walking next to each other before glancing over. Seeing that Jing He had filled out the landscape a little and then glancing at the figures he had drawn, he leaned closer. “Do you want to switch sides and add a little more over here?”

Jing He paused and turned to look at the other side. Seeing the street that seemed to have manifested over there as if the bridge in the middle was leading from the city to the countryside, he couldn’t help but smile. “It looks good.”

“It does but it feels a little empty with nothing next to the path.”

Jing He nodded in agreement and got up.

The two of them switched seats and once again focused on their own tasks.

Qiu Ling glanced at the hillside Jing He had added and the forest and finally drew two figures sitting among the trees. He also added a few details to create a full scene.

Jing He watched silently, not sure yet what to draw on the left side. When he saw this, he was reminded of the day they had had that picnic. Glancing at the people walking on the street, he also spotted a couple wearing masks, just like they had done on the day of the Jiyi festival. His lips curved up further and he finally started to add buildings around the people, painting on both sides of the road as if their silhouettes were turning up when you looked down the side streets.

This certainly wasn’t an accurate representation of the capital city but … it could be considered a creative rendering of it which showed what they had experienced and considered important. In a sense, this was indeed commemorating their relationship and it was doing so in a unique way. He truly liked it.

After painting a few buildings, he looked over to see that Qiu Ling had created two scenes based on the landscape he had drawn so far. The figures were more detailed than the ones on the left since he had had more time. “Do you want to add more details on this side?” After all, there was not much to work with on the right side yet.

Qiu Ling glanced over and smiled at the buildings Jing He had added. “Let’s do that.” He got up and pulled Jing He up, hugging him for a moment before they switched sides and continued to create this painting together.