After a while, as she prepared to paint a darker color on the porcelain jar, Zhao Xiaolei stopped her:
“Here, you need to consider how the persimmons affect the color of the jar. Do you understand environmental colors?”
“I understand.” Hua Jie happily applied the dark color elsewhere and then added a few strokes of dark red where she was about to paint – since the persimmon was placed next to the porcelain jar, its color would affect the jar, so she needed to consider the red shadow.
Here, she was intentional. Zhao Xiaolei reminded her, proving that as a teacher, his basic knowledge was solid.
Teacher Zhao Xiaolei, add one point.
For the next ten minutes or so, while painting, Hua Jie asked questions.
At first, Zhao Xiaolei thought she was learning from him, so he explained and introduced things seriously.
But gradually, he began to feel something was off.
Why did it feel like he was taking an exam to become an art teacher, and the department head was being difficult?
Her questions became sharper and didn’t seem like ordinary inquiries…
It felt more like she was testing him.
Zhao Xiaolei began to answer her questions while observing the girl with a puzzled expression.
The more he looked, the more he felt like she was testing him!
Judging from her progress and composure in painting, she clearly had her own answers to her questions.
Zhao Xiaolei pondered over this detail, uncertain about the girl’s background and intentions.
He stopped her from continuing to paint and sincerely said, “That’s enough, you’ve done a great job.”
“Thank you, Teacher.” Hua Jie put down her painting board and returned them to the students in the studio.
“You only have weekends free for high school classes, right?” Zhao Xiaolei began to inquire, obviously considering accepting her as a student.
However, Hua Jie suddenly hesitated. She didn’t rate Zhao Xiaolei very highly.
He had no issues with basic knowledge, but in terms of artistic content and more advanced abilities, he was quite mediocre, possibly even inferior to someone like her who had been painting for over a decade.
If she were to learn from him, she would only learn some basic techniques and so on, things she could learn by buying books and self-studying. After all, her foundation in art was very solid.
She wanted to find someone who had their own insights in painting, someone with a higher level of understanding and ability.
“Teacher Zhao, do you have any colleagues who teach watercolor?” Hua Jie asked back.
“Hmm?” Zhao Xiaolei was a bit puzzled. “Yes, there’s another watercolor teacher. What’s the matter?”
“Well…” Hua Jie felt a bit awkward as she touched her nose. In a voice only they could hear, she softly said, “Teacher Zhao, you are a very good teacher, but my artistic philosophy may not align perfectly with yours. So, I was wondering… if I could talk to your colleague who teaches watercolor…”
Her tone was extremely cautious, polite, and respectful. Despite her attempt to downplay it, she couldn’t conceal her reluctance to learn from him.
“….” Zhao Xiaolei was speechless.
Suddenly realizing, this bratty kid was actually testing him just now! And she wasn’t satisfied with the answers he provided!
She… she wasn’t here to request a teacher at all, she was clearly here for a teacher interview!!!
His face flushed instantly, his emotions complicated as he stared at her.
The poor girl looked at him with pleading eyes, her fingers twisting nervously under his gaze.
Taking a deep breath, he glanced at her painting again, finally exhaling heavily. Suppressing the urge to grind his teeth, he whispered, “Wait here.”
He left the studio and went to the adjacent office, pushing the door open to find that Teacher Shen Jiaru hadn’t arrived yet, and everyone was sitting nervously, waiting.
All eyes turned to him in unison.
Some, thinking it was Teacher Shen Jiaru, abruptly stood up, only to relax upon seeing him, then couldn’t help but complain, “You scared me.”
“Ms. Liu, please come with me,” Zhao Xiaolei ignored the colleague’s complaint, gesturing towards the middle-aged female teacher sitting at the desk inside.
“What’s wrong?” the female teacher asked.
“Come with me, I need to talk to you,” Zhao Xiaolei didn’t explain, urging her as he pushed the door.
Ms. Liu exchanged a glance with the other colleagues before straightening her skirt and following Zhao Xiaolei out.
As the office door closed, the other teachers looked at each other.
One teacher said, “Does that girl really need our college’s watercolor teacher to come out and receive her?”
“Judging by Zhao Xiaolei’s expression, there seems to be some unexpected situation,” the department head stood up, wanting to go to the adjacent studio to see what was going on. But considering that the renowned artist Shen Jiaru was about to arrive, he pursed his lips and held back.
He decided to ask about the commotion later, as receiving the esteemed artist Shen Jiaru was of utmost importance.
…
In the corridor, Ms. Liu asked Zhao Xiaolei, “What’s going on? What happened to that girl?”
Zhao Xiaolei thought for a moment before replying, “She paints very well, but I can’t teach her.”
Ms. Liu raised an eyebrow, looking at him with a playful expression of disbelief. “Does she have some kind of problem? Are you trying to pawn her off to me?”
