A Long, Long Time Ago, in China, there was a very famous painter. This painter was especially good at painting dragons. The dragons he painted had every scale looking so vivid. Their horns seemed to be about to break through the clouds, and their whiskers seemed to be fluttering in the wind. Their bodies were winding and twisting, as if they could fly out of the painting at any time. However, none of the dragons he painted had eyeballs.
Everyone thought it was very strange and asked him why he didn't paint eyeballs for the dragons. The painter said with a smile, "If I paint eyeballs for the dragons, the dragons will fly away." Everyone didn't really believe it and thought it was just a joke. One day, a grand Buddhist ceremony was going to be held in a temple. The monks in the temple wanted to make the temple look more lively, so they invited this painter to paint four dragons on the temple walls. These four dragons were baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, with different postures, but still without eyeballs. People who came to participate in the ceremony saw these four eyeless dragons and all thought it was a pity. They all asked the painter to paint eyeballs for the dragons one after another.
Unable to resist everyone's repeated requests, the painter picked up his brush and painted eyeballs for two of the dragons. In an instant, there was lightning and thunder, and the two dragons in the painting seemed to come to life. They twisted their bodies, their scales glittered, rose from the wall, broke through the roof, and flew into the sky. And the remaining two eyeless dragons were still on the wall. Everyone present was stunned. Only then did they believe what the painter had said. Since then, the story of this painter adding the finishing touch to the painting of dragons has spread. People also often use the phrase "adding the finishing touch" to describe that when a person does something, adding a crucial touch makes the whole thing more perfect.
