The woman in the painting and the woman outside of it smiled at each other.
Yi Danjun glanced a few times but pretended not to see, and Xi Fangtian did not persist in the matter. The two talked about painting techniques as usual before they descended the mountain to part ways.
But their feelings truly began to intensify from that moment on.
The next day, the painting was delivered to the Qi Yun Trade Union. Yi Danjun looked at the painting for a while and, perhaps not wishing her portrait to be sold to others, she decided to keep it and wrote on the receipt "for personal retention, not for sale."
In the days that followed, Xi Fangtian continued to sell his artwork to Qi Yun Trade Union as usual, always including one or two portraits of women among them. Yi Danjun, as if by some secret understanding, retained each one without fail.