He changed quickly in his bedroom, pulling on an old grey T-shirt with a small tear at the collar and a pair of loose dark trousers he'd worn once to move boxes and never quite returned to regular rotation. He looked at himself in the mirror for one second, decided it was fine, and picked up his laptop.
The art room was warm when he pushed the door open. North-facing windows let in flat, even light that lay across the work surface in a clean, unbroken line. He set his laptop on the table, opened YouTube, and typed:
How to paint for absolute beginners.
The video was forty minutes long, presented by a woman with paint on her forearms and the unhurried energy of someone who genuinely loved what she was talking about.
Guiying watched with his chin in his hand, pausing occasionally, rewinding twice over the section on brush pressure and once more over blocking in shapes before adding detail.
