At the beginning of this year, she opened a small art studio. She recruited two recent art school graduates to paint, then framed the finished pieces and put them up for sale.
These days, there aren’t many buyers for paintings, but she wasn’t relying on this to make money; she was content as long as she could earn a bit of living expenses.
When she arrived at the studio, her two employees, Zhang Yang and Wen Jing, were already there.
Zhang Yang was a boy, but his personality was nothing like his bold name suggested; instead, he was quite shy and reserved. On the other hand, Wen Jing’s personality was the opposite of her name; she was not only unreserved but also very lively.
They had come to the interview together, as they knew each other. Perhaps she just had a good feeling about them, because she ended up hiring both.
Upon seeing her, Wen Jing immediately came forward, chattering away.
"Sister An, good morning. I haven’t seen you in two days, and I think you’ve become even more beautiful."
An Ruo couldn’t help but laugh, "You’ve become more beautiful too."
"Really? But just now, Zhang Yang said I’d gotten fatter and uglier."
Zhang Yang, who was reading the newspaper, looked up and said indifferently, "You did get fatter. I told you not to eat so much, or you might become..."
"STOP! Don’t say it, you can’t say it!" Wen Jing hurriedly stopped him before he could say the words ’fat pig’; she couldn’t stand being described as a certain animal that gained weight from eating.
"I know what you were going to say, but I am clearly very slim. You curse me with getting fatter every day, do you have a vendetta against me or something?"
"I’m just stating facts..." Zhang Yang muttered, then returned his gaze to the newspaper.
Wen Jing, with her keen ears, caught what he said and, fuming, snatched the newspaper from him and disdainfully flipped through it.
"All day long with the newspaper, what’s so interesting? Studying the stock market? I haven’t seen you get rich..."
The two of them bickered every day. An Ruo shook her head amusedly and walked to her private office.
Suddenly, with Wen Jing’s outcry, "It’s so enviable, how could someone establish a big company in just one year? There’s no way that’s starting from scratch, I don’t believe it at all..."
An Ruo paid no mind to her comments and walked into her office, closed the door, and started her day’s work.
By noon, they had ordered takeout, ate together, and then continued with their painting.
An Ruo still did portrait sketches, but she drew mostly deceased celebrities or figures from famous paintings like the Mona Lisa.
Zhang Yang excelled at landscape painting, while Wen Jing excelled at oil painting. Their creations were entirely up to them, regardless of quality; as long as someone was willing to buy them, that was enough.
At four in the afternoon, An Ruo left early to pick up Kangkang, leaving the studio under their care.