Chapter 91: 089 Sheng Qingtang: Are you saying this handwriting is from Wei Hou? [2nd update]
Lin Xi looked at the girl with displeasure, “Since you’ve said so, I’ll give you a chance. Come up and write.”
Xiu Yu immediately became angry.
“It’s okay.” Ying Zijin’s hand rested on her shoulder, signaling her not to move.
She then stood up and walked up to the stage.
Seeing this, the students below started to get restless.
They stood up one after another, wishing they could go up to the stage to watch, excited and with the words “starting trouble” practically written on their foreheads.
Jiang Ran calmed the somewhat turbulent Inner Strength within him, suppressing his restlessness, “Her hand hurts so much when she hits people, how can she write any characters?”
Shouldn’t the hand used for writing be taken good care of?
“I haven’t seen it before, but Daddy Ying can definitely do anything.”
“…”
Jiang Ran felt he couldn’t refute this.
Because he had been in a state of seclusion all this time.
He could only be patient and look towards the stage.
On the other side, Zhong Zhiwan knitted her brow in confusion.
She couldn’t understand why Ying Zijin would dare to go up after admitting to cheating.
She and Lin Xi were from the same sect, so she naturally knew about Lin Xi’s temperament.
Lin Xi was usually gentle with people, but he was very strict with academic matters, and even she had been reprimanded several times.
Ying Zijin was now clashing with Lin Xi, and after this, she shouldn’t even think about entering the art world ever again.
Since the wealthy family was connected to the art world, after this incident, would Old Master Zhong still dote on a foster daughter who had offended the art world?
Ying Zijin glanced at the Inkstone and found that the ink had also been prepared for her, which saved her some trouble.
She lifted her chin and pointed at the scroll, “How much is this worth?”
Lin Xi repressed his anger, “At least five million, write your characters.”
Ying Zijin nodded, “Hmm, you remember that.”
She lowered her head and picked a Wolf Brush from the brush holder.
The audience before the live broadcast was perplexed.
[What does she mean? Why does she want Lin Xi to remember?]
[I don’t understand, but she really is daring. For that courage alone, she deserves applause.]
[What courage? She must be resigned to her fate. If she can’t produce any big characters later, that’s really going to be embarrassing.]
Lin Xi watched with a cold eye.
Behind him, the principal looked at the head of the art department, “When was the expulsion discussed? How come I, as the principal, didn’t know about it?”
“How could we trouble the principal with such a trivial matter?” the head of the art department smiled, “Cheating, and even cheating in front of Master Wei Hou, how could she not be expelled?”
The principal frowned, “There must be more to this.”
“Isn’t she writing right now?” the head of the art department said indifferently, “The principal will see soon enough. She’s originally from a county town, what else could she…”
The voice suddenly stopped.
The barrage in the live broadcast also suddenly ceased.
Because at that moment, everyone focused on the stage saw the girl lift her left hand and take up another Wolf Brush.
She used a Paperweight to hold down the Xuan Paper, stepped back as if observing something, and then bent down.
The next second, both brushes moved at once.
[…]
[Holy crap, ambidextrous? Has she lost her mind? Lin Xi can’t even do it, and how old is she this year?]
[She’s just seeking attention! Art is insulted by such people!]
[Cameraman, don’t just film her, film her characters, hurry, let us see how bad her writing is.]
[Everyone, don’t be impatient, wait until she finishes writing, then we’ll know what it’s like.]
Zhong Zhiwan shook her head again, even more disappointed.
The left hand is connected to the right brain, and the right hand is connected to the left brain.
Writing with both hands simultaneously and doing it well is exceedingly difficult.
The brain’s nerves are limited after all; without training, it’s impossible to accomplish.
All the masters of the art world in the VIP seats were also shocked, but they were too far away to see what the girl had written.
In just five or six seconds, Ying Zijin put down the brushes.
“Finished?” Lin Xi didn’t know what to say, his words filled with anger tinged with sarcasm, “You should never rush when writing characters. With such haste, what could you have written?”
Having said that, he stepped forward and picked up the Xuan Paper.
But looking down, his expression instantly stiffened.
The camera followed Lin Xi closely, clearly enlarging his facial expressions, even capturing every trembling muscle.
[Lin Xi seems very shocked, what did he see?]
[Could it be that ugly?]
[I’m so curious, let us see what she wrote.]
Lin Xi stared at the characters on the Xuan Paper, his pupils contracting violently, fingers trembling, in utter disbelief.
The Xuan Paper was divided into two columns.
One side displayed seal script, the other, regular script.
The two different styles of calligraphy, completely opposite in style.
The brush danced like a dragon, flowing like clouds and water.
Each stroke, penetrating deep into the wood.
If Lin Xi hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes, he would have never believed this was the work of a seventeen-year-old high school student.
And she was ambidextrous, working with both hands at the same time.
