Gu Shishi turned around after she had finished saying that and was met with another familiar face.
“Eh, MeowMeow? What are you doing here?”
Chen Kexin, too, had a look of shock. She was convinced by Gu Shishi’s speech.
Chen Kexin rubbed her nose.
She felt a bit awkward and also a little bit being put on the spot.
Could she tell Gu Shishi the truth that she was here because she was curious about how good Gu Shishi truly was after hearing what her grandmother had to say about her?
She found out from Pingting that Gu Shishi was an instructor here, teaching entry level classes. Naturally, she didn’t believe it... and one thing after another, here she was!
“I... I happened to be in the area...”
Chen Kexin blushed a little.
Naturally, she wouldn’t tell Gu Shishi that she was shocked by her amazing gongbi skill!
As a matter of fact, when Gu Shishi rolled up her piece of drawing paper, she almost wanted to jump out and ask if she’d sell it to her...
Zhengyangmen was one of the nine entrances into the old Beijing and arguably one of the most well-preserved defense structures from the old days.
Grandeur and imposing, it was a structure that was full of historical significance.
Most importantly, Gu Shishi’s painting was very realistic!
Not only was she able to depict the cuteness of the orange tabby with her skill in gongbi, but she was able to paint such an immense structure in such a delicate and realistic manner!
And it wasn’t just the appearance either, but also its imposing manner and its artistic conception!
Wind, cloud, water was a stupid ask.
Yet Gu Shishi was able to blend them all into this painting of Zhengyangmen!
They had turned into the artistic conception of the painting. To a point that she could also feel the sprinkling of rain and the sense of freshness brought on by the breeze.
She wanted to have it!
She wanted to take it home and show it to her grandmother!
Chen Kexin’s eyes flickered and she tried very hard to suppress the desire in her heart.
“Happened to be in the area eh?”
Gu Shishi did notice that Chen Kexin looked over at the painting in her hand repeatedly. She smiled but didn’t point it out.
“Since it is such a coincidence, do you want to sign up to my class?”
Chen Kexin was stunned.
Take her class? Gu Shishi was guru level in her grandmother’s eyes! And she could take her classes? She really was... just a regular instructor here!
Her grandmother would probably be stunned speechless if she ever found out.
“The pricing is really reasonable. $300 / class. $5,000 after discount if you purchase a 20-class package of one-on-one lessons.”
Gu Shishi tried to sell herself. This was her current work. If she was going to do it, she would give it her best.
Chen Kexin’s eyes widened. Just $300?!
She thought maybe her grandmother would want to come if she ever found out! No, chuck that “maybe”. For sure she would.
“Yeah, I guess I will do it?”
Chen Kexin felt that she had totally taken advantage of Gu Shishi!
Gu Shishi smiled and nodded in content. “Okay, you can purchase your lessons at the front desk. Or you can do that through our website as well.”
Chen Kexin didn’t even need to be prodded; she placed her order right away. “Then... What about on-site lessons? Maybe 1-to-2 or 1-to-3?”
What if her grandmother wanted to audit the class? This location was not suitable. She wanted to ask ahead of time to cover all of her bases.
“That I will need to check with the store manager first.” Gu Shishi shrugged.
Chen Kexin nodded solemnly and said, “Let me go check with the front desk.”
She had just turned around but turned back at the bouffant dress girl standing next to Gu Shishi. Her expression had turned to a curious one, but she didn’t say anything.
When she arrived at the front desk, she found out that the store manager was not there. Figuring there was not much she could do about that, she turned and walked out of the studio into the mall. Frowning a little, she clicked open her WeChat app.
She hesitated for a little bit before privately messaging Luo Pingting.
[Pingting, are you still picking on Gu Shishi? I walked past today and saw Chen Weiwei trying to cause trouble at her workplace.]
She erased and retyped that message a few times. She edited it a few times.
She finally decided to leave out the “it was all moot and backfired on her” part.
Chen Weiwei in the bouffant dress was a college classmate of Luo Pingting that she had introduced to their group previously.
