Chapter 107: The Blue of Forgetting Worries, the Blue of Goodnight

There are countless shades of color—whether the various blues naturally found in pigments or those created through mixing—all primarily meant to capture the different blues found in nature. Sky blue, ocean blue, lake blue, aqua blue, indigo, light blue, deep blue... so many blues can each reveal their own unique brilliance.

As a painter, Nana was intimately familiar with all of these.

Yet, the blue Lin Shenlu had just mixed on the palette did not belong to any common shade she knew of.

It was, in fact, a blue she had never seen before.

Though it was a familiar tone... why did it stir such a peculiar emotion within her?

Lin Shenlu, however, seemed unaware of Nana’s curious gaze.

He began to apply the mixed blue onto the canvas.

Layer by layer, he covered the entire canvas with this extraordinary blue.

As the color unfolded on the canvas, Nana's expression grew even more complex.

This blue conveyed a far more intense emotion when rendered on the canvas.

Especially when Lin Shenlu had covered the entire canvas with it, a smile graced his face, and his eyes shone with pure joy and satisfaction.

When Nana looked again at the canvas, the emotion radiating from the color was unmistakable.

Pure emotion.

Nana couldn’t help but smile.

She was taken aback.

She had smiled in response to a color.

A blue that could evoke inner joy.

That was impossible!

Blue, after all, is a cool color.

One of the primary colors of light and one of the psychological quaternary colors.

Though it represents the sky’s color, she had never heard that blue could inspire happiness.

Blue is a symbol of eternity, a tone that carries melancholy.

Each shade of blue holds a different meaning.

But whether it’s pure blue, indigo, azure, turquoise, navy, royal blue, slate blue, or bright blue...

Cerulean, cobalt, tile blue, peacock blue, sapphire blue... even Klein blue...

None of these blues resembled Lin Shenlu’s blue.

As the coldest hue among cold colors, it could never reveal such warmth and tenderness.

Nana’s curiosity was impossible to suppress.

“Um...” Nana spoke to Lin Shenlu.

“Hm?” Lin Shenlu paused, having just spread his specially mixed blue as a base layer on the canvas.

As he waited for it to dry, he glanced curiously at Nana.

Had she forgotten something?

“I’ve never seen this blue before... Does it have a name?” Nana bit her lip and finally voiced the question burning in her heart.

“This?” Lin Shenlu gestured toward the palette before him.

Nana nodded, her eyes unable to leave the color on the painting.

“It’s a color I’ve recently been experimenting with... I call it...” Lin Shenlu hesitated, looking once more at the blue.

“Forgetworry Blue.”

A color that, just by looking at it, could make one forget troubles; a gentle hue that naturally blossomed into a smile at the corners of the mouth—a truly joyful color.

“The reason I created this blue came from a single phrase,” Lin Shenlu continued, smiling.

“The sky holds nothing, yet it comforts me.”

“Do you like it? If so, once this exhibition ends, I'll show you how to mix it.” He nodded.

Nana lightly nodded in return.

Yet her gaze remained fixed on Lin Shenlu’s canvas.

The black paint originally squeezed out on her palette made her hesitate.

She had almost used it as the primary tone with her palette knife.

But glancing again at Lin Shenlu’s palette, Nana nodded slightly.

It was as if agreeing to Lin Shenlu’s words, or perhaps reassuring herself.

Suddenly, Lin Shenlu resumed.

“Long ago, when I first started in the painting circle, I saw a work—also blue—but it was a blue tinged with pink. That painting’s sky, sea, lakes, and cosmos all held a profound ambiguous feeling. Though I don’t know who the senior artist was, that blue was called the Ambiguous Goodnight Blue.”

“The first time I saw that blue, the color on the canvas conveyed an indescribable joy. It was as if I saw the love within my heart reflected in all things of the world...”

“That was when I realized colors don’t just exist as we know them; there are colors beyond our perception, yet they exist nonetheless.” Lin Shenlu smiled.

“The colors we recognize are only those visible to us, but the world may hold many unseen colors... So colors are not fixed. As long as they can evoke different emotions, they are valid colors.”

“My Forgetworry Blue... I’ve been adjusting it ever since, but I was never fully satisfied. Then I came across that phrase: ‘The sky holds nothing, yet it comforts me.’”

“That phrase... the purest blue is that of the sky. It shouldn’t be the coldest color; it should be the warmest, a color where gentleness and joy coexist... Nana, as I’ve told you, whether in painting or writing, art is an extension of the creator. What we feel deeply is powerfully expressed in our work... don’t you agree?”

Lin Shenlu’s words seemed to awaken something in Nana.

Staring blankly at the black paint on her palette, she suddenly scraped away a large patch with her palette knife...

“Don’t! Nana, that’s such a big chunk, don’t waste it...” Lin Shenlu said, as if reading her thoughts.

He continued, “I never said black represents only melancholy, depth, or darkness... Black isn’t so one-dimensional.”

“Though black doesn’t have many variations, I believe black is the endpoint of all colors; the final return is black...” Lin Shenlu said.

“But... black cannot depict joy or warmth,” Nana shook her head.

“Trust me, Nana. Use this black as your base and add the colors you want inside it...” Lin Shenlu paused, then added, “In the end, you’ll mix the black you’re most satisfied with. Black itself is not wrong; the black in our hearts determines the direction.”

Gently, Lin Shenlu took the palette knife and placed the black paint back onto Nana’s palette.

“But no matter what colors you add, black remains black. It absorbs all colors...” Nana shook her head again.

“I believe... colors are never truly seen with the eyes, but felt with the heart...”

“Emotions aren’t seen by the eyes, but sensed by the heart... isn’t that so?” Lin Shenlu smiled.

As Lin Shenlu spoke, a girl strolled nearby, pulling along a set of painter’s tools and glancing around after collecting her materials at the door.

“Look at that girl. To us, she looks very beautiful but has a face that seems to owe the world millions... But without getting to know her, who can say what’s truly in her heart...” Lin Shenlu said with a smile.

As if hearing his words, the girl walked straight over and sat beside Lin Shenlu.

“See? She doesn’t even use her pupils to look at me... just pure eye-rolling,” Lin Shenlu whispered to Nana with a chuckle.