How was this possible?
Not to mention that the characters exuded an enormous presence, as though the force of thunder was pouring down from them, their momentum awe-inspiring.
They exerted such immense pressure on Lin Xi that he nearly couldn’t bear to look directly at them for too long.
Dozens of seconds passed, and he still stood there in a daze.
The photographer stepped forward, quite surprised, and whispered, “Mr. Lin, please lift it up and aim at the camera.”
Lin Xi, still in a stupor, nevertheless unfolded the Xuan paper.
The two pieces of calligraphy were displayed on the large screen, thoroughly exposed to everyone’s eyes.
Zhong Zhiwan was chatting and smiling with the head of the literary and art department when she looked up.
Her smile froze, and her mind buzzed, “…”
It was as if all the sounds around her had vanished at that moment.
The entire venue once again fell into utter silence.
The barrage of online comments stopped for a few seconds, then suddenly surged.
[Holy crap, that calligraphy…]
[Honestly, with this comparison, Wei Hou’s piece really looks like trash.]
[Ambidextrous, done in one go, and two different styles at that, isn’t this badass?]
[With such amazing calligraphy, does she need to cheat?]
[Not to sound conspiratorial, but am I the only one suspecting someone switched her calligraphy to falsely accuse her of cheating?]
The more mercilessly they had mocked her before, the more intense the rebound was now, especially among the audience members awaiting the turnaround.
[I’m sorry, but this so-called ‘Outstanding Lin Xi’… I really can’t bring myself to like him, actually, I even dislike him.]
[Wasn’t he acting all arrogant just now? Let Lin Xi write a piece on the spot then; he’s 28, right? If she can use two hands at 17, he should at least use his feet as well, right?]
[Using hands and feet? That’s overestimating Lin Xi, don’t you think? You talk about how Lin Xi sold a piece for half a million when he was 12, but didn’t I hear that the buyer was his own grandfather?]
[Wow, now that’s a scandal! I just heard Ying Zijin ask Lin Xi how much that piece of ‘trash’ was worth, and Lin Xi said five million, so the one she just wrote now, isn’t that worth over ten million?]
[Lin Xi is really slapping his own face here. To be fair, if he had privately communicated with the student first and the student still refused to repent, then reporting and expelling her wouldn’t have been too late. Besides, he’s not even a teacher at Verdant, is he?]
Because there were so many middle and high school students combined, along with faculty, there were two big screens on both sides of the stage.
What was projected on the big screens were the live stream visuals, and since the competition involved young people, the school kept up with the times and did not turn off the comments.
The earlier comments mocking Ying Zijin had disappeared, replaced with uniform ridicule of Lin Xi’s arrogance.
Zhong Zhiwan’s head was still buzzing, unable to clearly hear what people around her were saying.
The color drained from her lips, and her face turned deathly pale.
How could this be?
Was Ying Zijin really capable of writing this?
It wasn’t a trick?
“Mr. Lin, I’m not sure why you were so convinced that Classmate Ying cheated using Master Wei Hou’s calligraphy,” the principal said coldly, glancing at the head of the art department, “but now the matter is clear. You’ve insulted her reputation, shouldn’t you apologize to Classmate Ying?”
[Oh oh oh, I like this principal, not the kind that only cares about appearances, nor does he kowtow to the powerful.]
[Lin Xi should apologize. Luckily the young lady is psychologically resilient. The news of that student jumping off a building the other day was suffocating to watch.]
Lin Xi was rigid, deeply embarrassed.
Instead of apologizing, he said, “But this piece indeed belongs to Master Wei Hou.”
Even if Ying Zijin wrote well, it didn’t prove she hadn’t stolen it.
The principal had not yet spoken again when suddenly, the Chairman of Shanghai Art Association stood up, astonished, “President Sheng?”
Ying Zijin turned her head.
She saw, several meters away, Sheng Qingtang walking towards the VIP section with a straw hat and slippers.
The Chairman of the Shanghai Art Association hurriedly went to greet him, “President Sheng, what brings you here?”
In terms of status in the art world, Sheng Qingtang was absolutely one of the top figures.
Although he had already retired from the Hua Country Calligraphy Association, people still respectfully addressed him as President Sheng.
“Came to have a look,” Sheng Qingtang waved his hand, “just happened to be utterly free today.”
He wasn’t going to admit that he came to use his old face to take away the piece of calligraphy by Divine Doctor Ying.
Such fine calligraphy, participating in an art festival?
It deserved to be mounted and hung on his wall to be admired every day.
Did these people understand the essence of that piece?
He spat in disgust.
But what had he just heard?
Old Master Sheng was furious.
Lin Xi was also shocked, “Senior Sheng.”
But Sheng Qingtang didn’t pay him any attention, and pointed to the scroll, enunciating clearly, “You’re saying this piece was written by Wei Hou?”