NOVPUB
Chapter 368: 358
That afternoon, just as Shen Yunfang arrived at the staffroom, Ma Liang came looking for her again and shyly handed her the sketchbook.
"You’ve already finished?" Shen Yunfang was very surprised.
Wasn’t that too fast? From the morning she’d given him the assignment, to now, just two breaks and one lunchtime, he’d finished drawing over forty pages of illustrations?
"Yes, because these kinds of drawings don’t need to be very detailed, it’s quite easy to paint. I couldn’t really control myself," Ma Liang said, returning to his bashful, big boy demeanor.
"Come on, don’t stand there; have a seat," Shen Yunfang hurriedly urged Ma Liang to sit down to avoid drawing attention, while she began flipping through the sketchbook page by page. "I think you shouldn’t be called Ma Liang, but rather Ma Liang, like the Magic Brush Ma Liang!"
The more she looked, the more she admitted that specialization in a field really makes a difference; her amateur painting skills were quite a bit behind his professional ones.
She carefully examined it from beginning to end and basically saw no issues. Ma Liang also caught the key points of the text on each page, and the drawings were able to convey the meaning of the words well enough. It was satisfactory.
Shen Yunfang turned to Ma Liang, "I want to discuss something with you. I’m not free now, but can you come back during the break?" There was a class about to start, and it wasn’t the right time to talk about a collaboration.
Ma Liang agreed immediately.
Indeed, during the second break that afternoon, Ma Liang came over as expected.
"It’s like this, you know about the foreigners who came to see me last time?" Shen Yunfang started to speak about business.
Ma Liang nodded.
"Well, these sketchbooks, after I’ve finished painting them, I am going to sell to them," Shen Yunfang did not want to deceive him, so she thought to give Ma Liang a rough idea of the situation, to see if he was interested in collaborating with her to make some money.
Ma Liang’s body suddenly stiffened, and he immediately stared wide-eyed at Shen Yunfang.
"What’s wrong?" Shen Yunfang naturally noticed Ma Liang’s abnormality.
With a trembling voice, Ma Liang said, "You’re doing business with foreigners? That’s not allowed, somebody will come to arrest you." As he spoke, his body shook even more violently, the image of someone greatly frightened.
What was happening here, Shen Yunfang couldn’t figure out, "You’re overthinking it. Just a few days ago, those foreigners were led here by our government officials, you know. Our country is now very welcoming of this kind of international exchange." A certain leader had already taken power by then, and the previous policies of isolation were gradually being relaxed. By next year, the doors would be completely open, and many foreigners would once again step onto this rich land.
Of course, Shen Yunfang felt confident in proceeding mainly because Li Hongjun had approved of it; she always felt that Li Hongjun had more insight into political policies than she did. If he said it was okay to proceed, then it was okay.
"This, this might only be temporary, who knows when things might change again. Shen, you should be cautious, safety is the most important," Ma Liang said, his eyes brimming with tears.
He once had a happy family, without want for food or clothing, and his father was even a revered great painter. But then, overnight, his family’s home was raided. The three of them were crushed under the weight of life in a cowshed, and his mother didn’t last long before she died, followed by his father. Ma Liang knew his family had suffered all this because his father had once sold paintings to foreigners. Even back then, when those people came to buy, it was with the introduction of government officials, but when the time came to raid their home, no one thought about that.
"Heh, don’t worry, I understand all of this. Our country’s policies will only get better, there’s no need for you to worry," Shen Yunfang reassured the frightened ’little white rabbit.’
Ma Liang moved his lips but ultimately remained silent.
"Here’s the thing, I want to collaborate with you..." Shen Yunfang stated her intention.
Before she could finish, Ma Liang exclaimed, "I won’t collaborate."
"Shh, keep your voice down." Shen Yunfang truly wanted to slap him; whether he wanted to collaborate or not, there was no need for shouting.
Ma Liang lowered his head again and stopped talking.
Shen Yunfang observed that Ma Liang’s outburst hadn’t drawn anyone’s attention—the classroom was already noisy during the break, and since they were at the back, nobody heard him.
"Don’t you really like drawing? Working with me would be beneficial for both of us, you could draw and earn some pocket money..."
This time too, Ma Liang didn’t let her finish.
"I do like drawing, and I can continue to draw these album paintings for you, but I won’t collaborate with you," Ma Liang was adamant about this. He was already startled like a frightened bird.
Shen Yunfang understood—he feared that collaborating with her would entangle him with foreigners, and if the situation changed in the future, he could be implicated.
"If you don’t want to collaborate, then how about this? You can just pretend that these albums are being drawn for our family’s children. In the future, we’ll do it like yesterday—I’ll write the text, you’ll draw according to my words, and then I’ll pay you based on the number of pages, how about that?" Shen Yunfang proposed after giving it some thought. In fact, Ma Liang not wanting to collaborate worked out to her advantage because the most attractive part of these albums were the illustrations, which were also the hardest to draw. Initially, Shen Yunfang thought of offering Ma Liang ten percent of the profits if he agreed to collaborate. But considering his fear, and his refusal to collaborate, paying him by the piece was sufficient.
Though Ma Liang was scared, he wasn’t oblivious to the hardships of life. Hearing Shen Yunfang saying he could make money from drawing, he immediately became interested. He didn’t want to collaborate; so the more he drew, the more Shen Yunfang would pay him, which seemed the simplest and most convenient method.
"Okay, I’ll draw for you and you’ll pay me one—no, fifty cents is fine," Ma Liang said.
Shen Yunfang was speechless, as the man was even lowering his own price. And by his estimation, he meant fifty cents per book, which was too cheap. Although she loved money, she knew that a gentleman should acquire wealth justly. She couldn’t exploit Ma Liang’s labor too much.
"How about this, let’s charge per page, I’ll give you ten cents for each page you draw. But we need an agreement—if the drawings aren’t up to standard, I have the right to ask you to redo them."
Ma Liang thought it over, did some calculations, and realized that if he were paid ten cents a page, the booklet he had drawn that noon would be worth over four yuan. "Isn’t that a bit too much?"
"It’s not that much, we’re distributing according to work, just like workers getting paid for their labor. Our job is just a bit special, so naturally, the compensation should be a bit higher," Shen Yunfang said pretentiously.
"This, this is too much. If we calculate it this way, I could earn over four yuan a day; a month then, that’s—wouldn’t that be a hundred and twenty yuan?" Saying this amount, Ma Liang’s voice trembled, and so did his heart. Could someone accuse him of engaging in capitalism and have him arrested?
Shen Yunfang nearly laughed upon hearing this; she never expected to see a day when she would be trying so hard to pay someone more.
"Over a hundred yuan isn’t too much. Didn’t I tell you? Your job is considered a special one, similar to those in scientific research. Scientists also earn about this much a month," Shen Yunfang bluffed. She had no idea how much scientists were making a month now. But she guessed Ma Liang wouldn’t know either, so using this to cajole him should do the trick.
Sure enough, Ma Liang, hearing her say this and having something to compare it with, was finally less afraid and reluctantly agreed.