“No, it’s just that my level isn’t sufficient to teach her,” Zhao Xiaolei replied seriously.
Seeing the earnest expression on the young man’s face, Ms. Liu couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re kidding… What’s going on with you?”
She still hadn’t figured out the situation. After entering the studio, she saw the girl standing there, looking completely obedient.
Ms. Liu glanced back at Zhao Xiaolei, her expression seemingly saying, “Look at her, she seems perfectly honest. What’s the problem? How come you can’t teach her?”
“Looking for a teacher? Not from our school—” Ms. Liu was about to politely decline Hua Jie, but suddenly she saw the drawings handed over by Zhao Xiaolei. She raised an eyebrow and glanced at him.
“These are all drawn by this child. I’ve verified it; they’re confirmed to be independently done by her, and they are sketches, not copies,” Zhao Xiaolei said.
Ms. Liu looked at Hua Jie again, then lowered her head to carefully examine the drawings. After finishing, she looked up and asked, “First year of high school? Fifteen years old?”
“Yeah,” Hua Jie nodded.
Ms. Liu instantly felt a sense of cherishing talent. At this age, achieving this level indicates a promising future.
“Do you want to learn watercolor from scratch?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Hua Jie nodded.
“This can be taught,” Ms. Liu said, looking up at Zhao Xiaolei, still not understanding what he meant by not being able to teach.
In this era, there were no restrictions on school teachers not being able to run tutoring classes. Ms. Liu herself held art classes on weekends, teaching speed drawing, sketching, and watercolor painting. She could simply take Hua Jie in.
Zhao Xiaolei and Ms. Liu exchanged a glance, then Zhao Xiaolei said to Hua Jie, “Ms. Liu has art classes. You can learn watercolor painting from her on weekends. How does that sound?”
Ms. Liu thought Hua Jie would directly inquire about fees, schedule, and location, but instead, she heard the girl’s soft and gentle voice say, “Ms. Liu, can I take a look at your paintings or ask you a few questions?”
“…” Ms. Liu was momentarily stunned. Why did that sound like the child was testing her?
Zhao Xiaolei raised an eyebrow, then turned and pointed to several demonstration process paintings and complete watercolor paintings hung on the wall behind the studio. “These are all Ms. Liu’s artworks.”
Hua Jie immediately walked up to the wall and looked at the paintings Zhao Xiaolei indicated.
She pressed her lips together, furrowing her brows.
Zhao Xiaolei speculated that this Ms. Liu was probably his student, as their use of color was very conservative. It was elegant but lacked vitality and talent, belonging to a style where you simply painted what you saw without much thought.
Looking at Ms. Liu’s paintings, she couldn’t feel any emotion, nor could she see any interactivity or storytelling. Moreover, many areas were handled improperly. This kind of painting technique wouldn’t attract many students even as an online teacher in the future.
They were painted neatly but not beautifully.
Both Ms. Liu and Zhao Xiaolei were more than capable enough for students starting from scratch. However, for someone like her, who had spent four years in art school plus accumulated countless art knowledge and had even been an art teacher in her past life, they fell short.
After careful consideration, she felt that learning from Ms. Liu wouldn’t offer good value for money.
Finally, she sighed and turned to Ms. Liu, saying, “I’m sorry, Ms. Liu, for troubling you today. I’ll go home and discuss with my parents.”
“….Um, okay,” Ms. Liu nodded.
After neatly arranging her paintings back into the portfolio and bidding farewell to the two teachers politely, Hua Jie decisively left.
Only the students who had been painting earlier and the two teachers, Liu and Zhao, remained in the studio.
After a moment of reflection, Ms. Liu turned to Zhao Xiaolei, hesitantly asking, “She didn’t ask for my phone number, and she didn’t inquire about information regarding my art class either…”
“Um,” Zhao Xiaolei nodded.
“Earlier, she mentioned going home to discuss with her parents… Was she just being polite to me?” Ms. Liu asked uncertainly.
Are high school freshmen this mature nowadays? Do they understand saying polite things to avoid awkwardness?
Zhao Xiaolei nodded again.
Ms. Liu’s lips parted in disbelief. She tilted her head, furrowing her brows, and stared at him for a while, then glanced at the door of the studio. “What does that mean?”
Her brows furrowed tighter. “Is she not satisfied with me?”
“Um,” Zhao Xiaolei confirmed once more, watching as Ms. Liu remained puzzled and incredulous about everything that had just happened, suddenly feeling amused.
“She said my painting philosophy didn’t match hers, so she couldn’t learn watercolor from me,” he explained, then casually inserted his hands into his pockets and continued, “Even if she wasn’t satisfied with me, she wasn’t satisfied with you either.”
“!!!” Ms. Liu finally snapped out of it. She made a dissatisfied noise, exclaiming, “Ah, I don’t accept just any student either, and yet she’s still picky—”
Her words abruptly trailed off as she turned to glance at the curious students in the studio, deciding to hold her tongue.
