“I apologize. I am not well versed in captioning so I borrowed the poem from a famous poet.”
And that added to the confusion of the gender of the artist.
It was silence from a cold winter night again after she finished saying that.
Gu Shishi pondered a little and responded to a question from earlier.
“I am 23 years old.
“Going on 24 after the new year.”
BAM! – came the sound of a chair flipping over from the other end!
24…
Siyi, being there in person, witnessed first hand how stunned these elderlies were.
He found it very entertaining.
Even the youngest one here was at least three times of 24 in age!
The boss lady was so not being nice!
All of the members of the association were of grandparents’ age.
But Gu Shishi’s techniques earned her first place today and convinced everyone else!
Revealing her age at this point made this group of grandpas and grandmas wanted to drop onto their knees and sing “conquered”.
Correction, the song to sing should be “heartache”.
Everybody knew that the path of art was a difficult one.
Not everyone can have great accomplishments just because time and energy had been spent.
As such, seeing a youngster with skills that could rival theirs and her composition arguably better than theirs really gave them a feeling the students had now excelled the master.
And there was even more shock.
“Who is your master?”
“How did you come up with the idea for this painting?”
“You are so young yet your mountains are so majestic, your waterfalls come straight down from the top, and the fog over the empty area is so natural!”
“You have a deep understanding of the emotions involved and also left a lot of room for your audiences’ imagination…”
What the group were saying had all turned into compliments.
Before they found out her age, they were just casually praising about her work. They would even pick on how some of her areas that were not mature enough and had room for improvement. But all of those turned into the precious feeling of youth for a 24-year-old painter!
The mountains and waters were no longer what they were.
Each artist, depending on their background, their age, and their personality, would see sceneries differently.
For an artist in her twenties or thirties, if her lines were mature and perfect, that in and of itself would be a flaw. It would lack vigor and vitality.
All of a sudden, they took back what they have said earlier about why they had lost.
Nothing that they had said earlier was legitimate!
Now that they had learned of her age, she was practically a genius!
“My master… had already passed away.”
Gu Shishi lowered her head regretfully.
“And I am his only disciple.”
Many masters nowadays teach classes. They would have a lot of students instead of their own designated disciples. They would have students and disciples all over the world.
Her master, on the other hand, treated her as though she was his daughter. He had poured so much time and effort into her that he could not spare any more for anyone else.
Granted, he was also very indulged in pursing his art and didn’t have the extra time to teach.
“As such, I am not going to mention his name.”
Gu Shishi felt a little sad when she thought about this.
Noticing that she was feeling blue, Huo Sishen reached out and massaged her on the back of her neck.
Gu Shishi looked up, lifted the corners of her mouth at him to gesture to him that she was alright.
The elderlies on the other end of the cellphone, on the other hand, were making all kinds of ruckus.
“Child, would you like to learn captioning from me? Your poems is your weakness and the failure on the entire painting. You can’t use others’ poems when you are famed.”
“Hey! Old Man Lei, are you trying to snatch someone else’s disciple? That is so unbecoming even for you! Shut up already. Even if she is to study poems, she should learn them from me! I have a degree in Chinese with archaic Chinese as my specialty.”
“Lao Bi, step aside already. Your poems? The ones that you can only come up with when you have alcohol in you? She should study under me. Three years. I guarantee she would at least be able to write lyrics if not poems.”
“Silence!”
Finally, President Huang Chuan stood up and cleared his throat.