The crowd beneath the stage let out a collective breath of relief—only to sharply inhale again.
“Will she… make it in time?”
“Tosaki Naohara’s been writing for twelve minutes and still hasn’t finished.”
“Art critique is basically writing an essay—the more you write and the more elegant your language, the higher your score, right? So doesn’t that mean Tosaki Naohara will… win?”
“Hey! Don’t jinx it like that!”
“Sister Yue must have her reasons for doing things this way. Let’s just watch and stop jumping to conclusions.”
“This is when I need to summon my personal mantra—In Goddess Yue We Trust, Eternal Life Shall Be Ours!“
As the final three-minute countdown began, Jiang Fuyue’s writing speed grew faster and faster…
Finally—
Judge: “Time’s up! Pens down immediately!”
Jiang Fuyue and Tosaki Naohara stopped almost simultaneously.
“Who would like to present first?”
Tosaki Naohara stepped forward: “I will.”
As he spoke, he turned his whiteboard toward the audience—but unfortunately, it was filled with text in R-country’s language, which most couldn’t understand.
Then he began: “My critique conclusion is that ‘Blind’ surpasses ‘Uniform’.”
“Knew it! I knew he’d pick Blind. He rushed to go first on purpose—he’s afraid Sister Yue might choose the same piece, so by going first, he can get the upper hand with the judges.”
“Exactly! Now whatever Sister Yue says will look like she’s copying him—ugh, so sly!”
“This is the final round. Are we going to lose?”
“Well… even if we do, we already won the first three rounds. We’ve crushed R-country overall, no contest.”
“That’s true, but still—I want Sister Yue to go for the grand slam.”
“Who doesn’t want that? Everyone does!”
“Let’s hope she pulls off something unexpected again and wins with style!”
On stage—
Tosaki Naohara:
“…If I’m not mistaken, Blind was inspired by a recent marriage fraud and murder case in Huaxia. The male lead—the devil in the painting—spent nearly five years pretending to be gentle, refined, and reliable, ultimately tricking the female lead into marrying him.”
“After marriage, his monstrous face was revealed. For the sake of inheriting the massive wealth the female lead had from her parents, he killed her and dumped the body. After carefully staging the scene, he even calmly reported it to the police.”
“Blind uses real-life events as its foundation. It illustrates the blindness of love and the traps of marriage. Compared to Uniform, its message is deeper and more profound. Aside from its aesthetic value, it serves as a real-world warning.”
The personal critique time limit was five minutes.
Tosaki Naohara used four minutes and thirty-six seconds, speaking fluently, citing references, and offering thorough analysis—not only of Blind’s theme, but also of its technique and use of color. It was comprehensive.
The judges nodded in approval.
Everything he said closely mirrored the opinions of the expert panel members who supported Blind as the winner.
His mastery of art was evident.
Very good.
Now it was Jiang Fuyue’s turn…
Everyone, including the judges, assumed she’d also pick Blind.
But the truth was the exact opposite.
Jiang Fuyue believed Uniform was superior to Blind.
She even boldly and brazenly gave the two series numerical scores on her whiteboard:
Uniform: 100
Blind: 0
Below the scores, she carefully noted: “Grading on a 100-point scale.”
Gasps filled the room—
“Did I see that right?”
“Sister Yue gave Blind zero?! Why??”
“Forget the score—can we just focus on Tosaki Naohara’s half-open jaw from the shock? That expression!”
“He probably didn’t expect that after he praised Blind so highly, Sister Yue would just slam it with a goose egg.”
“But… why zero? Even if it’s not great, it can’t be zero, right?”
“I don’t know either… Let’s hear what Sister Yue has to say.”
Even the judges were stunned.
How could a painting series they shortlisted for the championship receive a zero from her?
Tosaki Naohara sneered and spat out three words in Chinese: “Attention-seeking nonsense.”
Jiang Fuyue didn’t even glance at him. She simply started speaking—
“What’s the most fundamental element of a painting? Lines? Colors? Concept? Technique?”
“Wrong. It’s none of those. The most basic requirement for a painting is accuracy.”
“What does ‘accuracy’ mean? It means that within the same image, if the flag flutters eastward, the smoke from the chimney should also drift eastward. That’s accuracy. Lotus flowers in summer, plum blossoms in winter—that’s accuracy too. No matter what expressive methods or techniques the artist uses, the work must respect reality. Otherwise, no matter how vivid the colors or how profound the concept, the painting is flawed. It deserves nothing but a zero!”
“Everyone, look at the first image in Blind—the hand-holding scene. The female lead’s hand is depicted beautifully. To highlight that beauty, the artist took a very realistic approach—even drawing a small red mole on her wrist.”
“But in the third painting—the proposal scene—her extended hand no longer has that mole. That’s the first error.”
“Also in the third painting: she’s wearing a dress, and the male lead is in a dress shirt, yet blooming in the garden are camellias and cyclamens. That’s the second error!”
