The Versatile Master Artist

Gu Weijing found Room B16 in the library in the inner area,

where Koizumi Katsuko was already waiting.

”Shengzi, I knew you would come to Fitz, but I didn’t expect Mrs. Sakai to come too.”

Gu Weijing placed his backpack and coat in the cupboard and sat down at the study desk.

”Mm.”

Koizumi Katsuko responded with a light nasal sound, without raising her head.

”She was worried about me alone in Myanmar, and felt bored staying in the hotel’s long-term rental room all day, so she came here to teach little children.”

As she spoke, she didn’t lift her head.

Koizumi Katsuko twirled a pen between her fingers, looking down at the notebook in her hand, her short black hair falling just below her earlobe.

The two-person study room was upheld as a sacred place for romance on campus, living up to its reputation.

Due to their proximity, Gu Weijing could even smell the faint, fresh scent of apricots in her hair.

He sat slightly higher than Koizumi Katsuko.

Thus, with just a slight turn of the head, he could see the enticing curves of her neck and collar like ice cream.

Honestly,

Koizumi Katsuko was the most feminine young woman Gu Weijing had ever met.

Mona was more like a friend, Koukou was somewhat enigmatic, but only Koizumi Katsuko seemed to have an innate gentle temperament of an Eastern girl.

Her innocence added a kind of pure allure to Shengzi.

He fell into a brief silence.

Without any ulterior motives, Gu Weijing rarely found himself in such a confined, intimate campus space with women his age.

Even Mona thought it was overly intimate for them to be alone in such a secretive campus couple meeting place within the unwritten rules.

Their group assignments were usually done at each other’s homes or under the shade of trees on the playground.

Faced with this situation for the first time, he felt a bit nervously uneasy.

”Here’s the outline I wrote, take a look?”

Koizumi Katsuko didn’t notice her companion next to her was a little overwhelmed by her inadvertent display of femininity.

She handed Gu Weijing the pale blue notebook she was looking at.

”I analyzed and compared the early Impressionist masters Monet, Alfred Sisley, Manet, and Renoir’s treatment styles of dark-tone pigments, and summarized the content in the notes.”

Koizumi Katsuko took out a large, weighty brown document case from under the table and pushed it in front of Gu Weijing.

”These are research papers recommended by my father and several well-regarded professors at Tama Art University studying Impressionism. He suggested we read all of them if we aim for excellence. I’ve copied two sets of all the materials, and this is yours. I have read most of the literature on the plane and marked what I thought was the key content.”

Gu Weijing knew Koizumi Katsuko had been doing these things these days.

The reason she returned to transfer to Yangon after a few days of school starting was that she specifically flew to Japan and France’s art galleries, visiting several Impressionist masters’ authentic works.

Gu Weijing opened the folder,

Selecting literature for writing a thesis is an art.

Impressionism, as the foundation of modern art, is a popular research topic with mixed data.

Some worthless papers not only waste time but can lead you astray, and citing them by accident can even taint the entire paper.

Even top art journals, although relatively higher in quality, still contain substandard articles.

As for the slightly lesser humanities journals, it’s like searching for food in the trash.

A lot of art scholars waste their time on reading such useless content.

Professor Yajima was incredibly diligent with this paper, even carefully preparing valuable references for citation,

such attention was obviously reserved for his daughter.

The reading room fell silent, with only the rustling of pages turning.

Entering a discussion state, Gu Weijing felt more relaxed.

He saw the densely written text in the notebook, said nothing, but was somewhat amazed inside.

In life, you occasionally encounter people whose excellence feels overwhelming.

They come from better backgrounds, have more talent, and work harder than you do, leaving no room for others.

Koizumi Katsuko was a typical example.

To be blunt,

Gu Weijing assumed this thesis would mainly be written by Uncle Sakai, with Koizumi Katsuko just adding her name, riding on their behalf.

He didn’t expect Miss Shengzi to be so diligent.

Gu Weijing, after casually skimming through the literature, realized it was far from a mere cursory read.

All of her papers were marked with colorful marker pens, with annotations made in English throughout the text.

The accompanying blue notebook elegantly and precisely encapsulated different artists’ painting styles.

”How is it?”

Koizumi Katsuko asked softly.

”Very impressive...”

Gu Weijing also focused: ”But there’s a slight issue, I see you mentioned that ’Old Church’ and Van Gogh, who also loves painting night scenes, have similar artistic styles, using distorted long lines and fragmented color points to construct an illusory night sky, full of restless curves and unsettling hallucinations.”