IWOL Chapter 117: Fall Short of Success

A full and busy day passed in the studio.

Wang Que didn’t tell Tan Qiuyu about the boy. Tan Qiuyu was her first deskmate after entering high school and her best friend. She didn’t want to destroy their friendship. If Qiuyu knew about this, she would be very angry, right?

In the evening, Wang Que packed her things and walked with Tan Qiuyu to the bus station.

She couldn’t help but remember what happened in the morning. Someone liked her. It was impossible to say that she wasn’t happy. Although she had no feelings for the boy and she had been confessed to since she was a child, she couldn’t help but feel a small, secretive and sweet pride in knowing that she was liked by others.

They walked and chatted. In this stressful period right before the entrance examination, the time in which she and Tan Qiuyu walked to the bus station together was her most relaxed time.

Tan Qiuyu didn’t seem to be very interested in conversing. She seemed depressed along the way, and Wang Que was a little puzzled. Out of concern for her good friend, she asked, “What’s the matter? Are you unhappy?”

Tan Qiuyu shook her head, still not speaking. Upon seeing this, Wang Que tactfully didn’t pursue the subject.

As they walked to the station, Tan Qiuyu tugged on her scarf and school bag strap with both hands and finally whispered, “Did Yu Yuchen confess to you this morning?”

When Wang Que heard this, she instantly understood everything. What she was most afraid of happening still happened. She instinctively opened her mouth to defend herself, and as she tried to speak while organizing what she wanted to say, she heard Tan Qiuyu continued, “I was thinking about returning the painting to you and came a little earlier. I heard everything.”

Wang Que was silent for a moment. Finally she said, “I didn’t promise him.”

Tan Qiuyu didn’t seem to hear her. She said to herself, “You paint so beautifully, look better than me, and have a gentle personality. It’s normal for him to like you.”

“But this also proves that he has good vision, very good.” Tan Qiuyu took a deep breath and spit the words out. Turning around, she saw Wang Que looking at her with guilt and shame, and she smiled, saying, “Hey, look at your expression. It’s his own business that he likes you. This has nothing to do with you. Why? Are you afraid of me being angry?”

Wang Que looked at her and smiled, feeling relieved. She really thought that Tan Qiuyu would mind. Pretending to think about it seriously, she nodded and said, “A little bit.”

“Am I such a stingy person? A man who is just a mere man wants to destroy our friendship?” Tan Qiuyu snorted. She saw her bus pass through the traffic light in the distance and stood up. “Then, I will go back first. You don’t need to feel uncomfortable. I don’t care.”

Wang Que really thought that she didn’t care.

In the blink of an eye, it was the entrance examination for the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Wang Que happened to be in the same classroom as Tan Qiuyu, whose examination number was ahead of hers.

Wang Que’s primary sketching skills was very steady. She was most impeccable when it came to the fundamental skills of drawing. After leaving the examination room, she was no longer nervous because she knew that as long as she performed normally, she would definitely get the highest grade.

Her parents were waiting outside the examination room, and they took her out to a small restaurant nearby. After the meal, Wang Que took a short nap in the backseat of the car. When it was time, her mother woke her up.

“You can do it, don’t be nervous.”

Wang Que nodded, checked the painting tools in her school bag, said goodbye to her parents, and walked back into the examination room.

This one was coloring, which was something she was best at.

In the last training before the exam, the teacher had specifically implored her to showcase her basic, fundamental skills and formwork during the exam. There was no need to infuse too much creativity into it. She must grasp the varying shades of gray in the painting, using a little bit of her own personal style.

Wang Que firmly remembered the teacher’s every word and adhered exactly to what the scoring teacher liked the most. This was the safest and easiest way to get a high score.

When she finally put down her brush, there were still ten minutes left. She glanced at Tan Qiuyu, who was sitting in front of her. Tan Qiuyu was nearly finished. Although the flow of light and shadow in one place wasn’t right, it shouldn’t have much effect on the overall painting.

There was nothing to do in the meantime. Wang Que put her paint tray aside and began to rub off the paint on her fingers a little as she waited quietly.

Finally, the finished bell went off. Wang Que raised her head, only to see Tan Qiuyu in a panic, going over the back of her paper a few times with a paintbrush.

She didn’t quite understand what Tan Qiuyu was doing. The invigilator had already checked each examinee’s products. Tan Qiuyu had taken the opportunity to dry her painting, but she didn’t make the final stroke until two minutes before the papers were collected, leaving a portion of her painting still wet.

If there were no special requirements, the invigilator would sort the papers according to the examination numbers and stacked them. The teacher collected Wang Que’s painting, walked to Tan Qiuyu’s side, and placed her painting directly on top of Wang Que’s.

In the moment when the teacher picked up Tan Qiuyu’s painting, Wang Que clearly saw that the back of it was painted with a thick layer of white paint.

There was a bang in Wang Que’s mind. For a moment, she couldn’t hear anything.

