The Versatile Master Artist

Ranked thirty-sixth, right after his grandfather’s name, and ahead of Yakai Shengzi, who is ranked thirty-seventh.

But Yakai Gangchang is only ranked forty-first.

”The order of our young people’s list is based on the amount of work completed, the hours worked, and evaluations from master artists. Mr. Gu is very diligent, and our names are right next to each other. Look at this—”

Yakai Shengzi extended a finger and picked up the last item in the gift box for Gu Weijing.

It was a small box lined with dark velvet, containing a delicate string of agarwood beads.

The bracelet exuded a faint smoky scent of burnt incense wood, with a small jadeite jade ring set at each end of the beads.

On the topmost jade ring, the name ”Gu Weijing” was intricately engraved with a fine carving knife, while the bottommost ring was engraved with a Buddhist blessing pattern.

”A consecrated bracelet?”

Gu Weijing examined the string of beads.

All over the world’s religious sanctuaries, regardless of the deity worshiped, from Tianzhu to Jerusalem, almost all offer the service of consecration.

From consecrated bracelets, strings of beads, crosses, to the latest consecrated iPhones, graphics cards, and XBOX game consoles. Anything you can think of, they can consecrate.

The Great Golden Pagoda is a major Buddhist site, and Myanmar is a Buddhist country.

The Myanmar government gifting artists a consecrated Buddhist bracelet as a present was unexpected, yet reasonable.

It seems this time the Ministry of Culture has really gone all out.

Such items consecrated by high-ranking monks don’t come cheap. Not to mention, agarwood is valuable timber, and just those two small jade rings seem to be of excellent quality.

”An official from the Yangon Tourism Bureau said that the commemorative gift boxes for the artists this time, everything else is the same, only the quality of the jade rings on the string of beads varies. Although they’re all old mine jade, the higher your ranking on the monument, the better the quality of the jade.”

”Elder Cao, my father, and Professor Lin all have glass-quality jade, while we have ordinary ice jade.”

Yakai Shengzi raised her right hand, and Gu Weijing noticed that Miss Shengzi’s wrist was adorned with a bracelet identical to the one in front of him.

Glass-quality is the purest among jadeites, with ice quality being the next.

Don’t look down on just that small fingernail-sized piece; it could fetch tens of thousands of dollars on the international market. If it’s imperial green, it might even double in value.

Even the ice jade in front of Gu Weijing would be worth a thousand dollars.

The government is quite generous.

Of course, on the other hand, all jadeite in Myanmar is state-owned, so getting good jade is quite easy, and they like to use jade as national or diplomatic gifts.

Presenting something less than tens of thousands of dollars to a great artist like Elder Cao would not suffice, and it would be no loss either.

A world-class art master willing to carry a string of jade beads.

At high-end art venues where celebrities gather, the intangible advertising effect is much stronger than gifting trash goods worth one dollar at the entrance of a tourist spot, which would immediately be tossed into the trash.

”You’re thirty-sixth, I’m thirty-seventh. An official told me that the jade rings on our strings of beads happen to be crafted from the same ice jade pebble. The gloss and color are nearly identical.”

Yakai Shengzi removed her bracelet and placed it alongside Gu Weijing’s.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, the two sets of jade rings were clear as ice, with slight cotton-like impurities in the rings resembling little stars frozen within ice.

”Exactly the same, side by side.”

Yakai Shengzi tilted her head and softly said, ”How nice.”

”Shall I put it on for you?”

Miss Yakai extended her hand, gently unclasped the silver buckle on the bracelet, and helped fasten it on Gu Weijing.

...

In the afternoon,

Fitz High School, Gift and Talented class.

Mrs. Sakai’s class was nearing its end today.

”Miss Sande Nu, here’s your corrected assignment.” Yakai Shengzi held the collection of student works reviewed by her mother and approached a student.

”Thank you, Miss Yakai, what did Professor Cruz think of my design collection?”

Mona respectfully took her assignment from the hands of this young artist princess, smiling slightly.

Before starting the class, Mrs. Sakai had collected all their ongoing design collections.

There were only six students in the advanced class.

And counting Mrs. Cruz, Miss Yakai, and Mr. Xiaosongtai Lang as assistant instructors, there were three teachers.

The biggest advantage of such a high teacher-student ratio in a 1:2 boutique small class,

is that the professor can tailor different modification suggestions based on each student’s submitted works, assessing each student’s level of painting and offering tailored suggestions based on their shortcomings.

After just a few classes,

Mona repeatedly felt a deep sense of gratitude in her heart, recognizing how wise her decision to visit Mrs. Sakai in advance was.

A great artist is indeed a great artist.

Such teaching conditions were impossible to find at the original Fitz School.

Mona accepted her collection.

She didn’t rush to flip through it; instead, she focused her gaze on the young lady, almost destined to leave her mark on the international art stage in the future.

”Miss Yakai, would you like some cake? I baked some small cakes at home myself, adding a hint of honey. I’m not sure if you’d like it.”

Saying this, Mona took out a small snap-lock container from her backpack, which held a layer of cupcakes: ”By the way, can I just call you Shengzi like a friend?”

Mona had always hoped to befriend this not-so-ordinary Miss Yakai.

But she vaguely felt that Miss Yakai had some reservations about her.

There was one teacher, two assistants, and six students in the class.

While painting in the studio, a teacher could provide detailed painting guidance to two students simultaneously.

Of course, she wanted Mrs. Sakai to mentor her.

Regrettably, Professor Cruz chose the top-performing Miao Angwen and another student.

Among those remaining, only she and another girl named Maire were present.

Including Mona, everyone thought that traditionally, Girls help girls, and naturally Miss Yakai would choose to paint with the two girls.

Unexpectedly,

When selecting students, Miss Yakai glanced at Mona for a moment but intentionally or otherwise chose the other student.

Mona felt a bit disappointed, but it didn’t surprise her.

Her position in the advanced class was somewhat awkward; not just Miss Yakai seemed to regard her differently, even other Fitz classmates did too.

Even if they didn’t know she had visited Professor Cruz in advance,

The advanced class students could sense that Mona’s entry into Mrs. Sakai’s class wasn’t entirely based on her own drawing ability.

It was like the principal forcibly placing his average-achieving nephew in the honors class.

No one would say anything outright, but privately, they inevitably whispered and gossiped about Mona.

Even Jerry’s sunny smile towards Mona seemed to carry a hint of condescension. As a diligent student, Mona found this hard to accept.

Not that it bothered her too much.

Mona was mentally resilient and could pretend not to hear the whispers behind her back.

What’s the big deal?

How long can people remember such things, a week or a month?

Even if she was talked about for a semester, so what? When she eventually stepped onto a larger stage and made a name for herself, how she entered the advanced class, such trivial matters would have long faded away.

People would only remember she was a student of Mrs. Sakai.

Just as decades later,

Gu Weijing might still be spending his days at his family’s little gallery in Yangon, with no one recognizing or remembering how outstanding he had once been.

If this was the price of taking shortcuts, Mona was happy to pay it.