Hua Jie left the studio with Zhao Xiaolei, feeling indignant.
“This kid wasn’t looking for a teacher to learn painting. She was here to interview us!”
Finally unable to resist, Zhao Xiaolei’s previously indifferent expression was replaced by a faint smile. Even his ordinarily ordinary features were lit up by this smile, exuding a special lazy charm, making him handsome.
Ms. Liu patted his shoulder, scolding, “Why are you laughing? You’ve been rejected by a 15-year-old.”
Still smiling, Zhao Xiaolei pushed open the door and leisurely stepped into the office.
“What’s so funny?” the department head asked.
The other teachers also looked over curiously.
Ms. Liu immediately shared the unbelievable encounter she had today with her colleagues, gesturing animatedly and full of emotions.
As she recounted the story, she exclaimed, “I can’t believe it, do you guys know!”
“Oh my god, I’ve never encountered anything like this before!” “That kid is… incredible. She’s just a high school freshman, how could she be like that?”
“Normal 15-year-old kids, we have plenty at our school, they’re all clueless, how could she be like this?”
“How could she be like this??!!!”
While the other teachers laughed as they listened, Ms. Liu became even more frustrated, shaking her head in disbelief.
As the room buzzed with conversation, the office door was suddenly knocked on.
All the teachers fell silent and turned their gaze towards the door. The department head instantly thought it might be Mr. Shen who had arrived. He straightened his posture, tidied his clothes, and made a gesture to the other teachers before briskly walking to the door. After taking a deep breath, he respectfully opened it—
Before arriving at Jinsong Vocational School, Shen Jiaru had called Zhao Xiaolei to discuss coming over to check out the studio environment and to understand the situation of the models hired for school classes. They also discussed the possibility of collaborating in the future if he brought his own students to Jinsong Vocational School to use the models.
The driver parked the car outside the school, and Shen Jiaru got out and walked through the campus.
Although Zhao Xiaolei had told him to call as soon as he arrived so he could personally come down to greet him, Shen Jiaru, with his artist’s temperament, disliked acting like a leader. He strolled into the school by himself, casually observing his surroundings as he walked. Occasionally, he criticized the lack of aesthetic appeal in the placement of campus facilities or found fault with the paintings on the campus notice boards.
While walking, he suddenly saw a girl carrying a drawing board walking towards him.
He had the ability to remember many beautiful scenes and objects, and the girl in front of him seemed familiar to him.
As Shen Jiaru assessed the girl, he racked his brain trying to recall where he had seen her before.
Suddenly, he watched as the girl approached the roadside, moved the trash can over about two meters, then took two steps back, moved forward again to adjust the trash can a little further, stepped back to observe, and finally smiled in satisfaction before continuing on her way.
Shen Jiaru’s gaze was drawn to the trash can that the girl had just rearranged. Walking over, he carefully observed it and chuckled in understanding.
After the trash can was rearranged, it formed a harmonious triangular composition with the tall trees behind it and the chairs not far away.
With the addition of the perspective of the trees and streetlights, it became a three-dimensional, multi-triangle overlapped image.
It was very beautiful and perfect for sketching.
With a smile on his face, Shen Jiaru turned around to look, but the girl had already walked far away with her drawing board. Her steps were light, her short hair occasionally tousled by the wind but quickly smoothed down by her hand.
Suddenly, a figure overlapped in his mind.
Shen Jiaru remembered encountering a girl while taking his son to enroll at No. 1 High School. She had returned something valuable he had dropped, saying he exuded the aura of an artist.
…
When Shen Jiaru knocked on the door, he heard lively chatter from inside the office. However, upon pushing the door open, the room was quiet.
Invited into the office by the head of the Fine Arts Department, they chatted over tea. Shen Jiaru casually inquired about what they had been discussing before he arrived.
Soon, he heard the story about an unruly girl.
“With doll-like short hair, carrying a green drawing board?” he asked.
“Yes, Mr. Shen, did you see her?” asked Liu, one of the teachers.
Shen Jiaru nodded, finding it interesting, and asked, “What’s her name?”
“It seems to be something like Hua, right? She introduced herself when she came in, I remember she said she was from No. 1 High School,” replied the department head.
“Hua Jie,” Zhao Xiaolei spoke slowly, but pronounced the name very clearly.
Shen Jiaru nodded in acknowledgment.
Was she really seeking a renowned teacher, or was she actually interviewing the teachers? And then leaving in a huff, leaving the teachers frustrated…
Should he say she took the matter of painting so seriously that it bordered on being nitpicky?
Or should he say she was naive and ignorant?
On this ordinary late autumn weekend, Shen Jiaru rarely stepped out due to other matters.
Yet, he happened to hear the name “Hua Jie”.