Chapter 33: 31

The joint art exam was an exam organized by each city, and it was a qualification exam for art students. The examinees could only qualify for art schools and colleges through this examination. The people in the studio were those who longed to join art schools of all kinds, and were all struggling to achieve their ideal scores on the joint art examination.

They studied the few required courses ceaselessly, their old sketches piling up higher than a person. 

What kind of concept was first place in the entire city?

It was no different than a literature student casually getting first place.

 

 

Forget about first in the city, as long as they entered the top fifty, the student’s art studio would completely turn over a new leaf and everyone would go over there to learn art the next year.

And every year when studios looked for new students, they would say: Last year we produced a top so and so place, our success rates are at 100%, and rumours like that. 

After Kang Kai said this earth-shattering statement, the student’s brush almost couldn’t stay within their grasp. They struggled to formulate words before finally uttering a single phrase. “Fuck?”

 

Kang Kai shook his head, using the tone of someone who was completely used to it to say, “You’re too young. Tell yourself twice the phrase ‘there will always be bigger people and bigger mountains.’”

That student, “Is he really that incredible?”

Kang Kai didn’t say much else, and merely said, “What did I just tell you to say to yourself. There always has to be someone that amazing, you can’t not believe it.”

 

Truth to be told, before Kang Kai had met Xu Sheng, he had also never met someone like this—or it could be said that he really wasn’t a person, and was a magical spirit instead. Although their studio was small, his mother wasn’t a simple figure. She used to teach classes at an art institute, and only retired from teaching due to health reasons. After leaving the institute, she opened up her own art studio.

Kang Kai was the product of Kang Mother’s teachings, and thought he had some artistic talents. That was until a woman knocked on the door of their art studio, bringing along a pile of gifts. “Hello, I’m really sorry to bother you…I’m usually very busy at work, I’m uneasy leaving him alone at home.”

After the woman spoke a few polite remarks, she indirectly suggested the idea.

 

The first time he and Xu Sheng met, he had only one impression: This boy looked too showy. 

The way Xu Sheng appeared made others feel a sense of distance, but his personality was completely different. His emotional intelligence was extremely high. It was winter, and he wore a black sweater, making his complexion seem extremely pale. The wells of his eyes carried hints of amusement. He called out his greeting confidently. “Hello jiejie.” Then he turned to Kang Kai. “Is this your didi?”

It was this phrase that captured his mother. His mother would have forced Xu Sheng to come to the studio every day at this point, her smile completely besmitten.

Of course, these weren’t the important points.

The important point was that by the time Xu Sheng had hung around the art studio for not even three months, Kang Kai’s worldview had been split open. 

It was during a lecture on sketching. His mother sat at the front posing with a book to read as a model for them to use. “You have thirty minutes to sketch. After thirty minutes, I will take your sketches and grade them on the spot.”

The final product that was sent up was a very thin piece, evidently casually torn out of a practise workbook. There were a few words written on the top left corner of this piece of paper. The first word was “Answer”, and the complete content of the phrase was—Answer: I don’t know how to answer this.

Other than this line of words, a completed sketch was drawn on the paper. The brush was only a normal watercolor brush, so it was impossible to use the traditional vertical line techniques of charcoal or a pencil for shading, but it still showed the woman’s movements and spirit with determined lines.

It was like he had casually drawn two strokes and brought out the essence of the drawing. 

“…” Kang Kai watched his mother grade up to half of the drawings before sitting in stunned silence for a very long time. “Who drew this?”

After a long while, sitting in the very back of the studio, the boy procrastinating on his homework and sprawled over his desk moved a bit, a black watercolor brush pinched between his fingers. He raised his hand. “My homework was too boring, so I was doodling.”

 

Auntie Kang fell into silence for a few seconds, then asked, “Have you had lessons before?”

“No.” Xu Sheng sat up and put the brush in his hand down, and added without much intention, “Is it very hard?” 

Auntie Kang, “…”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Vlcmf atja vjs, lc Bjcu Bjl’r tfjga, atf akb kbgvr ‘We Vtfcu’ kfgf bcfr atja vfolfv atf tfjnfcr. 

The art studio’s sink had its  faucets set closely to each other in a long line so that it would be easier for students to wash their tools after class. The tiles were stained with colors and pigment spots that couldn’t be washed off.

