Chapter 352: Chapter 342: A Wish

With Qi Jiaming, a Strength Type, acting as her brute-force laborer, Tang Mo no longer needed the other students’ help. Besides, the food package from Qiao Jin’s father was almost gone anyway.

’But now that Strength Type superpower users have appeared, it seems this world is becoming more and more like my own. It’s only a matter of time before mutant beasts show up here, too. This isn’t a place to stay for long.’

Fortunately, the school’s art competition was set to begin in two days.

Due to the limited resources, the rules and format of the competition had been changed to suit the current circumstances.

On the day of the competition, everyone would display their painting on an easel in the open area in front of the dorms. All the teachers would then grade them. After discarding the highest and lowest scores, the remaining average would determine the rankings.

The top three contestants would receive a special reward, so everyone’s enthusiasm was running high.

Moreover, the competition results would be completely open and transparent. With everyone’s paintings on display, it would be clear who was good and who wasn’t. Everyone here was an art student; they could all tell at a glance, and the difference in skill would be immediately obvious.

On the day of the competition, the weather was perfect. It was a beautiful, sunny day, with the warm sunlight spilling onto the ground. The air smelled of the fresh valley wind.

Everyone brought out their easels, arranging them neatly in three long rows.

To maintain suspense, each painting was covered with a cloth.

When the principal announced the start of the competition, all the students removed the cloths from their paintings, then stepped away to make room for the teachers.

The teachers, acting as judges, held pens and notebooks as they went down the rows. After examining each painting, they would jot down a score.

Even though it was the apocalypse and their current situation was precarious, everyone—students and judges alike—treated this competition with more seriousness than ever before, as if it were the last one of their lives.

Tang Mo lifted the cloth off her painting and followed the others, retreating to a spot three meters away from the easels.

From this distance, they could still see the paintings, but not clearly.

Everyone craned their necks to watch. They weren’t just looking at the paintings, but more importantly, at how long the judges lingered in front of each one.

The longer they paused, the more carefully the painting was being appreciated, and the higher the score was likely to be.

As for the paintings the teachers merely glanced at without even breaking their stride, they had virtually no chance of winning.

Because the rewards were so highly anticipated, a tense atmosphere inexplicably began to build among the students.

"Hm, this painting isn’t bad."

"Yes, this student’s work is quite detailed. It’s not easy to create something like this in these times."

"This one is good too. It fits the theme well, has a great sense of atmosphere, and resonates with the viewer."

The students who came on this sketching trip had all been studying art for a long time. Most of the specialized art students at this school had studied under famous masters since they were young, and many were already preparing to further their education abroad. Naturally, their skill level was quite high.

Tang Mo watched the group of judges pause, sometimes briefly, sometimes for a long time, in front of the paintings. She wasn’t the least bit flustered, because she was very confident in her own work.

"Look! The principal and the others have been looking at that painting for five or six minutes!"

"Really! Who painted that?"

"That... I think it’s Qiao Jin’s painting."

Everyone craned their necks, trying to see what the painting that had captured the teachers’ attention looked like.

Before, Qiao Jin had always been recognized by the teachers as a very talented student at Nederland. But after the plagiarism incident, everyone had begun to have serious doubts about her abilities.

After all, in the art world, plagiarism is an extremely serious offense, especially plagiarism so blatant.

Everyone wanted to see what kind of painting Qiao Jin, the plagiarist from last time, would produce now, given the same theme.

"Hey, where’s Zhang Siyang?"

Mentioning Qiao Jin’s painting inevitably brought up Zhang Siyang. Everyone wanted to compare their two paintings to see which one was truly better.

"Zhang Siyang... now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve seen her for a few days."

It was only then that everyone realized Zhang Siyang had been missing for several days.

Zhang Siyang had been missing for two days, and the fact that no one noticed until now was a consequence of her own making.

After all, with such an arrogant and domineering personality, no one wanted to be her friend—except for the sheltered Qiao Jin, who had been deceived by her.

However, even though Zhang Siyang wasn’t present, her painting was displayed right next to Qiao Jin’s.

This was, of course, Qiao Jin’s doing. ’Without a direct comparison, how could Xiao Jin’s wish be properly fulfilled?’

Luckily, Zhang Siyang had finished a painting early on and left it in her room, which gave Tang Mo an opportunity to make her move.

The principal stood before Qiao Jin’s painting for a long time—so long that the teachers beside him began to worry about what was wrong.

Although they too were stunned by Qiao Jin’s painting, they weren’t as distraught as the principal currently seemed.

"We’ve wronged this child."

The principal finally understood why Qiao Jin had insisted on trading so much food just for this competition.

Her goal was to clear her name.

Judging the hundred-odd paintings actually went by quickly.

In less than three hours, all the paintings had been scored.

Then, after the scores were tallied, the principal personally announced the results of the competition.

"The first-place winner of this competition is Qiao Jin."

The moment Qiao Jin’s name was announced, a wave of murmuring swept through the crowd below.

Although many of them had started to see Qiao Jin in a better light because of the food, she still had a record of plagiarism. How could she possibly win first place?

What about Zhang Siyang, the one who was plagiarized last time? If Qiao Jin’s painting was number one, then what rank was hers?

The principal paid no mind to the noisy chatter from below and continued announcing the rest of the rankings.

"Now that all the rankings have been announced, you may go and see the paintings for yourselves. See if the results match what you expected, and if they can resolve any doubts you might have."

With that, the principal allowed the students to approach the easels and view the paintings up close.

Almost immediately, a crowd formed around Qiao Jin’s easel.

Most of them were feeling skeptical and wanted to see just what was so extraordinary about the first-place painting.

But when they saw the painting, all their doubts were swallowed back down, because the answer was painted right there on the canvas.

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