Gu Xiqiao didn"t walk out of the school gates, instead walking all the way down the tree boulevard.
Because she was stopped by Wu Hongwen, she looked from the vantage point of her cla.s.s, seeing that the Gu family car had already driven away. Thankfully, it was Friday so cla.s.ses ended earlier, and it wasn"t all that late yet.
At the end of the boulevard was a small building where the art students of First City High studied drawing.
One of the doors to the cla.s.srooms on the lower floor was slightly ajar, and a bunch of canvases could be seen lying on the floor.
Gu Xiqiao stood by the door for a long time, and it was clear that she was in low spirits for some reason. In the virtual s.p.a.ce, the system spirit clasped its hands over its mouth, not daring to interrupt her thoughts at this moment. A few moments later, she pushed the door open and stepped in.
In the cla.s.sroom, there was a young man in a white s.h.i.+rt sitting by the window with a drawing canvas, and upon hearing noises he looked over to the door, stunned to see Gu Xiqiao before frowning in disgust. "Why are you here?!"
Gu Xiqiao glanced over at him and promptly ignored him, going to the farthest seat from him and sitting down. A pure white piece of cloth was covered over the canvas in front of her, and she reached over and caressed it gently, her lowered eyes hiding her emotions as a sense of nostalgia rose in her heart.
In her past life, the Gu family had maimed her hands so that she would never be able to draw again, and her choice to burn together with the Gu family was also due to her great despair of not being able to take up a brush ever again.
After that, even if her soul was trapped in the virtual s.p.a.ce, she had never once picked up a brush to draw. The pain of losing her hands was still too fresh in her mind at the time for her to do so.
Seeing her brush him off, Zhong Yongsi felt even angrier at her.
He was quite well known in First City High for being talented in Chinese paintings and had gotten innumerable medals and rewards from N City"s youth drawing contests. Before he even graduated from high school, he had already been accepted by the Arts Faculty of A University.
Gu Xijin was known to be talented in oil painting and her studies, so she was known as the most pretty and talented girl in school. Most importantly, she had a close relations.h.i.+p with Zhong Yongsi in private.
Personally, Zhong Yongsi didn"t like Gu Xiqiao who joined the Gu family out of nowhere. To him, she was unfilial for abandoning her adoptive mother and disrespecting her birth father and was greedy, vain and jealous above that. He had always been an arrogant person that thought of himself as morally superior, so this was the type of person that he hated the most.
"What, are you here to draw? But does a person such as you even know how to paint?" Zhong Yongsi was about to leave, but his steps paused as a thought flashed through his mind.
"Are you doing this because Ah Jin"s work was nominated for N City"s art exhibition? Do you have no shame? Art isn"t child"s play, you know!" Zhong Yongsi suddenly burst into anger as he walked over to Gu Xiqiao, his glare like a burning torch. He was a cla.s.sic example of an artist with a weird temper, and to him, Gu Xiqiao was tainting this n.o.ble art by even thinking of using it for the sake of fame.
For some reason, when he was three steps away from Gu Xiqiao, he couldn"t take any more steps, as if he had b.u.mped into an invisible wall.
He wanted to take her canvas and throw it away, but he was unable to move, and it filled his heart with an ominous fear.
Gu Xiqiao raised her head and looked at Zhong Yongsi calmly. "Is it any of your business?"
Gu Xiqiao almost laughed out loud. The oil painting exhibition? If this person hadn"t brought it up, she didn"t even remember that there was such a thing. Learning how to paint because of Gu Xijin? Since when was she such a big deal?!
That being said, she didn"t want to explain anything to Zhong Yongsi. It was bound to be a useless effort anyway.
[Forced Mission activated: Reach Master level of mastery in Chinese painting.]
[Mission reward: 1000 points.]
[The system has detected that your talent in art is quite high, so this mission has been activated, please accomplish it perfectly! Failure punishment is level three!]
[Ding! Forced Daily Mission activated: Practice painting for an hour each day.]
[Missions reward: 1 point]
Gu Xiqiao"s hand"s paused in midair, and a hint of confusion in her eyes. "…Are you sure you didn"t get anything wrong?"
Wasn"t it more rational to trigger an oil painting related mission like this? What the heck was Chinese painting about!
[Er Qiao, Chinese painting is the spirit of Hua Xia, so you must carry on this tradition and make it s.h.i.+ne on the global stage! Your talent for oil painting is so high, so I believe that you would be able to do Chinese paintings well too. Hence, the missions that the system issues are always rational and scientific!]
"..." She felt that the system became more and more unreliable with the day.
That being said, she had no more complaints about the system"s decision. The system spirit"s words impacted her quite a bit, and it was true that although art has no bounds, Chinese painting was what belonged to Hua Xia. With the help of the virtual s.p.a.ce, she would never run out of time, and if she practiced it daily she would be able to get points too, so she had no reason to refuse.
Right now, she had to focus on her own matters first.
She closed her eyes and took up a brush, imagining her adoptive mother"s smile in her mind"s eye.
In her past life, that painting was only half-finished, and it was one of her greatest regrets.
Meanwhile, Zhong Yongsi stood at a distance as he looked at Gu Xiqiao"s serious expression and movements as if she were a devout wors.h.i.+pper. When she took up a paintbrush, her entire aura changed in a split second.
He was stunned for a moment before he made an even more disgusted expression. "People like you only know how to defile art and oil painting!"
She was completely incomparable with Gu Xijin!
And so, he left, slamming the door behind him as he did and making the gla.s.s windows rattle from the force.
Meanwhile, Gu Xiqiao was still in her initial posture, not affected in the slightest by Zhong Yongsi"s outbreak. Artists always had strange temperaments, and she was already beyond used to it.
But he wanted to talk about art with her? He didn"t even have the qualification to do so. Who knows where he was when her paintings obtained international awards in her past life?
As the sky started to darken, the system spirit reminded Gu Xiqiao that it was about time to go home so that she didn"t get picked on by the Gu family. It didn"t want to see this scene happen, so it spoke up.
"It"s alright, I"m not even in a hurry, so don"t rush me." Gu Xiqiao slowly stopped her stroked on the canvas. There was only a vague silhouette on there, without even the outline of the subject of the drawing. After all, she hadn"t painted in such a long time, so she didn"t want to ruin the painting.
Better go into the virtual s.p.a.ce and practice, no rush.
She took down the canvas. The weekends were coming and there were no extra cla.s.ses, just a mock test, so Gu Xiqiao decided to bring the canvas back home to work on it even further.
"System, can you hide the canvas so that the people from Gu Manor don"t see it?"
[Uhm, you can consider leveling me up, Beauty Qiao! Once I reach level one, you will be able to get a ten-s.p.a.ce inventory that you can use to put in as many canvases as you like! I will become even more useful too!]
"We can do that once we have the points for it, no rush."
[...]
Finally, the system spirit reluctantly agreed to cast a misdirection spell on it when they go back to Gu Manor.
Gu Xiqiao took the canvas out of the school gates, and because it was quite late there weren"t many people on the streets anymore. It was late anyway, so she was in no rush. Looking around, she decided to go back to Gu Manor through the small roads and alleys of the residential area.
This road was quiet and there were no pa.s.sersby at all. Coupled with the dim lights of the streetlights and high walls, it gave off a gloomy and creepy feeling.
[Ding! The system has detected red danger level personnel in front of you, will you avoid them?]