136: Chapter 226 A Traveler Returns Home on a Snowy Night.

A legendary work from his past life—the person returning home in wind and snow.

It was a piece of jadeite raw stone full of flaws and impurities that everyone else had discarded like worn-out shoes. Yet, he had a unique eye, and based on the jade's natural color and texture, he used masterful craftsmanship to turn decay into magic, carving out a picture of the person returning home in wind and snow with an atmosphere of desolation and solitude.

In the painting, the sky was filled with wind and snow, the mountains were desolate, and a lone traveler wearing a straw raincoat and hat walked alone through the chaotic black-and-white world. That sense of isolation, coldness, and the underlying obsession with returning home shocked countless later generations and was hailed as a masterpiece of jade carving, representing the "unity of heaven and man."

Yet, the cross-section of this cut-failed stone before him—the grayish-white "snowy ground," the cotton-like "flying snow," and especially that black-and-white patch in the middle which he had regarded as a "flaw" and "impurity"—its shape, contrast, and position were so similar to that chaotic black-and-white background area in the rubbing image from his memory, where the lone traveler stood, symbolizing the rugged mountain road and the heavy night!

Could it be...?

A thought, bold to the point of being absurd, grew wildly in his heart. His heart beat violently and uncontrollably, thump after thump, hitting his chest until it ached faintly.

He suddenly pushed aside the onlookers who were still gossiping in front of him, strode to the cutting table, bent down, and almost pressed his face against the two halves of the failed stone. His gaze was like a torch, scanning every detail of the gray-white, cotton-like, and black-and-white sections inch by inch. The more he looked, the clearer and stronger the shock and that absurd thought became in his heart!

The surrounding noise quieted down slightly because of his abrupt action. People looked at him in confusion, not understanding what was left to see in this stone that had already been "sentenced to death." Was he unwilling to give up, still hoping to find gold in a pile of garbage?

Yin Tianxue and Tang Guo also looked at him with suspicion. The little bit of "sense of reality" in Yin Tianxue's heart was clouded with doubt again. Yu Bo's reaction was too strange; it didn't look like unwillingness, but rather... had he discovered something extremely important?

The Stall Owner also leaned over and asked cautiously, "Boss, this stone... it's already like this, what do you think..."

Yu Bo ignored him. He straightened up, his gaze swept quickly through the crowd, and finally landed on Yin Tianxue's face. "Tianxue, eyebrow pencil."

"Eyebrow pencil?" Yin Tianxue was stunned.

"Yes, eyebrow pencil, dark colored, hurry." Yu Bo's voice carried an unquestionable urgency.

Although Yin Tianxue didn't understand why, she still took out a dark brown eyebrow pencil she often used from her small handbag and handed it over.

Yu Bo took the eyebrow pencil, took a deep breath, and bent down again, his gaze locking onto the black-and-white mixed area of the cut surface like a hawk. He did not hesitate at all, his wrist steady, and the tip of the pencil descended.

He didn't scribble randomly, but with extreme precision and restraint, he began to outline, dot, and connect along the natural edges of the black-and-white patch and the internal color transitions. The dark eyebrow pencil marks fell on the black parts, deepening the outlines and emphasizing the ruggedness of the rocks and the depth of the night; they fell on the transition areas between white and gray, gently sweeping out textures to simulate the thickness of the snow and the direction of the wind; in the dense cotton-like areas, he cleverly dotted more intense "snow points"; in the empty spaces of the grayish-white background, he left behind the vastness of the "snowfield."

His movements were fast but not hasty, as if every stroke had been outlined in his mind a thousand times before. The people around were all stunned, not understanding why this boss who had just "lost the gamble" wasn't heartbroken over the 388,000, but was instead using an eyebrow pencil to draw on this "waste material."

However, as the lines under Yu Bo's pen gradually became clear and coherent, an astonishing picture began to slowly emerge on that originally ugly cut surface.

The grayish-white background became the thick snow covering the earth.

The scattered cotton-like inclusions turned into snowflakes dancing all over the sky.

That originally ugly and abrupt black-and-white mixture was cleverly broken down and reconstructed under Yu Bo's pen—the ink-black parts were outlined into the silhouettes of steep, dark cliffs in the distance and rugged, strange rocks nearby; the stark white, frost-like parts became the residual snow covering the rocks and the faint light reflected in the night; the areas where black and white intertwined with blurred boundaries formed exactly a winding path that disappeared into the depths of the wind and snow.

And at the end of the path, near the shadow of the cliff, Yu Bo used the eyebrow pencil to add a few extremely refined strokes—a tiny, almost imperceptible, hunched figure wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat was struggling forward along that snowy path. The figure almost blended into the chaotic black-and-white background, with only that persistent posture of moving forward revealing endless loneliness and resilience.

When the last stroke fell, Yu Bo straightened up, took two steps back, and quietly looked at the "painting on jade" he had just "drawn." Although the tool was simple (an eyebrow pencil), although it was just a few sparse strokes, and although the jade material itself was of poor quality, the atmosphere of desolation, solitude, and the faint emergence of life in a desperate situation was already vivid! In terms of spirit, it was surprisingly seven or eight parts similar to the fleeting glimpse of the the person returning home in wind and snow rubbing in his memory!

All around, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone widened their eyes and opened their mouths, looking at the magical "picture" on the cut surface, and then at Yu Bo, who stood there holding the pen with a complex expression, as if they had seen a ghost.

The discussions that had just been mocking the failed stone and the foolish boss completely disappeared. Replacing them was an extreme silence mixed with shock, bewilderment, and disbelief.

The Stall Owner's jaw almost dropped to the ground. He looked at the stone, then at Yu Bo, and then back at the stone, making a "clucking" strange noise in his throat, but he couldn't say a single word.

The Cutting Master was also stunned, completely unaware that the rag in his hand had fallen to the ground.

Yin Tianxue covered her mouth, her pupils constricted, and her heart pounded wildly. She didn't understand jade carving, but she could understand the painting and feel the atmosphere! Yu Bo had actually... actually used an eyebrow pencil to outline such a soul-stirring picture on such a piece of "waste material" that everyone had sentenced to death! What kind of astonishing eyesight, imagination, and... understanding of jade did this require?

Tang Guo was even more completely confused. She couldn't understand the atmosphere, but she could understand the way the people around looked at Yu Bo. It was no longer watching the excitement or schadenfreude, but had turned into a kind of horror bordering on worship. What kind of person was Yu Bo... exactly?

Yu Bo put down the eyebrow pencil and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. The raging waves in his heart gradually subsided, replaced by a strange, cold excitement. He raised his eyes and looked at the Stall Owner, who was still in a petrified state, his voice calm but carrying an unquestionable power:

"This stone, I won't return it. 388,000, I think, it's worth it."

Worth it?

Everyone looked at him with eyes that one would use for a madman. A failed, cotton-filled, and dirty brick of material, just because he used an eyebrow pencil to draw a "picture" on it, was worth 388,000?

However, looking at Yu Bo's calm yet bottomless eyes, and looking at the "Picture of the person returning home in wind and snow" on the cut surface, which was simple but had an astonishing atmosphere, no one dared to say the word "madman" again.