The Chen’s business focused mostly overseas and had only moved back domestically recently.
The Chen’s relied a lot on Luo’s in the business world, which was why Chen Weiwei tried to get close to Luo Pingting, almost like half an underling to her.
It wasn’t long before Chen Kexin received a response.
[Eh? What a coincidence. So you ran into them? My brother said he wanted to go there for himself but is stuck in traffic. So? How was it? Give me play-by-play. Was that polytechnic graduate thoroughly embarrassed?!]
Chen Kexin didn’t look too good. She was getting progressively more baffled by Pingting and Wushuang’s actions. She had never seen Gu Shishi making a move on them, but always the two of them who tried to instigate and stir up things.
Not to mention how sleazy their style was!
She was too embarrassed to even greet Chen Weiwei earlier!
Chen Kexin took a deep breath before she typed in her reply. [I will let Chen Weiwei fill in the details for you.]
Embarrassed? Gu Shishi?
She felt that it was them who were embarrassed!
She even felt ashamed earlier to be on the same team as them!
[Pingting, if we don’t have any concrete evidence, we should probably stop with picking on Gu Shishi. One way or another, she is the Gu’s long-lost daughter and hasn’t had the best of luck. I don’t think we should get involved in the Gu’s businesses anymore.]
Chen Kexin couldn’t help but send an additional text message.
But she quickly received an enraged emoji.
[Keke, how could you say such a thing? We grew up with Wushuang. Now that Wushuang is in trouble, wouldn’t you want to lend her a hand? Besides, have you forgotten how vile and shameless that Gu Shishi was when she chased away Wushaung on your grandma’s birthday? Whose side are you on now?]
[As soon as that evil woman returned to the Gu’s, she took over Wushuang’s room, chased away Zhang-ma, and took away Wushuang’s betrothal! If she wasn’t so despicable, Wushaung would already be with Second Young Master Huo by now!]
Chen Kexin’s finger tightened around her phone immediately.
She, too, had thought it was Gu Shishi who chased away Gu Wushuang that day.
But she found out from her grandmother later that Wushuang had an episode with her heart and even the Gu’s parents went with her to the hospital.
She gave it some more thought that night after she had gone home.
All of her friends were gunning to set Gu Shishi up that day, how was she able to successfully chase away Gu Wushuang?
Who could possibly have forced her to leave if she hadn’t left on her own accord?
Obviously, those were lies.
Chen Kexin was very confused all of a sudden.
Why would the friend she grew up with wanted to lie to her?
[Keke, wake up already! Remember your childhood dream? You wanted to marry Young Master Huo! He is such an exceptionally handsome man. Aren’t you upset that he ended up with someone of Gu Shishi’s caliber?!]
Chen Kexin’s cellphone rocked along with her body!
Young Master Huo... what the heck was Pingting talking about?!
That was back when they were 5~6 years old!
And what did that have to do with picking on Gu Shishi?
Ever since the incidents with the Gu’s, her grandmother had forbidden her to have contacts with the Huo’s.
It was such a long time ago that she had almost forgotten all about it!
And Pingting just dragged that out as a reason to pick on Gu Shishi?
Chen Kexin stared at her phone, stunned and at loss.
She had no idea how to respond.
She had only been overseas for two years and now she felt like she didn’t even know these people anymore!
***
[Beep! Progress of “Letting Chen Kexin See the Truth” assignment increased to 50%!]
Gu Shishi heard the beep in her ears abruptly during the middle of her second session.
She turned around in surprise.
Chen Kexin was nowhere to be seen. Speaking of, she said she was going to buy her sessions and hadn’t been back since.
She opened up the system interface while her students were doing basic paintings.
When did Chen Kexin see the truth?
And 50% increase at that. She didn’t think she had done much?
So the girl figured it all out by herself?
Looking further at the details, Gu Shishi was stunned.
There were two increases, one at 11 PM last night and just now.
That was so odd.
She did chat a little with her last night and added her grandmother on WeChat.
But she was already sound asleep by 11 PM.
