Volume 2 Chapter 19: Teacher, I Want to Join the Competition!
Drawing…
Uh…
Lin Lin rested her chin on her hand and thought for a while. This… she really wasn’t good at it.
Well, lately she felt she was getting better at understanding people’s feelings instead.
To be exact, she had never taken any professional art classes. Even art classes during compulsory school, or simple drawing lessons in kindergarten… she remembered almost nothing from them.
Lin Lin thought for a moment and tried to search her memory for any time she had joined a children’s art class.
After all, in this timeline she was a little girl. It didn’t make sense that she had grown up completely free-range like her past self as a boy, learning nothing at all, right?
Her parents… surely they should have cared a bit more…
Scenes flashed through her mind…
Playing games, playing games, and… playing games.
Alright. Not a single memory of taking classes.
It seemed she really hadn’t joined any hobby classes.
Still unwilling to give up, the girl took out some paper and a pencil, spread the blank sheet, and started drawing.
The pencil scratched softly on the paper. She worked hard for quite a while, even erasing and redrawing again and again with an eraser. Then…
She put down the pencil, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and nodded with some satisfaction.
So tiring… but drawing doesn’t seem that hard?
Thinking this, she quietly picked up the paper and held it in front of her to admire her work. And then…
She stared at the slightly abstract drawing, and the corner of her mouth twitched.
Come to think of it, she had planned to draw her little vampire girl character.
But this…
What did she even draw?
Wild lines for hair, no highlights or shadows at all. The eyes were just two circles.
It looked worse than a stick figure… in drawing quality.
Uh…
Finally, the girl put down her “masterpiece,” tears welling up in her eyes, and silently accepted the truth that she was terrible at drawing.
Ah, what should I do~?
…………
She kept worrying like this until the school day arrived. Lin Lin went to school as usual.
Early in the morning, when Gao Liang arrived at school, he saw Lin Lin sitting alone, holding her chin, as if thinking about deep life questions.
Classmate Lin Lin was really becoming more artistic lately.
As usual, he asked her to move. Lin Lin looked up at him with slight dislike, then stood up and made space for him to squeeze in.
“Good morning, Lin Lin,” he said.
“Mm… morning…” she replied.
Her bored answer made Gao Liang feel a little disappointed.
Since their tutoring ended, Lin Lin really had become much colder toward him.
Indeed, they didn’t have many chances to talk anymore.
Did Lin Lin really dislike him that much?
But the reason Lin Lin ignored him wasn’t because she found him annoying. It was because…
Looking at him now… he clearly hadn’t remembered that payment receipt yet.
Yeah, better not talk to him. If he suddenly remembered and asked her to pay, that would be bad.
One more day delayed is still a win. Maybe he would forget about it in the end.
Also, Lin Lin was still worrying about how to improve her drawing skills and whether to apply for leaving school early during evening self-study.
Ah, leaving during evening self-study was so she could go home and stream. But the streaming content she had planned, drawing, was something she couldn’t do at all yet.
The more she thought about it, the more Lin Lin felt that applying for evening self-study leave might not even be worth it.
She couldn’t do anything anyway. What was she going home for?
In the end, Lin Lin summed up the reason she had been so unmotivated lately. Was it because she had lost her drive?
Thinking back, why did she ask Gao Liang for tutoring before? Wasn’t it because there was a study group task? At that time, she was actually quite motivated.
Now it was just… ah~ lazy but comfortable.
Of course, Lin Lin still liked this kind of li—
【Ding! New mission released!】
【Please complete the following within two weeks: do drawing practice and preparation, hold a drawing livestream for more than three hours, and take part in this month’s National Middle School Art Competition in Huadu City and win at least a city-level award.】
【Reward for success: 50,000 popularity points and top-level drawing skills.】
【Failure: the host will only be allowed to use stick figures for livestreams in the future!】
Her life… was over.
Ah—!
Lin Lin grabbed her hair in frustration. What the heck is this?! Why does the system always give missions so suddenly?!
Watching the missions get harder and harder, Lin Lin almost burst into tears.
This was way too hard! Why is the hardest part of a streaming mission not the streaming itself?!
Now she was even more worried. Seriously, gaining followers was already slow enough. If she had to stream with stick figures, th-this…
Would anyone really watch a stick-figure livestream?
Her fate of becoming a “trash streamer” was waving at her like crazy!
The girl started trembling in fear on the spot. Gao Liang, sitting next to her, looked at her in confusion, not understanding what was going on.
Before he could ask if she was okay, Teacher Zhu suddenly walked into the classroom with the art teacher.
She clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention, then handed the podium to the art teacher.
The art teacher got straight to the point. After all, not many students here paid attention in art class, and he didn’t know them well anyway. He said directly:
“Uh, students, we just got the news. Next weekend, this year’s National Middle School Art Competition will be held here in Huadu City. First there will be an offline selection round, then the final judging. Practice, preparation, and competition will take some time. But if you can win a city-level or even national-level award, it will be helpful for your college entrance exam later. Students who study art can sign up now!”
After speaking, the art teacher looked around the class. “So, anyone who wants to sign up, please raise your hand. Anyone?”
Based on the experience from the previous classes, not many students signed up for this competition. Although the awards were valuable, the entry requirements were indeed high.
High school studies were already very intense, with many subjects. Students who had good drawing skills and the confidence to compete were almost always art students.
There were very few art students in Teacher Zhu’s class. The room fell silent for a while, and no one seemed willing to raise their hand.
Lin Lin sat at her desk, feeling down, her mind still racing about what to do.
When she came back to her senses, she suddenly noticed the art teacher still standing at the podium, and the class was completely quiet.
Huh?
She turned to Gao Liang and asked in confusion, “What happened?”
“Art competition sign-up. Looks like no one in our class is joining. I’m not interested either,” Gao Liang said.
Lin Lin froze for a moment, then reacted instantly.
Wait—this isn’t right!
The competition! My competition!
“Ahem, looks like no one from this class is signing up, then. I’ll go to the next class. You can continue with morning reading. Alright, alright…”
The art teacher shook his head and was about to leave when suddenly—
Lin Lin raised her hand and stopped him in front of the whole class.
“Teacher! I want to sign up! I want to join!”