Surprise chapter! :u:
Ouyang Cen also spoke to his old friends, “Although the title of ‘Yun Yang Ding’ is a bit off-topic, it isn’t that hard. ‘Yun Yang Ding’ is a famous bronze inscription in the early Western Han Dynasty. As early as the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the article has been circulated. It’s so extensive that as long as you have a thorough understanding of Western Han literature, you can memorize it.”
Ouyang Cen was the deputy head of the calligraphy association, and he was respected. Everyone quieted down as soon as he spoke. He glanced over the judges, and Su Xuezhen and Wang Qinghai, who were guilty, subconsciously looked elsewhere to avoid eye contact.
Wu Qu was probably too angry to think straight, he even said to Ouyang Cen, “You guys are all birds of a feather!”
Zhou Buxuan won’t allow any slander to his teacher, and said angrily, “You can’t go around saying nonsense like that!”
Ouyang Cen made a gesture, signaling for Zhou Buxuan to stay quiet and out of this.
Wu Qu knew Zhou Buxuan, Zhou Buxuan was actually quite famous and was one of the most anticipated candidates this year. Not only that, he was also Ouyang Cen’s pupil. Thinking of this, Wu Qu got more and more jealous. He looked at Ouyang Cen and said,
“I taught myself calligraphy for twenty years, and I love calligraphy from the bottom of my heart. From the very beginning, I’ve been on this journey alone, I never found a teacher because I was just a normal citizen without any backdoors. I could only copy the words over and over again according to the demonstrations.”
“I didn’t know how well I did, or if I had any calligraphy talents or not. It was like crossing a river by feeling the stones, I knew nothing of the road ahead. I’ve signed up for the exhibition two times already because I don’t have any experience or a guide, I couldn’t even pass the re-evaluation the first two times; however, I’m not afraid of failure. I believe that my work will one day make it to the top! I’ve been focusing all of my energy on studying calligraphy for these 4 years, I’ve even quit my job just for the sake of preparation.”
Wu Qu glanced over Su Maolin, Liu Man, and Zhou Buxuan,
“You guys have famous teachers tutoring you. You’re all so young, yet you’ve already reached a point that ordinary people could never reach. The Exhibition will be like children’s play to you and you will never experience how important this Exhibition is to hobbyists like us. This is like a belief to show that all these years of my hard work were worth it.”
“This time, my work finally made it into the Exhibition. I thought I could proceed to the very end, yet you people who rely on your daddies and mentors to win are the very people who block my dreams. I’m already 35 years old, do I really have to waste another 4 years to compete with another batch of you privileged kids? I’ll never win!”
Wu Qu said this with the determination to give everything up, he has already offended the entirety of the National Calligraphy Association with his words. He knew wasn’t going to attend this Exhibition next time and he won’t ever become a professional calligrapher, so what was there to fear? It would be better for him to stand up for himself and turn this whole evaluation upside down.
He wasn’t happy, so he’ll make all these privileged youngsters suffer too!
After Liu Man heard his words, she was deeply moved. Because of Zhu Xiyang, she felt Wu Qu’s despair and helplessness. The situation Wu Qu faced now was just like the situation she and Li Xiaoru faced before.
She wasn’t mad anymore, because she already had the mindset of, “If you don’t mess with me, I won’t mess with you.” Wu Qu’s speech was out of desperation, she and Professor Su were accidentally insulted.
Liu Man said to Wu Qu calmly, “I play fairly; the sole reason why I knew how to write ‘Yun Yang Ding’ was because the font that I actually study is the small seal rather than the regular script, and ‘Yun Yang Ding’ was one of the first pieces I studied. “
Wu Qu was shocked, he saw the kindness in the girl’s eyes, she was still on his side even when he said so many bad things, including her and her mentor.
Shouldn’t she be mad?
Liu Man continued to say,
“If you don’t believe me, I can write ‘Yun Yang Ding’ again using seal characters.”
Wu Qu didn’t dare speak a word. He was extremely conflicted because he already believed Liu Man, but he didn’t know but to show that. This was his first interaction with Liu Man; he didn’t expect her to be such a big-hearted person, he was at a loss for words.
Liu Man didn’t waste time; a million excuses would be less effective than a simple act. She walks up to Wu Qu’s table and, under thousands of pairs of eyes, starts writing on his blank paper.
Zhou Buxuan saw this and suddenly had an uplifting feeling. He took out his phone and pointed its camera at the girl at work. At that moment, even her basic Han dress was a special sight.
Su Yi was not mad anymore; this was Su Xuezhen’s fault and not the innocent Wu Qu. Since Liu Man found her own way of resolving the issue, he will quietly wait.
Ouyang Cen scratched his head, thinking whether he should report this to the president of the council to remove Su Xuezhen’s title.
At that time, they thought Su Xuezhen only colluded with Wang Qinghai for the question-making process, not yet finding out about So Maolin using his father’s work to enter the competition.
When Liu Man was writing, she was completely zen, contrary to Su Maolin, who was sweating so much his entire shirt was wet, and the air conditioning was turned on to max!
Liu Man wrote very speedily; she finished the seal character version of Yun Yang Ding in less than five minutes. Wu Qu stood right next to her, from her first to her last stroke.
His eyes were rid of any contempt towards Liu Man. He was completely convinced of her skills and even looked at her as a Master of Calligraphy.
Seeing Wu Qu’s huge reaction, the seal character judge Cheng Zikun couldn’t sit there quietly. He stood up and walked towards Liu Man’s calligraphy.
When Cheng Zikun saw Liu Man’s seal characters, his eyes lit up,
“Good, good, good!”
A normally confident speaker, Cheng Zikun ran out of words because he was so shocked. If he didn’t see it in person, he wouldn’t believe a little girl in college wrote this masterpiece.
The charm of the bronze stele,
The Western Han Dynasty, full of vigor,
A masterpiece.
Currently, seal characters are slowly getting modernized; barely anyone was good at such an “ancient” variant of the seal characters, and most of these people were really old, slowly withering away.
Cheng Zikun was very excited, he loudly said to all the other judges, “Liu Man’s seal characters, no matter which group she went to, will always be number one.”
When he said this, the entire venue blew up with more conversation than before.
Translated by: Puppxteer and Sydney
Edited by: Michael
Vandez Translations 