After heaven-defying Xu Sheng had finished washing his hands, Kang Kai was already waiting for him at the doorway of the studio. He squatted by the flower pot at the side of the entrance. When he saw Xu Sheng come out, he patted his thigh. “Going to the bus stop? I’ll send you off.”

Xu Sheng, “It’s not that many steps. With this much free time, why don’t you go back and fix that portrait of yours.”

Fuck,” Kang Kai said, “We haven’t even seen each other for such a long time, yet you mock me so.” 

Xu Sheng laughed, and didn’t make any other jokes.

After walking out a bit, Kang Kai finally asked, “Last time I went to the warehouse, I saw the art papers had been moved. You went back?”

“Probably around when school first started.” Xu Sheng had to think for a few seconds before remembering what day Kang Kai meant for ‘last time’. “I went once, just to take a look.”

That storehouse was owned by one of Kang Kai’s friend’s. It had been lying in disuse for many years and with no one able to find a use for it. Afterwards, it had been lent to Xu Sheng for use as storage for his previous art works. After everything that had happened afterwards, even as a bystander, Kang Kai felt miserable thinking about it. Xu Sheng put the key around his neck without a word, and never mentioned it ever again. 

Kang Kai, “I originally wanted to keep in frequent contact with you, but you didn’t even reply to my messages.”

Xu Sheng, “It’s okay, you can still contact me in the future if you want to.”

Kang Kai thought to himself, isn’t Sixth High the kind of place with endless strict rules? “Doesn’t Lin Jing Sixth High have a lot of rules?”

“There are a lot of rules, probably over five hundred school rules if you added all of them up.” Xu Sheng spoke up to here, then said, “But when have I ever followed the rules?” 

…

This thought process was truly enlightening!

 

Kang Kai really thought that this brother of his was incredible to the point of exploding.

After Kang Kai sorted through his own amazement, he remembered that the Xu Sheng in the art studio just now hadn’t spoken like this. He had said he hadn’t replied to his messages because the school was strict. 

“Wait no, you said just now…how come you keep changing what you say?”

Xu Sheng, “I was playing with you earlier.”

Kang Kai, “Fuck!”

The bus came every fifteen minutes. When the two of them arrived at the bus station, the number two bus had just entered the stop. 

“You can just send me off here,” Xu Sheng said.

Kang Kai didn’t reply for a long time before suddenly calling out to him. “Sheng ge.”

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Xu Sheng turned around.

Kang Kai didn’t know if he should bring up this topic again. After Xu Sheng said he would never draw again, this topic had become extremely sensitive to bring up. Finally, he still said, “I really think if you take the art exam, whether it be Qing Art Institute or Yang Art Institute, none of them will be a problem.” 

The sky was dimming and the intermittently arriving buses shone their lights directly over to them. The scattered light hid Xu Sheng’s brows and eyes, and his expression wasn’t visible for the moment. Finally he said, “I’m off.”

By the time Xu Sheng arrived home, he discovered that there was no one there. When he lowered his head to look at WeChat, he found Xu Yaping had sent him a message half an hour ago.

-Mom went to the company, something came up.

-You only ate a few bites for dinner. If you’re hungry then buy some takeout. 

Xu Yaping’s work was extremely busy. She was in the HR department of a company. That year when she had given birth to Xu Sheng, she had lost her job for a while. By the time she came back, she discovered that society had changed drastically, and only found another job after much difficulty and climbed up step by step to her current position.

In order to provide for her family, she lived in exhaustion and worked in a high pressure job.

Everyone who knew her would praise her: You’ve been through a lot.

Xu Sheng couldn’t ignore these two messages. He sighed and replied: I know. 

Xu Sheng slipped on some slippers and went back to his room.

His phone sounded twice again.

 

This time the notification was for messages in a group chat.

The group chat for Class Seven of the second years had a very generic name: Loving Family 

This name was definitely created by Hou Jun.

Both students and teachers were a part of this chat. Normally, no one spoke in here, but this time’s chat revival reason was because Tan Kai had cautiously spoken out to inquire about the monthly exam results to Meng Guowei.

Tan Kai: Teacher Meng, about when will the monthly exam results come out?

Meng Guowei: Very soon! 

Hou Jun’s appearance speed was also very quick. It was very obvious he had collaborated with Tan Kai beforehand.

