Volume 2 Chapter 30: Lin Lin, You Need Guidance!
Wuuuu…
The girl held her head and felt wronged for quite a while, but she still tried to make some useless resistance.
Gao Liang’s sharp eyes swept over her twice. Then he silently raised his hand, bent his fingers, aimed at Lin Lin’s forehead, and prepared once again.
No… don’t!
Lin Lin covered her head tightly and shook it again and again.
No way, she really didn’t want to get flicked on the forehead one more time!
Where did this guy even learn this move from?!
This must be Teacher Zhu’s fault! Damn it!
“Lin Lin, do you really have no basics at all?”
In the end, Gao Liang couldn’t bring himself to flick her again. He rested his chin on his hand, and when he saw her still hesitating, he used a bit of provocation.
Ugh…
The girl puffed up her cheeks. On one side was the threat of a forehead flick, and on the other was her pride. She couldn’t say she was bad in front of her rival.
In the end, she picked up the pen, took a deep breath, and started to draw roughly in her notebook.
Gao Liang watched from the side, resting his chin on his hand. At first, he even prepared to wait for a while. After all, drawing usually takes time, right?
But…
Soon after, the corner of his mouth twitched. The pen in the girl’s hand was moving across the blank paper, drawing a strange picture.
There was a nose.
There were eyes.
There were body lines.
Ah…
That was it.
No sense of depth.
No shading.
No anything at all.
It was just…
Completely at elementary school level!
Stick figures.
That was the only comment Gao Liang could give.
After drawing for a bit, the girl looked awkwardly toward Gao Liang.
That blank, confused look in his eyes…
Ugh…
She quickly turned her head back and continued drawing with a painful expression on her face.
What should I do? What should I do? How can I make it look better?
Should I add some details here? Or maybe polish it a little on the other side?
Ah—
Someone please teach me! In those online posts like 【Learn to Draw a Simple Anime Character】, the posters draw a few circles, then “polish” them a bit, and suddenly in the next picture it becomes top-level professional art. How does that kind of “polishing” even work?!
Can mine still be saved? There should still be hope, right? Haha… it should be possible, right?
Add a few lines here, add a bit there—
Ahhh! It’s getting messier and messier!
The whole page feels dirty now. Eraser, eraser—where’s the eraser?!
She searched for a long time, finally found the eraser, then stared at the messy scribbles for a long while.
In the end…
She gave up.
She closed her eyes, quietly put down the pen, and handed the stick figure to Gao Liang.
That’s it. I give up. I’m done.
Ugh…
Seeing her put down the pen, Gao Liang narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly without meaning to.
But after a moment, he put on a disappointed look, sighed first, and then said:
“Ah, is this really Lin Lin’s best effort?”
When Lin Lin heard that, her whole body trembled. Her teeth shook slightly, and faint veins even showed on her delicate face, which turned red. No one could tell if it was from embarrassment or anger.
Ah…
Aaaahhhhhh—!
Her face instantly turned bright red. It felt like steam was coming out of her head. Her lips twitched wildly, and in the end, she covered her face and collapsed onto the desk.
She completely shut down.
The room became much quieter. Gao Liang first looked at Lin Lin with concern to check if anything was really wrong. After confirming that the girl had simply been overwhelmed by embarrassment and chose to escape reality, he shifted his gaze to Lin Lin’s drawing.
Uh…
Gao Liang silently picked up the drawing, stayed quiet for a moment, and then scratched his head in trouble.
He suddenly realized something. Although this level was enough for him to continue with his next plan…
It was way too basic. It felt like even teaching this would be very hard.
Lin Lin had told him before that she had no foundation at all, but this was still beyond what he expected.
After a short silence, Gao Liang finally spoke.
“Lin Lin’s drawing, um… I, I drew about the same when I was in elementary school, haha… haha…”
As he spoke, he quietly looked at the girl lying face-down on the desk beside him.
Hmm…
If this really was Lin Lin’s current level, then there was basically no hope.
But no, this wouldn’t do! Lin Lin was already completely defeated!
No, no, he had to quickly find a direction and give his desk mate some confidence!
“But… it’s very imaginative! Ahem—look, this cloud here… it has a very artistic feeling!”
Gao Liang forced himself to find something to praise.
Hearing this, Lin Lin suddenly saw a bit of hope. She slowly lifted her head and looked at where his finger was pointing…
“Th-that… that’s a bird I drew…”
“Uh…”
The room became awkward again. Gao Liang twitched his mouth and brought the paper closer to look.
This…
This is supposed to be a bird?
“Waaah—”
Lin Lin collapsed again and let out a wronged cry, sobbing as she said, “I… I’m terrible at drawing, woo… I get it now, I’m completely useless, woo…”
“Ahem.”
Feeling awkward, Gao Liang reached out and patted her head. Surprisingly, she didn’t resist and slowly calmed down.
It was just a bit hot to the touch.
“Alright, Lin Lin. No one becomes good in one step. You’ve never had art training, and you don’t usually like drawing. It’s normal to be at this level. But… why did you sign up for an art competition?”
“Wuu… I, I want to win a prize. Because of some reasons, I must win. I can’t give up…”
“Mm…” Gao Liang nodded, then sat up straight and spoke seriously, “I understand. But if you’re still at this level when the competition comes, then there’s absolutely no way you can win.”
“Then… I’ll go find a tutoring center…”
“Ahem, you can do that, but just taking classes probably won’t be enough. Besides basic skills, Lin Lin, I also need to give you some personal guidance!”
“Uh…”
Lin Lin, whose confidence had just broken, wasn’t thinking clearly anymore. Hearing that sticking close to him meant hope, she nodded quickly.
“Yes, yes!”
“Good. Then on a day off, let’s go to an art studio,” Gao Liang said. “You pick the time, I’ll choose the place, and I’ll even come pick you up.”
“Mm-hm, okay!”
The girl nodded hard, hearing her reliable desk mate encourage her, “Believe me! As long as you work hard, you will definitely win a prize!”
She felt fired up!
Lin Lin closed her eyes, and a scene suddenly appeared in her mind. She and Gao Liang were walking through golden halls of the city of art, looking at famous paintings from ancient times to today.
In the end, Gao Liang stood in front of a world-famous painting, pointed at it, and said to Lin Lin, “You also can do it!”
At that moment, Lin Lin felt a warm feeling flow through her heart.
She didn’t know why, but everything suddenly felt very classy.
Ah…
Gao Liang secretly watched Lin Lin’s reaction. From the way she closed her eyes like she was praying, he knew—
That little vampire girl’s advice really worked.
This provocation method! Very effective!