Power Up, Artist Yang!

An hour in a carriage? No problem. None at all. A day in a carriage? Slightly uncomfortable, but not that big of a deal.

But a week in a carriage? 

Yujia felt like she was about to go crazy.

She had no idea how people back then traveled long-distances so frequently, especially if they were traveling merchants. Carriage riding was undeniably uncomfortable, as much as they tried to make it decent with the thick seat padding. 

The discomfort was probably the result of one main issue: shaking.

When traveling on a smooth road, it was already shaking. Furthermore, when traveling on an uneven road, it only became worse. It was a complete nightmare, with numerous bumps and tremors. In fact, it was so terribly difficult to move around in the carriage without losing balance that Yujia remained in a sitting position for awfully long periods of time. She just had to sit there, look at the window to trees, and feel the shaking of the carriage minute after minute after minute.

It could not compare to the smoothness of a car traveling down paved roads. Bless mechanical engineers. Bless civil engineers.

Yujia almost wished a genius civil engineer transmigrated over to this time fifty or so years earlier. If they did, she wouldn't have to be traveling on this awfully uncomfortable road.

But then again, this was the best condition of traveling there was. She was sitting in a luxury carriage, going on an indulgent trip. If the painfully uncomfortable carriage was the only trouble she would have to face for the next two months, she didn't want to complain much. It was lucky of her.

Yujia thought of the brighter side. Wasn't she experiencing authentic ancient traveling? If she looked at it from a more positive light, it was a challenge that would enrich her experience. With that mindset, she found her mood improved by a lot more.

Still, however, that didn't make the relief she felt when she stepped out of the carriage to the site of a river any less satisfying.

She never thought that she would see the day when she felt pure jubilant joy after seeing a river, the very thing that brought her terror for so long. Did she really hate carriage-riding that much?

A guide that was meant to help them along the trip briefly explained to the group that they would be boarding a boat to travel down the river, which would be a faster pace than traveling by carriage. Yujia was more than happy to ditch the carriages behind and board onto the boat.

Everyone got settled pretty quickly on the boat. There were even rooms for them to sleep in, if they would like. The trip, according to the guide, would take three days, with some stops in between. Thus, it was important to get cozy.

Meanwhile, on the same boat, some fruit merchants were also coincidentally shipping their goods. As a result, within an hour, Yujia and the disciples were gathered at a few tables near the center of the deck, munching on fresh fruit. Yujia was eating a peeled pear, the crisp fruit quite refreshing to taste. Perhaps it was because of the fact that the fruit was being shipped, but it tasted fresher than the fruit she would eat in the capital. 

After that brief fruit break— they had lunch as well during that time— Yujia decided that she wanted to give painting the river landscape a try. The natural sights along the riverbank that they witnessed as the boat went down the stream would make for a good painting, or at least a sketch.

At the same table she ate her fruit at before, Yujia took out her sketchbook and a pencil, beginning to do a quick sketch of the sights she saw. It was great practice, sketching objects that were moving by, since she had to do it fast. Since she didn't have time to sketch the full thing, she merely chose objects she noticed, capturing their basic shapes with a few flicks of her pencil. When the boat passed by stretches of scenery that were less interesting, she then filled in the shading and details of her sketches based on her memory, populating the first few sketch pages of her sketchbook with drawings of little huts or long-rooted trees or birds flitting by.

Now that she had these sketches down, Yujia decided she wanted to paint a full horizontal landscape of the riverbank, composed of the elements she had sketched down. She realized that though she had a pencil on her, her inks were within the room assigned to her on the boat. Thus, she set the sketchbook down and went down the deck, in search of her brushes and inks.

When she came back, holding her materials in her arms, she found that a disciple had taken her seat at the small table she sketched at. He had some ink laid out and seemed to have begun a painting. He looked up as she approached, eyes widening.

He blurted, "Junior Sister, were you sitting here?"

Yujia took in the newly started painting on the table, responding, "I was, but you're fine." Her eyes flitted over at a table near the railings of the deck, and she put on a smile. "I'll just move there. You have your materials all set up, anyways, and it would be a hassle for you to move."

The disciple thanked her profusely. She picked up her sketchbook and moved to that table. She didn't mind this change of seating much. Now, she had a closer view of the waters for inspiration, and the table was larger as well.

As she was setting her new workspace up, Xie Yufeng actually approached, peeling a pear with a small knife, and took a seat by the side. "Are you going to paint something?" she asked.

Yujia twirled the paintbrush in her hands as she smoothed out a page in her sketchbook. "En! I was actually thinking—" 

Before she could finish her sentence, the boat suddenly lurched to the side. Yujia froze up, hands clenching on the edges of the table. The sudden sway was not enough to throw her entirely off balance, but the materials on her table, still not entirely set up, tumbled forward, sliding down the table towards the direction of the railings.

Yujia's hands immediately shot out, grabbing what she could. 

But she couldn't stop one thing from slipping over the railings: one of the seal stamps that Zixu had given her.