The Versatile Master Artist

Many paintings were hung on the wall by Mona herself, who instructed the student society staff to do so.

When she was pasting up Gu Weijing’s painting, she inexplicably took a picture of it.

"Well, let’s say I owe you one."

Sande Nu constantly had a thought in her mind, wondering if she could ask Mrs. Sakai to point out any inadequacies she saw in the work.

She wanted to know what, in Professor Cruz’s eyes, was Gu Weijing’s painting lacking, and why it wasn’t eligible to be selected for the advanced class.

Mrs. Sakai didn’t think much of Gu Weijing, and the interviewers at the school recruitment fair might have similar reasons for disliking him.

Mistakes aren’t scary,

what’s scary is being eliminated without understanding the reason.

Miss Sande Nu felt that if she clarified things for Gu Weijing and conveyed it to him, it would be worth their childhood friendship.

She didn’t owe him anything either.

Mona was always hesitant about whether it was appropriate to disturb Mrs. Sakai with a student’s clumsy work that wasn’t well-regarded by Professor Cruz.

Would it leave a bad impression?

Forget it,

today she seemed to have overheard Gu Weijing being mentioned in a conversation between the assistant Xiaosong and Miss Sakai.

Regardless of whether she misheard, she considered it a kind of calling.

Mona didn’t plan to directly bother Mrs. Sakai; she could start by asking the two assistants for their opinions.

Assistant Xiaosong and Miss Sakai’s standards were far beyond those of the rural students at Fitz’s.

Giving some casual pointers to Gu Weijing should be quite easy.

"Hmph, if it weren’t for me, Gu Weijing, who else here would care so much about you?" Miss Sande Nu bit her lip.

She hesitated about whether to approach Koizumi Katsuko or Assistant Xiaosong.

Koizumi Katsuko and Mona were both Fitz students, so they should be closer.

However, whether it was due to her failed attempt at befriending, or Koizumi Katsuko’s meaningful gaze just now,

her intuition as a woman told her,

Miss Shengzi wasn’t as innocent and approachable as she seemed.

After pacing for a moment, she gave up the idea of talking to Koizumi Katsuko, and turned to speak to the gloomy-faced Koshiba Tarou.

He was already responsible for advising her as her assistant tutor.

"Assistant Xiaosong teacher, I’m very sorry to disturb you. There’s a painting by my classmate Gu Weijing that I’d like to ask you about, where does his problem lie..."

Koshiba Tarou was currently in a bad mood.

If the oil painting base picture on Shengzi’s photo wall was indeed Gu Weijing’s work—

It’s not just a matter of the painting’s quality.

The fiancée in his heart had given him the cold shoulder, rejected his invitation, and then fled to hook up with a wild boy in the middle of the night.

She even posted a boldly affectionate tweet on Instagram saying "MY LOVE."

The injustice couldn’t be worse than Wu Dalang’s!

Koshiba Tarou had no mood to critique any artworks.

He initially planned to simply wave Mona off, but hearing half of her words, his hand that was waving stopped.

Gu Weijing’s painting?

He paused for a moment, looking down instinctively at the computer screen.

An image of a vintage Mercedes-Benz S220.

For a student, it was barely acceptable.

The scaling and proportion in the oil painting had some commendable aspects, but the color handling lacked sharpness, and the brushstrokes had jaggedly uneven color overflow at the edges.

This was the result of not having enough confidence with the oil painting brush, and lacking decisiveness when laying down strokes.

The contours were decent, but the overall composition felt insufficiently full.

These issues ultimately led to a lack of expressive power in the painting; it lacked the distinctive emotion of oil paintings and didn’t have the meticulous details of a photograph.

As for the painting technique, it’s not even worth mentioning.

"With such a realistic style, why doesn’t he just become a photographer?" Koshiba Tarou thought mockingly.

In Xiaosong’s mind, two little figures were fighting.

The rational one told him that the photo Koizumi Katsuko updated on Instagram was indeed Gu Weijing’s painting.

Even if not, from an objective perspective, producing such shapes and lines at a student stage was already quite good.

His own high school works might not have been much better than this painting.

The emotional figure in his mind was shouting, the work on the tablet screen couldn’t be called a masterpiece.

Koshiba Tarou would rather believe that this painting’s level is Gu Weijing’s true standard.

The boy just didn’t know what tricks he used to enchant Mrs. Sakai and her daughter.

In the deepest part of his heart, Koshiba Tarou knew the actual possibility of this was negligible.

However, humans are emotional creatures because often in life, emotions triumph over rationality, and people are adept at finding excuses for themselves.

"This sort of work, also worthy of being called painting? It’s absolutely laughable."

Koshiba Tarou took the tablet.

He somewhat lost his composure, displaying the painting to everyone in the classroom, hysterically like a defeated dog’s powerless rage, seeking some degree of emotional validation.

"Look here... The brushwork is crude, the colors are all muddled together; what kind of color mixing is this? Those familiar with it might aim to restore the worn texture of time; those unfamiliar might think it’s smeared with dog poop. Here, the shadow’s color transition has no continuity at all. Was he sleepwalking when he painted, or does he have eyes on his backside, having never seen what a shadow under sunlight should actually look like?"