During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, in the city of Jingxian County in the south of the Yangtze River, there was a young man named Ma Chun who liked to paint. He had a teenage brother named Ma Qiu, who did not like to paint and was naughty by nature.

Ma Chun has an uncle who lives in Nanling County, a neighboring county in Jing County. Ma Chun likes to visit his uncle's house since he was a child. His uncle has a business neighbor, known as "Shopkeeper Zhou". Shopkeeper Zhou has a son named Zhou Xing. Zhou Xing is about the same age as Ma Chun and also likes painting very much. Since Ma Chun often goes to his uncle's house, he got to know Zhou Xing since he was a child, and because the two have common preferences, the two have become a pair of good friends since childhood and often get together to learn painting skills. When he grew up, Zhou Xing often went to great lengths to visit Ma Chun's house.

On this day, Ma Chun had been painting at home for a long time, and felt a little tired, so he put down his brush. At that time, his father came over and told him that Ma Qiu went out to play at noon, and now that more than two hours have passed, he still hasn't come back, so he hurriedly went to find him.

Ma Chun hurried out of the house, but went to the street to look for a circle, but couldn't find Ma Qiu. A real-world friend told Ma Chun that he had seen Ma Qiu go outside the city. Ma Chun hurried out of the city gate and looked around.

After searching for a stick of incense, Ma Chun still couldn't find Ma Qiu. At this time, he came to a small forest, and suddenly he saw a person lying on the ground, it was Ma Qiu, who had no breath. There was a deep pinch on Ma Qiu's neck, obviously, he was strangled to death.

Ma Chun screamed and almost fainted. After crying bitterly, he quickly ran to the county yamen and beat the drum to express his injustice. The governor of Jingxian County led a group of police officers and yamen to the small forest. After an autopsy, it was found that Ma Qiu was indeed strangled to death by others.

This investigation took more than half a year, but he couldn't find any clues about the murderer. The case of Ma Qiu's murder became an unsolved case. Ma Chun was in a trance all day, and even the painting he always liked couldn't get his spirits up, so his father asked him to go to his uncle's house to relax.

On this day, Ma Chun rushed to Nanling County and came to his uncle's house. After chatting, he went out of the gate and walked towards Zhou Xing's house. He hadn't seen Zhou Xing for nearly a year, so he was anxious to see Zhou Xing.

After knocking on the door of Zhou Zhou's house for a few weeks, the door opened, and the shopkeeper Zhou welcomed Ma Chun in. Ma Chun looked left and right in the room, but Zhou Xing was nowhere to be seen, so he asked the shopkeeper Zhou, where did Zhou Xing go? Shopkeeper Zhou sighed and told Ma Chun that more than half a year ago, Zhou Xing went out to visit mountains and waters and visit famous teachers, but he had not come back yet. The shopkeeper Zhou also told Ma Chun that he had sent people to look for Zhou Xing, but after more than a month of searching, he could not find any trace of Zhou Xing at all.

After listening to Shopkeeper Zhou's words, Ma Chun couldn't help but be disappointed. After staying at his uncle's house for a few days, he returned to Jing County.

In the past ten years, the murderer who killed Ma Qiu was still unknown; Ma Chun's father passed away, and Ma Chun picked up the burden of making a living at home and started a business; Ma Chun went to Zhou's house every six months, but Zhou Xing was still unknown, and his life and death were unknown.

One day in March this year, Ma Chun went to the Luzhou Mansion, 600 miles away, to do business. After doing business, he went to the home of the new shopkeeper Liu. Walking into flower hall of the Liu family, Ma Chun saw a few paintings hanging on the wall, so he took a closer look. Looking at it, a painting caught Ma Chun's attention. The painting was made of bamboo, which was different from the usual bamboo. The bamboo pole on the painting was not green, but red, like it was smeared with rouge, which was really beautiful. Ma Chun counted, and there were eight bamboo sticks painted on the painting.

Seeing that Ma Chun was attracted by the painting, Shopkeeper Liu came over and said that the painting was purchased in Dingyuan County, which is more than 200 miles away from Luzhou City. Ma Chun quickly asked for details.

Shopkeeper Liu said that more than a year ago, he went to Dingyuan County to do business and met a few friends. One day, while having dinner at a friend's house, he met a man who sold paintings for a living. The man's name was Lu Sheng, who could paint good paintings. During the dinner, everyone talked about the customs and customs of their respective hometowns, and they chatted very hotly. Lu Sheng stood up silently, went to a table, and drew a picture with the paper, brushes, and paints he brought. After the painting was completed, everyone took a look and said that the painting was distorted, because the bamboo poles were red – the bamboo poles in the world were all green, so how could there be red? Even purple bamboo, the poles were only dark purple, how could they be as red as rouge?

