Courtyard House: Drunk and tipsy, the whole courtyard exposed at the start.

Listening to He Yushui, Qin Jingru, and Mu Wanqing each saying a sentence, Zhang Dabiao suddenly realized—[Goodness, Nezha's reputation isn't so great these days...]

Before the animated film "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" was released, in all of China's mythological novels, Nezha was portrayed as a mischievous child, a murderous star, and extremely tyrannical.

[Is this even appropriate to draw him?]

"Yes, that's him."

Zhang Dabiao decided to go all out and draw the three traitors of the Heavenly Court!

There are many paintings of the Monkey King, but there don't seem to be any paintings of Nezha, or any that give Nezha his due recognition.

Then I'll definitely go for it!

Zhang Dabiao put down his teacup and cleared his throat.

He planned to test the waters with these three girls first to see if his adapted script was appealing.

"However, the Nezha I drew is quite different from the ones you've heard of before."

Zhang Dabiao began to tell his story with great emotion.

He recounted the plot of the classic animated film "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" from a few years later, adding his own exaggerated embellishments.

The dumpling-themed versions of "Nezha" 1 and 2 were too ahead of their time, and the changes compared to the original "Investiture of the Gods" were too drastic. For example, Ao Bing didn't die and even became Nezha's love interest; there was the stuttering Shen Gongbao; and the three Dragon Kings ran away with the peaches... If you were to mention this version now, they would probably think they've gone crazy.

Therefore, it can only be the version of "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King".

From the birth of Nezha as a ball of flesh to the bestowal of treasures by the Immortal Taiyi.

From the Dragon King of the East Sea refusing to send down a drop of water and demanding sacrifices of young boys and girls, to the Yaksha Li Gen coming ashore to eat people.

Zhang Dabiao's language was so vivid that it left the three girls completely bewildered.

When the story goes that Nezha was bathing by the East Sea, he stirred up the Dragon Palace with his Hun Tian Ling (a magical ribbon), killed the Yaksha, and pulled out Ao Bing's dragon tendons...

Qin Jingru slapped her thigh excitedly.

"Well done! This monster who plagues the common people deserves to have his tendons pulled out!"

Zhang Dabiao was startled. Wasn't Qin Jingru's personality too violent?

That's a muscle cramp!

He suddenly imagined a scene: what if Qin Jingru had two buns in her hair, then a hula hoop was hanging from her head, and a red ribbon was on her head, and she was naked from the bottom, just like in the animation...

Forget it, it's too cringeworthy!

Zhang Dabiao smiled, then his tone suddenly changed, becoming serious, before he continued to talk about the plot.

"But the old Dragon King Ao Guang refused to accept it."

"He gathered the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas, stirred up a raging storm, and flooded Chentang Pass."

"The old Dragon King forced Li Jing to hand over Nezha, or he would drown all the people in the city."

The only sound inside the wooden house was the crackling of burning charcoal.

The three girls held their breath, staring nervously at Zhang Dabiao.

"To protect the people, Li Jing raised his sword to kill Nezha."

"Nezha looked at his cowardly father and his hometown submerged by the flood, and felt utterly disheartened."

Zhang Dabiao stood up, mimicking Nezha's movements: pointing with both hands, lifting one foot, and raising his eyebrows—

"I am Nezha, the Third Prince, capable of subduing demons and composing poetry!"

The three women stared at him in bewilderment, wondering what he was up to.

"Ahem, wrong answer, let's try again!"

Zhang Dabiao put two fingers together, gesturing with his hand as if holding an invisible sword across his neck.

He snatched the sword from Li Jing's hand.

He shouted: "Old demon dragon! I will take full responsibility for my actions! I will not allow you to harm the people!"

"Father! Your flesh and blood, I'm returning to you!"

Zhang Dabiao's voice rose, tinged with a hint of sorrow.

"After saying this, Nezha drew his sword and committed suicide, cutting off his bones to return to his father and his flesh to return to his mother."

"He fell into a pool of blood in the heavy rain."

Zhang Dabiao stopped the story here.

He turned his head and saw something amazing.

Mu Wanqing's eyes were red, and tears streamed down her face.

He Yushui bit her lip hard, her shoulders trembling, clearly trying her best to suppress her sobs.

Qin Jingru was the most dramatic; she suddenly stood up, tears streaming down her face, and turned to run towards the kitchen.

"Jingru, where are you going?" Zhang Dabiao was startled.

"I'll go find a kitchen knife!"

Qin Jingru gritted her teeth, trembling with anger.

"I'm going to chop that damned old Dragon King to pieces!"

Zhang Dabiao quickly grabbed her, both amused and exasperated.

"Grandma, that's just a story! Where are you going to chop off the Dragon King from the story?"

"Are you going to tear down the Dragon King Temple?"

Qin Jingru then realized what was happening, paused for a moment, pouted, and burst into tears, throwing herself into He Yushui's arms.

Mu Wanqing also came over, tugging at Zhang Dabiao's sleeve, her voice choked with emotion.

"Brother Da Biao, Nezha was so pitiful, what happened to him later—"

Seeing the three girls' expressions, Zhang Dabiao knew what was going on.

Steady!

If this storyline were set in today's world, it would be like a nuclear-level tear gas attack.

"Don't worry, it was mentioned in the later Investiture of the Gods that the Immortal Taiyi used lotus flowers and lotus roots to rebuild his golden body."

"In the end, he rode on his Wind and Fire Wheels and held his Fire-Tipped Spear, defeating the Four Dragon Kings of the Seas in utter defeat."

Upon hearing this ending, the three girls finally stopped crying and started laughing.

Zhang Dabiao wiped away a cold sweat. If the dumpling version of the Heart-Piercing Curse and the story of Nezha's mother being refined into an elixir were true, then this version would definitely tear him apart...

Taking too big a step can easily lead to disaster. For now, we can't do things like drastic modifications and reshaping the rebellious spirit of anime.

Zhang Dabiao sat back down in his chair, looking at the moon outside the window, already planning his next move.

With the script ready, the next step is to solve the problem of tools.

If a workman wants to be good, he must first sharpen his weapon.

Using a brush to slowly outline and draw a line drawing? That would be exhausting.

In the 60s, line drawing comic strips were the mainstream, and they could be said to have reached a very mature stage.

Zhang Dabiao has no problem copying, but when he tries to draw in the form of line drawing without any reference, he struggles to express the nuances of lightness, heaviness, turns, and the folds of the brushstrokes—because he has never studied traditional Chinese painting.

As the saying goes, forced love is never sweet; if you don't have the ability to force it, you can't express the true flavor.

So I could only use a pen for sketching, which was barely enough. I added a little bit of hatching to represent the shades, and that was it.

When drawing in anime style, halftone paper is out of the question. Plate transfer paper (tracing paper) can replace professional adhesive halftone paper, but printing on halftone paper is also problematic. So, I simply used pen to draw lines and used density to represent shadows.

Or you can use dots to represent shadows through density, but that's a bit tiring.

There's always a solution.

Another method is to use light ink applied with a brush to express shadows in layers, which is similar to color grading in animation—local color, shadow, and highlight.

This is doable, but it would look too much like Japanese animation, and it would feel out of place.

Therefore, Zhang Dabiao decided that "Heroes and Daughters" would be drawn directly with pen and ink sketches, using a more traditional and weighty style, while "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" would be drawn with pen (dip pen) lines, adopting the shapes from the animated version, and then simply distinguishing black, white and gray with light ink. In this era, this was a game-changer.

He still didn't believe he couldn't win the award!

Zhang Dabiao is a modern man who values ​​efficiency.

Early the next morning—off to buy tools!