CFCS Chapter 134

Chapter 134
Artistic Life (Arc 10.7)

The results of the art competition finally came out. Jing Yang’s <Holy Light> won the grand prize, and the <Merciful Grace> that Su Mo copied from Mu Jin won first prize.

Su Mo was completely stunned when he learned of the result. Even Wu Xiuyuan was unable to react because he had no idea when Mu Jin had created another painting and taken it directly to the competition.

In this international art competition, Lushan Academy of Fine Arts actually had two students who occupied the grand prize and the first prize. The school leaders were naturally very happy and attached great importance to this.

Mu Jin’s previous record had been cancelled but few people knew about this. Because Mu Jin had won the grand prize, the school directly announced that the mark on his record was cancelled, and they would continue to provide him his scholarships and grants.

Su Mo saw the school administrators expressing interest and concern one after another for Mu Jin, and felt pain in his heart. He felt that this should have been the treatment that he alone should be enjoying, but now Mu Jin had stolen away a large part of it. He had gotten the first prize but was completely eclipsed by the light of the grand prize. His light became so dim, how could he be willing.

When it was time to receive the award, Jing Yang was naturally the focus of attention. After he came on stage, the host interviewed him and many reporters asked him questions.

In this era, art was no longer an interest that only a limited number of people could understand and enjoy. The audience was quite extensive. No matter the age group or the profession, there were more and more people who liked collecting paintings.

This time, his entry <Holy Light> was inspired by the powerful light he had displayed back when he was in the demon clan. The golden column of divine light penetrated through the clouds from the heavens and shone down on the earth. All the things that represented darkness and evil were gradually disappearing, while everything that represented justice and light were rapidly becoming stronger.

When many people looked at the painting, they would feel their hearts open and a feeling of strength. This was the charm of art. It could not only let people appreciate its beauty, but also allow them to understand and explore their feelings. If you could also allow people to gain strength from your painting, it would be a great success. This was also the reason why <Holy Light> won the grand prize.

Not only did Jing Yang make his name in the art world with this painting, but even the other works that Jing Yang painted before became massively popular. He collected a large number of fans.

Su Mo looked at Jing Yang being interviewed on stage, so jealous that his eyes were about to spit fire. He grit his teeth hard and stared at Jing Yang for a while. But because there were a lot of reporters on the scene, he feared that his expression would be photographed so he put his head down after glaring viciously for a bit.

Sitting next to Su Mo, Wu Xiuyuan was also looking at the stage. His mood at this moment was very complicated. If it had been beforehand, he would have been very happy for Mu Jin to win the prize. But now he felt that this man was so dirty that he didn’t deserve to stand on stage and receive applause from the crowd. He couldn’t wait to rush to the stage right now and let everyone know what this man was really like.

When they went back, Wu Xiuyuan had nowhere to vent his anger. He had wanted to destroy all of Mu Jin’s paintings that were still in the gallery, but the staff told him that all of the paintings had been bought at a high price. Then he smashed everything in his office.

And Su Mo heard that many female painters in the review process quite liked <Merciful Grace>, especially this generation’s famed painter Ms. Yi Yun. Her evaluation of this painting was very high, and she was willing to pay a high price for it. So he came up with a plan.

Yi Yun was Cui Yan’s mother. She was very well-known internationally, and also had a very high status in the domestic art world. She had always liked painting beautiful and profound works. This time, when she saw <Merciful Grace>, she fell in love at first glance. Even though she felt that the painting skills of the painter were still lacking, the meaning that the painting was trying to portray was very good. Anyone who was a mother would be able to resonate with it.

All of a sudden, there were a lot of media offering publicity and praise for <Merciful Grace>, the fervor even covering up <Holy Light>. And on the internet, and among those who liked oil paintings, there were even rumors circulating that <Merciful Grace> was better than <Holy Light>.

~

Jing Yang was rarely in a good mood, cooking at home. Cui Yan stood behind him to make trouble for him. One moment he would kiss his neck, the other kiss his face. His hands were constantly messing around on his body.

Cui Yan hugged his waist and nibbled on his neck for a while. “I have already bought all of your paintings. Those rumors that have been circulating on the internet recently, I’ll help you deal with them the next day or so.”

Jing Yang knew that he was talking about the remarks on the internet that kept praising Su Mo and demeaning him, which was obviously some trickery from Su Mo. Right now many painters would use public opinion to enhance their visibility. But you also had to use it appropriately. If you didn’t have anything concrete that was actually worth the hype, you would just be harming yourself, attracting more hatred.

Jing Yang thought that it seemed like Su Mo thought that Ms. Yi Yun liked his painting so he would hype himself up and take this opportunity to step on Mu Jin, so he would do this.

“You don’t have to deal with them.” Jing Yang said. “You can help him blow it up, make public opinion even more biased toward him.”

“En?” Cui Yan was a little confused.

“The higher up a person is pushed, the heavier he will fall. I will wait until he forgets himself from pride and then hit him hard. Only then will my heart be satisfied.” He swiped his knife in the air, and then put it down and continued to clean the vegetables.

“Good, I’ll have people arrange this. We will absolutely push him up high enough, and then let him fall even more miserably.” Cui Yan smiled. “Right now I am listening to whatever you say, what is my reward?”

“What do you want?” Jing Yang pushed his butt back slightly. This man had been eating his tofu for so long, he himself had started getting into it.

“Let me stay tonight.” Cui Yan reached his hand into his pants and began caressing him.

Every time Jing Yang went to Cui Yan’s place, he wouldn’t be able to get out of bed all day, so he didn’t want to go too often. When Cui Yan came to his place, he was determined not to let him stay overnight, or else the result would be the same as if he went to Cui Yan’s place.