Listening to everyone's comments, Lu Sheng remained silent, but Shopkeeper Liu fell in love with the painting and bought it on the spot and brought it home.

Shopkeeper Liu also said that in fact, he also knew that there was no red bamboo in the world, but he bought the painting because he liked it very much. Ma Chun said that he had indeed seen red bamboo. Shopkeeper Liu suddenly became curious and asked Ma Chun where he had seen red bamboo, and Ma Chun said sadly.

It turned out that Shopkeeper Zhou was not only good at doing business, but also liked to plant flowers and trees. The Zhou family had a large courtyard, in which Shopkeeper Zhou planted many flowers and trees. In that courtyard, there was a clump of purple bamboo. One year, a red bamboo with a red pole suddenly grew out of the clump of purple bamboo. Shopkeeper Zhou felt very novel and liked it, so he dug up the red bamboo and planted it in a corner of the courtyard. Later, the red bamboo grew new shoots every year, and the bamboo that grew into the new bamboo shoots also had red poles. Zhou Xing also liked those red bamboos very much. When Ma Chun went to Zhou's house as a guest, he had seen those red bamboos and knew their origin from Zhou Xing's mouth.

Ma Chun's words couldn't help Shopkeeper Liu sighing again and again: "The world is so big, there are all kinds of wonders!"

When leaving, Ma Chun asked shopkeeper Liu for Lu Sheng's address, because just now he had decided to go to Dingyuan County and ask Lu Sheng to draw a picture of red bamboo for him and take it home to express his thoughts about Zhou Xing. Unexpectedly, Shopkeeper Liu said that he only knew that Lu Sheng lived in Dingyuan County, but he did not know Lu Sheng's detailed address.

The next day, Ma Chun rode his horse to Dingyuan County. After arriving at the county seat, he settled down in an inn and asked around where Lu Sheng's family lived. Ma Chun thought that it would take a lot of trouble to find Lu Sheng's address, but he didn't expect that he would find out soon. It turned out that Lu Sheng's paintings were very famous in Dingyuan County, and many people knew his address.

Ma Chun excitedly rushed to the door of the Lu family and knocked on the knocker. After a while, a servant came out and told Ma Chun that Lu Sheng had gone to another place to paint and sell paintings, and he did not know when he would return home.

Ma Chun stayed in Dingyuan County for five days, but still couldn't bring Lu Sheng home. Because he was in a hurry for business, on the sixth day, he had to leave Dingyuan County and rush to Jingxian County.

On this day, Ma Chun passed through Nanling County and passed through Nanling County. As long as he drove more than 100 miles, he could return to his home. Looking at the bustling flow of people on the street, Ma Chun suddenly thought: Why don't I visit my uncle and shopkeeper Zhou?

Thinking of this, Ma Chun turned the horse's head and came to the door of his uncle's house. After chatting with his uncle for a while, Ma Chun came to Zhou's house and saw Zhou, the shopkeeper. Shopkeeper Zhou told Ma Chun that there was still no news from Zhou Xing. Listening to Shopkeeper Zhou's words and looking at the red bamboo, Ma Chun couldn't help but feel sad. He was going to tell Shopkeeper Zhou that he saw a picture of red bamboo in Luzhou City and went to Dingyuan County to visit the painter, but he was worried that Shopkeeper Zhou would miss Zhou Xing even more after hearing it, so he held back and didn't say it. Shopkeeper Zhou said melancholyly: "When Zhou Xing left home, there were only eight red bamboo trees. Now that ten years have passed, there are more than 180 red bamboo trees. Alas... "

Hearing this, Ma Chun couldn't help but tremble. He clearly remembered that the number of red bamboos depicted on the red bamboo picture was exactly eight - how could this number be exactly the same as the number of red bamboos in Zhou Xing's house the year he left home? Is there any connection between the two?

Back home, the more Ma Chun thought about it, the more he felt that there was something strange about this matter, so he only stayed at home for three days, but he couldn't stay any longer. Early on the fourth day, he rode his horse straight to Dingyuan County - he wanted to find out, what was going on?

