After making all the preparations, Liu Man operated the knife stroke by stroke, starting from the upper right corner of the wooden table.
She even knows how to inscribe!!!
This was probably the only thought in everyone’s mind.
The old friends standing beside Su Yi said,
“This young apprentice you took in is no ordinary person.”
“You taught well!”
“I really envy you for encountering such a talented youngster.”
…
In the face-to-face round, they saw with their own eyes how Liu Man wrote “Yun Yang Ding” using two fonts. Their feelings of shock were similar to Cheng Zikun and Chen Jianqiu at that time. Besides, the seal script version of “Yun Yang Ding” was hanging now in the outer lobby of the exhibition center, where Su Maolin’s “Po Fu Yao” was supposed to hang, for countless tourists to see.
Su Yi said with rare humility, “How many months have I been teaching her? It was her previous teacher who enlightened her. That Madam Xu was like a Goddess! If she were alive, I am afraid she would also become a pivotal figure in today’s calligraphy circle.”
Yu Zhan, who stood beside Su Yi, heard the words “Madam Xu,” and his heart skipped a beat. He recalled the girl’s words from his dream:
Little Zhao, Madam Xu…
Zhou Budai watched Liu Man with amazement as she skillfully used the carving knife. He received praise for his intelligence and genius since he was a child, but after encountering Liu Man, the freak, he understood the phrase “one would not get hurt without any comparison.” He wanted to cry but had no tears… Could she leave some room for people with “mediocre talents” like them?
Wu Qu did not look at Liu Man at all. He remained grateful but was also afraid she would affect his performance. This girl had already surpassed his understanding of genius. One more look at her would make him feel unbalanced! He could not afford to write another incorrect character!
The twenty people who belonged to the seal-cutting and carving groups felt a bit surprised, too. Why did a person from a calligraphy group suddenly come to compete with them?? Although it was the free-response round, one should not have enough freedom to crossover.
Among the judges, Cheng Zikun, who liked Liu Man the most, felt excited. He did not expect the girl to save a trick up her sleeves. Cheng Zikun would wander to her every once in a while and check up on her carving progress.
Deputy Minister Guo and the mayor followed Ouyang Cen upstairs for a cup of tea halfway through the round, and when they returned, they discovered the judges and almost all the spectators focusing entirely on a girl. Deputy Minister Guo remembered Liu Man vaguely because she was the only girl in the room and one of the only two youngsters.
He could not help but ask Ouyang Cen out of curiosity about Liu Man’s background.
“She is Su Yi’s last apprentice, and her background is nothing worth detailing,” Ouyang Cen indicated that Liu Man was just an ordinary girl, “However, she crossed over from the regular script group to the seal script group, and now within the time enough for just a cup of tea, she has crossed over to the carving group. It’s truly magical. It’s not uncommon for someone to master both calligraphy and seal-cutting and under normal conditions, you would master one method before practicing the other. No matter how talented, it takes time to hone these skills. To master both skills, you must be at least forty years old.”
The mayor said with surprise, “This girl is impressive!”
“My son is about the same age as she, but he can’t even write well with a pen,” Deputy Minister Guo looked at the typical “someone else’s kid” and thought about his son. He hated the iron for not becoming steel.
TL’s Note: The idiom “hating iron for not becoming steel” means feeling resentful toward something for failing to meet expectations while impatient to see improvement.
Ouyang Cen felt Deputy Minister Guo’s son was the norm for youngsters nowadays. Liu Man could only reach such a level at this age if she had no care for what was going on in the external world since she started practicing writing as a child. She had to have thought of nothing distracting, resisted temptation from anything online, and not gone out to play with friends. She would have to study calligraphy every day from the moment she opened her eyes to when she closed them, wishing the brush was her toy.
When he thought of this, Ouyang Cen stroked his beard and smiled. That would be impossible! Not even monks in temples could achieve that now. Besides, Liu Man was a cyber star and could not bear to abandon the internet. Perhaps he did not know enough. Everything had an exception, and maybe she was a rare genius.
The cameraman from the TV station really wanted to give Liu Man a closeup, but he did not dare to disobey the judges’ demand. He could only zoom in as closely as possible so the audience could better see Liu Man’s actions. They saw her calmly pushing the wood powder off the table while a handful had already piled up on the ground.
Liu Man was not much slower at carving than those writing calligraphy with a brush.
No matter how much the others stared at her, she remained undisturbed and focused on presenting her idea. Regardless of whether she could win an award at last, she wanted to do her best, or she would not do justice to Madam Xu and Professor Su’s teachings.
Besides, Yu Zhan traveled thousands of miles in one night for her, and he was watching her at the scene. She became even more motivated as she thought of this.
When only two minutes remained before time was up, Liu Man finally put down her carving knife and brushed the remaining wood powder on the table with her hand, sorting it out.
After two minutes passed, Chen Jianqiu requested all authors to take one step back and prohibited them from moving their brushes or knives.
The ten judges began to review each work in turn, and the videographer could finally re-enter the central area. He followed the judges and aimed the camera at the works on the tables.
Everyone had a different understanding of the “Han Dynasty Style.” Some wrote voluminous ancient Chinese prose with hundreds of words, some wrote poems, and some engraved words that covered a whole piece of rough stone…
In the eyes of the audience, these were works of art that they would not come close to writing their entire life. -_-
Indeed, there was no doubt about each author’s capability since they could proceed to this round. Each had their own style, and their works contained no major flaws. It was not easy for the judges to find faults, and they could only select the best from the best.
Wu Qu’s evaluation was before Liu Man’s. He wrote a long poem in regular script, describing the story of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty and how he hid the beauty in the golden house. The paper was neat and clean, and the font was strong and simple.
TL’s Note: “Hiding the beauty in the golden house” means hiding one’s young wife or mistress in a splendid abode.
The ten judges carefully read the entire poem and discussed it with each other in low voices. Unlike the face-to-face evaluation, the judges in this round would not criticize the work in front of the author. Each person’s score was to be revealed at the last minute.
Two judges asked Wu Qu a few questions, and they nodded after Wu Qu responded, scored on their respective charts, wrote notes, and continued to review the next author.
Wu Qu’s forehead was covered with sweat. He felt unsure and was afraid his answer, just now, would dissatisfy the judges.
When it was Liu Man’s turn, more than half of the works had already been reviewed. Liu Man could not say she was not nervous as she watched the ten calligraphy masters approach her.
A judge from the seal-cutting group, seeing Liu Man’s work for the first time, laughed and said, “Hey, it also has a small painting, which is quite childlike.”
The right half of the wooden table was a very simple carved-out drawing containing a courtyard with a tree, and a little girl sat on the threshold. The author carved these objects coarsely, and the courtyard’s details were blurred. The leaves were made with merely a few random cuts, and one could not see the little girl’s specific silhouette.
Strangely, the judges did not feel it was messy. If one looked at it from a distance, one would discover how vivid the entire picture seemed.
Translated by: Sydney
Vandez Translations 