Hou Jun: How soon is very soon?

Meng Guowei: You guys rest assured, we are currently using our time to grade exams. We’re aiming to give you the results when you come back on Monday.

Xu Sheng thought to himself: …It doesn’t need to be that soon. 

Everyone in the class chat clearly wanted the grades to come out a little later. When they heard this news, they all felt a sense of disappointment.

Hou Jun: Okay teacher, you have all worked hard. Actually, compared to getting our grades back, we’re more concerned about our teachers’ health.

Tan Kai immediately followed up singing praises: Yes, don’t tire yourselves out. It’s not a big deal if the grades come out later.

Xu Sheng gave the two of them a silent like in his heart. He exited the group chat and tapped open another. 

He could almost see Shao Zhan’s face in his mind from just seeing his profile picture.

Xu Sheng recalled how he had performed using his own name, and the more he recalled, the weaker he felt.

S: Did you see the group chat.

S: Next Monday…do you want to take the day off. 

When Shao Zhan received this message, he had just finished going through a practise exam.

Shao Zhan was leaning against the back of his chair, taking a rare break from his practise tests and motioned for him to continue: And then.

 

S: And then I’ll look at the specific results first, and Lao Meng and the others’ reactions, then think of what to do.

Shao Zhan: It’s all death, you want to pick a specific date for it? 

S: …

The elderly living downstairs in his apartment liked listening to opera. Their elderly ears couldn’t hear very well, so the TV volume was always set very high. The antique-style TV emitted incessant shrieking noises. Most of the housing in Nanping District was old. This was vastly different from the city district, schools were few, and news was relatively blocked.

Two bedrooms and one living room. The house was empty, with only Shao Zhan by himself.

The picture frame originally placed in the living room had disappeared, only the marks on the wall were left behind. 

Shao Zhan went to the kitchen to get a cup of water, preparing himself for another practise test when his phone rang again.

S: As a make-up gift, I’ll bring you breakfast next week? What do you want to eat.

S: Or something else, either way I owe you this time.

S: You can do whatever you want. 

You can, do whatever, you want.

Fuck.

It wasn’t until he had sent out that last phrase that Xu Sheng realised it sounded very ambiguous.

Two seconds later, he directly deleted it. 

Meng Guowei had said they were hurriedly working on grading tests. This was not a false statement.

The teachers at Sixth High didn’t even rest over the weekend, working overtime to grade the exams. If they were fast enough, they could probably finish divvying up the grades to each classroom during the weekend.

When Meng Guowei was replying to the messages in the class group chat, he had been sitting in the office, several piles of exams in front of him. In order to maintain fairness in grading, the columns for student names had been sealed. He didn’t know whose exam he was currently grading…although there were always exceptions.

After marking exams up to this point, Meng Guowei set down his glasses and pinched at his nose, attempting to relieve his eye strain. 

“Teacher Meng.” The literature teacher next door had just finished marking the pile of exams she had on hand and couldn’t resist asking, “Have you graded Shao Zhan’s test yet?”

Meng Guowei put on his glasses once again and said, “I haven’t found it yet, it’s probably with you?”

 

Shao Zhan’s handwriting was very good and his test scores were high. Any subject’s teacher only had to mark his exam and would recognise him without looking at the name. Of course other than Shao Zhan, there was also another very easily recognisable student. It was Xu Sheng, whose handwriting was so atrocious no one wanted to read it.

The literature teacher next door thought that this was rather strange. Only two teachers were grading the literature tests, and she had just gone through every single one of the marked exams just now to make sure she hadn’t graded it yet. She asked, “Are you sure we received everything? You don’t have it on your side?” 

Meng Guowei wasn’t done grading yet, but there weren’t many papers left. He glanced through the exams, but not a single person’s handwriting resembled Shao Zhan’s. “I also don’t have it.”

The literature teacher next door wanted to say something else, but Meng Guowei’s heart left plenty of room for possibilities. He waved, obviously not caring too much about this, and not worried about his own class’s student Shao Zhan. He had already planned out how to celebrate Shao Zhan’s first place. “No worries, I’m not worried about Shao Zhan’s grades at all. He’s definitely first place again. When I finish grading, I’ll pick out his exam, take it and make a few extra copies! We still have a monthly exam ranking announcement board; put his name in the first place spot beforehand.”

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