Noticing that the camera was aiming at him, Wu Qu’s writing posture became rigid. As an ordinary person, he had never been showcased on TV and rarely received attention from many. He felt nervous and restrained as he thought of the countless viewers watching him now, and his brain blanked out, almost forgetting what he had just thought about.
However, the videographer moved closer and filmed the piece he had just begun, putting more pressure on Wu Qu. He accidentally wrote the wrong character.
But the videographer did not care; he turned around and left to film the others after he finished.
Wu Qu stared at the mistake on the paper helplessly.
Judge Chen Jianqiu had already mentioned that each person only had one piece of rice paper, which meant only one chance. Was he going to accept the mistake and continue writing?
Wu Qu was a perfectionist. To be more accurate, all calligraphers were perfectionists. He felt discomfort all over his body and exasperated when he saw the wrong character on the paper, thinking that the one incorrect character affected the entire piece’s layout, which seemed extremely ugly. Asking him to continue writing was as uncomfortable as forcing him to swallow a fly.
Coincidentally, Chen Jianqiu passed Wu Qu on his patrol at this moment.
Wu Qu called him, “Mr. Chen, can I please change my rice paper?”
“What happened?”
Chen Jianqiu had a deep impression of Wu Qu’s courage, for the shameless Su Xuezhen would still be a judge if Wu Qu had not dared to expose him.
Wu Qu pointed at the paper, “I wrote a character wrong.”
Chen Jianqiu looked where he pointed and saw the wrong character, which was an unsalvageable mistake. He shook his head and said, “Did you not listen carefully to the rules I read out loud just now? There’s only one piece of paper. You can cross this character out and write the correct one to the side.”
“Will the correction affect my score?” Wu Qu asked anxiously.
Chen Jianqiu did not know how to respond to the question. He could only say,
“Few judges pay much attention to the neatness of the piece. Most people, including me, don’t care much.”
The ambiguous answer made Wu Qu feel even more uncertain. He explained, “I wrote the wrong character because that videographer disrupted me just now, so I made a mistake.”
Chen Jianqiu asked, “Did he touch you?”
Wu Qu said no.
“Then you can’t change the paper,” Although Chen Jianqiu felt sympathetic for Wu Qu, the rules were stipulated to constrain everyone with no exceptions. Besides, the videographer had filmed others, and none were in the same situation as Wu Qu, demonstrating he was not psychologically strong enough.
“You can continue writing. It doesn’t matter. I’ll tell the other judges about your special situation when we evaluate in the end,” Chen Jianqiu said, already being very considerate of Wu Qu.
Then, he walked to the TV station’s videographer and warned him sternly that no one was allowed in the center of the venue and that he should not wander around to disturb others.
The videographer immediately apologized and obediently stood at the perimeters of the venue, not daring to move again.
Wu Qu stared absent-mindedly at his mistake in despair. He was self-aware and knew he was at the lower-middle level among the forty people in the calligraphy group. Even if he made no mistake, his chances of winning were slim, but now, even the last hint of the possibility to win was lost.
Liu Man was positioned diagonally behind Wu Qu. She saw Wu Qu and Chen Jianqiu talking, and after Chen Jianqiu left, Wu Qu placed his brush down and remained motionless.
She felt strange.
Seeing that Chen Jiangqiu was patrolling over, Liu Man asked him in a low voice, “Mr. Chen, what happened to Wu Qu?”
Chen Jianqiu truly appreciated Liu Man’s works and told her with a pleasant expression, “Wu Qu wrote a wrong character and wants to change his rice paper, which is impossible according to the rules. He probably feels mentally burdened.”
As he said it, Chen Jianqiu noticed Liu Man’s blank rice paper and said with surprise, “Why haven’t you started yet?”
“I haven’t decided where to write on.”
Chen Jianqiu felt it was inexplicable. Where else could she write except for on the paper?
“But I have decided now,” Liu Man smiled, “Mr. Chen, give my rice paper to Wu Qu. I’m not going to use paper this round.”
Chen Jianqiu felt surprised, “Then what are you going to use?”
“I’m carving the words.”
While Liu Man considered the “Han Dynasty’s Style,” she unintentionally discovered an additional small carving knife in the pen holder on her table. The staff at the venue probably rushed too much when they prepared, which caused the negligence. Her thoughts gradually became clear after seeing the knife.
Previous chapters have mentioned that Liu Man studied calligraphy with Madam Xu as a child, starting with carving; therefore, she was the best at seal cutting.
Since she would not need this piece of rice paper, she could do something good and swap with Wu Qu.
“Even if you give your paper to Wu Qu, we won’t additionally prepare a rough stone or wooden plaque for you, so how are you going to carve?” Chen Jianqiu was in disapproval of her decision.
Under this circumstance, it was better to act conservative than unconventional.
Liu Man looked toward the solid wood table in front of her.
At first, Chen Jianqiu did not understand her, when suddenly, he thought of it and asked in disbelief, “You’re carving on the table?!”
“Mhm, I’ll compensate you for the material cost according to the table’s price afterward.”
Chen Jianqiu: “…”
“I can’t decide on my own regarding this matter between you and Wu Qu. I have to discuss it with the other judges.”
Chen Jianqiu immediately walked toward the other judges.
At this time, there were only sixty minutes left until the end of the evaluation. Liu Man was not in a hurry, for she did not intend to write a voluminous essay.
The judges quickly reached a consensus and agreed that Liu Man could give her rice paper to Wu Qu. First, Wu Qu’s situation was indeed extenuating, and giving away the rice paper did not mean re-preparing one, so the other writers could not refute it. Secondly, they reread the competition’s regulations, which neither prohibited participants from exchanging papers nor using wooden tables as carving carriers for creation.
Liu Man completely took advantage of the loophole in the rules.
Because the videographer no longer took close-ups of the contestants’ works one by one, the audience before the TV could only see a group of people quietly writing or carving at their tables from a distance. Amateurs could not understand anything, which honestly made it super boring!! Besides, this scene would last for another hour!
Just as everyone was hesitating about switching the channel, a judge suddenly took the rice paper from Liu Man’s table and gave it to the man diagonally in front of her.
The camera was so far away that the audience could not see the man clearly, and they could spot Liu Man’s position only because of her attire.
The audience felt bewildered. What was the meaning of moving the rice paper over? Were they exchanging evaluation papers? Why was not that man’s rice paper swapped over?
Liu Man’s next moves were even stranger; she put everything on the table, such as brushes and inkstones, onto the floor and surprisingly started gesturing at the empty table’s surface.
The audience decided not to change to another channel; they were curious about what Liu Man wanted to do.
Not only were they curious, but everyone present at the scene was. Some of Liu Man’s competitors frequently looked toward her and Wu Qu. Zhou Budai also temporarily stopped writing and looked up, trying to figure out what Liu Man was doing.
Translated by: Sydney
Vandez Translations 