“Staying is fine, but if you don’t control the number of times tonight, I will never spend the night in the same bed as you again.” His breathing slowly began to become irregular, and his hand holding the vegetables began to tremble.

“I promise to start controlling it from today.” Cui Yan said while taking off his pants. For him, if he controlled he could eat every day. It was better than eating enough once and then going hungry for several days afterward.

Jing Yang turned the water off, his fingers tightly grasping the edge of the sink. “Lighter, lighter!”

Cui Yan’s body was tightly intertwined with Jing Yang’s. He bowed his head and kissed his neck.

“Not like this, no~” Jing Yang somewhat could not bear such stimulation. He wanted to escape but couldn’t break free of Cui Yan’s strong arms, and could only bear it while enjoying the pleasure.

~

This time Cui Yan did not go overboard. He still left Jing Yang enough strength to continue to finish cooking. But Jing Yang’s legs were still a little weak, so he had Cui Yan sit at the table, maintaining a distance of at least 2 meters away from him.

Cui Yan was originally unwilling, but Jing Yang picked up the knife and shook it menacingly in his hand, looking at him gloomily. He could only obediently sit down.

Jing Yang threw his pants into the bathroom and deliberately did not put another pair on. He began to prep and cook with only an apron around his waist.

Cui Yan looked at Jing Yang’s back view, his eyes opened wide until they were sore. But he was still reluctant to move his eyes away from the beautiful scenery in front of him to let them relax and rest. Cui Yan’s blood was rushing up and his body began to heat up again, but he still forced himself to not go near him, or else tonight he would not be able to stay overnight.

When Jing Yang brought all of the dishes to the table and was about to sit down for dinner, Cui Yan suddenly pulled him over and had him sit in his lap. He even said that the chair was too cold and hard, so it wouldn’t be comfortable for him to sit down on it without pants.

Jing Yang didn’t mind where he was sitting as long as Cui Yan controlled himself. If he wasn’t able to control it before they finished eating, he would have a reason to drive him away.

Cui Yan ate a meal with this self-torture. Even though he did take a little advantage of some touching in the middle, he still more or less endured and won the right to stay overnight.

~

Su Mo originally just wanted to borrow Ms. Yi Yun’s name to boost his own fame and step a foot on Mu Jin along the way. Even he didn’t think that the response would be so fervent. Not only did those small media companies and influencers who he gave benefits to hype his paintings, even some large formal media began to promote him, saying that he was the most promising young painter that Ms. Yi Yun personally certified. No matter how high the price, she wanted to collect <Merciful Grace> and even wanted to meet him in person to accept him as a student.

It was Su Mo’s first time seeing such a scale of publicity, and he still felt a little apprehensive in his heart. But after a period of time, Ms. Yi Yun did not personally come forward to deny those words nor let her assistant or others deny them. He and <Merciful Grace> continued to rise in popularity, slowly reaching the momentum of famous painters releasing their latest works.

Many media companies got in contact with Su Mo, wanting to interview him. The recent developments made Su Mo elated. He selected the most famous and developed media company and prepared to accept an interview.

“The person we are visiting today is the hottest young art student who has just won the first prize in the International Fine Arts Competition. But everyone is saying that his work <Merciful Grace> should have received the grand prize, after all, that is a work that even Ms. Yi Yun praises highly.”

After the host finished his opening remarks, he looked at Su Mo and said, “First of all, thank you for accepting our interview.”

“It’s my pleasure.” Su Mo said with a smile.

“The first question I want to ask, and I’m sure the one that everyone is most curious about, is where did the inspiration for the painting come from? Did it come from your mother, as everyone is speculating?” The host asked.

“Even though my mother has always been very kind to me and loves me very much, in fact, what I wanted to express in my painting was my grandmother’s love for me. Because I was brought up by my grandmother.” Su Mo explained.

“Then could you please describe the thought process behind your painting?”

The inspiration for this painting came from Mu Jin, but what Mu Jin wanted to express in the painting was actually not difficult to guess at all. It could actually be said to be very obvious. The content of the painting was a sitting female figure and a kneeling child figure in front of the woman. The painter deliberately slightly blurred and abstracted the two figures in order to highlight the scene behind the two people.

Behind the female figure was a tall tree full of flowers blooming beautifully. The flowers on that big tree were quite gorgeous, but its bent and falling posture was quite tragic. Behind the child’s figure, a small tree with no flowers but full of vitality was thriving under the tall tree.

The content of the painting was very shallow, so as long as you looked carefully, you could understand what this painting wanted to express. It was that the tree was dropping its own blooming beautiful flowers at all costs into the soil to serve as nutrients to nourish that little tree. This was the grace of a mother.

But in Su Mo’s mouth, the painting became his grandmother’s love for him. He said that his grandmother was not only a mother to his father, but also to him. His grandmother had given a lot to his family ever since she was young, and now she was in poor health. He painted the painting to show his gratitude to his grandmother.

Su Mo spoke with tears in his eyes. That look of being a filial son and grandson was touching and really quite able to trick people.

Finally, the host offered to interview Su Mo’s grandmother to ask her how she felt about her grandson’s excellent painting. Su Mo did not hesitate and agreed because he felt that of course if he was performing a play he should follow through the entire way. If the host interviewed his grandmother, his grandmother would be very happy. As long as his grandmother was happy, his father would be happy. Then he would be able to gain more support from his family.

At the end of the interview, the host agreed upon a new interview date with him and preparations began.

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Random Notes:

Slightly less than an hour: 4:20 pm – 5:10 pm, for 4k characters to 2.4k words.

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