“Wait a minute!” She stood up abruptly. Trembling as the examinees and the invigilator casted doubtful eyes at her, she pointed at Tan Qiuyu’s exam paper and said, “Teacher, she put white paint on the back of her painting. I want to see if it has ruined my painting?”

Tan Qiuyu’s face turned pale.

The invigilator lifted Tan Qiuyu’s painting. Underneath, a large block of white had covered Wang Que’s original design.

The entire examination room exploded in an instant.

Wang Que’s body briefly shook. She held tightly to her drawing board. Only in this way would she remain standing and not fall back onto her chair.

She couldn’t remember how the invigilator handled it. Before the exam was over, if the test paper was damaged or contaminated, it could be replaced. But now, the exam was over and all the papers had been collected. Even if she knew that Wang Que was framed, the teacher could do nothing.

The test paper with a block of white paint plastered to it was accepted as Wang Que’s answer sheet for the coloring portion of the examination.

The candidates left the examination room one after another. Wang Que slumped on her chair, her hands and feet cold and numb.

She looked up in time to see as Tan Qiuyu, with her head lowered, packed her art tools and left the examination room alone without a single word.

She didn’t even try to give Wang Que an explanation or look her in the eyes.

This affected Wang Que’s performance in the end. She tried her best in the final quick sketch exam, but she still felt that it wasn’t good enough.

Her long-awaited and long-prepared entrance examination came to an end. After that, the majority of art candidates had completed their professional tasks and would need to do their best to improve their cultural class scores.

She never said a word to Tan Qiuyu again.

She didn’t know why Tan Qiuyu did this. She was already at Wang Que’s level, and it was not a problem for her to get a good grade in the entrance examination. Why did she have to use this kind of degrading method to harm her?

Were they not each other’s best friend?

Despite several sleepless nights, everything that happened in the examination room was still so clear to her. After thinking for a long time, Wang Que finally made up her mind to tell her parents and teachers about what had happened.

Wang Que cherished her friendship with Tan Qiuyu very much, but since Tan Qiuyu did such a thing, she shouldn’t expect her to show much affection either.

Who had not been spoiled from childhood to adulthood? The fact that Wang Que wasn’t spoiled didn’t mean that she didn’t have a temper.

She knew that her teachers and classmates would have their own judgements.

In the past few days, Wang Que was distracted and couldn’t hear a single word in class. She knew that even if she drew well, without the coloring score, she wouldn’t be able to get into the Central Academy of Fine Arts from the drawing and sketching scores alone.

Since she couldn’t even pass the school entrance examination, what was the point of working so hard in culture class?

This whole senior year was wasted.

Wang Que didn’t know how to face her parents. Her family’s condition was fine, and she wouldn’t have to worry about food and clothing. However, it was still difficult to pay for the high art training fees upward of 40,000 to 50,000 yuan at a time. In order to show results, she would also need to invest in paints and brushes, which were costly.

Her parents even sold their ancestral home in the city in order to find the best teacher for her.

Art was made with money.

They had sacrificed so much just for her to pursue her dream. But now?

It was all over.

Tan Qiuyu also endured a lot.

What happened in the examination room caused her to withstand countless accusations and rolled eyes. She would never forget the look of contempt from her classes and their fingers pointed at her back.

Although the teachers said that everyone wasn’t allowed to discuss the matter, there was an unstoppable indifference in people’s eyes when faced with Tan Qiuyu.

Wang Que was the school’s most hopeful art student, and everyone was anticipating for her to get the best grade ever. In the school, who didn’t know that there was a genius girl this year? She was admitted to the best high school, scoring one of the top ten results in the high school entrance examination, but she resolutely went to study art. Unlike many students who couldn’t go to university on art alone, it really was possible for her.

As tension gathered in the classroom, the teachers had a discussion and transferred Tan Qiuyu to another class.

Intuition told them that these two people shouldn’t stay together anymore.

Everyone was also paying close attention to Wang Que, for fear that she would become emotionally devastated. They cared for her like she was a delicate flower, yet no one noticed that Tan Qiuyu was getting worse and worse.

On the tenth day after the entrance examination, Wang Que received a message from Tan Qiuyu.

I have something to say to you. If you want to listen, go to the rooftop after school tomorrow afternoon.

Wang Que held her phone and stared at the words on the screen. Finally, she pressed the lock screen button in silence.

The dark screen reflected her expressionless face. At this time, Wang Que thought that no matter how Qiuyu apologized, she would never forgive her.

Yes, with her ability, even if she repeated one more year, she could still be admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. But, what about this year?

Why should she waste the best year just because of someone else’s problem?

Wang Que finally decided to go to the appointment.

She wanted to see what else Tan Qiuyu wanted to say.

After the last math class in the afternoon, Wang Que sorted her homework into her notebook. Her deskmate, who’d just came back from the school market, had bought a whole pack of small bottles of Yakult. She opened it and gave her a bottle.

Wang Que thanked her, put the small yogurt drink on the table, and went to the rooftop of the teaching building in an inexplicably complicated mood.

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