After arriving in Dingyuan County, Ma Chun found an inn, put down his luggage, and went straight to Lu's house. Knocking on the door, a servant came out and told Ma Chun that Lu Sheng was not at home. Ma Chun told the servant that he was from Jingxian County and wanted to talk to Lu Sheng.

After saying that, Ma Chun was about to return to the inn when suddenly a seven or eight-year-old boy ran out of the gate of the Lu family, looking like he was going to play in the street. Ma Chun took a closer look at the boy's face and was stunned, because the boy's face was almost exactly the same as that of a friend of his when he was a child, and that friend was Zhou Xing!

After a long time, Ma Chun woke up. He caught up with the little boy and asked. The little boy told Ma Chun that he was Lu Sheng's son, and Lu Sheng went out as a guest today and would not return home until evening.

Back at the inn, the more Ma Chun thought about it, the more he felt that the matter was very strange: Lu Sheng's son looked very much like Zhou Xing when he was a child, which meant that Lu Sheng looked very much like Zhou Xing! Lu Sheng drew a picture of red bamboo, and the Zhou family had exactly eight red bamboo trees back then... God, could Lu Sheng be Zhou Xing? If this happened, why did Zhou Xing change his name to Lu Sheng? Why did he come to Dingyuan County, which was so far away from Nanling County, and why didn't he return home for a whole ten years?

The more Ma Chun thought about it, the more he didn't understand. The next morning, he got up early and went outside gate of the Lu family again. He knocked on the door knocker, but unexpectedly, after a long time, no one opened the door.

Why did the Lu family suddenly leave home overnight? Ma Chun stood for a long time, and a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind: After Lu Sheng returned home last night, the servant must have reported to him about my visit from Jing County; and he led the whole family away from home overnight, and he must have been afraid to see me. Why is Lu Sheng so afraid to see people from Jing County? Yes, he must have been to Jing County and done something bad in Jing County! Yes, he must be Zhou Xing! But what exactly did Zhou Xing do in Jing County? My younger brother Ma Qiu... God, Ma Qiu wouldn't die at Zhou Xing's hands, right?

Thinking of this, Ma Chun couldn't help but shake a few times. After half a stick of incense, he finally calmed down and returned to the inn, bought paper, pen, inkstone, and ink, and held back his tears and began to draw.

Although Ma Chun had not painted for many years, he had been painting for many years, so he was still very skilled at painting. So, what was he painting? In fact, what he was painting was nothing but a portrait of Zhou Xing.

Based on his memory, Ma Chun quickly drew a portrait of Zhou Xing. Of course, considering that ten years had passed, Ma Chun made Zhou Xing a much more mature and robust painting. Then he held the portrait and asked about Zhou Xing's whereabouts everywhere.

Half a year later, Ma Chun finally found out about Zhou Xing in a small town in Shouxian County, which was more than 300 miles away from Dingyuan County. Half a year ago, Zhou Xing came to that small town and bought a house to live in. He changed his name and stopped painting.

Ma Chun arrived at the Shouxian County Office on the same day and reported everything to the Shouxian County Governor. The Shouxian County Governor dubiously dispatched a catcher and arrested Zhou Xing. Zhou Xing really couldn't justify himself by saying where he was from and why he came to Shouxian County. Therefore, the Shouxian County Governor sent someone to escort Zhou Xing to the Jingxian County office and let the Jingxian County Governor interrogate the case.

The governor of Jingxian County invited the shopkeeper Zhou and many neighbors of the Zhou family to confirm the identity of Zhou Xing, but Zhou Xing could not explain why he had to leave home for ten years, so he had to confess that he had killed Ma Qiu.

It turned out that on that day ten years ago, Zhou Xing rushed to Jingxian County and wanted to go to Ma's house to learn painting skills with Ma Chun, and accidentally met Ma Qiu outside Jingxian County. The naughty Ma Qiu mocked Zhou Xing's painting for a while, and Zhou Xing was angry, choked Ma Qiu to death, and dragged the body into the woods. Then Zhou Xing, who was afraid of being found out, returned home, took a sum of money, and told the shopkeeper Zhou that he was going to go out to visit the mountains and waters and visit famous teachers. In this way, he came to Dingyuan County with a guilty conscience, changed his name to Lu Sheng, lived down, and married a wife and had children. Unexpectedly, he would eventually reveal his true face because of the red bamboo picture…

Zhou Xing was sentenced to beheading. On the day of execution, the streets of Jing County were empty, while Ma Chun was alone. He came to Ma Qiu's grave and cried bitterly.