A Billionaire CEO Brings His Child Home: The Awakening of the Stay-at-Home Dad System

Chen Hao did not answer, and continued writing.

The second stroke is the structural line of the main peak.

He used a mixed-hair brush with a slightly lighter ink tip to add texture and rubbing at the turning points of the rocks—this is the core technique of traditional Chinese landscape painting, using the side of a dry brush to create the texture and feel of the rocks.

His brushstrokes are very rhythmic; the texturing, rubbing, dotting, and dyeing are all done perfectly, neither too much nor too little.

The sunny side of the rocks is left blank, while the shady side is rendered with light ink, instantly creating a sense of three-dimensionality.

[Ding! Completed the rock texture strokes. God-level painting experience points +148!]

Chen Zhenhua stood to the side with a teacup in his hand. He had a mocking smile on his face, but as he watched Chen Hao draw stroke by stroke, his smile slowly froze.

He didn't know much about traditional Chinese painting, but he had seen landscape paintings on television and in art books, so he knew what a good landscape painting looked like.

The mountain that Chen Hao drew on the paper looked very similar to the mountains in the paintings he had seen.

No, they are even more vivid than the mountains in those paintings.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out.

Chen Hao switched to a large white brush with a sheep's hair, dipped it in light ink, and began to paint clouds and mist.

He gently rubbed the tip of his brush on the Xuan paper, and the ink naturally spread across the raw Xuan paper, forming a hazy mist that lingered around the mountainside.

The edges of the clouds and mist have no clear boundaries; they appear and disappear, seemingly real yet elusive, like actual fog flowing.

[Ding! Cloud and mist rendering complete. God-level painting experience points +136!]

Then there's the waterfall.

He dipped a wolf-hair brush in thick ink and drew a vertical white line in the recess of the cliff.

The waterfall is highlighted with dark ink on both sides, leaving the middle blank, and that's how the waterfall comes to be.

You don't need to draw the water; the water is already there.

He used light ink to render the effect of water spray at the bottom of the waterfall, and a few scattered strokes of moss, like water splashing everywhere.

[Ding! Waterfall painting completed, God-level painting experience points +134!]

After finishing the main peak and waterfall, he began to paint the foreground.

Switch back to a mixed-brush central tip, dip it in medium ink, and paint the stream at the foot of the mountain.

The lines of the stream are softer than those of the rocks, with flowing brushstrokes and graceful curves.

He painted several stones on both sides of the stream. The stones were of different shapes and sizes, but they were arranged in a pleasing manner, as if they had been washed by the stream for thousands of years.

Then there's the bridge.

A small arched bridge spans the narrowest part of the stream. The bridge is curved, and there are several horizontal lines on the surface, indicating that the bridge is made of planks.

Water flows beneath the bridge, while the bridge itself is blank—he didn't draw any people, but anyone who sees this bridge would feel that someone should be walking on it.

[Ding! Stream and bridge drawing completed. God-level painting experience points +140!]

Next came the bamboo grove and thatched cottage.

He drew several clumps of bamboo on the right side of the picture.

The bamboo stalk is written with a single stroke using the center of the brush, upright and powerful; the bamboo leaves are drawn with a side stroke, in groups of three to five, with a good balance of density and sparseness.

Behind the bamboo grove, a corner of a thatched hut peeks out—

The roof is outlined in thick ink, with blank spaces under the eaves, as if someone is inside.

In front of the thatched hut was an open space with a stone table and two stone benches. On the stone table were a teapot and two teacups.

The details are small, but every stroke is clear.

[Ding! Completed the painting of the bamboo forest and thatched cottage. God-level painting experience points +146!]

He began to color it.

A small, verdant landscape doesn't need too many colors.

He dipped a large white sheep's hair brush in indigo and lightly applied a thin layer of blue to the dark areas of the rocks and distant mountains.

Use ochre to color the sunny side of the rocks and tree trunks, use malachite green to color the bamboo leaves and moss spots, and use gamboge to color the roof of the thatched hut—a pale yellow that is not eye-catching.

Only a tiny bit of cinnabar was used, dotted into the mist below the waterfall, serving as the finishing touch.

[Ding! Color rendering complete. God-level painting experience points +152!]

[Ding! You have reached the required amount of experience points for God-level drawing!]

[God-level painting skill level upgraded: LV1 → LV2!]

[New skill modules: Art Creation Theory, Advanced Materials Science, Fundamentals of Cultural Relics Restoration, and Appreciation and Copying of Ancient Paintings.]

[The host's current divine-level painting skill has been upgraded to the intermediate level, further enhancing their painting ability.]

Chen Hao felt a flood of information rushing into his mind—

The variations in ink tones, the treatment of negative space, methods of creating artistic conception, and the aesthetic characteristics of different schools of thought...

His lines became more fluid, the ink tones more varied, and the overall atmosphere of his paintings more vivid.

Viewers in the live stream watched Chen Hao paint landscapes, and the comments section went from initial skepticism to astonishment, and then to awe.

"Holy crap! The streamer can actually paint landscapes!"

"The texture strokes of these rocks, the dotting of the leaves on these trees, and the rendering of the clouds and mist are all so professional."

"I studied traditional Chinese painting for a few years. The level of this anchor is at least that of a professional painter."

"No, he's not a professional painter, he's a master. Look at his brushwork, the layers of ink; you couldn't paint like that without decades of experience."

"How could a news anchor in their early twenties possibly have decades of experience?"

"A genius, what other explanation is there?"

"My grandfather was a traditional Chinese painter who had been painting for over forty years. I think the anchor's skill level is even higher than my grandfather's."

"Did you notice that the streamer's wrist was suspended the whole time while drawing, without using his hand, and his hand didn't shake at all? That skill is terrifying."

"What's the name of this painting? Does it have a theme?"

Gifts started floating on the screen—

[“Old Zhang, a Chinese painting enthusiast,” has given away one Carnival gift!]

[Art student Kobayashi donated two helicopters!]

[Collector Mr. Wang gave away one Douyin account number 1!]

[Received a donation: Carnival x1, gained 6000 popularity points!]

[Received donation: 2 helicopters, gained 1199 popularity points!]

[Received a tip: Douyin account #1 x1, gained 3000 popularity points!]

Chen Hao neither looked at the comments nor the system notifications.

His brush continued to move across the rice paper, finally writing a line of small characters in the upper right corner of the painting—

"Peach Blossom Spring Cottage. Written by Hao in the spring of the Bingwu year."

The characters are written in small regular script, with vigorous strokes, rigorous structure, and a style that blends seamlessly with the painting.

After finishing the inscription, he took a clean brush from the brush holder, dipped it in water from the brush washer, and stamped a small red seal on the lower right corner of the painting.

He didn't have a seal, so he drew a square with a red watercolor pen and wrote the character "浩" inside it.

[Ding! Completed the entire process of creating a traditional Chinese painting. God-level painting experience points +148!]

Chen Hao put down his pen, took a step back, and looked at the painting in front of him.

On a three-foot-long sheet of Xuan paper, a main peak stands majestically, with clouds and mist swirling around its waist. A waterfall cascades down from the clouds, a stream meanders, a small bridge spans the water, and several thatched cottages are nestled deep in the bamboo forest. In the distance, the mountains appear as dark as ink.

The composition features a balance of density and sparseness, solidity and emptiness, lightness and darkness. The weight of the mountains and rocks, the ethereal quality of the clouds and mist, the lightness of the flowing water, and the tranquility of the bamboo forest all coexist harmoniously on this piece of paper.