Did Chen Kexin stay up and do some self-reflecting last night?
And just now, didn’t she go buy lessons?
And... she was suddenly enlightened while she was purchasing her lessons?
“What a peculiar girl!”
But she quickly refocused on her students in front of her.
Gu Shishi never saw Chen Kexin again all the way up till the end of her work day.
Neither did Chen Kexin WeChat her about taking her lessons.
Gu Shishi shook her head. That poor thing.
Gu Shishi figured that Chen Kexin’s beliefs were rocked when she came to her realization and needed some time to process the impact.
“Let’s go, Meimei. Time to go home. Head out with me~”
Gu Shishi put her arm through that of the little beauty’s and the two of them went into the garage together.
She had been giving Ling Xiaomei rides home everyday as of late.
Plus, there was something she wanted to talk to her about on their way back.
“You should give your resignation some more thought.”
Gu Shishi had stopped Ling Xiaomei from resigning earlier today. She told Ling Xiaomei to give it some more thought using the store owner’s absence as a reason.
“You are not yet at the point of competing with your raw talent. The path is long and you are competing with your stamina. If you give up now, it really will be all over.”
Gu Shishi didn’t believe that her drawing was all raw talent.
If her master hadn’t always stood behind her with the whip and was ready to use it on her all the time, she would never be able to accomplish what she did right now.
Ling Xiaomei bit her lip.
She kept her head lowered for a while before slowly lifting it back up. There was a shred of courage visible in her eyes.
“Then, Shishi, can... can I ask you for your help? It might be years before I can see any result, but... you are right. I want to give it one more shot! I want to give myself one year’s time. If you feel that I have made no improvement by then, I will give up then.”
There was both anticipation and uneasiness in her look.
“But, it’s alright... if you don’t have the time.”
Gu Shishi chuckled when she heard her. “Oh, but you have to pay me tuition.”
Ling Xiaomei’s eyes beamed. “Of course! I can pay you your cut for a class at the studio, does that work?”
Gu Shishi flipped her on her forehead with her finger. “No, you need to buy me breakfast from now on as tuition!”
Ling Xiaomei covered up her forehead right away but quickly understood her meaning.
She almost leapt straight up from where she was.
“Oh, Shishi, I love you so much! How are you so nice!”
Breakfasts are cheap. At most it’d cost her a little over 100 yuan a month!
“But you better take it seriously and complete all the daily assignments that I will be giving you. I am giving you a heads up, I can be very mean if you don’t listen.”
“Uhuh, uhuh!” Ling Xiaomei threw her arms around Gu Shishi! “Shishi, you are so soft and smell so good ~ and your skin is so white. Love you love you love you~”
Gu Shishi patted her on her little cheek and said, “Oh, stop with the flattery.”
Inside the underground garage, cold air filled the backseat of a parked Cadillac.
Huo Sishen, squinting his black eyes, looked coldly at the two girls that were hugging together from the rear-view mirror. Gu Shishi had such a pampering look on her when she looked at that little girl!
And the little girl said Gu Shishi was soft and smelled good. What the heck was she talking about?!
They were in public! Their behaviors were unacceptable!
And that girl’s hand was also touching Gu Shishi’s chest... and Gu Shishi was still laughing oh so happily. Hasn’t it occurred to her to move away and avoid her hand?
Huo Sishen’s eyes were deep and profound, his jaw clenched.
Unacceptable!
He looked coldly at Gu Shishi’s collar, which was now disheveled from the physical contact. Her collarbone was exposed. It was white and delicate...
He couldn’t help but remember the scene when she was lying on the couch and how her flesh was a glaring white color under her dress. Like snow falling on black earth, the coldness reached straight to the heart.
He squinted and tightened his lips.
Were all the Gu’s just brainless?
Hadn’t anyone taught her anything?
Frustrated, he unbuttoned the first button on his shirt and rolled down the car window.
Frowning, he spit out two words, “Get in!”
The two chattering girls went completely silent in a second or less! And were more docile than sparrows.